Thursday, Aug 20th

I slept a good 10 hours last night. All the way to 12:20. But I gotta tell you I felt great! Unfortunately in the middle of the morning I heard a pop noise, and it appears the power on two of my outlets went out. I let my room steward know, and I went for a quick lunch. Then ran up to get a Caper upstairs from the atrium. I saw Peter, and he told me that the photography department wanted to use me at either 6:15 or 8:30 to be in the costumes. Apparently Danielle and I were the only ones to sign up. It’s 50 bucks though.. You can’t argue with money. I’ll have to do it on my normal day off in Juneau. That’s the only part that blows. But I should be done late morning, and get to do my normal business in town.

I went to the CTC training area and talked with Simon for about an hour. Just random stuff.. Nothing too job related. He’s a cool guy though.

Afterwards I went back to my room, and the power was still out. So I went up stairs to the stores to see if I could buy a converter for the UK plug in my room. I did, and it was still recieving power, amazingly! So I hooked up everything through it, and blew two fuses on the speakers... Because.. apparently, they use a different kind for 220v outlets. So... that really sucked as well. But I did tinker with Logic anyways and messed around with some guitar effects and experimented with it. It really is a great software. BFD2 Drum software is MILES ahead of the last one, and it sounds so much more professional sounding. All I need is a shipshape mic and I could do my albums on my own! (But I need years of sound training to learn how to mix and all that.)

Did my 5-6 gig in the Atrium. Midway I was asked to turn down (which for some reason just deflates my energy, and drive for playing.) So I did, and that’s what happened. I went to dinner, and had some steak, rice, and spinach with mushrooms. Peter came and sat with me and we talked about the place I’m playing. He thinks if I’m not filling the place up at 8, that I should use that hour some place else, which I agree. I found out he’s been working on cruiseships since ’92. He’s been with Carnival for 6 1/2 years, and a Musical director for 1 1/2. He plays saxophone. He just tries to stay on the ships, so no home life. He said he got an email about my CD, and Now I have to record a cover of Carnival’s “theme song” and do a commercial kind of deal, and send it in again. THEN I can order them, and get to selling.

After dinner, I headed back to my room and messed more with Logic, and BFD.. got lots of cool ideas down.. But probably nothing concrete.

Went to do my gig in the Shanghai bar, and a couple people showed up from last night, and then it was moderate for about an hour. Then it was about 8 people for the rest of the night. An officer and his friends (an officer of the ship) was down having drinks and listening. He told me he thought I was great and he loved when I played pink floyd the other night. So I played two for him, and he bought me a shot of something.. It sat on the piano for over an hour before I drank it... but it hurt when it went down, and I was definitely feeling it the rest of the gig.

I met a gentleman and his wife/girlfriend. I placed them in their 20’s. Turns out they were 50, and 40. I couldn’t believe it. The woman looked SO Young.. no wrinkles, very attractive. I was quite surprised. I met another gentleman who wants to play on cruise ships and do what I do, so I explained the whole process to him.

At the end of the night, I packed it up and headed to my room. Now that Amanda’s not here, I have no one to make me go to disco, so I probably will become less social in that department. Unless Colleen makes me go. But I didn’t see her today, so that won’t happen. Anyway, I’m going to bed!