I was just a little bothered thinking that I may have inspired a song by a friend and the song did not show either of us in the best of light. It's not the first time that it has happened -- I once had a bandmate who wrote a song about me and it included having me being shot with a gun. Great.

I had to run my hysteria by my friend Dana, who is one of those rare birds who has the perspective that you can turn you around on a dime. She said, "Well, shit, you asked the right person."

She has been the inspiration to many great songs -- some I bet that you know and it was great hearing what she said. Basically, I'll share with you what she wrote on my FB wall:

Quote from the imaginary "Handbook for The Muse" ....we don't inspire WHAT the artist creates....we inspire the artist TO create. It's not about us.......it's about the artist. all we can do is deliver a "kick in the ass" to get the artist moving. we don't even get to choose being a muse

I had to laugh at myself. I realized that what perhaps I am most upset about is that I don't like the song -- it's not something I think is even good. And I haven't really liked any of the songs that I "know" are about me. So I told her that I'm not doing a very good job as a muse and she told me to hang in there -- that in time the flattering songs will balance out the unflattering ones.

As a musician and writer myself I know that other people have been muses for me as well, and perhaps these muses, if they knew/know that they inspired me, would want to put a cowboy boot in my tuchas. I don't think that my (or any artists) songs are literal -- somebody says something, or something happens and it's like a thread that you start unraveling. Only instead of unraveling into *nothing* it unravels into *something* -- that is the magic of art.

Sometimes, I guess, you just have to get something out. Maybe a song is like a burp of indigestion -- who are we to judge? It's just that some artists' belches smell better than others, I suppose.

Take last night at the Utah -- I was INCREDIBLY impressed with Moller, especially their bass line and they've inspired me to rework the way I play.

Roger Rocha, who featured, is always an inspiration, especially when it comes to songwriting and performance. But I was stuck on Ari Gorman -- he's a such a complete musician and he was bowing the cello last night and I was digging the counter melodies -- and I am inspired to work on my chops for Oma.

I don't know where they get their inspiration -- it can be from any damn thing, I suppose. Most of the time, it's from things that make an impression on you for good or bad. In "Rear Window," Grace Kelly's character, Liza, is listening to a composer create a song and she asks Jimmy Stewart's character, "Where does inspiration like that come from?" Stewart responds, "He gets it from his landlady once a month."

So I guess if you happen to be a muse, you should be flattered that you've bothered someone enough. I hope one day I can inspire someone so that they can write or do something good, though. One day...