Epcot

I have been to Disney World once for my twelfth birthday. I went to the Magic Kingdom, which was really cool. I have three theme parks left to do. Disney's Animal Kingdom, Disney's Hollywood Studios, and Epcot. The next park I would like to go to is Epcot. Epcot is divided into two areas, Future World and World Showcase. In Future World, there are many structures such as Spaceship Earth, Mission Space, Test Track and more. Mission Space is a ride meant to simulate astronaut training for the first manned mission to Mars. Riders are arranged into crews of four before watching an introductory video. Before going on, each person has a role,(Navigator, Pilot, Commander, or Engineer). Test Track is a car ride where first you get in a car, and you go through tests where one room is very cold and the other is very hot. Then there's the brake tests. you're about to hit a wall because you don't have brakes, but the wall is a door that opens up to the track, where you go sixty-five miles an hour around the track. World Showcase has many structures of different parts of the world, such as France, Italy, and Mexico. There is a mobile attraction at World Showcase called the World Showcase Adventure, taking place in different parts of World Showcase. It is an electronic scavenger hunt that has people use special custom made cellphones to give them clues on what to find and where to find it. Epcot is a very interesting park full of science and technology that is amazing for the future.

Happy Birthday Dad!

This Monday was my Dad's 54th birthday. We went out and had a birthday lunch, with Sam T. Dog. My Mom and Dad had Publix sub sandwiches, and I had some chicken strips with Cool Ranch Doritos. We also had some really good barbeque sandwiches for dinner. Then we had some Pecan Pie for the birthday cake, and watched The Hunt For Red October, which is about submarines being very quiet on the sonars when they activate their Caterpillar Drive, a mechanism that is very effective under water.

My Mom and I are going to go see the Hunger Games: Mocking-jay Part 1. I have seen the trailer for it and I think that it is going to be awesome. In Catching Fire, Katniss Everdeen, the main heroine of the story, shot an arrow at the top of the arena that houses the Hunger Games, a fight to the death, just when a stroke of lightning the tree that had a piece of string that was attached to the arrow. The arena blew up, and her friends came down and picked her up, but left Peeta Malark, Katniss's love, behind and now the Capitol, the makers of the Hunger Games, have him as prisoner. Will Peeta still be alive in this movie. Who knows?

I am working on a song called The Mad Man With A Box from Doctor Who on my piano. So far, I have little pieces of it right, but I'm still working on getting the whole thing. It is a great song about a lonely Time Lord, traveling through time and space on his own. The rest of the Time Lords are dead, and he has lost his friends. Then, he finds Amelia Pond, and soon after Clara Oswald, a.k.a The Impossible Girl.

Games, Lessons, And Songs.

One of my friends and I have been playing Minecraft In Real Life, a game we created based off of Minecraft. So far, I have a Diamond Sword, made by Diamonds and Wooden Sticks, and a diamond pickaxe, also made by Diamonds and wooden Sticks. My friend, Elliot, is the Miner, I am the Forger, and Emily, Elliot's sister, is the guard. She guards our house to make sure our supplies are safe. What I do is take any items that Elliot finds, and make something out of them, such as a Diamond Helmet, or an Emerald Sword.

I am also giving another friend, Luke, some guitar lessons. We started last Thursday with what everything is on a guitar and what the notes are. In our next lesson, we are going to go over three simple basic chords, G, C, and D.

I am working on some other songs for Key West next month, such as Southern Cross, Summer of 69', and Volcano. I am getting better at play Love Will Keep Us Alive. I am now playing it with very few mistakes.

  

Music, Fishing, and An Awesome Website

Next month mom and I are going down to Key West for my Grandpa's wedding.

I have learned quite a few good wedding songs, like I'll Stop the World and Meld With You ~ by Modern English, Footloose ~ by Kenny Loggins, and Love Will Keep Us Alive ~ by the Eagles. With Love Will Keep Us Alive, I am going to finger-pick the riff that is in the beginning all the way through the song, transitioning from chord to chord as I go.  Here's what I have so far:

I am trying to get Forever Autumn from Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of War Of The Worlds down on piano because it is a really good song for it. Actually, all songs on that album are spectacular for keyboards. Also, it is one of my dad's favorite songs. Just listen to it and you will know why.

I am also getting very interested in fishing. I am using lures and frozen shrimp on an open face spin reel. So far I haven't caught anything yet, but I might just need to switch to live bait, I don't know. One time, I got right smack dab in the middle of a snook feeding frenzy, and I felt my lure touch some of the fish

but none of them went after it.

My dad found me this really cool website for learning called edX. It's a website that has great online courses for stuff like poetry, William Shakespeare, science and cooking, computer programing, and more. All you have to do is sign up for free, find some classes you might enjoy, and enroll. These courses are made by a whole bunch of really awesome schools, such as Berkley, Harvard and others.

History Of The Eagles

 

Last night we watched History of the Eagles on Netflix. The Eagles is one of my favorite bands of all time. They are known for songs like Take It Easy, Desperado, and Take It To The Limit.

The Eagles was originally made up of four guys: Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Bernie Leadon, and Randy Meisner. Glenn Frey lived in Detroit, MI. He started playing piano when he was five years old. At twelve, he quit playing piano, went to a Beatles concert, and said "I need to be a guitar player." Don Henley grew up in Linden, TX, and started playing drums by banging his fingers and pencils on books. Then, his parents got him a red drum set.

Glenn was a lead singer in the Mushrooms, and later he met Bob Seger. He was going to make a band with Seger, but it didn't work out. Don's first band was called Shiloh. He was able to get Kenny Rogers to be their manager. Glenn went to J.D. Souther and played with him a bit. He also met Jackson Browne. They lived in the same apartment building and through that, he learned how to write songs. Jackson Browne was working on Take It Easy, but he was stuck on the second verse with "I'm standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona." Glenn put in "It's a girl, my lord, in a flatbed Ford, slowing down to take a look at me." Glenn and Don were both signed by Amos records with their separate bands. That is how they met each other. They went to see Linda Ronstadt one day, and her manager said "We need some singers and guitar players. Come with us." They auditioned, and they started working with Linda. Glenn and Don wanted their own band, so they found Bernie Leadon and Randy Meisner. That was the creation of the Eagles.

They were first signed by David Geffen's new record label, Asylum records. Then they also found Glyn Johns, a record producer. They found a manager named Irving Azoff, who helped them on several occasions. Soon after that, they didn't want Glyn to be the record producer, so they went for Bill Szymczyk,(pronounced Simsick). The Eagles decided that they needed a third guitar player, so in came Don Felder. Randy made Take It To The Limit, and everyone loved it when he sang those high parts in the end. Unfortunately, a while later Randy decided he didn't want to do that song anymore. So he left, and was replaced by Timothy B. Schmit. They also found Joe Walsh and replaced Bernie with Joe. After the Long Run album, the Eagles did a benefit concert for Senator Allan Cranston. The Senator's wife came around and thanked Don Felder, and he says "Your welcome,... I guess." Glenn got really mad about that and said "I'm going to kill you." Felder replied "I can't wait." The Eagles split up in 1980.

In the fourteen years that followed, the fans still really enjoyed the music. Don, Glenn, Timothy, Joe, and Felder all had solo careers. In 1994, they all got back together and played at a benefit concert in Aspen. Three years after that, they did the Hell Freezes Over tour. The name was inspired by something that Henley said. "The Eagles will get back together when hell freezes over." Then after that tour, there was tension between Felder and the rest of the band again.  So they replaced him one more time with Steuart Smith and they continue to tour and make new music. Hopefully they will keep on going for the rest of their lives.  Here's a video of me playing one of my favorite Eagles tunes.

Wizards and Witches of Halloween

A few weeks ago I saw Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. It was good for an adaptation, but not as good as the books. The cast was great, though. There was John Cleese from Monty Python, the Dowager Countess from Downton Abbey, and Alan Rickman from Galaxy Quest and Quigley Down Under. Harry Potter is a boy who lived with his step parents which are mugles ,(Mugles: Non-magic folk, humans), and then found out, well as Hagrid put it, "You're a wizard, Harry." Soon, he is off to Hogwarts School of Magic and Wizardry, where he meets Hermiony and Ron, his two best friends. But his real parents weren't mugles, they were wizards. A bad wizard named Voldimort, (sorry, I meant He Who Must Not Be Named) killed his parents and left him with a lightning scar on his forehead. There are four houses at Hogwarts, Gryphindor, Slitherin, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw. Harry meets a kid called Drako Malfoy. He is the bully of the school. They also play a game called Quiditch. It's kind of like basketball, but with three balls, broom sticks and baseball bats.You put two of the three balls in a hoop. If you are from Gryphindor, you go to Slytherin's hoops, and vice versa. The third ball is caught by the seeker, who looks for the speedy flying ball and catches it. When the third ball is caught, the game ends. He has an owl named Hedwig that sends and receives letters and presents. Harry finds out that Voldimort is coming back to life to kill him, and with the help of Ron and Hermiony, stops him. There's more but it doesn't apply to the plot. So, see you later in another blog. Bye.  

OK Buckaroos

My performance at Archie's a few weeks ago went really well. Hopefully, next month's performance will be even better. Last week I watched a documentary/biography about Jerry Jeff Walker called OK Buckaroos. It was really great. I really liked the part where he asked someone in his hometown that traveled a lot how he gets out of there, and Jerry Jeff Walker went to Florida. When my dad was working at the Stuart airport he met Jerry Jeff Walker. He was going to go fishing with his buddies but didn't bring a swimsuit. So, my dad took Jerry Jeff Walker swimsuit shopping at West Marine. Thanks, Papa for the DVD. I really appreciate it. I now have 'Faithfully' by Journey in my piano song list. It is my second favorite Journey song. Number 1 is 'Separate Ways', a.k.a 'Worlds Apart'. I also have 'Piano Man' by Billy Joel, which is really good if you can split piano and harmonica on your keyboard.  

Sick As A Dog

I had a cold last week, so I didn't really do much. One of my friends told me about a game called Kerbal Space Program. You are able to build a spaceship or a spaceplane to go into space and to the moon. I am learning a new song on my piano called Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin. It's a very complicated song, filled with lots of sharps and flats. I am also learning A New World Symphony on my piano. It's a really sweet and relaxing song. The season premier of Doctor Who was really great. The new Doctor is pretty good at playing an over 2,000 year old Time Lord from a planet called Galifrey. My favorite part was when the dinosaur was roaming in London in 1869 all because it swallowed the TARDIS.

Yesterday, I gave my dog a bath so that he wouldn't stink. He can tolerate baths but I can tell he dislikes them. My mom is making homemade dog treats for Sam. 
Here is the recipe for Mom's dog treats. 

Mix together:
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
1/3 cup meat flavored liquid (chicken broth, beef broth, etc.)
1 tablespoon of oil (bacon grease works great)
2 cups of flour
Roll out dough very thinly on floured surface and cut with cookie cutters. Place on cookie sheet. Mix 1 egg in a separate bowl.  Add a little broth or bacon grease to the egg wash for extra flavor. Brush the egg wash on the tops of the treats just before baking. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until golden brown and crispy.

Aviation 101

As part of my homeschool curriculum, I am studying how to be a pilot and how airplanes work. One of the sites that I use for that is Aviation 101, a site made by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. If you want to be a pilot, go to this site. It teaches you things like what the basic components of a plane are, what the different controls do, and more, and the best part is, it's free. All you have to do is sign up. I took my first test, which wasn't big, and I got an 84%. I am so excited about tonight, because tonight on Doctor Who is The Night Of The New Doctor, as I call it. I hope he is as good as his predecessor, Matt Smith. You can check him out on BBC One at 8:00 PM Eastern Time. I am working on a new song on my piano called Come Sail Away by Styx. It is going very well, in fact, I almost have it complete. The first Harry Potter book is very good so far. It has lots of wizards, spells, and Monsters. One of my favorite people from the book is Hagrid. He's a softy but he's also hard and mean when he needs to be. If I were a wizard, no offense to my dog because in Harry Potter I am pretty sure wizards can't have dogs as pets, I would have an owl. One of my documentaries I watched with lunch this week was about London, England. If you want to explore Hyde Park in London, you can take a tour on horseback.

Beware The Ides Of August

A few days ago, I got an invitation to play at Archie's again. I said yes to that offer. So now I'm going to play at Archie's September 6, and October 4, both will be from 12:00 noon to 2:00. I have been gathering a set list for September, here is what I have so far, 1. Volcano - by Jimmy Buffett, 2. Redneck Riviera - by my uncle Allan Morton, 3. In The City - by Joe Walsh, 4. Summer of 69- by Bryan Adams, 5.Boats - by Kenny Chesney, 6. Son of a Son of a Son of a Sailor - by Jimmy Buffett, 7.Born To Be a Pirate - by Mike Mangum, 8. The Weight - by The Band, 9. Knee Deep - by Zac Brown, and 10. Take It Easy - by The Eagles. I am also thinking about going to the Osceola St. Cafe Open Mike Night every Monday. I just put everything together in That's Just The Way It Is and it is perfect. It is now ready for a public performance. Playing For Change is making a music video for a song called La Bamba and I am learning the song so that maybe I can be in the video. On the 26th, one of my friends and I are going to go see the St. Lucie Mets play against Charlotte. I wish that Fall was here right now, it is really hot and humid out there. Spring and Fall are my favorite seasons because it's not too hot and it's not too cold either. This weekend I am going to get the first Harry Potter book. I hope it has a really great storyline with cool plot twists in it. See you later. Bye.

This Is Your Brain On Music

My guitar teacher, David, gave me a book called This Is Your Brain On Music. It's written by a great musician and producer, Daniel J. Levitin. It's about why people like music so much and why some people have more abilities with music than others. For example, he did some experiments and one of them was to put people in an MRI, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, machine and played them some music. Then, he asked them to imagine hearing music. On the screen, parts of the brain lit up both times. In fact, the parts of the brain that lit up were so similar that they couldn't tell which one was when he played and which one was them imagining.

I'm also learning a song called The Way It Is by Bruce Hornsby. It's going pretty well. I have the first intro, the second intro, and the piano fill.

Guitars and Tiki Bars

Yay! I got my guitar that I won this Friday! It is a beautiful guitar. It's made of Mahogany wood, which gives it a nice bright and full sound. You can even see the wood grains on the polished body. I liked it so much that I named it Rose, after one of my favorite characters from Doctor Who. It also has a beautiful sound. It has lighter strings and is custom designed to make it easy to play. It's an awesome guitar for some of my favorite acoustic songs like Handy Man by James Taylor, Romeo and Juliet by Dire Straits, and Peaceful Easy Feeling by The Eagles. Thank you Mr. Zager and the folks at Zager Guitars.

Speaking of the guitar, she went for a test run at Archie's Seabreeze yesterday. I took Rose, Zoe (my Ibanez Artcore) and Kaylee (my little Martin) and I played for two hours. Thank you Miss Patty for giving me the opportunity to play at Archie's. I hope to see ya'll again. We didn't want to take Sam with us, so he spent the day at the Inn of the Dog getting a pawdicure and some puppy play time.

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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.

Ode to a Zager ZAD80CE

The folks over at Zager Guitars are having a contest to win a beautiful custom guitar.  Here's a song I wrote about the ZAD80CE for my contest entry.  I hope ya'll enjoy it and thanks to the Zagers for this awesome opportunity!

Boating Experience

My boating class went really well! I learned lots of things like how to tie the bowline, the clove hitch, and the cleat hitch. We also went on boat rides, which were really fun, especially when we went fast.

On Monday, we assembled at the main building, introduced ourselves, and met our instructor Captain Don. We went to the classroom. We got our textbooks and Captain Don gave us a 'Pirates Of The Caribbean' trivia quiz, for us to pick our boats. Then, we went in three groups to our boats. My group got the 'Sea Boss' with Captain Dave. We practiced docking at the Shrimpers docks, and I got to drive a few times and practiced docking.

On Tuesday, we studied a little bit out of the books. Then, we got to our boats. This time, we got the 'Yankee Doodle,' my favorite boat in the Chapman fleet. We practiced anchoring at Hell's Gate, a little spot of water that's good for anchoring. We got back ashore and had our lunch. After lunch, we went to the pool and watched one of the adult classes practice lifeboat boarding drills.

On Wednesday, we studied some more out of the books, and studied some knots. Next, we got our PFDs,(Personal Floatation Devices), and got on the 'Liberty.' We practiced steering the boat. Afterward, we went to the pool and had lots of fun.

On Thursday, we went to our boats and piloted them to the public dock at downtown Stuart, and went to Hoffman's Ice Cream. I got a vanilla chocolate mix, with mini M&Ms, Skittles, Gummy Bears, and Cinnamon Toast Crunches. Then, we went back and had lunch and studied. After that, we went to the pool. 

On Friday, we went on the big boats. We got 'No Tee Time,' which was very slow. Then, we figured out how flares work and what different types there were. Then, we got a test. After everyone was done, Captain Don told us who won. I passed the test! We got so excited that we went to the pool.

Thank you Captain Don and all the nice folks at the Chapman School of Seamanship for all the help you gave me! 

Boating Lessons With My Friend

Next week I am going to a boating summer camp at the Chapman School of Seamanship with a friend named Vincent. I hope to have a great time and have fun learning things like all of the correct knots on a boat line. Tomorrow is the first day, so it should be really fun and I hope it goes well. I have everything I need for it, a pair of deck shoes, some lunch, a bathing suit, and a bag with all of my boating items in it. Next week's post will be all about the experience.

Guitar Contest and Summer Camps

 I am working on writing a song to try to win a guitar from Zager Guitars. They are giving away a free guitar to one lucky winner. You have to submit a video telling them about yourself, why you should win the guitar, and which one you want. The contest goes through the end of June. Next week I was going to go to an aviation summer camp at Sailfish Aviation, but unfortunately it was canceled. I also got some new deck shoes for the Chapman School of Seamanship's summer boating class coming up in two weeks.

The Way of the Peaceful Warrior

This week I read a book called The Way Of The Peaceful Warrior. It's a great auto-biography written by Dan Millman. It's a useful book if you're having trouble concentrating, or staying happy and satisfied.  Dan Millman was a gymnast training for the Olympics. He sustained a serious injury in a motorcycle accident but continued in his gymnastics with the spiritual guidance of a man named Socrates, who taught him the way of the peaceful warrior and the way of happiness. This is an inspirational book and it taught me some good lessons about how to be happy and satisfied with what I have. 

Witchy Woman

This weekend, Mom and I are going to see a movie called Maleficent. I am excited about it. To me it seems like Maleficent’s side of Sleeping Beauty, but they might change the sides a bit and make Maleficent the good girl, and the princess’s kingdom and family the bad guys. A-ha! You thought she was bad and they were good. See what I mean? Anyway, I hope it is really awesome. Oh, I forgot to mention that Angelina Jolie is Maleficent!  Thanks for reading The Barnacle Chronicle. Tune in next time for more adventures with Fletcher. Bye, Mateys!

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!