July 11 is an unofficial holiday for 7-Eleven fans nationwide. Recognized as 7-Eleven Day—or Free Slurpee Day to the locals—July 11th is a celebration in which patrons can enjoy one free small Slurpee at a 7-Eleven store between the hours of 11 a.m. and 7 p.m., thus allowing them to feel, for one brief, fleeting moment, that capitalism has naively taken a loss. Last week’s Free Slurpee Day, however, was particularly special, as beautiful babies were born, Stranger Things fans celebrated the cherry-loving Alexei, and some dude went to his local store to record a video of him playing a 7:11 polyrhythm at 7:11 p.m. for 7 minutes and 11 seconds.
For the uninitiated: a polyrhythm is a rhythm that pairs two or more different rhythms at once. Adam Neely does a great job of describing it, but the video can be summed up like this: His right hand hits the table with a rhythm of 11 equally spaced beats as his left hand beats it with seven equally spaced beats— this is a 7:11 polyrhythm, which is really fucking hard to make.
Does someone walk over and ask him to stop playing? No. Does anyone else rush over to pull out their own cell phone’s camera to film him? No. Does anyone in traffic honk at him while he plays his polyrhythm? No. But that’s probably part of the charm that makes this video so great. He’s just a lone man beating on a convenience store table with drumsticks to celebrate a national holiday.