Currently Reading The Sacred Romance: Drawing Closer to the Heart of God By Brent Curtis, John Eldredge see related

Tag

It appears I've been tagged....twice.  Some of yall just wish you were me right now, huh?  Okay, so it'll be 14 random facts/habits about me.

1. I love to take baths.

2. I haven't gone to work in 2 months.

3. When i do work, I make my money banging on drums.

4. The CD's in the stereo right now are Jamiroquai, Stan Kenton, Sandi Patti, Superchick, and Van Halen.

5. Right now, I'm actually reading about 4 or 5 books at the same time (like I said, I haven't been to work in 2 months).

6. My earthly possessions are mostly in boxes right now.

7. I'm about to go live for 6 months out of a suitcase, a hanging bag, a laptop bag, and a cymbal bag (You guys sure you want to work on a cruise ship??).

8. I'm so bored since I've been home, I've been to Karayoke....twice.

9. I've got a girlfriend now, yay for me.

10. I don't think it's hardly reached 100 degrees yet in Wichita Falls.  Mid-June.  The Apocalypse must be near.

11. I miss Tony Lopez.  I hate you, man.

12. I have a habit of dropping my keys outside the door to the house, usually when I have my hands full of other stuff.

13. I tend to get more and more sarcastic later in the night (But Andrew, you're never sarcastic).

14. I might audition for Blue Man Group after Christmas.

***I'm supposed to tag other people to do this.  I think I'm gonna make an executive call and just cut my ties right here.  Goodnight everyone.

Andrew     

Currently Reading Path Between The Seas : The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 By David McCullough see related

Last post was about 4 months ago.  I finished my first contract with Carnival Cruise Lines in April.  I'm leaving in 3 weeks to play on another ship, this time for 6 months.  This will be on a larger ship, The Carnival Destiny, based out of San Juan, Puerto Rico.  So, I will not even be in the continental United States until Christmas.  Fun times, though.  My time off (my "vacation") has been great.  I went back up to New York City to visit some friends and family.  Also, I just got back from LA where I spent a week with my brother.  Ah!  No, we really get along, which I guess is fairly weird for brothers.  We drove to Vegas and saw the Blue Man Group, and the musical Spamalot.  Plus, we also saw the dancing fountains in front of the Bellagio Hotel (featured at the end of the movie "Ocean's Eleven").  So, I have been keeping busy and am having a wonderful time getting to play music for a living.  Please drop me a line, any of you I haven't talked to in awhile.  I'd love to hear what's going on with yall.

Andrew

The storms passing through Central Florida the other day didn't reach all the way down to Miami to my knowledge.  And even if they did, I was pretty far South in Jamaica.  The crew was a little afraid to get off in Miami today because it's Super Bowl weekend here, and we assumed a crowd would already be in town for the festivities.  I didn't get to leave the ship because I am on what's called Port Manning for this cruise.  It is simply a level of safety where there has to be a certain number of crew members on board the ship whenever we are in port in case of an emergency.  Some guests stay on the ship in port, and  there has to be some crew there to help in case the ship needs to be evacuated.  However, crew members who got off today said that it wasn't any busier than usual, so I guess everyone is driving in tonight or tomorrow morning.  Our mighty "Fourchestra"  is getting a fifth in couple of cruises.  A Trumpet player from Poland, as I understand it, will be here soon.  We're on our way up.  That is until the Bass Player leaves next month.  They come and they go.  That's the way it goes with this gig.

Go Colts.

I haven't posted in nearly two months.  I'm having a great time playing for Carnival Cruise Lines.  Incidentally, if any of my musician friends out there are looking for a gig, Carnival has plenty to go around.  There are quite a few Showband spots open right now.  And by right now, I mean you could be on a ship in a week or two.  The rosters swell over the summer with college kids doing short 3-month contracts, but right now numbers are most definitely down.  Currently the Imagination Orchestra (that's me, by the way) is running at four hearty souls.  We've got a Guitar, Bass, Drums, and T-bone quartet.  One of the singers dubbed us the "Fourchestra".  Even so, we're pretty balanced out to do the things we need.  We've got all the holes filled to play live cocktail sets and jazz jam sessions, and the production shows are played with click track and recordings, so we are just balanced with the recorded horns. 

The "Ideal" Full Instrumentation of these groups is usually (Guitar, Piano, Bass, Drums) (2 Trumpets and and Trombone) and (2-3 saxes usually doubling clarinet or flute as well, sometimes a bari player)  So a full group is a 10-piece, but there is maybe one ship in the Carnival fleet that is running on 10 pieces, and that's a maybe.

Contracts are very flexible for the musicians.  Other departments on the ship are more set with 6-month or 9-month contracts, but with musicians, they'll pretty much take you for as long as you'll do it.  I signed up for a 4-month contract.  I will probably take off a little after this, and then do a 6-month contract.  Beyond that I haven't decided.  There are some folks here who have worked on ships for more than 10 years.  I don't think so.  But I also didn't think I would be here now.  If you'd asked me this summer, I couldn't have told you.  I thought I would still be in New York City.

you can check out www.carnivalentertainment.com   if you're interested, or drop me a message, and I'll tell you more about it.

But, yeah, I'm doing great.  This beats workin' for a livin'.