Prog Contest 2022: Round 1 Match 6

This time, the common element of Jethro's match-up is metal. You have a progressive metal rock opera vs. an album by a band that began as a metal band and then moved into the prog arena.

Here's the tale of the tape:

Flaming Row - Mirage - A Portrayal of Figures

Mirage is a Progressive Rock Opera in the veins of Ayreon. It's a large sci-fi concept album sporting a vast array of guest vocalists and musicians, all portraying different characters in the story. Where Flaming Row differs though, is in the wide array of musical influences it takes inspiration from. It's got prog rock, European folk music, metal, jazz piano and saxophone solo's, making for a very eclectic mix. I can see people finding it haphazard, but I find that those escapades are actually some of the highlights of the album and make for a very refreshing album with new surprises around every corner.

It's massive and bombastic, diverse and euphoric and I love it.

https://open.spotify.com/album/1GvvMDn2AZylTetivUklYq?si=RTBwOMAuTiSVJ2wUTHefKA

vs.

Il Giardino Onirico - Apofenia

Italy is considered a prog hotbed of the very highest caliber, and this one makes no exception. Album is consistent and is centered around electric guitar supported by a variety of synth and keys. It expresses all the emotions found here to the max. Here, it's romantic, there it's dark. There is a sense of tension as well, and it can be hypnotic at times. No necessarily need of vocals for doing so. When the vocals are sparsed, the instruments tightly express. Album is very melodic, and not many heavy parts to be found but heaviness is in their DNA, as shown in their previous albums.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DESnpZqOndg&list=PLuS4U--ALmIFO31OkVeIZTh6s4Fum09K1

track 1 is a teaser. Please skip it (youtube).

Also available on Spotify (perhaps better sound)

I'm very excited to see how this one plays out.

Prog Contest 2022: Round 1, Match 5 Results

Well, this round was different. To be truthful, I didn't find there to be that big a difference quality-wise between these two LPs. But the vote this time wasn't close.

Here's what I had to say:

I'm ready to vote, although I'm not exactly over the moon about either of these albums.

For me, the Brand X LP is harmless, but bland. After three listens, there weren't any parts I hated, but none that I really loved either.

The Axis album, on the other hand, is an album of highs and lows for me. I liked the intro song and the "Axis goes to church" bit at the 34-minute mark. There's also something in there that reminds me vaguely of ELP's "Just Take a Pebble". On the other hand, there were parts that struck me as kind of sour.

Nevertheless, I'm going to vote for the one that had more high spots for me rather than the one that played it safer. My vote (and also probably the Diva curse) goes to Axis.

For once, the group agreed with me, and big time.

Final Result: Brand X 3 votes, Axis 15 votes.

The curse has been broken! Onward and upwards.

Post-COVID Long Island Music Situation

OK, a couple of things here. First off, I realize that post-COVID is probably a ridiculously optimistic way to put it.  There are rumblings of a new omicron variant and rising COVID numbers in Europe right now, and you know that it, and a number of other mutations, are going to make their way over here at some point.

But unless these strains are particularly deadly, I don't think you're going to see any large-scale resumption of the lockdowns. Most people are pretty much done with this whole pandemic thing, and if the powers that be try to close things down again - well, let's just say I'm amazed (and maybe a little disappointed) that a number of them didn't wind up hanging from lampposts the last time.

Secondly, I'm not even going to pretend that I have my finger on the pulse of real local music scene anymore. I'm pleased to see that 89 North here in Patchogue has reopened and resumed shows. But as to which local bars, coffee shops, etc. that were friendly to live music might be shut down for good, listing them is a task that's far beyond me.

So I'm going to stick to two categories - the places that national music acts play on Long Island, and the playhouses for Long Island musical theater.

As far as national acts go, the biggest loss to COVID as far as I can see is the Boulton Center in Bay Shore. They're not officially dead, mind you. However, a notice on their website states that they remain closed due to the pandemic, and that the financial hardship they endured during the last two years prevents them from operating at this time.

This is really unfortunate, as I've made it clear in the past that this was always one of my favorite places to see solo artists, small national acts, etc. It probably didn't help them that shortly before the pandemic, Michelle Rizzo, who did a lot of their booking, moved over to the Patchogue Theater. But from the sounds of it, this is mostly about finances, not booking ability. I hope we'll see them back someday. They are missed.

On the bright side, we've actually added one new (and large) national concert venue, The UBS Arena in Elmont. New home of the New York Islanders hockey team, this place just opened during the last year. There are some quirks to deal with - for example, the Long Island Railroad doesn't run from there in both directions (or at least it didn't when they opened). My brother, an Islanders season ticket holder who lives in Brooklyn, was a little surprised to learn that while taking the railroad there was no problem, getting home was a different story, as westbound trains didn't stop there - in order to get home, he had to take a train further east and then grab a train going back the other way. You can't make this stuff up.

Regardless, the UBS Arena currently has a musical schedule between now and October that includes The Eagles, John Mayer, the New Kids on the Block, Roger Waters, Twenty One Pilots, My Chemical Romance, The Who, Iron Maiden and Keith Urban. How is the sound? I have no idea, but maybe I'll find out when The Who roll in this October.

I don't know what this means for the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale - right now, they are open but mostly have minor sporting events on their schedule. So we'll see if they resume as much of a music power.

The two outdoor theaters seem to still be operating, but one of them only barely. The Jones Beach Theater in Wantagh (otherwise know as the Nikon Theater at Jones Beach) has a full schedule set for this summer, and seems to be back at the height of their powers. On the other hand, the Long Island Community Hospital Amphitheater (at Bald Hill in Farmingville) is running a very light schedule this summer. But they've always been a bit spotty anyway - they were just starting to up their game a little before the pandemic hit. And one other outdoor event, The Great South Bay Music Festival at Shorefront Park in Patchogue is back in full swing this year on the weekend of July 15, with bands that include Grouplove, The Manchester Orchestra and Bayside.

Other familiar indoor concert venues that are running full or partial schedules for the rest of 2022 include The Paramount in Huntington, The Patchogue Theater, NYCB Theater in Westbury (otherwise known as the Westbury Music Fair), The Space in Westbury (although their schedule seems pretty limited), The Suffolk Theater in Riverhead, The Stephen Talkhouse in Amagansett, My Father's Place in wherever the hell they're operating out of now (it might be more than one venue, I'm a little confused about it) and The Landmark in Port Washington.

Amazingly, most of the Island's musical theater venues seem to have stayed open, although they haven't all posted their fall schedules yet. This includes the three equity theaters, The Gateway Playhouse in Bellport, the John Engemann Theater in Northport and the Argyle Theater in Babylon. It also includes the CM Playhouse in Oakdale, the Smithtown Center for the Performing Arts in Smithtown, The Cultural Arts Playhouse in Syosset, and Theatre Three in Port Jefferson. The Broadhollow Theater has become the Studio Theater. They maintain the Bayway Arts Center in East Islip, and now have the Manes Studio Theatre in Lindenhurst as well. The Merrick Theatre and Center for the Arts is still running in some manner as well. In a few weeks, when they've all released their Fall Schedules for 2022/23, maybe I'll do a post about it.

Also, both the Tilles Center in Brookville on the campus of CW Post and the Staller Center at Stony Brook University are back to running what look like nearly full schedules of music, dance, theater, etc., and I'm sure as time goes on and we (hopefully) get further and further away from COVID, we'll see their schedules get fuller and fuller. The same goes for the Kupferberg Center for the Arts on the grounds of Queens College in Flushing.

Anyway, for those of you out there on Long Island who are looking to resume a little bit of a fuller music schedule, I hope this was helpful. You can start perusing the websites of the various venues I've listed and see what appeals to you. 

I'll be back soon, folks.

Prog Contest 2022: Round 1 Match 5

 And now for something completely different. This time out, our friend Jethro has pitted a 1979 progressive jazz rock fusion band (featuring Phil Collins, of all people) against a Greek progressive jazz rock fusion album from 1973.

Here are the deets. (Is that how you use that word?)

Brand X - Product

Brand X may be familiar to you along with member Phil Collins, you may have heard of him from his very Prog laden band Genesis, but it seems as though this album is not as familiar as others in the Brand X cannon. This is the first Brand X album that I have heard, so all others are compared to them. When researching the band I found that this is thought of as a more main stream outing for the band. It may be becasue of the vocal tracks and shorter songs. I never thought about it that way. The vocal songs are kinda of breaks for the very proggy stuf in between. Side 2 or the second half of the album is just very special. Please give this many listens as it is a grower. Enjoyyour truly Wham

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ua97cKVWeI&list=PLw-aBPPes4XUHFwNDwoQkCsxR7KF8wx5Y

vs.

Axis - Axis

Axis formed in 1970 and served as a backing band for Demis Roussos (Aphrodite's Child). Four years after the seize of power by the junta regime they had to move to France, where they recorded their three albums. Their eponymous album finds them with a different line-up. They play experimental and dark prog incorporating elements of avant-jazz, symphonic prog, and Canterbury. You'll notice how harsh and rhythm-oriented some segments are. The album, released only in Canada and France, is the absolute unit of obscure progressive rock, and one of the most inspiring releases of the Greek scene.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lp4LQr8cAaE

All of this talk of jazz fusion makes me a little nervous, but let's see how it shakes out, shall we?

Prog Contest 2022: Round 1, Match 4 Results

Jeez, it's like a recurring nightmare - I keep voting for albums, and they keep losing thrilling come-from-behind matches.

Here's the way I saw it:

After three listens a piece, neither of these albums completely hits my sweet spot. Having said that, my vote is for Supersister.

I liked the Circus album early on, but they kind of lost me when they hit the long instrumental spot in the middle, especially the part where the flutes get all sour.

Supersister also had a spot like this, but they had a lot more parts that were melodic, interesting (to me) and up my alley.

Again, my vote is for Supersister. (Which probably curses them, as my picks are 0-3 so far this year. Sorry about that, guys.)

Yep, the curse of the cat people continues. As of late as this morning, Supersister was clinging to a 9-8 lead. Sadly, when the last two votes came in, they were both for Circus.

Final Result: Circus 10 votes, Supersister 9 votes.

Sigh.

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.

The 80's Cruise: Day 4

I woke up pretty early today, and my brain turned on right away. We were still at sea, and Denise was still fast asleep. I turned on my laptop and finished my cruise blog for whatever day I had been writing about last night. The room was dark.

When I finished the blog write-up, I knew what I had to do. I've learned that whenever I feel overwhelmed by my work (and it's been happening more and more often lately), the best thing to do is walk away from it for a night, then turn off my brain (and my feelings) and just start digging away at it the next day. So that's what I did.

We pulled into beautiful St. Thomas at about noon, but I had no plans of getting off the ship today. Denise was up by then, and I had gotten a couple of notes out. So we got ourselves together and headed over to the Windjammer (which was serving lunch by now. I know I said I usually hate to have lunch food instead of eggs to start my day, but today I had planned on it.)

I was still in a fairly foul mood, and looking at the choices the Windjammer offered wasn't improving it any. The restaurant is still in COVID mode, so instead being able to serve yourself at the buffet, you have to have the staff serve you. I get the reasons behind this, but I don't like it. First you have to get a crew member's attention, and the amount they serve is never exactly what you'd serve yourself. It also makes the line move slower.

Eventually, I settled on a hot dog, a cheeseburger and some mac and cheese. It wasn't going to win any culinary (or health) awards, but it served my needs.

We got back to the room, and once again, I found myself at cross-purposes with the room steward Daniel, who had just then sent someone in to start cleaning the room. I tried to tell him we didn't really need it, and he could do it when we were out for dinner. We compromised on just having him clean the bathroom. Then I settled in to work for the day. (Denise went out to do her thing, out and about on the ship.)

I worked for several hours, and by the time I was calling it a day, I had dug out of most of what had been dumped on me the night before. Unfortunately, while I was sending stuff out, people kept sending stuff in, so I finished the day not much further ahead than when I'd started. It sucked, but it would have to do.

At this point, I laid down and took a nap for maybe 45 minutes or an hour, until Denise came back to the cabin. She got herself together for a night out. (I think tonight's theme was Yacht Rock night). I put on some pants. One thing I liked about this cruise was the complete lack of pressure to get dressed up. (Which might come in handy by the end of the cruise, as at this point, I think I'd realized that I'd packed about 45 pairs of underwear but only about six T-shirts.)

I had hoped to catch a singer named Jennifer Hart at some point that day. She was a regular cruise ship singer, not an 80's star. Like The Human League, she got on and off the ship in St. Thomas. But I just wasn't able to match up either of her two sets for the day with my schedule.

We had dinner as part of a table of eight, which was fine. And tonight's dinner was better than the night before's. (This time, I passed on asking for coffee with dessert.)

When we finished, we scurried across the hall to Studio B (I liked that it was so close to the Main Dining Room) to see Paul Young. We'd seen him do a short set once before on one of the 80's tours in Atlantic City. This was another one of those acts that I could have just as easily skipped. Denise wanted to see him, though, so I figured I'd keep her company.

I'd describe his set as "amiable." It wasn't anything unforgettable, but it was OK. Paul's voice has lost a step or two just since we last saw him a few years ago. But he had a good band that covered it up pretty well (including the guitarist for Dire Straits Legacy, who had stepped in for Young's guitarist, who was still sick). He also had two cute female backup singers who were fun to watch. And he did a cover of Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart" which was kind of neat. He did all of the songs Denise wanted to hear, so he was good with me. And of course, he closed with his big hit, "Every Time You Go Away." Overall, I was glad I went.

After the show, we ran into Larry the Duck, whom Denise had met multiple times, but I never had. He introduced me to his wife Suzanne. We told him we were planning to attend his New Wave Karaoke Party later that night, which he seemed pleased to hear. He asked me what I was going to sing. (Um, nothing?) He kind of encouraged me (cough, cough!), so I scoured my brain for what I might be able to fake.

After that, it was time for one of the two headliners of the cruise, and one of the main bands we'd come to see - The Human League. The plan was that they would get on the ship in St. Thomas, perform their two shows, and get right the hell back off again. I had no problem with this plan. I wouldn't have known what to say to them if I ran into them on the buffet line anyway. (Maybe, "Stop slowing up the line!?") Because we had red passes, we were scheduled to see them for the second show.

This time, we went right to the balcony on Deck 4 - I had no intention of having another run-in with the Show Nazi's tonight.

To make a long story short, this was the highlight of the trip (in spite of the uncomfortable seats in the Royal Theater. You suck, Royal Theater!) Their set flew by, and was very cool, both visually and sound wise. The two ladies were a little flat at times, but not too bad. And Philip Oakey sounded great, especially considering the guy is a year older than I am. Their set seemed short, partially because they were the first band I'd seen all week to end their set early so they could do a (well deserved) encore.

By the time their show was over, I was in a much better mood (even though I was still pretty well buried in work).

At this point, Denise and I went upstairs to relax for an hour. The plan was to look at tomorrow's schedule and see if we maybe wanted to get off the boat in St. Maarten's to do an excursion. Unfortunately, when we got up to the room, we found that the crew had dropped the ball - they left our daily swag (I think it was a hat), but had forgotten to leave us tomorrow's daily schedule. I decided to go downstairs to the customer service desk to get one (two), although by this time, we had pretty much abandoned the idea of an excursion tomorrow - I had too damned much work still, and Denise had thrown her back out badly the night before we flew out by trying to pick up and weigh her luggage. She was in a lot of pain.

I went down and got the schedules, then headed all the way up to Deck 14 to Ellington's Night Club, where the Duck's karaoke was scheduled to be held. Denise met me up there shortly thereafter.

Now this was a nice place. It looked down upon the pool deck, where they were still holding the Yacht Rockin' Pool Party. We couldn't find chairs with a good view of the karaoke stage, but the ones we did find had a great view down on the pool deck. It was amazing. As I said, a lot of the Royal Caribbean design is focused inward on the ship, so it was great to finally see this wonderful outside view. I think it was the first time I really felt like I was on a cruise ship. (Denise thinks this is an area that's normally only for Diamond Club members, and I think she might be right about that. It seemed pretty ritzy. I felt like I was the riff-raff who had somehow snuck in past the bouncer.)

By this time, I was totally relaxed. I don't even think I had a drink at Ellington's (although I'd had a Mudslide earlier at The Human League show). But Denise and I just relaxed, looked at the view, and listened to the karaoke (which was pretty fun).

I had decided that if I had to, I'd maybe try to handle The Cars' "Just What I Needed". But fortunately, we were far enough from the stage and Larry's sign-up sheet was full enough, that there was no pressure to sing. So I didn't.

We stayed until the end of the karaoke show at 1AM, and just a little beyond. I felt bad that Denise's back was bothering her so much. But still, she seemed to be enjoying herself, so all was well.

Eventually, maybe 15 or 20 minutes after the show ended, we headed down to bed.

The 80's Cruise Day 3: Happy Birthday to Me

It's hard to get Denise up and out for breakfast on a cruise ship, especially this one, since she's usually out late dancing. So I found a reasonable workaround - room service! I learned that if you fill out a room service breakfast request form the night before and hang it on your door by 3AM, they'll bring breakfast right to you. This way, Denise can sleep in, and I can get my eggs without having to wonder off to the Windjammer without her.

Breakfast could be delivered anytime up to 11AM, so I'd filled out the menu last night, requesting it be delivered between 10:30 and 11. Much to my surprise, I learned that this was too late for Denise, as she planned to be out early to buy cards for the Bloody Mary Bingo Bash, hosted by Modern English and Gene Loves Jezebel. OK then. So we changed our form and requested that breakfast be delivered between 9:30 and 10.

Today was a bit of a special day - my 65th Birthday! Denise was thrilled, because I'm older than her again. I was happy because I'm inching closer to my retirement day, knowing full well I'll probably drop dead the day before.

We ate our breakfast together, which was good. 

My plan for the day was simple - as this was a working vacation for me (and a bit of an experiment to see if I could keep up with work from a cruise ship), I planned to stay in the cabin all day and try to catch up on my notes.

I did leave the cabin when Denise did in the morning, to try to pick up some supplies I hadn't packed - shaving cream, mouthwash, etc. - and to give the cabin steward a chance to clean the room.

I soon found myself on the 5th deck, where I picked up what I could (they didn't have shaving cream), and perused the special 80's store they had set up in the ship's library. Before the cruise, I had planned to buy myself a Mariner of the Seas hat. However, given my feelings about the ship, which I expressed to you in the last blog entry, I changed my mind.

While I was near the 80's store, I found myself next door to the 5th Deck Star Lounge, where they were having a special screening of the New Wave: Dare to Be Different documentary, the story of the WLIR radio station, hosted by Larry the Duck. Although Denise and I had seen it when it first came out, I popped in and grabbed a seat. The film had already started, and I was only able to stay for about a half an hour before I had to leave to use the restroom. I was sorry to leave, though. If you haven't seen it, it's a great film. Unfortunately, though, after I finished doing my business, I figured I'd better head up to the room and get to work.

When I got there, I found that Daniel the cabin steward hadn't started cleaning the room yet. This was to be a constant theme of the cruise, as Daniel's schedule and mine always seemed to be at cross purposes. I went out to the balcony for a bit to let him do his thing.

Once he had finished, I dug in and started working. There was a lot to catch up on, but I worked steadily, ordering room service instead of leaving the room for lunch. By the time Denise and I were ready to head out to dinner, I had actually cleared my email box. Well, mostly. Part of my job is that I also do some proofreading on reports for our Family Services division, and they had filled that box up for me today. But those are able to wait, so I'll worry about them when I get back next Monday. (Although I really wish I could go away for a week and not have to worry about them. But there's really no one else to do them unless it's an emergency, so they're going to be there hanging over my head until I get back.)

I had taken a sneak peek at tonight's menu, and decided to order the Chicken Cordon Bleu for my birthday dinner. And instead of the traditional birthday cake for desert, I planned to order Tres Leches, in honor of one of the kids with whom our agency works, who loves this desert like crazy.

Unfortunately, as I've said, the food on the ship has been been very hit and miss, and tonight they missed. The chicken cordon bleu was very dry, and while the sauce they prepared for it helped a little, there wasn't really enough to cover the whole thing. To make matters worse, we ordered coffee with the dessert, and it was burnt to the point where it roiled my stomach and gave me heartburn that lasted into the next day. (I think I've gotten spoiled by my Keurig at home. With a Keurig, you never have a pot of coffee sitting there all day getting burnt. You make it one cup at a time, so every cup is a good one.) The Tres Leches was good, though.

After that, I went back to the room and made a key error - I opened my work email box again. And what I found wasn't good. One of the workers had saved up a month's worth of notes and sent them to me all at once. I was angry, depressed and pretty freaked out. This meant that after working all day instead of enjoying the cruise ship on my 65th birthday, I was (much) further behind that I had been when I'd started the day. In fact, the likelihood was that I wouldn't catch up again for the rest of the cruise. Thanks a lot!

I won't lie, this totally ruined my night. The main stage show of the night was DSL: Dire Straits Legacy (which was basically a Dire Straits tribute band made up of first-rate musicians, but without Mark Knopfler). I kind of felt like I could see them or not - I own a couple of Dire Straits albums, but I rarely listen to them, and it's not like I'm a huge fan. But I did like some of the guys in the current band, including Trevor Horn (formerly of The Buggles and Yes) and Mel Collins (formerly of King Crimson). And I certainly wasn't going back to work tonight. So I headed down to meet Denise (who had gone to see The Sugarhill Gang at Studio B after dinner.)

She was in a good mood. She'd enjoyed Sugarhill Gang. She commiserated with me about the notes, but what can you do?

We tried to go down to the uncomfortable Royal Theater (You suck, Royal Theater!) to take seats for the show. But some Show Nazi's who either worked for the ship or for ECP smilingly but firmly told us they only open the doors 15 minutes before the show, so we had to go back upstairs. I almost just went back up to the room and forgot about it. I was that sore and disgusted. But I knew that that wouldn't have helped my mood any.

We waited a few minutes and went back down to the Theater (this time going to the 4th deck and the balcony, thereby avoiding the Show Nazi's on the floor below.) We got ourselves seated on the right-side balcony (opposite of where we'd seen Modern English from yesterday).

The show soon started. Or should have. Mark Goodman and Alan Hunter (the former MTV veejays) came out for the intro and wasted our time shooting a promo for next year's cruise that they kept screwing up. If I could have, I'd have tossed them both overboard.

Then the show finally started, and not a minute too soon. I needed some rock! The band came out and opened with "Private Investigations," possibly the slowest and quietest song in their repertoire. Thanks guys.

For their next number, they went into "Walk of Live", and the crowd livened up a little. But apparently not quite enough for the lead singer, who asked, "Are you guys OK out there?"

Well maybe if you hadn't fucking put them to sleep with your first song!

Then they did a slow, jazzy number. It was like this the entire night. Every time they rocked out a little and got the crowd going, they immediately slowed it down. They even did that in the middle of "Sultans of Swing". It drove me crazy. I understand the concept of dynamics, but Jesus! You guys have all been around long enough to know better.

Meanwhile, the people in the row in front of us spent the whole first part of the show having conversations with one another instead of letting everyone listen to the music. I was so drained and depressed that, to be honest, I didn't even notice it until Denise pointed it out to me. But it was getting her upset.

I realize that my reaction to Dire Straits Legacy was as much about my own mental state as it was about what they were doing. On another night, I might have been really into it, and, for example, totally loved "Private Inestigations". But I just wasn't capable of digesting any subtlety tonight. They were being way too artsy for me.

I did enjoy certain songs, like "Walk of Life", Trevor Horn's rendition of Yes's "Owner of a Lonely Heart" (which he co-wrote with Trevor Rabin) and of course "Sultans of Swing" (at least until they slowed it down). They closed with "Money for Nothing", but I've never been a fan of that one. On the other hand, I was sorry they hadn't played a couple of the Dire Straits songs I do like, such as "Lady Writer" and "Once Upon a Time in the West". Oh well.

I trudged back up to the room after their set, still feeling lousy from the bad dinner and the burnt coffee. I told Denise I might go back down and meet her at Studio B at 11 for the toga party with Trial By Fire. But once I got upstairs, I decided to stay in for the rest of the night and lick my wounds. This experiment of working on a cruise ship really wasn't working out. In fact, I was so discouraged, I was wishing I could cancel our May cruise on the Celebrity Summit.

I went up on the Sputnik Music website the next morning. I've been driving these guys crazy for the two years of the pandemic, talking about cruising and describing the ships sailing in on out of the Miami Cruise Port on the port's YouTube Channel. But this morning, I posted on our casual conversation music list, "Do you guys want to hear something sad? I'm not sure I like cruising as much as I used to."

The 80's Cruise: Day 1 Addendum and Day 2

First, a few updates I left out of the Day 1 wrap-up (because the days are running together for me and I forgot it happened on Day 1 and not Day 2.) Prior to the ABC show in the Main Theater, there were two guys doing a skit as Marty McFly and Doc, who were very good (and very funny. At one point, Doc was buying plutonium at the ship's gift shop.) Somewhere in the midst of their bit, they made the announcement that there was a huge addition to the cruise: Living Colour had been added to the lineup. (This was no biggie for me, because if Living Colour was playing for free in my backyard, I wouldn't open the window to listen to them. But most people seemed to be excited.)

Later on in Studio B, before Trial By Fire played, Marty and Doc were back to announce the lineup for next year's cruise (which Denise already has us booked on). It included Howard Jones, Midge Ure, The Church, Kim Wilde, Morris Day and the Time, The Smithereens (with Marshall Crenshaw), Cutting Crew, John Parr, Jody Watley, Autograph, China Crisis and EXTC (The touring version of XTC without Andy Partridge) with the co-headliners being Bret Michaels and Devo. Denise was thrilled at this last one in particular. We're supposed to see Howard Jones and Midge Ure playing together at the Patchogue Theatre in a couple of months, so I wasn't as excited about them as I otherwise would have been. But I was intrigued at the addition of The Church, China Crisis and EXTC.

So anyway, onward to Day 2:

I woke up about 9:30 this morning, and my back was feeling much better. I had seasickness medication with me, and I also had the med that I use to control my occasional bouts of vertigo. But much to my surprise, I didn't need either of them. I haven't cruised in 5 years, so I thought maybe geezer me would be more prone to seasickness than younger me. Happily, not so much, even though the seas had been rough all night and were still rough this morning.

We had been supposed to dock in Nassau, Bahamas this morning, and at one point I woke up and thought the ship had stopped. But now that I was fully awake, I realized we were moving again. I looked out through the curtains, and as I had thought, we were still at sea. So either we were late getting to Nassau, or for some reason, we hadn't been allowed to stop there. I turned on the television and tuned it to the Map Channel, and sure enough, it looked like the little ship icon had hit the Bahamas, bounced off and kept on going.

Denise woke up to use the bathroom. She mentioned she had heard a long announcement earlier in the morning from the captain, but it hadn't been piped into our room.

I asked her if she felt like getting dressed and getting some breakfast. She replied with a big raspberry, and said that was what she thought of that idea. She then laid back down to go back to sleep. OK then.

I did some work on my laptop. About an hour later, she got back up. By this time, my stomach was complaining it was time for some food. 

I then learned two unfortunate facts about the ship. The first was that the main dining room only served breakfast from 8 until 9:30AM. Thanks for the effort, boys. The second was that even the Windjammer only served breakfast until 11. 

This made me rather crabby. I was hungry, and I was hungry for breakfast food! None of that crappy lunch stuff they were serving up yesterday.

We cleaned up, got dressed and headed to the Promenade Cafe, a little coffee/snack thingy on Deck 5. It also only served breakfast until 11, but it was at least a little closer than the Windjammer.

We got there just in time to grab some distinctly mediocre breakfast sandwiches. I had really been hoping for a plate full of scrambled eggs and sausages, but it was better than nothing. I also grabbed some coffee, which made me less crabby.

We learned that we hadn't been able to disembark in Nassau because of the rough weather. That was OK with us, because we hadn't been planning to leave the ship anyway. Because of the schedule change, though, a few things had been moved around to fill in the day, including an interview by Lori Majewski (of Sirius FM fame) of Flock of Seagulls' Mike Score that I wanted to catch.

Denise went off to do her own thing for awhile, and I went back to the cabin to work. I had a fairly light schedule planned music-wise, as the late show in Studio B was scheduled to be Jack Russell's Great White, and the Main Stage show was Cameo, neither of which I had any interest in seeing. (Paul Young had originally been supposed to play that early show, but his guitarist had gotten sick and mucked up the whole schedule, so they were plugging Gene Loves Jezebel back in.)

So here's the gist of the day: Denise and I met up at the main dining room at noon to catch the Mike Score interview. I did some work in the afternoon. Then at 4PM, we headed over to catch a set by Modern English from the balcony of the Royal Theatre. We had a little more room up there today than we'd had last night down below for ABC, although the seats were still uncomfortable. We've seen Modern English before, and we've always enjoyed them. Today was no different.

Our dinner ran long tonight because they sat us at a full table of eight people. (It was good, though.) This unfortunately made us late to see Gene Loves Jezebel again, although we caught some of their best stuff (including "Desire" and "Motion of Love"). After that, Denise saw Cameo in the Main Theater, and enjoyed them. I enjoyed going up to the room and not seeing them. (I wouldn't have said that too loudly, though - a couple of the guys from the band had the cabin next door to us.)

We then hooked up for a late night show in Studio B by the Depeche Mode tribute band, Strangelove. Unfortunately, although these guys are very good, they're also incredibly loud, much louder than any other band on the boat. (And this is coming from a guy who spent years sitting in tiny bars listening to The Good Rats cranked up to 100 without ever wearing ear plugs). It didn't help that we were seated directly under a speaker. I lasted for maybe 30 minutes tops, but I just wasn't enjoying it. So I left. (Denise hung in there for their full set.)

Today, I felt more in the rhythm of things. Unfortunately, much as I hate to say it, I'm not loving The Mariner of the Seas as a ship. The food has been very hit and miss, the crew polite but sometimes kind of confused (see my comments on the muster drill), and I don't love the basic design.

As someone who has mostly sailed on Carnival ships, they usually have an area near the casino where there's a concourse that has some food places (like the coffee bar) on one side, and a big series of windows on the other side. It has comfortable chairs where you can sit during the day and either people watch or look out on the ocean.

Royal's concourse is all inside, with shops lining both sides and no ocean view. I feel much less like I'm on a ship. I prefer Carnival's outside focus to Royal's inside one. And then, of course, there's that matter of the seats in the Royal Theatre (compared to the seats in Carnival's main theater, which are way more comfortable, offer some loveseat seating, etc.) It looks like I won't be ditching Carnival for Royal anytime soon.

The 80's Cruise: Day 1

Where to begin? Well yeah, we made it onto the ship, the Mariner of the Seas. I think we came in on Deck 4. Already people were drinking and unwinding.

Denise and I sat for a moment to figure out where we had to do out muster drill. For those of you who've never cruised before, prior to the ship leaving the shore, you have to complete a safety drill, where they tell you where to go in case you hit an iceberg or something, how to put on your life jacket, etc. I personally never really absorb it, because when I set foot on the ship, I'm pretty much counting on them to find a way not to sink.

The drills used to be long and time consuming, waiting for everyone to show up at once. However, one of the few plusses of the pandemic was that ships had to find a way to do it differently, because you don't want everyone gathering together and standing on top of one another in a close space all at the same time. So now, you go to your muster station and check in, and then watch some videos on your phone.

This was pretty disorganized on Mariner. All of the crew members were wearing masks (although the passengers no longer have to), and they're from all different countries. So between their masks, their accents and my poor hearing, I couldn't understand what they were saying. But they told us we were good, which was nice. Except that for the next few days, Denise and I kept getting messages on our phones saying "You MUST complete your muster drill within the next 30 minutes." Ho boy.

We then checked into our cabin, which had the easily remembered number of 8642. (Get it - 8-6-4-2? Start at 8 and go down by two's. Best cabin number I ever had.)

After that, we went to the Windjammer, which is Royal Caribbean's buffet restaurant, to grab a quick lunch before sail away. Unfortunately, the quality of food they had there wasn't the best. And Denise was still a bit flustered from our travails in getting on the ship. So when she sat down at the table and accidentally spilled her bean salad all over, it didn't help her mood any.

Meanwhile, I started looking around and realized I was surrounded by all sorts of characters in weird, alien-like outfits. This was the '80s Cruise! Denise knew what to expect, and was happy about it, because, as she put it, "These are my people!" I, on the other hand, was wondering just what I'd gotten myself into.

We went back to the cabin to settle in and unpack a little. Now I would have been happy with a little quiet time. We had a balcony (which is the first time I've ever had one of those in my cruise cabin. We usually buy an inside cabin with no balconies and no windows - the cheapest ones you can get.) And I would have been perfectly happy to sit serenely on the balcony and watch us sail away. But Denise really wanted to go to the sail-away party on the pool deck upstairs. And I was still in make-up mode, considering my big mouth had almost made her miss the cruise.

All around us, people in strange costumes were decorating their cabin doors with 80's memorabilia and swag, a tradition on the '80s Cruise (and one that Denise fully intended to participate in). 

As sail-away time grew closer, Denise and I made our way to the elevator to go up to the pool deck. We rode to Deck 11 (where all the noise was) and stepped outside. And as I looked around me, I found myself stepping into what seemed to be the arena from the film Gladiator. I looked up and saw wall-to-wall people, not only on our deck, but leaning over the railings for two more decks up. The music was ear-splitting, and as for someplace to sit, forget it. I froze in panic with what must have been a horrified expression on my face. (Don't forget, I've barely been out of the house for two years, since the pandemic hit.)

Denise looked at me and realized I was overwhelmed. She took pity. "OK, you can go back to the cabin if you want," she said over the roar of party people.

"You're OK with that?" I asked sheepishly. I wanted desperately to escape.

She nodded. I was out of there and back down the elevator so fast that Barry Allen would have been impressed.

I made my way back to the cabin, a little shaken and full of sensory overload. It was at this point that I realized that I was going to need to take this cruise at my own pace. This meant being patient with myself and retreating to quiet places when I needed to.

I sat out on my balcony in relative peace and watched us sail away from Orlando. It was nice, and even though I could still hear the bedlam going on on the pool deck three floors away, it was peaceful. And it was good to be cruising again. (Although I definitely wished that I had taken a quiet, regular cruise to get my sea legs back before taking this one.)

Denise joined me a little while later. She spent the rest of the time before dinner decorating our door and chatting with the people who complimented it as they walked by. I hid in our room, out of sight.

At dinner in the Main Dining Room, I again felt a sense of sensory overload at all of the colorful outfits people wore. It was like a 1980s version of Halloween.

For the first night of our cruise, our music schedule was packed tight. It started at 7PM in Studio B, right across from the dining room, where the band I liked best on the cruise, A Flock of Seagulls, was scheduled.

By the time we finished dinner and entered Studio B (which is normally an ice skating arena), the band was already playing, and we thought we'd missed the first song or two. (Later on, I realized I was probably mistaken about that.)

A couple of things about Flock. First, Mike Score, the singer and main songwriter of the band, is the only original member left (at least in this touring rendition). And second, his voice is shot, and has been for some time.

We found some high seats at a cocktail table to the left of the stage (the band's right) and settled in. I even ordered a drink (as did Denise).

Now I enjoyed the hell out of the band (as did most of the crowd, by all indications). The songs sounded great (even if Mike's voice didn't), and this is a band with a bunch of great songs. They made the rather ballsy decision to play several songs off of their fifth album, 1995's The Light at the End of The World, which I've only become familiar with in this last year. It was released way after the height of the band's popularity, but it's actually grown on me as being a pretty good album.

But at some point relatively early in their set, I realized (and the band commented on it) that the boat was rocking pretty good. And if you looked out the side windows, you could see some rough seas. So as we listened, our not-very-comfortable high barstools swirled back and forth, and the combination of that and my strawberry daiquiri made me feel a little nauseous. It made my back sore as well.

Flock finished with a flourish, playing three of their best songs, "Space Age Love Song" (my personal favorite), "Wishing" and "I Ran" all in a row. I was happy.

Next on the schedule was a jog (or a hobble, in my case) across the ship to the Royal Theater (the ship's main stage) to see ABC.

Honesty time here. I'd seen ABC once before, and I hadn't really liked them. And when I saw the original schedule for tonight, I'd planned to skip ABC altogether. But Denise really likes these guys, and part of the idea of this cruise is for us to spend time together. We're both generally comfortable doing our own thing. However, this was the first night, and I was still feeling kind of bad about almost mucking up the cruise for her.

We watch a lot of cruise vloggers on YouTube (most of whom were sailing this week out of Ft. Lauderdale on Royal Caribbean's newest and largest ship, Wonder of the Seas). And probably my favorite, Tony Barnette of La Lido Loca, loves Royal Caribbean ships, but has stated honestly that their main theater isn't the most comfortable for "fluffy" travelers. After this show, I agree.

I'm actually at my lowest weight of the pandemic now. But for me, the seats in the theater were way too tight, to the point that after sitting for this ABC show, my left hip is now all bruised.

Now to their credit, ABC sounded really tight. And unlike my poor friend Mike Score, Martin Frye, their vocalist, has maintained his voice pretty well. But I'm just not impressed with most of their songs. So I sat there for a 90-minute set, uncomfortable, sore and mostly bored. (Although I have to say I think I was the only one in the theater who was feeling this way. Most of the crowd was loving it.)

Finally at the end of their set, the band caught my attention with a 3-song close of "When Smoky Sings" (which is at least OK), "The Look of Love" (my favorite song of theirs) and "Be Near Me" (which I also like).

Next, we scurried across the ship back to Studio B to catch the last third of a set by Gene Loves Jezebel (the set I'd originally planned to see instead of ABC's).

I've done this spiel before, but indulge me. If you ever want to understand why there's war going on right now in Eastern Europe, or why the Arabs and the Jews hate one another, look no further than Gene Loves Jezebel. Here is a band that was founded by identical twin brothers who fell out, sued one another, and now run two different renditions of Gene Love's Jezebel, one in the US and the other in the UK. Here are two guys who have the same set of genes, who look at one another and think, "You're more like me than anyone else in the world. But you still suck, and I hate you!" Human nature dooms us all.

Now I had seen the brother's version of this band (known as Jay Ashton's Gene Love Jezebel in the U.S.) at the Paramount in Huntington back in 2019, and I'd really enjoyed them. And I enjoyed these guys too. When we walked in, they were messing around with an odd version of Patti Smith's "Horses". (Or maybe it was an extended version of their song "Desire" - I'm not really sure.) They played two more songs after that, and then they were gone. I hope I get to see them again later in the week.

At this point, it was after 11. But I was finally in a comfortable seat, and I was starting to relax. So we decided to stay for one of the cruise's 80's cover bands, and I was glad we did.

Trial By Fire is a West Coast band that plays covers of most of the 80's' rockier material. Van Halen, Ozzie, Metallica, Guns 'N Roses, these guys play it all. Four of the band members sing, and they're all decent. (I particularly liked the guy who does the Journey songs - he has an amazing voice.) They played for over an hour, and we stayed for their whole set. I could have done without the Prince covers, but hey, you can't like everything, right?

Finally, we stumbled back to our cabin and turned in for the night. We were scheduled to wake up in Nassau, Bahamas. I was physically sore, still on sensory overload and very tired. Denise was having a wonderful time. I was enjoying a lot of it, but I still wasn't sure if the 80's cruise was for me. With that thought in my head, I fell asleep.