Well, I may have spoken too soon.
Tonight after my solo set, I set off down La Rambala in Barcelona to meet my friend Michelle from Cincinnati at our prearranged meeting spot. With her was her friend April. After we went to dinner, we ended up at an Absynth bar with some of the crew. The owner, a tall potato sack of a man, who obviously didn't believe in air conditioning even in 80 degree weather, would occasionally shout at the customers things like "don't move the fucking furniture" after I tried to push two small tables together. Since it was unbearably hot, Michelle, April and I decided to get a head start to the next spot.
As we had been instructed, we got in a cab and asked to be taken to Porto Olympico (of 1992 olympics fame). Porto Olympico is a marina at which there is a strip of about 12 clubs, each one with loud music, roomfulls of people dancing, and a guy outside trying to tempt you (and in some cases, physically DRAG you) into their club with an offer for a free drink, 2-for-1, etc. At the second or third place we went to, it was time for another drink and it was my time to buy a round. Based on what I paid for 3 drinks, I'm fairly certain that these drinks were made from a combination of gold and truffle oil strained through a diamond-encrusted mixer. Regardless, it was 2 am in the former Olympic village in Barcelona and I was out clubbing.
We finally reunited with my friends and Michelle and April, who had to catch a flight the next afternoon, decided to call it a night. After some more hanging out, it was about 4:30am and time to head to the beach. By 5, we were all skinny dipping in the amazingly clear, yet salty Mediterranean Sea. And there on the beach we stayed until sunrise at which time a perfect yellow sun appeared off in the horizon over the sea, with Barcelona to our backs, waking up to a new day.
I've been to the pyramids, and now I've been swimming in the mediterranean sea in Barcelona at sunrise.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
best night ever
I mentioned in an older post that the showband gave an impromptu concert at the crew bar last week. It went over o well that we were asked to come back again. Tonight we played 2 sets to a packed crew bar. While some sat and listened and clapped, others got up to dance to the old school jazz/funk tunes we selected such as Chameleon, an old high school jazz band number that everyone learns. As the night ended at 2 am, we received a standing ovation from the bar while the other musicians on the ship came up to shake our hands.
WHen I began my first contract in January, I met some musicians who were at the end of theirs. Tired after months on the ship, they groaned any time that had to play. These were musicians who had started to hate playing music. I was really worried that if I spent enough time on the ship, I, too, would begin to become jaded about playing. Nights like tonight are the exact opposite of that. Tonight, 7 guys who were hired to play shows got together and playing 2 shows already on their free time to play 2 hours of engaging, artful music.
Tonight is why you practice. Tonight is why you became a musician.
WHen I began my first contract in January, I met some musicians who were at the end of theirs. Tired after months on the ship, they groaned any time that had to play. These were musicians who had started to hate playing music. I was really worried that if I spent enough time on the ship, I, too, would begin to become jaded about playing. Nights like tonight are the exact opposite of that. Tonight, 7 guys who were hired to play shows got together and playing 2 shows already on their free time to play 2 hours of engaging, artful music.
Tonight is why you practice. Tonight is why you became a musician.
regularity
So, now that I have an ethernet cord for my room, I can actually get online each night. Sorry the blog has gotten off to a rumbling start. Though, I must say, the comments, apart from my dad, have gotten off to an even MORE rumbling start. As Shane and Bridgett would say, weak sauce.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Lost Opening
You know those episodes of Lost that start with someone making breakfast or going about their daily routine and then the camera pans out and you realize they're on the island somewhere or something? That was my morning today. I woke up in my new cabin, worked on my dissertation a bit, did some crunches, took a shower. ...and then the camera pans out and I'm on a giant ship in Europe.
I've already been better about doing work than I was last time. I just need to find a couple more hours in the day to work and I'll be golden!
I've already been better about doing work than I was last time. I just need to find a couple more hours in the day to work and I'll be golden!
Saturday, July 25, 2009
This could be the start of something...
First off, after the brief sickness my first night here, I've been fine. It must have been something bad I ate. No worries. I'm back to eating full normal meals and will probably start working out again monday.
Friday night I played for the first time on the ship. It was just a 45 min jazz set. Tonight was 2 shows with a violinist. Then tomorrow I take over the band officially. I have no major production shows until Tuesday so I have plenty of time to get settled. Tonight the showband wen to the crew bar and played a set. Apparantly it was the first time the band has ever played in the crew bar. We're hoping to make it a weekly thing. imagine the dirty dancing scene from Dirty Dancing...but with jaaaazzzzz.
Other than that, nothing exciting to report. I move to myu new room tomorrow which will be just aces!
Friday night I played for the first time on the ship. It was just a 45 min jazz set. Tonight was 2 shows with a violinist. Then tomorrow I take over the band officially. I have no major production shows until Tuesday so I have plenty of time to get settled. Tonight the showband wen to the crew bar and played a set. Apparantly it was the first time the band has ever played in the crew bar. We're hoping to make it a weekly thing. imagine the dirty dancing scene from Dirty Dancing...but with jaaaazzzzz.
Other than that, nothing exciting to report. I move to myu new room tomorrow which will be just aces!
Friday, July 24, 2009
First Day Back
So, I'm pleased to say that as soon as i walked on the ship, I more or less remembered where everything was. This was not the confusing, dizzying, and tiring experience my first day was last time. Especially since I had sucessfully Hoffmanned before I left, there was no jet lag to contend with.
Although I'm promised a single room in my contract, they've had to put in a room with a roomate until Sunday when I can go back into the bandmaster's room. A small inconvenience considering I'll have a nicer room than a majority of the cast and all of the other musicians.
Sadly, something I ate at dinner didn't sit well and I ended up throwing up last night for the first time in a long time. not fun. But, thankfully, I woke up in the morning feeling relatively fine. So, no virus or anything. I'm guessing bad shrimp in the seafood marinara. Not a fun way to spend the first night. Though, I'm very proud to say that I neither fell off the top bunk nor hit my head on the ceiling sitting up, my two biggest concerns upon bunking on the top bunk for the first time since sophomore year of college (freshman year i got the bottom bunk).
Although I'm promised a single room in my contract, they've had to put in a room with a roomate until Sunday when I can go back into the bandmaster's room. A small inconvenience considering I'll have a nicer room than a majority of the cast and all of the other musicians.
Sadly, something I ate at dinner didn't sit well and I ended up throwing up last night for the first time in a long time. not fun. But, thankfully, I woke up in the morning feeling relatively fine. So, no virus or anything. I'm guessing bad shrimp in the seafood marinara. Not a fun way to spend the first night. Though, I'm very proud to say that I neither fell off the top bunk nor hit my head on the ceiling sitting up, my two biggest concerns upon bunking on the top bunk for the first time since sophomore year of college (freshman year i got the bottom bunk).
Ding ding ding went the Lisbon trolley
I have very much enjoyed my free 12 hours in Portugal. And by free, I mean both in terms of my time and my expenses. Being put up in a 100Euro/night hotel (and that's with a special rate for the line) and being able to expense lunch and dinner (and I'm thinking breakfast in the morning...the literature mentions continental buffet, but the word COMPLIMENTARY appears nowhere) is very fun. Lunch was fairly nondescript although I did get to play one of my least favorite games: "I wonder what I just ordered." To play it safe, I picked a complete meal that was on the menu. I didn't know what it all included, but I figured it would be fine. There was a choice of entree and the waiter said: "chicken?" and I said, "no, fish." Needless to say, I got chicken. It wasn't bad or anything, I just thought i had ordered fish. No big deal. The white rice was cooked with a little chicken fat I think and it was YUMMY.
For dinner, I was debating whether to be lazy and just find another place aronud the hotel or take the metro to the more touristy part of town. I was also reluctant because I know I'll be back to Lisbon twice on this trip and I'm pretty sure down by the port is where we'll get off the ship. But, I felt like I should take advantage of my free time (and meal) and take the metro. It turns out I made the right choice. First, the metro was really simple and clean. i was a fan. The old business district of Lisbon was really beautiful. It had an uncanny resemblance to Madrid complete with cobbled marble roads, a fountain by the port, a fountain square in the middle of the city, and a statue of a guy on a bull or horse or something. They also had a trolley system which made me think of my upcoming production of Meet Me in St. Louis. I imagined Judy Garland waving to me as she rode by on the Lisbon Trolley. I don't think the song would translate well to Portuguese anyway. Can someone look up what "ding" is in Portuguese? I ended up sitting in an outdoor cafe and ordering a wonderful steak and mashed potatos and a house beer called "spring" which lived up to its name. Originally, I wanted to get fish since it's a port city, but there's something about a free steak that's hard to resist. I even had them put the beer on a separate check to simply things when they expense the meal. They wouldn't care about the beer, they just wouldn't pay for it, so it's just easy to not have to itemize the check.
I'm back in the hotel watch euro-MTV (which actually plays music...crazy). It's just about 9 (or 2100hr). Hopefully with some reading, I can fall asleep for at least the majority of the night. I don't get picked up until 10:30am (or 1030hr) but I have a wakeup call at 8:30am (ok, I'm done with that joke). IF I actually need it, we're in business and I will have more-or-less successfully pre-jetlagged myself. At that point, I will copyright the technique and name it after myself.
"Are you excited about your trip in a couple of days?"
"Yeah, I'm setting my alarm for 4am tomorrow so I can Hoffman myself before my trip."
"That's a great plan! I Hoffmanned before my trip to Spain and it worked perfectly."
Obreganda! (the only Portuguese word I know..it means thank you_.
For dinner, I was debating whether to be lazy and just find another place aronud the hotel or take the metro to the more touristy part of town. I was also reluctant because I know I'll be back to Lisbon twice on this trip and I'm pretty sure down by the port is where we'll get off the ship. But, I felt like I should take advantage of my free time (and meal) and take the metro. It turns out I made the right choice. First, the metro was really simple and clean. i was a fan. The old business district of Lisbon was really beautiful. It had an uncanny resemblance to Madrid complete with cobbled marble roads, a fountain by the port, a fountain square in the middle of the city, and a statue of a guy on a bull or horse or something. They also had a trolley system which made me think of my upcoming production of Meet Me in St. Louis. I imagined Judy Garland waving to me as she rode by on the Lisbon Trolley. I don't think the song would translate well to Portuguese anyway. Can someone look up what "ding" is in Portuguese? I ended up sitting in an outdoor cafe and ordering a wonderful steak and mashed potatos and a house beer called "spring" which lived up to its name. Originally, I wanted to get fish since it's a port city, but there's something about a free steak that's hard to resist. I even had them put the beer on a separate check to simply things when they expense the meal. They wouldn't care about the beer, they just wouldn't pay for it, so it's just easy to not have to itemize the check.
I'm back in the hotel watch euro-MTV (which actually plays music...crazy). It's just about 9 (or 2100hr). Hopefully with some reading, I can fall asleep for at least the majority of the night. I don't get picked up until 10:30am (or 1030hr) but I have a wakeup call at 8:30am (ok, I'm done with that joke). IF I actually need it, we're in business and I will have more-or-less successfully pre-jetlagged myself. At that point, I will copyright the technique and name it after myself.
"Are you excited about your trip in a couple of days?"
"Yeah, I'm setting my alarm for 4am tomorrow so I can Hoffman myself before my trip."
"That's a great plan! I Hoffmanned before my trip to Spain and it worked perfectly."
Obreganda! (the only Portuguese word I know..it means thank you_.
Back to the Future (Time Zonally Speaking)
I'm very happy to say that travel as relatively uneventful. My flight was delayed by over an hour and I was in danger of missing my connection from Newark to Lisbon. So, as a precaution, they reserved me seats on a flight to Paris and then to Lisbon. So, if I missed my connecting flight, I'd still get to Lisbon on time. Although I did need to run from gate to gate, I made it in time and there were no problems.
The flight itself was also uneventful. On this plane they had really cool individual touch screens for everyone. You could select at will any of 40 movies, 100 or so tv episodes, or 150 cd's. Sadly, I never got the cd's to work, depriving me of falling asleep to Coltrane's "A Love Supreme." Really, the big problem was that there was so much to watch, so little time (the flight was only 6 hours and change), and I really needed to spend most of those hourse sleeping to cash in on my pre-jetlag experiment.
As far as that goes, I did take a 45 min nap when I got to my hotel this morning, but other than that, I've been able (more or less) to stave off sleep. I'm cautiously optimistic that I'll be able to sleep much of the night tonight. It's kinda of funny that in the afternoon, I had to fight not to fall asleep, but now I'm worried about being able to get to sleep. Ugh, I forgot to mention the hour line getting through customs. Fortunately I had my own mix of michael Jackson's greatest hits to occupy me. Coincidentally, there was a PYT 2 people in front of me that I had to visually occupy me (if you don't know what that means, go listen to one of my new favorite Michael songs of the same name).
The flight itself was also uneventful. On this plane they had really cool individual touch screens for everyone. You could select at will any of 40 movies, 100 or so tv episodes, or 150 cd's. Sadly, I never got the cd's to work, depriving me of falling asleep to Coltrane's "A Love Supreme." Really, the big problem was that there was so much to watch, so little time (the flight was only 6 hours and change), and I really needed to spend most of those hourse sleeping to cash in on my pre-jetlag experiment.
As far as that goes, I did take a 45 min nap when I got to my hotel this morning, but other than that, I've been able (more or less) to stave off sleep. I'm cautiously optimistic that I'll be able to sleep much of the night tonight. It's kinda of funny that in the afternoon, I had to fight not to fall asleep, but now I'm worried about being able to get to sleep. Ugh, I forgot to mention the hour line getting through customs. Fortunately I had my own mix of michael Jackson's greatest hits to occupy me. Coincidentally, there was a PYT 2 people in front of me that I had to visually occupy me (if you don't know what that means, go listen to one of my new favorite Michael songs of the same name).
Monday, July 20, 2009
Portuguese time
Well, I'm headed back on the ship. In order to avoid the jetlag that caused me to be up for over 36 hours in a row last time, I've attempted to slowly shift my sleeping schedule back. The past two mornings I've woken up at around 4 am (9am Portugal time). The hope was that tonight I'd be sleepy around 9 and go to sleep. In reality, I had a lovely conversation with Breighan and then another short one with Amy, keeping me up til 11 (4 am Portugal time). So, the alarm is set for 3:30am. If I can successfully stay awake until I get on my 8pm flight from Newark to Lisbon, I will hopefully fall asleep on the plane, and wake up when the flight lands at 8am local time. Then, I play in Portugal for a day, go to sleep, and wake up! I'll let ya know.
I'm going to try and post as much as i can while I'm on the ship. There will obviously be a lot fewer new things than last time to talk about, but I'm sure something fun will happen. I'm really excited to hang out with Michelle in Barcelona next Thursday and hopefully Kim G in Florence.
I'm going to try and post as much as i can while I'm on the ship. There will obviously be a lot fewer new things than last time to talk about, but I'm sure something fun will happen. I'm really excited to hang out with Michelle in Barcelona next Thursday and hopefully Kim G in Florence.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)