Istanbul/Naples ;-)

(I'm in Istanbul right now - and I'm so sorry for the gap between posts - my internet has been down and the ship's Data Systems Manager has been fixing my computer. But it is now fixed, so I can stop going crazy. What follows is a post I wrote on October 26th, in Naples, and was unable to send until now. I will write another post very soon!)

Tomorrow I start my second to last cruise! Its coming down to it, now….Today we are in Naples and its rainy again. I would like to go out, but I’m not sure if I can talk any of the guys into going out….I think they are all lazy today. That’s alright, I really should practice, anyway.

Last night we played a really cool show. The entertainer was Scott Record, and he does singing comedic impressions. He is really amazing – he has dozens of different voices and can imitate anyone’s singing style. Apparently he’s really famous as well – he’s going to appear on David Letterman in a few weeks. The show had the band laughing so hard we were in tears the entire time. One of the most interesting things he does is an impression of Frank Sinatra singing New York New York, but as it would sound on a skipping, warped record. It was amazing! And of course, the chart for the band is interesting, to say the least, with lots of offbeats and strange time signatures. Scott makes all the skipping sounds with his voice, and whoever put this chart together is pretty much a genius. Another of his songs is a 60’s medley – with about 40 different songs and therefore voices that he imitates. He presents it like one of those TV commercials advertising a set of 4 C.D.’s for $19.95 – if you know what I’m talking about. It only has about 4 measures of each song, which makes it another really crazy one for us to play. Anyway, we had a really good time.

I’m a bit tired from last night, because not only did we do the show twice, as usual, but we also played our short end-of-the-cruise ceremony in the dining room for both seatings, as well as played two 45 minute jazz sets for the Captain’s Farewell Toast before both of the shows. So we were running around like crazy people all night, from one thing right to the next, and then doing it all over again. It was a bit hectic.

The second English church meeting went really really well. Unfortunately we didn’t have as big a turnout as I would have hoped, but it still went well. I had a late night rehearsal with my new friend Earl, who plays guitar. He brought me a keyboard, and we put together 5 worship songs for the meeting. All of my Spanish church friends were shocked by the fact that I could play keyboard. They are still talking about it all the time. ☺ I wasn’t that great – its been months since I’ve played, but it still felt really good to be able to contribute my music skill to the church and give something back to the Lord in that way. And it was so neat to sing the songs that I grew up with again – I’ve missed worshiping in that way. I loved hearing everyone sing those songs so loudly and with so much passion and energy. Praise the Lord – He is so good.

Tonight my friend Mark Donoghue is back for another show – his second this cruise. I’m excited to hear some of the other songs he has in his repertoire. Its always fun to work with him, and it will be a good way to end the cruise.