Falling asleep was such a hard thing to do last night. I tossed and turned for over an hour with senseless thoughts running through my mind. By senseless, I mean, they had in no way in an affect on my life. They were alteration thoughts of reality that had no busy keeping me up.
I managed to to sleep until 2:30. And I wanted to sleep more. The ship was bouncing a bit, and very much thought we were in a storm. I turned on the television to see it was a cloudless gorgeous day outside. I knew I had to play at 5-8 and 9:30 to 11:30, so I took it easy. My voice was still hurting. So I just relaxed until 4, where I took a shower. Got dressed in my suit, went down to the MSA to see if my CDs had come in and they did! So now I have 120 CDs!
I came down to the VERY dead Casino, and player some upbeat songs.. for no one. Played until 6. Then I went to dinner. There Glenn told me I should go to the infirmary about my voice, because maybe if enough people go there, the company will realize that pushing musicians to work longer hours actually hurts performances. 4 hours was always tolerable for me. 5 is pushing it.
I sing hard as it is, so, I’m really going to have to learn more quiet songs to take it easy. I will go to the infirmary tomorrow if it still hurts.
I came back to play at 6:30. At 6:40, Peter told me to break ‘til 7. He asked if it was busy at all. I informed him, that it really wasn’t that busy.
I bumped into Stu, and he asked me how it was going and I filled him in on the voice bit, and the dead crowd. He told me simply not to sing if no one is there. So I went outside and got some fresh air. I noticed the huge swells in the ocean. That hurricane was sending quite a rift. Luckily though, the hurricane has died to a Category 3. It was expected to die to a 1 in a couple more days. And we are expected to do our regular itinerary. Acapulco, well get to a little late but, we’ll manage to go. I have port manning, so it’s whatever. Hopefully I’ll get the day off, because I REALLY need it!
I’m on break now.. and then I have work 9:30 to 11:30. I’ll have to sing then. But it will be cool.
Amanda emailed me and told me she stuffed 75 envelopes with my pictures and she needs another 100 pictures. So I’ll do that. Should all be nice!
Alrighty, I’m going on!
Monday, October 19, 2009
2 hours of land, and heading towards Category 5 Hurricane Rick!
I woke up at 11 this morning, and I really regretted it, but I needed to make some phone calls. I called Nick first and talked to him for a bit. Then I talked with my dad for awhile. Then I called Amanda and talked about the music business stuff, and we filled each other in on some things.
After the phone conversations, I went down to my room, and called up Eric (whom I saw return while I was talking on the phone) and asked for his room key. I then made my way into town, towards the mall. I only had 2 hours to be out. So I moved fast. As I walked into the outside mall, I was stopped by a lady selling lotions... She talked me into buying a couple.But I gotta hand it to her, I feel a lot smoother :)
Then I went to lunch at a Japanese place, and had Teriyaki chicken and Sushi. All awesome.
As I was leaving the mall, I saw Val, and then Glenn.. and then Cleo. So we all walked back together.
When I got to my room in the ship, not five minutes went by before we were called to do boat drill. So, I ran up to do so. On my way up, I found out we may take the ship around Hurricane Rick. Which seems a little crazy to me. I think we should go the opposite direction, versus going towards it.
After boat drill, we had a meeting. Stu introduced himself as the new cruise director, and he introduced the new dance team, and did a run down of things.
I made my way to my room, and showered up and prepared for dinner. They had the good steak at dinner, so I ate a couple things of that. Talked with Glenn, Cleo and Val. Then I went to my room, and got ready to go to work.
I was feeling the tiredness... My voice still hurt, and there wasn’t much of a crowd. So I just took it easy and played a lot of slower songs. I left at 12, due to lack of audience, and now I’m going to get some REAL sleep. So, until tomorrow!
After the phone conversations, I went down to my room, and called up Eric (whom I saw return while I was talking on the phone) and asked for his room key. I then made my way into town, towards the mall. I only had 2 hours to be out. So I moved fast. As I walked into the outside mall, I was stopped by a lady selling lotions... She talked me into buying a couple.But I gotta hand it to her, I feel a lot smoother :)
Then I went to lunch at a Japanese place, and had Teriyaki chicken and Sushi. All awesome.
As I was leaving the mall, I saw Val, and then Glenn.. and then Cleo. So we all walked back together.
When I got to my room in the ship, not five minutes went by before we were called to do boat drill. So, I ran up to do so. On my way up, I found out we may take the ship around Hurricane Rick. Which seems a little crazy to me. I think we should go the opposite direction, versus going towards it.
After boat drill, we had a meeting. Stu introduced himself as the new cruise director, and he introduced the new dance team, and did a run down of things.
I made my way to my room, and showered up and prepared for dinner. They had the good steak at dinner, so I ate a couple things of that. Talked with Glenn, Cleo and Val. Then I went to my room, and got ready to go to work.
I was feeling the tiredness... My voice still hurt, and there wasn’t much of a crowd. So I just took it easy and played a lot of slower songs. I left at 12, due to lack of audience, and now I’m going to get some REAL sleep. So, until tomorrow!
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Last night of the 1st Mexican Rivera cruise... more goodbyes.
Woke up at 12 o’clock. Voice was horse. I got up and checked my email and stuff, and I went to eat lunch. I came back to my room and practiced “Michelle” by the Beatles, “Meet Virginia” by Train, and a couple others. Afterwards, I played some Madden ’10. Gave Felicia a call and talked with her about ship life and stuff going on in her life. She was spreading herself thin so she decided to drop out of Dance Ensemble, and SGA.
I sold my 12 string, and turned around and bought the Gibson ES-335. Black. I talked with Don, the salesman of Sweetwater, and filled him in on the cruise. He’s a real nice guy. Real personable. He told me the guitar I was getting was a great buy. He knocked off a couple hundred dollars .
At dinner, I sat with Jeff and Aaron. Jeff’s last day was today. Sad. He’s a nice guy. I helped him out with his songwriting and just stressed that he can’t be afraid to write a song. He has to write stuff until something good comes out. He managed to finish a song I stressed he should finish and he thanked me for doing so. I told him to stop by my room around 7:15 so I could give him my album (digitally).
I gave it to him, and I got ready for work. Went up to the stage around 7:30 and restrung my guitar. I got playing at 8, and everything started to build from there. It got real busy, and it was a great night. Everyone was so cool. Made 140 dollars in tips. Everyone told me they left great remarks on their comment cards about me. And the cop (Greg) said anytime I need anything in San Diego, give him a call. another husband and wife offered the same.
When I finished up, Sasima told me she had to do the “Just ask” 1-4, so I said we could go out in Acapulco.
I came down to the crew bar to say goodbye to Jeff. He thanked me for everything, and I wished him luck. Found out Alex was leaving too.. Which I had no idea. We had just spoken yesterday, and I don’t recall him telling me that. So I said my goodbyes to him.
I noticed Nunik crying really hard in the corner of the bar. Turns out her boyfriend broke up with her. He didn’t really take it seriously, but she did. Everyone seemed to know but her. I remember when we worked together in the piano bar, she told me she hadn’t dated in over a year. They started dating the last whittier.
I went back up to the bar where I play, and Alex was there and Sasima was still working. We just kinda hung and chatted for a bit. Sasima and I went out on the bow deck and listened to some music and she filled me in on some of her life stuff.
Now, I guess I’m just going to go to bed, and get ready to go into town tomorrow.
I sold my 12 string, and turned around and bought the Gibson ES-335. Black. I talked with Don, the salesman of Sweetwater, and filled him in on the cruise. He’s a real nice guy. Real personable. He told me the guitar I was getting was a great buy. He knocked off a couple hundred dollars .
At dinner, I sat with Jeff and Aaron. Jeff’s last day was today. Sad. He’s a nice guy. I helped him out with his songwriting and just stressed that he can’t be afraid to write a song. He has to write stuff until something good comes out. He managed to finish a song I stressed he should finish and he thanked me for doing so. I told him to stop by my room around 7:15 so I could give him my album (digitally).
I gave it to him, and I got ready for work. Went up to the stage around 7:30 and restrung my guitar. I got playing at 8, and everything started to build from there. It got real busy, and it was a great night. Everyone was so cool. Made 140 dollars in tips. Everyone told me they left great remarks on their comment cards about me. And the cop (Greg) said anytime I need anything in San Diego, give him a call. another husband and wife offered the same.
When I finished up, Sasima told me she had to do the “Just ask” 1-4, so I said we could go out in Acapulco.
I came down to the crew bar to say goodbye to Jeff. He thanked me for everything, and I wished him luck. Found out Alex was leaving too.. Which I had no idea. We had just spoken yesterday, and I don’t recall him telling me that. So I said my goodbyes to him.
I noticed Nunik crying really hard in the corner of the bar. Turns out her boyfriend broke up with her. He didn’t really take it seriously, but she did. Everyone seemed to know but her. I remember when we worked together in the piano bar, she told me she hadn’t dated in over a year. They started dating the last whittier.
I went back up to the bar where I play, and Alex was there and Sasima was still working. We just kinda hung and chatted for a bit. Sasima and I went out on the bow deck and listened to some music and she filled me in on some of her life stuff.
Now, I guess I’m just going to go to bed, and get ready to go into town tomorrow.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Good night
Well, after updating my blog I went to eat dinner, at what I thought was 6 o clock. Turns out it was actually 5. The clocks went back an hour. I found that out after confusion of the staff mess being closed. So I went and ate dinner in the crew mess. I ate with Alex, and had a cool conversation about russia, women, his life and all that. At 6, I went back and got cleaned up and dressed in my suit. Before going to my gig, I went outside and took a little bit of air in. Then I went to my gig. It quickly picked up and got busy. Just in time for my boss Stu to come in. He hung out for over an hour talking with different customers. Part of the huge group called out to him to tell him they were there for me, and they loved me. He said he knew, and he gave me thumbs up. It was nice to see him check it out.
I talked with a couple that had been to see me since the beginning of the cruise. The husband was a cop, and they were from San Diego. He used to be in the marine corp. and has a disability with his voice. He was a drill sergeant, and messed his voice up. Was a real nice guy. He told me I was awesome, and he he usually isn't into the whole bar scene, but he could come see me every night.
On my last set, my voice gave out a lot, but everyone sang along with all the songs, so I made it through. I talked with Sasima about getting together for thai food in San Diego. Dewa Ayu talked with me, and asked how old I was. She was shocked. She's 27. She asked me if I had a girlfriend on the ship, which I don't. I said I wasn't really looking, but she went to Sasima and mentioned that. Sasima said "and why do you think I need to know" and Dewa Ayu giggled and went back to work. I hung out with both of them until late. I went and got some pizza since I had only one meal today. It was great. Then I bumped into Dewa Ayu again and talked with her as she vacuumed and mopped the floors in the casino.
Now I'm debating going to my room and sleeping. Since it's 4:25. We'll see!
I talked with a couple that had been to see me since the beginning of the cruise. The husband was a cop, and they were from San Diego. He used to be in the marine corp. and has a disability with his voice. He was a drill sergeant, and messed his voice up. Was a real nice guy. He told me I was awesome, and he he usually isn't into the whole bar scene, but he could come see me every night.
On my last set, my voice gave out a lot, but everyone sang along with all the songs, so I made it through. I talked with Sasima about getting together for thai food in San Diego. Dewa Ayu talked with me, and asked how old I was. She was shocked. She's 27. She asked me if I had a girlfriend on the ship, which I don't. I said I wasn't really looking, but she went to Sasima and mentioned that. Sasima said "and why do you think I need to know" and Dewa Ayu giggled and went back to work. I hung out with both of them until late. I went and got some pizza since I had only one meal today. It was great. Then I bumped into Dewa Ayu again and talked with her as she vacuumed and mopped the floors in the casino.
Now I'm debating going to my room and sleeping. Since it's 4:25. We'll see!
Friday, October 16, 2009
Most of my first Mexican Rivera Cruise!
It’s been almost an entire cruise since I’ve updated. I need to break this long extended habit and get down to at least once every other day! But I’ll write for each day!
Saturday, October 10th was an interesting day. I got up around 11:30 and ate lunch, and then got cleaned up with the intentions to play 2 to 4 on the Lido deck. I went and sat on the 2nd deck and checked my internet on my phone since it was in service. But what I noticed was we were quite a ways from the port. I didn’t think it’d be possible to have people on the ship by 2 at the rate we were going. When I got upstairs and got to setting up, a huge table was in the middle of the stage, but I didn’t want to mess with it incase it was something important. I set up around it and then Peter, my boss, came up and said we wouldn’t be in port until 2:30 and people won’t be on ‘til around 3.
He helped set up the sound and all that and said I could just wait ‘til 3. So I called up Felicia. Our conversation was cut short by loss of service? Not on my end, I had full bars! Then I called Nick and talked with him for a bit about the radio push. I filled him in on the pictures I ordered, and the cds and all that. I definitely had to give a lot of credit to Amanda for really getting this going. She’s quite a determined girl.
After I got off the phone with him, it was about 3, so I got on stage to play. No one was there except workers. And the ship had JUST parked. So, I played for the workers. They requested songs and I played. Svetlana, a girl I met at the last jam, was there and she requested “You’re Beautiful” by James Blunt. I think that made her day. Agnes asked for “Last Kiss”, and then I just warmed up my voice. My voice was seemingly back to normal after five days of crap.
My connection to my voice and being outside is, that every time I go outside to play, my voice clears up after a couple of hours and feels fine. So I’m going to need to make a note to go outside at least for a half hour a day and just breathe.
At about 3:40 the first passengers walked by, and seemed into the music. I noticed a lot more kids walking around than I’ve seen on all my cruises combined. Good sign for me and the crew, because we were going to have real shows and make some good money!
At 4, I finished up and ran downstairs to get my ID, and headed for the gangway. As I was about to get off, our new cruise director, Stu, was getting on. I asked how he was doing since a couple weeks ago, he got the mumps. He said he felt a bit better, but he did have a loss of color from the last time I saw him. When getting outside a woman was there and she asked if I wanted to go to crew services, or out into town. I asked what the first was, and she said it’s a little center with free internet, phone and all that for the crew. I truly just wanted to get the hell out of the area, so I went into town. I called my dad and filled him in on everything. I walked around San Diego for awhile looking for some type of mall with food and all that. After walking a long circle and ending the conversation, I finally saw it. But I gotta say, from the walk around town, I was very surprised to see how many homeless people live on sidewalks, in tents and all that.
When I got to the mall, it was a complete outside mall. It was 3-4 stories high, with all the ships lined up going back and forth. All exposed to the weather. Very neat looking. I looked around for a bit, browsing through shops. Eventually I got real hungry so I started looking through the food court, which was all in a line on the top floor. I walked by the mexican food place, and I saw Val, Cleo and Glenn there. So I went in and sat with them. I ordered nachos. Haven’t had those in a while!
After dinner, we walked into a Sam Goody, and everyone got movies and stuff. I walked back with Glenn and we talked about more music and stuff like that. When I got back to the ship, I went to my room and wasted time playing video games until 9:30. There was a little group just hanging out at the bar. The ship hadn’t left yet.. and it was supposed to over an hour before that. The casino can’t open until it’s 3 miles from port. So people waited patiently. But I got them all riled up and they bought drinks and hung around, tipping well, and just loving all the song selections.
Aft 12:10, the ship was finally out of port and the Casino opened. My crowd dissipated to gamble, and I got off at 12:30. I met, or rather, got the names of a couple people that will be working with me for a couple weeks. One is Sasima. She’s a waitress, and from Thailand. The other was Dewa Ayu. She’s from the Philippines.
Sunday, October 11th, was our first sea day. We lost an hour. So in a weeks time, we lost 4 hours of sleep. BLOWS. I just kind of hung to myself for the day, Playing games and the such. Anticipating playing at 8 pm. I had my meals and it really was an uneventful day. Sea days are just those kind of days. You don’t feel bad for wasting them because there really is nothing to do. Amanda emailed me and told me a promoter was very interested in me, and she’ll talk with Mike about it. It’s kinda nice to not have to worry about the business part of everything. I really would like to focus more on performance and writing. Alan said he sent my CDs, so I should have them for the next cruise and I plan on promoting the crap out of it.
At 8 PM, The bar was very busy. The busiest I had ever seen it. I went and I played, and the place was crazy. During breaks people stopped me to tell me how good I was. Some said I was the best on the ship. I knew a lot of the songs requested. It was nice, because it seemed most of the people watching me have listen to the radio for the last 30 years, versus turning it off 30 years ago, and never listening to another thing. So all my new music has definitely paid off this cruise. A couple people asked for “Unwell” by Matchbox 20, and “Mad World” by tears for fears but made famous by Gary Juals*( check spelling..) I made promises to learn both.
Mark, the passenger I promised to learn “Mad World” for came up on my little bar stage and checked out my setlist on my computer.
Sasima and I had little conversations in between, and I noticed all the guys flirting with Katerina the bar tender. In fact, this week, two people have facebooked me ONLY to get info from her so they can stay in touch. She is a gorgeous girl and sweet as pie, but she has a boyfriend and a son. It’s quite amazing how everyone goes after her.
By the end of the night, I saw Dewa Ayu and asked what song she liked, and he favorite was “One Last Breath” by Creed. Though very challenging I said I’d try to learn it for her.
After my set, these two gentleman that were sitting and watching me called me over. They were the Auditors that were inspecting the ship that week. The main chief told me he wasn’t a big fan of lots of music but he liked the way I performed. He also told me not to let anyone on the stage, because if they fall, it’s Carnival’s fault. So that would be my excuse to tell people who want to sing, that they can’t (because believe me, a lot of people ask if they can come up and sing. There’s a karaoke around the corner. They can go there.)
I got to bed that night pretty late, and was having trouble sleeping. The hours have been throwing me off. My new sleep time is between 3 and 4. 11 Is the earliest I get up anymore.
Monday, October 12th, was a rough day at sea. Apparently we were going through a tropical storm. I felt the movement early on, so I took seasickness pills and I didn’t feel sick for the whole day. Most of the ship, I think it was opposite. There wasn’t a lot of people running around. Even my gig was a lot less energetic than the night before, but the people that were there were the people there from the night before. So it seems I had another group to follow me. I played “Unwell” and “Mad World” and they were receipted well. I asked Sasima if there were any songs she really liked that she wanted me to learn, and she said “One” by U2. Ironically a safety officer a month ago asked for the same song and I had bought it and had the tabs in my computer already, so I made a note to learn it by the next time I played.
On one of my breaks I checked the capper for the next day and it turned out I had the day off! So that was very exciting for me!
At about 12, my medicine started to wear off and I started to get tired. Really tired. It looked dead enough where I could leave by 12:30. But not 2 minutes later, did a huge group of people come just to see me. So I stayed ‘til 1. I knew we had a boat drill, so I got to bed early.
Tuesday, October 13th, we arrived at Manzinillo*, and I was woken up by the boat drill. The last time we had one it took over a half hour for the alpha team to get set up, so I took my time getting ready. It wasn’t more than 5 minutes before they called for us to be up there, so I rushed to get my stuff together.
When I got outside, a humid heat hit me, and it was like unbreathable hot. I haven’t felt it this way since I lived in florida in the hottest part of the year. As I lined up in my spot I was over looking the port. It didn’t look like much was going on in this particular place. The mountains were a lot smaller and had a a lot of different vegetation from what I’m used too. Claire, the piano player lined up next to me, and it was her day off as well. I asked if she wanted to go into town with me and get some food and if her boyfriend Thomas wanted to come along. Thomas had port manning, so I called Eric, and asked if he wanted to join Claire and I.
At 11:30, we met outside of the infirmary, and we made our way off the ship. Immediately as we were leaving we were bombarded by taxi drivers and tour guides. One taxi guy said he would drive, the three of us to the other side of town where the good food was and back for 60 bucks. Seemed pretty steep to us, so we thought we’d play our chances in the immediate town.
Unfortunately after minutes of walking, we found that finding good food was going to be hard to come by in the area. So we flagged down a taxi. He only spoke spanish, and lucky for me I remember a lot of vocabulary from class, and ways of making sentences to ask him to take us to the other side of town where the good food was. He knew exactly what we wanted and he took us there. He dropped us off at this nice indoor/outdoor bar like restaurant. It was only 20 bucks (which was a lot better from the 30 we would of spent just to cut the trip in half from the other guy.) So we sat and ordered drinks. I got Coke. It tasted... a tad different from regular coke. It wasn’t as sweet. Still good. Unfortunately for Claire they didn’t have any vegetarian food.. except a bean taco. She order two of those, I got steak, and Eric got Shrimp. It was pretty good for the price. Eric and I started doing the “that’s what she said” jokes, and Claire didn’t understand some of them, so we decided to corrupt her mind, and by the end of the trip she was doing it as much as we were.
When we left the restaurant, we just walked and talked. We passed a lot of rundown looking places for about an hour. Claire and Eric talked about his upcoming job with Holland America, starting in January. He leaves in November. Blows. 3 cruises actually.
We came across a bank, with an ATM, and Claire wanted to withdraw some money, so we went and did that, and then shot across the street and went into a 7/11 kind of store. First thing I noticed inside, was that they had single beer cans available in the drink freezer in the front near the cash register. Like any regular beverage. I was thirsty as hell so I went looking for something, and i found my favorite drink. In spanish, no less. Arizona Green tea.. with HONEY. I got two cans and a pack of gum. Normally in America those three things would run me 3 dollars and some cents. But here, 1.99! It’s 1.98 for two Arizona cans without tax in America, but I got a pack a gum with that! Crazy stuff.
So we walked a ways more, until we realized we may be going the wrong way. We flagged down another taxi, and he picked us up and took us to the ship. Strangely enough, he only charged 10 dollars. I think that taxi guys just charge what they want. But we still saved 30 dollars from the guy we met at first. So we made the right choice.
We got on the ship, and I had dinner and stuff, and just watched movies all night, and took it easy for my voice. I gave it a real break. Though I did manage to write a song for a customer.
Wednesday, October 14th, we had a tender port, but I didn’t really feel like getting off. In fact I slept until 11:30. Had lunch, recorded the song for the customer, and just played around, dinner, until 9. It was a very awesome crowd, and it went over really well all through out the night. I played up to 2 am. Hit the sack, and that was really the end of that day.
Thursday, October 15th, which was yesterday for me, was filled of interesting dreams, in the morning. I had a bizarre dream of seeing my mom and step dad, and my little brother but at the age of 8, and Courtney, but she was old enough to drive. At some point I realized I had missed the time due back on the ship, and started freaking out, because no one really cared if I made it back. Then time fast forwarded to me in my room on the ship except it was huge and looked like it was made of wood, and I had a roommate. On the computer, there was a recording of the conversation I had with Mila Kunis. It was me breaking up with her and her getting angry. Then I woke up to the phone ringing. It was Colleen. She was surprised I was still sleeping and asked if I was going out. I told her no, since we had to be on the ship by 3 pm. She apologized for waking me up and hung up. I went back to sleep for another half hour and then I received another phone call. I answered and it was a girl with an accent asking for Derilich. I thought she meant me so I said this is Derek. She asked for Derilich again, and I told her wrong number. I got up at that point and went and ate lunch.
Afterwards, I tried tracking a new song I’m writing. I was doing laundry also between takes. I was 100 percent out of clothes.
I played a couple games, and worked on a new song for my set. After a bit, I went to dinner. I ended up being there for an hour, talking with Eric about various topics. Then came to my room, got showered and ready, and went to go restring my guitar upstairs. When I got up there it was SLAMMED full with everyone. Really really loud. Katerina told me they were all there for me. So I restrung my guitar. An engineer on the ship named Gyssepie* asked me if he could buy my 12 string. He said it was gorgeous and loved it. I let him play it for a bit, and he was sold. I told him that’d be fine, because I would just put that money back into another guitar. The ES-335 I’ve had my eye on for over a year.
At about 5 to 9, a drunk man asked when I was starting because everyone was waiting for me. So, I got up and started off immediately with upbeat stuff, and got everyone going. Lots of energy. On breaks, I talked with Sasima, a couple of the dealers and all that. Over the last days, I’ve played “Viva la Vida” for Ruxandra, one of the dealers. She was thankful. Sasima asked me to play her song, and I did and she liked it.
On one break, a waiter brought down some dips and desserts from the mexican buffet upstairs (I can have some, but because I was working I didn’t have the time to go up and eat). I tried the dips, and it was all very delicious.
So I played through out the night, until 2. I was going to shut down, but everybody screamed and begged me to stay, and they all said they would tip me. So I waited until I was tipped something to wean me over. 25 went in right then. So, I played for 20 minutes. Then they begged for more, so I said tip, and I’ll go. I got another 16 bucks, so I played another ten minutes. At that point I needed to stop, my voice needed the break, so I stopped and broke down. As I was leaving, Sasima asked me if I could sync her iphone with my itunes, and take some of my music. I said that’d be fine. She then asked if I wanted to go for some Thai food in San Diego. I told her that’d be cool. I love thai food, so I’ll to find out where they serve it.
I came to room and got online and saw Felicia was on, so I talked with her for over an hour, and then I got real tired and went to sleep, to wake up at 2:30. I checked some internet stuff, and started writing this! Got work at 9 tonight! Should be fun!
Saturday, October 10th was an interesting day. I got up around 11:30 and ate lunch, and then got cleaned up with the intentions to play 2 to 4 on the Lido deck. I went and sat on the 2nd deck and checked my internet on my phone since it was in service. But what I noticed was we were quite a ways from the port. I didn’t think it’d be possible to have people on the ship by 2 at the rate we were going. When I got upstairs and got to setting up, a huge table was in the middle of the stage, but I didn’t want to mess with it incase it was something important. I set up around it and then Peter, my boss, came up and said we wouldn’t be in port until 2:30 and people won’t be on ‘til around 3.
He helped set up the sound and all that and said I could just wait ‘til 3. So I called up Felicia. Our conversation was cut short by loss of service? Not on my end, I had full bars! Then I called Nick and talked with him for a bit about the radio push. I filled him in on the pictures I ordered, and the cds and all that. I definitely had to give a lot of credit to Amanda for really getting this going. She’s quite a determined girl.
After I got off the phone with him, it was about 3, so I got on stage to play. No one was there except workers. And the ship had JUST parked. So, I played for the workers. They requested songs and I played. Svetlana, a girl I met at the last jam, was there and she requested “You’re Beautiful” by James Blunt. I think that made her day. Agnes asked for “Last Kiss”, and then I just warmed up my voice. My voice was seemingly back to normal after five days of crap.
My connection to my voice and being outside is, that every time I go outside to play, my voice clears up after a couple of hours and feels fine. So I’m going to need to make a note to go outside at least for a half hour a day and just breathe.
At about 3:40 the first passengers walked by, and seemed into the music. I noticed a lot more kids walking around than I’ve seen on all my cruises combined. Good sign for me and the crew, because we were going to have real shows and make some good money!
At 4, I finished up and ran downstairs to get my ID, and headed for the gangway. As I was about to get off, our new cruise director, Stu, was getting on. I asked how he was doing since a couple weeks ago, he got the mumps. He said he felt a bit better, but he did have a loss of color from the last time I saw him. When getting outside a woman was there and she asked if I wanted to go to crew services, or out into town. I asked what the first was, and she said it’s a little center with free internet, phone and all that for the crew. I truly just wanted to get the hell out of the area, so I went into town. I called my dad and filled him in on everything. I walked around San Diego for awhile looking for some type of mall with food and all that. After walking a long circle and ending the conversation, I finally saw it. But I gotta say, from the walk around town, I was very surprised to see how many homeless people live on sidewalks, in tents and all that.
When I got to the mall, it was a complete outside mall. It was 3-4 stories high, with all the ships lined up going back and forth. All exposed to the weather. Very neat looking. I looked around for a bit, browsing through shops. Eventually I got real hungry so I started looking through the food court, which was all in a line on the top floor. I walked by the mexican food place, and I saw Val, Cleo and Glenn there. So I went in and sat with them. I ordered nachos. Haven’t had those in a while!
After dinner, we walked into a Sam Goody, and everyone got movies and stuff. I walked back with Glenn and we talked about more music and stuff like that. When I got back to the ship, I went to my room and wasted time playing video games until 9:30. There was a little group just hanging out at the bar. The ship hadn’t left yet.. and it was supposed to over an hour before that. The casino can’t open until it’s 3 miles from port. So people waited patiently. But I got them all riled up and they bought drinks and hung around, tipping well, and just loving all the song selections.
Aft 12:10, the ship was finally out of port and the Casino opened. My crowd dissipated to gamble, and I got off at 12:30. I met, or rather, got the names of a couple people that will be working with me for a couple weeks. One is Sasima. She’s a waitress, and from Thailand. The other was Dewa Ayu. She’s from the Philippines.
Sunday, October 11th, was our first sea day. We lost an hour. So in a weeks time, we lost 4 hours of sleep. BLOWS. I just kind of hung to myself for the day, Playing games and the such. Anticipating playing at 8 pm. I had my meals and it really was an uneventful day. Sea days are just those kind of days. You don’t feel bad for wasting them because there really is nothing to do. Amanda emailed me and told me a promoter was very interested in me, and she’ll talk with Mike about it. It’s kinda nice to not have to worry about the business part of everything. I really would like to focus more on performance and writing. Alan said he sent my CDs, so I should have them for the next cruise and I plan on promoting the crap out of it.
At 8 PM, The bar was very busy. The busiest I had ever seen it. I went and I played, and the place was crazy. During breaks people stopped me to tell me how good I was. Some said I was the best on the ship. I knew a lot of the songs requested. It was nice, because it seemed most of the people watching me have listen to the radio for the last 30 years, versus turning it off 30 years ago, and never listening to another thing. So all my new music has definitely paid off this cruise. A couple people asked for “Unwell” by Matchbox 20, and “Mad World” by tears for fears but made famous by Gary Juals*( check spelling..) I made promises to learn both.
Mark, the passenger I promised to learn “Mad World” for came up on my little bar stage and checked out my setlist on my computer.
Sasima and I had little conversations in between, and I noticed all the guys flirting with Katerina the bar tender. In fact, this week, two people have facebooked me ONLY to get info from her so they can stay in touch. She is a gorgeous girl and sweet as pie, but she has a boyfriend and a son. It’s quite amazing how everyone goes after her.
By the end of the night, I saw Dewa Ayu and asked what song she liked, and he favorite was “One Last Breath” by Creed. Though very challenging I said I’d try to learn it for her.
After my set, these two gentleman that were sitting and watching me called me over. They were the Auditors that were inspecting the ship that week. The main chief told me he wasn’t a big fan of lots of music but he liked the way I performed. He also told me not to let anyone on the stage, because if they fall, it’s Carnival’s fault. So that would be my excuse to tell people who want to sing, that they can’t (because believe me, a lot of people ask if they can come up and sing. There’s a karaoke around the corner. They can go there.)
I got to bed that night pretty late, and was having trouble sleeping. The hours have been throwing me off. My new sleep time is between 3 and 4. 11 Is the earliest I get up anymore.
Monday, October 12th, was a rough day at sea. Apparently we were going through a tropical storm. I felt the movement early on, so I took seasickness pills and I didn’t feel sick for the whole day. Most of the ship, I think it was opposite. There wasn’t a lot of people running around. Even my gig was a lot less energetic than the night before, but the people that were there were the people there from the night before. So it seems I had another group to follow me. I played “Unwell” and “Mad World” and they were receipted well. I asked Sasima if there were any songs she really liked that she wanted me to learn, and she said “One” by U2. Ironically a safety officer a month ago asked for the same song and I had bought it and had the tabs in my computer already, so I made a note to learn it by the next time I played.
On one of my breaks I checked the capper for the next day and it turned out I had the day off! So that was very exciting for me!
At about 12, my medicine started to wear off and I started to get tired. Really tired. It looked dead enough where I could leave by 12:30. But not 2 minutes later, did a huge group of people come just to see me. So I stayed ‘til 1. I knew we had a boat drill, so I got to bed early.
Tuesday, October 13th, we arrived at Manzinillo*, and I was woken up by the boat drill. The last time we had one it took over a half hour for the alpha team to get set up, so I took my time getting ready. It wasn’t more than 5 minutes before they called for us to be up there, so I rushed to get my stuff together.
When I got outside, a humid heat hit me, and it was like unbreathable hot. I haven’t felt it this way since I lived in florida in the hottest part of the year. As I lined up in my spot I was over looking the port. It didn’t look like much was going on in this particular place. The mountains were a lot smaller and had a a lot of different vegetation from what I’m used too. Claire, the piano player lined up next to me, and it was her day off as well. I asked if she wanted to go into town with me and get some food and if her boyfriend Thomas wanted to come along. Thomas had port manning, so I called Eric, and asked if he wanted to join Claire and I.
At 11:30, we met outside of the infirmary, and we made our way off the ship. Immediately as we were leaving we were bombarded by taxi drivers and tour guides. One taxi guy said he would drive, the three of us to the other side of town where the good food was and back for 60 bucks. Seemed pretty steep to us, so we thought we’d play our chances in the immediate town.
Unfortunately after minutes of walking, we found that finding good food was going to be hard to come by in the area. So we flagged down a taxi. He only spoke spanish, and lucky for me I remember a lot of vocabulary from class, and ways of making sentences to ask him to take us to the other side of town where the good food was. He knew exactly what we wanted and he took us there. He dropped us off at this nice indoor/outdoor bar like restaurant. It was only 20 bucks (which was a lot better from the 30 we would of spent just to cut the trip in half from the other guy.) So we sat and ordered drinks. I got Coke. It tasted... a tad different from regular coke. It wasn’t as sweet. Still good. Unfortunately for Claire they didn’t have any vegetarian food.. except a bean taco. She order two of those, I got steak, and Eric got Shrimp. It was pretty good for the price. Eric and I started doing the “that’s what she said” jokes, and Claire didn’t understand some of them, so we decided to corrupt her mind, and by the end of the trip she was doing it as much as we were.
When we left the restaurant, we just walked and talked. We passed a lot of rundown looking places for about an hour. Claire and Eric talked about his upcoming job with Holland America, starting in January. He leaves in November. Blows. 3 cruises actually.
We came across a bank, with an ATM, and Claire wanted to withdraw some money, so we went and did that, and then shot across the street and went into a 7/11 kind of store. First thing I noticed inside, was that they had single beer cans available in the drink freezer in the front near the cash register. Like any regular beverage. I was thirsty as hell so I went looking for something, and i found my favorite drink. In spanish, no less. Arizona Green tea.. with HONEY. I got two cans and a pack of gum. Normally in America those three things would run me 3 dollars and some cents. But here, 1.99! It’s 1.98 for two Arizona cans without tax in America, but I got a pack a gum with that! Crazy stuff.
So we walked a ways more, until we realized we may be going the wrong way. We flagged down another taxi, and he picked us up and took us to the ship. Strangely enough, he only charged 10 dollars. I think that taxi guys just charge what they want. But we still saved 30 dollars from the guy we met at first. So we made the right choice.
We got on the ship, and I had dinner and stuff, and just watched movies all night, and took it easy for my voice. I gave it a real break. Though I did manage to write a song for a customer.
Wednesday, October 14th, we had a tender port, but I didn’t really feel like getting off. In fact I slept until 11:30. Had lunch, recorded the song for the customer, and just played around, dinner, until 9. It was a very awesome crowd, and it went over really well all through out the night. I played up to 2 am. Hit the sack, and that was really the end of that day.
Thursday, October 15th, which was yesterday for me, was filled of interesting dreams, in the morning. I had a bizarre dream of seeing my mom and step dad, and my little brother but at the age of 8, and Courtney, but she was old enough to drive. At some point I realized I had missed the time due back on the ship, and started freaking out, because no one really cared if I made it back. Then time fast forwarded to me in my room on the ship except it was huge and looked like it was made of wood, and I had a roommate. On the computer, there was a recording of the conversation I had with Mila Kunis. It was me breaking up with her and her getting angry. Then I woke up to the phone ringing. It was Colleen. She was surprised I was still sleeping and asked if I was going out. I told her no, since we had to be on the ship by 3 pm. She apologized for waking me up and hung up. I went back to sleep for another half hour and then I received another phone call. I answered and it was a girl with an accent asking for Derilich. I thought she meant me so I said this is Derek. She asked for Derilich again, and I told her wrong number. I got up at that point and went and ate lunch.
Afterwards, I tried tracking a new song I’m writing. I was doing laundry also between takes. I was 100 percent out of clothes.
I played a couple games, and worked on a new song for my set. After a bit, I went to dinner. I ended up being there for an hour, talking with Eric about various topics. Then came to my room, got showered and ready, and went to go restring my guitar upstairs. When I got up there it was SLAMMED full with everyone. Really really loud. Katerina told me they were all there for me. So I restrung my guitar. An engineer on the ship named Gyssepie* asked me if he could buy my 12 string. He said it was gorgeous and loved it. I let him play it for a bit, and he was sold. I told him that’d be fine, because I would just put that money back into another guitar. The ES-335 I’ve had my eye on for over a year.
At about 5 to 9, a drunk man asked when I was starting because everyone was waiting for me. So, I got up and started off immediately with upbeat stuff, and got everyone going. Lots of energy. On breaks, I talked with Sasima, a couple of the dealers and all that. Over the last days, I’ve played “Viva la Vida” for Ruxandra, one of the dealers. She was thankful. Sasima asked me to play her song, and I did and she liked it.
On one break, a waiter brought down some dips and desserts from the mexican buffet upstairs (I can have some, but because I was working I didn’t have the time to go up and eat). I tried the dips, and it was all very delicious.
So I played through out the night, until 2. I was going to shut down, but everybody screamed and begged me to stay, and they all said they would tip me. So I waited until I was tipped something to wean me over. 25 went in right then. So, I played for 20 minutes. Then they begged for more, so I said tip, and I’ll go. I got another 16 bucks, so I played another ten minutes. At that point I needed to stop, my voice needed the break, so I stopped and broke down. As I was leaving, Sasima asked me if I could sync her iphone with my itunes, and take some of my music. I said that’d be fine. She then asked if I wanted to go for some Thai food in San Diego. I told her that’d be cool. I love thai food, so I’ll to find out where they serve it.
I came to room and got online and saw Felicia was on, so I talked with her for over an hour, and then I got real tired and went to sleep, to wake up at 2:30. I checked some internet stuff, and started writing this! Got work at 9 tonight! Should be fun!
Saturday, October 10, 2009
It's sad to see people go.
Crazy how time flies. Especially when you’re sleeping a lot. My days have consisted of random times online, playing with a raw voice all week, making good tips, filling out the casino bar (which I didn’t think was possible), and other stuff in the like.
Eric (the piano bar guy) came over on Wednesday and listened to some of my music, and saw some of my movie clips from the independent film I was doing. He loved the music, and was very entertained by what I had shot. We talked about a lot of the music business, some things he’s been trying to accomplish, and all that stuff. At the end of it all, he and I decided to reserve a spot to go to the supper club and eat a fancy dinner for the following day. Afterwards, I just played that night, and entertained the group that had been coming to see me every night.
Every day, I had been sleeping A LOT to try to heal my voice. Thursday, I slept until 2:30. Voice was still rough. Eric and I went to the supper club, much to the assumptions that he and I were gay, which was not the case in the least. I just wanted really good damn food, and I didn’t want to go alone, and he had never had it. So... We talked about him trying out for American idol, girls, ship life, future plans, and all that stuff. I had the crab cake and surf and turf again. It was so delicious. He had a 24 oz steak. And surprisingly he ate the whole thing.
I went to my gig last night, and EVERYONE was there. It was slammed, and the bar was doing great. My voice was still crap. I can sing about 60% of the songs in my list. It’s the mid-high range songs that squeak when reaching for them. There were three groups of newly weds that had been there to see me every night, and I played all their wedding songs,”Iris” by the goo goo dolls, “If You could only see” by Tonic and “Colorful” by The Verve Pipe. I made over a 100 dollars that night in tips. Overall, I’ve made about 250 in tips. A lot better than the 40 I had made last cruise. But I was sporting a tip jar then.
Chris, the cruise director, had his going away party last night. He’s my head boss. He’s been out here for 12 years, and he’s retiring. No more ships for him. I couldn’t go to his party, because I was working. Sad...
Today, I woke up at 2, and went to help Trevor with some audio stuff.. but due to usage of the venue, we couldn’t work, so I went back to bed until 5, and showered up and went and got some promo pics taken for my press kits.
Then I went to have my first meal of the day, which was a cheeseburger and fries. I went and hung out in the CTC for a bit with Simon and Natalia. Then went and restrung my guitar.
I started playing with the confidence that my voice was back to normal, but “I’m A Believer” gave me trouble and I was squeaking again. Everyone was really great though, and I made 80 dollars in tips, so It was a good end. The casino closed at 12. So I went down to the crew bar, and said good bye to a lot of my friends that were leaving. 100 people were signing off tomorrow, and 110 new people start up. Chris Roberts (CD) was there, and James, the sound tech, was leaving as well, and casino dealers, and a ton more. The Blues Brothers dvd was playing through the television and everyone was drinking and watching it. I saw Eric and went and hung out with him for a bit. Marina, the supper club girl came over and told me to get a beer in my hand. I said I didn’t want any, and she seemed shocked that I wasn’t much of a drinker.
Sara, a casino dealer, came and talked with me for a bit about learning a song for her. I told her I sang “Hey there, Delilah” today and replaced the name with Sara, but she didn’t notice. After awhile of chit chatting, I decided to head back to my room. Due to the water tight doors being closed, I had to go the long way. As I was walking through the Versatile lounge, I saw Chris Roberts waiting for de-embarkation. I went over and told him it had been great working for him. He told me I will be very successful out here and he wished he got me and Eric a lot sooner. He thanked me for everything, and I wished him luck in the real world.
Then I came back to my room and here I am. Tomorrow, we enter San Diego... I can't get off until 4 o clock.. Because I work 2 to 4... then 9:30 to 12:30
Eric (the piano bar guy) came over on Wednesday and listened to some of my music, and saw some of my movie clips from the independent film I was doing. He loved the music, and was very entertained by what I had shot. We talked about a lot of the music business, some things he’s been trying to accomplish, and all that stuff. At the end of it all, he and I decided to reserve a spot to go to the supper club and eat a fancy dinner for the following day. Afterwards, I just played that night, and entertained the group that had been coming to see me every night.
Every day, I had been sleeping A LOT to try to heal my voice. Thursday, I slept until 2:30. Voice was still rough. Eric and I went to the supper club, much to the assumptions that he and I were gay, which was not the case in the least. I just wanted really good damn food, and I didn’t want to go alone, and he had never had it. So... We talked about him trying out for American idol, girls, ship life, future plans, and all that stuff. I had the crab cake and surf and turf again. It was so delicious. He had a 24 oz steak. And surprisingly he ate the whole thing.
I went to my gig last night, and EVERYONE was there. It was slammed, and the bar was doing great. My voice was still crap. I can sing about 60% of the songs in my list. It’s the mid-high range songs that squeak when reaching for them. There were three groups of newly weds that had been there to see me every night, and I played all their wedding songs,”Iris” by the goo goo dolls, “If You could only see” by Tonic and “Colorful” by The Verve Pipe. I made over a 100 dollars that night in tips. Overall, I’ve made about 250 in tips. A lot better than the 40 I had made last cruise. But I was sporting a tip jar then.
Chris, the cruise director, had his going away party last night. He’s my head boss. He’s been out here for 12 years, and he’s retiring. No more ships for him. I couldn’t go to his party, because I was working. Sad...
Today, I woke up at 2, and went to help Trevor with some audio stuff.. but due to usage of the venue, we couldn’t work, so I went back to bed until 5, and showered up and went and got some promo pics taken for my press kits.
Then I went to have my first meal of the day, which was a cheeseburger and fries. I went and hung out in the CTC for a bit with Simon and Natalia. Then went and restrung my guitar.
I started playing with the confidence that my voice was back to normal, but “I’m A Believer” gave me trouble and I was squeaking again. Everyone was really great though, and I made 80 dollars in tips, so It was a good end. The casino closed at 12. So I went down to the crew bar, and said good bye to a lot of my friends that were leaving. 100 people were signing off tomorrow, and 110 new people start up. Chris Roberts (CD) was there, and James, the sound tech, was leaving as well, and casino dealers, and a ton more. The Blues Brothers dvd was playing through the television and everyone was drinking and watching it. I saw Eric and went and hung out with him for a bit. Marina, the supper club girl came over and told me to get a beer in my hand. I said I didn’t want any, and she seemed shocked that I wasn’t much of a drinker.
Sara, a casino dealer, came and talked with me for a bit about learning a song for her. I told her I sang “Hey there, Delilah” today and replaced the name with Sara, but she didn’t notice. After awhile of chit chatting, I decided to head back to my room. Due to the water tight doors being closed, I had to go the long way. As I was walking through the Versatile lounge, I saw Chris Roberts waiting for de-embarkation. I went over and told him it had been great working for him. He told me I will be very successful out here and he wished he got me and Eric a lot sooner. He thanked me for everything, and I wished him luck in the real world.
Then I came back to my room and here I am. Tomorrow, we enter San Diego... I can't get off until 4 o clock.. Because I work 2 to 4... then 9:30 to 12:30
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Employee of The Month
It has been quite an uneventful last few days since the skydiving stuff. Our last day of Honolulu, I stayed on board and just worked on learning songs, and catching up on sleep. We had boat drill at about 5 o’clock and it was very warm. Nice weather. A lot of people were already out on the deck waiting 20 minutes before the drill was to begin. Usually there will be a small group but over half the people that were supposed to be there, were there. I played my gig, and was trying out the harmonizer more. It sounded great, and I love having it in my act. Definitely fills up the dead spots, and gives the songs with harmonies a kick.
The following day was Nawiliwili. I got up around 10, and went to the internet cafe, and uploaded my skydiving video and more pictures I had taken of Pearl Harbor. i was there for a couple hours just doing little things I needed to do.
I took the trolley back to the ship, and got on a shuttle to go to Kmart. I went inside, and got a box of cheese-its, and had some little ceaser’s pizza. Amanda and I were texting back and forth and I told her about Words You Bleed and Josie being on the radio, and Marshalls. She said she she had down time, she wanted to help me get together a “blitz” kind of push for Words You Bleed and get it on the radio in more places.
As we were texting back and forth, I searched online for a Gamestop, to get a cheap game. It said it was 2 miles south. So, I started walking near the highway in that direction texting back and forth with Amanda. We decided on singles, she got me websites for radio stations, and all that. She said she’d burn some CDs for the press kits, and I’d get Nick to write a new bio, and we would start preparing to get all my friends and family and fans to help push this. After about a 2 mile walk I realized.. there wasn’t a gamestop in sight... No where NEAR me. So, I turned around and walked back to miles to find the gamestop was actually right around the corner from K-mart in a shopping center. A little aggravating, but got exercise, so I guess I can’t complain.
I made my way back to the ship, and called Nick and let him know his task, and I started on mine. After a few moments, there was a knock at my door, and I went to answer, and it was my boss Peter. He told me I got employee of the month. I get a bonus 100 dollar check, a nice dinner with the captain (with that night off) and my picture out where everyone can see. I also have to go to a few end of cruise shows and stand on stage when they explain how comment cards can get us this privilege and stuff. Very exciting none the least. I’ve only been here a little over two months, so I felt very accomplished.
I played my show that night and it went over well, and I met two ladies who are now known as Cruise Mom Chris, and Aunt Bev. They were both really nice and we talked for a few hours. Cruise Mom Chris (CMC) does a lot of traveling. She had been on the spirit 4 times. She asked me where Doug was, and I told her he had just gotten off 2 cruises ago. Aunt Bev, well this was her first cruise. She has done the whole waitress, bartending kind of lifestyle. 135 jobs. Pretty crazy!
They both insisted in buying me a drink, but I didn’t want anything, so CMC said she would try to find me some good fried chicken out in Hawaii.
The following day was my day off and it was in Maui. Unfortunately I had port manning so I just stayed in, ate my bland meals, surfed the internet on my phone, and just hung around. The following day, I also stayed on the ship, and just prepared to play.
I played and I was starting to see people coming back to see me personally which was nice. I played for a while, taking my breaks and spoke with CMC and Aunt Bev. CMC said she couldn’t find any fried chicken but asked what other things I liked, so I went down my list. I went to bed soon after.
The next day was Hilo. I got off at about 11, and went to Walmart, and got a bunch of movies for the 5 sea days. Most of them were bargain deals. Then I went to the mall, which had Ihop, and I ate there. Kamille was on aim on the iphone, so I spoke with her for a little bit. After I finished my meal, Thomas and Claire had arrived and asked if I wanted to sit with them. I did so, and we talked about various things. Claire has never been to an Ihop (she’s from England, so makes sense). She told me she’s been doing ships a long time and not once had she seen another musician get employee of the month. That made it seem even more cool I suppose.
I walked around Borders, but couldn’t find any books I wanted to read. I came back to the ship and bumped into Eric. He asked if it was freezing in the ship, in which I replied it was cold... but not 30 degrees. He said he thought he might be coming down with something.
I went to my room, and put in Cast Away, and watched that. An hour later, Eric called and he said he’d been throwing up and such. I told him to go to the infirmary. Better he takes the night off than risk getting everyone sick. Especially before 5 sea days.
At dinner, I saw Peter and mentioned Eric being sick, but he didn’t know anything about it.
Worked more on emailing radio stations, and emailed my lawyer about the push.
Two songs into my gig, Peter came and asked me to go play the Piano Bar at 9:30. So I broke down at 9 and moved over. There was a good crowd there, and the bartender was a real sweet girl. I got to play a lot of my songs, which was nice, because everyone was really into them. “Words You Bleed” and “How I Roll” got receipted well from the younger crowd. “Grounded”, “Fixated” and “Where to Begin” were really enjoyed by the more moderate aged.
I played tons of 90s too and ended the night around 12:30. I went to my room,and watched some of Saving Private Ryan. Fell asleep not too long later.
Yesterday, I woke up at 10, called Nick, and talked to him about the bio. He said he talked with Mike, and he was all for the radio push. He gave Nick some tips for the presskits, and he said I need to be pushing this cd hard on the ship, so of course, next week I’ll be getting some CDs from my producers to sell out here. I emailed a bunch more people, texted some friends, talked to Felicia on the phone, and other stuff.
I started finishing up SPR and Trevor called me about meeting him at the Pharaoh's Palace for the Blues Brother’s show, and recording it. I brought my interface, but Trevor didn’t have a program on his computer to record to, I was rendered useless. Peter was there, and he told me I could collect my 100 dollar bonus in the morning at 10 am at the pay master.
After that, I went to dinner, had a cheeseburger and fries. Peter called and asked if I could play in the piano bar again, He said Eric should be fine the next day. So I got my stuff and went back over and set up early. For the first two hours, I had gay couples just shmoozing around. When they went to dinner, I had one more little burst of people, then the place was empty for an hour and a half. So I broke down at 11:45. No one else came. I went down to my room, and started watching Family guy and fell asleep.
This morning I woke up feeling a little sick. I got dressed, and collected my money. Came back, and took some sea sickness pills. I felt better within the hour. I went to lunch, and just had rice krispies and tea. My voice is kind of raw today. Hurts a little. Not liking it too much. I watched Wizard of Oz on blu ray. Though it looks great, it doesn’t fill up the whole screen which was a little disappointing. I tried to compose a little, but nothing really flowed out of me, and now I’m debating a nap before dinner, and I have to play at 8! So, that’s it for now! Internet black out for a couple days, then I’ll be back to work on radio stations.
The following day was Nawiliwili. I got up around 10, and went to the internet cafe, and uploaded my skydiving video and more pictures I had taken of Pearl Harbor. i was there for a couple hours just doing little things I needed to do.
I took the trolley back to the ship, and got on a shuttle to go to Kmart. I went inside, and got a box of cheese-its, and had some little ceaser’s pizza. Amanda and I were texting back and forth and I told her about Words You Bleed and Josie being on the radio, and Marshalls. She said she she had down time, she wanted to help me get together a “blitz” kind of push for Words You Bleed and get it on the radio in more places.
As we were texting back and forth, I searched online for a Gamestop, to get a cheap game. It said it was 2 miles south. So, I started walking near the highway in that direction texting back and forth with Amanda. We decided on singles, she got me websites for radio stations, and all that. She said she’d burn some CDs for the press kits, and I’d get Nick to write a new bio, and we would start preparing to get all my friends and family and fans to help push this. After about a 2 mile walk I realized.. there wasn’t a gamestop in sight... No where NEAR me. So, I turned around and walked back to miles to find the gamestop was actually right around the corner from K-mart in a shopping center. A little aggravating, but got exercise, so I guess I can’t complain.
I made my way back to the ship, and called Nick and let him know his task, and I started on mine. After a few moments, there was a knock at my door, and I went to answer, and it was my boss Peter. He told me I got employee of the month. I get a bonus 100 dollar check, a nice dinner with the captain (with that night off) and my picture out where everyone can see. I also have to go to a few end of cruise shows and stand on stage when they explain how comment cards can get us this privilege and stuff. Very exciting none the least. I’ve only been here a little over two months, so I felt very accomplished.
I played my show that night and it went over well, and I met two ladies who are now known as Cruise Mom Chris, and Aunt Bev. They were both really nice and we talked for a few hours. Cruise Mom Chris (CMC) does a lot of traveling. She had been on the spirit 4 times. She asked me where Doug was, and I told her he had just gotten off 2 cruises ago. Aunt Bev, well this was her first cruise. She has done the whole waitress, bartending kind of lifestyle. 135 jobs. Pretty crazy!
They both insisted in buying me a drink, but I didn’t want anything, so CMC said she would try to find me some good fried chicken out in Hawaii.
The following day was my day off and it was in Maui. Unfortunately I had port manning so I just stayed in, ate my bland meals, surfed the internet on my phone, and just hung around. The following day, I also stayed on the ship, and just prepared to play.
I played and I was starting to see people coming back to see me personally which was nice. I played for a while, taking my breaks and spoke with CMC and Aunt Bev. CMC said she couldn’t find any fried chicken but asked what other things I liked, so I went down my list. I went to bed soon after.
The next day was Hilo. I got off at about 11, and went to Walmart, and got a bunch of movies for the 5 sea days. Most of them were bargain deals. Then I went to the mall, which had Ihop, and I ate there. Kamille was on aim on the iphone, so I spoke with her for a little bit. After I finished my meal, Thomas and Claire had arrived and asked if I wanted to sit with them. I did so, and we talked about various things. Claire has never been to an Ihop (she’s from England, so makes sense). She told me she’s been doing ships a long time and not once had she seen another musician get employee of the month. That made it seem even more cool I suppose.
I walked around Borders, but couldn’t find any books I wanted to read. I came back to the ship and bumped into Eric. He asked if it was freezing in the ship, in which I replied it was cold... but not 30 degrees. He said he thought he might be coming down with something.
I went to my room, and put in Cast Away, and watched that. An hour later, Eric called and he said he’d been throwing up and such. I told him to go to the infirmary. Better he takes the night off than risk getting everyone sick. Especially before 5 sea days.
At dinner, I saw Peter and mentioned Eric being sick, but he didn’t know anything about it.
Worked more on emailing radio stations, and emailed my lawyer about the push.
Two songs into my gig, Peter came and asked me to go play the Piano Bar at 9:30. So I broke down at 9 and moved over. There was a good crowd there, and the bartender was a real sweet girl. I got to play a lot of my songs, which was nice, because everyone was really into them. “Words You Bleed” and “How I Roll” got receipted well from the younger crowd. “Grounded”, “Fixated” and “Where to Begin” were really enjoyed by the more moderate aged.
I played tons of 90s too and ended the night around 12:30. I went to my room,and watched some of Saving Private Ryan. Fell asleep not too long later.
Yesterday, I woke up at 10, called Nick, and talked to him about the bio. He said he talked with Mike, and he was all for the radio push. He gave Nick some tips for the presskits, and he said I need to be pushing this cd hard on the ship, so of course, next week I’ll be getting some CDs from my producers to sell out here. I emailed a bunch more people, texted some friends, talked to Felicia on the phone, and other stuff.
I started finishing up SPR and Trevor called me about meeting him at the Pharaoh's Palace for the Blues Brother’s show, and recording it. I brought my interface, but Trevor didn’t have a program on his computer to record to, I was rendered useless. Peter was there, and he told me I could collect my 100 dollar bonus in the morning at 10 am at the pay master.
After that, I went to dinner, had a cheeseburger and fries. Peter called and asked if I could play in the piano bar again, He said Eric should be fine the next day. So I got my stuff and went back over and set up early. For the first two hours, I had gay couples just shmoozing around. When they went to dinner, I had one more little burst of people, then the place was empty for an hour and a half. So I broke down at 11:45. No one else came. I went down to my room, and started watching Family guy and fell asleep.
This morning I woke up feeling a little sick. I got dressed, and collected my money. Came back, and took some sea sickness pills. I felt better within the hour. I went to lunch, and just had rice krispies and tea. My voice is kind of raw today. Hurts a little. Not liking it too much. I watched Wizard of Oz on blu ray. Though it looks great, it doesn’t fill up the whole screen which was a little disappointing. I tried to compose a little, but nothing really flowed out of me, and now I’m debating a nap before dinner, and I have to play at 8! So, that’s it for now! Internet black out for a couple days, then I’ll be back to work on radio stations.
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