Fog day

It may not be as much fun as a snow day, but fog days in Galveston still make life interesting. Today the fog delayed our return into port for 6 or 7 hours, seriously throwing a wrench in the works for everyone on board. Except us lazy musicians, of course, it doesn't matter to us one way or another. We weren't allowed off the ship until around 2pm, and our back on board time is now 7pm instead of 3:45. Boat drill has been moved to tomorrow, and I'm not sure what other changes will have to be made. Anyone with a flight out from Galveston today probably missed it, which made a large number of guests pretty upset, of course. The ship released the internet so it was free for everyone this morning if they needed to change their travel arrangements. I would hate to have been working at guest relations today. Yikes. They estimated embarkation would being around 5pm, which is unheard of...hopefully we will sail by 8 or 9pm but there are no guarantees, especially if the fog closes back in.

It was nice to sleep in today though, and to have most of one more day to spend with my friend Tati before she left this afternoon. A few of us sat in the staff mess eating and playing cards for about 4 hours straight....it was a pretty good day. Tati's flight has been moved to tomorrow because of this craziness, and she'll spend the night in Houston. Its nice to be still off the ship today at this time, Galveston is just starting to come to life on a Sunday afternoon. Usually we've long sailed by this time.

I still have no word on my next contract, I keep praying for a contract on the Rhapsody!

"Celebrity" Showtime

A few new photos are up:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2104730&id=56903845&l=069f2ff78c

Every week, our guest entertainers are advertised in our daily newsletters as "Headliners", but occasionally there is the act that the ship classifies as "Celebrity" status. So far I think we have only had two, being the Texas Tenors and Ronn Lucas, a ventriloquist that has done a lot of work on TV and in Vegas. Usually, this "Celebrity" status doesn't really seem real to me, since they are always much like every other act I work with every week. Another singer, another ventriloquist, another juggler.....they are the people that I work with, so I don't get that excitement feeling you would associate with seeing a celebrity. But last night we had the Texas Tenors again, after a month's absence, and thanks to the audience I did for once feel a little bit of that excitement. Working with them is the same as working with anyone else, a longish boring rehearsal with charts that are lackluster, wasting time figuring out missing vocal cues, sorting out wrong notes in written in the music, scratching out wrong roadmaps. But at Showtime.... its a different story.

This time the guests were really anticipating the show. People camped out waiting for the theater doors to open so they could get great seats. The front rows were packed full of very excited, screaming middle-aged women. The atmosphere as the show began was tense and buzzing with excitement, and the applause was deafening when the Tenors took the stage. Women standing and screaming, standing ovations 4 or 5 times during the show. At one point the Tenors do a bit where they bring a guest up on stage and sing to her as kindof a funny bit, an audience participation joke. But last night the woman they brought up was so overcome by being on stage with them that she began to weep. She was crying the entire time. I'm not kidding. "I love you guys so much....(sob)...I voted for you on the show (sob)....I love you!!!...I can't believe you're here..(sob)" And she wasn't the only woman weeping for them. For heaven's sake, its not like they're the Beatles.

The audience was already on their feet applauding 3 bars into their version of "God bless the U.S.A.", at which point in the show the Scottish trumpet player on my right and the Argentine sax player in front of me always roll their eyes and contemplate suicide. As for me, while I admit I'm not much impressed with the show (they have a lot of kinks to work out and the charts are honestly pretty terrible arrangements), I find the audience's excitement contagious, and enjoy being a part of that buzz. I also enjoy the fact that the three of them are all genuinely nice people, untainted as of yet by life in showbiz since they are relatively new to it. They still feel what they sing. I'm looking forward to getting to know them a little better when they take the band out for drinks next week as promised.