This Side of Lost

I've got some catching up to do. As before, here's the titles of some future posts:

Cruisin'...
... and Post-Cruisin'
#81 - Modern Times
California - Six-Month Review
#80 - Wild Bunch
Let's Chat

Well, it's been a month since we went on the cruise, so I suppose I should tell you about it. Also a good opportunity to try out the "upload picture" features of Movable Type. Click on the thumbnail for the full size shot!

After a rather disappointing visit to the pre-party and a night in the scary ghetto hotel (not recommended!), we arrived at the Port Everglades on Monday morning. Our first surprise was being told that in about 30 seconds, we would have our picture taken with the Barenaked Ladies (hereafter referred to as BNL). I tried in vain to think of something witty to say -- Samantha asked them if they did this so they could avoid us for the rest of the cruise. Ed says, "Yeah -- we're not even getting on the boat."

The Legend, as seen from port at Grand Turk.

The ship itself looks huge and gaudily decorated to our untrained eyes. We find our small but very well appointed cabin and get our first of many mediocre buffet meals. While everyone else crams onto the deck to watch BNL do an acoustic set to send us off, we wander around. Almost immediately we run into a band called Oakhurst who are just hanging out by the sushi bar and busking. Brian (the drummer from Guster) walks by. My inner fanboy gets the best of me and I introduce myself. He takes a picture with his "unnaturally long arm."

The Thundergod and me!

Dinner is with a couple from Aberdeen, South Dakota who won their tickets on a radio show and aren't even fans of the band. They are flummoxed by the fancy names of food on the menu. Hilarious. Guster plays that night -- always a joy to watch the Thundergod do his magic. An awesome first day.

Tuesday day at sea. Seasickness rears its ugly head after breakfast and some sunbathing. We are laid low for the afternoon. We get dressed up for formal night, which has become Prom Night at the hands of BNL. We should have taken a picture of the dude in his baby blue tux. We try our voices (and my extremely rusty guitar skills) at open mic night. We're not very good, but the fellas from Oakhurst are complimenting us for the rest of the cruise.

Wednesday we wake up and the boat is still, thank Poseidon. We are on Grand Turk, a small mostly undeveloped island in the Caribbean. We laze on the beach, swim in the surf, grab a quick lunch back on board and are whisked away for our shore excursion: glass bottom kayaking and snorkeling. Lots of cool ocean life is seen and we get our fill of Caribbean sun.

The area we kayaked near at Grand Turk.

We decide to brave the day's BNL acoustic set on the deck -- it is swamped, of course, and the sky is threatening, but we stick it out through a little rain for a very enjoyable set of lesser-played numbers and banter about the band's day in port. We decide to skip Guster's second show and wander around, eventually hanging out at karaoke and hitting the sack early.

Thursday morning we splurge on a couples' massage (we've only been promising ourselves one for a year or so) for an hour, which was glorious. A lazy day until we head to a songwriter's panel hosted by Steve and Ed from BNL. We get some cool insights on their songwriting process and some acoustic numbers from them. Seasickness strikes again, however, making the experience less than amazing. Samantha opts for a shot from the infirmary to help her feel better for the mainstage BNL show that evening, and it seems to work. We get in line early for the show and have some buffet dinner while waiting. After what seems like hours -- oh, wait, it was hours, nevermind -- we are treated to the BNL onstage, doing what they do best. It's a fabulous show, with lots of favorites, lots of banter, guest stars and even choreography:

What won't this band do. (Yes, those are bubbles.)

Early Friday we make our disembarkation and head to the airport to wait for our afternoon flight and process the past four days. It was a great trip -- more fun than I expected. We did not break the bank and still did just about everything we wanted to. I wish the food was better, but hey, it was free and we could have it pretty much whenever we wanted. We'll be prepared with better seasickness remedies if we go again.

Sorry for breaking up my predicted posts, but I felt a need to post about this for some reason.

I read Penny Arcade, a web comic about video games that is clever and hysterical, but also crass and violent. I don't play video games regularly and haven't since I was in high school, but I have friends who do. Anyway, the writers of the strip tend to get on their soapbox about how the media portrays the effects of violent video games in an unfair and biased light. I'm not quite sure what I believe about this particular issue, but I can tell you what I do believe in: the power of amateur, personal web media (like blogs, web comics, del.icio.us tags, flickr, whatever) to change the face of media and do good things.

Case in point. This story ran on CNN three days ago. Kid does despicable act, violent video games are the culprit. Not unusual. Gabe, the artist at Penny Arcade, goes off. Also not unusual. Two days later, Gabe posts an e-mail from someone intimately connected with the case, who also happens to be a fan of the site. In it, she tells her side, and perhaps what's closest to the truth -- closer than the CNN story and closer than Gabe's rant. Millions of people will see her words now, thanks to PA's wide ranging audience.

This wouldn't have happened ten years ago. Fascinating.