No, I'm not on Twitter. These are just my thoughts on Twitter. Like EJP on Politics, or EJP on the War, or EJP on Lame Pop Musicians...

Was that confusing?

Here goes...

EJP's official stance - Twitter is still dumb! EJP will not Twitter. Myspace and Facebook is more than enough for me. EJP would rather just work on making good music than delivering constant updates to people who already receive his updates elsewhere.

That's all!

Talk again soon!

Eric

Let me know what you think about the new flyers...thanks!

Here's another video, an old one though. just in case you forgot.

This one's called Gravity. All singer/songwriters should have a song called Gravity, and another called Long Time Coming. That's just standard. enjoy!

EJP Live at Lestats is available on Rhapsody (as well as iTunes, Amazon, and sometimes from my backpack at shows).

So, say you're phone connects with Rhapsody, then you can listen to me on your phone. If you have my phone number, then you can call me and listen to me on your phone too. But for everyone else. Search for EJP on your phone...

ENJOY!

have a great day today.

Come to the Farmer's Market in Old Town tomorrow for all of your produce needs and to hear me and Kenny Eng play live from 11:00 to 3:00.

I just voted for the S.D. Music Awards. I didn't vote in every category. I don't really know who the best cover band is. so i left that blank. i don't know who the best DJ is either.

Some categories I haven't even really heard of any of the artists. Luckily, you have the option to submit a write-in vote.

This all comes down to personal preference in the end, but personally, some names I thought I would have liked to see on the ballot ---

EJP -- why not? best acoustic, new artist...

Rob Deez -- Best hip-hop. It's sorta ridiculous that he's not on the list. Best Hip Hop Album too.

The Wrong Trousers -- Best Americana or Country, Best Pop, whatever category, they should be on there. NOTE -- i just noticed they are on there for Best Americana or Country Album. But it won't let me vote for the albums

Carlos Olmeda -- Best World, Best Pop, Best anything, there should be a Coolest Guy category just for him.

Billy Bushwalla -- I've been to his shows a few times, but haven't met the man yet. and he deserves to be awarded for what he is doing. you pick the category.

who else...hm.. now i'm looking and getting confused about who is already on the list and who isn't....

Aaron Bowen -- yes, definitely. Put him down for a few awards.

I should start my own awards.

Endoxi and/or Chris Wilson -- yup. i wrote these guys in. This is one of the groups that I tell people about, to go see them, to go look them up... it's just good music that they make.

OK, thats enough I guess. I'm sure there are more names worth being recognized that I'm leaving off. There were definitely names that I was happy to see on the list -- Cathryn Beeks, The Album Leaf, Tristan Prettyman, Karl Denson, Sara Petite, Pinback, Citizen Band , etc...

SO, now go vote, I guess... If you want. Write-in people, it's fun. Write my name in.. I need all the help I can get.

Go to -- www.sandiegomusicawards.com -- and click the orange 'CLICK HERE TO VOTE' emblem.


Then --- Come to THE BITTER END on Thursday at 8:00 to see me, then The Flower Thief and more!. it's free!

The Omega Point

I've seen NBA Hall of Famer, Bill Walton, riding his bike through Balboa Park. Twice.

The second time was after I saw a pigeon get run over in the middle of the road while I sitting outside of Twiggs. I was sitting with Johnny, I forget what we were talking about, but I do remember noticing a fat little pigeon walking across Park Blvd. It was walking towards me in no hurry and then walked where I couldn't see it, behind a van parked in front of where we were sitting.

A car came and ran it over. We were both a little dumbfounded, I later commented to Johnny about the noise it made, saying that it sounded like a paper bag being popped.. "yea, but muffled" Johnny said. i agreed - it sounded like a paper bag with a pigeon inside it getting run over by a car.

Within seconds of the actual running over of the bird, another driver, traveling in the opposite direction of the driver who ran over the bird opened her door and yelled to us something like 'did you see that', or 'can you believe that'. I said something similar like 'did that really just happen?'. then the driver drove off.

I asked Johnny if that was Jane Lui, he said yes. I later confirmed that it was Jane, I haven't really met Jane yet, but now we share this common story of having seen (and heard) this pigeon's tragic final moments on earth and Park Blvd.

I feel bad saying this, but Johnny and I laughed about the bird a little. What can you do, sometimes things are funny when then shouldn't be. either way, i think it's bad to hold back laughter.

So, that was that for the birds role in this story, Johnny gave me directions to Balboa Park, which is also on Park Blvd. So the directions were - go thataway. And that's when I saw NBA Hall of Famer, Bill Walton, driving his bike through Balboa Park for the second time.

The first time was when I went for Free Museum Tuesday, about a month earlier. I was with Janell, and a large man in yellow was navigating his way through a large crowd (probably because it was Free museum day).

SIDE NOTE -- I recommend going to the Model Railroad museum. It's pretty incredible on many levels. Ask me about it sometime.

So, it wasn't so much that I recognized the man as NBA Hall of Famer, Bill Walton, but I recognized his voice as the voice of NBA Hall of Famer, Bill Walton. He was politely asking people to get out of his way in a deep baritone voice that was much more effective than a bell or horn. If I was in the NBA Hall of Fame, I wouldn't have a bell either.

Later I was at home, and I wanted to check if NBA HoF'er, Bill Walton, lives in San Diego. And it said he does. Also I got The New Guy, EJC, to confirm the story, he said he's heard similar stories.

NBAHFerBW's wikipedia page says a lot of cool stuff about him, but the thing that stood out the most was this --

"Walton has stated in his online introduction to his radio show column that he enjoys going to concerts alone because then he has fewer things in between him and reaching the omega point that all concert goers seek at shows."

I read that and was inspired to start going to concerts alone. I like going to shows, I can't really afford to go to a lot of them, but sometimes the opportunity comes up to go for free and thats fun. I thought about how much fun it would be to go to a show alone. I like going to movies alone, but I don't think I've ever been to a big concert alone. I went to game 4 of the 2001 World Series at Yankee Stadium alone and that was awesome. I drank alone that night and even bowled alone, in the bowling alley across from the stadium. There's something about getting drunk alone in a crowd of 56,000 people that makes you feel not so alone.

So it's not that I'm anti-social, I just thought about going to a good concert and with just myself. I never pressure myself to dance or converse or anything, so I'm a pretty good guy to go have a fun time with. I sorta just do what I feel like doing, which when I'm by myself, turns out to also be what everyone else feels like doing to. If I felt like dancing, I probably would, but no pressure or nothing. I can just sit back if I want and reach the omega point that all concert goers seek at shows.

The Omega Point, according to Wikipedia, is a term used 'to describe the maximum level of complexity and consciousness to which the universe seems to be evolving'.

So last night, I was at the Weird Al concert at the fair with Kenny Eng. We had just rocked the looks off of peoples faces at the Flower Stage, and decided we would stay to see Weird Al.

I've been a fan of Weird Al since I was a little tiny kid. Me and my brother Sean - (see www.polyn.com) used to listen to Weird Al tapes and records. We had Dare To Be Stupid, and Weird Al IN 3-D. I love the movie UHF. I can go on. I once blogged about why I thought Weird Al is one of the greatest geniuses of our time. Maybe you remember it.

So finally, by a wonderful coincidence I found myself at the fair with the stars aligned for me to catch a free Weird Al concert.

I grabbed seats for Kenny and I in the grandstands and we waited, and were treated to a great show. Kenny had to take off right in the beginning, which left me alone at the Weird Al concert.

It was such a good show, it was funny, the music was great, there was always something to look at. All around Grade-A, two thumbs up, superb entertainment, and funny as hell.

And I maybe even hit the Omega Point. Looking out from the Grandstands, I could see the amusement park lights of the KidZone part of the fair, I could see 2 elephants where the elephant rides were, the ponds on the infield of the race track, and the horizon over the ocean, which was blocked by the hill that held the train tracks, where I saw the train pass a few times.

All this spectacle, and Weird Al performing right in front of me.

Maybe I didn't hit the Omega Point, maybe you need acid or something for that. But I got somewhere. Maybe a deeper level of appreciation for the world and our little place in it. It all sort of came together for a few moments.

Anyway, dinner's ready, and I got a plane to catch later, so that's it.

Hey, not a lot to say right now, I've been thinking about blogging about a bunch of different stuff, open mic hosting and such, but i'll save that for later.. Today, I've been practicing and writing and doing what I do. I just wrote this and figured I'd share it, it's not a song, just some words I enjoyed writing. I titled it Sheltered and Fed.



Sheltered and Fed
by me.

Enjoy yourself

I wish you and your people luck, love, and health,
May you live to see grandkids,
And die feeling well,
If hidden or hiding, emerge from your shell,
And may all of your enemies soon burn in hell.

My faulty eyes and their criss-cross connection,
Saw change jar days take up collection.
Juvenile problems in formative years,
Informed by a grin you wore ear to ear.

I need to be washed, I need a good cleaning,
Empty me out and turn me down bleeding.

There's no feeling like spring in its bliss
Summer burns ecstacy, August a kiss.

By land, by sea, by the rocks under me,
By wind and the spot where we all went to meet,
By wisdom we took from the words to a song,
If I get back to Hill Valley, I know you'll be gone.

There's no feeling I know like memories creeping,
Waking from dreams, realize you've been sleeping.
Put down a finger, the pulse of a phase,
Pointed like pencils, lights on a stage,
Blank in short absence, empty calendar days,
Taking a moment to audit your age.

I've listened to birds or a breeze,
Before they whistled they said,
Let's go get wet,
Let's get sheltered and fed.
-----------------------------

Hey everyone,

I'm going to be hosting the open mike night at Mueller on Wednesday nights. If you are a musician, come play, it'd be fun to get a good group of musicians playing and make an entertaining night of it. If you are a civilian non-musician person, I encourage you to come see the local talent that San Diego has to offer on Wednesday night at Mueller College of Holistic STUDENT MASSAGE.

Thats what the building says. STUDENT MASSAGE. you can't miss it. or you shouldn't miss it.

ok, thats all for now.

Thanks,

Eric

...then you might like EJP too. Thats what itunes says. People that downloaded EJP live at Lestats also bought Ravi Shankar, Alicia Keys, Kanye West, Akon, Timbaland, and David Grisman. I like that mix of artists just fine and I thank those people who got on there and grabbed some music.

I'm about to go play at OC tavern tonight in San Clemente. and then I'm going to play Borders on Friday and theres a whole bunch of new shows on the calendar, take a look... I gotta get ready for that.. so i'll write more later. Hope everyone is well.

I've been showing this picture to a few people and getting similar responses....

Everyone's like WTF?..

and they're right.

My guitar fell the other night. It turns out that there really is too much gravity in this world. At least for my guitar.... my new guitar...

I was asleep when it happened. To save space in my little room, I hang 2 of my guitars from on the wall, on special guitar wall mount dealies. So this weekend, my guitar was hanging from the wall, and then while I was sleeping it just came crashing down onto the corner of the table below it. The noise it made scared the bajezus out of me.

Imagine being asleep and then someone throwing a guitar at a table in your room... it went from being really quiet to being really loud.

So now my guitar has a huge hole in it. It was never a great guitar, but now it just pretty much sucks. I'm considering just leaving the hole there. It actually still sounds alright, it just doesn't look so pretty.

So that's that...

In other news... I haven't really blogged in a while. There's a new studio version of When Yer Drunk on the page. I hope you had a chance to listen. I had a lot of fun recording that. Jeff Forrest is playing the drums and did the hard stuff in the studio. All the other instruments are me... Lemme know what you think..

What else... I've had a bunch of fun shows. I played a few times at Border's now, and thats a good time. Thank you Kenny Eng again for asking me to join you there. It is fun to be loud in a book store.

I got to be substitute host for open mike night at Mueller College. and that's a lot of fun too.

I've been working hard on writing a lot of new songs. The little hamster on a wheel that lives in my head has been running furiously and then taking breaks and then running more. He powers the little lightbulb that illuminates the ideas that hide out under the cobwebs of my brain.

I haven't been performing too many songs that I wrote since I've been living in California, and I'm very much looking forward to it. They're all still in progress and who knows when they'll be just right so I won't say much more about that.

I'll try to post some video's of some recent shows to the youtube page soon. But i'm going to be out of town for a little bit, so that won't happen today or tomorrow. or the next day. But thanks to Gordon I have some good video to show people.

OK. I'll try to cut this off here. Thanks to everyone who is standing behind me and helping me chase down this wonderful dream. It's not easy, it's a lot of fun though.


ALSO -- For some reason the 'what i'm listening to..' thing isn't working. so... I'm listening to RAISING SAND by Robert Plant and Allison Krauss. I hope you have a chance to listen to this.. It's my current favorite music.