All Jazzed Up

Cruise # 9-As you already know I was on port manning this cruise. I couldn't get off the ship and had to do extra duties like run the midnight show by myself. I got kinda lucky with this cruise because there was a group from Harlem on board that required extra assistance. It was a Jazz cruise. There were four different bands that played throughout the week. They were Jazmyn, The Nathan Lucas Quartet, The Seleno Clarke Quintet and The Danny Mixon Quartet. I had to sit next to the 85 year old director, Johnny and give light and sound cues to Jenn and Ben. They were a real pain to work with. The first day I met with them, I was calling everyone "sir". Johnny said to me, "call me sir one more time and see what happens". A little later, a guy named Ben walked into our conversation and stood one foot away from me and said, "Do you want to say something, You got something to say?". It did get better as the week went on though. They realized that we knew what we were doing and backed off a bit. By the end of the week we were hanging out with some of them outside of work. We met Matt the drummer from the Nathan Lucus Quintet for a drink on the last sea day. Also, Nathan Lucas himself said he was going to come hang out with us when we go Key West here in a couple of weeks. We have a charter cruise coming up that will have an overnight in Key West and a port day in Cozumel. More to come on that in future posts. We have some awesome things planned for that cruise that I can't tell you about now.

I got paid extra to do it. We were supposed to get paid $50 an hour to do it but some genius who negotiated with the group only got us $300 dollars which works out to around $18 dollars an hour. Some of us would have made over a grand if we had been paid correctly. Also, they didn't tip. Oh well, it gave me extra money and something to do in port.

The fly-ons for this cruise were Percy Crews II, Karen Grainger, Phil Hughs and Anthony Acosta. Percy Crews a comedian with southern humor. He talks a lot about church and how people should raise their children. He warms up like Rocky before he goes on. He runs around and punches the air before he starts his show. Karen does some of the most amazing vocal impersonations I have ever seen. Some of the singers she does are spot on. She is a lovely woman, very easy to talk to and very appreciative of what we do as a technical team. Phil is a ventriloquist. He is really cool. We had an epic battle of darts in the crew bar both nights he was here. He is also very popular with the ladies. I saw him with several attractive women last week. Anthony is hilarious both on stage and in the crew areas. He is working on a new song for his show but I may not get to here it because we are going to Fort Lauderdale soon and he doesn't think he will be working down there.

This New York was more about getting some things done rather than seeing new things. When I cut my knee open I was wearing the only pair of black pants that I own. I had to throw them out. I went and bought two pair of black pants and some socks. I left with 6 pairs of black socks and now I only have three socks left due to the sock gnomes that keep stealing my socks. Also, I bought a sweater that I have wanted for several years now. For those of you in the know, it is the green sweater with an argyle pattern on it. It looks freakin' great on me. I haven't been able to find it anywhere else but there it was at Macy's in New York. We ate lunch at Fat Sal's Pizza. I had the sausage and onion pizza and it was delicious. It was New York style, of course. It was a pretty windy day and I almost dropped the pizza on the way back.

Danny mentioned a few weeks ago that he wanted to know more about the ship and where I live. Think of a small town only with much less space. The rooms are probably around 8' X 15'. The showers are maybe 4' X 4'. We have three mess halls. One for the officers, one for staff and one for crew. We have an Internet cafe and a crew bar. Also, like a small town rumors fly at warp speed. The first week I was on board Liz(my handover) and I played a prank on Ben. The infirmary hands out free condoms. We grabbed two handfuls each and then placed them in Ben's drawers and shoes, etc. The afternoon after we did this Jenn came to us and said that she heard we were sleeping together. Someone saw us walking together with condoms and it had already gotten back around to us. There is very little privacy and the only time I am not around someone is when I am in the room without Ben. Which is rare because we always work at the same time.

Talk to you soon,


Chris

P.S. My knee is fine I got the stitches out last Sunday.

Picture #1-The Nathan Lucas Quartet, The guy sitting down is 99 years old and he is the father of Nathan Lucas who is playing the organ.

Picture #2-Jazmyn, These guys play in Vegas a lot but I have no idea where because they are a musical train wreck. I think an eighth grader could have played the trumpet parts.

Picture #3-The Seleno Clarke Quintet, This was by far the best band. They were all really talented and were fun to watch because they all seemed like they were excited to be there. Jenn fell in love with the Australian sax player who "clapped like an accountant".

Picture #4-The Danny Mixon Quartet, These guys were annoying, mostly because of the leader on the keyboard who threw in an uuuuhhhhh every other note. At one point they were playing a tropical tune and he added Ca Caw Ca Caw. We made fun of him all week. He is the guy on the far left in the really cool yellow jacket and captain's hat.

Picture #5-We walked past Carnegie Hall while we were shopping and I stopped to take a picture.

Picture #6-My room. We have bunk beds(L) and footlockers(R) and a desk(behind the door). I took the picture while standing in the hall. Where's Chris?

Picture #7-My Bathroom. (L to R)sink, toilet and shower. It is located just behind the chair in picture #6.