Arino4u dot com has TRANSFORMED
It feels like it’s been a year since I’ve worked on this website, but it’s only been like 2 months. Time dude, it’s like… It’s pretty weird, right?
ANYWAY
Yes, I’m back with another long awaited update to the website, this time to add the final main component that’s been missing, and that’s the music section!
Now to be fair, part of the holdup was realizing that I didn’t have nearly enough of a back catalog of music to focus an entire section of a website around “my music”, and even now I only have 3 songs in there. I’m a little more ok with it now though, because I’m actively working on more and having a place to put them when I’m finished with them is gonna help me feel a little more accomplished at the end of the process.
Here's a little piece of art I drew for an upcoming cover. Can YOU guess what song it is?
I really like the way the music section is layed out because it feels very reminiscent of a little shelf. I mean- realistically it’s just a grid of images, nothing fancy- but seeing all of the little song covers I worked really hard on all just lined up neatly in a row with artwork and everything makes me feel like I’m looking at my own personal trophy shelf. It’s that sort of self satisfaction I always hoped I could gain with my artistic pursuits, but was never able to find making youtube videos.
But yeah! Arino4u dot com SLASH moozik is officially
OPEN FOR BUSINESS
I guess one more tidbit about music stuff before I move onto discussing other matters is just addressing the whole situation of like- the anxiety that comes along with sharing a more earnest creative pursuit. For me, I’ve always felt safe creating stuff that’s supposed to be funny. It’s kinda weird, because I consider myself a really artistic person, but my artistic hobbies always manifested as like- elaborate poop jokes or whatever. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, and goofy stuff is probably always gonna be my bread and butter when it comes to the stuff I love to create, but I do sometimes worry that I maybe limit myself to goofy stuff because it’s unpretentious, and I’m scared of coming off pretentious.
I guess calling someone's art pretentious stings so much because it feels like stuff people would call pretentious is usually trying to elicit emotions from the audience, and a lot of times that requires the person making the art to be vulnerable. I guess if you wanna really strike to the core of the issue, the idea of putting some of your authentic vulnerable self into something and then having it rejected and dismissed might almost feel like a personal attack. This art is an extension of me and you calling it junk is the same thing as you calling my feelings illegitimate.
Something along those lines
Either way, I’m trying to conquer that fear by broadening my horizons by making music, which is something I’ve always been a little weird about. I’ve always been the kind of person to feel put on the spot when the group says “hey, why don’t you put on a song?”, and until recently I never even listened to music without headphones because it just felt embarrassing for some reason.
It’s probably because my family laughed at me as a child for asking my dad to put My Heart Will Go On onto my MP3 player.
Given the information you’ve just heard, it’s kind of a big deal for me emotionally to be offering people the chance to listen to recordings of me singing! For that, I am proud of myself, and know that it wasn’t easy. Recording cover songs has genuinely become one of my favorite hobbies over the past few months though, so I’m not just gonna be some freak and keep it to myself for no good reason. On the other hand though, I don’t wanna be one of those “Hey dude, listen to my mixtape” types of people.
I’ve tried to be careful about the way I talk about and share my covers in that I try to talk about them here and there because I like making them, but I try to not put pressure on people to listen to them or engage with them. It does kinda hurt sometimes because of course I’d like the validation of somebody who’s like “omg dude your voice is amazing” but at the same time, well- it’s not- it’s definitely not- it’s sometimes decent. BUT ALSO, I’m trying really hard to feel satisfied just enjoying this as a journey and appreciating all on my own the experience of hearing myself improve as a singer. I really feel like that should be enough!
Honestly, the reason I always lose motivation so quick with youtube is that I’ve just always hoped it would catch on in some big way, and so I never really thought of it as purely a creative pursuit. It’s really hard to walk back your entire relationship with a hobby, y’know? But anyway, I feel like this is going on too long now.
POINT IS:
Arino4u dot com SLASH moozik is now available for all non-paying customers and I hope you enjoy listening to my covers! Oh, and if you’re gonna listen to just one, listen to the Spice one. The song is lame, but my vocals are way better in that one than the other two. Just sayin’
Anyway! If you read this far, thank you! You’re weird! I like you! Uhh- oh yeah we have comments now too don’t we? Maybe leave me a comment if you made it this far, I dunno- maybe don’t. Up to you. I would like someone to leave a comment though, mostly so I can make sure the comment box works…
BYE-BYE
Posted 12/31/2023
