Did you see the pictures today? I was watching a CNN stream from Washington. Half a million people? It looked incredible, and that was just one city. There were marches and rallies all over the country. It was amazing. Outstanding. They said Boston topped one hundred thousand people. That’s my city, people. In my city, we know what’s right.
To hell with that fascist prick.
All of the women who marched today are American heroes.
There are only eight Republican Senators up for reelection in the next mid term election. We need to beat them all. Every last one.
It’s time to start grooming Democratic candidates. Do it now. We need to have everything ready. We need a massive Democratic mandate in 2018. Let’s get to work, Democratic National Committee. The time is now.
Bring it on.
The orange pile of fascist goo was sworn in as president of what prior to today was called the United States of America.
Well… I guess we had a decent 240+ year run.
The next course of action is to start supporting Democratic candidates in Republican held districts so that we can take back the Congress in the mid-term election. That’s our only hope in stopping the fascist pricks from completing their take over.
I started some of my annual RPM Challenge prep work. I created a new soundcloud account to use for listening to works in progress on my various mobile devices. Also, I created a new trello board to keep track of the progress of each new idea. It’s not much, but it’s a start.
I still have to do some test work with my new MacBook Pro. I’ve used GarageBand on it, but I haven’t recorded any live audio. I have to make sure my Lexicon audio interface will play nicely with the USB 3 connections via an adapter. I don’t expect any issues, but who knows. If I can’t get audio into the computer then it will be another iPad based project. Of course, Apple went and updated GarageBand for iOS yesterday. Couldn’t they have waited until March so I wouldn’t have to waste time learning any new features? How inconsiderate of them, eh?
Then I have to set up my amp and my pedal board and my mics so that when the urge hits I can just plug in the lappy, switch on the amp, and play whatever needs to be played.
The January prep work always makes me feel like a super nerd, but I don’t care. It’s fun… in a super nerdy way.
I went to the RPM Challenge website during my lunch break to check out any new blog or forum posts. There aren’t many at this point, but come February 1st, there will be a lot. I figured I’d add a blog post about how I sort of want this year’s project to sound one way, but it will probably end up as something different. I think I tapped into something unconscious. This is what I posted:
These days I am stuck in a teeter totter of mood swings that go from depressed defeatism to just roaring mad. This is the world we live in now, I guess. If it weren’t for my wife and step kids I’d probably go nuts.
Join me!
I want this year’s music to be mean and angry and complicated and anti-social and to have as little as humanly possible to do with what anyone else might want me to write or sound like. Of course I lack the talent to write music like that, so at best we’ll get noisy songs that sound kinda mad but otherwise sound like everything else I’ve ever done.
Or, I’ll go into it wanting angry and mean and anti-social and end up with quiet and moody woe-is-me stuff (with the occasional wah-wah guitar solo).
How the hell should I know what it’s going to sound like? I’m not even sure who I am anymore. I had all these preconceived notions about the world outside my door and BANG they’re all wrong.
A wise man (who played in a band called Traffic) once said, “who knows what tomorrow may bring?”
Two weeks from tomorrow. Come on February, you son of a bitch. Bring it on. Do your worst.
Okay, where the hell did that come from? I think I can guess, and I think the answer has to do with a certain American transfer of government that is scheduled to take place on Friday. That’s pretty much coloring every thought these days.
Amazon delivered a new stomp box to me today. It’s an EHX Soul Food. My first dip into the Klon Klone pool. I hope to use it as a boost. Not sure if it will be pre-fuzz to fatten up the clean sound (I use a Fulltone OCD for that now) or post fuzz for a volume boost for when I play solos. I am leaning toward that right now as my quick little test drive sounded way better than what I am doing now. Still need more research though.
I am home alone today so I took my guitar noodling as an opportunity to oversaturate the holy hell out of my vacuum tubes. What do I mean by that? I mean that I turned my amp up to 10. hehe
One thing to note, the speaker in my amp can just barely handle the volume at 10, but when I click on the pedal and boost the signal the amp goes crying home to momma. Something to think of for later, I guess.
I’ve been really in the mood to listen to Stephen Stills over the last few days. I gave the Manassas album a spin for the first time yesterday. I like most of it, but there are a bunch of country songs that just make me want to stop listening to any music ever and bury my head in the sand and never come out again. Urgh. I don’t like country music. I blame Hillman for those (though I have no evidence to back that up).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXM3d0M1Uxg
Earlier today I was trying to figure out why I had the sudden Stills interest. Well, he’s a guitar hero for sure, and a ridiculously great singer, and a fantastic songwriter… but is that why?
Then it hit me. The reason is “For What it’s Worth”. Is that the first rock and roll protest song? It might be. People say that, but I have yet to hear every single rock and roll song ever written so who can say for sure. It doesn’t matter though. On Friday the United States comes to an end when that fascist piece of shit is inaugurated. We’re going to need people to stand up to him in whatever way they can. We’re going to need people like Stephen Stills.
The United States of America comes to an end on Friday. It might take a few years for the process of destruction to complete, but as of Friday our nation is no more.
There is no upside to this. There’s no silver lining. I don’t care which side of the ideological aisle you live on, there is nothing good about this. We’re done.
Having said that, if there was a silver lining, it would be Alec Baldwin’s appearances on Saturday Night Live. He had better clear his schedule for the next four years and make sure he can appear each and every week without exception. Here’s a link to last night’s cold open.
I’ll take any excuse to go visit the Charles River.
Whenever I am sitting up in bed, Patches jumps up and sits on my left leg. Always the left, never the right. Why? Is there something wrong with my right leg?
Inside the Red Head's Head 