Every cruise we do a Captain's Party where we play arrangements of jazz and latin tunes. We also have a jazz set that we do on every Wednesday where we play standards. To increase the variety of our tunes (we only have about 6 arrangements that we play) I volunteered some of my own arrangements I've done in the past. We played them at the Captain's Party this past weekend.
I've been writing for several years now and have had some good success. I don't think I'm the greatest arranger in the world, but, I'm pretty good. Anyway, the first tune we read down was one of my most recent efforts on a Herbie Hancock tune called Driftin'. Right after we read the chart, this was the conversation I had with Tony:
Me: "What do you think of the chart?"
Tony: "Well, when we first started playing I felt like quitting music entirely."
Turns out that feeling had nothing to do with my arranging and everything to do with something else. Still funny, though.
We get several movie channels on our cabin TV. 2 or 3 of them loop 1 or 2 movies over and over again and change programming every 2 weeks or so. We also get Turner Classic Movie channel which was showing the first Batman on TCM. You know the one…Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson, Prince soundtrack, Danny Elfman score, Tim Burton directing. I realized that this movie came out when I was in high school. wtf I'm old.
In Nassau today we had another boat drill for crew. New assignment for me today. After going to my muster station to assist guests (had there been any guests there), we all went to survival craft. My craft was new for me. I used to be assigned to a life raft, but, now I've been switched to a life boat. This means that during drills we dispatch the life boats and make sure everything is working. I got to ride down the side of the ship and cruise around in the life boat for a while. It was different, which is usually a good thing. I enjoy the break from the routine. However, the life boat, while functional, is quite dirty. Plus, there is all this dried salt on everything. Kind of a dusty dry film that covers everything. Gets on everything from my clothes, hair and skin. Gross.
April 1 is my stepfather's birthday. Happy Birthday, Lyman! April 1 is also Trombone Awareness Day at Capilano University in Vacouver (where Blair went to school). This is the day when non-trombonists take up the instrument and parade around "playing" to raise awareness about the trombone. Truly a noble effort. Thanks for keeping the trombone, this dying breed of instrument, in the forward consciousness of the general populace. It's unclear if this annual event has anything to do with April Fools Day.
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