Royal Caribbean Cruisers -- How Are Things Where You Are? (was "Routine" ​ 😁 ​day in lockdown... how was yours?)

[Tree_skier]

7 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Sounds a lot like my youth, the jean jacket with AC/DC stenciled on in black magic marker and buying D cell batteries by the case to power the ridiculously large boom box.  The local radio station still exists and is still playing the same songs but instead of advertising DuMaurier cigarettes and Labatt's they are now pushing ***** and hair loss treatments.🤣

I always knew we were kindred spirits.  Did you have the ubiquitous Canadian Mac jacket on underneath the jean jacket.

 

I know my old local radio station still exists but I have no idea what their format is now. CFOX FM, Vancouver (The Fox rocks!)   Now, I have satellite radio and an Apple Music subscription and listen to whatever I want whenever I want.

 

You were a better kid than I was apparently.  We shoplifted our batteries from the old Woodwards department store..

 

I remember "pirating" songs off the radio with that big boom box.

Edited May 3, 2021 by Tree_skier

[Ourusualbeach]

2 minutes ago, Tree_skier said:

I always knew we were kindred spirits.  Did you have the ubiquitous Canadian Mac jacket on underneath the jean jacket.

 

I know my old local radio station still exists but I have no idea what their format is now. CFOX FM, Vancouver (The Fox rocks!)   Now, I have satellite radio and an Apple Music subscription and listen to whatever I want whenever I want.

 

You were a better kid than I was apparently.  We shoplifted our batteries from the old Woodwards department store..

 

I remember "pirating" songs off the radio with that big boom box.

What self respecting teenager wouldn't be caught without the Mac jacket underneath.  Great times breaking in friends new jackets with the ever handy bic lighter.  Had the Kodiaks to go with it as well.  My wife and I grew up around the corner from each other but 5 years apart so our paths never crossed.  She always says that we wouldn't be married if she knew me back then.  I describe our differences as she as in the school band...I wasn't

[Ocean Boy]

37 minutes ago, Tree_skier said:

Today is vaccine day! At high noon, against my better judgement, I'll let them jab me me with a needle full of stuff I have no idea about.  I'm hoping I don't grow a third eyeball or lose anymore of my luxurious blond mane.  Cruising may now commence in 5 weeks.  🙂 

Not to change the subject but have you noticed that there is a missing thread?

[Sea Dog]

2 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

Not to change the subject but have you noticed that there is a missing thread?

I could of sworn I looked at it this morning. Pretty much the same banter from the usual suspects. I wonder what happened?

[lenquixote66]

3 hours ago, Sea Dog said:

Yes I am familiar with DC. I don't know him personally. I do have his Christmas album as I collect Christmas music. Very good artist.

Don and I e-mail regularly.

[lenquixote66]

1 hour ago, cruisingpeople said:

 

A long read, but very interesting........

 

 

Hello Darkness My Old Friend, a Simon and Garfunkel song inspired by a College roommate who went blind - reveals an untold story. 

One of the best-loved songs of all time. Simon & Garfunkel's hit The Sound Of Silence topped the US charts and went platinum in the UK.

It was named among the 20 most performed songs of the 20th century, included in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, and provided the unforgettable soundtrack to 1967 film classic The Graduate. But to one man The Sound Of Silence means much more than just a No 1 song on the radio with its poignant opening lines: "Hello Darkness my old friend, I've come to talk with you again."

Sanford "Sandy" Greenberg is Art Garfunkel's best friend, and reveals in a moving new memoir, named after that lyric, that the song was a touching tribute to their undying bond, and the singer's sacrifice that saved Sandy's life when he unexpectedly lost his sight.

"He lifted me out of the grave," says Sandy, aged 79, who recounts his plunge into sudden blindness, and how Art Garfunkel's selfless devotion gave him reason to live again.

Sandy and Arthur, as Art was then known, met during their first week as students at the prestigious Columbia University in New York.

"A young man wearing an Argyle sweater and corduroy pants and blond hair with a crew cut came over and said, 'Hi, I'm Arthur Garfunkel'," Sandy recalls.

They became roommates, bonding over a shared taste in books, poetry and music.

"Every night Arthur and I would sing. He would play his guitar and I would be the DJ. The air was always filled with music."

"Still teenagers, they made a pact to always be there for each other in times of trouble. "If one was in extremis, the other would come to his rescue," says Sandy They had no idea their promise would be tested so soon. Just months later, Sandy recalls: "I was at a baseball game and suddenly my eyes became cloudy and my vision became unhinged. Shortly after that darkness descended." Doctors diagnosed conjunctivitis, assuring it would pass. But days later Sandy went blind, and doctors realized that  glaucoma had destroyed his optic nerves.

Sandy was the son of a rag-and-bone man. His family, Jewish immigrants in Buffalo, New York, had no money to help him, so he dropped out of college, gave up his dream of becoming a lawyer, and plunged into depression. "I wouldn't see anyone, I just refused to talk to anybody," says Sandy. "And then unexpectedly Arthur flew in, saying he had to talk to me. He said, 'You're gonna come back, aren't you?'  "I said,: 'No, There's no conceivable way.' "He was pretty insistent, and finally said, 'Look, I don't think you get it. I need you back there. That's the pact we made together: we would be there for the other in times of crises. I will help you'."

Together they returned to Columbia University, where Sandy became dependent on Garfunkel's support. Art would walk Sandy to class, bandage his wounds when he fell, and even filled out his graduate school applications.

Garfunkel called himself "Darkness" in a show of empathy. The singer explained: "I was saying, 'I want to be together where you are, in the black'." Sandy recalls: "He would come in and say, 'Darkness is going to read to you now.' “Then he would take me to class and back. He would take me around the city. He altered his entire life so that it would accommodate me."

Garfunkel would talk about Sandy with his high-school friend Paul Simon, from Queens, New York, as the folk rock duo struggled to launch their musical careers, performing at local parties and clubs. Though Simon wrote the song, the lyrics to The Sound of Silence are infused with Garfunkel's compassion as Darkness, Sandy's old friend.

Guiding Sandy through New York one day, as they stood in the vast forecourt of bustling Grand Central Station, Garfunkel said that he had to leave for an assignment, abandoning his blind friend alone in the rush-hour crowd, terrified, stumbling and falling. "I cut my forehead" says Sandy. "I cut my shins. My socks were bloodied. I had my hands out and bumped into a woman's breasts. It was a horrendous feeling of shame and humiliation. "I started running forward, knocking over coffee cups and briefcases, and finally I got to the local train to Columbia University. It was the worst couple of hours in my life."

Back on campus, he bumped into a man, who apologized. "I knew that it was Arthur's voice," says Sandy. "For a moment I was enraged, and then I understood what happened: that his colossally insightful, brilliant yet wildly risky strategy had worked." Garfunkel had not abandoned Sandy at the station, but had followed him the entire way home, watching over him. "Arthur knew it was only when I could prove to myself I could do it that I would have real independence," says Sandy. "And it worked, because after that I felt that I could do anything.

"That moment was the spark that caused me to live a completely different life, without fear, without doubt. For that I am tremendously grateful to my friend." Sandy not only graduated, but went on to study for a master's degree at Harvard and Oxford.

While in Britain he received a phone call from his friend - and with it the chance to keep his side of their pact. Garfunkel wanted to drop out of architecture school and record his first album with Paul Simon, but explained: "I need $400 to get started." Sandy, by then married to his high school sweetheart, says: "We had $404 in our current account. I said, 'Arthur, you will have your cheque.' "It was an instant reaction, because he had helped me restart my life, and his request was the first time that I had been able to live up to my half of our solemn covenant."

The 1964 album, Wednesday Morning, 3 AM, was a critical and commercial flop, but one of the tracks was The Sound Of Silence, which was released as a single the following year and went to No 1 across the world. "The Sound Of Silence meant a lot, because it started out with the words 'Hello darkness' and this was Darkness singing, the guy who read to me after I returned to Columbia blind," says Sandy.

Simon & Garfunkel went on to have four smash albums, with hits including Mrs. Robinson, The Boxer, and Bridge Over Troubled Waters. Amazingly, Sandy went on to extraordinary success as an inventor, entrepreneur, investor, presidential adviser and philanthropist. The father of three, who launched a $3million prize to find a cure for blindness, has always refused to use a white cane or guide dog. "I don't want to be 'the blind guy'," he says. "I wanted to be Sandy Greenberg, the human being"

Six decades later the two men remain best friends, and Garfunkel credits Sandy with transforming his life. With Sandy, "my real life emerged," says the singer. "I became a better guy in my own eyes, and began to see who I was - somebody who gives to a friend. "I blush to find myself within his dimension. My friend is the gold standard of decency."  Says Sandy: "I am the luckiest man in the world"

I knew about Sandy Greenberg and his friendship with Art Garfunkel but I am glad that you posted this.

[lenquixote66]

1 hour ago, Tree_skier said:

Oh wow tragic to miss that.  I think Freddie Mercury's performance was one for the ages.

There was nobody like Freddie Mercury.He left the world much too young.

[Tree_skier]

29 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

Not to change the subject but have you noticed that there is a missing thread?

Yes I was in the middle of reading it this morning and when I clicked next to get to the last page... Poof it was gone.  Honestly I thought that most of the discussion was reasonable. I hope @easy1234 isn't gone for good.  He could prove to be an entertaining poster.

[lenquixote66]

1 hour ago, dani negreanu said:

 

Thank you for sharing. A very moving story. I was riveted.

Dani,if you are interested in Folk Rock google Gathering Time .They are a New York based group but they appear in concert all over .I have been to many of their appearances over the past few years and have most of their CD’s.

[Tree_skier]

41 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

What self respecting teenager wouldn't be caught without the Mac jacket underneath.  Great times breaking in friends new jackets with the ever handy bic lighter.  Had the Kodiaks to go with it as well.  My wife and I grew up around the corner from each other but 5 years apart so our paths never crossed.  She always says that we wouldn't be married if she knew me back then.  I describe our differences as she as in the school band...I wasn't

Ah yes the old bic lighter.  I had almost forgotten about that until you mentioned it.

 

So you corrupted one of the good girls.  Thankfully my wife was nothing like who I was in those early days as well.  Meeting her probably saved my life.

[Sea Dog]

9 minutes ago, Tree_skier said:

Yes I was in the middle of reading it this morning and when I clicked next to get to the last page... Poof it was gone.  Honestly I thought that most of the discussion was reasonable. I hope @easy1234 isn't gone for good.  He could prove to be an entertaining poster.

That thread had more twists and turns than Highway 1.

[island lady]

1 hour ago, Tree_skier said:

Today is vaccine day! At high noon, against my better judgement, I'll let them jab me me with a needle full of stuff I have no idea about.  I'm hoping I don't grow a third eyeball or lose anymore of my luxurious blond mane.  Cruising may now commence in 5 weeks.  🙂 

 

My second shot was back on February 11th (Moderna).   So far just my fingers and toes fell off, I indeed grew a third eye in the back of my head (which has been a plus), and a nice new fluffy tail.  

 

Have been ready to cruise since end of February, but can't find the ship at the terminal...and it's tough to drag my suitcases anyway with no fingers  

[dani negreanu]

10 minutes ago, Tree_skier said:

I hope @easy1234 isn't gone for good.

 

He is not. Posted 4 hours ago. And I'm glad that he did. He is missed here.

[Sunshine3601]

Any fans of Santana?   Just went out to pick up lunch and jammed the song Smooth.  Great song!   Black magic woman is another good one.

[island lady]

45 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

Not to change the subject but have you noticed that there is a missing thread?

 

Thread on the RCI main boards? Guess I don't know what that one was, and obviously was not following it.  🤔

Edited May 3, 2021 by island lady

[George C]

1 minute ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Any fans of Santana?   Just went out to pick up lunch and jammed the song Smooth.  Great song!   Black magic woman is another good one.

Saw Santana a few years ago he opened for Dylan, great guitar player.

[dani negreanu]

3 minutes ago, island lady said:

 

Thread or post?  Thread on the main boards?  

 

[Sunshine3601]

6 minutes ago, George C said:

Saw Santana a few years ago he opened for Dylan, great guitar player.

Havent had the chance to see them.  I'm jealous, I think that would be a great concert.

I've seen grateful dead just over 100 times, led zeppelin, pink floyd, tom petty, Crosby stills and nash, Chicago, Billy joel, Elton John and a bunch more I cannot remember right now.

[lenquixote66]

10 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Any fans of Santana?   Just went out to pick up lunch and jammed the song Smooth.  Great song!   Black magic woman is another good one.

I am a huge fan of Santana.I posted previously that Soul Sacrifice is one of my favorite songs.

About 30 years ago when I was living in NYC I had a neighbor who was a musician .He was very close friends with one of the guys from Santana who happened to be visiting him.My neighbor got some of his musician friends together and they and the Santana guy played that night on our street.Not the same thing as Santana but very close.

[Sunshine3601]

3 minutes ago, lenquixote66 said:

I am a huge fan of Santana.I posted previously that Soul Sacrifice is one of my favorite songs.

About 30 years ago when I was living in NYC I had a neighbor who was a musician .He was very close friends with one of the guys from Santana who happened to be visiting him.My neighbor got some of his musician friends together and they and the Santana guy played that night on our street.Not the same thing as Santana but very close.

Very nice and yes that is a great song too!

[lenquixote66]

6 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Havent had the chance to see them.  I'm jealous, I think that would be a great concert.

I've seen grateful dead just over 100 times, led zeppelin, pink floyd, tom petty, Crosby stills and nash, Chicago, Billy joel, Elton John and a bunch more I cannot remember right now.

My friend David is the biggest deadhead on the planet .He has been to probably hundreds of their concerts.I love the group but I only saw them once at the Fillmore West 50 years ago.I am a huge Zeppelin fan.

I do a bit of singing and with a friend of mine have sung Stairway to Heaven more times than any other song.Pink Floyd is another favorite of mine.Not in. Too much to Tom Petty.I have every Crosby ,Stills,Nash .Crosby ,Stills,Nash and Young and CSNY ,Taylor and Reeves.My favorite song to sing is OHIO and play on my car stereo blasting as loud as possible with the windows open years ago.

I prefer Leonid and Friends to Chicago.Not into Elton John at all.In 1972 I worked with a woman named Maria who was a very close friend of Billy Joel and she introduced me to his music.I have every album he released .My daughters have been to many of his concerts.
 

[lenquixote66]

17 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Havent had the chance to see them.  I'm jealous, I think that would be a great concert.

I've seen grateful dead just over 100 times, led zeppelin, pink floyd, tom petty, Crosby stills and nash, Chicago, Billy joel, Elton John and a bunch more I cannot remember right now.

In August 2019 when a lot of groups that I would not pay a Penny to see appeared at the Woodstock 50th.reunion concert in Upstate NY.

My friend and his Woodstock Tribute Band Retro69.appeared in Bethel along with Santana,Arlo Guthrie and the Doobie Brothers.They were not paid to perform.The other reunion singers got big bucks,

My friends band,etc.suggested a donation of $10 a person which would be given to a farmers collective.

[grapau27]

1 hour ago, dani negreanu said:

 

He is not. Posted 4 hours ago. And I'm glad that he did. He is missed here.

Hopefully he will join us again on your fantastic thread Dani.

[Tree_skier]

[grapau27]

1 minute ago, Tree_skier said:

Great news you have had your first vaccine jab.

I get my second Pfizer jab on Thursday.