The Emperor's New Toy
17 November 2005 4 16:27
Look, everybody: I got a new toy!
I haven't completely decided if I'm keeping it yet, and I have a year to pay for it with no interest, but I was growing VERY tired of hating the way everything I was playing with the band sounded (Please forgive the fact that the website hasn't been seriously updated in AGES; the MP3s, at least, have been forwarded to the powers that be, though they were never uploaded, and we DESPERATELY need new photographs, if anyone at any of the recent gigs has taken any). And I was tired of carting around excessive and obsolete equipment (I was using an Ensoniq VFX-SD largely as a controller and mixing some of the sounds from it with those from a Korg M3R module, all of which sounded like music fifteen years ago, when they were almost current). And when we came back to rehearsing in October, the backlight on the aforementioned Ensoniq's LCD died, rendering my further use of that instrument a veritable tight-rope walk (though I survived several rehearsals and a couple of gigs with no display to guide what I was doing). And while I love my Yamaha S90, that baby is just too big and heavy for me to carry through the subway and all over town. And I LIKE the new baby; it only weighs 20 lbs., and it has 76 keys (more than the Ensoniq, less than the Yamaha), and while those keys aren't weighted, they sound BEAUTIFUL. So much twiddling to do, so little time. So you'll have to come to our next gig, huh? ;-)
In other news, today I took yet another of those silly online quizzes and received an answer which, considering the options available, shouldn't surprise anybody. Voila!
Which Historical Lunatic Are You?
From the fecund loins of Rum and Monkey.
You are Gaius Caesar Germanicus - better known as Caligula! Third Emperor of Rome and ruler of one of the most powerful empires of all time, your common name means "little boots". Although you only reigned for four years, brief even by Roman standards, you still managed to garner a reputation as a cruel, extravagant and downright insane despot. Your father died in suspicious circumstances, you were not the intended heir, and one of your first acts as Emperor was to force the suicide of your father-in-law. Your sister Drusilla died that same year; faced with allegations that your relationship with her had been incestuous, you responded, bafflingly, by declaring her a god. You revived a number of unpopular traditions, including auctions of properties left over from public shows. When a senator fell asleep at one such auction, you took each of his nods as bids, selling him 13 gladiators for a vast sum. You attempted to have your horse, Incitatus, made into a consul and hence one of the most powerful figures in Rome. It was granted a marble stable with jewels and a staff of servants. At one point you forced your comrade Macro to kill himself - in much the same vein as your father-in-law - accusing him of being his wife's pimp. You, of course, were having an affair with said wife at the time. Things went from bad to worse. When supplies of condemned men ran short in the circus, you had innocent spectators dragged into the arena with the lions to fill their place. You claimed mastery of the sea by walking across a three-mile bridge of boats in the Bay of Naples; kissed the necks of your lovers, whispering sweet nothings like "This lovely neck will be chopped as soon as I say so,"; dallied with your sister's lover and made her pull her unborn child out of her womb prematurely. Towards the end of your reign, you had a golden statue of yourself made and dressed each day in the same clothes you yourself wore. When you eventually died, the terrified people of Rome refused to believe that such a cruel reign could ever end, and believed you to be alive for years afterwards.
And now, I'm off to sing.
r