Home » Blog » October 2008
October 30, 2008
Dear musicians,
I picked today’s song because it is one of the most beautiful melodies written for film. It’s the song “I will wait for you” from the french movie “Les parapluies de Cherbourg”. Check out the movie, it’s beautiful as well.
Artist: Michel Legrand and Stephane Grapelli
Song: I will wait for you
From the movie: Les parapluies de Cherbourg
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October 27, 2008
Hardware effects have ruled the guitar universe for a very long time. Since the late 60’s, guitarists have been experimenting with devices that promise to alter the signal coming from their instrument into something wonderful and unique – or at least, loud and obnoxious. This has lead to an entire industry devoted to producing stomp boxes, rack units and pedal boards which can slice, dice and re-assemble a musician’s tone into a variety of reverbs, delays, distortions and just plain bizarre sounds. more info
October 22, 2008
One of the features of Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas is likely to get kids pumped, namely the “Youth Zone”.
Check out their video here.
Along with “Central Park”, the “Boradwalk” and the amazing accommodations, the gigantic ship is certainly going to attract a crowd.
October 20, 2008
Anyone who has every performed a live gig knows how much of a beating equipment can take, especially if you are playing night after night. Most musicians consider their instruments to be precious extensions of their own bodies, and treat them almost like children – wiping them down after use, wrapping them in soft cloth and protecting them in velvet-lined hard protective cases. However, in the heat of the moment on-stage, many instruments suffer from superficial and sometimes more serious damage from accidental drops, bumping into other equipment, or the actions of those who might be more wrapped up in the music than in what their bodies are doing.
Input and output jacks are particularly at risk. A quarter-inch patch cable is usually snapped in pretty tight, sometimes even wrapped around the guitar strap or taped to the top of the amp. This means that should that cable get caught on something, or should the singer or another musician step or trip on it while you are playing, the cable could be wrenched out of the jack at an awkward angle. This can seriously damage not only the jack itself, both internally and externally, but also in extreme cases crack the wood of the instrument or amplifier, not to mention your eardrum that suffers from the loud pop that can result from this accident.
Belkin has developed a neat little gadget that is designed to prevent this scenario from ever happening again. Called the BreakFree connector, it consists of a socket and plug in the same shape as a quarter-inch TRS plug.
However, while the socket does snap into your instrument or amp, the plug itself slides into the socket almost silently and is held by a strong magnetic force. This means that if for whatever reason the cable is tugged hard in any direction, the plug will detach without any dramatic snapping or tearing.
Not only does this help to protect equipment from becoming damaged, but the nifty gadget also facilitates quick and quiet instrument changes, since the cable can be detached without the standard crack or pop that forces players to zero out their amps before making the switch. At a price of around $20, the BreakFree connector is cheap insurance for the gigging musician.
October 17, 2008
Princess Cruises is keeping up with the rest of the cruise lines in building new ships at a rapid pace. As Celebrity Cruises is getting ready to put Solstice to work and as we’re awaiting Royal Caribbean’s monster ship Oasis, Princess is getting ready to inaugurate their newest ship, Ruby Princess.
The ship has left the port of Triest, Italy to make it’s way to Fort Lauderdale where official ceremonies will be held on November 6.
Celebrity couple Trista and Ryan Sutter from the TV show “The Bachelorette” will celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary during the ceremonies.
October 15, 2008
From January to April 2010, Royal Caribbean’s Brilliance of the Seas will be sailing out of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. The thriving city of Dubai as well as many destinations in the Arabian Gulf seem to be an attractive market for the cruise line.
RCI’s decision comes after they’ve “exceeded their 2008 sales target for the region” according to a sales representative.
Itineraries for the 7-day cruises out of Dubai will be announced shortly.
October 10, 2008
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmonsperic Administraion (NOAA) issued a new regulation on October 8th, 2008 that will set a new speed limit for large ships to protect whales.
Slow moving whales are in danger of colliding with large cruise ships as they come up for air. The new rule was set to protect the North Atlantic Right Whale, of which only 300 to 400 still exist. Large ships are supposed to reduce their speed to 10 knots in areas where these whales breed.
Ships’ owners and/or captains can also set reduced voluntary speeds if three whales or more are sighted in areas where the above rule is not in effect.
October 9, 2008
As a musician, the ability to identify pitch is an indispensable tool. It is something that you will use not only when learning new songs and arrangements, but also when improvising and transposing. Pitch identification, or ‘perfect pitch’ is a talent that provokes a few different schools of thought in the musical community.
There are some who believe that the concept of perfect pitch is something that you have to be born with, a unique skill set similar to the ability to identify color or taste – one hears a tone and just knows what note is being played. However, it is not impossible to acquire this skill, no matter how ‘tone deaf’ a person may have been in their younger years. There are a variety of systems that can be learned which, using memorized reference tones and consistent practice enable a musician to match the identification skills of someone born with perfect pitch. more info
October 6, 2008
Dear Musicians,
You’re in for a treat. Today’s song suggestion is a simple but beautiful song that Bobby Darin used to sing. This version is sung by the actor Kevin Spacey in the movie Beyond the Sea. The movie is great and Kevin Spacey will surprise you with his wonderful singing (yes, it’s really him singing).
Artist: Kevin Spacey
Song: The Curtain Falls
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Officials of the port of Montreal are expecting for cruise traffic to increase over the next two years. Their plans include the construction of a brand new, $2.5 billion, cruise passenger terminal. In 2008, Montreal received 32,100 passengers, slightly up from 28,688 passengers the year before.
