Long Lost Child

Hey All,

Happy Easter! I am sure you probably thought I fell of the face of the earth, but alas, I am still here. I have been very busy the last couple of weeks recording a lot of my music and seeing the islands while I’m still here.

I apologize for the absence, but feel even worse telling you that I will probably not be able to write a lot in the next couple of weeks. We are starting a two week charter cruise, acting as a floating hotel for the Summit of the America’s  event that is taking place in Trinidad. Its a pretty big deal, so you should google it. We don’t have very many details on the situation because the Trinidadian government is taking their time figuring everything out. The security for the entire summit is very tight as all the Heads of State and major delegates from both North and South America will be there…including Obama. yeah, I know. Our Ship will be, as I said, a floating hotel docked for a week in Trinidad for all of the international media covering the event. I will be playing in the Atrium as I always do for them and I am looking forward to playing for a little more diverse crowd. Networking, Baby!
Anyway, it should be an interesting couple of weeks as I finish my contract on the ole’ Carnival Victory. I will take lots of pictures and have lots of stories for everyone. I will try to hop on a couple of times in the next couple of days to post some fun stuff. If I don’t, though, its not from a lack of love…more of a lack of technology. 

Easter dinner tonight should be lovely in the Staff Mess. I am going to put on a Bow Tie and try and eat as much shrimp cocktail as I can before I go into a food coma. We don’t have any guests while we sail to Trinidad, so its like a ghost town here. No one has to work…PARTY!

All for now, I miss all of you.

Much Love,

BJSR

PS  I have almost hit 1,000 views to my myspace!  Im’ going to try and get 10,00 before the end of the Summer. My only question is…(serious, cinematic voice),  “Will you help me?”

pass this link to everyone you know.    www.myspace.com/bjsrmusic

Pics

Hey All,

Happy Weekend everyone. I just posted some new pictures on my myspace page. My friend, Tony, just got a new camera and was taking some pictures of Bennett and I on the lido deck jamming out. Tony is a backstage tech on board and works in TV back home. He has an amazing eye for this kind of thing and I think the shots turned out really nicely. My favorite shot is the close up on my glasses. If you look closely you can see a really cool image of the lido deck and the water slide in the lenses. I think I shall send it to Carnival that they may use it for advertising.

MYSPACE

Enjoy!

Go Michigan State!  Elite 8, BABY!

Contract Countdown: 36 Days

Much Love,

BJSR

Hey

Hey All,

Don’t have a ton for you today. I have been trying to get over another cold I have. Luckily I have plenty of time to sleep on this ship. I’m sure all the guests are sick of me sniffling into the microphone and apologizing about doing so. Good group of guests, though. I met two girls from Chicago. One grew up 30 minutes from Dayton, and the other one went to UofM and dated a guy that Went to Grand Ledge. It’s a small, small world. I also got asked to sing for a wedding in Chicago in June. She asked for my rates and when I gave her the number she was pleasantly surprised….I knew I should have asked for more.  ☺

Anyway, All for now. Keep it real and keep an eye out for some new videos and recordings coming soon.

Word of the Day:

convivial |kənˈvivēəl; kənˈvivyəl|
adjective
(of an atmosphere or event) friendly, lively, and enjoyable.
• (of a person) cheerful and friendly; jovial.
DERIVATIVES
conviviality |kənˌvivēˈalitē| |kənˈvɪviˈølədi| |-ˈalɪti| noun
convivially |kənˈvɪviəli| |kənˈvɪvjəli| adverb
ORIGIN mid 17th cent. (in the sense [fit for a feast, festive] ): from Latin convivialis, from convivium ‘a feast,’ from con- ‘with’ + vivere ‘live.’

Contract Countdown: 38 Days

Much Love,
BJSR

110

Hey All,

Last Friday I was asked by Mike,, the Golf Pro on board, if I wanted to go golfing in Antigua. While I am trying to save some money before I get home, I figured that I might not have an opportunity to play golf in the Caribbean again. So, I signed up. We left early, (early for a musician that plays at night), because I had to be back for an early set up on the lido deck.

The course was about 20 minutes from the port and as the 6 of us took the cab we joked about who’s game would be worse. Having not played in two years, I figured my “muscle memory,” as my dad likes to put it, would take some time to return.  We hit the course by 9:00 and by 9:05 we knew what the competition was going to be like. The one guest we were playing with is a certified PGA pro and hit drive that did not curve a degree as it sailed 250 ft. down the first fairway. None of us wanted to hit after his shot, but we all manned up. My first drive was fairly decent and I boggied the first hole. I was feeling pretty confident until my second drive hit the center of the fairway…of the 7th hole.

With a couple of tips from our pro guest and mike I started to get back into the swing of things (pun intended). Robert taught me a nice 7-9 iron stroke that I picked up on pretty quickly and rocked some really nice approach shots. I was kicking butt around the green, but I was still having trouble off the Tee. I finished 18 with a 110 (an Honest 110) and felt that I could have done a lot worse after 2 years out of practice. I was pleased that i didn’t finish last with a 112 and a 117 by the assistant cruise director and Camp Carnival worker.

The course was nice but the ground was incredibly dry. I think I hit a ball that rolled more that 125 feet on the 4th hole. Of all the courses that Mike plays on our route, this is the cheapest. That’s why he usually invites crew to play. The most expensive course he plays is in Barbados at the Green Monkey, which costs 3,000 dollars if you are not staying at the villa it sits on. I don’t think we will be playing that one any time soon, but we are going to try and go one more time before my contract is up. Mike thinks with a little time in the simulator, working on my drive, I could get myself down to a 89.  Here’s hoping.

Contract Countdown: 41 Days

Much Love,
BJSR

Kites!

Hey All,

Happy weekend everyone! Im chilling in St. Kitts at my favorite internet cafe, doing a little interwebbing. This week has been pretty darn fun. Lots of adventures and stories, but I dont want to overwhelm you with everything at once. So, I will start with the kite flying.

The week before last that we had bought kites from the Wallgreens  in Old San Juan and waited in intense anticipation for our chance to fly them the next week. We had everything planned for Last Sunday; interneting and phone calls in the morning, kite flying at round 3:00, and the dinner at restaurant in San Juan. It was shaping up to be the perfect day. We had our kites all packed up and cameras in hand. As we went through security and passed our bags through the metal detectors, the guards stopped us and started to search our bags. Apparently, because the kites were still in there packaging, they needed to go through customs or we couldn’t take them off the ship. Well, customs was closed and all of the customs agents had left for the morning. Frustration started to build and a couple of the people in our group (not me) were voicing their opinion about the stupidity of the situation. I mean, these kites cost like $2.99, and were probably not even going to last through the day. The guards took our reaction as a personal attack and wrote a couple of names down, (again, not mine) and called the chief of security. After a while of compromises and apologies ( “what we have here is a failure to communicate”)  we concluded that if we take the kites out of the wrappers, we could take them off. The whole thing got everyone really revved up, which I think made the day even more enjoyable.

So we headed on up to Fort de Morro on the other side of the island. The Fort has a huge grass lawn in front of it that is usually filled with picnickers, photographers and other kite fliers. Today was no exception and the conditions were perfect to launch our cheap, plastic kites. We spent the next few hours running around like 10 year olds. It was brilliant…almost whimsical. I had so much fun. I reminded me of all the Easters that we would get the sames little kites and try to run outside and fly them, except this time I was in another Country. The wind was pretty intense off the water. Our kites lasted about 2 hours before the plastic ripped and the strings broke, but we were as content as could be. We got some great pictures all got a pretty good laugh about it. Great memories.

Here are some shots of the day. I am going to try and post a video or two soon of our adventures.

Stay tuned for more stories from this week. And make sure you check out the myspace page and keep listening to the tunes.

Contract Countdown: 43 Days

Word of the Day:

whimsical |ˈ(h)wimzikəl|
adjective
1 playfully quaint or fanciful, esp. in an appealing and amusing way : a whimsical sense of humor.
2 acting or behaving in a capricious manner : the whimsical arbitrariness of autocracy.

Much Love,

BJSR

oh life.

Hey All,

I really hope everyone had a good weekend. Mine was lovely. I will have a lot of pictures for everyone coming in the next couple of days so keep your eyes peeled. I have a busy week planned… a little deep sea fishing, golfing, music, and of course blog writing. I only have 7 weeks left in the contract so I am starting to feel like I have too much to do before I leave. Its crazy that I can actually procrastinate having fun in the caribbean.

Sounds like the weather back home has been improving. I have been getting facebook messages and email about how its 60’s and sunny. Im so happy for everyone! Finally! You guys totally deserve it. A lot of the guests have been from Michigan in the last couple of weeks. They all are saying that they needed to leave the flipping state before their Brains froze and they were rendered useless for the rest of the year. Well, I hope that you are all starting to thaw and get ready for one hell of a summer.

Once again, Steve has sent me a link to another tid bit of humor. The site is a little vulgar, but absolutely hilarious. Something to look at while eating your lunch or on break. Enjoy, and say “Hi” me. I want to see who is looking at this site.

Humor for the Day

Word of the Day: nomenclature |ˈnōmənˌklā ch ər|
noun
the devising or choosing of names for things, esp. in a science or other discipline.
• the body or system of such names in a particular field : the nomenclature of chemical compounds.

• formal the term or terms applied to someone or something : “customers” was preferred to the original nomenclature “passengers.”

Contract Countdown: 49 Days

Much love,

BJSR

Fat Tues.

Hey all,

Hope everyone had a crazy Mardi Gras. We were in beautiful Dominica for the day and I got to see some of the festivities there. There was a music blasting from the island all day and parades throughout the street. People were all jazzed up with their costumes and it looked very similar the pictures I have seen of Carnival in Brazil…just not as epic. Most of the shops were closed and all the kids were out of school running through the streets or playing steel drums in the parade. I had to play Lido Deck in the afternoon, so I could stay long on the island. My set was great, though, and I had a lovely day playing music for all the guests.

Looking forward to Lent, I have been putting a lot of thought into what I would like to give up for 40 days and nights. I decided that a more positive, proactive task might be more fitting. I have been slacking lately on my blog posts, failing to connect with all those people back home that haven’t seen in so long. So, I’m going to work at writing more on bjsr and staying in touch with all of you in the states. Telling you of my adventures as well as random nonsense that is stirring around in my brain at the moment.

What are you all giving up, if anything?

Much love,

BJSR

New BJSR feature…Polls!

Hey All,

So there is a cool new feature I am going to start using on the blog… Polls.

Im going to start off with an easy one to see how well it works, and then get into the really deep content later. Happy Polling!

Much Love,

BJSR

Artists in Residence

Hey All,

I was just talking with my friend, Kenny, and found out that this video was available online.

This past summer the production studio I was working for, (DalSegno Productions,) filmed a documentary on the “Artist in Residence” program at the University of Dayton. We spent a couple of months filming and interviewing the students as they completed their works. I conducted the interviews, wrote most of the music and helped with some of the creative editing. Kenny, who also graduated from UD, directed, shot and edited the film. Damon, our exec. producer, had his hand in everything and pushed us along. It was an amazing learning experience for all of us.

The video is about 30 minutes, so make sure you have time to watch the whole thing, and dont get in trouble if you are watching it at work.  Please let me know what you think.

Much love,

BJSR

MORE LISTS!

Hey all,

So I have been enjoying the lists I have been getting in. I decided to not add any new stories or pictures today. I would ask that you please just post your lists and enjoy the topic. Look forward to hearing from you!!!!

100

Much love,

BJSR