ANAHEIM, Calif. — Local drummer Brendan Molina cannot believe how unbelievably rude his neighbors are being by constantly pounding on the walls of their shared apartment complex while he is trying to practice his instrument, sources indicate.
“It’s is really fucking unacceptable how low the lack of common courtesy here is,” said Molina while trying to ignore the ceaseless thumps coming from every wall of his efficiency apartment. “I have a show on Saturday, and if I don’t have the breakdowns timed perfectly then we will be a laughing stock. I don’t think it’s unreasonable that I should be able to concentrate on practicing my art in the privacy of my own home. I try to practice at times when it won’t bother people, like early before they have to get up for work, but all I get is dirty looks in the parking lot. Bunch of savages in this place.”
Molina’s next-door neighbor Beatriz Yang took exception to his complaints.
“Listen, I get it, he needs to practice,” Yang said while uselessly adjusting a white noise machine. “I respect that someone has an artistic goal and goes for it, I really do. And everyone in the building has tried to reach out to him. We even asked the building super Ted (Downing) to get him some better soundproofing for his place and said we’d chip in if that would solve the problem. Ted said that he said that ‘will make him feel like he’s suffocating’ and that a drum solo ‘lives and breathes in the freedom of sound,’ whatever that means. We really all try, but sometimes you just snap and start hitting the wall. I mean, I’m an ER nurse and I’ve been getting so little sleep with all that drumming, I nearly fell asleep on a gunshot victim.”
“It’s okay, he didn’t make it anyway,” Yang added.
Tobias Riddle taught Molina drum lessons for two years and supports his former student completely.
“I think those selfish sons of bitches in that apartment complex need to suck it up and realize what they’ve got there,” said Riddle. “Brendan is one of the finest students I’ve had the honor to teach, and they should feel grateful to get to listen to him perfect his art. That kid is really going places, and someday they’re going to feel like shit that they tried to disrupt the creative growth of a potential genius. Fucking rude, is what it is.”
As of press time, Molina was screaming at the bawling infant next door to stop interrupting his solo.
Photo by Brandon Davis.