Weekend Notes

Yesterday, our friends had to cancel their plans to visit us on Three Kings Day. We shall take our cake over to another gathering today, and bring the Christmas crackers with us. Before the party, we'll head over to the Eastside to see Captain Bogg & Salty in concert.

By the way, I had thought Brad the Gorilla retired his blog. Imagine my surprise when I found this.

Bogg & Salty in Bellevue

Captain Bogg & Salty, the non pareil of pirate rock and roll bands,* are sailing the Pollywogg North from Oregon again. They'll be playing a 400 seat theatre space at the Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue, Washington, on January 7th, 2007. For more information, click here.

Remember to eat plenty of limes before you attend the concert. There'll be no episodes of scurvy on Captain Bogg & Salty's watch. If any out-of-towners** on my blogroll actually show up for this event, you can be sure there'll be a bottle of rum just for you.




*I've not heard any other pirate rock and roll bands, but I'm sure Bogg & Salty are cutlass and pegleg above the rest.
**"Out of town" actually means "outside of the Puget Sound area. "

Pirate Video

Captain Bogg & Salty, the pirate rock and roll band from Portland, Oregon, have released their new video:

Pieces of 8ight

Their notes about the video can be found here and their animated video for "Cat O' Nine Tales" is available as a podcast here or streaming video here.

Pirate Concert in the Library

I attended my first rock concert when I was 13. Ratt headlined, and a new band on the scene called Bon Jovi opened for them. Ulric, my brother, saw his first rock concert when he was 8 years old, when we went to see Ozzy Osbourne and Metallica of the Cliff Burton era. Most of the concerts we attended were in a sports arena. The concerts weren’t much out of the ordinary: there was the usual screaming, flicking of cigarette lighters and waving of fists in the air. People dressed-up in spandex and leather, or dressed-down in artfully shredded jeans and strategically ripped tee-shirts.

A few weeks ago, at the age of 3, Lucia went to her first rock concert. It was at a library, not a sports arena, and there were no cigarette lighters raised high in tribute to the band… but people did dress up. They had skulls and cross-bones on their tee-shirts, hooks in place of hands, and a proliferation of eye-patches. After all, Captain Bogg & Salty were in town.



Captain Bogg & Salty is a pirate rock and roll band from Portland, Oregon making its rounds through the library systems in my part of the country. Initially, Lucia was skeptical. As Captain Angus Bogg and his merry crew of the Pollywogg burst into “We are Singing Pirates,” Lucia wrapped her arms around my shoulders and said she wanted to go home. “Give them a chance,” I told her, and she did. She perked up when Buckle (acoustic guitarist and gunner for the good ship Pollywogg) sang “Scallywag” in his impressive bass voice. By the end of the concert, Lucia was waving her hooked finger in the air along with the rest of the brigands in the audience.

All week, Lucia clamored, “We go to the pirate concert today!” and demanded to hear “Scallywag" one more time. This morning, we attended another Captain Bogg & Salty concert. Bede joined us, as well as some good friends. The 3 ½ year old son of our good friend was a big fan of pirates in general, but the general boisterousness of the show was too much for him,* and he fell asleep in his mother’s arms. [Memo to the band: if this is a trend, there is untold treasure to be had in showing up at the doorsteps of parents with children who refuse to sleep.] Lucia, however, was attentive throughout the entire show, and bravely raised her hand when Captain Bogg asked, “Who’s ever been to a pirate rock and roll concert before?” The most enthusiastic person in our part of the audience, however, was a girl dressed to the hilt in traditional romantic pirate gear who spent much of the concert with her two plastic swords raised in an X.

The band took turns with the lead-vocals, and played a mix of songs off of their two albums, “Bedtime Stories for Pirates,” and “Pegleg Tango.” While the band is filed under “Children’s Music,” they really are an all-ages band. Among all of the songs about avoiding scurvy and sea-monsters, there is nary a tune about brushing teeth or tying shoes. Tonight, Captain Bogg and Salty are playing at an over-21 club. Now are you convinced that they are gruff enough to appear on your music mixes?

Yar!

*I blame the Blue Angels, who are in town this weekend and have been practicing their decibel-defying maneuvers over our heads these past few days. Confound those Blue Angels! Because of them, one of the bridges is closed and traffic is even more congested than usual. Why can’t Seattle host the Chartreuse Seraphim (premiere hot-air balloon group) or the Vermillion Thrones (hang-gliders extraordinaire) for Sea-Fair? I like my noise to have a beat you can dance to...

rough and tumble

It's been a long week. I'm sorry I have not been answering comments. It's been rough with Lucia. Yes, my best girl, my dear, sweet (and highly-spiced) child, has been running me through my paces. We both had a meltdown yesterday. The day started pleasantly enough at the library where I used to work. We saw a rock and roll pirate show called Captain Bogg and Salty. Lucia was a bit ambivalent about the boistrousness of the show, but rallied enough to raise a hooked finger toward the end. She wanted to stay for Lunchtime Stories afterward. Why not, I thought. She drank her milk and ate her salty snacks while we listened to stories. (Some of the children in the audience used to be in my young toddler programs. Wow, they got big.)

Leaving the library was the problem. After attempts at persuasion and negotation, I carried 38 pounds of kicking, bellowing toddler out of the library. I struggled to get her into the car-seat, but she thrashed so much we were both in a sweat after 5 minutes. She would not keep the car-seat straps on. The last time this happened, we pulled over and said we couldn't go until she was strapped in again. The last time, though, Bede was with me, and I could sit in the back seat to hold her hands down while he drove home. This time, I was on my own. I drove 10 miles and prayed fervently that we would make it home safely. She screamed the whole way.

I was exhausted for the rest of the afternoon. Bede was able to come home and take over for awhile, bless him. Bedtime was hard, but Lucia did give me a big hug before I read her stories. Today was better. Somewhat difficult, but still better. We went to the Day Out With Thomas (TM) festival, even though we're not Thomas the Tank Engine fans, because Nancy Stewart was playing. (Brad the Gorilla said that his band, The Deadbeat Crawdads, were supposed to open for her, but later he grumbled something about getting kicked out for popping 2 crates' worth of Thomas (TM) balloons.) We got to ride on an old train through Snoqualmie, which was lovely, despite the incessant Thomas (TM) soundtrack.


Nancy Stewart in concert

This evening, I practiced guitar for 90 minutes before my developing callouses started to hurt. It was a good session. I practiced "Greensleeves," "Shady Grove" and "Cockles and Muscles". There's a tricky chord change in "Cockles and Muscles" involving D minor. I must say, I don't quite have it yet. Still, concentrating on the guitar lifted my spirits considerably. When I ended my practice, I felt better than I had in days.

Lucia went down to bed early. Bede and I watched a couple of episodes of the first season of Buffy. It was a good night. Tomorrow will be better. Mazel tov.