Just to let you all know, there's a new prog rock contest gearing up on the Sputnik Music website, and I've thrown my hat into the ring. I know a lot of you guys were following along with last year's contest, and with the Prog Tournament of Champions contest that followed it. As promised, our good friend and host, Friday13th, has hung up his contest organizer hat (at least for now), but another User, Jethro42 has stepped up to host this year's tourny. Jethro has won two previous Prog Rock Tournaments, and he's one of the most knowledgeable people I know about this particular genre, so this should be fun.
It's not clear exactly how many contestants we'll have for this one - it will be a minimum of 16. And we're not sure exactly when we're starting, but I expect Round 1 to begin within the next few days.
I'll be listing all of the contestants and the matchups here, but here's a SPOILER ALERT: My entry this year is none other than Long Island's own prog masters extraordinaire, Frogg Cafe, and their fine 2011 LP Bateless Edge.
So far, the Frogg boys are one of only two American bands in this year's contest (the other being The Mercury Tree), but we'll see how the final lineup shakes out. In any event, I think this album can do some real damage in the tournament. I turned Jethro on to Frogg Cafe a few years ago, and he rates them highly, but they're going to come as a surprise to most of the other contestants. So wish them (and me) luck.
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In the meantime, Denise and I are now within two weeks of our '80's Cruise out of Port Canaveral, and I'm starting to get psyched. The entertainment schedule came out yesterday, and it looks like we might only be able to eat dinner in the main dining room three times, the schedule is so packed.
I'm especially looking forward to seeing A Flock of Seagulls a couple of times (even though the only original member in the touring band is Mike Score). And other top choices include Human League (who'll be getting on the ship in St. Thomas and getting right back off again after their two shows), Belinda Carlisle and Berlin.
We've had a few cancellations from the original lineup, but not nearly as many as I'd have thought, and Entertainment Cruise Productions (ECP), the host company, has done a great job replacing the ones that cancelled with pretty equivalent acts. So 38 Special, Morris Day and the Time and John Parr are out, replaced by Night Ranger, CAMEO and Paul Young. To be honest, the only way this effects me is I'm a little sorry to see John Parr go - I've always loved "St. Elmo's Fire" (otherwise known as "Man in Motion").
Other acts on the ship (roughly in the order of my level of interest in them) include Gene Loves Jezebel, Modern English, John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band, Dire Straits Legacy, Johnny Hates Jazz, Dramarama, ABC (Denise hates that I have them this low on my list), Jack Russell's Great White and the Sugarhill Gang. There will also be some solid (from what I hear, anyway) '80's cover bands, including Jessie's Girl, Strangelove (a Depeche Mode tribute band) and Trial By Fire, plus some solo musicians for the various ship bars, etc. And our old WLIR/WDRE friend Larry the Duck will be there, as well as Lori Majewski (from Sirius FM) and a trio of former MTV Veejays, Nina Blackwood, Mark Goodwin and Alan Hunter. (Who? Whatever.)
Now I'm trying to keep some perspective on this. There are still a bunch of ways this could go sideways. If either Denise or I test positive for COVID, it's game over. They won't let us on the ship. If the airlines get wonky on us (like they have a number of times in the last few months) it could be a problem. (Although we're flying in a day early, so we're trying to give ourselves a little wiggle room here). And of course, we're flying out of New York in early March, so there could always be winter weather to contend with.
This will be our first cruise since the world got closed down in March of 2019 (when Denise and my son were actually on the last '80's Cruise). It will be my first cruise since our family cruise on the Carnival Conquest in 2017. So fingers crossed.
In the meantime, the 2023 '80's Cruise has been announced for next March leaving out of Los Angeles (!), and Denise already booked us this week before we even know the lineup! (I'm hoping for Thomas Dolby, since he's done the cruise before, and he lives on the West Coast now, and maybe Missing Persons). They're supposed to announce said lineup on the first night of this year's cruise, and Denise assures me we can cancel without penalty by March 25. Ho boy!
I'll keep you updated beforehand. And of course, assuming we actually make it onto the boat, I'll give you the full review afterward. Will I get my hair done with the guys from Flock of Seagulls? Will I shoot some heroin with Belinda Carlisle? Will I even bother getting off the ship in the Caribbean? (Right now, the first two are looking more likely than the last one, but we'll see.) Stay tuned!
