I watched the movie Whiplash the other day and the drummer's cymbals had the word "Istanbul" written on them. At first I didn't give it much thought, but then I remembered that there was this other brand called Zildjian and I wondered what was up with all these Middle Eastern sounding names. So I did some research and it turns out that people in Turkey have been making cymbals for thousands of years and Zildjian is one of the oldest companies on the planet. All this time I thought cymbals were just some big metal pieces of shit that you hit with a stick, but no, they are carefully cast using ancient religious rituals that have been passed down for countless generations. It's amazing how there are all these things in your life that you don't even think about that actually require highly specialized craftsmen to make them.