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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 12th, 2023

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  • Can’t believe no one has mentioned this yet but my big one is physics in microgravity. There are some that do it well (like obv Apollo 13 given how they filmed it, and The Expanse is usually pretty good about it too) and plenty that it doesn’t really matter but there’s a bunch of movies and tv shows that hang major plot points on poorly thought out physics. The worst offender imo was ironically the movie Gravity, where a major character dies because apparently when two people are tethered to each other in zero-g and the line goes taut they don’t just bounce back towards each other, oh no, because there’s an extra special force that keeps pulling on the futher person so he has to make some dramatic self sacrifice. I was so sad because that movie looked really amazing from a cinematography perspective and obviously a lot of people loved it regardless but i just couldn’t get past how dumb that and a few other scenes were.


  • No doubt, but imo “natural talent” is way less common than just people who have put in the work, at least for musicians in my experience. For every person i know that just started rippin shit from when they were 3 years old there’s like 20 more folks who have just put in the hours. I also think some people who seem to have that natural talent it’s more like they just were immersed in that environment from birth. Music is a lot like a language; you can always learn a new language as an adult but people that grow up speaking it because of their environment will make it look effortless.










  • I’m gonna give some advice that goes a bit against the grain here. It sounds like you want to try it out without making any big purchases before you know if you’ll like it, so I’d suggest finding a drum instructor and take one or two lessons just to get a feel for a real acoustic kit. Let them know you don’t have drums and just want to try some out. They’ll be able to get you playing a super basic beat in that time and you can see how you feel from there. Learning instruments is hard for most people, especially learning a first instrument. At first it kind of sucks, because you don’t know how to do anything. That’s where an instructor will also be really helpful because they can show you some things that are fun but also easy. If you enjoy the lessons but still aren’t sure you want to commit to buying anything, look for practice spaces in your area that provide equipment. Most small cities will likely have a few. This way you can try some stuff out on your own and play around without having to go all in on buying anything.

    Then look in to getting a practice pad. I like this one because it’s got two sides that emulate the feel of both drums and cymbals pretty well and is good for getting your hand coordination down, and the soft side is pretty quiet.

    If you’re still in to it, I would strongly suggest looking in to getting a used acoustic kit. Try craigslist/fb marketplace and look for Yamaha, Ludwig, Pearl, Gretsch, Tama, DW, Sonor, or Mapex. Try to get something that includes hardware and cymbals. If you’re patient, you can usually find something in the $300-$500 range. Anything lower in those brands is an absolute steal. Learn how to tune and know that, just like playing, tuning drums is a skill that takes practice and you will be bad at at first.

    As far as electric goes, there are very good electric kits out there, but in my opinion the only ones really worth getting are very expensive (think $1500-$2000+). The cheaper ones are a good way to learn bad habits and not get a feel for how large a dynamic range acoustic drums can be. If you do start out on electric and switch to acoustic when you find you want to stick with it it will likely be a harder transition than if you just started on acoustic. I understand some people can’t make acoustic work because of their living situation, but imo everyone wanting to give drums a serious try should start acoustic if at all possible.

    One final note, and I kind of touched on this before, but if you really want to give it a serious try just know that starting out sucks because you will be bad, and that’s ok. Sucking at something is the first step to being good at something. Practicing can be a real bore, but if you focus on fundamentals and taking it slow you can build a great foundation quicker than you might expect that will make things easier and more fun down the road.