The 80s Cruise: Concert Clips

I have no idea who Rob C is, but he's a freaking animal. He posted a 69-video playlist from this cruise, and the videos are high quality. So if you want to watch along and see some of the highlights of the cruise, follow the link below.

Offhand, the only bands I can think of that he missed were John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band, Dramarama, Jack Russell's Great White, Jessie's Girl and the Dueling Piano guys Brian Wilk and Brad Heron.

So thank you Rob C, you absolute god, you!

Enjoy!

Link to playlist: 80's Cruise 2022

The 80's Cruise: The Road Home and Wrap Up

Disembarkation wasn't bad. Denise and I ate breakfast in the Main Dining Room (where much like room service, they forgot some of our food. It was good otherwise, though.)

We found the place for wheelchair disembarkation and were wheeled off of the ship, only to find that the Orlando area was under a tornado warning, with heavy winds.

Our Cruise Port bus took us back to the airport, where we got the hotel shuttle to pick us up. We made it to the hotel early, but were happily given an early check-in.

We tried to lay down for a nap, but once again, Denise's back started spasming. (The mattress wasn't very firm. This matched our experience at this same hotel a week earlier, where the mattress in a completely different room was likewise very mushy.)

We spent a quiet day and night there. During the day, we learned that the combination of the winds in Florida and bad weather in much of the rest of the country was wreaking havoc at the airport. Most of the flights out of Orlando were either facing long delays or being out-and-out cancelled. We had actually booked a flight the day after our disembarkation by accident, but it turned out to be a lucky accident. In all likelihood, we wouldn't have made it home on Saturday anyway.

Because of her back, Denise had to sleep that night propped up in a chair. I felt bad for her, although surprisingly, she said that she slept better than she'd thought she would.

When we got to the airport the next day for our 5PM flight, it was still a zoo, with more cancellations, people sitting (and sleeping) on the airport floor, etc. We were very fortunate, as our flight back to New York was one of the only ones that was neither cancelled nor delayed.

The flight back was OK, and I didn't have problems with my ears on the landing this time.

When we arrived at JFK, we found it was likewise a mess there, with cancelled flights and stranded travelers everywhere. (When we got home, we saw a video from the cruise vloggers Ben and David, who were stranded in New York because their flight back to the UK had been cancelled.)

We had a little bit of an issue with the van going back to the parking lot where our car was. The van driver was on the nasty side, and the step up to get into it was so high that Denise had trouble getting into it because of her back. I had to physically give her a boost, or I think we'd still be at JFK.

We picked up our car and then headed home.

So here are my thoughts:

A. The Trip Itself:

The trip was pretty complicated, with too many moving parts for people of our age and health levels. Finding the independent parking lot, making it to JFK for our flight, staying in the hotel in Orlando for the night before embarking on the ship (and then doing the whole thing in reverse a week later) was anxiety-producing and physically exhausting. It's now Wednesday night, and I'm only just now starting to feel like myself. (And Denise is seeing a chiropractor and probably will be for the foreseeable future. But at least she's been able to sleep on the mattress in our bedroom.)

The good news is that for our next cruise in May, we're sailing out of Cape Liberty in Bayonne, so all of that flight stuff will be eliminated from the picture (and the cruise itself should be a more traditional and laid back one). 

If we ever do retire to Florida, or even live there part-time like we've been talking about (I'd like to get a place near Vero Beach), it will make cruising from any of the Florida ports a hundred times simpler.

The bad news is that next year's 80's Cruise, which we're already registered on, will be sailing from Los Angeles, which will be a longer flight and an even more stressful trip. I'm going to have to think about if there are any ways to streamline it a little.

B. The Ship:

This was only my second time on a Royal Caribbean ship, and the first time was on the tiny Empress of the Seas, an older ship that Royal Caribbean bought from another cruise line rather than one they designed themselves. 

Looking back, I think I was overly critical of Mariner of the Seas in my daily blogs. There were certain things I took for granted that in retrospect make me feel more fond of it than I did for much of the week that I was on it. So let me run through both the positives and negatives.

Positives

1. The size of the ship. I hadn't thought about it much while I was on it, but as a mid-size ship, Mariner was more comfortable to me than one of the larger, newer, mega-ships would have been. Even walking to the Royal Theater, which was about as far from our cabin as we regularly walked, wasn't too bad, and the Main Dining Room, Studio B and Ellington's Night Club were all right off of the nearest elevator.

2. The cabin. I spent a lot of the time in our cabin, and for the most part, it suited me really well. It had a comfortable couch that I worked from every day, a comfortable bed, and a nice balcony which I unfortunately didn't get to use as much as I'd have liked to. (This was because for the first half of the trip, on the way to St. Maarten, the water was choppy and the weather was windy, and for the second half, when the weather was nicer, we had unfortunately turned around so the sun was directly on the balcony all day. And as you know, I don't do sun.) But the cabin was pretty good, even...

3. The bathroom. Yes, it was tiny, but for a non-handicapped room, it was laid out nicely. The toilet wasn't too low and the shower was rounded, so I fit in there reasonably comfortably.

4. Most of the crew. They were very polite, and I hope I didn't make it seem as if I had any problems with our cabin steward Daniel. We were at cross purposes a lot, but that wasn't his fault - he was trying to do his job and was very pleasant and professional about it.

5. Studio B and Ellington's Night Club. Studio B was a comfortable place to see a show, and I'd love to see one of their regular ice skating shows there. As for Ellington's, the room was wonderful, and I suspect mostly empty during the day most days. Next year, if Navigator has a similar space, I'll probably be making more use of it, especially as next year we'll have a smaller cabin without a couch to work from (although there will be a soft chair).

6. The Internet. I had good internet all week, better than I had expected. It took a little while to send out the emails with my completed work sometimes, but all in all, it gave me everything I needed.

Negatives

I've already told you about most of them.

1. The Royal Theater. Ridiculously uncomfortable for the larger traveler. Do better, Royal.

2. The food. As I said, it was hit and miss. The Main Dining Room wasn't bad. I ate seven dinners there plus one lunch and a breakfast. Of the seven dinners, five of them were pretty good, one (the chicken cordon bleu) was lousy, and one (the beef stroganoff) was mediocre. The lunch was good, and so was the breakfast, except for that little matter of them forgetting a bunch of our breakfast order. The Windjammer food I saw (and ate) was consistently uninspiring, the food at the Cafe Promenade was nothing great (except for the pizza, which I had once), and the Room Service food was inconsistent in quality and disorganized, as they kept forgetting items we'd ordered.

3. The crew. I felt like they were sometimes confused, e.g., for the muster drill. And that's not even talking about the one or two who were a little rude. I think a lot of the confusion came from the fact that this wasn't their typical cruise. This one (and the one before it, ECP's Star Trek Cruise) were charter cruises, sailing with full capacities (which these ships haven't had for a couple of years), entirely different entertainment, etc. And unlike a regular cruise, where you sit at the same table in the Main Dining Room and have the same wait staff every night, on this cruise, you sat somewhere different and had different waiters every time.

4. The design of the ship. Like I said earlier, I prefer the design of the Carnival ships I've sailed on, gaudy though they can sometimes be. Maybe it's just because I sailed on Carnival first. I don't think so, though.

5. Electrical Outlets. This is a small one, but as an older ship, there were only two usable outlets in our cabin. So basically Denise got one and I got one, and I had to juggle recharging my phone, recharging my laptop and plugging in my music player.

C: ECP

I've got to give them high marks. They put together a solid lineup of entertainment, and I'm not just talking about the entertainment at night. There were things going on all afternoon featuring members of the various bands, even though I was too busy with work to take advantage of many of them. There were also '80s DJ's and silent dance parties at night that I likewise didn't choose to take advantage of. But there was more than enough entertainment to be had from early morning through late at night.

So that about wraps it up. As I said, we're scheduled to sail on the 2023 80's Cruise next March. Will it happen? Who can say? It's a scary world out there, and even now when it seems like the COVID virus is finally becoming manageable, there are other things going on. It's hard for me to believe that if Putin (or somebody else) drops a nuke somewhere, we'll be sailing the Pacific Ocean a year from now watching a bunch of guys with flower pots on their heads singing "Whip It." So we'll see.

This cruise was kind of my re-entering the world party, and while I don't intend to be out there like I used to, I'll have some things once in awhile to write to you about. I bought myself a ticket to see Colin Hay on April 1 at The Patchogue Theater, and at some point in June, I notice that Head Over Heels, the Go-Go's musical, is playing at the Gateway Playhouse, so I'll probably see that as well.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed coming along with us (in spirit) on this trip of ours. In spite of all my griping, I'm glad I went. (And I know that in spite of Denise's back issues right now, she wouldn't have missed it for the world.)

So stay safe out there, and I'll write something for you soon.

The 80's Cruise: Day 7

I woke up this morning having no idea how the day was going to go. Would Denise even be able to get out of bed? If so, what kind of shape would she be in? I had several things on my original schedule I wanted to do, but they all took a backseat to her.

I probably did a little work when I got up. I honestly don't remember. I really was just focused on her.

Last night, prior to all of the issues with Denise's back, we had put together a breakfast order and hung it outside our door. We got the phone call a little before 10 that our food was on the way.

When Denise woke up, she was able to get up and use the bathroom without too much of a problem. She was sore, but she wasn't incapacitated. That was a good start.

I took in our breakfast order, only to find that about a third of it was missing. We could have lived without most of it, but they hadn't even left us more than a dribble of cream for the coffee. I called down and let them know, and before long, the girl was back with the rest of our food.

I asked Denise what the plan was. I was prepared to hang out in the cabin all day if she didn't feel fit to move around the ship. (I certainly wasn't going to leave her there alone.) If worse came to worse, I knew we could watch the main show tonight on the ship's TV.

Denise said she thought she was good to go out, although she wouldn't be breaking any speed records. This was good news.

Our first event of the day was an interview with tonight's headliners, Berlin, in Studio B. That was good - a quick jaunt to the elevator, then down to the third deck, and we were right there.

Now there was some weird politics going on between ECP and Berlin. This year was the sixth annual 80's Cruise, and Berlin had been on every sailing. Many considered them the official band of the 80's Cruise. However, when the schedule for next year's cruise came out, Berlin wasn't on it. This seemed to split the 80's Cruise crowd down the middle. Some were ready for someone new. Others were horrified by the snub. In a question-and-answer session with the ECP Cruise Director JT (the guy who had played Marty McFly on Day 1), he had supposedly said that the demand wasn't there for them, and that their feedback showed that a lot of their cruisers were tired of them.

I could see both sides. On the one hand, I like to see new bands, so if I had been around for all six 80's Cruises, I might be ready for somebody different too. On the other hand, I like to see good bands, and as we get further and further from the 80's, and the potential acts get older and older, Berlin is one band that can still bring it. We were booked for next year already, and I'd like to see Berlin again. Especially since ECP had gone ahead after the initial lineup had been announced and re-invited Living Colour for next year. I'd rather see Berlin a million times over Living Colour. If I can find the petition that is supposedly going around to bring them back, I'll certainly sign it.

The whole band showed up for the interview.The interviewer was MTV's Mark Goodman, who proved to be a pretty deft interviewer. He took the band through their history. The funniest part was Terry Nunn's description of how the lyrics for the song "Sex (I'm A...)" came about. Basically, she was dating someone (Richard Blade, cough cough!) at the time, and while she wanted to do a little sexual role playing, he really wasn't into it - hence the song's call and response, where she's a goddess, a virgin, a geisha, etc., and he just keeps repeating, "I'm a man." 

The hour flew by. The interview was a good way to start our day.

Next stop was up to the pool deck, where were hoping to find some seats in the shade for Dramarama. Unfortunately, we scoured Decks 11 and 12, and the only seats were some loungers out in the open sun on Deck 12. (And as I said in an earlier post, I don't do sun.) We made one more circle around Deck 11 and found one empty chair with a table all the way to the side of the stage. I gave Denise the seat and decided to try another plan. I was a little nervous leaving her alone, but we both had our phones, so she could message me quickly if she needed me.

I then scooted up to my old friend, Ellington's Night Club on Deck 14 (where we'd seen Larry's karaoke show the other night). It overlooked the pool deck, and while I wouldn't be able to actually see the band, I hoped I might be able to hear them. (God, I loved this room. If they have an equivalent room on next year's ship, I plan to spend more time there, especially since next year, we won't have a balcony.) 

The room was pretty empty, and I quickly found myself a seat that overlooked the pool. I bought myself a Heineken and settled in. Unfortunately, the venue had the Cruise Radio station on low. And when the band came on, I could hear them, but it was pretty muddy. 

After one song, I decided I wasn't going to get to see (hear) Dramarama on this cruise. I headed back to the cabin to see if A. They were showing Dramarama on the cruise channel (they weren't), or B. If I could maybe hear them from the balcony (I couldn't). At that point, I gave up. Hopefully, I'll catch them another time.

At this point, I realized that with the combination of the Heineken and the lack of sleep from last night, I could barely keep my eyes open. I laid down to take a quick power nap, putting the phone right next to my ear so that I'd hear it if Denise needed me. (I had hoped to maybe catch the game of Family Feud they were putting on in Studio B between A Flock of Seagulls and Johnny Hates Jazz, but at this point, a nap took priority.)

After a little while, I heard Denise come in. She had enjoyed Dramarama, although the only song of theirs she'd actually recognized was their hit "Anything, Anything (I'll Give You)". (And I guarantee it would have been the same for me).

Denise's back was pretty sore again. She had hoped to catch a 3PM interview between Larry the Duck and Gene Loves Jezebel - she'd said that Michael Ashton had been very funny the other day calling the numbers at the Bingo game. Instead, she decided to rest for a bit, take down her decorations off of the cabin door, and then go down to the medical bay to see if the ship's doctor could do anything for her back.

I ordered room service for lunch - Denise wasn't hungry - and again, they forgot something or other. I got a burger, which was decent, a hot dog, which wasn't, and a plate of chocolate chip cookies, which Denise shared with me.

At 4PM, I accompanied Denise down to Deck 1 to the med bay. She was in there for a total of about 45 minutes. While she was there, they gave her a shot of something that was supposed to relieve the pain and three days worth of muscle relaxer pills.

We had dinner at 6. I wasn't all that hungry after a late lunch, so I ordered the turkey, which wasn't a bad choice. Denise uncharacteristically got the fish and chips. (She's usually not that big on seafood.)

After dinner, we went back up to the cabin to finish packing. We had to have our bags out in the hall for pickup by 10, which meant if we wanted to catch tonight's main show, we had to get them out before we left the cabin.

Then, a little before 9, we headed down to the (accursed) Royal Theater for the main event. (At this point, I was bruised on both sides of my stomach from those damned seats). I noticed that there was a hefty couple up there who had arranged to have two of the comfy seats from downstairs brought up and set up for them behind the last row of the balcony. I'm keeping this in mind as an option for next year, since next year's ship, The Navigator of the Seas, is a sister ship to Mariner and likely has the exact same set-up in the Royal Theater.)

At 9PM, Berlin came on. Two things: The first is that, sadly, I guess there are a decent number of people who weren't interested in them on this cruise, as the crowd was smaller than I'd seen for the most of the other headliners in this theater; and the second is that this was especially unfortunate, as they performed one of the best sets I'd seen all week (maybe second only to Human League). They blazed through their hits: "No More Words", "The Metro", "Masquerade," "You Take My Breath Away," and of course, "Sex (I'm A...)" - they played them all. It was a great show. And even bringing out Living Colour's Corey Feldman...um, I mean Glover...for the encore couldn't ruin it.

There were late night activities going on around the ship after that - Jessie's Girl was playing in Studio B, the Dualing Piano guys were playing in the Star Lounge, and there were a couple of DJ's set up in various places around the ship. But for Denise and I, Berlin pretty much ended our cruise. We had to get up by 6:30 or so tomorrow morning if we were going to catch some breakfast before getting off the ship. And we both wanted to get as much sleep as we could for the disembarkation. Even though we were using the wheelchairs again to get off the ship, I was concerned about Denise being able to drag her luggage around, and there was no way I could take hers and mine too. So off to bed we went.

While this essentially wrapped up our 80's Cruise, I'm going to post one more entry on this blog to tell you about our trip home and give an overall summary of the ship and the cruise. So stay tuned for that. (Probably tomorrow?) 'Night all.

 

The 80s Cruise: Day 6

This was the most difficult day of the cruise so far. But only at the end.

We had our alarm set for 9AM today, and I woke up even a little earlier than that. The reason was a 10AM interview Lori Majewski was doing with Belinda Carlisle at the (dreaded) Royal Theater.

I showered, checked my work box, etc.

When the alarm went off, Denise decided she was too tired to get up. I therefore headed out without her.

I considered going up to the Windjammer. As the food up there hadn't been so great, though, I decided to hit Cafe Promenade instead. Their food was nothing to write home about either, but at least they were right on the way to where I was going.

I arrived there and asked for a couple of their breakfast sandwiches, or as I like to think of them, Ghetto McMuffins. They're sort of like an Egg McMuffin - they have eggs and cheese and ham on an English muffin - but somehow, they're drier and not as tasty.

(And before you give me any grief about the "ghetto" part, I've got to tell you that phrase isn't mine. It's a kid thing. At least around where I live, the kids all refer to anything that's cut-rate as "ghetto" - e.g. my son's best friend used to refer to his mom's car as a "ghetto mobile." And so did his mom.)

I arrived at the Theater a few minutes early for the interview, and I had my pick of seats. Other than when we saw ABC on the first night, Denise and I had been sitting in the balcony for all of the shows. (This had something to do with the sight lines and something to do with the aforementioned Show Nazi's.) But this morning, I chose to sit in one of the soft, comfortable chairs at the back of the theater. I've had my eyes on those babies all along, but I knew that if Denise and I sat there together, she wouldn't be able to see a show over the crowd. As I'm tall, that's not an issue for me.

Majewski steered the interview into some semi-political topics early on, which I wasn't too thrilled with. They kept it kind of light, but it was still a little uncomfortable - I was borderline as to whether I was going to walk out or not. Happily, they eventually moved away from that stuff and onto other personal, and musical, topics.

I learned that Belinda and her husband had lived in Thailand for three years and had ridden out most of the pandemic there. Although they liked Thailand, ultimately, they got uncomfortable with how things were going there. So when the opportunity to get out came (remember, the whole world was shut down for awhile), they moved to Mexico City, where they live now.

Belinda also talked a little about her relationship with the other Go-Go's (which seems to be pretty good these days), and about her life as a contrarian and a rebel. In the end, I was glad I had attended.

At that point, I went back upstairs and did a little work.

When Denise got up, I suggested we go to the Main Dining Room for lunch. (This was a Sea Day, and the MDR only does lunch on Sea Days.) I had my eye on some sort of a seafood sandwich that I'd seen on the advance menu, which turned out to be pretty good.

After lunch, Denise headed up to the pool, and I got to work in earnest. As was usual, I worked through the afternoon, and after a few hours, I had my notes box empty again. (It only lasted for a few minutes, but still. I had made some real progress since the note-bombing travesty at the beginning of the week.)

Once again, I took a short nap until Denise came back from the pool. Then we headed up for dinner.

A few words about the concert schedule over the last two days. The typical evening would feature a headliner, who would play two shows - one for blue-pass people (who went to the early show and had a late dinner) and one for red pass people (who did the opposite). But for some reason, Day 6 had Berlin performing the early show and Belinda performing the late show, while Day 7 had them reversed. I'm not sure why this was - Denise's theory was it done in deference to Belinda, whose voice might not be up to singing two back-to-back shows in one night. She could be right.

In any event, when I first got the schedule, my plan was to sneak into the early show for Berlin on Day 6, then see Belinda for the late show that same night (which was doable). This would have left me free on Day 7 to skip Berlin at 9PM and catch a second showing of my favorites, A Flock of Seagulls.

After a week on the ship, however, I decided it was easier to go with the flow and follow the schedule as intended. This meant giving up my dream of seeing Flock of Seagulls a second time. But it also made life easier in a number of ways - it allowed Denise and I to eat dinner in the Main Dining Room for both nights (a much better option than going to the Windjammer on Day 6) - and as a bonus, it allowed me catch Johnny Hates Jazz on Day 6 after dinner.

This turned out to be a good thing. I really wasn't all that familiar with this band except for the song "Shattered Dreams," because as lead singer Clark Datchler rather humorously explained, they'd had a number of other singles all over the world (mumbling:) "except in the United States".

Now that I've heard these guys, I'm certainly up for checking out the rest of their catalog. One of the phrases that Wikipedia uses to describe their music is "sophisti-pop", and I think that's a pretty accurate way to describe it. The band was tight, the songs were good, and Datchler was consistently entertaining. 

After that, Denise and I headed across the ship to the (miserable) Royal Theater for Belinda. 

I'd say of all the shows I saw on the ship, Human League and Belinda drew the biggest crowds. (At one point during the show, Denise had to run to the Ladies Room, and I knew I was going to have to fight someone from taking her seat. And I was right.) The theater was packed.

Belinda looked great and sounded pretty good. She did have some vocal trouble with one or two of the Go-Go's' songs - "Our Lips Are Sealed" in particular - but overall, her voice was sturdy, if less distinctive than it used to be. (My understanding is that at some point she took professional vocal lessons in order to preserve her voice, and unfortunately, they trained that cute little guttural growl out of her.) In any event, it was an enjoyable show, with Belinda singing all of the Go-Go's' biggest hits and her own solo hits as well. The crowd gave her a very warm reception throughout the night. I was glad to see her get the love and respect she deserves.

I'd had some thoughts about heading back to Studio B for the late band, which was Strangelove. If I did so, I would have sat as far back in the room as I could have, due to the band's excessive volume. Denise made it clear that if we went, she wanted to be closer to the action, though. So ultimately, I just decided to call it a night.

As I'm writing this, it's four days later, so I honestly don't remember if Denise went to Studio B without me and caught part of the show or not. (I think she did, but I'm not certain.)

What I do remember is this. The night before we left New York, Denise was trying to weigh her suitcase, and in doing so, she had hurt her back. It wasn't even a typical lower back problem - she'd felt something pop more in the middle.

When we left for the cruise, she was still sore, but was hoping it would heal up. But as the cruise wore on, her back got sorer and sorer, to the point where she didn't feel able to dance (and she loves to dance). This soreness was also what made her decide not to get off the ship in St. Maarten.

The night of Day 6, when she tried to lay down for the night, her back started spasming. The mattress was reasonably firm, but still, it was a mattress. Every time she moved, she set off more spasms, to the point where she was screaming and crying in pain. I was helpless to do anything for her.

Eventually, she was able to find a position flat on her back where the spasms stopped, and she settled into a tenuous sleep. I was up for awhile, and then I fell asleep too.

After a couple of hours, I was awakened to her cries of pain. She had tried to get up to use the bathroom, but was unable to do so. No matter what direction she moved in, it just set off more muscle spasms, until she got to the point where she was having spasms even when she wasn't moving.

I suggested calling the ship for help - I figured they had to have 24-hour medical service available. What would they do if someone had a heart attack in the middle of the night, right? But Denise didn't think there was anything they could do for her at that time of night. 

Eventually, the spasms stopped again. 

Meanwhile, my mind was racing. Forget the rest of the cruise, how was I going to get her back to New York if she couldn't even get out of the bed? I started to think about how we could handle it if she had to go to the hospital in Florida. My mind raced through who we knew in the area we could call for help if we needed to. The closest people were my sister and her partner, who live in Vero Beach, followed by our friend Tom (Denise's old keyboard player), who lives in Ft. Lauderdale.

And never mind that, we were still a whole day away from Florida.

At this point, I was glad I had chosen to come with Denise this year instead of my son. He was now physically stronger than I am, but would have had no idea about what to do if she got incapacitated for awhile while they were away.

Eventually, when her back settled down, Denise was able to get up to use the bathroom, which was a relief. (Unbeknownst the me, she had actually successfully gotten up once earlier in the night while I was asleep, too, before this second wave of back spasms.)

When she got back into bed, she was able to do so without setting off another round. She went to sleep for the night, and after a long while of mentally running through options, so did I. But I had no idea of how the next few days would go.

Prog Contest 2022: Round 1 Match 4

This time out, we've got a British jazz fusion band with an album from 1977 against a Dutch Canterbury Scene prog rock band.

Circus - Movie' On

Swiss prog with some Genesis elements that also uses a wider variety of instruments and plays some "heavy" bits here and there plus some vocals a la Peter Hammill. First half of the album is great but its second half, the 22 min title track, is a top tier prog epic and the true star of the record

youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxJ0zOleXBs&ab_channel=ProgLine

vs.

Supersister - To the Highest Bidder

Supersister offering the best of Dutch prog, with Canterbury scene inspirations. To the highest bidder is their most consistent effort, with all the quirks of a Caravan or Matching Mole record and mild catchy vocals that stick in your head and a repertoire of instruments and melodies that will surprise and delight any veteran prog fan. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93tJYFA9fC0

Let's keep the prog going.

Prog Contest 2022: Round 1, Match 3 Results

I thought I might miss this vote, as I was on a cruise ship all week. I had asked my friend Jethro, who was hosting the contest to give me an advance heads up on which two albums he was matching this week. Unfortunately, he made a last-minute switch (it's not easy to match these things up), so I thought I wouldn't be able to stream the music while I was on my cruise.

Happily, I turned out to be wrong. I was able to stream music on the boat, so I was able to vote after all.

I kept my comments brief this time, because as you can see from my other posts, I was busy this week.

I vote for Mezquita.

The SBB has some tasty moments, but I've listened to it 4 times now, and some of it still bores me a little.

I'm finding the Mezquita consistently exciting. And I think I just have an affinity for that kind of Spanish music.

This time, the winner was right out front from the get-go, and in fact, for awhile I was the only vote for Mezquita.

It wasn't a total blowout, but the outcome was pretty clear all along. 

Final Result: SBB 12 votes, Mezquita 8 votes. 

The 80's Cruise: Day 5

I'm gonna try to keep this entry short. It probably won't happen, but I'm gonna try.

I woke up pretty early again. Denise made it clear she wouldn't be getting up for awhile, so I ran up to the Windjammer to catch a quick breakfast before starting my day.

This reminded me of a couple of things I don't like about the ship. Let me make it clear that most of the crew is exceptionally polite. But every once in awhile, I ran across one who seemed to have a bit of an attitude. As I entered the Windjammer, they had one of their "wishy-washy" guys out front.

For those of you who don't cruise, or don't watch cruise vlogs, this is a pandemic-era development on cruise ships, Royal Caribbean ships in particular. They have crew stand outside the Windjammer restaurant to remind people to use the hand-washing stations that are set up on the side. (There's even a godawful song about it on one of the on-ship cruise channels, but the less said about that, the better.) I've even heard tell that if you refuse to use the hand-washing stations, they won't let you into the restaurant. However, I'm just not enough of a rebel to find out.

I dutifully headed to a hand-washing station, but how many of you have had this experience? These new-fangled sinks can be very finicky, and I moved my hands up and down trying unsuccessfully to turn on the sensor. The wishy-washy guy came over to tell me, "You've got to do blah blah blah." (I don't really remember exactly what he said. I just kept moving my hands around, and eventually the sensor turned the water on.) But when I'd finished, I couldn't see any paper towels. At this point, the guy got all impatient with me, and pointed, saying in an annoyed voice, "It's right over there!" (With an unspoken "Idiot!" implied.)

Look asswad, I just turned 65, and I'm half blind. In fact, I just ordered a pair of long-distance eyeglasses, but unfortunately they came in a day too late for me to bring them on the cruise. So thanks so much for making me feel like a moron first thing in the morning.

All I wanted from the buffet that morning was some scrambled eggs, some coffee and maybe some chicken sausages. I found an area that had mini-cheese omelette plates, and right next to it fried egg plates. I asked the girl behind the counter if they had any scrambled eggs. But of course, she was wearing a mask, so I couldn't understand her. She indicated a counter behind me, but when I looked, all they had was early lunch food. Fine. Guess I'm getting an omelette.

I took a couple of the cheese omelettes on my tray, and walked all the back down the end of the room where I'd come in, to where I'd passed the sausages. As I asked the guy to put some chicken sausages on my plate, I noticed that a couple of stations down, there were the scrambled eggs, absolutely nowhere near the other eggs. But I already had the omelettes I didn't really want, so too late now. 

I sat at a table, and as I ate my breakfast, I saw we were passing some pretty island territory. I don't think it was St. Maarten yet, just some nearby island. It was nice, though.

After eating, I headed back downstairs to the cabin. Denise was still asleep, and the room was dark. I put on the TV screen and hit the mute button, to at least provide a little light. Then I got back to work on my notes.

At some point, we docked in St. Maarten. At some point, Denise got up, got herself together and headed for the pool. At some point I saw Daniel, and asked him to not even worry about cleaning the cabin twice a day, just please get it at dinner. At some point, he cleaned it anyway, while I waited out on the balcony and looked out on St. Maarten. And at some point, I ordered room service, and received some truly lousy chicken noodle soup, a distinctly mediocre grilled cheese sandwich and some tasteless iced tea.

But most of my day was about work. I cleared out those last two notes from the woman who had sent me a month's worth of notes, then started digging at all the notes that had arrived after that.

Finally, sometime around 4PM, I finished the last note. My box was clear. For about twenty seconds, until someone hit me with another one. Son of a bitch! But I was done for the day. I closed up my laptop and plugged it into the charger. Then I took a nap until Denise came back from the pool.

Denise was in a good mood. She decided to start cleaning up the desk (which was a disaster area), while I played around with the TV. At this point, I discovered that one of the cruise channels showed the main stage live, where the headliner of the night, Night Ranger was already doing their early show. (Night Ranger was doing the same basic thing that Human League had done the night before - they got on the boat in St. Maarten, played their two shows, then got right back off.)

Denise and I had originally planned to split up after dinner, as she intended to see Night Ranger while I was determined to hit Studio B to see John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band. I didn't have anything in particular against Night Ranger, but I didn't have anything particularly for them, either. I'd have gone with Denise to see them just to be companionable. But I wasn't sure if I'd have a chance to catch John Cafferty's band again, and I definitely didn't want to miss them. Truth is that I don't even own a Night Ranger song, not even "Sister Christian". (And given how much music I own, that's something of an indictment.) I do, however, own the Eddie and the Cruisers soundtrack, and I really liked the movie, so I wasn't going to miss the band behind the music.

Actually, I was kind of surprised that Denise even wanted to see Night Ranger. They're certainly not her typical kind of band. But she said she'd been listening to 80's Cruise playlist on Spotify and had kind of been getting into them.

However, as she tidied up and started getting ready for dinner, and we listened to Night Ranger's early set, she got less enthused. And when they let their drummer sing a slow ballad and he sang it totally off key, she said, "Maybe I'll come with you to see John Cafferty." Yes! Score one for the grumpy guy!

I told her that knowing her taste in music, I thought she'd be more inclined to enjoy the Beaver Brown Band anyway.

Tonight, when we hit the dining room, we were given a table for two. The waiter asked if either of us had any food allergies, and one of us (I really don't remember which one) mentioned that I can't have nuts. I tried to further explain that I wasn't allergic to them, I just had a condition that wouldn't allow me to eat whole nuts or seeds. However, he looked at me blankly, and I knew he had no idea what I was talking about. He told me that he wasn't sure if the cake I'd ordered for dessert had nuts or not. (How many of you can see where this is going?)

The waiter forcibly napkined me. (I thought it was a strange thing on this cruise that some of the waiters would just take your napkin and put it on you, even if you weren't even looking or didn't want it on). He then went off to put in our orders.

I think we both had the beef stroganoff for dinner that night (which was nothing to get excited about - the noodles were good, but the alleged beef was - well, alleged.).

Dessert time came, and sure enough, the waiter told me I couldn't have the cake because it had nuts. I asked him did it have whole nuts, or was it just prepared with nuts? He didn't understand me. (Any Fawlty Towers fans out there?) I tried again, explaining that I had a medical condition that wouldn't allow me to eat whole nuts, but if there were nuts just ground into the batter, that was fine.

At this point, people from the tables around us were clearly listening in, and I was getting annoyed that I had to be telling the waiter my medical history just to get a piece of cake. (I could have just given in and taken a different dessert, but I really didn't want to - I wanted this dessert.) At this point, the waiter went to get the maitre 'd.

Ho boy.

The maitre 'd came over, and I explained everything again, once again giving my confidential medical information out as the people at the other tables gawked. Finally, the maitre 'd seemed to understand, and told the waiter to bring me my cake. Then he made sure to take our cabin number from Denise. I guess he wanted to be able to tell the medical staff later on where they could find the dead guy with the nut allergy.

I got my cake, and goddamnit it, it was good!

Our music schedule was light tonight. Jack Russell's Great White was the early show in Studio B, and neither of us was interested in seeing them. So we relaxed in the room after dinner until it was time to see John Cafferty.

We went downstairs at about 8:40. As we seated ourselves in what had become our regular area in the left part of the room, I was struck once again by how much more comfortable Studio B was than the main theater.

Soon, John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band was introduced and started playing. Their guitarist was seated, as he had fallen and injured himself outside of the Windjammer Restaurant at some point during the cruise, but it didn't slow him down any. He, and the rest of the band, were excellent. And as for Cafferty, he can absolutely still bring it vocally. The only slight negative was that I thought their sound mix was muddier than that of any other band on the cruise. But it really was a slight negative. Their set was first rate.

There were a couple of surprises for me. The first was that they went for it with "Dark Side" on the second song of the set. I'd have thought that would have been their closer. The second was that they performed the song "Hearts on Fire" from the Rocky IV movie, which I had either forgotten was theirs, or maybe I never even knew it in the first place. In any event, it was one of the highlights of my cruise.

Cafferty himself was likable and entertaining throughout. At one point, he told a funny story about running into and comparing notes with a couple of guys he used to play softball with when they were all in their twenties. The two other guys were both retired and talking about grandchildren and retirement houses. When they asked him what he did, he was like, "I have a band." And they were like, "A band! But you're 70!"

Anyway, it was a great set, and I was glad we'd chosen to see them (although everyone I spoke to had said Night Ranger was really good, too). Denise enjoyed it as well, and agreed after the fact that Cafferty and his band were probably more to her taste than was Night Ranger.

After that, we stayed on in Studio B. The next scheduled event was the 80's cover band Jessie's Girl, scheduled to play for a "Rock Vs. Rap" party. I was a little iffy about the rap part, but I figured this might be my only chance to see them on this cruise, so I decided I was in.

Now I had heard a lot of good things about this band. Two years ago, when my hip-hop-loving son was on the cruise with my wife, this was the only band she'd successfully dragged him to, and he'd enjoyed them. The way Denise described them, I was under the impression that they handled the new wavy stuff on the cruise, and Trial By Fire handled the heavier stuff, so I was really prepared to like them.

Unfortunately, I was disappointed. The two male singers had kind of hyperactive, annoying personalities. One was swinging his mic stand all over the place. The band had a new little curly-haired female keyboard player. At one point, she strapped on a keyboard guitar and stepped a little out front to play, only to be accidentally bashed in the back from behind by the big goofball swinging the mic stand. I swear I actually saw her mouth go, "Oof!"

She was a lot more tentative about stepping out front for the rest of the set.

The other guy came out wearing a boxer's warmup jacket and mimicked punching out the bass player during "Eye of the Tiger". (Yeah, there was a lot of Rocky tonight). These guys had just a little too much aggressive energy for me.

As for the female singer, she had a powerful voice, but was a little flat a few times. (Denise thought she was just having a problem with her monitor. I wasn't so sure.)

In any event, we hung in there for about an hour with them. At that point, Denise had to use the ladies room, and asked me if I wanted to leave after that. I did. Again, they were by no means horrible. But my clear favorite among the three cover bands (Jessie's Girl, Trial By Fire and Strangelove) was Trial By Fire.

At that point, we went back to our cabin for the night. Denise went to sleep, and I stayed up for awhile writing my cruise blog entry for Day 3. Meantime, I had a few notes left in my work box (maybe three or four), but it was starting to get a little more manageable. I asked Denise to set an alarm for 9AM the next morning, as I wanted to catch a 10AM interview in the Royal Theater with Belinda Carlisle.