Merry Chrismas from the Ellisons

We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year.

The back row is (from l to r) my mom Mary, Rachel, and Tyler. The front row is me, Sylvia, Piper, and Liam.

This Absolutely ROCKS!!!

Among the many students that I teach guitar to during the week, two of them are a father and son duo. The coolest part about them is that the father is the children's pastor at our church. Ethan, the son made a video for his uncle, who is a guitar player also, so he could see his progress. In the video he tells his uncle a little bit about me and that I am teaching him how to play. It's totally cool.

Today

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Eat well, watch football, and fall asleep. Sounds like a good day to me.

Chinese Democracy

I've listened to about half of the new Guns and Roses disc. The production: stellar. The performances: world class. Song writing: above average. 15 years to make... I just don't get it. Let's be real about this for a second. Calling this a G N' R record is like saying an apple is a banana. It sounds nothing like the real Guns. The heart and soul of what Guns were is gone. The used to be called Velvet Revolver. Slash, as a guitarist, has an instantly identifiable sound. Something he brought to Guns even if it were purely accidental. Slash sounded like Slash.

The new album sounds generic. It might as well be Axl Rose fronting The Eagles, or Motley Crue, or (insert your favorite rock band here). Chinese Democracy, as an album, has no identity. At least not a Guns and Roses identity. It's an Axl Rose solo album. End of story.

I'm going to listen to the rest of it... I doubt I'll have a different opinion tomorrow though.

Change...

...that's what America voted for. Welcome to the United Socialist States of Obama. I mean America. You wanted change, well, your going to get it. Hope it works out the way you want it to.

This Is It

Today is the big day. Get out and ROCK the vote! It's important and it counts.

Socialist Criminal

This is the guy that America wants as President?



What is wrong with America that it can't see through this guy?

The Big 9

Today is Liam's 9th birthday.

Happy Birthday little man, I love you.
Daddy.

What I've Been Doing At Church

Crossing Kids New Breakaway Room from Alex Hood - The Crossing Church on Vimeo.

Crossing Church

Victor Wooten

We Lost Liam

Not so much lost him as we just didn't know where he was for about a half hour after school yesterday. As it turns out he walked one of his friends home after school yesterday. He went with this other boy about a half mile in the opposite direction of our house. The reason... this boy wanted to ask Liam a question. What, you may ask, was this all too important question? Simply put it's this... "How do you get a girlfriend?" Keep in mind these are 3rd graders. In the back of my mind I'm wondering if my boy is a chick magnet. I mean why else would this kid ask Liam this question?

Liam's answer was simple and to the point. "You give her a ring and that's it!"

So there you have it. He did, however, go on to tell us that this same boy went over and talked to some girls and one of the girls hit him after he said whatever it was that he said. I told Liam that perhaps he should no longer give out advice about girls.

Every Rose Has It's Thorn

It's been a while since I last wrote anything here so I'll try to catch up as best as I can remember. When last I wrote the family and I were on our way to the Atlanta, GA area for some vacation. All went well, we had a good time, saw everyone that we wanted to see, did some shopping, and had a couple of good surprises along the way. The first surprise came from the city of Monroe, GA. A small town about half way between Conyers and Athens. There's not much in Monroe... typical small town Americana type stuff. They do have a 4th of July festival every year at a closed down high school football field. They have booths of different stuff, live music, some thing for the kids to do, and of course fireworks. But not just any fireworks... This year was our second time going to this festival. 2 years ago during the fireworks display this one particular, very large and very loud, firework was shot off and exploded. The only problem was where it exploded. If it got 30 feet off of the ground it was lucky. The explosion was wayyyyy toooooo close to the ground. The result was a very large brush fire in the field where said fireworks were being shot off from.

Fast forward to 2 years later... same thing! They did it again! The fire wasn't as big as 2 years ago but still... another brush fire in the same field. Maybe Monroe needs to screen the fireworks guy a little bit better for next year. As odd and as amusingly "hick" as that was, that was not the surprise I was referring to earlier in this post. Earlier in the week we had gone with Kelly, Wesly, and Wyatt to an organization called F.I.S.H. The acrostic stands for Families In Serving Humanity. The church that Brian and Kelly go to goes to F.I.S.H. every Thursday during the summer months when school is out and makes 2000 lunches. F.I.S.H. does this everyday, making 2k lunches, Brian and Kelly's church just happens to go on Thursdays. That works out to 10,000 lunches a week. The lunches are for children who are out of school, who's parents are at work. These kids normally eat a free or a reduced lunch during the school year. During the summer the F.I.S.H. lunch is the only food some of these kids get.

We made 2000 lunches in just under 2 hours. It was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a banana or an apple, a bag of chips, a bag of cookies, and a boxed drink. We then loaded up vans, trucks, cars, etc. and headed out on the routes. In some of the neighborhoods we went into it was like going into a third world country. Some of these kids were living in dwellings not fit for a dog. And there were, in a few cases, multiple families living there. It was a very sad and eye opening experience. It was good for my kids to see that not everyone has the things that they have. Not everyone has an air conditioned house to live in. Not everyone can just go to the pantry or the refrigerator any time they want for something to eat. From my point of view it was very cool for me to see and be apart of my family being the church. Not going to church... actually being what the Bible tells us is the job of the church. In this case it's feed the hungry.

We also got to, as a family, be the church to someone else. An old friend of Sylvia's from her single days. It had been about 8 years since we had last seen her and back in January or February Sylvia decided to give her a call. Sylvia did not expect what she got. Her friend told her that 2007 had been the worst year of her life. Her husband of 8 years (they got married not long after we had seen the last time) had been killed in an accident. She would not say what had happened. All she would say to Sylvia is that it was an accident and that she couldn't talk about it. Then right after that happened her mother passed away (from cancer I believe). A few months after all of that she gave birth to her second daughter. She was now a single mother of 2 girls and very little in the way of a support system.

God is good. And since all of this happened to her he has been showering her in his grace. He has been sending the right people to her as she has needed them. We got to be in on it. Sylvia called her up and we drove to Marietta to see her and her girls. My kids played with her kids, Sylvia took her shopping -- she said it was relaxing to just walk up and down the aisles of Target and not really think about too much. While they were out, the kids and I got her girls down to bed and cleaned up the house for her. We got to be the church this time by taking care of the widows and the orphans. We were as blessed as she was!

We got home from vacation and just chilled for a few weeks before school started. The week before school started I got vertigo real bad. Just so you know... vertigo SUCKS! Big time. It took me about 7 days to get over it. I really wouldn't recommend it. Although it is the kind of thing you could wish on your worst enemy. Vertigo won't kill them... just make them wish they could die so it would stop. For those who don't know what vertigo is... it's, in a nut shell, an interruption of the fluid surrounding the inner ear. The interruption causes severe dizziness. It was a rough 7 days. All is well now and the kids and Sylvia are back in school.

Tyler is in the 7th grade at Burnett Middle School, Rachel is in the 6th grade at Progress Village Middle Magnet School (more on this in a moment), and Liam is in the 3rd grade at Lopez Elementary School. I've got 3 kids in 3 different schools. For Tyler and Liam it's not a big deal. Liam's school is only a half mile away. Tyler's, only a mile. Rachel.... 13 miles. We are a 1 car family. One Toyota mini-van for the 7 of us to get around in. Granted my mom doesn't go everywhere with us...

I leave the house at 6:45 to drive the 13 miles, one way, to get Rachel to school in time to eat breakfast. Then drive another 13 miles back with Liam to get him to school in time to eat breakfast. Hillsborough County provides free breakfast to all of it's students which is a big help, especially this year. It takes me a good solid hour to get the 2 of them to school. Tyler is the easy one. I usually have about a 30 minute window of down time before we have to leave to get him the whole mile to school. It's going to be a long year. Not to mention gas prices.

The good thing about us sending Rachel to Progress Village is that it is a performing arts school. For those of you who might remember Fame, it's kind of like that only for middle school. Rachel gets to take a dance class every day. And we no longer have to pay a monthly fee for her old dance school. We are doing this for Rachel because this type of school is, hopefully, a good fit for her. She really struggles with school. Plus by sending her here she is being groomed for the Brandon High show choir. The choir director there has already told us she wants to audition her as an eighth grader when the time comes.

Now you can see why I haven't blogged in a while.

Krystal ROCKS!!!

Free WiFi. What more can I say?

Vacation Starts Tomorrow

We leave for Atlanta in the morning with my wifes new Mac Book air and our new iPod touch.

Check This Out

I now have a del.icio.us account. I just added a very interesting article on why we still, in this country, use sandbags to stop flooding.

It's Finally Over

Yesterday marks the end of a year long battle with a client to pay me money that I was rightfully owed. Things didn't go exactly as I had hoped in terms of money... but I won the most important part of the battle. The integrity part.

One thing I've learned from this whole process is to always trust my gut. Trust that little voice in my head that says run... or whatever it tells me to do. None of this would have ever happened if last year I would have only listened I would never have taken on this client. I've learned not to take on clients that are not of like mind with me. In other word clients that don't share a similar (for lack of a better term) moral compass.

I'm not in business for myself to rip anyone off or to be ripped off by anyone. This client, from the beginning, was out for herself. She wanted something for nothing and then tried to say she never hired me in the first place. That's part of the whole moral compass thing. My attorney told me the legal system works if both parties tell the truth. The system breaks down completely when one of the parties lies. Such was the case yesterday and why I didn't walk away with the full monetary value of my work.

What I did walk away with, what I did "win" is that I didn't lose my integrity nor my honor. Also, I didn't lose my dignity. It became very clear to me in trying to negotiate with said client that this whole thing was becoming about who was going to sink the lowest to make their point and I had no interest in sinking anywhere with this woman.

So she got some free work out of me. Big deal. What's worse is the time she stole from me. I can make more money. I can't make more time.

Me Backing Up Jay Hagee

Big Discovery!!!

This is so cool I just have to share it. I just tonight, discovered a songwriter named Andrew Osenga. I found him through another songwriter named Randall Goodgame. Randall is originally from Clearwater, FL (across the bay from where I live) but now resides in Nashville. I found Andrew in the links section of Randall's web site.

I really like what I have heard of Andrew so far... which is much, only 6 songs so far. Aside from the fact that Andrew is a great writer and has an awesome guitar collection, one that includes a McPherson... here's the really cool part. On the home page to his web site (which is really more of an extended blog really) is a link to download a 6 song EP entitled Letters to the Editor, Vol. 1. The really, really cool part... it's FREE!!! He's giving it away. I don't know if it's only for a limited amount of time or what the deal is. I guess I should actually read the information on his web site... anyway... the 6 songs are really good.

These tunes are not your standard radio friendly, bubble gum, crap. There's some depth here. One more cool thing about the download... along with the six songs there is a .pdf file. It contains what would be essentially the "album" artwork. Photos, lyrics, etc. Plus there is a whole bunch more. On page 3 Andrew explains that he gave himself 3 rules for recording this EP.

1. Only one guitar, an acoustic, per song. However, there is no limit to how many track I can use of that guitar.
2. The only other instrument will be my voice, and again, I can use as many tracks as I want.
3. No picks

There are 6 songs and he used 5 guitars. There are pictures of each guitar plus a story about each guitar towards the end of the .pdf file. Also there are the stories of inspiration regarding each song. Get this... each of these songs were inspired by fans that wrote in to him via comments on his blog or emailed him directly. He lists some names and what they contributed to the creative process. He also talks about what he used to record the EP, which, incidentally, was recorded in his basement. He calls his basement studio The Velvet Eagle. Unfortunately he gives no explanation for the name but he talks about every other aspect of this project.

Andrew Osenga is not the first musician to give his stuff away I realize but this feels... somehow, more genuine. Not like it's just some marketing ploy or a way to get back at the big bad record labels. I don't know... it feels real and I think that is one of the best things about this whole free download thing. Plus it's awesome music... and he has a McPherson (the bastard!).

Here's some linkage for you to check out Randall Goodgame and Andrew Osenga.

A Day Or Two In The Life...

Well, I've finished part of the job for Michael Ripoll. He has the business cards I designed for him and his personal manager got the posters produced for an upcoming show in Nashville. It's been cool working for him and picking his brain about the music business. One of the coolest things about Michael is how down to earth he is. He's just a regular guy. I've still got some more work to do for him over the next month or two. He's easy to work with and likes when I just do my thing and try to dazzle him.

The kids are out of school... I'm waiting for them to say "I'm bored...!!!!" At which point I will give them a new invention I have come up with; an ice wedgie. It's really simple yet totally ingenious... if I do say so myself. What the ice wedgie is is pretty much a standard power wedgie with the addition of ice cubes down the underwear and some water added to intensify the cold effect.

Sylvia is teaching some train the trainer classes this summer and will be plenty busy. We are planning on getting away for a couple of weeks to the Atlanta area the end of June/beginning of July. I'm going to try to hook up with my good friend David Keenum up in Woodstock, GA and play a coffee house or 2. He's liked the idea and is going to see what he can come up with. I'll post the gig dates here and on the my space page if and when the materialize. I hope we can do something... it would be a blast to do. David is an awesome keyboard player, producer, and writer. We're planning on spending time with Brian and Kelly Keaton, maybe go up to Dalton, GA to see Matt and Joy Goss, and who knows who else. Matt even offered to bring a snare drum and some brushes to the coffee house gig(s). This deal just get better and better. I hope we can pull it off.

Ciao for now,
Mark.

Priceless Stupid Criminal Video

I love it when Justice shows up out of no where.



These two are proof the the gene pool needs a good thinning out!

The Worlds Greatest Rock Band

The boys from Texas are back!!!

First Impressions Of My Carvin Cobalt 850T

First impressions are a big deal and Carvin certainly made an amazing first impression. When I took the instrument case out of the shipping container I was blown away by the case. I was expecting a plastic, SKB type, case. It was a very high end, faux leather, brown case with gold hardware and a very nice Carvin badge riveted to the side. The guitar inside really surprised me as well. Just yesterday, in fact, I was at Guitar Center looking at some Taylor and Gibson acoustics that don't look as nice as this Carvin looks. Nor did they play as well. The tone is very warm and round... just like I like it to be. This guitar plays and sounds better than my nephews Taylor 614CE. A guitar that is about 4 times the cost of my Cobalt 850T.

I haven't had a chance, yet, to try out the Fishman electronics. That will have to be a separate review. I've only had the instrument for about an hour now and am very impressed by everything so far. The finish is awesome. I haven't been able to find one flaw yet... I'm still looking. There's always a flaw... somewhere. The body is a high gloss finish, with binding on the front and back, while the bound neck has an awesome satin finish to it. It's very silky feeling and makes moving up and down the neck almost effortless as there is very little resistance. The abalone purfling around the sound hole, in the logo on the headstock, and in the strip on the back of the body are perfect (upon further inspection, this is strip is not abalone. I'm not sure what it is.), so far as I can tell. Nothing stands out at first look.

First impressions... Carvin certainly has this part down to a science.

On A More Somber Note

The pastor of the largest baptist church in Tampa, Bell Shoals Baptist Church, and his 13 year old son are missing. They were flying from North Carolina to Texas in the pastors personal plane. They never arrived in Texas.

Here is the first post on the church web site from last night.

Please be in earnest prayer for Pastor Forrest. On Sunday afternoon, Pastor Forrest left (flying his own plane) for North Carolina, a quick stop before going to a conference in Texas. He reached his destination in North Carolina; however, after leaving from there early Monday morning for Texas, we have learned that Pastor has not yet reached his destination at the time of this writing.

Everything humanly possibly is being done to locate Pastor’s whereabouts. We are, however, appealing to all of our church family to pray earnestly for God’s supernatural intervention. The new Worship Center is open for prayer and will remain so until further notice.

Pastor George Thomasson and Ministerial Staff

UPDATE:
Sadly Pastor Forrest Pollock and his 13 year old son, Prestons remains were found among the wreckage in the mountains of North Carolina.

Here is what Bell Shoals Baptist posted on their web site.

We regret to inform you, our church family, that at approximately 11 AM this morning we learned that search and rescue teams found the aircraft of Pastor Forrest Pollock in the mountains outside of Asheville, North Carolina. Pastor Pollock, 44 and his son Preston, 13, did not survive the crash. Please continue to lift up Dawn and the children during this difficult time. We grieve with hope and assurance that our Lord Jesus will lead us and carry us through these difficult times.

We have lost a great brother, pastor and friend in Forrest Pollock as well as a precious little brother in Christ, Preston Pollock. We owe a great thanks to those who risked their lives, endured extreme hardship, and worked non-stop in the attempt to rescue our pastor and his son.



For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39

It Arrives Today!!!

My new Carvin guitar arrived in Tampa at 4:08 AM and at 7:30 AM it was scanned as being out for delivery. My stomach is all aflutter. More than likely that is just because I haven't had anything to eat yet... or gas. Either way... I will post a more detailed review of said Carvin Cobalt acoustic geetar later on today.

Ciao, for now...
Mark.

Still Waiting....

Waiting sucks when guitars are involved. As of 6:43 pm, today, my new guitar still hasn't shipped. Granted the factory is on the west coast.. 3 hours behind Florida. That makes it only 3:43 pm in California. It could ship by end of business today. It could ship tomorrow.

I found out it takes around 6 days to ship via UPS ground from the west coast to the east coast. I'm a little anxious... in case you didn't know. I'm just sayin'.

Here is my wish list of Carvin gear.

1. A Bolt guitar

2. A CS6 California Carved Top

3. A SH550 Semi Hollow Carved Top

4. An AE185 Thinline Acoustic Electric

5. An AC375 Thinline True Acoustic

6. A CL450 Nylon String Acoustic

7. A V3 full stack

8. I'm sure there's more... at least another amp or 2.

If anyone's feeling particularly generous towards me... I'm just sayin'.

UPDATE: Close of business has come and gone. My guitar still hasn't shipped. Tomorrow is the day.

***2nd UPDATE***: I received an email at 10:30 pm est. that my guitar has been shipped. It's on its way. It should be here next Wednesday or so. And not a moment too soon I might add.

My Wife

I was talking with Sylvia the other night about the worship band at church and I mentioned to her that I wished that I owned a decent acoustic guitar so I could get into that rotation as well. She said that seemed like a good idea and asked me what guitar I would like to have. After catching my breath and realizing the depth of the question she asked me... I said you don't want to know.

My dream acoustic guitar is a McPherson. For those of you who don't know about McPherson instruments they are the best. Period. End of story. My opinion is the only one that matters here. Those of you who think Taylor is the holy grail of guitars, please, get a clue! The same goes for Martin or whatever guitar it is that gets you greasy. There is only one... McPherson.

There's one HUGE problem. I don't have 4k to drop on a guitar. My life, as I know it, is over. Not really... but... One day I WILL own one or two or three of these fine instruments. Another very large issue is that pretty much any guitar that I desire to own is well over $1000. So, if any of you out there in cyber land know of anyone in need of a very good sideman... I'm the guy.

Back to reality... this morning my wife, the subject of this story, ordered for me a Carvin Cobalt series, model C850T acoustic guitar. It must be said that I have been a Carvin fan for a very long time. This will, in fact, be the second guitar that I own from Carvin. I already own one of their 7 string model electrics. It is hands down the finest guitar I have ever owned and I've owned some amazing guitars. Including a Gibson Les Paul Custom.

Carvin was my second choice for acoustics. Not Taylor, Martin, Yamaha, or whoever. This Carvin will blow any Taylor away... I guarantee it! Plus the direct price from Carvin is totally unbelievable. I'm hoping the guitar will arrive some time this week. The Cobalt guitars are in stock guitars and not the custom shop electrics Carvin is known for. I had to wait almost 3 months for my 7 string. Waiting sucks when guitars involved. The only reason it might not arrive in a timely manner will be if the guitar is on back order.

Here is what Carvin has to say about their Cobalt series guitars.

" Carvin is proud to offer the Cobalt Series of acoustic guitars. These fine acoustics are carefully handcrafted overseas to our strict and exact specifications. Premium selected woods and the Cobalt's special X-bracing yields a sweet acoustic tone with superb depth and brilliance. The Rapid Play™ low-action neck provides unmatched comfort and playability. Electronics consist of a Fishman® Matrix™ pickup and Prefix Plus™ preamp with built-in tuner for awesome flexibility, plugged or unplugged. High gloss finish on AA spruce top with rosewood back and sides and abalone sound hole purfling. Many will be hard-pressed to find another acoustic that plays, sounds, and offers the same high-end quality and features at an equivalent price."

Specifications:
- AA solid Spruce top
- Rosewood back & sides
- Satin finish neck
- High gloss finish
- Cutaway dreadnought body
- Fishman Matrix pickup
- Fishman Prefix Plus-T
- Built-in tuner
- Abalone sound hole purfling
- Precise Carvin set-up and intonation performed at our San Diego facility

Here is a picture of my new guitar!





To my wife... thank you and I love you with all of my heart!!!

Shameless Plug

A Day Or 2 In The Life...

It's been a while since I posted anything... partly because of business and boredom. Things have been going very good since Down to Earth crashed and burned. My good friend Grant is finally going to do some recording of his original material with me doing the producing. We've already begun working on his song Big Moon Rising. Right now it's a slow going process but that should change once Grant gets done teaching school and summer vacation starts. This should be fun. I'll be recording some electric guitars and doing some basic drum programming. Grants friend Wayne, from Tennessee, will be doing bass and who knows what else. Stay tuned.

Here is a very cool deal I've got in the works. I'm working for a guitarist named Michael Ripoll. I've posted about him from time to time on here before. I have a video of him playing on here somewhere. Anyway, he emailed me the other day about doing some graphic design for him. Michael is the real deal. He's currently the guitarist for Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds, as well as the guitarist and musical director for Donny Osmond. He has a very impressive resume. I'm going to be doing the design on his business cards. It's a small job but hey, it's for a major player. I'm very honored that he asked me to work on this for him. Here is a couple of new videos of Michael doing his acoustic thing. The percussionist playing with him is Wally Reyes Jr. Wally is Carlos Santana's percussionist. That is the calibre of players Michael works with.

I Have Reached A Milestone!!!

HAPPY 13th BIRTHDAY TYLER!!!

Today I have begun a new chapter of parenthood. Teenagers! I'm not sure how I feel about that yet. It's hard to believe just 13 years ago we brought him home for the first time. I also discovered that when you change a baby boys diaper you have to duck first. I learned a lot of firsts because of him. Now I'm fortunate enough to remember them with his new baby sister Piper.

Congratulations Tyler! I love you bud!!!
Dad.

Happy Easter

Today marks the day we were give the greatest gift ever given to humanity. The risen savior Jesus Christ.

Down to Earth is now Down to James

It's been a weird week to say the least. Down to Earth has completely and utterly demised. Dead. Gone. Buried. No hope of being revived. It all came down, in the end, to lies. The entire band was built on lies. Myself, Matt, and Dustin... all had the wool pulled over our eyes by a con man. When the lights came on and the truth began coming out, the con man started scurrying around like a cockroach would. We caught him in so many lies that he couldn't keep up with what he had told to whom.

Last night my oldest son and I went over to his studio to pick up the gear I had stored over there. I was not really looking forward to going over there and took Tyler along to keep me in check. I'm not inclined to get too over the top as I want to be a good role model for him. Things went good once I got there. There was some idle chit chat as the 3 of us loaded my stuff but I couldn't stop looking at the con man. He was very different from the last time I saw him. He looked unhealthy. His eyes were sunk way back in his head with black circles around them, his cheeks were drooping off of his face, he hadn't bathed or shaved in days. He looked like he had been drug behind a truck doing 40 mph down 10 miles of bad road. He looked old and worn out.

I almost felt vindicated as I drove from his house for the last time. Obviously, his actions were catching up to him. Even Tyler noticed how bad he looked. He asked me why the guy looked so bad and was acting so differently. The ride home turned into a good teaching time between me and Tyler on what guilt can do to a person and the importance of honesty and integrity in all that you do.

You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. That's exactly how I feel! I feel free. Once the light was shed on all of the lies and I realized the weight of the oppression I had been under, it was liberating once it was over. Here, now, today... it's a clean slate. I have new opportunities to pursue, new music to write, new journeys to begin. I know I'm sounding like a Hallmark cliche, but that's really how I feel. I already have a couple of guys wanting to work on some stuff. I'm also going to start producing my good friend Grant. He's an amazing song writer and the public needs to hear what he has to say.

For those of you who don't know... I have my own personal My Space page. I can be found at www.myspace.com/markellisonguitar. Stop by, check it out, leave me a message and keep in touch.

Simply put, Down to Earth is just one step on to something better. I'm just along for the ride.

Down To Earth Pictures

More My Space Stuff

James and I now have our own individual My Space pages. You can find James at www.myspace.com/jamespergolattirock and I'm at www.myspace.com/markellisonguitar.

Ciao,
Mark.

You Know You Want To

Help Us Out By Buying Some Music

Please help support us by downloading a few of our songs from our new record label

Download the latest Down to Earth band music here

Down to Earth UPDATE!!!! ***** !!!!!!

BIG things are happening here at camp Down to Earth! Last night we signed a deal with the all digital record label Zoomoozik. What all digital means is they only deal with downloadable music files. Files like mp3's and ring tones. Currently we have 4 songs up for download with more to come very soon. We are going to be tracked via Soundscan and when we sell 20,000 units we are automatically listed on Billboards list.

You can view our profile on Zoomoozik at www.zoomoozik.com/downtoearth.

Also we have added Dustin Royer on bass guitar. That should complete the line up as far as band members go. We are excited to see what 2008 holds for us! We had a great live show on January 30 at Bourbon Street in New Port Richey, Florida. We have a few bugs to work out, such as making sure tempo's are good. I think we may have set a new land/speed records on a couple of tunes. All in all it was a good night. Thanks to everyone who came out to support us!

Ciao,
Mark.

What A Great Day We Had

Yesterday we spent the day cleaning out our shed. We actually started this job while the kids were on Christmas break but actually got around to finishing the job yesterday. While cleaning the shed, my mom, found some old financial records from back in the mid 90's and decided it was time to get rid of them. She asked me if I could burn them... I said sure.

There were several old bricks in the shed that I used to build a barrier around the roughly 3 ft. across fire pit I dug. For safety reasons I had a water hose standing by, a shovel, and the pile of dirt, to throw on the fire, from where I had dug out the pit. Once I got the fire going I started burning mom's papers. Well, one thing led to another and by late afternoon we all has smores running down our chins and arms. That situation then turned into me going to the store to get hotdogs to roast over the open flame. Plus I was getting to burn off some old, dead limbs that had been accumulating in my yard. Not a bad deal. Get some work done and have a great time with the family.

That is until the fire department showed up. Some nosy neighbor called the fire department on us. The guys showed up and were very cool. They saw what we were doing and basically said have a nice evening. That as long as we were cooking... we were fine. Well, mister nosy neighbor didn't think that was good enough and called the fire boys 2 more times. Complained that there was too much in my back yard that could burn and he wanted "that" fire out now!

The fire boys showed up again, irritated, not at me, but at whomever called them. Again they were very cool but told me to hose it out. The thing is, there wasn't even a flame by this time. It was just about burned out.

What really gets me is it's not like we were being irresponsible with the fire. It burned for 8 hours and was never un-attended. It was in the middle of my back yard away from anything that could catch fire. Even the fireman said there was nothing that could catch fire. This was just some jerk imposing his will on me. This persons apparent entitlement to not let me do what I was doing in my own back yard. He could do what he wanted but I couldn't?!

The fireman told me to go to Walmart and get one of those free standing fireplaces, put it in my backyard and start the biggest fire I could. He said the fire would be in an approved fire container and there would be nothing Captain Complainer could do about it. Guess what I'm going to do!

Down to Earth T-Shirt Designs

Let me know if anyone has a preference.

#1

Last night I went over to James Pergollati's house (he's the singer in Down to Earth) because he and I were going to be interviewed, live on the air, by DJ Hardcore Jeff of JAAP Radio. They are and independent, internet based radio station and are syndicated in some other markets around the country.

At 9 pm last night we called in to the radio station and were interviewed. The interview went great. Basic questions like how did the band start? How did you start playing music/guitar? Who are your influences? What are your goals? Etc. etc. etc. Somewhere in the middle of all the questions the DJ let a little piece of news slip that neither James nor I were aware of. We did, obviously, know the station had been playing our song, 20 Shades of Grey, in heavy rotation. We also have been posting bulletins on My Space asking folks to call the station to request us.

What we didn't know, until DJ Jeff told us, was that 20 Shades is currently the number one requested song on JAAP Radio!

I'm going to let that sink in a bit.....

Down to Earth.... my band.... the one that I play guitar for.... has the #1 most requested song on JAAP Radio.

Now I know this is a small independent station. I know this is a relatively small market even if it is a syndicated station. I know that this doesn't really mean that much in the big picture of things. I know this is only one step of many. Doesn't matter! Think about it like this... this is only one station, syndicated in 4 or 5 other markets. If the song, as well as any proceeding songs, does well, other stations are likely to pick up the song(s). The more markets the song gets to the better the chance of it doing well. Obviously, things could go the other way and tank completely. For now, with one song doing so well I'm looking to the positive. The band just needs to keep working hard and keep doing what we are doing.

One cool thing is that with a song--and more to come--on the air... the band gets royalty checks every quarter. The more markets we can get into... the bigger the checks. It's just a small start for now. Hey, this band is only 6 months old. Not bad!

Ciao,
Mark.

Out With The Old, In With The New

That seems to be the theme of 2008. At least around our house so far. The other day my wife and kids took down the Christmas decorations and got rid of a lot of stuff. Probably not enough stuff for my taste, but a lot of stuff never the less. Today the boys are working in our big shed getting rid of some old oak logs that we collected a couple of years ago when Florida was getting hit by so many hurricanes. The plan was to use them in our fire place. Did I mention that we live in Florida? Hey, two nights ago it got down to 27 degrees at my house! Of course tomorrow it will be in the 70's... but that's Florida for you.

Back to the story... we are getting rid of a lot of stuff. Trimming the fat so to speak. And yes, I really need to trim the fat off of my gut too! But right now we're just dealing with the house. Or rather the stuff that's in the house. It has to happen every so often. That's what spring cleaning was invented for. We just happen to be a little bit ahead of spring and this is a good thing. Just sitting back and taking inventory of what to keep, what to let go... it feels kind of like a nice warm shower. You feel nice and fresh when it's over.

I've got to go now and help the boys load up the quasi fire wood into our van so we can go dump it. I guess I should have waited to take my shower this morning... oh well.

Till next time...
Mark.