Stewie is a Mets Fan!

I always knew, deep down in my heart, that Stewie was not only a Mets fan, but throws his hat down at the end of the season just like I do!

Listen to Wilford

I would never make fun of people with Diabetes, and I don’t. Diabetes runs in my family, and it’s not something I take lightly. But when I saw this video on Holy Taco, I couldn’t help but laugh. Wilford Brimley has been an advocate for Diabetes through Liberty Medical for a long time, but he’s also been the butt of many jokes in reference to his commercials, most notably by ‘Family Guy’. But Nathan Eldridge, of morningrise.net, created this hilarious remix video of his Wilford’s commercial. Diabetes is definitely not a laughing matter, but this video definitely is. Enjoy!

Watch out for the Beetis!

10,000 Thanks!

This morning, I saw that the counter on the blog had finally hit the 10,000 mark! It may be a small number, compared to a ton of other blogs out there, but it’s quite an accomplishment for me. I was never much of a writer, or a blogger. But since I found WordPress, it’s been getting easier and easier.

Well, enough with the sappy thank you speech. In honor of the blog hitting the 10,000 reader mark, I give you 2 Moments of Zen that could very well be worth the 10,000 readers! Enjoy!

Here Comes Peter’s Farts!

Just Give Stewie His Money!

Inspiration Comes in Short, yet Ginormous Doses

It’s a shame that I get frustrated a little too easily. It’s also a shame that my own frustrations tend to take over my life at the wrong moments. But, then again, such is the life of a songwriter, right?

As the title of this post suggest, inspiration to write that next big song has been a topsy-turvy ride in the last… um… the last few months or so. After my band’s recent show in Texas for FameCast, finding any kind of lyrical inspiration has been as difficult as trying to get the cookie jar off the top of the refrigerator at 4 years old. I’ve been trying to figure out why this musical rut has been set into motion, and I’m not finding a lot of answers.

[ Wow… I’m looking back at that paragraph… and boy, do I know how to ramble, or what? ]

My guess would be the lack of “useful” songwriting time. Sure, it sounds easy when someone says, “Why don’t you just sit down for an hour or so and write a song? You’re a musician. You have a great ear, and you write great lyrics. It’s easy!”. Really? It’s easy, huh? Tell me this, then… does playing Wii Sports get easier after you’ve been playing for 2 straight hours without stopping? Wouldn’t your body start to hurt just a little bit? (If you play like you should, of course). Sure, the two have nothing in common, but they’re both NOT easy! When I say “useful” time, I mean it in a way to say that it’s time spent writing music and lyrics when I have nothing else going on that could possible stress me out or distract me. Funny enough, when I was living in Queens and being stressed out to the max, pretty much 24/7, I could write music without any problems. But why? Well, in an environment that promotes nothing but stress, I learned to block it out and just write.

Fast Forward to August of 2007, Present Day. I’ve moved to Brooklyn with my girlfriend (who is amazing), I have a sweet job, and my band is starting to make a bit of noise in the online world. One would think that all of those good things would bring on a stress-free environment that would make it easy for someone to sit down and just write. Whoever thinks that’s the case, apparently, is wrong. Maybe I’m not explaining my frustrations correctly. I guess this post is just one big rant, and not really supposed to make any sense.Maybe I should just get on with the Zen like do at the end of every post. Yeah, that’s it… maybe a nice healthy dose of Zen will make it all better. Zen, do your thing…

Ah, so that’s the intro they didn’t air…

Anyone for Smuckers?

That’s where it went!

Youth of a Nation: Pageant Style

I know I haven’t written here in a while (and that’s going to change), but can somebody tell me why girls like this are allowed to graduate from High School? In case you need a little “briefing”, Miss *Teen* South Carolina was told that 1/5 of Americans can’t locate the United States on a world map (based on a poll). She was then asked to explain why she thought that could be. Below, is her amazing answer.

Was he… laughing!?

 

Good lord… no wonder the rest of the world laughs at the United States! I live in the states and I’m laughing! Well.. what I’m really laughing at is today’s Zen.

Don’t you walk out on me!

FameCast – Part 4 – Bringing It Home

I have returned from Austin, TX a new man with a new life. Why? Here’s why…

I’ve moved into a new apartment with my girlfriend and am finally living on my own. I played the show I’ve been wanting to play in a long time in Austin, TX with Matt. And I’ve got a renewed sense of hope in my life. But that’s for a future post. This post is all about Austin, the show that was, and the prize I hope to claim with Matt.

July 30th

I flew from Long Island’s MacArthur Airport to Chicago’s Midway Airport. In Chicago, I met up with Matt and we flew to Austin together, finally getting to our hotel at around midnight (Central Time). Exhausted, we wasted no time in getting some sleep.

July 31st

Matt and I tracked around Austin looking for some eats, and we found a Whole Foods about 15 blocks away from the hotel. It was NOT fun, but the walk with Matt was definitely fun. I had never experienced Texas heat before, and I might not want to experience that again for a long while. Lets just say, I had to change my shirt the second we got back to our hotel room! At 3:30pm, we left for the East Side Stages with fellow competing artists Eli Poulin, Natalie Gelman, and Billy Redfield. We met the final artist, Colin Orthmann, when we arrived at the studio. At the studio, we were fed, had a short soundcheck, and hung out with the other artists until around 7:45pm, when we had to get on stage to open the show!

We opened the show at 8:00pm, and played 3 songs; Alone, Flightless Wings, and a cover of Al Green’s ‘Lets Stay Together’. After we were done, we had a nice interview with the hostess of the event, and went back into the crowd to watch the other artists perform. Afterwards, we went back to the hotel with everyone and hung out until about 2am before we got some sleep for the long day of travel ahead of us.

August 1st

This was a day of travel… a LOT of travel… Eli, Natalie, Matt, and myself all flew to Baltimore together, and split up. From Baltimore, I flew back to Long Island and headed home from there.

The FameCast experience was amazing. The Staff was extremely helpful and receptive to us. We couldn’t be more grateful to all of our fans for voting and sending us to Austin! But now, we need the support one last time. Votes will decide the overall winner by Tuesday, August 7th at 12pm Eastern. It’s up to you, the reader or fan, to vote for us and spread the word to all of your friends and family.

Here’s how you can help:

1) Register for a free FameCast Fan Account by clicking here or log on to your account by clicking here.
2) Once logged in, scroll your mouse over “Stages” at the top of the any FameCast page and click on the “Singer/Songwriter” stage
3) On the next page, click on “Soundscape Soul” on the right-hand list of artists to watch our webcast.
4) As our video is playing, click on the “Vote for this Artist” icon below the video to cast your vote.

With your help, I believe we have a good chance to win the grand prize of $10,000 and National Exposure! Be well, everyone, and vote your hearts out!

Enjoy some Zen while you vote!

Don’t Fall!

When Family Guy picks on or includes a celebrity, musician, actor, or a popular character in an episode, I think it should be looked at as an honor. Of course, Seth and his crew of animators and writers can be harsh on those characters. However, I was able to find one bad (yet, hilarious) clip with one of my favorite vocalists. The bad part, is that he’s falling down a lot of stairs. The funny part? Well, I’ll just have to let my Daily Moment of Zen explain that. Enjoy!

Cooooool!

How You Found My Blog: Yankees Evil Empire

Now this is a search term I can really relate to! In this installment of “How You Found My Blog”, I tackle this weeks most popular click-through in relation to the blog, and my personal favorite so far, “Yankees Evil Empire”. Why do I enjoy this search term so much? It’s actually very simple. I’m a Mets fan!

Now, when I saw I enjoy the search term, it’s because I can openly and honestly say that I “despise” the Yankees. But why, you ask? Let me breakdown what, exactly, I despise and don’t despire about the Yankees.

I don’t despise the players on the club. How could you? Derek Jeter is going to the hall, as well as Mariano. Plus, the players around them are damn good as well! And A-Rod? Any Yankees fan who hates this guy, should be stripped of his/her fandom. Seriously, Alex Rodriguez is going to crush Barry Bonds’ eventual Single Season Home Run Record. He’s only 31 years of age and he’s just 1 dinger shy of 500. If anybody should hate this guy, it’s opposing pitchers! The Yankees need to keep Alex Rodriguez at all costs.

What I do despise (which is more like a “who”), is the *stereotypical* Yankees Fan. I’m only singling out a specific demographic of fan. Why? Because not all fans of a sports team are bad people. Not all fans are bad fans. But there’s a certain breed of New York baseball fans that are so despicable, and so disrespectful to other fans, and people. Let’s dive into an experience at Yankee Stadium, as told by a good friend of mine (who when told I was going to blog about it, wished to remain anonymous).

My good friend was attending a Yankees/Mariners game at the Stadium a few years ago. This friend was neither a Yankees nor Mariners fan, but just a fan of the game. A Mariners player whacked a home run into the crowd, which my friend then obtained after the ball had bounced around the seats a bit. After being told to throw the ball back into play by the fans around the area, my friend then hid the ball from sight and kept it. After being boo’d intensely and a little name-calling, my friend felt the cold chill of beer all over. Why? Because a couple of fans (who were obviously drunk and rowdy) decided it was cool to douse someone in beer because that person wasn’t a Yankees Fan in their own stadium.

Remember, I’m only talking about the tiny (less than 1%) of fans that would do something like pour beer over somebody’s head. I’m not only a Mets fan, but a fan of the game, and I respect every fan’s opinion. I know that the story above is a rare one, and every team has its group of disgusting fans… but this is a post specific to the most popular click-through at the moment, so I’m just catering to the readers. But I’m curious… Do you have any bad experiences with Yankees fans? Maybe a bad experience with fans of a team aside from the Yankees? I’d love to hear them! Leave them in a comment, and leave them anonymously if you wish.

So how can I end a post like this on a perfect note? With a little Zen, of course! Hey Peter, tell us about the latest in-game craze at the ballpark, will ya?

Buttscratcher? Buttscratcher!

FameCast – Part 3 – The Journey

The Journey is continuing. Our fans, friends, and family have voted us into the Top 5 Singer/Songwriters on FameCast.com and we’ve earned the trip to Austin, TX. Matt and I are excited beyond belief, and we’re getting everything ready for a promotional storm before we head down! We’ll be sending out a big newsletter once we get down to the hotel in Austin, so be on the look out if you’re on our Mailing List. If you’re not on the list, you can join easily by Clicking Here. You’ll be taken to our page over at ReverbNation to confirm your subscription, but don’t worry, we only use ReverbNation for our Mailing List.

We’re due to fly in to Austin on Monday, July 30th, with the show to be taped live on July 31st at 9:00pm Eastern. You can watch the show live by Clicking Here, which will take you to the Singer/Songwriter LiveStage. We’ve also decided on our setlist:

Code Red, Flightless Wings, and Lets Stay Together (or) Her Song
(Click on each song to check out a Live Performance of each song)

Want a banner to promote the competition? Why not use this sweet little piece of promotional artwork?

We’re excited to meet the entire FameCast staff, and the other 4 artists who were voted into the Top 5! Keep checking back on my FameCast Page for more updates, and feel free to leave comments and feedback on what you think about our trip to Austin, our music, or anything band related.

Until then, how about some Zen? Can you sense it? Can you feel it? Something big is about to happen between Peter and his arch nemesis…

CHICKEN FIGHT!!!