Saturday, June 16, 2012

Ocho Pies at The Washington Center for the Performing Arts

Ocho played a gig with the Masterworks Choral Ensemble this weekend.  The 50 person Masterworks choir performed the first set then during the intermission, Ocho Pies set up on stage.  The second half of the show featured Ocho Pies with the last four songs including backup vocals from the choir. The show went really well.  Everyone had good energy.

Prior to the show, Michael Olson (Ocho's drummer) gave an interview to Molly Gilmore who writes for the newspaper The Olympian.  Here is a excerpt from that article published June 15, 2012:

Masterworks Choral Ensemble is teaming up with Olympia’s Afro-Cuban quartet Ocho Pies to end its season, and this matchup is a win-win. As an authentic world-music group, Ocho Pies enhances the concert’s world-music theme, while Masterworks’ singers lend some of Ocho Pies’ traditional Afro-Cuban tunes a more authentic sound.

“For us, it’s very exciting to do this music with Ocho Pies and a choir, because normally, that is how it’s done,” said Michael Olson, Ocho Pies’ drummer. “We’ve never been able to do that before.“In Cuba, it’s done with a big entourage of singers, so it’s exciting to hear it in that fashion.”

....... and then later on in the interview:

The concert is likely to be among Ocho Pies’ last, at least for a long while. Lead singer Connie Bunyer is getting married in August and will leave the quartet in the fall to go on an extended sailboat journey with her new husband.

“It’s sad,” Olson said. “I’m super happy for her. She’s in love; she’s going to go out and do this beautiful thing. But it’s a little sad.

“It’s kind of the end of Ocho Pies as we know it.”

Olson and the other remaining members, Paul Hjelm and Steve Luceno, are still figuring out what’s next. Meanwhile, Olson said, the band will have some summer gigs at the Water Street Cafe where friends and fans can bid a fond farewell to Bunyer.

See the whole article here at the Olympian

So as you see, the cat's out of the bag, at least in Olympia. While Connie is excited about wandering the seas with Scott on Traveler, she will really miss playing music with her good friends Michael, Stephen, and Paul.

In the meantime:  Embarkation is just over the horizon.
                              Time accelerates as we approach the date. 

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Parts, lists, and more lists. and a party!


We have many lists: provisioning list, project list, maintenance list, storage location list, light bulb list, spare parts list, safety check list, departure list, debarkation list.

On one hand the most important thing we are doing right now in Seattle is saving money for the boat kitty.  On the other hand the most important thing we are doing right now is gathering together all those needed items for cruising.  One negates the other. C'est la vie!

There is a storage locker that we’re filling up with all sorts of fun projects. Eventually we’ll have to load all this up and transport it 1300 miles to Ensenada.  I just hope we’ll be able to avoid paying duty on all this stuff.
1
·         Jack lines, safety tethers, harnesses, PFDs
·         Sewing machine and kits
·         Nav station - VHF radio and GPS
·         Handheld - VHFs and GPS’s
·         ICOM  M-802 SSB, Tuner, Pactor Modem
·         Laptop, cameras, chargers, extra batteries
·         Electrical repair supplies
·         Inflatable kayaks
·         Spare parts and tools
·         Portable generator
·         Diving gear
·         Books
·         Vino Tinto 

      Note how everything on the list involves the act of sailing or cruising on a small boat.  You’d think with a big fat 42 foot boat we’d have oodles of room for all sorts of stuff.  But no, the lockers are filling up and the waterline is rising with it.  Put too much stuff aboard and she’ll be shipping water over the gunwales. 
      
      Letting go involves saying goodbye to friends too. We're putting together a going away party in August. We've rented a hall in Seattle and Connie's band, Ocho Pies are coming up from Olympia to provide the music.  
                      We'll drink and dance and eat, 
                                 laugh and sing and weep.







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