1 week

Hey All,

Long time no blog. Just getting back from our big Charter to Trinidad. It was a very cool experience, but I am glad to be back into the normal swing of things, even though its only for a week. I will have a ton of pictures and stories of the trip and my last week up soon, but with only a couple days on the trip I am going to try and experience the islands as much as I can before I am back in the States. Here are a couple of pictures from the trip for now.

I have also posted some new videos on my myspace page. Check em out and let me know what you think.

MYSPACE

All for now.

Contract Countdown: 6 Days!

Much Love,

BJSR

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

Old Men and the Sea

Hey All,

Its the last full week of March. Hope its going out like a lamb for you. I was discussing with Alex today that even though the weather hasn’t really ever dipped below 65 degrees this winter, it still feels like spring time here. Or, should I say smells like spring time. It is sort of hard to explain, but when I get off the ship in the mornings I get hit with the same sensation that I would in early April in Michigan. It must be that some plants are blossoming or something, because even though I have been taking my allergy shots for almost 5 months now, I’m still sneezing like crazy. I guess my Ohio allergist didn’t test for all the tropical foliage found in the Caribbean…weird.

Anyway. Time to tell you about adventure number 2. Last Tuesday, my boys; Bennett, Michael (Booba), and Phil, hopped into a cab and headed for the South end of Dominica. We met up with Rock and Mikey, two locals that Bennett met the week before. They threw us in their little boat and motored us to the middle of the Bay. Rock handed us our fishing poles, which were not poles. They were little boards with 50lbs line wrapped around it and a lure and hook at the end. Bennett and Booba dropped their lines and we proceeded to troll around the Bay looking for schools of fish. It was pretty windy, which apparently doesn’t bode well for easy fishing, but makes for a fun ride. The waves were rolling and in such a small boat if felt like we were on a roller coaster. I couldn’t help but yelling “Is that all you got?!” to the thrashing water, and I was dropping every sailing and Castaway reference I could. I’m sure Rock and Mikey thought I was an idiot, but I think they enjoyed my child-like enthusiasm.

After only 10 minutes or so, Booba got a bit and started reeling in the fish. Due to the fact that we didnt actually have polls he was just pulling in the line, mangling up his hands pretty bad. It was a impressive struggle and after a couple of minutes we saw a little bit of splashing about 15 feet from the boat. Rock and Mikey yelled and pulled up the fish…well, half of the fish. Our catch had been bit in half by a Barracuda! Mikey Jumped for a wooden pole with a large hook on the end and Rock started dipping our catch in the water to attract the Cuda. When it got close to the boat we could see the shadow under the water, it looked like it was between 3 and 4 feet! Mikey waited for the right moment and made his move, jabbing at the fish. He missed and we all yelled for him to make another attempt, but our Cuda was long gone by then. We were left with a half a Tuna, (which we named Dan), and an intense desire to catch some more fish.

We continued to troll around the Bay for another hour with little success. I had a bite that I reeled in for a while but it broke loose right before we got in on the boat. It was a little disappointing, but Rock and Mikey took us outside of the bay and rolled us around in the bigger waves to distract us from the bad fishing and let us do a little bit of snorkling. I was very amused. They told us that the wind was not the best, but they would take us back to the beach and cook us our catch.

Bennett grabbed a couple of Kubulis, (Dominican Beer), and we watched as Rock dressed the fish on the beach and Mikey lit the fire and boiled the water. They boiled up some green bananas that were picked across the street and tossed in some onions and seasoning. Dan (our fish) was thrown in last and we waited with our beers. Rock threw in the head for me and told me I had to eat the eye. Feeling very much like Anthony Bourdain, I obliged and the four of us eat our bounty on the beach. The bananas were delicious. The fish was quite good but I thought it could use a little bit more salt, not to be picky. The eye, however, was actually really tasty. It was more fatty than the rest of the fish and had some good flavor. It made me want to have my own travel show.

After our meal we headed back in the cab, full and a little sun-burned. Although we only caught a half of a fish it still felt like a success and don’t think I will every forget that experience.

Here are some shots from the day.

Stay tuned for more adventures from sea.

Contract Countdown: 42 Days

GO SPARTANS!

Much Love,

BJSR

two wheeler…

Hey All,

So Im thinknig about buying a motorcycle. I will be getting back to the states in early May, which would give me almost 7 months of nice weather to ride in. I thought it might be kind of fun to own one for a while. It would save on gas and I could buy a car when winter comes. I dont want a crotch rocket or anything, something a little sturdier but still slick. Im thinking about something like this. Thoughts?

Much Love,

BJSR

Spartans

Hey All,

I hope everyone had a good weekend. I have been fighting a cold, but I think I am on the upswing. I spent a lot of time in bed watching TV. The channels on the ship are limited, with the major networks and a couple of crew movie channels. We actually get our network stations from Denver, which is quite interesting. My buddy, Steve, is living in Aspen, CO and I could tell him his weather reports ever day if wanted to.

The really kicker is that any sport games on the ship are very hit or miss.  With the Spartans doing quite well in both football and basketball year, it has been difficult to track their progress in the middle of the Caribbean all season. Luckily for me, however, I got an opportunity to watch MSU defeat the Purdue Boilermakers on TV yesterday. It was absolutely glorious seeing Izzo get pissed, then restrain himself from yelling at the ref. Watching Sutton kiss the floor and cry like a little baby when he walked off the court for the last time. For a couple of minutes I almost thought I was at home…but the ship rocked and I was snapped back into reality. Two more months.

Thank God March Madness is on CBS, because I will be able to watch the whole thing. Get your Brackets ready.

http://msuspartans.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/msu-m-baskbl-body.html

GO SPARTANS!!!!

Much Love,

BJSR

New Video Post

Hey All,

Got a new video for you.

Much love,
BJSR

Mitchell Symons

Hey All,

Yesterday I had a little Adventure in Barbados. Last week some guests cruised with us from the UK. They came by a couple of my gigs, requesting some songs and were always the first to start the applause. During my breaks I chatted with them about some Dylan tunes they liked and how his son played guitar. They were a really nice couple and I appreciated their interest in music.

Later that week I was talking with Matt and Michael (production singer and cocktail pianist), in the staff mess during Dinner. Matt was describing this gentleman he met during the Art Auction and their conversation. Michael and I both recognized the character and brought up that we both had our own great conversation with this guy and his wife. Well, Matt looked him up on Wikipedia because he had mentioned that he was a writer in Britain. Turns out that Mitchell Symmons and his wife, Penny, are both very well known writers in the UK.

If you google him, which you should, you will find that Mitchell has written many books both over seas and in the US. He used to be a Director and Writer for the BBC, and was one of the key writers of TRIVIAL PURSUIT?!  He now is a weekly columnist for a couple of papers in the UK and is working on two new books this year.

It all made sense. The guy could spark up the most interesting conversation about anything. Apparently he had caught the attention of crew all over the ship because a bunch of people had a funny story about meeting him. The rest of the week he stopped by all of our sets and by Saturday night, he had invited us to his Villa in Barbados where he and his wife, Penny, were on holiday until this week. This was definitely first for all of us, but we were all game for lunch with such interesting people, especially because it would mean that we didn’t need to eat in mess.

So, yesterday a group of us that got to know the Symmons all piled into a cab to drive across the island. Their villa was tucked into the hills with a lovely terrace overlooking the backyard. We all sat outside and talked for hours about everything from music and media to politics and family. These folks have done so many things and met so many amazing people, but I could swear that they were more interested in us than anything else they had ever done. We exchanged information and headed back to the ship, all of us completely content with how great a day we had. We are all looking forward to getting some of Mitchell’s books in the mail and I am working on a couple Dylan songs they suggested.

Here is a few pictures from the day. Enjoy.

Much Love,

BJSR

Something is coming

Hey all,

I just got some video editing software this weekend and I am very excited to start playing with it. Usually I like to use a fun project as a way to learn the ins and outs of the software. I’m pumped about my new project. Im not going to tell you exactly what is, but I will give you a hint…

funny

Keep your eyes peeled.

Much Love,

BJSR

My Space

Hey all,

Thanks for all the votes. I will be getting some more polls on the site as I think of good ones. I wanted to let you know about my Myspace page. I recently created it for all the different music stuff I am involved in. Its pretty simple right now, but there are some pictures, music and videos to check out. The three songs up right now are tracks that I produced with Damon and Kenny at DalSegno. They were all used for the various documentary projects we worked on. As I record some more tracks, I will let you know. Please pass the link along and friend request me if you have an account!! let me know what you want to see on the site, I am very open to ideas and love the feedback.

www.myspace.com/bjsrmusic

Much Love,

BJSR

Lincoln logs

Hey all,

In celebration of Lincoln’s birthday I almost decided to grow a beard in his honor, but I thought the moustache was bad enough. So instead I made small cabin out of coffee stir sticks. Lincoln was born in a small cabin in Kentucky. For more information on our 16Th president, and about beards in general, check out these links…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beard

Much Love,

BJSR