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

Tags: bounding main, jolly rogers, music, pirate, port washington
Current Location: Racine, WI
Current Mood: pensive
Current Music: Bounding Main

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

Tags: bilgemunky, bounding main, bounding mainiac, maritime music, pirate, sea shanties
Current Location: Bottle of Rum
Current Mood: chipper

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.

Tags: bounding main, cds, music, pirate, sea shanties
Current Location: Home Office

From Gunner Maggie: 

Attention all you Pirates and Pirate Lovers!

Bounding Main will be performing at the Port Washington Pirate Festival next weekend, June 7&8, a festival anxiously awaited by many Bounding Mainiacs.  There will be lots of activities for the whole family, for the tough pirate in you, and for the romancing types as well.

The entertainment will include the intrepid Jock Stewart http://jesselinderbard.livejournal.com/; the exotic Rakshanda http://www.rakhshanda.com/; and our buddies from Kansas City, The Jolly Rogers http://www.chivalry.com/jollyrogers/!!! Go see them if you haven’t; or if you have, go see ‘em again.  They’re worth it.

Keep checking back to the festival website http://www.portpiratefestival.com/, but as of now, the Bounding Main performance times are as follows:

Saturday
    1PM Dead Man’s Dock Stage
    2PM Buccaneer Bar & Stage
    5PM Governor’s Gazebo Stage
   
Sunday    
    10AM Governor’s Gazebo Stage
    3PM Buccaneer Bar & Stage
    5PM Dead Man’s Dock Stage
   
Sometimes there is an end-of-day sing-out, involving all our friends – watch for it!

This continues to be one of our favorite events, so we hope you can join us!!

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

PS The extravaganza went awesome last night! It was a long event, but very fun.  We cannot thank our Mainiacs enough, for their amazing and continuous generosity.  Check back to the Deport website http://deport.boundingmain.com/ in the next few days, for updates to our total funds raised.  I think we made some serious headway last night.

Tags: bounding main, live music, pirate, port washington pirate festival, sea shanties
Current Location: Home Office
Current Mood: happy