To be frank, that's not surprising. I learn new stuff, all the time. That's kinda the point of life, I think. I'm not asking you to agree with that statement, but learning new stuff excites me. For reasons that are long and storied, far too long for me to post tonight, this sub may see some increased use. You're invited to participate, or not. But, you really are invited. I love me some learnin' stuff. I'm kinda passionate about a few things and learning is one of 'em. Today, I learned the coolest thing. Again, for reasons that are too long to get into, I learned about bells. I already know about bells - my first musical love was percussion, of which bells are a variety. We have bells on our drum kits, some of us. Some of us have a bunch of bells and things like gongs - but I'm just not that awesome. I don't have a gong. I submit, this is yet another hole in my life. In an entirely unrelated bit of information, some gongs are pretty fucking awesome. There's some where you strike them and walk away. It takes so long to begin to resonate and reach a crescendo, it's amazing! They're fucking awesome, but I digress. No, I learned about bells. I have my reasons. I learned that there was a time when you could become an English nobleman by erecting a stone tower, on your six hundred acres, and stick a bell in it. You had to have six hundred acres and some money to accomplish that, and skilled labor wasn't actually all that comparatively cheap. That's right... The motherfucking King of England decided bells were so awesome that just by erecting a bell tower, on a suitably sized piece of property, meant you were made a noble. At the time, being a nobleman meant not being accountable for a fuck of a lot. In other words, play a bitchin' solo with bells on your piece of property - and they'd make you a nobleman. To this day, largely due to the church, bells are often associated with important moments. They're the unsung musical heroes. Once upon a time, they were so bitchin' that they'd make you a nobleman - and some of 'em built some pretty bitchin' bells. Like, whole sets of bells - with precise tones and able to give renditions with a great deal of variety. They built a fucking ton of bells. Shit yeah... Bell ringers were probably not rock stars, but the dude that put 'em there was. He, of course, got to largely rape, murder, pillage, and burn - pretty much with impunity. Sometimes, they'd get the blessing of the church to go rape, murder, pillage, and burn. Pretty much the very definition of an early version of a rock star - all for putting up a bell tower. Fuck yeah.