Mussolini Update

Mussolini is still dead, but I have a different update for you. I was chatting with this girl at work who I consider to be a really sharp knife. We often talk about what dopes our supervisors seem to be. So I floated the anecdote about my supervisor not knowing who Mussolini was that I told you here earlier.

The girl replied, "You've got me there, Art. Isn't that a city in Italy?"

I tell you folks, Benito Mussolini would be moved to tears if he knew this. What different course might his life have taken if he knew that in just 60 years time no one would know who he was or give a rip what he did? What was the point? It should make us all question what life activities have real value. Becoming the dictator of Italy, conquering Ethiopia and making the trains run on time doesn't seem to count for much.

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I'm Writing Songs

I advertise this blog on various Internet forums with a little banner ad in my signature featuring bouncy, round breasts in a yellow bikini top. After this titaloon bait is taken, it is up to me to provide the sexiness that will guarantee people return again and again, spread the word, and my audience grows and grows. So what titillating thing could I say now (pardon the pun) to thrill that reader from Australia who found me through a Led Zeppelin forum?

Well, I've been working on some songs. Isn't that great to know? Well I'M happy about it. At long last I think I'm finally arriving at my own style. Most of the time when I've come up with music it sounded a lot like whatever I had been listening to at the moment, to the extent I once rewrote "Sugar Magnolia" by the Grateful Dead chord-for-chord; fortunately the band ix-nayed that one.

A girl once told me, "Forget all the music you've ever heard and just play." At the time I rolled my eyes, but today I can see that was probably the best advice I've ever gotten. I think there's something in my cautious nature, though, that makes me feel like I have to check out 14 CD's and listen to loads of sound samples of other bands on Amazon.com to verify if what I'm doing is "okay." Listening to your own music is fun but you want it to be palatable to other people, too, so you look over your shoulder to check how you're sounding against what else is being done. This is exactly how you wind up sounding like somebody else, though, and become instantly forgettable.

I've mostly finished a tune today (just waiting for a keyboard part from someone else and, as always, vocals). Then I've got a couple more in mind. I think I'm finally getting the hang of mixing to where I can whack something together pretty quick, whereas before it took a week or two to do just one song. Plus I'm saving all my settings so I don't have to start from scratch every time and maybe my stuff will sound more consistent, like it was all done in one "studio."

On that same note, I recently got a third Morley Bad Horsie II wah. Yes, a third! It was only $50 on E-Bay with the Buy It Now, free shipping, so I couldn't resist. Then I also got a backup Digitech Hot Head distortion today, which was brand new in the box, $30 with free shipping. How can you pass that by? Now I'm jonesing to try out a Mod Tone Aqua Chorus.

Big round yellow boobies!

Thanks for stopping by.