Very nice renditions, guys - enjoyed them.

An Italian song I always wanted to do is called 'Due' by Drupi. It'd be a test, or a laugh, getting my tongue around Italian prounciation, though.

GIT 'ER DONE !!!


If you go to the you tube site, the lyrics are there for you ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-uOwQbS2vw&feature=related

Hi Gary, good job with your Spanish. You already know it's all about the feel and spirit of the music. The pronunciation does have to perfect. Nat Kind Cole had a STRONG American accent when he sang in Spanish yet his interpretations are still beautiful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FW0p6vMKnXk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9fJTvn6U...58C5A4D514B3601

Thanks for the complements everyone. I've been away on the boat for the past four days, just got home before the weather really gets nasty.

While I was sailing I discovered something that I was already aware of - I'm too old to do a lot of things, especially when it comes to intense, physical exertion. I was planning on loading all my music gear (one rig) on the boat on October 1st and sailing to the lower Florida Keys, where I was hoping to spend the upcoming winter. I had planned on performing at some of the marina Tiki Bars, mainly in exchange for slip rent, electricity and fresh water. I figured a couple nights of performing should be more than adequate for a week's rent.

The trip I just made was a primer, so to speak, for the Florida excursion. The music equipment was loaded into the boat during an extremely high tide, which meant each piece of gear had to be lifted from the dock to the boat, which was now about three feet higher than the dock. Of course this had to be done while lifting myself aboard the boat because there is no nearby flat surface to place the gear.

When I arrived in Baltimore, which was two days later, with help from another sailor, the gear was unloaded onto a finger pier, wheeled down the dock to a pavilion at the Maryland Yacht Club, where I provided 3 hours of music for a great bunch of folks who frequent the Sail Net Forum. Loading it back on the boat in near total darkness was no picnic, especially with no help.

The equipment list consists of: keyboard, Bose L1 Compact and extension tubes, X-stand, folding stool, custom console, bag of accessories and cables, the Rock & Roller cart, fan, and the pair of aluminum bars that make up the top shelf. Normally, this takes just 5 minutes to load and unload from the van. To the boat, however, took close to 30 minutes. Today, getting the gear off the boat and onto a narrow finger pier, in 95-degree heat, took 35 minutes. By the time I finished I was completely exhausted. Not tired, I mean wiped out.

I made a conscientious decision on the way home - I'm too old for that kind of physical abuse. I'm still going to sail single-handed to the Florida Keys, and maybe over to the Bahamas, but the music gear is going to stay home. My time in the Tiki Bars will be limited to drinking Margarettas and listening to someone else perform.

Cheers,

Gary

Gary ... IF we are fortunate, with age comes wisdom ...

However, I AM sorry to hear about how tough it was to get your gear on and off the boat, and that you have now made a decision NOT to take it along with you and play at tiki bars ... I know you were looking forward to attempting that, and I am sure you would have enjoyed it ... but I am certain you will enjoy the tiki bars even MORE now ...

Gary, You may have to limit some of the stressful physical things you do but I see the other side of the picture; you have done so much with your boat and your music, you can let go of some of the things that you are not able to do with a smile and a feeling of pride which says, “I did it.” Many of us never ventured out as far as you.
John C.

Thanks guys. It was extremely difficult for me to admit to myself that I could no longer do the things I could easily have done 30 years ago. As my wife drove me home from the boat an old Garth Brooks song kept running through my mind - "If Tomorrow Never Comes." I'll get around to learning this one later in the week. Who knows, I may have an alternative way of getting my gear to the Keys. Still working on that, though.

Cheers,

Gary

Gary,

When I said you need to get out on the boat more, this is what I didn't mean, you can't put money in the coffin when you go. You do like to push yourself, like you say a bit too far one day, in the UK we say there is no fool like an old fool. Carry on like you are and you will be in the wheelchair in the rest home with someone playing an arranger to you, ask yourself would you like that, singing "If Tomorrow Never Comes", hope you don't sing that one to the old gits.

Gary, this bit struck me:

"the Maryland Yacht Club, where I provided 3 hours of music for a great bunch of folks who frequent the Sail Net Forum. Loading it back on the boat in near total darkness was no picnic, especially with no help."

Sheesh, and nary a young fella among them couldn't give you a helping hand?