day 7 – at sea

sea days are good; the guests can rest after their previous day of excursions, get a nap and come out to the piano bar at night… i have pretty good crowds during my busy times – it usually flows like this: 7-8 is busy, 8-9 is dead (show and dinner time), 9-10 is busy again, happy hour (2 for 1 drinks) from 10 -11 is fair to busy depending on how tired from the day people are, and then it is usually the hardcore piano bar fans that stick around for 11-12… a smaller crowd, but usually devoted…

i gave myself the giggles tonight… the moments i live for!  there is a nice couple who comes in every nite, and i saw them walking by on the way to the show…  let me back up and explain the layout of my room first–  it’s a large round-ish room, lots of small 2-top tables in the middle and booths around the perimeter for parties of 4-8, with an open hallway with windows off the ship’s starboard side that people pass by to get to and from the dining room and the theater… my back is to the bow side with a small bar and a couple of booths behind me (wish i had rearview mirrors for the people at the bar…); so i’ve got the large room in front, hallway off to my left, and i treat the hallway as part of my room since there are many window seats, and when the bar is full, people gather in the hallway to also watch… anyway, this nice couple is walking by, and i can see that the fellow has purchased one of the bright orange shirts from the deck sale of panama goods, with brightly quilted appliqué and embroidery, it’s pretty hard to miss… anyway, i was mid-song, and i’ll always say hi to people, or ask how their day was, etc., sometimes even in the middle of the song, i’ll just keep vamping behind the conversation… anyway, i simply had to comment on the shirt, so i said, “hey!  nice shirt! (significant pause… they are almost past my room…) “i got some potholders that match it!” holy cow!  wait!  did I say that out loud?!?  i say it before i can stop myself and everyone’s laughing, and i kept trying to finish my song, but i had one of those giggle fits like you try not to get at the dinner table or in church when you’re a kid… eyes were streaming, i was having a mascara incident; maybe you had to be there or have seen the shirts and glasses cases and placemats and potholders all next to each other at the deck sale, but anyway… it was pretty funny… so glad the guy and his wife have a sense of humor (they came in later, whew!)

tonight’s theme was "come rain or come shine…" songs about the weather, and one of my guests came with a list he’d made to make sure i hadn’t missed any (this is the same fella that wants all the novelty songs, btw)… most amusing to me was when he asked for “purple rain” by prince, and he’s, like 80 maybe?  nice guy, and it is clear he will be a regular fixture and will keep me on my toes… i mentioned that between 8 and 9 it’s pretty dead… i only have a few people that trickle in and out, and have one very nice couple from germany for whom this set is practically their private show… does any one have any easy songs in german they might recommend?  i have french, italian and spanish songs, but nothing in german… the closest i’ve got is "edelweiss" and "wilkommen" from cabaret… any ideas people?  hit me!

moments of piano bar victory take different forms and i had one this night – one couple walked by before i started, about quarter to 7 (i always get there early to set up, drink some water, make sure the guest speaker or acupuncturist or bingo host or whomever has used my lounge during the day hasn’t completely wonked up the settings on the sound system) and they were ribbing me a bit about the fact that the bar was empty – opening their arms and saying, “look how packed it is!” and things like that (note: one of the top 3 things i gnash my teeth over is when people walk by your room when everyone is at the show or 20 minutes before you start and throw their hands up and say “where IS everybody?” like i must have b.o. or something…).  i explained patiently that i wasn’t scheduled to start til 7, and yes, people would be there… i invited them to come back, asked where they were from and what kind of music they liked… she was like, “can you do some rap, har har har” and i was like, “uh, YEAH!” and i whipped into a few bars of missy elliott (without the swear words), and she’s like “  ?!?!  “  and I’m thinking, “that’ right!  hee heeeee!"  anyway, they did come back, the lounge was full, they sat in the back and when i asked what they wanted, she says “ACDC, har har har,” like i could probably not do that, so i busted into “it’s a long way to the top”… BAM!!!  y’see in a piano bar, whether you are 30 or 90, i could play a gershwin song next to a david bowie song next to a carpenters song next to an acdc song… it is all distilled down to a solo piano instrumentation, no loud distorted guitars or drums that would annoy the older set, and no syrup-y orchestrations that would annoy the young ones, it’s all just piano and voice, and if i didn’t tell someone it was ACDC, they might not ever guess unless they knew the song, which i am guessing 90% percent of my audience did not… it was a sweet moment… i hate being pigeonholed; in the words of cole porter, “don’t fence me in!”  ciao for now, df