CapnJake

Door County Maritime Museum's Classic & Wooden Boat Show - August 1-2, 2009

2009-07-08T03:42:36Z

Picture a maritime town in the heart of where Green Bay meets Lake Michigan. Sturgeon Bay has a marvelous history, an excellent museum and one of the most fun festivals you'll ever see. Not only will you see various new and classic boats, you will experience a competition where teams assemble boats out of provided materials and endeavor to float and navigate around in them. Thousands of people come out for this competition every year and Bounding Main returns for our third year to provide rich nautical music for the show on Saturday August 1st. (Please note that we will NOT be performing on Sunday.)

Door County, Wisconsin is worth a trip all by itself, so why don't you be sure to come up and make it a long weekend this year?

http://www.dcmm.org/boatshow.html

Long Time Shanty Singer Johnny Collins Passes Away

2009-07-08T03:38:54Z

We just received word that our friend Johnny Collins passed away in Gdansk, Poland where he was performing for their Tall Ship Concert this week. Since the 50's Johnny has been a mainstay on the shanty music scene, performing all over the world with many recordings to his credit. We were very privileged to have performed with him at the Chicago Maritime Festival in 2007 and at the Liereliet Festival in Workum, The Netherlands in 2008. Despite his world-wide renown he was a very warm and approachable person who was quick to share an anecdote, share a song or share a joke. In 2007 we shared a music panel about Pirates and Scoundrels with Johnny. At one point, as we're all given to do, Johnny stopped himself having forgotten lyrics. Gina promptly hung our "Weakest Link" sign on him, which took him aback, then he found enormously amusing. In 2008 at the Liereliet festival his long-time partner Jim Mageean stumbled on some lyrics and Gina promptly hung our "Weakest Link" sign on him! Johnny was delighted at the razz! "Ha! Now HE'S the Weakest Link!" Over the last fifty years Johnny has made many, many friends who all have some story to share about him. He will be much missed.

Port Washington Pirate Festival this weekend

2009-06-04T05:36:38Z

Some of you know the troubles with the management of this show over the years. Some people feel that the woman that founded this festival and pretty much runs it on her own dime for the last four seasons can be difficult to work with. I've worked with MUCH worse. In any event, citing difficulties working with this person, a bunch of people quit between last season and this one, leaving a lot of gaps in work needed to be done. I stepped in at the 11th hour to get the show in order. We probably did six months of work in one-and-a-half.

Bounding Main has lost several gigs over the last few years due to the economy and "big fish in little pond" stupidity. I didn't want to lose another gig - particularly one in our back yard and SO fun. So I seriously revamped the web site, did a bunch of essential marketing things, worked on entertainment and organization and brought some really great people on board to help manage the event. Thank god for Chris Last and Kristen North managing the reenactors and volunteers, respectively.

I sent out an broadcast email to all of the area radio stations, offering to give them tickets for two pirate cruises on Friday night aboard the tall ship The Windy. No reply all day today, which leaves tomorrow. Kim should not have waited until a week away from the event to try to give away tickets.

Things will be different next year, I assure you.

Oh, Jon Baade had a personal loss this week, which put Water Street Bridge out for Saturday, maybe Sunday, too. TJ and Amanda Hull graciously stepped up to perform maritime hornpipes as Ogham for WSB's sets. I'm still waiting to hear from Jon about Sunday but Ogham can take the shows and I have a back up artist in the wings, too. We'll see.

While I want this festival to be a smash hit again (year five, after all!) I want to drop the administrative cloak at the end of Friday and just have performance fun with Bounding Main for the rest of the weekend. We're SO looking forward to hanging out with our pals in The Jolly Rogers, too.

It is going to be a great weekend, in any case.

www.portpiratefestival.com
www.deancalin.com

Bristol Renaissance Faire - July 11-12, 2009

2009-04-27T20:16:57Z

Bounding Main will return to our home port of Bristol Harbour at the Bristol Renaissance Faire. Located just off of Highway 94 at the Illinois-Wisconsin border, this venue is one of the oldest and most popular events of its kind. We will bring our inimitable renditions of maritime music to those 40 acres of historical costumes, entertainment, musicians, food and shops on Saturday and Sunday. We will post our stage schedule when it becomes available. For fun pictures of last year's appearance, see the pictures here. For more on the faire, visit their web site at http://www.renfair.com/bristol/

Happy 6th Birthday Bounding Main!

2009-01-19T17:19:47Z

Happy 6th Birthday Bounding Main!

What a rocket ride of fun and excitement the last six years have been, 2008 in particular! So fun! So happy!

2009 will be a more conservative year with family issues taking priority. I think it works well as we don't want anyone in our crew getting burned out on all of the gigs.

We're having a House Concert in Fond du Lac on Saturday afternoon. Check out our web site at http://www.boundingmain.com for details. Come celebrate our birthday with us!

Whoo-hoo!

Frozen roads

2009-01-14T14:45:24Z

A commute that normally runs 35 - 45 minutes, the state line to O'Hare, was 95 minutes on the highway sign this morning. I saw where a white pickup truck had flown off the far right lane into the ditch, ending up facing backward. Another, darker pickup truck was upside down, facing backward in the embankment on the far side of the ditch. A third vehicle of unknown make and model was in the ditch; I saw a cop climbing out of the ditch where the tire tracks indicated its flight off the road. This was all from Highway 20 in Racine to Highway 132 in Gurnee. Yesterday, a woman from Kenosha was killed on this stretch of the highway, amidst several other wrecks.

I called one of my bosses - the one that told me to work remotely yesterday - and checked on HIS progress. At 7:45 he was only halfway to work, having left at 6:30. We thought it would be prudent for me to turn around and remote in again today. He said that the traffic reports indicated that there was a series of roll-overs, crashes and vehicles-leaving-the-road ahead of me.

I pulled off at 132 westbound, viewing the bumper-to-bumper eastbound traffic, drivers all waiting to get ON the expressway. Not wanting to risk taking Hunt Club road (it being smaller and possibly less well maintained than the expressway) I pulled off to one of the several strip malls near Gurnee Mills and set up shop in a Caribou Coffee with its lovely, lovely free Wi-Fi! (Thanks, Caribou Coffee!) As soon as traffic clears a bit I'll get back on the road and head home.

In snowy weather when traffic is slow I will keep my camera handy, but one lack-of-traction-while-braking incident said I needed to keep all faculties involved with driving.

Computer hijinks

2009-01-14T14:22:47Z

My external hard drive, which held all of My Documents for the last 10 years crashed, hard. I tried the "freeze it and recover data in 20 minute segments" trick and that didn't work. I am SO screwed. If there is a bright side all of my programs are intact, as is my email. I just have to deal with the loss of every graphic project, music project, web design project, personal pictures, writing, etc. for the last 10 years.

This WAS my backup drive, but as my MyDocuments grew large on my internal HD, I needed more space, particularly for the video rendering that was required for the promotional videos for Bounding Main. I know I should have installed another external HD as a backup, but in waiting for the prices to go down and freeing up cash after nearly $1,000 in surprise car repairs and all of the other monthly expenses I put it off too long.

I will turn the drive over to the computer consultant that works for my employer; hopefully they have something in their bag of tricks that will work. I know there are companies that expressly recover failed hard drives, but I just can't afford that expense on top of everything else. What a freaking catastrophe.

Happy Holidays from Bounding Main!

2008-12-22T21:26:34Z

In Sursee, Switzerland

2008-10-22T17:28:24Z

I'm done with my second day of training for my day-job. I'm in a nice hotel in a little town called Sursee in Switzerland. It is raining and I'm on my own for dinner. I'm sort of beat, so I guess I could just go to sleep and forgo chow.

The festival last weekend in Workum, The Netherlands, was brilliant. I discovered we sold a ton of CDs which was really great. The Bounding Main gigs are still so much amazing fun even after nearly six years. So happy.

I miss home and my wife and all the cats and my doggie, despite the Euroliving.

Now I'm hungry . . . rats.

Writer's Block: Cryptozoology

2008-10-21T21:26:14Z

Bigfoot, the Yeti, the Loch Ness Monster, el chupacabra—what is your favorite creature that may or may not exist?

View 500 Answers

There have actually been repeated sightings of man-wolves in Wisconsin. I'll all over those.

Future fun in Amsterdam

2008-10-14T13:25:38Z

I discovered that we will be sharing a taxi with Tom Kastle and Mariah Clark from Amsterdam to Workum. This should be great fun as we all get along famously. And all the girls are ga-ga over Tom, so I can, you know, focus on reading my psalm book. It sure will be nice to not have any distractions, except to fetch drinks, probably.

Grrrrr! Frikkin Frackin Illinois Construction!

2008-10-13T22:12:18Z

My commute to work is normally an hour and a half, this by the fact that most people are driving at least 65 mph through the 45 mph construction zone, which is the entirety of my drive through Illinois from the state border all the way to I-90! Today traffic stopped DEAD southbound on 294 at Grand Ave (132). I have seen it slow down here before, but it took ONE FULL HOUR to get to the next exit, Milwaukee Avenue (21). The traffic bimbo on Chicago Public Radio was gushing about how wonderful Columbus Day Traffic was, that there were NO delays anywhere. I was so steamed I tried to call to correct her, but the office wasn't open yet and I got stuck in voicemail jail. I finally heard, on her third report (that I caught) that there was a "minor delay" from Grand Avenue to Buckley Road (176). Since it took me a full hour to get to the first exit, I figured it would take at LEAST another full hour to get to the next exit, where traffic was supposed to clear up.

I zipped off at 21, headed north to Washington, east on Washington to 41, south on 41 to Half Day Road (22) and west on 22 back to 294 where traffic, indeed, had cleared up. The refugees from that fiasco behind me were driving like suicidal maniacs, passing me at perhaps 85-90 mph, as if they were going to make up for lost time. I had called into my boss at the point that I stopped to see if turning around was an option, but he needed to call a meeting, so on I went.

I love my job. I love my company. Our product only looks better to our customers in hard times because it makes their operation more efficient. That said, I HATE my commute. It is now official.

Grrrr!

Want to introduce Bounding Main at Skokie on Nov 15?

2008-10-08T02:38:17Z

Ahoy mates!

Are you planning to come to our show at the Skokie Theatre Nov. 15? We are working hard on bringing you some unique goodies in this show, including several new songs. We hope to see lots of you there!

How would you like to stand at the microphone and introduce Bounding Main, welcoming us onto the stage for the Skokie show? Here's your new contest:

1. Write an introduction - it can be as long or as short as you like, but remember that humor goes far with us. This is your chance to bring out that long-held secret that only you know about us. Or pull out your best Ed McMahon impression. Or, you know, just say a few kind words about your pals in Bounding Main.

2. Send your entry/entries directly to me, by email.

3. From the entries, we will choose the top 3 finalists. We will call you up and have you do your intro over the phone On Sunday Oct 26, and from there we will judge the best of the best.

The prize for the winner:
**Introducing Bounding Main in a pivotal show!
and
**2 tickets to the show!

The deadlines for entries is Wednesday Oct 22.

Gunner Maggie

Bounding Main

4th Annual Renaissance Festival Awards 2008

2008-09-25T21:08:59Z

4th Annual Renaissance Festival Awards 2008

Q: Do you have a favorite entertainment group that performed at a Renaissance faire near you?
A: Bounding Main!

Q: Is there a band whose CDs you love to listen to again and again?
A: Bounding Main!

From Marc Gunn's "Renaissance Festival Podcast:" "Once a year, we compile a list of the most-popular Renaissance Festival performers currently performing at Renaissance faires. From now until December 31, 2008, you can vote for your favorites at faire. The following day, I will tally up the votes and compile a podcast to be released in January featuring all of your favorite groups of 2008."

Bounding Mainiacs and friends, so we ask you to, "Please vote for us!" Tell your friends, family, cats and cars to go to http://www.renaissancefestivalmusic.com/awards/ and vote for Bounding Main! Well, don't cheat, 'cause that would be wrong and Marc Gunn would get mad - but please get the word out to everyone you know that has heard us! We performed at the Bristol Ren Faire and the Janesville Ren Faire this year: with our oversea schedule it is all we had time for!

We love you all and and thank you in advance if you vote for us!

PS Please, please, please be sure to vote for all of the other wonderful Bristol performers such as Jesse Linder for solo musical artist! Well, there are a bunch of fun categories - what are you waiting for? Go see for yourself!
_________________
Dean Calin
Bounding Main
www.boundingmain.com

"Ahoy, Mates!"

Happy Anniversary To Us!

2008-09-25T20:47:51Z

So happy 4-year anniversary to richellecalin; and I. Today. We got a new Weber grill and she cooked us a wonderful Teriyaki Salmon for us. Yum! I got a card this morning. She got a text message from me this afternoon. Ain't I romantic?

Okay, the jig is up. I also sent her a bouquet of fall flowers and a box of chocolates. I wanted it to be a surprise but she just texted me to say she received them so I can confess that I'm not so much of a poo-head.

Star Mainiac September 2008 - Bilgemunky!

2008-09-19T15:52:42Z

Our Star Mainiac for September 2008 is ... Gerard Heidgerken, otherwise known as Bilgemunky!! Bilgemunky is the only full-time Pirate I know; check out his website! (How appropriate, to feature this fellow on 'Talk Like a Pirate Day'.) Listen to Bilgemunky's radio show also, which he broadcasts every Monday. Bilgemunky Radio is an incredibly eclectic mix of hard core Pirate music, shanties, ballads, folksy stuff, rock, and even a little Bounding Main now and then. You can make requests! (www.bilgemunky.com)

Through his website, reviews of our music, and featuring us on his show, Bilgemunky has probably brought in more folks to the Mainiac fold, than any other single person. He is also an eloquent and loyal Mainiac. See photo below, complete with excellent Pirate handsomeness ... and prominently featured Deport Bounding Main button. Here's what Bilgemunky has to say:

Q: Have you seen Bounding Main live? If so, how many times?

A: Aside from the Port Washington Pirate Festival in 2005,there were also the other three Port Washington Pirate Festivals, so that makes for Four. Plus the two years you performed at the St. Louis Pirate Festival (running total of six), the Chicago Maritime Heritage Festival (seven), and the release party for Lost at Sea (eight). And oh yeah, let's not forget the Going Overboard release party at Paddy's Pub in Milwaukee, where it was sweltering inside from the immense Bounding Mainiac crowds, while being, what, 40 below outside?

So nine times, I think. More or less. Not nearly, nearly enough ;)

Q: How many Bounding Main CD’s are in your car/iPod/stereo –and what is your preferred method of listening?

A: I have a very small mp3 player - only one gig. So no albums have a permanent home there. <Editor's note: WHAT> But all three Bounding Main albums continue to spend their due time on board now and again - Lost at Sea most of all.

I'm quite the fan of 'Dreadnaught', although 'High Barbary' is right up there as well.

Q: Anything else you would like to share?

A: Well, I do take special pride in that I possess one of the only known bootleg recordings of Bounding Main singing a dirty ditty. I'm still contemplating the appropriate blackmail. <Editor's note: we are family-friendly. The ransom is on its way.>

Congratulations to Gerard 'Bilgemunky' Heidgerken, Bounding Mainiac of September 2008!! And Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day!!

Gunner Maggie
Bounding Main
www.boundingmain.com

A few ideas from Bounding Main (from Gunner Maggie)

2008-09-06T01:04:03Z

Hello to the Bounding Mainiacs!

Please read the last entry on our travel blog. We all contributed to it. Thank you, to all of you, who read the entries and contributed comments. Keep the comments coming!

Also, check out these photos that we took on the trip. The theme, as you can see, is "Dashed on the Rocks". Thanks to Frank Hui for the idea! It was a lot of fun, and added even a greater level of revelry to the journey.

I would like to invite you to contribute your own version of "Dashed on the Rocks". Get together with your family, your pets, your co-workers .... gather in your cubicle, the roof of your building, your swimming pool ... and send in photos of yourself doing "Dashed on the Rocks". I'll see if Dean can post them in the Mainiac page, and if there are enough of them, I'll make a new album in our photo album.

Keep your mugs wet, your pants dry, and always remember where you docked!!

~Gunner Maggie

http://www.boundingmain.com

Auf Wiedersehen

2008-08-06T04:03:58Z

Well, the seven of us are off to Germany tomorrow! I'm more anxious than excited at this point because I live in fear of forgetting something unrecoverable. I think I've got it all covered however. I'm looking forward to being on the plane and being able to relax into the reality of the trip. We've all worked so hard to raise the money to cover the costs of this and the project kept growing! What was originally to be performing at an international music festival (Festival Maritim in Vegesack, Bremen, Germany) grew into entertaining our wounded troops at the largest American military hospital outside of the US and two American airbases for airmen and their families. PLUS three radio interview, PLUS Armed Forces Television covering our show at the miitary hospital. PLUS the whole Operation Share the Shanties project of giving CDs with personal notes from everyone who could get involved to the military personnel we encounter.

Simply amazing. This group is the best, the absolute best company of friends I've ever associated with.

I will miss my dear wife, Richelle, of course. She has four fuzzy kids to keep her company, but I will only have a plate of wienerschnitzel and sauerkraut to keep me warm at night. Sigh.

So, we're keeping a blog of the trip: please visit it and say hello? http://bounding.wohlershome.net/blog/

Have fun everyone!

From Gunner Maggie - Travel with Bounding Main

2008-08-03T14:59:31Z

Hallo to the Bounding Mainiacs!

We leave for Europe on Wednesday. Eeep! Here is a link to our reasonably final itinerary http://deport.boundingmain.com/publicitinerary.htm You know, just in case you want to show up and surprise us.

Please check out our TRAVEL BLOG: http://bounding.wohlershome.net/blog/ We will be updating this periodically throughout our travels, including photos! We encourage you to leave comments by clicking the blue "comments" button; you can just leave your name in the user name blank - you don't have to be a member. These comments will be moderated (filtering for spam), so they will appear later.

We had our final pre-Europe rehearsal on Tuesday. Our Number One Mainiac John Wohlers was there. He's coming with us! And there was also a newspaper reporter and a photographer there as well. Go here and search for Bounding Main to see the article: http://www.pioneerlocal.com/grayslake/news/1083115,gr-bounding-073108-s1.article

Wohlers has the ability to periodically update the blog remotely from his phone/iPod/PDA/camera/widget. Or something. The technology is impressive and beyond me. We will try to write updates often - dependent on where we can get a signal. So keep checking back.

Check out our homepage to see the festival-maritim schedule http://www.boundingmain.com We are the opening the whole festival! Double Eeep!

And here is a link to video cameras around Bremen, where we will be performing at the Festival-Maritim next weekend. http://www.vegesack.de/tourism/webcams.html (Germany is six hours behind central time USA). Watch for your colorful friends in Bounding Main, hopefully not getting into trouble!

We are all so excited about this adventure, we can hardly believe it's almost here!

Tata everyone, and see you on the blog!
~Gunner Maggie and the crew

Less than Two Weeks! Yo-ho!

2008-07-28T22:20:57Z

Hello to the Mainiacs, and welcome to our new friends!

Well. Two weeks from today, Bounding Main will be onstage at the Festival Maritim, and prepping to make our tour of Amsterdam and the US armed force populace of southern Germany. Wowow. It's hard to believe that we six shanty singers are on our way to such a remarkable set of gigs. We are so very grateful to all of you for your support. This trip would literally not be happening if not for our loyal Mainiacs.

Jon has designed a greeting card for you folks. Please check out this link, and watch until the end. http://deport.boundingmain.com/

Some new news, it looks like our performance at Landstuhl Hospital is going to be picked up by Armed Forces TV network. Also, we will be interviewed live on Armed Forces radio. Neato!!!

Question for you creative Mainiacs. Do you have suggestions for a photo pose that the six of us could do, in various places we visit? (the airport, onstage, in a hotel, flirting with troops, in front of sign posts, at a castle etc etc). Think big! Think uncomfortable! Think impossible!! Or you know, just fun and easy. Harrrrrr

Next week, I'll send you a link to a trip blog which we will update fairly often from Europe, if our techno-geek friend Wohlers has anything to say about it.

~ Gunner Maggie
http://www.boundingmain.com

Festival Maritim

2008-07-22T02:10:11Z

So, many of you know we're going to Festival Maritim in the suburb of Bremen called Vegesack. Big multi-year maritime music festival. We're totally honored to have been asked to attend.

We're not just attending, of course we're performing. Excellent! Such an exciting opportunity!

They posted the stage schedules recently. We were in for a bit of a surprise.

We're the opening act for the entire festival.

Holy crap!

I am so pleased and speechless I'm running in circles and falling over. Well, not so much now, as I've had some time to absorb this, but - holy moley! So amazingly cool!

Bounding Main Press Release for Germany Tour

2008-07-16T17:18:56Z

Oh, hey, did you see the press release for our trip to Germany? I sent it out at the beginning of July so the August magazines could publish the information. It might have been too early for the newspapers to not LOSE the info, but the the rep at PRWEB thought this was the way to go, so we did. Check it out: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/07/prweb1060614.htm

Spider bites?

2008-07-16T16:08:30Z

Monday night after I got home from work I was yanking out the copious weeds that I'd allowed to grow around the perimeter of our property. Some of it came up easily, most of it had to be wrestled with; such is weeding. In a number of places my uprooting caused swarms of ants to erupt which caused me to work in other areas until they calmed down. Ant bites can be a pain if you let them get'cha. So I get around to the alley and instead of ants I'm encountering scuttles of spiders. Now, I'm wearing a long-sleeved shirt, but it seems one got inside by my cuff button because I have three enormous, itchy welts on my right forearm. I'm alternating using After-bite Gel and Cortizone cream. Jiminy, it is a pain!

Tonight I get to finish the weeding with the perimeter of the fence. I'll wear a sweatshirt for THAT! Then we're hitting those bad boys with enzymatic herbicide. This is the second time I've manually weeded this season and I'm pretty much done!

Now to clean the gutters. And seal the foundation. And patch the roof over the bay window and porch . . .

Star Spangled Banner by Bounding Main

2008-07-05T19:38:58Z

http://www.boundingmain.com/music/SSB_Bounding_Main_2008.mp3

Please enjoy Bounding Main's version of Star Spangled Banner.

Happy 4th of July weekend, everyon!

I am SO looking forward to this weekend!

2008-06-04T07:34:42Z

This is a much anticipated weekend! You won't be able to swing a cat without hitting a pirate in Port Washington this weekend. I'm looking forward to escaping to this hysterically fun event. We have just one more performance weekend (at Bristol) before our big deal trip to Germany. I need to write the press release for that trip that includes all of the details about our Operation Share the Shanties. When we're in Germany we'll not only be representing the US at the international shanty music festival (Festival Maritim) in Bremen, Germany, but we'll also be visiting our wounded soldiers at the largest American military hospital in Europe (Landstuhl) and entertaining military members and their families at Spangdahlem Air Base. We set up a program where people can sponsor the gift of a special CD we put together; you can send a personal message in with the CD and we'll hand deliver it to the troops that we visit. I'm very proud of this project and we've all worked very hard (especially Krivitzky) to put this all together. For more details on this whole event, please see http://deport.boundingmain.com.

So, this is going to be a fun, fun, fun weekend with friends old and new and no responsibilities beyond putting on good shows! Excellent!

Okay, back to beddie-bye.