The responses were about even with a lot of support about what I was saying as well as a lot of negative responses especially critical of my music and that if my music is what practicing produces then by all means “Let’s Keep Denton Beard”

I found the responses cute and fun and ranging from the absurd to downright hilarious. You have to remember only 3 things happen when you put art out there, people either:

1. Love it
2. Hate it
3. Don’t give a damn

Focus on the ones that Love what you are doing because the rest is pretty much a waste of your time. People that “hate” your music are great as well because they will do more to spread the word about you than anyone. Hate as I mentioned before just means “I don’t understand”

I used to “hate” Algebra, I failed it four times in a row

I just didn’t understand it.

If someone hates me I know that they love me because “hate” is a deeply embedded emotion rooted in envy and jealousy. It also has it’s roots in resentment as well.

The 3rd group that just “doesn’t give a damn” could careless anyway and and converting the mind of apathy is a lost cause. This is where I was going in the rant in my last post.

I have sensed this mood of apathy in the music business ever since the “grunge era” and I am honest enough to say I don’t care for it and call me old school but I think it is sad. I come from an era where you work at your craft with an undying zeal and passion. My heroes where guys like Frank Zappa and Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, Bach, Ted Greene, Allan Holdsworth, Eric Dolphy, David Byrne, Salvador Dali, Yngwie Malmsteen and the list goes on and on.

Just because it became popular to be “grungy” I didn’t grow a goatee, put a sock on my head and get a flannel shirt and act like I couldn’t play my guitar.

It’s not always about technique either, however attitude is a great equalizer and can make for leaps and bounds when it comes to art. I have to be honest, when “grunge” became the “music du jour” I didn’t get it right away.

But when Kurt Cobain went on Headbanger’s ball in a dress, he won me over. That took balls and moxie and it needed to happen. Metal had become fake, plastic, all about hair and leather pants and shallow subject matter. Bono from U2 said the first time he saw “Nirvana” live it was like standing next to a “nuclear bomb” exploding.

I like that analogy and he was right.

Rock Music is all about “attitude”

Great Rock Music is 1% technique and 99% attitude.

Kurt understood that and I respect him for it. But then it became cool to be “grunge” Oh yes it did and I was right there to watch so many bands “change their tune” Even bands like Soundgarden and Pearl Jam who were definitely not original grunge acts. They cut their hair and got on the bandwagon right away. If you listen to the early Pearl Jam and Soundgarden records they were Metal bands until they got caught in the wave.

I know there is a lot of truth to what i was saying because it caused such a firestorm of e-mails and responses on both sides of the fence. I don’t a fuck what anyone thinks of me so I can write from the heart and just be real. I wonder how many people can truly do that? I know it’s not easy being radically honest but it’s a hell of a lot easier than being fake.

As I said in my previous post, “Who am I to call someone else’s, noise “noise”. I also stated that opinion’s are like assholes, everyone has one. Furthermore who am I or anyone else for that matter to judge anybody.

It is perfectly just to say that I prefer not to listen to something and to go on from there and just do your thing. It’s just that I love the times I remember being able to go out in Denton and there was a thriving music scene. In all fairness to this town it is still way better here than almost everywhere else. There is an overall wave of apathy and mediocrity in our culture that has been going on for too long now. It is time for a change and I know change happens in the underground. After I watched the American Music Awards I knew we had hit an all time low.

I love the way Jack White displays his “attitude” in the movie “It Might Get Loud” it brings him right into the picture with Jimmy Page and The Edge. It’s not all about technique, it’s not all about attitude. Their is a yin and a yang to it.

However it’s never about apathy…

Learning how to play your instrument never goes out of style.

Style never goes out of style, when you leave your home, it’s a choice.

It says something about you.

All the best,

Eric

This has caused a myriad of challenges especially for my parents and most of my teachers.

I had straight F’s in conduct from 1st grade to 6th grade across the board and the principal of Sinclair Elementary school, Mrs Deubel hated me and I am very proud of that fact. Especially the fond memories surrounding her face tightening like a prune at the very sight of me in her office.

You see the reason she hated me is because she couldn’t control me or figure me out. Hate just means “you don’t understand”. As a kid I found it humiliating to sit at a desk and be trained like a sheep to work in a factory one day. Even early in life my instincts just told me to fight the conformity of the whole thing. I remember Mrs. Murray who I gave a lot of grief to (I even glued her shoes to the floor) going on a rant about how “evil” the Pink Floyd song “Another Brick in The Wall” was. She was specifically upset with the lyrics in the chorus “We don’t need no education”

I so identified with that song and rock and roll at the time because it is about rebellion. How can you not rebel in an education system designed to train you to work in a factory and become a member of the herd. The bell rings and then they herd you to the next class. Everyone goes to the bathroom at the same time and to lunch at the same time. You have to ask permission to go to the bathroom?

Kids that are bright tend to stick out from the herd and are punished for being a “Problem Child”.
A great AC/DC song by the way. The nail that sticks up is the one that gets hammered down. In the system the hammer comes way of Ritalin or some other drug or a convenient label like ADD. ADD is such a complete crock it frustrates me to no avail. I am very lucky in I get to do what I love for a living. Play my guitar, I am a teacher first and Player second.

I see so many bright kids humiliated by the system it breaks my heart. I do everything in my power at my guitar dojo to be a light and show them a way out through music. The word educate is derived from the latin word “edu” which means to “draw out of”. The exact opposite happens in our system. Some legislators get together and decide what they are going to project on to the minds of our youth. They are not concerned with their individuality and well being.

I had someone I thought was a good teacher helping me teach while my mom was ill for a while. When I came back and took over I discovered I was wrong. This person was just like the legislators (all about themselves). Deciding what the student will be learning. This person even told me one time about this young girl that has become amazing now that I am back. “I am not teaching her ‘Linkin Park’ I refuse to teach her that trash”. I took a different route and used the music she loved to inspire and motivate her and lead her on to great things. Her and her Mother both commented to me that they like my approach and results better. They even signed her brother up with me who had been taking lessons from someone else for years.

I don’t tell you any of this to impress you, but to impress upon you the true value of being real and being a teacher that listens to the student. Not a narcissist that projects on to them what they think the student should be.

This is precisely why I am going to home school my children. I have worked with a lot of home schooled children over the years and the difference is phenomenal. I know firsthand of this.

Almost everything you hear in our society is bullshit. For example;

“Those who can do, those who can’t teach”

Absolute bullshit! Some of the greatest teachers I have ever had were incredible doers. That precisely why I am one, I was very lucky and I learned from the best.

My classical guitar teacher Chris Carrington is a hell of a guitar player. The best I have heard and I have heard a lot of them. My Brazilian jiu-jitsu instructor Carlos Machado is one of the best teachers on the planet. He also can do it and is a world champion. I have seen him tap out black belts from all over in just minutes.

Everyone is a teacher rather they know it or not and the first person you must learn to educate is yourself. When you have children you are a teacher. In your relationships you are a teacher. You are a teacher to your team and employees and co-workers and even your friends.

Here is where the difference lies:

There is a huge difference between those who can DO and those who can TEACH what they do.

There is the calibration and where the origins of the aforementioned bullshit phrase true meaning was lost.

So with that being said let me teach you something fun about one of my favorite subjects;

Food.

When I first moved to Dallas/FW there were 3 real Japanese restaurants that served sushi.
Royal Tokyo, Mr. Sushi and Hana. My best friend Jim Taylor took me to eat sushi after a Judo tournament and I fell in love with the cuisine and the culture. This was in the early 90’s and in the almost twenty years since then I have educated myself to a level I could never have imagined. I even became involved in bringing a real authentic Japanese restaurant Keiichi to my hometown Denton, TX.

Over the years Sushi restaurants have exploded in popularity so much that it is threatening the stocks of many fish and the great fisheries on our planet. Japan just signed a treaty to cease harvesting Blue Fin Tuna. This is sad, there are so many so-called Japanese restaurants in Dallas/FW they are like “dry cleaners” they are everywhere, however very few are even close to being the real deal. Even fewer are owned by real Japanese who uphold the tradition and the honor and respect so essential to it’s history.

The same can be said with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Because of the quality and effectiveness of the instruction of the Gracie family and their cousins the Machado Brothers. The art has exploded and every school teaches “:Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu now. Why? Because it is popular and will make them money.

You see where I am going with all this? Back to the herd mentality we see in the schools.

Truly get to know things, especially yourself, go to the heart, to your core and always leave your ego at the door.

It is inevitable that things evolve, Japanese cuisine will evolve as well as Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu will evolve. I understand that but get to know the history and respect it and learn it’s origins.

Here are some keys to truly getting to know Japanese cuisine.

When you go to a sushi restaurant sit at the sushi bar. This way you can interact with the chef and have a much more intimate experience. One of the reasons this is important is so that the chef hands you what he makes immediately and you can eat it while fresh. If the sushi is sitting there waiting for a waitress to notice it and then getting around to bringing it to to you.

The nori (seaweed) gets soggy and this makes for a much more unpleasant experience.

I remember talking with my friend Dr. Jeff Viaclovsky about this phenomena years ago in Austin at Mushashino in Austin. I remember up and coming chef Tyson Cole who used to be at Kyoto lighting up and agreeing with me from behind the bar. With that kind of sensitivity I knew he was going places and he sure has. He has his own sushi restaurant in Austin now called “Uchi” which means house in Japanese. It is excellent.

Here is a great subtle way to see if you are dealing with a real Japanese chef. Order a Kanpyo roll, Kanpyo is a Japanese pickled pumpkin that is pickled and marinated. It has a wonderful aroma and salty sweet taste. If he looks at you like you are crazy and he doesn’t know what it is. You are not at a real Japanese restaurant.

If the restaurant uses fake crabmeat Kani-Kama run for the hills. This is a sign that they are cheap and focusing on profit not quality. Authenticity and quality are essential to the Japanese and no chef with any type of respect for himself and his customers would try and pawn that crap off as a substitute for crabmeat.

Inside out rolls are another sign to watch out for. This started as a way to hide that they are using cheap nori or nori that is not fresh. Nori should be crisp and pop in your mouth. This is my favorite subtlety in Japanese cuisine. This is why I always order hand rolls, I want the seaweed on the outside. If it is chewy and you have to pull at it with your teeth it is not fresh at all.

Order Natto, a delectable Japanese dish that is fermented soybeans and has a coffee like flavor and aroma. It is incredibly good for you and can be ordered in a roll or with tuna.

My favorite is Bakudan, Natto with Japanese Yam, Nori and quail egg.

If they have none of these things you are not at a real Japanese restaurant and you do not know what you are missing. The essence of this wonderful food is in the details and it is a shame that it’s true meaning and delicate subtleties are getting lost in the pop-culture popularity of sushi these days.

By the way sushi just means “with rice” anyone that that mistakenly believes sushi means raw has a lot of catching up and learning to do.

Until Next Time,

Much Love,

Eric

Go see it, it was spectacular and inspiring and incredibly revealing.

It is a documentary on Jimmy Page, The Edge from U2 and Jack White.

I also had a chance to watch “Tyson” a documentary by James Toback.

WOW!

What an amazing story and what a great man his original trainer Constantine D’amato was.

Mike Tyson is a prime example of how the media in this country distorts the truth and spins it.

Even I had some stupid pre-conceived notions about Mike and I have never met him.
What brought me around is Tony Robbins who I have met several times was asked by Canadian talk show host George Stroumboulopoulos:

“Who is the most amazing person you have ever met”

That’s a great question to ask Tony as he has met some amazing people. He has worked with Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, Princess Diana, Bill Clinton and scores of others.

I heard Bono from U2 mention that his interview with George was the best he had ever done.

So George asks some great questions.

Tony’s reply was quick and decisive and very pointed, he said:

“Without a doubt Mike Tyson”

Watch the movie, you will see what I mean.

I interviewed Erotic film star Luc Wylder for the Lion’s Den last week. It was refreshing to hear such honesty and to talk to someone so real. We live in a state full of Wholesome Pretenders and Erotic Hypocrites. The one exception in our state is Austin. Austin is weird and about the only “loophole” in the bible belt. Luc is a member of the Free Speech Coalition, the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom, and a supporting member of the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT). Luc is also a great businessman and a pioneer in e-commerce on the internet.

The average person tells 3 lies every ten minutes in conversation. We live in a nation of liars.

Professor Benjamin Edelman of The Harvard Business School published a study of Anonymised Credit Card receipts from a major online adult entertainment provider. He found the most conservative states with the most conservative laws were the ones downloading the most porn.

Look up the study and read it, I did, just google Professor Benjamin Edelman.

Once again the most outraged turn out to be the consumers of the very thing they are outraged by. I love challenging hypocrites and I do it every time I get the chance.

Cut up all your credit cards. Then go get a hundred dollar bill at your bank.

If you don’t have a hundred dollars, save up till you do and go get a single hundred dollar bill.

Put it in your wallet or your purse and never break it or spend it. Just keep it on you at all times.

You will never be broke…

Plus you will teach yourself in a clever way to control your spending.
Any money you have above the hundred dollar bill you can spend as you wish. When you get down to where you have spent all your extra cash and you see the hundred dollar bill is all you have left. That’s it, flex your financial muscle at that time and exercise restraint.

This is a great principle and incredibly empowering after you get a few weeks of doing this under your belt.

Save all of your $5 dollar bills. When you get a five; stick it in a different pocket. Stuff it in your safe or a mattress. Hell even open a separate bank account just for $5 dollar bills.

I learned this from a waitress friend of mine that did this in college. She is kind of OCD about things and when she starts something she sticks to it.

She put all of her 5 dollar bills aside and each week she deposited them in a savings account at her bank. She purposely asked the bank not to mail her statements and she never checked the balance. When she graduated from College 3 years after she started doing this she had over $15,000 dollars in that account.

She cried when she told me.

They were tears of Joy.

Much Love,

Eric

This was years before he started using his real last name Mellencamp. I am glad he did that by the way. It shows he is a maverick and that he just wants to be real. So rare these days.

I am a big fan and my good friend James Bland took me to see him in Dallas a few years ago and I got to go backstage. I even got to meet his backup singer Pat Peterson that lives in Dallas. She has been with John for 25 years and was a “Rayette” before that. That is the name of Ray Charles backup singers.

I have been saying for years how all the radio stations are just advertising set to back ground music. Years ago Redbeard at Q102 in Dallas was honest enough to share with me how radio truly works. I used to religiously attend “music meetings” with him and I guess my persistence moved him in some way because he sat me down one day and just broke it down.

A friend of mine in LA just sent me this article written by John Cougar. This is a rare honest glimpse inside of what has been happening for years from someone who knows what they are talking about. If you are a musician this will open your eyes in a major way. More importantly if you are a fan you will see how little anyone in the music industry cares about what you want.

All Myspace and Facebook are about is farming e-mail addresses and fishing for information about you. Then they can target information to market to you and make a buck. If you can’t see that then it is sad. I hope we all wake up soon out of this wave of narcissism and hey look how cool I am and get back to being real.

God help us if we don’t.

Grab a cup of something wonderful and read this, it is profound:

Much Love,

Eric

On My Mind: The State of the Music Business
by John Mellencamp

Over the last few years, we have all witnessed the decline of the music business, highlighted by finger-pointing and blame directed against record companies, artists, internet file sharing and any other theories for which a case could be made. We’ve read and heard about the “good old days” and how things used to be. People remember when music existed as an art that motivated social movements. Artists and their music flourished in back alleys, taverns and barns until, in some cases, a popular groundswell propelled it far and wide. These days, that possibility no longer seems to exist. After 35 years as an artist in the recording business, I feel somehow compelled, not inspired, to stand up for our fellow artists and tell that side of the story as I perceive it. Had the industry not been decimated by a lack of vision caused by corporate bean counters obsessed with the bottom line, musicians would have been able to stick with creating music rather than trying to market it as well.

During the late 80s and early 90s the industry underwent a transformation and restructured, catalyzed by three distinct factors. Record companies no longer viewed themselves as conduits for music, but as functions of the manipulations of Wall Street. Companies were acquired, conglomerated, bought and sold; public stock offerings ensued, shareholders met. At this very same time, new Nielsen monitoring systems — BDS (Broadcast Data Systems) and SoundScan were employed to document record sales and radio airplay. Prior to 1991, the Billboard charts were done by manual research; radio stations and record stores across the country were polled to determine what was on their playlists and what the big sellers were. Thus, giving Oklahoma City, for example, an equivalent voice to Chicago’s in terms of potential impact on the music scene. BDS keeps track of gross impressions through an encoded system that counts the number of plays or “spins” that a song receives. That number is, thereafter, multiplied by the number of potential listeners. SoundScan was put in place at retail centers to track sales by monitoring scanned barcodes of units crossing the counter. A formula was devised whereby the charts were based 20% on the SoundScan number and 80% on BDS results. The system had changed from one that measured popularity to one that was driven by population.

Record companies soon discovered that because of BDS, they only needed to concentrate on about 12 radio stations; there was no longer a business rationale for working secondary markets that were soon forgotten — despite the fact that these were the very places where rock and roll was born and thrived. Why pay attention to Louisville — worth a comparatively few potential listeners — when the same one spin in New York, Los Angeles or Atlanta, etc., was worth so many more potential listeners? All of a sudden there were #1 records that few of us had ever heard of. At the time we asked ourselves, “Am I out of touch?” We didn’t realize that this was the start of change that would grow to kill, if not the whole of the music business, then most certainly, the record companies.

Reagan’s much-vaunted trickle-down theory said that wealth tricked down to the masses from the elite at the top. Now we’ve found out that this is patently untrue — the current economic collapse reflects this self-serving folly. The same holds for music. It doesn’t trickle down; it percolates up from the artists, from word of mouth, from the streets and rises up to the general populace. Constrained by the workings of SoundScan/BDS, music now came from the top and was rammed down people’s throats.

Early in my career, I wrote and recorded a song called “I Need A Lover” that was only played on just one radio station in Washington, DC the first week it came out. Through much work from local radio reps at the record company, the song ended up on thousands of radio stations. Sing the chorus of “I Need A Lover.” It’s not the best song I ever wrote nor did it achieve more than much more than being a mid-chart hit, but nevertheless, you can sing that chorus. Now sing the chorus of even one Mariah Carey song. Nothing against Mariah, she’s a brilliantly gifted vocalist, but the point here is the way that the songs were built — mine from the ground up, hers from the top down.

By 1997, consumers, now long uninvolved, grew passive, radio stations had to change formats. Creative artistry and the artists, themselves, were now of secondary importance, taking a back seat to Wall Street as the record companies were going public. The artists were being sold out by the record companies and forced to figuratively kiss the asses of their corporate overlords at the time these record companies went public. In essence, the artists were no longer the primary concern; only keeping their stockholders fat and happy and “making the quarterly numbers” mattered; the music was an afterthought.

Long-tenured employees of these companies were sacrificed in the name of profitability and the culture of greed was burned into the brains of even the most serious music lovers. It seemed that paying attention sales, who had the #1 record from one week to next, and who fell or rose on the charts was all that validated music.

One of my best friends in life was Timothy White who had been the editor of Crawdaddy, then Rolling Stone and, finally, Billboard. As a music critic, he championed singers, songwriters and musicians of all stripes. He was a music lover, beloved in the industry and by artists. Timothy, as many of you know, died suddenly, at the age of 50, waiting for an elevator at Billboard’s office in New York. Artists including Don Henley, Brian Wilson, Sheryl Crow, James Taylor, Jimmy Buffett, Roger Waters, Sting and me thought so much of him that two sold-out concerts — one in Boston and one at Madison Square Garden — were produced to raise money to support his widow, Judy, and family that includes their autistic son. Each of you, who care enough to read this, should ask yourself if people would be there to celebrate your life so lovingly as this.

In the early 90s, Tim started talking to me about the new service called SoundScan. Then the editor of Billboard, he was leery about the whole idea, realizing its potential to turn the record business upside down. He was pressured by his boss, publisher Howard Lander, who had warned that if Billboard didn’t buy into SoundScan, its competitor, Hits, would become the premier music industry trade magazine. I remember performing at a City of Hope benefit dinner in 1996 where he and I argued with Howard on the pitfalls of SoundScan and BDS and how there would be consequences that would not be good for the music business once it was embraced. It was a very unpleasant evening.

Let’s pause here to note that the record business has always been known for its colorful characters like Colonel Tom Parker, Ahmet Ertegun, John Hammond, etc. The most important thing is that different artists were able to express themselves in ways that were uniquely original, expressing their hopes and disappointments. That kind of artistic diversity and the embrace of eccentricity made the recording business great. It also made the record business horrifying in some ways. Look at what happened at Stax Records where financial finagling and skullduggery brought a great enterprise to a screeching halt that ended so many brilliant careers.

During the time of the upheaval wrought by SoundScan, BDS and the “Wall Streeting” of the industry, country music seized the opportunity and tacitly claimed the traditional music business. Country has come to dominate the heartland of America, a landscape abandoned or ignored by the gatekeepers of rock and pop. Great new country music stars came from seemingly nowhere to grow to tremendous popularity; think Garth Brooks.

While all this was going on, technology, just as it always does, progressed. That which, by all rights, should have had a positive impact for all of us — better sound quality, accessibility, and portability — is now being blamed for many of the ills that beset the music business. The captains of the industry it seemed, proved themselves incapable of having a broader, more long-range view of what this new technology offered. The music business is very complicated in itself so it’s understandable that these additional elements were not dealt with coherently in light of the distractions that abound. Not understanding the possibilities, they ignorantly turned it into a nightmarish situation. The nightmare is the fact that they simply didn’t know how to make it work for us.

The CD, it should be noted, was born out of greed. It was devised to prop up record sales on the expectation of people replenishing their record collections with CDs of albums they had already purchased. They used to call this “planned obsolesce” in the car business. Sound quality was supposed to be one of the big selling points for CDs but, as we know, it wasn’t very good at all. It was just another con, a get-rich-quick scheme, a monumental hoax perpetrated on the music consuming public.

These days, some people suggest that it is up to the artist to create avenues to sell the music of his own creation. In today’s environment, is it realistic to expect someone to be a songwriter, recording artist, record company and the P.T. Barnum, so to speak, of his own career? Of course not. I’ve always found it amusing that a few people who have never made a record or written a song seem to know so much more about what an artist should be doing than the artist himself. If these pundits know so much, I’d suggest that make their own records and just leave us out of it. Nora Guthrie, Woody’s daughter, once told me a story about a reception she was at where Bob Dylan was in attendance. The business people there were quietly commenting on how unsociable Dylan seemed to them, not what they imagined an encounter with Dylan would be like. When that observation about Dylan’s behavior and disposition were mentioned to Nora, the response was very profound. She said that Bob Dylan was not put on this earth to participate in cocktail chatter with strangers. Bob Dylan’s purpose in life is to write great songs like “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “The Times They Are A’ Changin’.” This sort of sums it all up for me. The artist is here to give the listener the opportunity to dream, a very profound and special gift even if he’s minimally successful. If the artist only entertains you for three and a half minutes, it’s something for which thanks should be given. Consider how enriched all of our lives are made by songs from “Like A Rolling Stone,” a masterpiece, to “The Monster Mash,” a trifle by comparison.

Now that the carnage in this industry is so deep you can hardly wade through it, it’s open season for criticizing artists, present company included, for making a misstep or trying to create new opportunities to reach an audience, i.e., Springsteen releasing an album at Wal-Mart and, yes, we all know what Wal-Mart is about. The old rules and constraints that had governed what was once considered a legitimate artist are no longer valid. When you think about it, you must conclude that there really is no legitimate business; there is no game left.

Sadly, these days, it’s really a matter of “every man for himself.” In terms of possibilities, we are but an echo of what we once were. Of course, the artist does not want to “sell out to The Man.” Left with no real choice except that business model of greed and the bean counting mentality that Reagan propagated and the country embraced, there is only “The Man” to deal with. There is no street for the music to rise up from. There is no time for the music to develop in a natural way that we can all embrace when it ripens and matures. That’s why the general public doesn’t really care. It’s not that the people don’t still love music; of course they do. It’s just the way it is presented to them that ignores their humanity.

If we have any hope for survival of the music that we all love, compassion must replace name-calling, fairness must replace greed and we need to come together as a musical community and try to understand each other’s problems. I once suggested to Don Henley, many years ago after I had left Polygram, that we should form an artist-driven record label, much like Charlie Chaplin did with the movies when he, more than 90 years ago, joined forces with Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks to form United Artists. Don’s response was correct. He said that trying to get artists and business people together to work for the common good of everyone involved is akin to herding cats. When all is said and done, unfortunately, it’s not really about the music or the artist. It’s about you and your perception of yourself and how you think things ought to be. And we all know that this very rarely intersects with what actually is. Just because you think this is how it should be only makes it just that: what you think; it doesn’t make it true. So let’s try to put our best foot forward and remember that anyone can stand in the back of a dark hall and yell obscenities but if you want a better world it starts with you and the things you say and do.

The Music…

There are not a lot of clubs like that these days especially in the present environment. Rudy Ray Moore played a show there a few years back and I even booked Blowfly there earlier this year. My friend Chris Sacco performs there as well as David Garza and Allan when he comes to Texas. Here is a pic from the show an audience member e-mailed us:

Pete, Mike, Damascus and John all sounded great and it was a fun show. I still cannot believe how humid Houston is, it is unreal. The best part was that my Mom and Dad came out. I got them a table in the back of the club and brought them 2 of the clubs legendary BBQ sandwiches. I met this cool cat named Hank after show the show. He kept telling me I should play the accordion? Well it turns out during the show my Mom and Dad kept telling him I should play the accordion. My mom’s love of polka and Czech culture never stops.

The band we were on the bill with was “Hot Club of Cowtown” and they were excellent. They were great folks and the guitar player Whit was phenomenal. He played a Gibson L-5 through a little vintage Gibson Amp and it was some of the best Western Swing Jazz I have heard. Elana the fiddler who shares vocal duties with Whit was tearing it up as well. She brings an intensity with her to the stage that is a spark. She toured with Bob Dylan for a few years and tells a great story about the realization that brought to her as a performer.

Here is a pic:

If you look carefully you can see me behind Whit (the guitarist) checking out the show side stage. The bass player Jake was slamming as well and lives in Dallas.

Get their new CD, I did and it is excellent.

The photos are courtesy of a cool music aficionado Gary Weiss that bought our CD and came to say say hello after the show. Thanks Gary, it’s funny he was honest and admitted he didn’t know what to think because our music was so different than Hot Club. Gary is an Oncologist based in Houston and has great taste in music. Here we are after the show:

My band is this Electric, funky, bluesy fusion with rock songs and then you have straight up Western Swing Jazz. I like it like that as music is music and we have had some “wyrrd” pairings over the years. The strangest booking was with a Klesmer band at Juanita’s in Little Rock Arkansas.

Next time you are in Houston be sure to stop by the Continental Club and while you are there stop by in the back and try the BBQ. It is amazing.

A good friend of mine invited me over to his house to watch the HBO series “True Blood” which is about vampires. I watched two episodes and it was all I could take it was torture.

Throughout each episode people are methodically manipulating and taking advantage of each other. Almost always culminating in some type of revenge plot and subsequent drama that unfolds.

I will admit it makes for great TV but it doesn’t say much about our present cultures insatiable need to feed off of and manipulate each other. I was thinking to myself while I was watching this why are Vampires damned to eternity. I came up with an answer fairly quickly that makes sense to me.

They don’t get it.

You see I believe wholeheartedly that we choose to come to the earth and work on our souls. After enough trips ideally we become enlightened and transcend the need to incarnate and evolve into the spiritual realm. By fighting that and opting to stay on earth until eternity you are therefore denying the opportunity to learn to let go of the lesser human behaviors such as resentment, jealousy, anger and all the manipulative drama exhibited on that show.

Of course this is all mythological but that is precisely why this is so deep. My heroes Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung were very steadfast and convincing in the power of myth. It is in our stories and in our history that we find our true selves and who we are.

Isn’t it interesting that a vampire can’t see the light? I think I know a few vampires, hell I used to be one and I am still working on it. The first step to change though is awareness and I was lucky enough to have enough pain in my relationships to use as leverage to get my self to change.

I also think it is interesting that one of the ways to kill a vampire is to drive a wooden stake through their heart. That is very interesting to me. At first my hunch is that says something about what the vampire has done to the person doing the killing. Destroyed their heart as well, especially since all of this is fiction. And there is always more truth in fiction.

I have a couple of very honest friends who are not afraid to tell me when I must keep my ego in check. I also have as a close friend one of the best shrinks in the world and he does not and will not sugar coat things. He definitely didn’t when it came to holding me to a higher standard and exposing my narcissism.

You see movies and TV and books and popular media always echo what is going on in our society at present. When mobster movies were all the rage it said a lot about our society.

Look at this vampire phenomena, look how many women are reading “Twilight” and all my guy friends have been on me to watch “True Blood” so I finally did and it disgusted me because it reminds me of everything that is wrong about our society right now.

Everyone is “sucking everyone’s blood” The Federal Government is seizing assets from people, look at California. The State level Governments are feeding of the people with more and more taxes and look at what people are doing to each other in relationships. It’s unbelievable and disheartening to see.

Look what corporations and banks and Ponzi schemes are all the corporate fraud was about.
Vampires sucking the life savings of people straight from their investments. Greed and more greed.

You see as I mentioned before a vampire is simply a mythological representation of a narcissist. Someone who “drains your energy” and plays on your fears. The term “Energy Vampire” is even a household term these days. I am a recovering Narcissist myself so I know about all of this a bit.

A friend of mine recently said “If I had a dollar for every time I wondered: Why am I still single, I’d be a millionaire” It’s a question more than half of American women ask themselves, according to a report the New York Times put out in early 2007. This data includes women who live apart from their significant others, but all independent variables aside it’s a figure that’s rocketed significantly in the last couple decades.

Even as those 57.5 million women gather round cozy wine bars with their girlfriends, enjoying Bridget Jones, or Sex in The City during nights in sweats on the couch, or pack four different guys into one week (yes, it happens), we’re likely to be puzzled over what we may be doing wrong: “That one wearing three carats with the husband more loyal than a black lab—what does she know that I don’t?”—or if we actually need partners, as tradition (and Mom) seems to imply.

I hang out at Barnes and Noble quite a bit and just last week I saw a book entitled:

Generation Me: Why Today’s Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled—and More Miserable—Than Ever Before (Free Press, 2007)

It is by Jean Twenge is a psychology professor at San Diego State University and author of and co-author of the upcoming “Narcissism Epidemic” with W. Keith Campbell.

Isn’t her next book title prophetic?, I got goose bumps when I saw it. Am I the only one who sees the stuff? I sure as hell hope not because it is all around us. Unfortunately the conversations that come up in the circles I have been in lately seem to lean towards the more mundane issues.

I am going to have to fire some of my friends.

Based on recent research she has conducted to learn about current attitudes toward relationships, Twenge confirms, “There is in fact a massive cultural shift at work here.” She says the number of women who are romantically uninvolved is a result of one major factor: our culture tells us we don’t need relationships.

Call it the “singular-single syndrome”: We have it. Twenge recently conducted a study of 200 student participants at San Diego State, and 90% of them answered the questionnaire stating they live by grand individualistic philosophies like, “You shouldn’t ever need anyone else to make you feel complete” and “You have to make yourself happy.” Read: Can You Buy Happiness?

Based on this study and a handful of others Twenge has conducted in the last few years, she concludes that today’s young adults feel they need to be completely self-sufficient in their happiness.

The fact is, young American adults view deep emotional involvement with others as weakness and dependence. It’s not just that our culture accepts and accommodates the single lifestyle now—it’s that it actually disparages the individual who isn’t focused solely on her own personal advancement.

The ubiquitous teachings from our capitalist culture media, Boomer-generation parents who toiled to teach us the importance of pursuing personal goals, and teachers in an increasingly survival-of-the-very-fittest education system—all these emphasize the individual and her goals, not her need for involvement with others.

Twenge also said that a study she’s currently conducting with W. Keith Campbell leads to the conclusion that narcissism in America is higher than it’s ever been before, and by definition of considering themselves more important than the people they associate with, narcissistic people make terrible relationship partners.

Twenge blames this spike in narcissism on societal teachings like those aforementioned but also feels that purported social networking devices like MySpace and Facebook are less a method of connecting with others than a means of shameless self-promotion giving the individual limitless opportunity to think about themselves and advertise why other people should want to know them.

Amen Jean! I am going to pick her up and hug her for that statement when I meet her.

This is why I have taken somewhat of a sabbatical from the internet. I am in the music business where “social networking” is all the rage and I am beginning to wonder about it’s true validity.

Whatever happened to going out and genuinely meeting new fans face to face and talking to them?
Going out and earning them with the “sweat equity” of getting in a van and playing shows. I don’t date women I meet on the internet, I like to meet them in person. I am the same way with fans, I like the personal touch. I use the internet as a way to stay in touch but am a people person at heart.

Some users even employ social networking sites out of romantic malice, attempting to provoke jealousy or track the whereabouts of an ex. And for some couples, being on each other’s friend lists is a topic more taboo than first-date sex. “No way would I add (my new girlfriend) to my page,” one of my friends told me. “I think she’s pissed about it but if it ends, it will be too awkward if we’re able to keep tabs on each other.”

Any way you slice it, we’re all looking out for Number One. Here’s the trouble: the more time we spend thinking about ourselves, formulating clever responses to friends’ online comments about us, posting our most attractive photos, and “pimping our profiles” to leave impressions on our contacts, the less time we spend actually interacting with and caring about others.

In one of my recent relationships a girl I was dating gave me a framed picture of herself for Valentine’s Day. Talk about narcissism, I should have seen that one coming.

Even the word “friend” has transformed from an endeared noun used to describe an intimate, trusted companion to a verb that implies a quick click of the mouse. “Listen, I gotta run, it was nice to meet you. Remember to friend me tomorrow.” We lack the basic fundamental of all relationships – spending time together – and personal eye-to-eye contact continues to grow more rare.

Chris Morett is a sociology professor specializing in family and marriage at Fordham University in New York City. Morett echoes this cultural emphasis on the individual.

He says our communities and peer groups have broken down significantly in the last decade, and our consumer culture promises the singular single that you can “Have it your way.” Thus young Americans are less willing to compromise their own desires than ever before, and Morett goes so far as saying that the American dating process has become similar to other means of shopping for a product.

Because women don’t need marriage for the economic stability and source of identity the institution provided decades ago (because the majority of American women nowadays were not raised simply to be wives but to value personal advancement by self-sufficient means, and women are economically independent deriving their identity from their work and other societal roles, not just from being a wife) marriage is not a necessity but a choice.

So when a woman dates a man and he doesn’t possess all the “features” she requires, she briefly deliberates and continues shopping (Is passionate about his work, check. Loves to travel, check. Forgot to ask how my meeting went, uh-oh. Completely unacceptable.) No longer does a woman need a man or a marriage; now she wants a soulmate, a partner to share her interests and values and who provides passion and support and fun. She desires a man who won’t require her to sacrifice her identity or every aspect of the single lifestyle she’s come to enjoy.

See why the divorce rate is what it is? And I can prove to you that in reality it is about 1000%
See my post “Mating”

But until we meet an authentic person, (good luck in this quagmire) the solution to the single person’s isolation is simple: shut the lid on your laptops and get over yourself.

I am going to be blunt, but those of you that read this know by now that’s my style.

You do not have a gold plated pussy, so get over yourself. It’s not that special, if you think it is, you can have it.

And guys, you are not God’s gift to women so get over yourself as well. Grow some balls.

You don’t have to do it all on your own. We’ll only find the comfort to our singles’ loneliness by spending time in the physical presence of people we love. If we want love, we have to love. We have to open our hearts to connecting again.

Wake up Zombies and get off of Facebook today and look someone in the eyes and have a real conversation.

Just one man’s humble opinion.

Much Love,

Eric

We will all realize eventually that life comes full circle and that eventually your parents become your children. The roles reverse and it is a beautiful thing to give back the love that you were given as a child when you were helpless.

I had a lot of time to feel in the 5 hour drive it takes to get there and back. Let’s see;

5 hours there

5 hours back that is a total of 10

Did that 3 weeks straight so 3X10 = 30 hours.

I did not listen to the radio at all or any CD’s.

Completely quiet the entire time so I could just “be alive” and have a self encounter.

Thought a lot about why relationships are such a mess these days. I mean nobody get’s it.

I also thought of how hard it is to for just about anyone at all to have a real relationship.

Everyone is divorced or unhappy or even worse trying to put on a facade that they have it all together.

My Mom and Dad have been married 60 years and are still in “Love” and inseparable.

Sure they have their spats but growing up I never even once doubted the equanimity of their bond and their never was a question of whether they would divorce or have an affair or abuse each other?

Ever!

I couldn’t even fathom it or imagine them ever divorcing in any fashion and they never will. They say there are no guarantees. Believe me I can guarantee they are a shining example of “til death do us part.

Were they crazy?

Hell yeah! and so were me and my sister and all the neighbors and their kids but we never doubted the bond they had and still have.

Where does this all come from? Why are things so messed up. It’s very simple and I will tell you:

It comes from a simpler time. A time when people where real and authentic and consistent.

We are a nation of liars. Almost no one is true and real anymore. Just like Chris Rock says:

“When you meet people, you don’t meet them, you meet their representatives”.

I heard a great interview on NPR today with University of Massachusetts based psychologist Robert Feldman, whose new book is “The Liar in Your Life: The Way to Truthful Relationships” (Twelve, 2009).

Are you a liar? Do you, like most people, tell an average of three lies every ten minutes? The ubiquity and the cost of everyday deception is huge. I first became “hyper-aware” of this when I read the book “Radical Honesty” by Brad Blanton. It is one of the best books I ever read.

It changed my life, it is a book that after you read it you realize you didn’t even need to read it if you just read the title alone it says it loud and clear. I have to tell you I have never met the author Brad but I have always suspected he wrote the book because he wanted to get laid.

I will ask him that when I meet him, hows that for “Radical Honesty”

4 of my mentors are shining examples of this and I think this is what attracted me to them and their work.

Sadly those days are over my friend. We now live in a different world. A world of infinite choice.

When I was a kid there were 3 TV stations…

NBC, ABC and CBS

A few years later we got FOX (Rupert Murdoch)

My parents still do not have cable and they also have a rotary phone.

During Hurricane Ike my parents were the only home on the street that had phone service.
Why? because my father refused to join the grid years ago and still had a “Thomas Edison” old school “talking wire” i.e. “copper line”.

During the hurricane when the power was out, i talked to my folks everyday and it was comforting to know they were OK. I couldn’t speak with any of my friends in Houston for 3 weeks because they were “on the grid” and all cell phones and digital, fiber optic stuff was “dead in the water”

This leads to what is wrong with the world today.

There is too much choice and no one can stay focused anymore.

I never watch TV yet I have Verizon FIOS?

I have over 1,000 channels.

Look at Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and all the myriad social media. How could anyone focus?

Especially on a mate and being present?

The average female has had 10 lovers before she marries in our present culture.

Think about that and what that does to her?

We all know that the divorce rate is 50-60 percent now.

Hmmmmmmm…

I would argue it is 1000 percent.

Let me prove it to you.

If a woman has had on average 10 sexual partners before marriage what does this truly say?

It says that 10 guys that she (let’s be nice here) “made love” with didn’t work out prior to marriage.

So technically she at least “psychologically” has had ten divorces. Even a one night stand has the potential to “call a soul” to the world without the convenience of birth control.

You see where I am going with all of this?

Let’s not “hold back” here what is the potentiality of making love and a love bond?

Calling a soul to the world.

Having a child.

Procreation.

Let’s not reduce the act of having sex with another person of the opposite sex down to a couple of meat puppets jumping up and down and squirting. There is much more to at stake when we make love. She has the potential to get pregnant and that is deep my friend. Whatever your views are on abortion no one likes to have one and would be proudly talking about it if they did.

I am adopted and my mom was 14 and chose to have me and I am glad she did. I have this amazing life because she took responsibility and let the vine of my soul touch the earth.

This is precisely why “nature” made sex so enjoyable. It’s pleasurable so we will do it as much as possible because that ensures the survival of the species. Our biology wants that.

Ever notice why a couple that can’t get along for nothing and practically want to kill each other will stay together because “the sex is so good”

That’s natures way of keeping them together. That’s how strong the sex drive is.

Nature is not stupid.

That is the whole point of mating.

That is precisely why a “real woman” is very selective about who she mates with.

She only has very few precious eggs and she has to make sure she doesn’t waste them on some idiot.

Just because we have “birth control” and condoms and whatever means of “foiling nature”

Let’s be honest.

Women’s lib and feminism were major proponents of bringing the rights of women equal to those of men.

I have a major problem with that. I feel it didn’t nothing for women. It sure as hell didn’t elevate them.

I have have said for years that all men are scum and dogs. I tell women when they meet me that.

I tell them “All men are scum and dogs, I have just been working on not being that for the last 40 years”. And I have and I know a thing or to about relationships and I can tell you emphatically.

Relationships are are a lot of hard work and people today just do not have the “character” to handle that. I do not lie and I do not cheat and I am extremely honest in my relationships. I am honest to a point were it makes most people uncomfortable even the person that I am in a relationship with.

All feminism and Women’s liberation did was bring women down to the level of men. And there is not much to be said for that.

Men and Women are both evolved to last about 4 to 4 1/2 years in a pair bond until the baby is capable of independent survival and then we move on. All of this bullshit out there by all these uneducated people writing all these books that think you can make it work. You cannot make it work.

Evolution wants you as a man wants you to go knock up some other woman. Evolution wants the women to go get a different mate, have a different baby from a different man, so she has 2 chances of her DNA getting into the future. The first husband who knocked her up might have something wrong with him. Evolution teaches her she only has 5 chances max to have a baby. That is why women are so picky. When the baby is 4 to 4 1/2 years old she is looking for another man no matter what she says.
Ideally she has 4-5 chances to get her DNA in the future. Evolution is designed to get the two of you together and get that baby to 4 to 4 1/2 years old and get that baby to where it can survive on it’s own. You have to remember 99% of evolution was designed on the Savannah in Africa.

It wasn’t in Dallas in a condo, so here we are trying to fit 99% of our evolution into a condo in Dallas.

In ovulation, day one, the day the period starts 14 days after that she is going to drop an egg out of her ovary down into her fallopian tubes down into her uterus and when the eggs start to ripen her hormones start flowing to get her to mate. They get her thinking about mating and on the 14th day (this is a woman who has a 28 day period which most women do) she exposes far more skin than she does any day of the month. Feminist hate this, but it’s a fact.

The other thing that happens is on the 14th day women are attracted to a manly man. Someone with some balls to fight and kill. This is what they like, the rest of their period they like guys who would make a good dad and stay home and help raise the kids. So they are all over the place in a month.

This is why a lot of women are impregnated by a man who is not the husband. The estimates are that 15 % of all babies born in hospitals across all socio-economic lines, not just the ghetto, from the top to the bottom 15 % are by someone other than the guy who thinks he the father.

I have two close friends that are psychiatrist and they have seen this constantly in practice for over 30 years time after time. Where to keep a couple together they have to hide the fact that the woman had an affair and cannot tell the husband because he would reject the child.

So as a man, how do you get around all of this? You have to be real and you have to understand women better than they do themselves otherwise you will always be thinking too much. You have to believe in Love and I mean real Love from strength. Not this pansy idea of love we have forced down our throats in the movies and self-help books.

There are only two things you ever can control in a relationship and that is it.

1. How you treat the other person.

2. How you allow the other person to treat you.

It is that simple folks and it takes an incredible amount of courage to get there.

Think about it, if you don’t want to be manipulated, don’t manipulate people.

When another person exhibits behavior towards you that is unacceptable. Walk away.

Zero contact.

This is not always easy because we all have an ego that we must keep in check.

I am much aware of this than most people and I still mess this stuff up all the time. I fall off the wagon but I have to tell it get’s better all the time because we learn from our mistakes. That’s why they hurt so much. That is natures’ way of making sure you remember them. Like John Cougar says;

“It hurts so good”

I have had my ass kicked in relationships up and down the block and all around.

My last 4 girlfriends have all been a lot younger than me and my friends are constantly asking me how I do it. It is very simple, I know what I want and I accept nothing less and I am willing to accept the risk of getting hurt to find true love. That is what we all want. A loving, caring, sharing romantic relationship that stands the test of time. I want to have children, quite a few so it is very natural that I would be attracted to a very fertile younger woman that has the desire and the ability to do the same. It is not realistic to do that with some one my age unless I have a doctor inject her with drugs so we can have a “litter” of 8 kids at once like the “Octomom”

I don’t want that, it’s not natural and it’s just plain carnival material.

I am being honest, plus men mature much slower than women.

I have said it before, there is no way a 19 year old woman can date a 19 year old boy and be truly happy. In maturation terms a 19-21 year old boy is like dating a fetus.

Hell, I am a 40 years young which in “man’s maturation” years makes me about 17 years old.

I can prove this to anybody just give me about 10 minutes with anyone and I can cut through all of their bullshit and prove that they just want to be loved.

“I don’t want to be in a relationship right now” = BULLSHIT

“I just want to be single, I am not ready for a relationship” = BULLSHIT

Anyone that tells you otherwise is lying to you.

When I first start to date a girl, I always ask them, “If you could do anything you wanted in the world, there was zero chance of failure what would you do?”

The one’s that have been truthful have said, “I want to be a mother and have a wonderful child or children”

Anything else such as “I don’t want to have kids ever” or “I just want to travel” is already indicative of a traumatic childhood and the latter of running from something or problems.

My mind is sharp and I work daily on keeping it sharp and my questions slice right through the bullshit to the core.

It’s because I am honest and straightforward. I have said this before and I will say it again. I scare a lot of people off when they meet me. Generally one of two things happen when you meet me.

I either scare the shit out of you or you are intrigued.

Most often I scare people off but is that really a surprise in a nation full off manipulative liars?

Rejection means nothing to me, if anything Rejection is just Gods way of protecting me.

Rejection is God’s protection.

I want real people in my life and being honest and assertive will prevent other people from keeping me from getting my goal.

The biggest kind of liar we see in the female population is what my friend calls “The Wholesome Pretender” This is the girl that wants to give off the public impression that she is innocent wholesome, virtuous and all about monogamous relationships.

This type of girl says things like “You know how hard it is for me to have sex with someone” They will give you the false impression that their most glaring of virtues are their indefinite sense of sexual self-control, their erotic patience and conservatism and virgin like prudence. They are often from a small town and raised with a lot of religion.

Remember the word religion is derived from the latin word religgio, which means to bind over and over. That is where the “re” prefix comes from, “re” meaning over and over like in re-play and re-wind.

Someone like me is very attractive initially to a girl like this because I am a challenge. But behind the curtain of the image she is portraying is a mess and be forewarned it’s not as pretty as the outside.

Specifically because the very things that she is espousing to want she knows nothing of because she has never experienced it. So when she gets that very thing she wants it scares the hell out them and they run for the hills or off to the next challenge.

Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.

Raising a child by controlling them with “religgio” always leads to neurosis and zero faith in true love.
Read “Children of the Future” by Wilhelm Reich for an awesome breakdown of this tragic phenomena.

Women are not the only manipulators though, Oh no. The classic liar is the “Nice Guy” as well as the “Macho bad boy” types. They are both manipulators as well and just as obvious is their game.

A “Nice Guy” is one of the worst because he tells women what they want to hear because he wants something. But he is not man enough to tell her what he wants. It’s all based in bullshit. The nice dinners, the extravagant gifts and the trips and blah blah blah.

The “bad boy” is just that, a pathetic boy that has figured out in his reptilian brain that he can mask his fear of women by projecting a fake confidence. He attracts little girls that equally like a challenge and it’s what happens in the “kiddie pool” and “sandbox” of relationships.

I know this has been a little “long winded” but keep in mind this is the result of over 30 hours of pondering this crazy world we live in. Let me wrap up with this;

What is your greatest dream that you would like to accomplish while you are on this earth?

Think about this for a minute before you read on…

Now picture that goal and imagine God appearing at your bed one morning and saying to you:

” I have chosen you to realize your dream and you can have everything you wanted before you leave this earth and “cash in your chips”

However there is one condition…

“I have to cut your cock and balls off”

Would you do it?

Be honest.

Hell no you wouldn’t and I have asked this questions hundreds of times to people from all walks of life and not a damn one of them said yes.

Women the same applies would a woman of birthing age willingly give her eggs away and have her breast removed so she could reach some earthly material goal.

Hell no.

So there’s some RADICAL HONESTY for you.

Until next time much Love and quit lying, it will make the world a better place.

I must warn you though you will lose a lot of friends. It’s not “comfortable” to be around someone honest and real. Remember people are taught to lie from a young age so that people will like them.

Therein lies the problem….

Therein lies the problem….

I said that twice to hammer home “lies” the problem.

Lies are the problem.

Much Love and be real.

Eric

Every since I was a child I have been fascinated by our solar system.

My father always took us saltwater fishing at Matagorda bay as a child.
At night I would sleep on a cot with a mosquito net over me and stare at the stars.

The great thing about the ocean is that it is off the grid and since there are not the distractions of the city lights you can really see the vast spectrum of the sky and the stars and it is awesome.

I remember how excited I got the first time I saw a shooting star. The last time I was in Hawaii my friend Blase took me way up the mountain to the observatory that is a top secret government facility.

My entire life I have always imagined that there must be other life forms out there. I think about it all the time. On my first CD I even wrote a song about it and I have read everything from “Communion” by Whitley Streiber to just about about everything I could get my hands on about the supposed crash of UFO in Roswell, New Mexico.

Those of you that know me, know that I am not shy and will ask anyone, anywhere, anything.

I believe the quality of your life is determined by the quality of your questions. I have to tell you, I have had a “wyrrd” life and I would put some of the crazy things that have come along during my short time on this earth against anyone. My own Dad who is 80 years young and doesn’t say much recently told me:

“Man, you should write a book”

My ex-girlfriend of 7 years told me one time after the police chased a pickup with a drunk driver into my front yard and his truck tumbled 5 times and landed upside down, 1 inch from coming into my house; “Eric!, the weirdest stuff happens to you in your life! I have never met anyone that all this crazy stuff happens to”

You have to keep in mind how much what she says is true, you wouldn’t believe all the crazy random stuff she saw in the 7 years we were together. I could write a book on that alone.

Anyway that’s the set up to something awesome that occurred to me on Father’s Day this year.

I was at Outback steakhouse here in Denton and I saw a dear friend and his girlfriend. They were there taking her Father out for Father’s Day. It was cute he was a tall distinguished gentlemen that seemed to be in his 70’s and his wife was adorable. My friend introduced me to her Father and I asked him what he did. He mentioned to me that he was retired. I asked him what from.

He told me “I was a general in the Air Force”

I thought to myself wow, If there is ever anyone I would ever want to ask about UFO’s this would be the guy. He was the highest ranking person I had ever met so I asked him:

I said in a very pointed tone so he would know that I was not joking, “OK, I have always wanted to ask someone with your stature and credentials. What is going with UFO’s and specifically what happened in Roswell?

He looked me right in the eye and asked me, “Why do you ask?”

I said because as I child I have always wondered and I think there has to be something to all of this.

He looked at his wife, who was a lot shorter than him and she smiled and said “tell him about Robert.”

He told me about his friend Robert L. Hastings who wrote a book entitled “UFO’s and Nukes.

He said you should read this book, I feel you will find it very interesting. I gave him my card.
Much to my surprise he e-mailed me later that evening with a link to Robert’s site and also later to let me that Robert was going to be on Larry King on Friday, July 3rd for an interview about his book.

I thought to myself “wow” can this really be happening an actual retired Air Force veteran referring me to his friend whose Father was a lifelong Air Force veteran as well. At the end of the e-mail he told me BTW “Robert is no kook”

I bought the book and I read it and it is astounding and very well researched with over 80 retired and former air force veterans personnel interviewed. The implications of this are major and to think that since we started testing nuclear weapons in the mid 40’s, UFO sightings have increased massively.

One of the reason that the U.S. Government has attempted to conceal its real but secret assessment of UFOs relates to it’s unwillingness to admit that unknown observers, piloting enormously superior aerial craft, have been systematically monitoring-and occasionally tampering with -our nuclear weapons. As incredible as this may seem to UFO skeptics, it is nevertheless based on persuasive, documented data. Hundreds of declassified U.S. Government documents, many of them reluctantly released to researchers via the Freedom of Information Act, clearly establish a UFO-Nukes connection.

Everyone knows about the reported discovery of a crashed alien spaceship near Roswell, New Mexico, in July of 1947. However most people are unaware that, at the time of the incident, Roswell Army airfield was home to the worlds only atomic bomber squadron, the 509th Bomb Group. Was this merely a coincidence?

You see how the quality of your life is influenced by the quality of your questions? I have always said in my lifetime I will get to the bottom of this and I will find out about life on other planets and I will.

It’s already happening…

BTW my friend Bill Dear mailed me a DVD of his documentary “OJ, IS Guilty, But not of Murder”

It is amazing and like the above it is “wyrrd” that so many people are asleep and awake on this planet and believe everything they read or are told in the media. How they let other people especially their government and the 4 P’s again. Politicians, Parents, Priest and Professors think for them.

Here are a couple of links where you can see exactly how misinformed most of the world is

Here is Robert Hastings site:

http://www.ufohastings.com

Here is Bill Dears:

http://www.theoverlookedsuspect.com

BTW, I finished the vocals to “Let it Go” at the studio today.

Tuesday, I will knock out the last track and then off to LA to get it all mastered.

Much Love,

Eric

My mom has had some major challenges with her health so I am going home to make some major decisions for her and make sure she has the best care. I am never sick and when I say never I mean never. I had perfect attendance all throughout elementary school through Junior High.

This was because of my Mom, she never would let me stay home so I learned that illness would not benefit me in anyway. The only reason I broke my attendance streak in High School was because I had a car and could skip without her knowing my junior and senior year.

Be careful with Doctors and I mean very careful. Don’t get me wrong they have good intentions. Our healthcare system is based on one thing here and I don’t need to tell you what that is, but I will;

MONEY

That is why it is such a mess, It should be the other way around;

People first, money second.

I know that doctors get into the profession for the right reasons it’s just once you are caught up in the system and paying loans for years of medical school and to carry malpractice insurance it becomes a massive cross to bear.

Do you know what the life expectancy of a doctor is?

56 years

Not very impressive is it? Look it up. I have and the research is disturbing.

Furthermore do you know what the average time spent with a patient is?

Under 5 minutes.

Sad Sad Sad.

It’s a mess, Doctors are so busy pulling people out of the water to keep them from drowning.

They never go up the river to see who is throwing them in the water in the first place.

You can rest assured the doctors that I will find for my mother will break this mold.

My screening process is infinitely geared toward finding someone that will treat the person not the symptoms.

I will accept nothing less and make sure to always do the same for yourself and your loved ones.

I surprised myself at the studio last night with my guitar playing. My friend Heather was here from Vegas and she is an avid lover of music. I am glad she went with me, her Dad has been a great mentor to me and it felt good to just jam last night.

They say music is what our emotions sound like and I believe that. I am going through all kinds of emotions now and it makes it easy to play guitar.

Stay tuned a lot on the horizon.

Much Much Much Love,

Eric