a happy day in a week of glum

I have to admit it to you.

LA is kicking my ass.

My job?

kicking my ass.

My music career?

More like stinging my ass like a wasp
on cocaine.

It's rough going out here,
it's a mean city full of lost
people with shattered dreams,
and tiny dicks in big expensive cars.

I swing back and forth between
being pretty miserable and feeling
rather hopeless, and feeling really
good like anything is possible.

I got some good news today,
and I'm coasting on that for a while.

Remember that contest with
the song about legalizing marijuana?

well...
I won.

A thousand dollars!

holy shit.

I didn't win first place,
but then.. I didn't deserve to,
the guy who won made a much
better commercial than mine.

So I want to thank you for voting,
if you got a chance to.

I have a lot of emails to reply to,
from people who entered my little contest.

But each one makes me feel great,
so it's a happy task.

I haven't decided who to write
a song about yet, but I'll find
a way to choose and get that done,
and get it posted up here for you.

In the meantime,
I hope you're staying warm,
I had to use a thin blanket last night,
it dipped into the fifties.

much love,

-p

a song about writing songs

How do you write a song
about writing songs?

I tried.

A friend of mine used
to work for a guy that
licenses songs for movies and TV.

He has a team of songwriters
that come up with songs
in different genres that he
can then sell to people
who need music.

Sounds like a great job.

You get an email saying,
"we need sarcastic rock songs
that sound kind of like the Foo Fighters"

and then you write something,
record it, and hope somebody buys it.

So....
I had to convince this guy
that I could write stuff like
that pretty easily.

I compiled a demo of my recordings,
but they all said "tits" or "fuck" at the good parts.

Maybe Nice Peter tracks weren't going to work.

When all else fails,
write something new.

So I wrote this guy,
Mitch,
a little song about
how it's easy for me to write
songs in different genres.

It was harder than I expected.

but here it is,
in case you're curious:

www.nicepeter.com/dearmitch.mp3

-p

The good and the ugly

I got an email from South by Southwest.

Essentially saying,

they like me, they want

to book me, but they haven't

booked me, but they want to,

but they probably can't, but they might.

I had no idea how to take that

or what to do.  I just imagined

a intern who has to send out

all those emails, and answer

all the responses, and I wrote

a song to them.

you can hear it here:

http://www.nicepeter.com/SWSX.mp3

In other news,

did you hear that Michael Phelps

was caught on camera smoking a huge bong?

The photo was published, and people are freaking out

about it.

-----------------------------------------------------

Michael Phelps' apology for using a marijuana pipe presents an opportunity to talk to young athletes about drug use, poor judgment and how to learn from a mistake, Long Island swim coaches said.

Long Island coaches said they would use the incident as a teachable moment, driving home the point that drugs undermine athletic performance and that Phelps will suffer the consequences of his actions, losing esteem, and perhaps endorsements.

"It's upsetting on so many different levels," said Bill Kropp, head coach for varsity boys swimming at Sachem East High School, where the swim team swelled this year with students inspired by Phelps.

"As a coach, you bring up role models, and obviously he is the poster boy of excellence," Kropp said. "It's something that he has to live with, and we have to live with as coaches and parents."

-------------------------------------------

Maybe it's California getting to me,

or maybe I'm hung up on all this

NORML legalization stuff, but can't

there be another lesson to be learned here?

That is,

"you can smoke a little pot sometimes,

and still be one of the most successful

athletes in the history of competition"

"Marijuana... it's really just not that bad for you."

Speaking of NORML, and marijuana, and such.

Did I tell you about that contest I entered into?

Well.. if I didn't...

NORML (national organization for reform of marijuana laws)

had a video contest to create an ad about legalization.

You had to use a bunch of statistics and direct

the focus of the ad at President Obama.

so..

I wrote a song,

and made a cartoon out of some

images I licensed from Istockphoto.com

The grand prize is $3,500!!!

and the voting among the finalists

takes place online.

If you would like to vote for me,

please do.  you don't have to register

or anything, just visit the link below,

read the instructions, and click on "vote now"

http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7707

-p