Seersuckers, Sculptures and the Sculptor

Monday, March 31^st, 2015, 4:00 PM: I was sitting on my stool playing CountryRoads on my guitar, when, suddenly I heard a knock on the front door. My Lands'End Seersucker Suit had arrived. Earlier that month, I had been invited to a performance at the new Geoffrey Smith Gallery. It was a cocktail party, so, I had to get something a bit formal. My dad suggested a Seersucker suit, with a white shirt and black tie. My mom ordered the suit, while my dad and I got the shirt, tie, and dress shoes. The suit arrived, and I put it on to see if it would fit. It was a bit too big, so, dad and I went to Hometown Cleaners andTailors, and asked for it to be altered a little. The tailor, Miss Esther, was a very nice lady and very funny. 

 Tuesday, April 7^th, 2015, 5:15 PM: After a guitar lesson with JonathanCummings, dad and I went back to the tailor to retrieve the suit. It fit perfectly. We took it home, and mom took some pictures of me in the full suit, shirt, tie, and everything, and Rose, my Zager guitar. The next day, I practiced the set-list with just the jacket, to make sure I could still play with the long sleeves on the jacket. Everything was going great.

Thursday, April 9^th, 2015, 4:45 PM, Performance Day: I was getting ready to go perform, putting on my suit, putting Rose in her guitar case, and saying hi to mom. It was only a few yards from our house to the gallery, but, we took the van anyway. We got set up, and then, people came in. I started playing for half an hour, and then stopped. Then, Geoffrey gave a speech about his creations. He was the one that built the big sailfish in the fountain in the middle of downtown Stuart. I played for another half hour, and then, Dad went home with the guitar, and mom and I stayed. There were a couple kids there, and they made their own VIP for kids section in one of the rooms. One of the girls gave me a small box that said “You are a VIP. Please come to the room with the VIP sign.” I went in the room, talked with the kids, and went home. We had awesome rock star pizza, watched Mystery Science Theater 3000: Hobgoblins, and then I went to bed.

Three tunes from the performance:

Volcano

Southern Cross

Odds Are

Piano Songs and Guitar Lessons

My dad is having me learn Bridge Over Troubled Water on my keyboard. It's so hard that I can't even make it past the first measure. That's good, because I need stuff that challenges me such as that song. If any of you people out there have a song you want me to learn, tell me on Facebook and I'll try to learn it.

Starting next Tuesday, I'll be taking guitar lessons from Jonathan Cummings, the man who organizes the Open Mic at the Crafted Keg. I am both excited and prepared for whatever he has for me. I think he is going to challenge me a lot.

On Lego Harry Potter, I am almost done with year 3, and have learned Expelliarmus, the disarming spell. There are also Dementors, kind of ghost looking creatures that suck your soul out and leave you zombie-like. The only way to defeat them is the Patronus Charm. Point your wand at the Dementor, think of the greatest, happiest moment in your life, and say "Expecto Patronum!"

I hope y'all enjoyed this blog. See ya in the next one. B'bye.

Spaceship Models and New Performances

For Christmas I got a model of the Enterprise-E from Star Trek First Contact and Star Trek Nemesis and a model of the NSEA Protector from Galaxy Quest. The Protector was easy on building, in fact, I finished the building process before Christmas day was over. Enterprise-E, however, was a bit trickier for building because it had a lot of pieces in it. So far, Enterprise-E is the biggest model I have built, but that will change soon because I also have a visible V8 engine model that has over 300 pieces in it. Dad will have to help me on that one because it's a skill level 5, which means it's for experienced model builders.

Performance Alerts:

On March 1, I will be playing on Jensen Beach Blvd. for the Treasure Coast Marathon at 12:00. I will be playing near the end of the marathon, so a lot of people might be there. The race starts at 6:00 and ends at 1:00, starting and ending at the Indian Riverside park.

A few weeks ago, I played with Emi Sunshine at the Terra Fermata Tiki Bar. Emi is going to come back on Mothers Day and the owner of Terra Fermata, Ron Hart, wants me to open for her. More details on the performance will be presented as soon as I get it.

I'd like to express my appreciation to Jonathan Cummings for taking me under his wing and inviting me to perform regularly at the Crafted Keg on Tuesdays.  Thank you so much.

That's all for this week folks. I hope you enjoyed this blog post. I'll see y'all in the next post. B'bye.

By Fletcher Morton.

Pianos, Guitars, and Trumpets.

Last week was my public piano debut at the Crafted Keg. I played That's Just the Way It Is by Bruce Hornsby. It's a very complicated song and it took me about a year to complete it. I give thanks to Dad, who printed out the lyrics for me, and to Miss Debbie Boykin, for teaching me the basics of the fingering and chords for piano. Last year, my guitar teacher, David, got me a piano for my birthday. When we brought the keyboard in, Dad wanted me to learn That's Just the Way It Is. Now, a year later, I have learned and performed it in public. Thanks Dad for keeping me going with that song.

I am learning a bunch of new songs on guitar such as Cry Love - John Hiatt, Boat on the River - Styx, and my most recent song, Let My Love Open the Door - Pete Townshend. Each week at the Crafted Keg, I learn at least one new song and play it there. I am Currently working on Child of the Wild Blue Yonder - John Hiatt. Thank you Jonathan Cummings for letting me come up and play every Tuesday at the Crafted Keg.

Up until three days ago, my musical inventory was four guitars, a guitarlele, a keyboard, a set of harmonicas, and a saxophone. After I got the sax I wanted a trumpet, but the problem was that musical instruments are expensive. Then a few days ago, Dad was cruising through Craigslist and he found someone selling a trumpet for only $20. The trumpet is an Etude ETR 100 in like new condition, and it has the case and everything. Dad called the guy up and said "I'll come over and get it."

Now I have Sarah the Trumpet in my musical inventory. So far I am learning how to go from C to G with the other notes in between. G is a bit hard to get, because C is open, so you don't press any of the valves down, and G is the same way.  So you have to adjust your lips to get the G sound, and when you do middle C, keep your lips in the same position for D, E, and F. Dad played the Tuba so he teaches me a little bit.

Frank Aird (Trumpet Man): "Take 5", 'Alfred's Ocean Palace', Negril, Jamaica, 2011

That's all for this week's blog post. I'll see you guys next week! B'bye.

By Fletcher Morton.

The Kingdom Keepers

A few years ago, my mom told me about a book series called the Kingdom Keepers. I said "I'll check the first book and see what happens next." Now, I still read them, all seven books, over and over again.

The Kingdom Keepers Book Series is an amazing story about five teenagers, (Finn, Maybeck, Philby, Willa, and Charlene), that auditioned for Disney's DHIs, which stands for two things. 1: Disney Host Interactive, 2: Daylight Hologram Imaging. To put it simply, the guides at the Disney Theme Parks have been replaced by holograms.There are seven books in the series, Disney After Dark, Disney At Dawn, Disney In Shadow, Power Play, Shell Game, Dark Passage, and The Insider. The Disney characters are real and alive, even the villains. All of the villains are in a group called the Overtakers, and the Keepers have to stop them from taking everything Disney and making it dark and scary. The leader of the Overtakers, (Chernabog from Fantasia), is rising, and can only be stopped by the mouse that started it all. The problem is that Mickey has gone missing for a while. How will they defeat the Overtakers and bring the magic back without him?

The book series was written by Ridley Pearson, and caught my attention from the first page of Disney After Dark to the last page of The Insider. This would be an excellent series for kids and adults alike. I think it's  great as far as the story and how Mr. Pearson kept me on edge to see who would win. Would the Overtakers win and destroy Disney, or would the Keepers win and save Disney? Would there be another strike from the Overtakers in the future? The last question remains unanswered. It just might be on your mind when you read the last page of The Insider.

By Fletcher Morton.

Planes, Helicopters, and Airports, Oh My

This week, I went to pilot camp at the St. Lucie Airport with Sailfish Aviation and with my friend Alex! It was really great. We saw some DC-3s at a place called Missionary Flights.

On Tuesday, we learned about helicopter parts and how a helicopter operates in the air. There is a stick on the left side of each seat called the collective. The collective changes the pitch angle of all the main rotor blades collectively to increase and decrease lift. The cyclic is the "stick" between the pilot's legs. If the pilot pushes the cyclic forward, the rotor disk tilts forward, and the rotor produces a thrust vector in the forward direction. If the pilot pushes the cyclic to the right or left, the rotor disk tilts and produces thrust in that direction, causing the helicopter to roll right or left.
We also went to the control tower and learned what the controllers do.  The airport is equipped with a system that helps pilots land in poor visibility, meaning not able to see well outside because of weather, called the ILS, (Instrument Landing System.)

On Friday, the last day of camp, we went flying with an instructor named Dave. We flew out over the Atlantic for a bit, did a traffic pattern, and landed. Thank you Tom Bean and Sailfish Aviation for the cool aviation class.  

I also slept over at Alex's house for a couple of nights. It was really awesome. We played with LEGOs. For all of  you Doctor Who and LEGO fans, I believe LEGO is coming up with LEGO Doctor Who sets, and the new Doctor is coming August 23rd on BBC America!  Thank you Larisa for letting me stay with Alex for a few nights.

Won A Guitar, Goin' Flyin'

A few weeks ago, I wrote and recorded a song as my entry in the Zager Guitarscontest to win a free guitar. On June 31, they announced the winner of the guitar.
It was me!
The link to the song I wrote is here. The guitar will arrive soon and I will make a video with me unboxing it, testing the strings, and playing a song.  Next week I will be going to the Sailfish Aviation Summer Camp, at the St. Lucie Airport in Ft. Pierce. My friend Alex might also get to go! Hopefully, if the weather's good, we will go flying.

I took some of my tip money from my last gig and bought The Simpsons Game for my Wii, and a new watch. This past week we have been getting some really awesome thunderstorms. The only one that didn't like it was my dog, Sam. He's so scared of thunder, that he hides in the smallest place he can find. Under my mom's desk. It was really blastin' out there, but yesterday was sunny.  Hopefully today will be, too.

New Strings and A Convenient Street Light

Fletcher recently tried out some new DR Strings Dragon Skin phosphor bronze strings on his Little Martin LX1E and they sound great!  They're hand made and coated with K3 Technology for improved performance and corrosion resistance.  He figured a Mark Knopfler / Dire Straits song was a good way to showcase their sweet tone, so we went down to the river walk in downtown Stuart, Florida, found a convenient street light and he played a little Romeo and Juliet.  We hope you enjoy the video.  Thanks for stopping by to take a listen!