There was another change in Fred Bronson's presentations. He had planned to talk about The Sound of Music today but had gotten permission to screen the movie and will do that in conjunction with his presentation Saturday. Today he gave us an inside look "Behind the Scenes at the Eurovision Song Contest". Marc Kaufman concluded his series with "SETI, METI, and the Hunt for Intelligent Life in the Universe". NBA referee Steve Javie had planned to run a free throw shootout but there was rain at the scheduled time of 1:00, but there was a Bean Bag toss between the Officers and guests.
Captain Berdos reported a temperature of 70 at noon although with drizzle it felt cooler. We will also advance the clocks again tonight, the first time we have done it 2 consecutive nights. I went out to finish my walk at 2:00 with a jacket on and with the sun coming out it turned out to be very warm.
Pianist Jeff Hughes (keyboard and leader of the Solstice Orchestra) performed in the Solstice Theater mid-afternoon, offering a wide variety of music including classical, Broadway, Jazz, Ragtime, a hymn, and even one of his own compositions.
I was fighting competing desires for this evening. I wanted to try at least one dinner in the Grand Epernay Restaurant. I had also noticed that this evening's headline act was Davie Howes. I had seen his wonderful show in February on the Zaandam and didn't want to miss it with a dinner running overtime but also didn't want to completely miss a new act I might never have another chance to see, so I did make this the night for Grand Epernay. It turned out to be menu J, and I tried the Chicken Chiquita. The daily selections are also posted to the blog with a few changes from past years. My apologies for letting my camera strap get in the way as I photographed the daily selections. I was with another solo and a couple at dinner, and about 6:45 the solo excused himself to go to the show. When the couple thought they might leave before desert as well it became unanimous.
"This evening's show was "The Music and Mayhem of Davie Howes". Howes sings and plays many instruments, primarily piano and trumpet but also improvised instruments like a garden hose. He performed a wide variety of music, including a spectacular set of variations on Bach's Toccata in D in the style of Oscar Peterson. I'm not familiar with Peterson but greatly enjoyed that piece and the rest of the show.He challenged the audience to nominate some objects around the ship he could adapt as musical instruments in the final variety show."
Howes again played the Peterson/Bach Toccata and it was even better the second time around. (I did catch it when he said tonight that Peterson is a Canadian piano virtuoso). He is leaving the ship in Tenerife but will appear in a variety show Sunday evening with Rondell Sheridon, and his challenge to us to find "instruments" is on. In one of his songs tonight he brought a walker up from the audience and did a duet with the band drummer, playing the walker as the drummer played the drums; a few seconds both donned hard hats and drummed on each other's heads. I am so fortunate I got to dine with others also willing to forgo desert to see Howes' show; afterwards I went up to the Ocean View Cafe for ice cream, cookies, and decaf as darkness fell upon the ship.
Today's parting shot will be Captain Berdos's life lesson from his noon announcement: We never grow up; we just learn how to act in public.
Roy
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