tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24669157431113898942011-04-22T00:20:03.222-05:00I make music for you & for myself & sometimes for people in suitsJustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.comBlogger721100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-30696000124626988102009-04-29T16:35:00.002-05:002009-04-29T16:37:01.052-05:00

Just found out the new record is done and being shipped out today! I'll have them in hand May 2nd. Then the work begins again to get people to listen...

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-89505948875691326302009-04-26T16:37:00.002-05:002009-04-29T17:11:50.399-05:00

I'm happy to announce (post 2 failed attempts in April...such is the life of the independent artist making a name...) the CD Release can now be announced! As the student representative at Roger Williams University would have announced, "Here ye, here ye!"May 11th, 9PM3rd & Lindsleyw/ Wailin' Canes and Emily Deloach$5 or $8 with CD

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-81584787107085805832009-04-21T16:13:00.001-05:002009-04-29T16:35:20.875-05:00

I'm playing Univ of Alabama tomorrow. Think if I wear my Arkansas hat, which just has a big red 'A', they'll know? Perhaps I'll learn some Roll Tide songage... A Little scared, Justin.

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-25177104209667763262009-04-18T16:04:00.002-05:002009-04-29T16:13:50.841-05:00

Man, I used to love these guys back in like...6th grade. It's astounding how a single song or two will immortalize a band in my (and probably your) mind. Fast forward 10 years and I still think they're superstars...And they have a really big bus. Envy...jealousy...envy again. Back to my Mitsubishi Montero Sport. Crossing 100,000 miles in about 2 shows! God, I love these cup holders.

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-21035643996496139362009-04-16T16:02:00.000-05:002009-04-29T16:04:00.100-05:00

Just finished recording kiddos for The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Wishing I was that talented at eight. Want to be a kid. Caterpillars.

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-62165930676851480242008-05-08T17:24:00.003-05:002009-04-29T15:54:05.816-05:00

A HAIKU #1I am in LondonToo tired to think for the pillsSleepy time aboundsA HAIKU #2I am in DallasHow did I get here so fastOh that's right the pills

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-54917034355309777752008-05-06T17:22:00.001-05:002009-04-29T15:31:48.567-05:00

Didn't get off the ship. I had enough of big beautiful European towns that like to take my money.

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-17455843776306906602008-05-04T17:20:00.002-05:002009-04-29T15:31:17.057-05:00

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-7043704566608613032008-05-02T17:18:00.004-05:002009-04-29T15:26:25.688-05:00

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-47535421986553770512008-05-01T15:02:00.001-05:002009-04-29T15:03:24.778-05:00

On a random note: I just watched Michael Moore’s “Sicko” and it set me to thinking about heathcare. Given, Moore is an expert at presenting only his point of view, but he brought up some great and disturbing points about America’s heathcare system. My Dad is connected to The Industry, so I’ve heard about these problems my whole life, and have experienced some of it’s corruption myself. I don’t

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-42305416585637005902008-04-30T17:10:00.004-05:002009-04-29T14:58:57.704-05:00

The crazy food I tried in Hong Kong was...crazy. I did not expect to be challenged in Spain. At a quaint restaurant in Valencia, I was confronted with a jello-y squid in full body form, which rejected my fork 4 times before penetrating its shimmering flesh. Wonderful bread and beer. Did not dig the full squid. I love architecture, and Valencia has it. From bull-fighting arenas, to small

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-33829638356749036342008-04-28T17:07:00.002-05:002009-04-29T15:25:40.848-05:00

On this day, I walked a country. It sounds like a feat and I should be emboldened to keep my post without explanation. Rod Stewart's Yacht The oldest casio in the world. About $22 just to get inside. I think I'll lose all my money elsewhere, thank you. Ok, so the area of the country of Monaco is less than one square mile. I meandered around the perimeter (France on 3 sides) during time

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-82872558734954695222008-04-26T20:36:00.001-05:002009-04-29T14:59:26.210-05:00

Looking back, I just realized that this journey of mine, from blogger's perspective, is really turning out to look like a continuous joyride of crazy adventures during the day and alcohol-driven parties at night, and I'm embarrassed. Really, I just don't think to write about work...I try to block out all the rehearsals and other travel druggeries that go along with touring, and forget to mention

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-48831190050513076072008-04-26T17:29:00.009-05:002009-04-29T14:58:28.690-05:00

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-78233943527273936272008-04-26T16:52:00.005-05:002009-04-29T14:57:51.945-05:00

In 79AD, Pompeii was instantly buried beneath 30 feet of volcanic ash and cinder when Mt. Vesuvius erupted. At its peak, Pompeii was home to 20,000 people and it is believed that 2,000 of the perished instantly when the ash came down, creating ghostly “casts” formed by bodies encased and incinerated in the hot ash. While Pompeii was buried in volcanic ash, Herculaneum was interred in mud when Mt

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-76955082171141590862008-04-25T16:49:00.002-05:002008-09-08T15:05:43.193-05:00

I have difficulty understanding how one area of the world can make cheese, spinach and tomatoes taste so much better than everywhere else. Solidified lava and small volcanic cones, reminders of the 1983 and 2001 lava flows. ..which apparently deters no one from living here. I’m told there is a roughly 2 year warning whenever Mt. Etna becomes active. Hopefully this guy got the message. Views

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-64310542632573388772008-04-23T11:31:00.001-05:002008-09-08T15:04:17.957-05:00

Despite having only about 2 hours around Crete (my GOD, when’s the next time I’ll go there?), I LOVE these impromptu shows. ..collaborating with absurdly talented people in the few dervishly stressful hours before a performance, not quite knowing if you or anyone knows what’s really going on, but trusting everyone around you to pull off some brand of high entertainment as though each moment of

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-50645622943445211712008-04-22T16:43:00.002-05:002008-09-08T15:05:04.550-05:00

We pulled into Crete, Greece and my first sniff of the Mediterranean. Crete was delightful and remains just how it always was in my mind. I didn’t have much time to explore because of a mid-day show. ..Just enough time for a Greek meal, and dreaming about better days in a villa on an Cretian isle somewhere, eating olives and dolmathes, skipping like a stone around neighbors’ ocean yards in my

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-44450450452988069662008-04-21T16:10:00.005-05:002008-12-09T08:23:10.167-06:00

It was a 3 hours ride from the port of Alexandria to Cairo. I had heard about a Pizza Hut adjacent to the Sphynx and Great Pyramids (no doubt the plot of an ingenious franchisee), but was surprised to find PH nestled along the perimeter of downtown Giza only about a hundred yards away. Somehow the mystery of the Pyramids was diminished beside the bustling suburban city. I don’t know if it was

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-69414164603855615102008-04-19T16:10:00.005-05:002008-12-09T08:23:10.628-06:00

I just watched a TED.com video that said the United States has the 2nd to lowest knowledge of world geography. We went through the Suez Canal all day today. I’m no expert, but I think that’s Egypt on the left and Russia is there on the right. Welcome to Egypt...

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-13956015550614790622008-04-17T16:08:00.006-05:002008-12-09T08:23:14.584-06:00

Somewhere in the back of my ignorant head, Egypt only exists as some kind of Hollywood/Disneyworld creation…little Jafars hopping around, markets full of bread and pistachios. It’s like a mystical Arabian land which has long since sunk into the sand, whose stories bubble underneath the surface awaiting some safari-hatted professor to push the wrong hieroglyph and bring the whole thing back to

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-26200527145654667632008-04-13T09:32:00.002-05:002008-07-14T16:07:27.460-05:00

Sailing into Salala

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-68134856724709650732008-04-12T16:02:00.000-05:002008-07-14T16:06:47.962-05:00

We're in Oman tomorrow and the next day have been informed of a high level pirating alert currently in effect as we make our way from Oman to Egypt tomorrow night and the following day. We'll be hugging the coastline of Yemen to avoid the pirates who've apparently been frequently hoping aboard shipping vessels in the past few months and having their fill. The idea of Yemen as a safehaven seems

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-91542834729963054412008-04-10T09:57:00.013-05:002008-12-09T08:23:17.977-06:00

Mumbai was once Bombay before the British rule ended in India. If this trip was all I knew about the world, I would have to make the conclusion that at one time in the recent past England ruled the entire planet. I hate feeling like I went somewhere great and saw something lame. I wish I had a friend in every country of the world who could tell me exactly what I needed to do in everywhere I go

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-84287506117835956672008-04-07T09:53:00.004-05:002008-12-09T08:23:19.300-06:00

My first sniff of India found me knee deep in sacred cow doo. It’s dirty and stinky, and rich with culture and aggressive salespeople. A beautiful Guatemalan friend and I hired a rickshaw for the day for $5US. This is the best way to travel…with beautiful Guatemalan girls, that is. I’ve figured out that the taxi drivers in most of the countries around here take the Americans straight to their

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-37091025928128553032008-04-01T09:46:00.012-06:002008-12-09T08:23:21.550-06:00

I don’t know much about Myanmar and can’t say that after having gone there, I do now either. A little over a week ago I remember wrapping up around an article about a monk in Yangon who set himself ablaze in a political protest over the military regime. I was engrossed in this article and can even still recall sitting on my bed daydreaming about what situation, indoctrination, or just purity of

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-35655648753133448552008-03-30T09:41:00.002-06:002008-12-09T08:23:22.138-06:00

Well, Phuket. That’s what you do in Phuket, Thailand. Or, that what I did. Twice. Once when I woke up and decided to spend a day off at the beach with 8 friends, and again when all 8 got kicked out of the lavish beach resort without my knowing. We took a taxi to said resort about 15 minutes away, and apparently, sometime while I was leading them down the long winding stairway to the beach,

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-84525591336965157722008-03-29T16:26:00.005-06:002008-12-09T08:23:22.570-06:00

I don’t like shopping and avoid it whenever I can. I’m my Father’s son in that sense, except that I still handle buying my own clothes. I think my Dad must have resigned that worry a couple years after marriage. When I hit the gateway port to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia the allure of a 2-hour drive to view the twin towers quickly faded behind the discovery of a mega mall 30 minutes from the dock.

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-76681937779148844112008-03-27T10:36:00.002-06:002008-12-09T08:23:24.308-06:00

Common sense would tell me to address mail sent to my new friends in the city/country Singapore as ‘Singapore, Singapore’. But I would be wrong. Singapore is like Prince or Madonna or Sting or Meatloaf. It’s so rockstar it needs no comma…no elaboration of its existence…like Moby, you should know who Singapore is. I would think New York would earn this same delineation, but some of the cool is

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-23901477997629109312008-03-24T10:30:00.002-06:002008-12-09T08:23:25.242-06:00

I was thinking about renting a moped since I had the day off. One case I'm glad that my intentions fell short of action. Moped accident...Obviously, per the movie above, I went to a monkey show and elephant ride/show...20 seconds after this picture was taken, the cute monkey grabbed a sleeping baby in the front row, thereby provoking a vicious battle to the death between mother and monkey.

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-7150998646483617372008-03-24T10:06:00.000-06:002008-05-05T10:06:51.984-05:00

I love it when I listen to a song and don’t want to leave the mood it puts me in. This happens to me most often when I listen to Sting, but right now it John Mayer’s Continuum. I don’t want to listen to the song again, so I turn the music off and stay there til the feeling fades. My old roommate once wrote a song called ‘Music is a Drug’. It is. It’s strange that it can affect people in such

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-30300347424868221952008-03-22T15:14:00.003-06:002008-04-13T16:24:27.061-05:00

I’m watching a Fred Astaire and Judy Garland movie. I should watch more of these old movies. There’s something about her eyebrows that are fantastic. I think eyebrows might have something more to do with beautiful eyes than the eyes themselves. I’ve confirmed this philosophy a few times in my life, and tonight Judy Garland has done it again. All my friends are staying overnight in Bangkok and

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-63666553042458664672008-03-21T15:19:00.001-06:002008-04-13T15:26:02.657-05:00

I sang a jazz set with one of the piano players onboard tonight. It made me miss my band in Nashville. This is all I have to say about this.

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-75274840972942549662008-03-20T13:29:00.009-06:002008-12-09T08:23:29.227-06:00

Before entering the Vietnamese tunnels in the Cu Chi area about an hour outside Saigon, the guide explained the crude way in which the Vietnamese fighters were able to hold off the superior American armies. Included in this explanation was a 15 minute wartime propaganda film that told of specific battles and local heroes hailing from the Cu Chi region. The film didn't impact me as much as I

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-65079494956798317102008-03-17T11:43:00.009-06:002008-12-09T08:23:32.852-06:00

I’m sitting out on the pool deck, it’s about 1am on Wednesday morning gliding over the South China Sea. I feel a bit guilty for being up this late as I just finished listening to a lecture on the epidemic of sleep deprivation. Cecadas have invaded the ship and are carrying their tune across the deck reminding me of home. Sometimes, when I would get stressed out, I used to go to my backyard

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-56407074748933590402008-03-15T01:48:00.010-06:002008-12-09T08:23:38.357-06:00

Hong Kong’s sail in is rumored to be one of the best in the world. 7AM brought the first glipse of the skyline and my first sniff of China mainland. The air was foggy and thick, but the mass of skyscrapers could still be seen from miles out, slowly surrounding us on all sides. They ushered us in as if foreshadowing the gauntlet of consumerism waiting onshore. That last sentence sounded nice,

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-44916505532624435382008-03-12T00:56:00.000-06:002008-12-09T08:23:41.966-06:00

It was homecoming night, I had what I thought, at the time, was a lot of money, and she looked so pretty, it just seemed like the right thing to say. $110 later, the $30 salad looked perfect for my side of the table. Up til yesterday, this was the largest amount of money I’d ever spent on a meal. All of the food on this ship is free, with the exception of one room. It’s called the Vintage

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-20856890300123890282008-03-11T00:47:00.001-06:002008-12-09T08:23:43.527-06:00

Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei is the first port we’ve been to that doesn’t feel Americanized, and subsequently my first step into what truly feels like a foreign land. It won't be until Europe that Christianity is the most practiced religion, but a few things remain truly universal. The world has a taste for Pizza Hut, and in return the Hut has taken its sauce across every conceivable boundary...

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-67917804023225852422008-03-08T00:04:00.002-06:002008-12-09T08:23:43.909-06:00

The idea of being lonely in the middle of the ocean appeals to me. Perhaps it's because I'm an introvert...or because I like getting lost. I'm generally very good with directions when I'm driving or walking alone, but when other people are around me I tend to shut off my head. The volume of mistakes and general confusedness is really quite hilarious...for me, that is...not for anyone around me.

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-36476259740111115472008-03-07T00:04:00.001-06:002008-12-09T08:23:44.552-06:00

3.3.08 Cairns, AustraliaI got off the ship to make calls to home and research the possibility of taking a ship out to the Great Barrier Reef. Right about the time I got off the phone it began to rain, spoiling any chance of snorkeling the reefs. Shame. 3.6.08 Darwin, AustraliaDarwin, much like Cairns, has wonderful phones. A late night and early sail-away gave me just enough time to get off

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-45636770209113820932008-02-29T00:14:00.006-06:002008-12-09T08:23:46.663-06:00

I went to Steve Irwin’s open-air zoo in Brisbane. The zoo in sponsored by Animal Planet so the whole production was very slick in a good way. I’ve never been to a zoo where the animals were so assessable. My favorite was the kangaroo field, where they wait kind of apathetically for you mess with them. In the field directly adjacent to this one are the red kangaroos. When approached, these

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-75211187799739216342008-02-27T12:57:00.001-06:002008-12-09T08:23:48.146-06:00

The Sydney sail-in is rumored to be one of the best in the world, right up there with the Hong Kong sail-in, and may the rumors be confirmed by mua. Only something like this will wake crew and guests at 5:30am after a full day’s work and party the night before. Some awoke (a few including myself stayed up all night) to view the first sparklings of Sydney city lights in the distance. As you

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-13653784778379343902008-02-25T12:36:00.005-06:002008-12-09T08:23:50.225-06:00

Melbourne is to Portland as Sydney is to Seattle. It’s the trendier, artsier big city in Australia. Shortly after pulling into Melbourne, a couple who used to be the dance duo onboard and now operates a successful dance studio (Paul and Sheryl of Dance 101) picked a group of us up to tour the hippest spots all around the city with them. They dropped us back off at the ship for a quick change

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-39684204504121185292008-02-23T12:30:00.000-06:002008-12-09T08:23:50.328-06:00

Tasmania is a part of Australia. The Tasmanian devil is a real animal that, upon getting grumpy, walks in small circles grunting for hours on end; hinse the Looney Tunes character. I felt bad for not getting off in Tasmania, but there was a long night of ocean motion behind me (Tasman Sea), and the true essence of Tasmania, so I was told, was far past the city…so here’s my impression of the big

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-54099988179833039332008-02-22T00:35:00.000-06:002008-03-22T12:41:50.046-06:00

I recently had a dream about an ex-girlfriend. There we were hovering near the top of a 50-story atrium at Gaylord Opryland negotiating terrible walkways not intended for use by people, when in one of her rebellious moments, I watched as she fell to her most certain death. The air left my lungs and I felt a disconnect at what I was witnessing. Luckily, she landed in a hot tub without a scratch

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-57843334987657143332008-02-21T23:35:00.000-06:002008-03-22T12:40:34.007-06:00

I get nervous about not getting the most from every port, so you’ll often find me schmoozing about with the shore excursion people. They are good folk to make friends with as they seem to live on the boat and know everything about everything that’s either cool, cheap, or must-see-sketchy the world (as far as ports are concerned) has to offer. They don’t shy away from the horror stories either,

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-46541943464783863332008-02-21T00:58:00.006-06:002008-12-09T08:23:51.406-06:00

As we passed Sea Break Island (named by the famous Captain Cook, who seems to have named most everything around here) en route to Tasmania via the Tasman sea, the winds increased all at once, knocking over a few spectators at the front of the ship. This would be an appropriate foreshadowing of the next 2 days at sea. The Tasman is a wild adventure at its calmest, like something from the Illiad,

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-91413290990393649472008-02-19T05:02:00.002-06:002008-12-09T08:23:55.429-06:00

It has been too long since I’ve written in this blog. I hate that. I hate it almost as much as I hate not being in New Zealand. Last week I saw the beautiful island country for the first time, stopping in 3 cities, 2 Fjords and forced to cancel a performance in Dunedin because of wild waters. Last week I was seasick twice, took a trainride to wrangle some sheep in the bottom of a beautiful

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-6714732395354249792008-02-10T14:31:00.001-06:002008-12-09T08:23:55.669-06:00

Come with me as we celebrate the dead…this is the conga line parading into the night's themed party. We dug into the cast’s costumes and I ended up as some kind of masked mobster type, Dick Tracy or something...

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-48830082028964419372008-02-09T03:52:00.000-06:002008-02-21T14:27:58.367-06:00

I’ve inherited a new alarm clock. A team of Italian welders wakes me up each morning doing construction to a crew area just outside my door. They’re prepping a pathway to install a huge engine component and must take out a 6X4 slice out of about 7 floors to drop it in. It’s not so much the buzz of their blow torches that wakes me as their muscley foreign jib. I’m sure the powers that be knew

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-57194828249203806722008-02-08T17:44:00.004-06:002008-02-20T01:59:51.254-06:00

A Day I Will Never Live…Feb 7, 2008 will never exist for me. This is a day in my life that I’ve passed over. While my friends back home are busy with their Feb. 7th doings, struggling with work, struggling to love each other, struggling to master Halo III, I struggle to understand how a day in my life just disappeared. What would I have done if I had Feb 7th back? Would I have lived like

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-11783695370109413192008-02-06T17:35:00.001-06:002008-03-03T00:22:47.796-06:00

I watch and old couple sitting at a table at the back of the ship. They've been here for at least 3 hours, same as me. He's reading the cruise newspaper called "Reflections", a daily summary of world events widdled down into about 5 pages. I abandon the idea that this man is dumb, as it's hard to believe dumb people can live a life profitable enough to stay afloat on this pricey world cruise..

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-77551980250459083092008-02-03T20:40:00.000-06:002008-12-09T08:23:56.035-06:00

Bora Bora...Friends and I trekked to the apparently famous Bloody Mary’s to watch the Super Bowl. I discovered that I despise bloody marys...Then we hiked over to Hotel Bora Bora and thought of Mark...Here's a soundbite from its peaceful beach... Bora Bora is beautiful, really. I can't believe I'm saying this, but islands are starting to get boring.

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-83551769083076572132008-02-02T20:22:00.001-06:002008-12-09T08:24:24.016-06:00

I’ve taken to cycling the beautiful island of Huahine. There are two reasons for this. 1) I feel introverted and 2) in French Francs, renting a motorized scooter is not cheap. So, I picked up a mountain bike in the morn with intentions of touring the island, finding an isolated beach and writing all day. Somewhere around kilometer 5, Ego kicked in and I decided to go a full loop round the

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-39235992857019039742008-01-31T15:21:00.000-06:002008-12-09T08:24:25.949-06:00

And I’m ok with that. Sometimes it’s good when a memory is your own. To be fair…I jacked my foot on some coral and a fish must have been turned on by the smell of my blood. The little bugger began to circle me with an excitement I naively interpreted as playful, then it tagged me twice. Multiple expletives later I became a swimmer, laughing as I set world records.Despite the vampire fish,

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-31204440299695081262008-01-30T07:02:00.000-06:002008-12-09T08:24:26.603-06:00

We could see beautiful beachy motus dotting the perimeter of the lagoon as our ship approached Raiatea, the first of our stops in the French Polynesian Islands. We chose not to believe people when they told us of the lack of beach on the main island itself. Such negativity from our island guides could only be combated with stubborn denial. So I purchased an overpriced yellow frisbee, which was

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-49384375574758605972008-01-28T02:09:00.000-06:002008-01-30T02:29:31.211-06:00

We just crossed the equator on the way to Ratetea, our first stop in the Society Islands. I'll be beach bumming most of the day tomorrow as, amazingly, I haven't been on a beach since this trip started...with the exception of Gran Cayman. This is the first time I've been in the southern hemisphere. Hemisphere seems like a huge thing. It's a big weighty word. Hemisphere. Anyway, I was outside

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-14335542618866559642008-01-26T16:08:00.000-06:002008-12-09T08:24:27.834-06:00

There was the Roman shade, the Venetian, the slat blind…then what? Who was the grand pioneer that ushered us into our current revolution, the new era of shadery? It’s a question I never cared about until today upon playing golf in Maui with the guy who invented vertical blinds. It’s like finding out who invented the paper clip…or the wax things at the end of shoelaces (I read somewhere that the

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-15606842461267277902008-01-25T03:45:00.000-06:002008-12-09T08:24:29.723-06:00

I have some friends back in Nashville who came to Honolulu a few weeks ago. They brought back magical pictures of them with their fiancees climbing to the top of an old WWII staircase that scales straight up the side of a mountain. It's called the Haiku Stairs and the American government used the ladder-system to run communication cables via a series of pulleys and towers along the top of the

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-58760465544773207122008-01-23T13:32:00.000-06:002008-01-23T22:08:55.585-06:00

Last night we thought it a fun idea to add some country music into the show. I was a bit nervous as country is perhaps the only genre (and I think anyone who has ever - against my recommendation - hired me to sing for a country session would agree) I just can’t pull off. So, for those of you who understand my history with remembering lyrics genre and nerves aside, it’s no surprise that I

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-77220327385027782382008-01-22T17:03:00.000-06:002008-12-09T08:24:30.791-06:00

I couldn't sleep for the excitement. I've never played golf outside the country before, and this time it would go down in Acupulco alongside one of the top 100 golf instructors in the world. So I'm up with the sun on this day in Acupulco; 5:30am. ...Princess Golf Club......an unfortunate lie atop a coconut......unwinding as we set sail...The golf pro at the Princess Golf Course was nice enough

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-88139439332846908532008-01-21T16:31:00.000-06:002008-01-21T16:33:59.373-06:00

It’s day one of the world segment of tour and I’m in the middle of the ocean sailing to Honolulu, Hawaii. We left out 5PM yesterday from LA, where I spent my first time in LA rushing around with friends picking up American toiletries that I know I’d miss (I’m a Mitchum man, thanks to my best friend Daniel, who got me hooked on the superior underarm protectant). It’s shocking how easily annoyed

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-76521233269787036312008-01-20T16:31:00.000-06:002008-12-09T08:24:31.604-06:00

We’ve docked in LA and I have to go to Walmart today, amongst seeing the city for the first time. That just sounds pathetic. A friend is picking me up at port about an hour away from Hollywood and we’ll hit up breakfast (#2), see LA, then Walmart…We say Walmart like Kleenex. I have a British friend aboard who laughed when I told him I was getting off the ship to go to Walmart. I’m sure it’s

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-91647837453663685702008-01-16T16:28:00.000-06:002008-01-21T18:49:02.496-06:00

I’m getting ready for a Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics lecturer, David Aguilar, to lecture me about ‘how alone we are’ and the likely existence of superiorly intellectual life outside earth. I’ve been getting into aliens way too much lately. I hate that all we can do is sit back and wait for new information about the universe. And I also think it amazing that Einstein’s theories

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-41726220437820757002008-01-13T00:43:00.000-06:002008-12-09T08:24:31.946-06:00

Somehow I ended up spending all my cash in Puerta Chiappas today, despite how cheap everything was. And somehow this has been the best day of this leg of the tour. I wasn’t planning to get off the ship as Puerta Chiappas didn’t seem to have much to offer. I must give props to a diary entry I made once about people and how they make things more interesting. After coaxing from a couple of my

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-15684652551194413412008-01-12T22:21:00.000-06:002008-12-09T08:24:37.868-06:00

Who doesn't love a country with no army? Switzerland is to chocolates, army knives (ironically), mountains and oversea bank accounts as Costa Rica is to coffee, surfing, rainforests and probably drugs. Caldera, Costa Rica has charmed me in a serious way. The towns/houses, the people and food, the landscape, everything worked to make it a place where being poor might not be half bad. I rounded

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-50614929085582235212008-01-11T00:33:00.000-06:002008-12-09T08:24:38.476-06:00

We went through the Panama Canal today. I woke up late this morning and was very confused when the ship was surrounded by land on both sides. It took me about 45 seconds to understand what was happening in my life. It costs a quarter of a mil to cross through the Panama Canal. Daniel…if you’re reading this…I think I found our next canoe adventure. View of the beautiful Panama countryside:

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-32856735915987487052008-01-10T14:23:00.000-06:002008-12-09T08:24:39.931-06:00

It’s about 1pm and I’m sitting at a bar onboard the ship watching the one other guy who’s in here with me plastered, just blitzed out of his mind, rambling ridiculous conversation with the foreign bartender, attempting to sound normal. He’s probably in his fifties and is sporting a purple polo, black & white checkered shorts with slimy mug shot hair. What drives a guy to get sloshed at a bar by

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-39753946902978165342008-01-08T20:16:00.000-06:002008-01-10T14:23:09.696-06:00

People are more interesting than anything. Places are cool. I love architecture. Sports are fun. But people are the best. Even with architecture, I love the final product, but I always end up wanting to know about the person(s) behind it. I don’t understand people who can isolate themselves completely. God, I’m feel I don’t have a right to say that because I love being alone. At some

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-19577855608253533422008-01-07T09:31:00.000-06:002008-01-10T15:29:50.785-06:00

All aboard finally. I was picked up at my hotel this morning and was tendered to the Crystal Serenity, still lacking two of my bags. One is a guitar and the other is a regular piece of luggage with books and CDs and such. I'm in room 7001, which I previously thought to be an ideal place directly adjacent to the back of the of the ship on level 7, right next to shuffleboard. Two seasickness

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-50130170109511161682008-01-06T09:33:00.000-06:002008-12-09T08:24:40.757-06:00

DFW's new terminal D is very nice.  I got to tour it for a long time yesterday.  Then they let me visit the old terminal, too...for old times sake perhaps.   All in all, I was in the airport for 11 hours.   Plenty of time to make a lot of new friends, be on two cancelled flights, spend too much money at TGI Fridays,  miss my boat's departure in Miami (& consequently my first show), sleep in a

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2466915743111389894.post-58828596753784034312007-12-27T17:30:00.000-06:002008-01-07T10:58:14.806-06:00

     Hello everyone or no one!  I like the exclamation mark because I could be excited or I could be sarcastic।  You would only know by my eyebrows।  That's why real human interaction is still valid (at least until live internet video gets less screwy).  Truth is, I'm a little of both re: the start of this blog.  I'm already using cool net-slang like "re:" !  (ulgh).       There's an impending

JustinCaldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778895330478276925noreply@blogger.com0