The Mayercraft Carrier Chronicles

MCC Blogs from Sixthman

2009-04-10T12:48:00.000-07:00

They made it nice and easy for anyone who wants to read them and sent them out via email today:

One Splendid Evening Indeed

Another Day at the Office

John Mayer Deck Show Video Blog

Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain!

Guest Blog - Lauren's Little Sis

Lauren > Steve: The Rock Boat invades The Mayercraft Carrier

How to get the most out of your Mayercraft Carrier experience

Mayercraft Carrier 2 Comes to a Close - Wow

Mayercraft Carrier 2: Looking Back...

Cabo Orphanage

Mayercraft Guests Speak Out!

Maycraft 2009 Photography Gallery by Will Byington

2009-04-10T12:44:00.000-07:00

Click here to go to the Mayercraft 2009 photo gallery.

These shots were taken by Will Byington, who was the photographer last year too, if my memory is correct.

I've spotted myself in one of them and, if you were there, I'm sure you might find some where he got you too.

TryJM: The Mayercraft Carrier 2 Collection

2009-04-04T11:49:00.000-07:00

The first post but probably the best from Susi over at TryJM. If you don't know TryJM is pretty much THE blog to get all the buzz and info. I pop by when I see a title on my RSS feed that's interesting. She's been able to get pictures, videos and reviews from a lot of folks who where there.

Again, I'm just putting this and others all in one spot. Enjoy!

The Mayercraft Carrier 2 Collection

First of all, thank you so much to everyone who sent in reviews, photos and videos. Thanks for sharing. :-)

Mayercraft Carrier 2 Review
Review and Photos by Rebecca Burdsal from Memphis, TN

I had no expectations going into this cruise except to have fun with my friends. I did the one last year with my friend Brenda and we had a blast. My friends and I decided to not do the One Splended Evening event and cruise around LA since I had never been there before. I got to see the Santa Monica Pier, Rodeo Dr., the Sunset Strip and Hollywood. My friend Brenda got accosted by the evil queen in Snow White on Hollywood Blvd. We also stayed on the historic Queen Mary. We boarded the Splendor about 11am and after checking out our rooms and doing the safety precautions we got our spot on the Lido deck's upper balcony for the sail away show. Seeing Mayer come out in his little short shorts with Carl and James both looking like Issac from the Love Boat was hilarious. We all really enjoyed Mayer's set on the Lido deck and hearing "Heartbreak Warfare" for the first time. I also got informed right before Mayer came on that I will be the Maid of Honor at my BFF Lauren's wedding next year! I met Lauren and my other friends because of John Mayer's music about 5 years ago. Okay moving forward, that night we went to see Erin McCarley's show. I thought she was really adorable and we all really enjoyed her set. My friend Nikki got to do the wine tasting with her the next day. We also stayed around for Guster. I've never had the oppurtunity to see them but have heard how fun their shows were for years. I agree they are a lot of fun. Towards the end of Guster's set we went on over to the DRH show to try and get a spot. The El Morroco was packed so instead of trying to to fight to see over people we just decided to sit down and enjoy listening to David play. For those who have never listened to David Ryan Harris you must. He has great lyrics and his voice is amazing, simply amazing. I was able to see over people when Mayer came out to play with DRH because Mayer's just so damn tall.

The next day was the first full day at sea. We decided to take this oppurntunity to get a sun tan or in my case a nice sun burn. I took a picture of one of my friends sleeping on the deck, but she would kill me if I ever posted it. Later that night after dinner we decided to hang out for the James Hunter show at the El Morroco because my friend Nikki is a fan. Hunter is very much rockabilly music. If you're a Brian Setzer fan then I think you would like James Hunter very much. After Hunter we got our jackets (because it was COLD) to go out on the Lido deck for O.A.R. and then back to the El Morroco for Ryan Shaw. I have to say Ryan Shaw was a lot of fun. My favorite part of the evening is when he got a very talented passanger named Mimi up on stage and they tore up Janis Joplin's "Piece of My Heart". It was really really good. Afterwards my friend Lauren and I decided to check out the disco before going to bed. Some guy named John Mayer was in there making a spectacle of himself. Yeah, never heard of him. Learned some things about what can go down on international waters though.

The next day (Sunday) we ported in beautiful Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. My cabinmates and I decided to do an excursion. I think it was called the Land Boat, Beach and Shopping excursion. We boarded a small boat that was serving complementary margaritas. I totally took advantage of that many times over ;) After about 40 mins of cruising around and taking pictures of our cruise ship and the Arch we headed back to dry land. We then got on two shuttle buses that headed to a beach resort for lunch and soda. Our tour guide on the trip's name was Nacho and he is originally from West Virginia. I go all the way to Mexico to meet an American. We relaxed on the beach and got to talk to some really nice people that were also on the cruise. After the beach we were shuttled on over to the mall for shopping. I got an offer to join Sam's Club in Mexico. It's nice to know if I needed to buy anything in bulk I was covered. We also made our way over to the Hard Rock Cafe' for t-shirts as I'm a HUGE Hard Rock collector (I have over 60+ t-shirts from around the world). I bought my BFF back home a Bon Jovi Hard Rock tee as she's a huge fan and my dad a baseball cap. Then we made our way back to the shuttle. We drove past the famous Cabo Wabo club that Sammy Hagar owns as well as learned that Madonna, Celine Dion and Brad Pitt and other celebrities own homes in Cabo San Lucas. We got back to the ship about 2pm and decided to go up on the Lido deck for the sail away show with Matt Hires and Jessie Baylin (who came out on stage in a Mexican wrestling mask).

After dinner I decided to check out the ship alone for awhile because I had already seen Justin Nosuka and O.A.R. and that's where my friends were going. I gambled in the Casino because I love slot machines even if I don't win. I spent 10 minutes playing the same $1 bill. Then I went on over to catch the Martin Sexton show at the El Morraco. Martin Sexton was really enjoyable. It was nice to sit back and relax while listening to his music. After Martin Sexton's set I decided to get down further for the back to back James Smith and DRH shows. I sat on the front row and decided I didn't really want to be front row for a comedy show (done that before). So I sat on the second row. I got to talk to a really nice girl named Erin and her friends. She let me know what to expect from James Smith this year. Mayer introduced James Smith. Some of the jokes I kind of remember from last year but most of the set was material I haven't heard. My friend Lauren said she hadn't laughed so hard in a long time. After James set Mayer came out and did his own. I know the Perez stuff made it to the internet. I'm not going to go on about it other than Mayer was being Mayer. I will say he addressed the media crap and made a joke about the book thing. It was nice to see him having a great time and being himself. He also did a bit of an open mike night. I have to say I was really really tempted to go up on stage because I've always wanted to do stand up. I had I been drinking that evening I totally would have and made an ass of myself. Some people bombed and some were funny. John got his brother Carl to tell us a little story that involved a Hormel cheese platter. What innocense I had left is now completely gone after Carl's set. So what happened in the El Morroco will stay in the El Morroco ;)

Before the DRH show I found my friends and sat with them over to the side. Carl walked past me and I asked him about the Oscar Pool he use to do. I believe in '06 and then in '07 were the years I did it. I've been wondering if he was still doing that because it was always fun to have money riding on the winners. Hell, I make a list of who I think is going to win anyway might as well have some money riding on it. He said he hasn't done it in awhile. He then said he might do it again if he gives "a shit". Hopefully he will because it was fun. Again DRH was awesome and Mayer got up on stage for a bit. After the DRH set we went to the club and then to bed.

The next day was our last the ship and that boat was rocking like a &*%$#@ %^&*!@. Side to side to the point I felt like a drunk woman running into people even though I was stone cold sober. I couldn't get breakfast without feeling I was going to fall on somebody. After breakfast my friends got a table for the string of Lido deck shows that afternoon. I decided to hunt down my other friends there who were going to the Q&A. If you were on the Mayercraft last year you got to go to a Q&A with John. I went to see if there was a line forming and decided to stay. Sixthman let us in early and I ended up sitting a row behind where I sat the previous year for the Q&A. I talked to a really nice lady while waiting for it to start. The Sixthman people were taking question submissions. For the hell of it I submitted the same question as I did last year not thinking it would get picked. I wasn't even going to do one. Dammit my question got picked and so did the lady I sat next to and my friend Brenda. I think the smiley face on my question did it :) So we all had to head to the back and come up one by one. I was kind of nervous to have to say anything in a room full of people but it was lot of fun to be apart of that whole experience. I asked him about who he would like to perform with that he hasn't since he's performed with the greats such as Eric Clapton. If I had money riding on his answer I would have won. I had an idea that he would say someone up and coming or who hasn't been discovered yet. I really liked that answer because it's what I would have expected. My friend Brenda asked about his management team. She went to the Q&A with Mayer's management people and said it was really interesting to hear how people get into the various parts of managing bands. The nice lady I sat with asked him about his foundation. I loved his answer. Just like many people that are reading this, I've had people in my own family serve in the military as well as friends who have family in Iraq. My dad, who is now in his 80s, served in WWII. So to hear Mayer talk about wanting to help the troops returning home from war was just so good to hear. I wanted to rush the stage and give him a hug for that. My dad and I had a coversation prior to me leaving about how much more there needs to be done for them and how different it is now coming home now from when my dad left the military in the late 40's. When Mayer said some of them told him they can't sit with their back next to a window, I've heard many military people say that. I hope that John will let us fans get involved in his efforts to help the returning troops out because I really want to. After the Q&A Mayer decided to sign autographs. My friends Brenda and Mary don't know how I got to that stage so fast and neither do I but before I knew it I had his signature and I got a chance to thank him for wanting to help the troops. As always, such a sweet heart. I can't repeat enough how much more I think of him as a person after what he said. That's how to use your celebrity... to help others. We weren't allowed to use a flash so all my shots from the Q&A are on the fuzzy side.

Since it was cold that day I bought the yellow Mayercraft Carrier sweatshirt and wore it out on the Lido Deck. Lauren, Brenda and I decided to explore the ship. The decor was pretty tacky. It's like pepto bismol and a tiger got into a fight on this ship and were splattered everywhere. That night we went to dinner again and then on to the Mayer show. The show was a blast! I know he was out there for awhile but the show seemed to go by way too quickly. This was the first rock concert that I've been to that actually literally rocked back and forth the whole damn night. I loved the random name shout outs. He shouts out "Nicole" and my friend Nikki was excited and then my friend Brenda started yelling "Becky" (my nick name) and not two second later he gives a "Rebecca" shout out. That works too. Later that night he gave Debbie a really cool shout out for all the taping she does for the Mayer community. That was cool of him. As much as I love Mayer's original music I flipped out when he went into "Digging In the Dirt" by Peter Gabriel. That brought me back to senior year in high school playing that tape in my '91 Mustang LX. It's off of Gabriel's album "US" if anyone cares to pick it up.

After the show we went to party at the disco. Mayer breezed right past us going to the DJ booth. I have to say I really enjoy Mayer as a DJ probably because I'm only a year older than he is and knew 95% of the music he was playing. It helps being familar with the music. I loved that he played the Bobby Brown song from the Ghostbusters 2 soundtrack and "the Humpty Dance" by Digital Underground as well as Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone", Lady Gaga and even Britney Spear's "Womanizer" and Kelly Clarkson "Since You've Been Gone". Though the Toto was kind of random but whatever it was still fun. It's also mandatory now to play Kanye West "Stonger" when I'm at a dance club and he so did that without me having to go up there and bug him about it. He played "Start Me Up" and "Miss You" (which he sang some of) by my favorite band in the whole frecking world the Rolling Stones. My friend Stephanie (a HUGE Stones fan) will get a kick out of that. We also sang along with Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" not once but twice in the span of 10 minutes. I out stayed all my friends because I was really enjoying his selection of music but when he said this is the last song I bolted because by that time my back was killing me and I knew I would be dead to the world if I didn't get any sleep. We did the dancing all night last year too and I was so tired. I figure what the hell I can sleep on the plane.

The first Mayercraft was fun but this one needs a new word for fun. It topped it and then it crushed it. I had a lot of fun with people who have been a big part of my life over the last 5 years. We had so much fun that we're all going to do our best to go yet again next year. I have to thank Sixthman and John Mayer for making this an experience my friends and I will never forget.

The following photos were taken by Brittney, including one of her with David Ryan Harris and one with Bob Reynolds:

The Mayercraft Carrier 2
Review and Photos by Jennifer Brindley

Alrighty. I have some time now so I thought I'd tell you guys about the cruise and share some photos! I do have to make a few points:

1. Next year I'm SO there. The moment I find out that it's been planned, even if the ship is going to Iraq, I'm buying tickets.

2. John Mayer is really, really cool, and really, really tall. Apparently he's 6'3", which I did not know until I came home and looked it up. (I'm a bad fan.) After seeing him walk right in front of me in the underbelly of the ship, I really had to know the numbers on his height.

3. I won't have any interest in going on any kind of cruise other than one involving music the way this one did.

4. I felt sublimely happy at the end of the last full day on the cruise. Sublimely, weightlessly, euphorically happy. It was the best vacation I've ever been on.

5. I swear that John Mayer and Chris Thile look straight at me a few times during each show. I now have proof.

Have I shown you the ship yet? This thing was AMAZING:

The room stewards left really cute towel animals:

Daniel took this one of me while we were doing our lifejacket drill:

My seething jealousy capturing him shaking hands with some people:

Serenaded by "La Bamba" in Cabo:

In Cabo, we had drinks with Ryan Shaw and his guitarist Johnny Ash. I took this one of Ryan just chillin' out:

Cabo:

My view out the balcony when we docked:

John Mayer DJ'd in the "Disco" after his 2nd show. It was a HUGE clusterfuck in there. But, we fought it so I could attempt getting a photo.

John Mayer Breaks Out New Songs, Comedy Act on Mayercraft Cruise Carrier 2

“I feel like the kid in that YouTube video coming back from the dentist,” John Mayer joked midway through his second headlining show aboard the Mayercraft Cruise Carrier 2, referring to the stoned viral-video sensation. “You know at one point on this boat you all went, ‘Is this going to last forever?’ ”

But the voyage came to an end hours later, after the 2,800 on board enjoyed four days of nonstop music (sets from 15 artists), booze, pizza, wine tastings, hangover yoga sessions and a flip cup tournament. Organized by Atlanta-based Sixthman — the brains behind the singer-songwriter-filled Rock Boat, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Simple Man Cruise and the upcoming Elvis Cruise — the second annual Mayercraft Carrier was the bigger, badder, kink-free version of 2008’s inaugural voyage. The Carnival Splendor, the cruise company’s largest and newest vessel, provided Mayer with plenty of room to frolic with his fans (sans neon-green Borat mankini) or retreat to privacy when he wasn’t jamming or busting out his stand-up comedy act.

As the boat left the Port of San Pedro headed towards Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, on Friday, March 27th, Mayer donned an itty-bitty sailor’s outfit and took to the Lido deck stage with his brother Carl and comedian James Smith to welcome all aboard. “The ocean was created in 1923 after humans demanded a place to swim,” Mayer deadpanned before telling everyone, “Enjoy yourself and be nice to your livers.”

Mayer MCed at the ship’s disco on Friday night and invaded the DJ booth Sunday and Monday nights to play his favorite tracks (including cuts by Girl Talk, Lady Gaga, Beyoncé, Prince and Tom Petty) into the wee hours. Mayer also joined David Ryan Harris, a singer-songwriter who has played in Mayer’s band for the last few years, onstage and took part in a Q&A session with returning passengers where he candidly addressed queries about his new album (hopefully out this year) and shared details of his new passion: helping returning war vets transition into civilian life. But perhaps the most-buzzed about moment was Mayer’s unscheduled Sunday night comedy act. The sometime stand-up had the crowd in stitches with his own short routine (check out clips on YouTube), before inviting crowd members onstage to face-off with impersonations.

Then there was the music: Mayer’s Friday afternoon acoustic set sprinkled in old favorites (”My Stupid Mouth,” “Sucker”) with live set standards (”Good Love Is On the Way,” “Belief”) and the debut of “Heartbreak Warfare,” a tune whose lyrics (”Red wine and ambien / you’re talking shit again / it’s heartbreak warfare”) made it hard to avoid thoughts of the rocker’s recent tabloid romance.

Each passenger attended one of two headlining shows in the ship’s Spectacular Spectacular lounge. Mayer’s playing felt refreshed since he’s been off tour since last summer, and his seven-piece band injected a new energy into the arrangements — Monday’s “Vultures” got more funky with an amped-up bass and vocal scats, while Saturday’s 16-minute rendition of “Wheel” took the poetic song to new, self-proclaimed “spacey” levels. Mayer also indulged fan requests at Saturday’s show, breaking out favorite “3X5″ and incorporating the Talking Heads’ “Burning Down the House” as an intro to oldie “Love Soon,” while he turned the middle of Monday’s set into an impromptu Q&A with fans.

The music kicked off Thursday night with One Splendid Evening, an event benefitting VH1’s Save the Music Foundation, which included acoustic performances by O.A.R., Guster and Erin McCarley as well as sets from Gavin Rossdale, Sara Bareilles and a duet between Jordin Sparks and Mayer. Mayer did a short set of his own material, which included the debut of “Half of My Heart,” a new tune with a more folky sound. Then he switched to axman mode as Sparks joined him for her singles “Tattoo” and “One Step at a Time” before turning Mayer’s already soulful “I’m Gonna Find Another You” into a stand-out bluesy number.

The crowd skewed younger than last year’s (likely due to the college-age fanbases of O.A.R. and Guster) and many took to the upper decks for some Cali sun (or, in the case of one inspired couple, photos to document their wedding aboard the ship). Guster turned the end of their Monday night headlining set into a free-for-all jam session for all the bands on board, inviting amusing renditions of “Margaritaville” and “Don’t Fear the Reaper.”

And while the ship has barely docked, a third edition of the Mayercraft Cruise Carrier is already in the works — although Mayer’s joke about heading to Alaska is indeed just a joke.

Source: Rolling Stone

Inside the MayerCraft 2

Meg Jarrell may not have hung out with John Mayer during her time aboard the Mayercraft II—but she certainly heard stories about him. The singer-songwriter laid low for most of the trip, but stopped by for performances by some of the other artists and made frequent appearances at the ship’s small onboard disco.

Friends of Jarrell’s said Mayer took to the turntables at the club Saturday night. The singer partied until almost 7 a.m., joking with his brother Carl who said that because they were in international waters: “You can have sex with John Mayer and still be a virgin!” Jarrell, who was also on Mayercraft I last year, says Mayer’s well-known around the ship for being a ladies man. “John flirts with everybody,” she says. “Come on—the getup with the sailor shorts? He’s hilarious.”

Fans on the cruise decorated their doors with tributes to Mayer. (One even featured the guitarist in the infamous, neon-green Borat mankini he wore last year.) The five-day voyage, which took off from Los Angeles for Cabo San Lucas on Friday, was packed with about 3,000 guests.

So what about that new song Mayer debuted onboard, “Heartbreak Warfare,” that’s reportedly about Jennifer Aniston? Mayer told cruisers in a Q&A that while he knew people would chalk up the lyrics to a certain relationship, that’s not really what it’s about. While he opened up during the onboard conversation, giving his signature long and rambling answers, he made a point to pre-screen all the questions so nothing too personal would slip by. “Everybody wrote down what they wanted to ask and his staffers picked questions,” Jarrell says. “They specifically said you had to ask the questions you wrote down.

While Mayer did a lot of hiding, he made a point to reach out to some young fans during the Q&A, who were sitting in the front row with their parents. “You should be in bed!” he joked, before handing them some of his guitar picks.

Source: Radar Online

Some photos taken by Judy & Erik from Los Angeles, CA:

The following photos were taken from Marianne from San Diego, CA:

Here are some photos taken by Carter. The funniest pics were probably from the "Heroes and Villians" night when she and her husband Mike dressed up as Padme and Anakin from Star Wars and got pics with Carl Mayer! (The great one is with Mike impaling him with his light saber.)

Here are some photos taken by Scott Lee - including some cool ones of the comedy night and a DRH show:

Thanks to Laila from the beautiful San Diego for sharing the following videos:

Bob Reynolds Solo "Sweetest Berry" & DRH Jam on Electric Ladyland

John joins DRH on stage for a cover of Albert King's "The Hunter" El Morocco Lounge MCC2 3/27/09 Featuring John Mayer, Bob Reynolds, Brad Mason, Robbie McIntosh, JJ Johnson, Michael Chaves, Sean Hurley & David Ryan Harris

2nd DRH Show in El Morocco Lounge David Ryan Harris ft John Mayer performing "Sweetest Berry"

Some other random videos:

Welcome:

John & Jordin Sparks collaborate on "I'm Gonna Find Another You" at One Splendid Eve:

The Sign at Show 1:

Heartbreak Warfare at Show 1:

Neon at Show 1:

Wheel at Show 2:

Guster & O.A.R. - Blister in the Sun:

Matt Hires - Honey:

Justin Nozuka - Ain't Sunshine:

Cambria Detken sings Collide for John:

John Mayer DJing at the Mayercraft Disco:

John Mayer in the disco:

Blues stuff at Soundcheck Party:

Stand Up Comedy:

MCC2 Updates coming

2009-04-02T16:40:00.000-07:00

The cruise ended on Tuesday and it's now Thursday. I've been enjoying being in my hometown of L.A., but I'm flying back up to San Francisco tomorrow. Once I do, I'll get on bringing all the blog posts I can find together here.

It was definitely a great time.

Living Under A Rock? MCC2 Information

2008-05-03T07:00:00.000-07:00

If so, here is the good news a few days late.

The second Mayercraft Carrier Cruise is scheduled. So if you didn't go on the first, get thyself to the MCC website and register to get info.

The info:

Mayercraft Carrier 2
Dates: March 27 to 31, 2009
Long Beach, California to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

LiveJournal - Kittenblues11: Mayercraft - Day 6

2008-03-10T06:38:00.000-07:00

Mayercraft - Day 6

Feb. 27th, 2008 at 10:13 PM

Sunday, February 3, 2008

Today was our only day at sea on the Mayercraft. Now because we were all up so late the previous night - we all got to sleep in just a bit. I think we were all up by 10am. We got dressed and what not and then headed over to the main theater for a Local-83 invite only Question & Answer session with John Mayer! Awesome! So we get down there about 30 mins. before they open the doors just so we can make sure we get good seats. We get in....John comes out....and answers questions for like 45 mins. If you have not heard it yet...get onto MSM and download Debbie's recording....it was pretty great. John was very hung over..haha

ok - Q & A over - we make a mad dash over to the Lido Deck - John is giving a 45 min. show! We were able to find a pretty awesome spot for just getting there an hour before the show started. I heard that there were some people that had been waiting for 7 and a half hours...now THAT is crazy. I went and got some burgers and fries for us to eat while we waited for we were famished! The show started and the man CAMEOUTWITHNOSHIRTON BAHHHHHHH. I nearly died.

It was hands down the BEST...well....one of the best concerts I had ever been to. He played quite a few songs that he had not played in years....we also got "Say" and song he has not played live yet. Now....I was able to get a bit of video....video to come....

a few songs into the show...John had to take a "piss" and something happened....ok ok...every JM show that I go to....I;ve always wished that DRH (John's back up guitar player) would break into a little "Pretty Girl". I'm a huge DRH fan and have NEVER seen him perform live. So as John says he needs to go take a piss and leaves the stage...Davis Ryan Harris does what? Starts singing Pretty Girl. I nearly fainted.....and when John came back....he joined in!!!! BAHHHHHH DREAM NUMBER 405 COME TRUE!

After the Lido deck show we booted over to another stage for the only DRH show. We had awesome seats waiting for us thanks to friends....and it was the best show ever! I've waited 4 years for see DRH live....and it was freaking awesome!!!!!!!!

After DRH....we are wiped...sheesh...it's been a long day of concerts....but wait...it's time for the Superbowl! They broadcast the game on all the TV's on the ship including the jumbo one on the Lido deck. As I was passing by...I ran into Jenny....one of only 3 Vancouverites on the ship! Woooohoooo! I was wearing my BC Lions Jersey....so what better time for a photo op?

Now....time for dinner. Between all the drinking and everything....by the time dinner came...I was just done. I only ate half of my dinner and did not even order dessert! The waiters all sang to us....Waiting on the World to Change...it was pretty funny...they all had cue cards.

Dinner is over....but wait....one more concert....John Mayer's second main show!!!!!!! Dinner ended at 9 and show started at 10:30........so we are there in our seats (errr, place to stand) by 10:00pm. The show f'ing rocked!

The last song of the night.... Martin Sexton came out and they did a song together....FREAKING AWESOME!

1am - and I'm just beat. I know tomorrow morning we dock in Miami and Mayercraft will be over....so instead to going to the club to dance the night away with the rest of the girls....I got some beers (and a smoke) and headed up to the Lido deck, alone, to just relax and take everything in. It had pretty much been one of the best weeks of my life....and I just needed to reflect.

LiveJournal - Kittenblues11: Mayercraft - Day 5

2008-03-10T06:36:00.000-07:00

Mayercraft - Day 5

Feb. 24th, 2008 at 8:07 PM

Saturday, February 2, 2008

So before I start forgetting, I'd better post the rest of Mayercraft....get ready for a ton of pics!

Saturday we were up early to to get off the boat for our tour bus to explore Freeport was leaving at 8:00am. We got up, threw on some clothes and staggered off the boat. Freeport was kinda a hole. I mean....there was a KFC (Let's get american) and a bunch of damaged houses from the hurricane 4 years ago. The beach however was amazing!!!!! I'm SO glad we ventured over to the beach!

Once we got off the boat.....here is what I saw!

Here are some pictures I took in Freeport, Bahamas

We got back on the boat around 1:00 in the afternoon. With no concerts or anything going on on the boat until 5pm - Laura & I decided that we were going to get in some pool time! We found Whitney & Carolyn and the 4 of us got deck chairs and tanned together. Then .... I started to drink....and then I started to drink more....

and then everyone just started showing up! Jenn & Kimmy showed up....Will & Jeff showed up....and then we also made some more friends... (Julie, You are killing me!)
Then (Oh my goodness) JJ (John Mayer's drummer) walked by. He stopped to hang out for a bit and chit chat.

After JJ left..Will (Colbie's guitar player) came by and TOTALLY started flirting with Laura. hahahaehehehe...it was pretty awesome. So anyways....I continued to drink and drink ....and then around 5pm Laura and I headed back to our room to get ready for 80's night! Wooohooo! Now because I was a little tipsy (and continued to drink beer in the shower) I was a mess. I even foolishly put face cream in my hair thinking it was hair cream. A big thank-you to Kimmy for pulling me together. She brought the 80's tunes to get us in the mood and she helped me with my dress. Here was the finished product!

Laura, Kimmy & Jenn and I met up with the "gang" and all headed to dinner. My drunkeness was started to wear off (thank goodness) and we all enjoyed an amazing dinner. The waiters even did a boogie for us.....hahaha, it was freaking hilarious. I think we finished dinner around 9:30 and then....we de-80'ed. Our 80's outfits were only gonna last so long....and we needed to get changed....
After dinner we headed off to Colbie's show. It was awesome! Huge surprise at the end when John came out and did a song with Colbie. MY FIRST JOHN MAYER SIGHTING!!!!!!!!!
Afterwards...... we were off the the night club!

OK OK OK OK - so we get to the night club....and right away I see that there is a big VIP area cornered off and right away we know....John Mayer is gonna be there later! Well, the girls (and Steve) right away hit the dance floor and start groovin'! I then see the flashes of camera and the squeel of the girls and know that John and his "gang" have arrived. Now....we just keep dancing and doing our thing....and then I just say "Fuck it" I am never ever going to get this chance again.....I'm going up to the VIP area to see what I can see. So with camera in hand....off I go. Now I don't get very close at all...and really could not see much. I can see John and his friends having a good time. John then grabs a bottle of Tequila and some shot glasses and starts handing out shots to fans!

I was freaking out knowing that I was there! I then decided to leave the club and go back to our room and grab my Room For Squares CD cover and a picture I took of John a few years back at a Vancouver concert. Now I have been trying for 4 years to get my RFS CD signed....and I figured that if it's ever gonna happen....tonight might be the night!. I got back to the night club and was able to pick a different spot and took a few more pictures of John chatting it up with fans....

I just kind of hung back and was just observing everything. Then Colbie Caillat came into the VIP area. John got up to greet her and chat for a bit. As he was heading back to his seat I held up my CD cover(with the picture tucked in it) along with a sharpie in the other hand above my head. OH MY GOODNESS OH MY GOODNESS. John saw me, pointed at me and walked over. HOLLY SHIT!!! My legs started to get weak....and ...ya. He came over and took the CD our of my left hand and then went back to his seat? What the heck? Why did he not take the sharpie? Was he planning on keeping my stuff? What was going on? I dunno I dunno? I could see him looking over the CD cover and looking at the picture I look. He spent a good 20 seconds looking at the picture. Then he pulled a sharpie out of his back pocket and started writing. Oh my goodness....bahhhhhhhhhhhhh! As I started to freak out more (all in my head) John then got up and walked back to me and gave me back my stuff. HOLLY FEAKING GOODNESS. After 4 years of making a serious effort of trying to get an autograph...I did it!

After that I ran back to the dance floor to show the girls. They were SO excited for me and could tell that I was still freaking out! ha ha ha. I boogied with them all for awhile longer. Around 3am (I think) we all went and grabbed some pizza...hung out for a bit...and then went to bed.

One of the best freaking days ever!

MySpace.com - Ms. Amanda Jayne : The Mayercraft Baby

2008-03-10T06:35:00.000-07:00

THE MAYERCRAFT BABY

It is about time that I told you all a little about my trip. For starters, what is the Mayercraft? John Mayer hosted a musical cruise to the Bahamas and I went on it. It sailed from Miami to Freeport and back. For anyone who knows I am not a fan of Miami. I find the people to be rude. The men rude, the people rude. Perhaps the fried shit in the cuban food makes people edgy. I know, its the fucking humidity.

So the boat... I shall begin with we were on the Carnival Victory. I have never cruised but I was a bit paranoid. Alright, I watched Titanic and Poseidon before I left. I know the boat would never hit an iceberg in the caribbean but a rogue wave to flip the boat over, duh. I was paniclaidened during the safety drill. It gave me bad anxiety to have the life jacket on... At least i could let go of John and watch his body sink to the bottom as the life boat comes to rescue me to the Carpathia... Oh wait, bad dream. It was a dream I had the night before (yes only two hours of sleep thanks to some major fat bitches who didnt pay their way.)

The food was eh. The dining room kicked ass as i loved our servers Jin night one and night three Juan. The other man on night two had the odacity to give me lip when i wanted another lobster tail and shrimp. We did meet cool people such as Melo and his wife from Vegas. Cant remember her name. And Big John who gave me a half bottle of Petron. Speaking of Petron, thanks Tony Held for Ginell's shot. Number 8 hit alot. Thanks to Barry for my drinks. If you didn't you can do it next year.

So John has alot of fat fans. Alot of fans with bad attitude one called me an annoying bitch. Ugly cunt. Some gals, now I am a big gal, even wore bikinis. Gee wanna scare John. But he had his moment... Borat swimsuit. Thank god I didnt see it. I would have thrown up. His fans were rude, kinda ruined it. Leave him alone! I never saw john other than the times we were supposed to. (The local Q and A and the shows). I was bummed because i was the last question at the q and A. I wanted to know his plans for the trio... But people had lame as questions like about his bucket list and shit. Fuck you eat a hot pocket.

I love Sherrod... I crouching tigered him and he gave me points because I suggested he come back in another life as JM with a bigger dick.

Bob reynolds is amazing and his keyboarder and drummer rule.

DRH. DRH. DRH.

Ok so for those who know me, i love SOMETHINGS MISSING... He played it... YEAH THE SHOW I DIDNT GO TO...SIGH SLIT MY WRIST But this... made up for it... Can I lick him please? I had to take a fully clothed shower after.

It was a great time. Good times. I love hot pockets. I love John. Ginell and Chad are gonna make babies. John does like em yellow. I called it.

Now I did see John. The airport. Close to the grey sweat pants NO MAKEUP. So no brows. He ran into me. Helped me up and I am in awe. He said it was good to see me again. And that I looked different... He got it.. not the brows but that I had "lost a significant amount of weight" and looked good.

Dreamy sigh. the boat never flipped open but he knew the way out.

By the time I recognize this moment, this moment will be gone... Thats the way this wheel keeps working now.

Chips ahoy! See you next year.

MySpace.com - Black Butterfly: Mayercraft Cruise circuit-breaker reset

2008-03-10T06:33:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Mayercraft Cruise: circuit-breaker reset

Just some backstory for the photos.

Wow, I think my circuits shorted out after this cruise because I'm just getting back into the swing of things again. Sensory overload, for sure. I'm still trying to piece back together what actually happened...thank goodness for the concert tapers because I've got a nice round of mp3s for the iPod now.

Being a lover of music it was just authentically rapturous and good God, exactly what the doctor asked for in terms of an escape. For every upside there's a downside. It was too short!

I met some of the coolest women on this boat. Yes, as in grown women. I call them John Mayer's Divas...no one can touch them. I aspire to be like them when I grow up. They seemed impressed when they learned of what I do for a living (I guess they think I look young) but I was so impressed with them and appreciative that they took me under their wing. So I gotta shout out to John Mayer's Divas, hope to see you again next year! Yes, yes I'll join Local 83 eventually. (Bite me diehard superfans, I like to go against the grain. Oh yeah, I said it.)

And I didn't catch all the bands this year, but this is with a measure of regret. No pics with John Mayer, booo, hisss! Brett Dennen was awesome, especially when he started moving his hips when he was really groovin'! Props. And in the 1min:30sec I met him to take a picture, he seemed like a sweet person. Good get, Maya! "I just bought your album!"..."Kewl." LOL

James Smith and Sherrod Smalls were funny as hell. I know people were squirming in their chairs. And James, I had my eye on you, man...you were talking about Oprah and Obama in the same sentence. I had my poison dart shooter poised man, but you pulled a save. Sherrod reminds me of my cousin Mookie, but he's funny anyway.

Then a nap and time to DISCO! OH mine eyes, mine eyes. "Nobody knows, the trouble I seen...." There were some goings on on the dance floor and that's always fun to watch in between the whoop, whoop, shaking that ass, whoop whoop! Whoops, it's 3:30AM.

Next day, I don't remember much...I had a Bahama Mama which primed my brain for all kinds of mass confusion later after having only 3.5-4 hours sleep the night before. I was excited, how could I sleep? But all that didn't temper my internal database of useless 80s trivia and the 80s Trivia Contest is where I met John Mayer's Divas. They rock! And they don't look like your typical John Mayer fan (ya'll know who you are). It was nice to have a conversation about the main reason most of us were on the boat to begin with. As we left that venue, we said "Yo" to JJ (drummer in JM's band) and snapped a pic. Do you know how many times I must have heard you play, dude? Not to mention the repeat button that's in my head? After I woke up again, we saw a couple of really funky bands. Loved it! Great sounds. "Da Bomb Squad" (was that girl on "American Idol"?) and "Soulive". Good grooves. Maya, good get again. You got our mugs taken with the lead in Soulive too.

OK, then the DISCO again! Whoop, whoop! Got a picture with Sherrod. That's pretty cool, I watch "Best Week Ever" religiously. Yeah, I meant to say religiously. I should have gotten a pic with James Smith. He was funny. Dern.

Of course, the third day was just bliss. Two John Mayer concerts, which c'mon ya'll, he's phenomenal. I missed some hijinks on the high seas, but it's been photo-documented for those who missed it. We met up with John Mayer's Divas again. The Lido Deck concert was very cozy. No room for modesty...thanks fart guy. And the best part was watching him dig in his ass afterwards (fart guy, not John Mayer), remember that Maya? Sweet. But who cares, John Mayer was topless, woo-hoo!

Then the new find that I KNEW I would enjoy was David Ryan Harris. Wow, he's really good, people. So before you stop doggin' my ass for putting "Pretty Girl" on my myspace player because you think I'm a vain heiffer, I put it up there because I enjoyed hearing it in the show and it takes me back there. BOO-YAH! No, THAT'S a picture I should have gotten, DRH is a cool cat.

We got to sit with the John Mayer Divas again (they saved a prime seat for us all, THEY REALLY ROCK, love them) and we had a ball. DRH is hilarious and his lyrics are great to follow. And man, he can knock them back and still bring the floor to their feet. Personally, I'd have been drooling and leaning into the mike because I have no tolerance. Impressive, DRH. Then I fell asleep so I could take in the Big Kahuna's show later. And it was just awe-inspiring to see John Mayer play live. If you have a heart, you'll love it. He puts his heart into it. I'm not sure how to put it into words without doing that show an injustice. I'm just glad someone taped it for us.

Had to go home. I was happy, because I know there will be another. I was sad, because it went by too fast and there were some pics that were not taken that should have been. Who likes loose ends? It's hard to recreate the sensations of that experience mentally, but it's not impossible. It's like a maze with hidden rooms and every now and then you happen upon a memory that puts you right back there. So some of ya'll people should go next year but not all of ya'll, you ain't squeezing my ass out!

Dern, I didn't get a picture of John Mayer's Divas either. Well I had meant to, ladies. I didn't know I'd sleep through the entire SuperBowl. My intentions had been to come back to say goodbye and to thank you for everything. Much love.

Awesome. THE END.

LiveJournal - Kittenblues11: Mayercraft - Day 4

2008-03-10T06:20:00.000-07:00

Mayercraft - Day 4

Feb. 11th, 2008 at 7:49 PM

Friday, February 1/08

It was here! Mayer friggin Craft! After 7 months of waiting...the day was finally here to set sail upon the Mayercraft!

We woke up...packed up all our shit and went down to the lobby to check out. Holly crow - it was a friggin' zoo. It looks like the whole hotel was full of Mayercrafters and they all wanted to check out at the same time. Well after about 45 mins we were all check out and we decided that we would check our luggage and go for lunch/breakfast with the boys we had met the night before that the restaurant next to the hotel. After eating we headed back to the hotel where there was a shuttle conviently waiting there and took the 6 of us to the port.

We got to the port around 1pm and stood in line to check in. Once we went thru security and everything we got to a counter where we all checked in and got our sail & sign cards. We also got our wristbands to the second John Mayer headlining show. We were happy to see that we were in row 3 centre! We also got our L83 surprise....tickets to a Q & A with John Mayer! Sweet! We headed up the ramp and had our "boarding" picture taken and then...walking over the plank thing....and there we were....in the atrium on the Mayercraft. Since our luggage was being taken to our rooms for us....we went straight to the bar to get our free beer!!!!!!

We then found our way to the Lido deck to take a look around.....holly shit! Here is the view I saw!

We just chilled on the Lido deck and hung out.....and took everything in!

We found our cabin and the first thing we did was decorate our door. The theme of the "door art" was what's your "Best week ever?". Easy choice for us.....it was the weekend we all spend in Whistler together when the John Mayer concert was canceled in Victoria. Here are the pics or our door.

On our bunks when we arrived to our cabin were AKOG bags (Another Kind Of Green) that John Mayer had designed himself. I remember seeing drawingings some time ago of a reusable bag on John's blog. It was so cool to see the finished product...all put together by Incase to boot! I don't think these bags are for sale anywhere....and just those who were on the Mayercraft got them!

Time for the lifeboat drill. Kimmy & Laura went to go get some food and Jenn and I heading back to out room (after more chilling on the Lido deck) The whistle blew so Jenn & I did the Lifeboat drill alone and met up with Kim & Laura in our rooms after. Laura & Kimmy were gitty with excitement! They had seen John Mayer.....and they also saw Katie. (John's photographer) After chatting it up with Katie - she gave them wristbands for front row for John's first headlining show. SO JEALOUS!!!!! Gitty with excitement we all headed back up to the Lido deck - and Laura, Kimmy & Jenn had met some cute guys. After was all sat around and chatted for 15 mins. We asked them where they were from and they told us that they were Colbie Caillat's band. Freaking awesome.

After a stellar dinner in the dining room and getting settled in our cabin Kimmy & Laura headed off to catch John Mayer's first headlining show and Jenn & I checked out the casino and went up to the Lido deck to watch Martin Sexton's set with new friends Michelle & Steve.

The perfect end to a perfect day! I needed my beauty sleep for tomorrow we were docking in the Bahamas!

MySpace.com - Shelly: Ship! A Ferr Tale

2008-03-10T06:16:00.000-07:00

Ship! - A Ferry Tale

Once upon a time, there was a workaholic accountant who toiled away in the sweat shops of the corporate world. (Okay, use of the term "sweat shop" is a gross exaggeration. It does, however, add spice to the story.) She rarely took time off of work, and even when she did, it seemed to follow her around. Noting her need to break free of the work-a-day world, her lovely sister invited the accountant to join her on a cruise. Not just any cruise, mind you, but a cruise with the handsome and gallant John Mayer. Armed only with wit, charm and song, Sir Mayer could slay dragons, procure Grammys, and set a fair maiden's heart to fluttering without breaking a sweat. The accountant, being quite smart, immediately agreed, and so began the planning for the voyage of the year. (I would say of a lifetime, but I am betting that the second voyage will easily out do the first.)

Fast forward to January 31st in the year two thousand and eight. The accountant and her sister have made their way (on a horse named "Volvo") to the fair city of Miami where they embarked on the journey that will henceforth be known as Mayercraft 2008. While work proved to be a vicious foe, the accountant fought a fierce battle and with the help of her sister, slayed the evil cell phone. Throughout the next three days, the two lovely sisters had a goodly number of adventures and met an interesting variety of individuals. Life vests, and musicians, and drunkards, Oh My! There was laughter, singing, relaxing, drinking (in moderation of course), and talking. Above all, there was music, fun and sister-time. The sisters viewed Sir Mayer from a variety of stages, admired members his troupe (his posse if you will) both known and unknown, laughed about the characters that they met (or avoided) along the way, and revelled in all of the activities even when they prevented all but a bare minimum of sleep. All in all, I'd say that the accountant and her sister lived happily ever after....until they were thrust quite unwillingly back into the realm known only as reality. While they were indeed forced back to life, back to reality, never fear. There is always a new adventure to look forward to.

The End....Or Is It?

In the next book in the series, readers will find that accountant and her sister in the midst of Mayercraft 2009, as hosted by the gallant John Mayer. In this installment, Sir Mayer rescues the fair accountant from the evil Corporate America. After he has slayed this most evil of foes, he whisks her away to a sunny place where music and laughter reign supreme...... Mudslides and Music and Mayer, Oh My!

(I am off to sleep, perchance to dream.....)

MySpace.com - Jamie: Travel Blog (now with pictures)

2008-03-10T06:12:00.000-07:00

This is another MySpace blog that I'm having difficulty readjusting to Blogger size. She's got some good, but huge, pictures. Just click over to MySpace to check it out. At least, you know it's there ;)

Thursday, February 14, 2008

11:53 PM - Travel Blog (now with pictures!)
Current mood: tired
Category: Excited for Mayercraft 2009!!! Life

As some of you may or may not know... I just had the best time of my life thanks to John Mayer and friends. So right off the bat, even if he never reads this, I'd like to thank the man for making it all happen.

January 31st I landed in Miami and the smell of the air instantly brought back many memories from when I had a cottage there. Man did I ever miss that place. I met up with my friend Josh at the airport (after a small luggage discrepancy on his behalf!) and we were off with a crazy taxi driver on our way to our hotel. As soon as we settled in we were off to South Beach for the day to do some swimming and shopping and dinning, then at night we headed back to our hotel to wash up (and take a photo adventure) and headed to a blues bar downtown who were hosting an open mic to have some drinks before we settled in for the night. Cool people, cool music, warm water, perfect start to our vacation!

We woke up on time to get ready and head over to port to catch our cruise. I was pretty excited but I wasn't quite aware of just how much fun the whole thing would be. this was my first cruise and thank god it was hosted by John Mayer and had a bunch of musicians on board because I wouldn't have a cruise any other way. so we get on the boat, skip our life jacket drill because I think at this time we were already wired and buzzing from those very strong cruise cocktails, and ended up meeting our weekend buddies which included Ian and his mom and aunt. Cool people, we had a blast with them all weekend. So I'm not going to go over the whole cruise because I had too much fun and would go on forever but I'll give you the rundown. Saw 3 John Mayer shows (thanks for being drunk 2 of those 3, seriously though it was awesome and you still played your heart out). Only slept 2-4 hours a night. Sherrod Small is HILARIOUS live. Colbie Caillat is a total sweetheart. Ran in to sherrod so many times we adopted a high five greeting every time we saw each other. Thanks John for the shot at the disco. Bahamas is a beautiful place to chill and have a dip. Watching the sun rise from the side of a ship is one of the best sunrises I have ever seen. Mara is was awesome meeting you, your just as cool in person as on the phone following a certain someone's bus. Shannon I'm glad we got to hang on the beach! Hi, to Bob Reynolds manager (I know we chilled a hell of a lot but I'm so sorrry I still forgot your name!). And last but not least, I do hope John makes the Borat swim suit a tradition.

So suffice to say going back to the airport after the cruise was a little depressing. Beside being in the same terminal as John & Co. And to tell you the truth landing in Toronto was even more depressing because of the snow. But just when I though it was over I find myself in Montreal (ok so I knew it wasn't over yet). Funny thing is, I don't think my sleep has caught up with me yet because I ended up here a day early thinking it was Friday. Ummm yup, it's Thursday and I'm a tired idiot. So I'm attending another event tomorrow and a concert on Saturday then doing the 6 hour drive back home. And if I'm not falling asleep at the wheel by then I might stop in Manhattan to the Comedy Cellar and a nights stay. We'll see what happens and save the rest for Travel Blog 2.

Anyways, to everyone I met on the cruise, at the airport, and on the beaches in Miami and Bahamas, it's been a pleasure and I hope we can all do it again next year! Mayercraft 2009 anyone?!?!?

Leaving Miami

John's first show (sobriety 4/10)

Focus... FOCUS!

Freeport, Bahamas.

Sunset (nostalgia at its finest).

Local 83 Q&A, it's blurry because I felt weird taking pictures for this so I shot a quick one.

John's lido deck performance (sobriety 3ish/10).

Superbowl under the sunset

John's second show (sobriety 2/10... oops, was a little intoxicated!).

epiphanies of nothingness. - Mayercraft Carrier 2007

2008-03-10T06:08:00.000-07:00

Actually it's Mayercraft Carrier 2008, but it's not my post, so um...okay.

05 February 2008 @ 06:06 pm

Mayercraft Carrier 2007

I don't even know where to begin on this entry so I'll have to wait a few days to wrap my head around things (and catch up on everything going on, because WHOA I'm so behind!)

Like, seriously. I feel like I'm part of an alternative universe or something. My life is forever divided into 2 parts: that which occurred during Mayercraft and everything else ever.

It was the best weekend of my life. That's all I know.

I didn't take a lot of pictures, but the ones I did are here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2025975&l=164cd&id=108000201

John Mayer Won't Date No Fatgirl: Valentine

2008-03-09T08:34:00.001-07:00

Valentine

Posted by Bearheadedgirl at Thursday, February 14, 2008 10:16 PM and is filed under Random Thoughts

Well, here it is Valentine's Day. Whoop-de-fuckin' do. But it's made me reminisce and I thought I'd share.

It seems that February is kind of a Mayer month for me. LOL. Last year it was me chasing him around the mid-west for two weeks. This year it was the Mayercraft carrier.

One year ago today I was standing in an auditorium, watching my second John Mayer concert ever. I was fairly buzzed and extremely happy. Earlier that day I'd met Amy for the first time. Together we'd slammed a few Raspberry UV and Sprite drinks and gabbed like we'd known each other for forever. And that night, there I stood: slightly swaying to the music and giggling like the drunk girl I was about "spending my Valentine's with John Mayer." It's amazing the things that change in a year, no? I would show you pictures or play you some of the audio from that night, but sadly, it was all on my old laptop that was stolen out of my car a week later.

I remember how incredibly special that night was, however. I didn't mind the freezing cold because I was happy and a little (ok a lot) drunk. John rocked my socks off that night. From the 10th row I watched in a bit of a drunken haze and he was just so amazing. I remember as I heard the first chords of "Comfortable" whipping my cell phone out of my bag and calling Shannon. If she said anything to me, I couldn't hear. (I never could hear a damn thing on that phone, so I guess it's a blessing the thieves who stole my backpack full of goodies forced me to get a new phone.) Pity I was too chicken to talk to Chad back then. (he still makes me nervous... funny isn't it?)

After the show we headed back to our hotel which had been "just across the parking lot" from the venue. What they FAILED to mention was that the parking lot was the size of damn Texas and even at a near jog it took 10 minutes from Venue to Hotel. But at least there wasn't any drunk driving on my end that night.

I remember Jim calling me at about 2 or 3 in the morning to tell me his flight to Chicago had gotten all effed up. Too incoherent to do much else, I told him to call me when his plane landed in the morning. So imagine my disorientation and confusion when he called me at 8 am to tell me he'd made it to Chicago. It was a pretty dim light bulb that went off in my head, reminding me he'd called the night before. I might even have been still drunk as I started off to meet up with him in Chicago. A year later he's now one of my best friends and I'm his personal manager. Crazy.

In the last year I've met so many incredible people. The other day I was going through my friend list on MySpace and it really struck me how many people I've met in person over the last year. If you look at my page you'll see I have the top 40 up. I've met every single one on that list in person with the exception of 5. To fit all the people I've met on my friends list I'd probably need a top 100. I'm not saying that to brag (ok, well, not much) but because it kind of blows my mind in a way. Every single person on my top 40 has changed my life in some way or another. That's why they're there. Even DRH, Dela and Pat...and I've met THEM all too! LOL!

Maybe the reason I'm feeling all introspective is because today is the day to celebrate relationships. I've always disliked this day, but I think a big part of that is because when you're single this day just seems to amplify everything. It's not easy being single on a normal day. Most of the time, I don't really think about it honestly. It's my life, right? It just sort of IS. Last year I didn't even think about it because I was so busy having fun, on a trip and meeting new people. This year, I'm home alone (the roomie is out of town for work) and my phone has been strangely (or maybe NOT so strangely) quiet. I think it's just one of those days that puts the "lonely" in alone.

Everyone always says, "You'll find the right guy! You're such a *insert positive adjective* girl!" To that I say, "Bah fucking humbug!" Maybe I will, maybe I won't. At 35, I've sort of come to terms with being alone and most days I'm ok with it. Maybe it's the path I was meant to take in this lifetime.

But it still sucks balls.

Right now I'd love to be nekkid and squirting chocolate syrup on my guy.

*cough*

What??

Instead I'll probably check my email, avoid some work and dig through my library to find another book to read. (I already finished the one I started at lunch.) And you know? I'll be ok. Even though my CAT won't even cuddle with me tonight.

She's such a picky bitch.

Guess that makes us a matched set.

Happy Fucking Valentine's Day

Pack The Cat: Yar! We be Pirates of the Caribean!

2008-03-09T08:28:00.000-07:00

Yar! We be Pirates of the Caribean!

Just what the heck have we been up to?

Well John Mayer invited 3000 of his fans to join him aboard the Carnival Victory for three days of fun. And seriously, I’ve NEVER had so much fun in my life. When I heard about the cruise, there was no question about us going.
This is the show JM did on the main deck for everyone on board. (He’s the dot on the stage…) We finally got to see ALL of his tattoos. Thanks John, we had a great time. See you next time at the disco!

I'm the Loud One: Mayercraft Carrier Intoxication and Thanks from the "Principal" himself....John Mayer

2008-03-02T17:01:00.000-08:00

February 12, 2008

Mayercraft Carrier Intoxication

I have never experienced anything quite like it. Never ever. NO, NO, NO!

I will try to paint a picture for you...imagine going to a concert of someone's you really LOVE and not leaving for 4 days. Now imagine going to 4 or 5 concerts of different someone's you really LOVE and not leaving for 4 days, and then imagine seeing those people walking around being people and not the musicians you know and love, but people, like human people with flesh and blood and urges to pee and stuff. Then imagine that there are thousands of people around you that feel the same exact way as you and you are totally unified for 4 whole days in your LOVE for stuff. Then to top it off you have your most amazing sports dream come true right smack in the midst of all this goodness.

Sunday on the cruise was like one big delicious Oreo cookie; John Mayer's Lido Deck performance and his 2nd headlining show being the chocolaty cookie outside and the Giants win in the Super Bowl being the white filling on the inside. It was such a phenomenal day.

Since the cruise, I have been living the Giants win, viewing pictures from everyone and their mother of the cruise, videos, and the now infamous "John Mayer Thong" picture video extravaganza. I have been listening to live recordings from the shows and reading tabloids and blogs. I am so far up the ass of the Mayercraft Carrier that I think I need to go into Rehab ASAP. I need Mayercraft Carrier rehab. Oh, and the funny thing is, I got an e-mail the other day asking me if I would be interested in doing this again next year, Mayercraft Carrier 2009. I thought about it and said, "well, let's see how rehab goes and I will get back to you."

This picture was taken as we were getting ready to leave port. The weather was beautiful and you could feel the excitement in the air. We had all waited a really long time to be here at this very moment and we planned to make the most of each and every minute of it. It was an amazing weekend of music and fun and if I am available next year, I will be there, stupid questions and all.

Did, I mention I was going into Rehab? See ya when I get out.

................................

February 05, 2008

Thanks from the "Principal" himself....John Mayer

Marcie and Holly: We're done cruisin'! and Bahamas!!

2008-03-02T16:45:00.000-08:00

Friday, February 8, 2008

We're done cruisin'!

Well, we're finally back! We are so sad :( We've had so many people asking "when are you going to put your pictures on your blog?". We've been so busy since we got back that we are just getting a minute to post it. We'll give a quick(?) day by day of the cruise on the Mayercraft Carrier.
We spent two days in Miami, Fl. We just shopped and ate, preparing ourselves for the actual cruise.
We boarded the Mayercraft (our ship) on Fri. And soon headed up to the Lido deck (the deck with the pool). We hung out and people watched. Holly immediately spotted Colbie Caillet (she sings the song "Bubbly"). Holly had her eagle eye out along with her spy skills the whole cruise (more on that later). Nobody really recognized her so she was just chillin'. Then we went to have the boat drill. During the drill we stood next to Brett Dennen (another performer on the ship). Holly noticed the cabin numbers on the back of the life jackets so she memorized Brett's. (Again, the spy skills). Don't worry, we didn't do anything to Brett. We're not stalkers! :) The rest of the night we went to concerts on the Lido deck and, of course, ate- a ton. Oh, and yes we saw John that first day. He REALLY did hang out on the ship with everyone!
The next day we were in the Bahamas. We just went to a beach and chilled. Back on the ship we had 80's prom night for dinner. We looked rad! When we went dancing at the club we danced with Colbie Caillet and John Mayer did show up be he was too busy to dance. (Uh, shots anyone?)
The last full day :(, we laid out by the pool and Marcie got to go to a Question and Answer with John Mayer. She took very detailed notes for those that didn't get to go (aka Holly and Amy). She said he was VERY funny and seems to be really down to earth. Then we put on our matching jersies and went to the Superbowl party. What a good game! After that we went to the John Mayer concert. After almost getting in a fight (ask Holly for details) and waiting an extra 1/2 hr because John was sleeping (Diva) we pushed our way to the front. We enjoyed 2 GREAT hrs of all John. LOVE HIM!
Then it was time to go. It went SO FAST, but believe us, it was all worth it!!!

Posted by Holly & Marcie at 4:58 PM

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Saturday, February 2, 2008

BAHAMAS!!

We don't have long. We are in the Bahamas on our cruise and we thought we would do a quick post. We are having so much fun!!!!! We have already seen John Mayer, sat next to Colbie Calliet on the Lido deck and had the cruise drill with Brett Dennon. And that was all on the first day! The food is great. The water/beach are wonderful. And the concerts are fun. Tomorrow we have our John Mayer concert and I think we got fourth row. Marcie also got a ticket to the question/answer session with John. We are going to give her a list of questions to ask him, don't worry. More to come later- especially pics. We have gotten many. Bon Voyage!

Posted by Holly & Marcie at 5:11 PM

City Love: The Mayercraft

2008-03-02T16:44:00.000-08:00

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

The Mayercraft

It's back to reality after an awesome long weekend! We had an amazing time on the Mayercraft Carrier and it really was as fun as we expected. Our first night, in Miami, we checked into our hotel, and went to South Beach. I had never been there before and it was a very good time. We walked down the strip and ended up in a fun bar dancing until about 2am. A great start to the trip!

Friday we boarded the ship and the party began!!! The five of us stayed in the tiniest room imaginable. Two twin beds, two beds came down from the ceiling, and a roll-out....it was very cramped but we didn't care. We spent most of the time watching concerts on the lido deck (the top) and in the casino bar. We went to two different John Mayer concerts that were so great. I love his music and know the words to every song...those are the best concerts to go to. We also saw two comedy shows, participated in the 80's prom night (yeah, we were totally tubular!), laid out on the deck, toured the Bahamas, drank way too much alcohol, and didn't get enough sleep! It was so much fun.

I am a tiny bit bitter. You see, I didn't get to meet John Mayer while both my sisters, and my sister's friend DID. Life is not fair. Here's the story...on the ship there is a nightclub that doesn't really get going until around 1am. Friday night (our first night) my sister and I stayed out dancing until about 4am. Saturday I continued to party and do all the fun stuff with everyone. By Saturday night I was exhausted. Everyone went to the nightclub and around 1:30am I decided to call it a night and go back to the room with my Mom. At 5am the three girls bust in our closet-of-a-room and start yelling "We SO partied with John Mayer!". I find out he sat in the booth behind them at the club, bought all of them shots of Patron, signed stuff, etc. Unbelievable. I was in the room, asleep!
Anyways, that's that. I am not too upset because I still had a great time. I would recommend this type of cruise to anyone who enjoys live music....it was such a wild, fun time. Actually, I am still recovering.

Posted by Rachel at 8:14 PM

Amber WOODWARD: MayerCraft CARRIER

2008-03-02T16:38:00.000-08:00

Saturday, February 02, 2008

MayerCraft C A R R I E R

Well, I have to start with where I saw John, which happened to be ENTERING the boat. Yes, I just happened to be lucky enough to be getting on the ship at the same time as JM. Talk about wanting to STAY in line!!! He was whisked up the stairs into the Carnival VIP room, stayed in there about 20 minutes with a few band members and friends, and then was whisked out just as fast up the escalator. Now here is the cool part, JM had to walk past all the fans waiting in line to board the ship on a 'bridge' of sorts. Then as if that wasn't enough, when I was going up to my room, we stop on the 5th floor (I'm on the 9th) and the security guard goes, Hey can John ride with you guys? Of course we all about fainted, and then John starts to come IN THE ELEVATOR and goes, oh there isn't really enough room. . .We all start yelling Oh NO COME IN, but sadly he stepped back out. It was the low point of my evening. Did I mention he's very cute in Real life? About 40 minutes later, my roomate, after having 5 Mayercraft carrier special "rum drinks" Saw John in the hallway and ran up to him and got his picture. I can't wait for her to get her film developed. Rooms are great, food is great, shows to see- so I'm going down to the deck because the ship is leaving port, and we are off! JM comes out once again and introduces Brett Dennen who was amazing live. Not to make you all jealous or anything, but. . . I have to report that I'm having literally the TIME OF MY LIFE. A couple people asked was JM walking around normal like- well he's 'around' but he's got a few people looking out for him. I spoke with a girl tonight at Sherod's show that said he was at the disco last night, but so many people were snapping pictures of him constantly that he really couldn't 'hang out' for long. Today, (Saturday) I'm pretty sure he's not on the ship. No one has seen him all night, and the ship doesn't leave port (We are in the Bahamas right now) until early morning. However, with that said, let me just tell you about a few really great shows I did see. First, I have to say that Colbie Caillat was amazing last night, and took time to talk to lots of people and pretty much hung out and took pictures and talked after her performance for a while. She's a beautiful girl. After performing, she hung out with everyone and just sat out by the pool with friends. Everyone was pretty respectful of her space, and I think it's because she was so generous with time after her concert. Martin Sexton really made me "Happy". He's an amazing singer, and his vibe just makes me wanna dance. The JM Show was of course one of the best ever, I know it's been posted already so I won't repeat, but let me just tell ya, his little 'fan speech' was the best yet. He explained why he says the stuff he does after coming out from a club, and it really got me. He said he wanted to come up with something smart to say that only HIS FANS would get, but the rest of the world wouldn't. So he's communicating strictly with US NOW guys! Gotta luv him. No, I didn't have tickets for Friday nights show, but yes, I get by with a little help from my friends. . . :) Today, the weather was great, the beach was beautiful. I went snorkeling and saw more fish than I'd ever thought I'd see in one swim, including a rather large shark!! eek. Tonight I played 80's trivia, and lost by 2 questions. (Do you guys know who the Uncle was on Who's the Boss?) After Trivia (Which about 200 people showed up to) Bob Reynolds, JMs' sax player played a truely AMAZING performance. I was so impressed. Not only did he have the place rockin but he stayed after and talked to fans, including me, (You are the best Bob R!!) Oh- by the way, if you guys think JM makes funny faces, wait till you see Bob R's keyboard player play! Talk about some expressions! I thought I was watching a movie! *VERY* talented guy. James Smith, one of the funniest guys I've heard in a long time came on for a while, then Sherod took over. Both men had me in tears, and yes Sherod, I got ALL the jokes, even the NON-WHITE Girl jokes!!!! ha ha. James Smith, we are all going to the OUTBACK just for you hon. On the way out of seeing Sherod, I was stopped dead in my tracks at DRH's band, who had the entire casino Rockin out, and one really cool dude almost break dancing to "Burning Down the House." DRH had some great great soul sets, and everyone was dancing and singing and just having an awesome time. Sadly, I had to cut myself off when he stopped playing, but tomorrow- TOMORROW I have the Q and A with Jm at 12:30, (yes I'm estatic) and then at 3:00 he's playing, and then tomorrow night is my show! I'll update soon-

MySpace.com - Brett Dennen: Highlights of the Cruises

2008-03-02T16:28:00.000-08:00

Thursday, February 07, 2008

Highlights of the Cruises

Over the past couple weeks I went on two Caribbean cruise ships. These weren't your standard, love boat - winter getaway, fall in love on the pool deck with your soul mate, who happens to be the athletic instructor from Trinidad – cruises. These were rock n' roll cruises, and they were filled with bands and music fanatics. The boats had funny names like the Rock Boat, and the Mayercraft Carrier. I never understood the latter. I get it that it's a play on words, but I can't get the war reference out of my head. I cant help but think of the movie Top Gun, or that time at the end of the war on Afghanistan, when the president flew out to an Air Craft Carrier and made a speech with a sign behind him that read, "Mission Accomplished".
It's seems like a good idea to have a music festival out at sea, and it is until you start thinking about how horrible the giant ships are on the ocean environment, and on top of that the food is terrible. It's all casino buffet style. The whole thing is about quantity, not quality. Except for the beds, because those are neither about quality nor quantity. They hurt my back, and my legs hung off the sides. But somehow people love the beds, and find they sleep better on them than they do at home. The ships advertise the beds for purchase in all the rooms. I think people sleep well because they pass out drunk every night. Or maybe it's the gently swaying of the boat in the water.

I think ultimately, I am too claustrophobic to spend more than a day or two on a cruise ship. When I was a kid I hated it when my sister held a blanket over my head. To this day I can't sleep with my head under the covers.

I don't want to sound too negative, because I did have fun. I love being out on the ocean. Looking at the ocean comforts and inspires me. I also love the opportunity to play in front of new people. I admit that I was overwhelmed with all the people I talked to. It isn't easy for me to be discreet in a crowd, and I spent most of my time chatting with folks who would stop me as I walked by. If I met anyone and they thought I was too short with them, I apologize. It is not about you. I probably just had to go to the bathroom or just really wanted to get to wherever I was going.

Here are my highlights of the two cruises.

Highlights of the Rock Boat:

- Being around Matt Nathanson- Matt is one of the funniest people I've ever met. He had me laughing the entire time we were together. Sometimes I would roam around the boat looking for him in spots where I had run into him before. I felt bored without him.
- Glenn Phillips - As you can imagine, the cruise ship brings out the Vegas vibe in people, and a lot of performers raised their rock star stakes. Glenn obviously wanted nothing to do it. He wasn't a showboat and he still managed to mesmerize with his humble stage presence and his incredible songs.
- Jamaica – Because of weather, we couldn't go to our first destination, Grand Cayman, so I was extra eager for the second port, Ocho Rios, Jamaica. I got off the boat and paid a guy with a van $50 to drive me around the island. I got to see some really rural areas, some wealthy areas, some impoverished areas, some wild jungles, farm land, coastline, and he drove to the top of a mountain and I looked back down at the little town on the coast where the giant white Carnival boat took over the little bay like a salmon in a goldfish bowl. The guy driving kept trying to get me to buy drugs from his friends and kept asking me if I wanted a prostitute. I told him over and over again that I just wanted to see things.

Highlights of the Mayer Cruise:

-Brandi Carlile – Brandi won me over. She has just about the purest voice I've ever heard. I watched her set on the main stage. She came across as very humble, both musically and as a person. She performed with her acoustic guitar and with an accompanist on cello. Every one of her fans was totally in love with here. They were cheering her on, not like they were obsessed, but like true believers. She made me a believer.
- impromptu casino set – on the last night of the cruise we put together a last minute set in the casino. We had Gabe Dixon sit in on keys and Eric, from Soulive on guitar. We jammed out on mostly covers. Paul Simon, Bob Marley, Neil Young, the Grateful Dead…that was the best show we did. It was very loose.
- the super bowl – on Sunday there was a super bowl party in the vip lounge, normally that isn't my scene, but unexpectedly it turned out to be one of the best times I spent on the boat. I got wrapped up in routing for the Giants, because they were the underdogs. A lot of the musicians from the boat were there watching and it was fun to take sides and talk smack to each other.
- songwriting workshop – I had the best time facilitating a songwriting workshop. I didn't know what to expect when I signed up to do it. A lot of people showed up and we all talked about what we thought good songwriting is. People asked questions about my writing process and I did the best I could to explain how I write, how I feel about, and what I consider to be good songwriting.

Thanks Rock Boat. Thanks Mayercraft Carrier. Thank you fans.

MySpace.com - Bec: Mayercraft Cruise

2008-03-02T16:20:00.000-08:00

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Mayercraft Cruise
Current mood: pirate
Category: Travel and Places

It has been a long time since I have blogged about anything. This is blog-worthy for 2 reasons...first, I have been sick since I got off the boat and can't speak or stay awake long enough to tell all of you who have called about it the details. Second, it was an interesting trip...my first cruise.

I went on the cruise with Austin, now 16 years old, an outstanding musician and a great passion for live music. We left for St. Louis from CoMo at 3:45 am on Friday to find ourselves in the port of Miami via Ft. Lauderdale by 3:30. Long day needless to say. When we got to our room, we were pleasantly surprised by having a private, little deck (spa floor) that Austin played his guitar on whenever he had the chance. The party started right there. We unloaded our suitcases, ok, I unloaded mine and Austin lived out of his. He began his jam sessions before the boat set sail.

About 5, John Mayer was on deck talking to a couple people in which he got caged in by all the fans on the boat with cameras. It made me realize the price of celebrity and the price of uninterrupted conversation. "It must not easy" were my thoughts. I actually thought "poor john". I know, silly.

Somewhere as we started to set sail, John introduced himself (as if) and that he wanted to kick it with his friends and try to be as normal as possible and to please put up the cameras. Well, he didn't say it quite so eloquently - f'ing cameras. He reiterated to have a great time and enjoy all the music, etc. and the bon voyage party. The bon voyage party was not really all that fun - vh-1 was hosting it and only hit up 25% of the people on the crew with drinks and hats, tees, etc. They never made it to our side of the boat. However, Austin and I were having a great time people watching...interesting stuff on a cruise. (Let's put it this way - by the end of the trip Austin had seen enough big, saggy-breasted, half naked women until the next mayer craft cruise!)

Sparing too many details - we never made it off the boat. We made some good friends while Austin jammed on guitar and I laid out by the pool. The food was awful...no matter where you ate. We hit as many venues as we could staying up until 3am and waking up in time to start all over again the next day about noon.

About the music...John Mayer is amazing. Both personally in the Q&A (an hour plus of just questions and answers) and on stage(about 4 times). That was why he was the headliner. However, other than being on the same ship, he was non-existent. We didn't see him mingling or eating lunch. I heard that he did - danced in the disco one night, had a Borat swimsuit on at a private party, got off the boat in Freeport and did a concert there, but those were rumors from other Mayercraft people. What I do know is this:

1. Austin and I both fell in love with the music of Brett Dennen. We had not heard him before, but we tried every chance we got to watch him play. (Unfortunately we got into the 2nd John Mayer show and missed an impromptu gathering with Brett down on the casino stage - ugh!) His music is beautiful and honest and thought-provoking. Our new fav. We got to personally meet him the last night even tho he was in line at the buffet whenever we were and we didn't want to bug him- (he eats kidney beans, fyi). But when we did muster up the courage to tell him that we love his music - he was kind and snapped a picture with Austin. Love the guy.

2. I have been a fan of Brandi Carlile, but I think I overplayed her last summer at the lake and in the car and in the house because none of the men in my house liked her. We saw her opening performance a few rows from the front and Austin has become a believer! He loved her. It was just herself, her guitar, keyboards and Josh, her cello player. They were off the hook. She played in impromptu piano session by the wine bar that we listened in on. No mic, just uncovered the piano and began to play. Amazing. Voice of an angel. We ran into Josh and chatted it up with him and he was really sweet and engaging.

3. I was a fan of Colbie Caillat when she was the myspace artist of the year. Had her cd before she got signed. However, live, not impressed with Colbie. Her band members seemed to carry her thru her sets and then of course, John Mayer showing up towards the end to play a little electric with her, helped. When running into her on the boat, she was rude. Added to the poor showing the night before and becoming less of a fan. Sat with other people on the transfer back to the airport who partied with Colbie and crew and said that she was rude as well. Bummer. Her drummer, Mike Baker who could be Nick Baker's long lost brother, was sweet and offered encouraging words to Austin about following what is the biggest passion in his heart...playing and creating music.

4. Became a fan of David Ryan Harris (John Mayer's back up guitarist). He was amazing. We saw him in a small venue on the ship and he was very personable. His music is like butter...smooth. His voice can never be over-played on your i-pod. Loved it. We only got to see him once, but are hoping for more in the future!

5. Martin Sexton was great. His music leans more towards blues...we bought the cd and I hope I warm up to it. Austin really liked it and thought Tom would be a fan. I ran into him 3 or 4 times on the boat and he was always cordial and engaging.

6. Dave Barnes did a set - we didn't stick around long for it.

If you have any personal questions, feel free to ask, I tried to just get you all the facts. Overall, I would go again...with Austin and hopefully Tom and Ty. It was an experience that can't be relived but we will try! Maybe this will provoke a few of you to save some pennies for next years event!!

Loves,
Bec

JohnMayer.com Blogs - Tony Held: Mayercraft Carrier

2008-03-02T16:16:00.000-08:00

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 07, 2008

MAYERCRAFT CARRIER

A few pictures from the cruise. Enjoy!

POSTED BY TONY HELD AT 01:25 PM FROM LOS ANGELES

Dave Barnes - Me And You And The World

2008-03-02T04:50:00.000-08:00

I know that Dave Barnes was a big hit with the Mayercraft Carrier attendees.

I got an email from Dave's record company wanting help with spreading the word about the pre-order for his new CD - Me And You And The World.

Here is the info. Spread the word if you're a Dave Barnes fan.

2 CD's + DVD

2 CD's + DVD + T-shirt

Check out more news and info at the brand-new website www.davebarnes.com.

MySpace.com: Adriana - Top 10 Mayercraft Carrier CRAZY fans!

2008-02-27T20:23:00.000-08:00

Hahahahaha!

Sometimes I cross over to the realm of the bitchy, so when I saw this one, I fell out laughing.

The cruise was awesome fun, but there were a few unhinged folks there.

Read Adriana's blog for more details...

________________________________

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Top 10 Mayercraft Carrier CRAZY fans!

Category: Travel and Places

It's here! It's here! Here is the list that Shosh, Jenno, Ceci and I came up with of our top 10 crazy John Mayer fans on Mayercraft 2008! Please keep in mind I mean no malice by this list, I just wanted to share some of our crazy adventures.

10. The Cutting Women - I don't know that these women qualify as crazy JOHN MAYER fans, but they made me so angry they got on the list anyway. They basically were these two married, middle aged women who tried to get tickets to the Sunday night show by flirting with a man and his 17 year old son. Skanks! And on top of that, they said that the reason they wanted to go to the show was because they were "drunk and bored," and "what else were [they] going to do?" Ugh. No.

9. Dancing Hands Woman + Friend - these two women stood next to us at the show on Friday night and were WAY into the music. Picture someone pretending to be playing the piano while they did their best to "sing from the abdomen." Yeah, it was like that. They made Shosh super uncomfortable and kept invading our personal bubbles.

8. Baby Daddy Balloon Lady - there was a t-shirt contest on the first day, and we saw one fairly heavyset woman with an XL white Hanes t-shirt with a yellow balloon stuffed under it to make her look pregnant. She'd written on the shirt with PUFFY PAINT "John Mayer is my baby daddy." Seriously.

7. Aussie Girl - this girl was fairly harmless... she was on our Jeep tour in the Bahamas, and we thought her a bit strange, but it was confirmed when our tour guide ate lunch with us and explained how the whole time she'd been in the Jeep with him (she was a single rider and rode with him), she was talking about how she wanted to meet him and marry him. Like, immediately. Which was even more strange for our tour guide, because while he was American, he was a 30 year old American male who had been living in the Bahamas for 5 years and had no idea who John Mayer was.

6. Waving Pool Couple - John Mayer went outside on deck for a while after his Sunday performance, and there were a bunch of people (us included) on the deck below. There was one couple (and one of their moms?) who literally stood on the side of the pool, staring up at him on the deck above, waving. For over 15 minutes. Just waving, and waiting for him to look down and...?

5. Asian Girl On Bus - this girl was tipsy on rum when we met her, which may be one reason she was so loose lipped about her run-ins with John Mayer. She was the classic "groupie," and not afraid to share. Pretty much, she followed Mayer around on one of two of his tours, called him and his bandmates by their first names (appropriate, if you actually KNOW them, not if you just WISH you did), and essentially bragged about being "better fans" than everyone else.

4. Crazy Hat Girl - she pushed her way up in front of us at the show on Friday night, wearing one of the free hats from the boat, and was another one of the gals who was way too into the music. Shosh says that she wasn't even drunk, which makes her comments about JM making eye contact with her all the more intriguing. She was overheard screaming the lyrics to every song (even the quiet ones) at the top of her lungs. And when JM gave a little anecdote about covering something up by being weird, she screamed "Oh MY GOD! Me too! We're soul mates! I told you we were soul mates! John!" Weird is right, sweetie. She also had her camera up taking photos the ENTIRE time, but I must admit that between the four of us, so did we. Hey, he's adorable!

3. Face Grab Lady - this lady could have been 1, but since it was a secondhand story, I put her at 3. Apparently, John Mayer was standing in one of the buffet lines and she walked up to him, and even though he was in mid-conversation, GRABBED HIS FACE to get his attention. Who does that??? INAPPROPRIATE.

2. Photo Lady - this lady was at least in her mid to late 50's and was traveling with her son and her sister. She had photos of JM from the pool deck where he'd been earlier, and was literally showing them to everyone and anyone who would look. She made it very well known that the Friday night show was her 18th show, her son's 13th, and her sister's 20th. She was also obsessed with meeting him, to the point where it was more than a little creepy.

And... coming in at NUMBER 1:

1. The Tambourine Girl! This girl was ALL kinds of crazy - crazy fan, crazy drunk, and crazy just to be crazy! Our first encounter with her was her literally barreling by us at the Friday night show - wrist cast on one hand and LIGHT UP TAMBOURINE in the other. She was falling down drunk, screaming random things at inopportune times, and shaking her damn tambourine, effectively ruining songs for many people. Security tried to take away the tambourine to no avail, and at one point had to physically remove her from something she had climbed up onto. (I wonder how she broke her wrist...) She stayed around for the Brandi Carlile show after the JM show, and ruined the last song with her tambourine and shrieks of "YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL" in her best witch pitch. We saw her several more times on the cruise, as she was in the same hall as us, and there was never a time where she wasn't belligerantly drunk, with the tambourine or, later, the kazoo. Shosh got into a verbal argument with her once, yelling "Die Tambourine Girl" at her through our cabin door. And on the last night, we had to call security on her when she was kicking and screaming to get into her room at 2am, once again drunk, and waking up most of the people in our hall. She had gotten locked out of her room because she was too drunk to use her key card, and was screaming and cursing at her "stupid fucking cow of a roommate" to "get off [her] lazy fat ass" and open the door. No joke. She was absolutely ridiculous, to the point where everyone on the boat knew who she was and disliked her.

So there you have it, folks! A snippet of our crazy adventures aboard the Mayercraft Carrier!

MySpace.com: JayTayLIVE - The John Mayer Cruise

2008-02-27T20:19:00.000-08:00

Thursday, February 28, 2008

The John Mayer Cruise

Current mood: loved

Category: Friends

I guess I could have posted this blog under the category "Travel and Places". The week consisted of travel on a flight from my home in New York to Miami, then by boat from Miami to Freeport, Bahama's. But it wasn't about the destination or the means of transportation. We could have hiked the Appalachian Trail and ended up in northern Maine huddled in tents. We could have gathered at any given hotel in any state, our host was just kind enough to elect a tropical climate. We would have followed him anywhere. So "Travel and Places", not my topic of choice.

It could have been posted under "Dreams and the Supernatural" for obvious reasons. The entire trip was surreal. From shaking the hands of my living hero's to dancing with pop diva's in front on hundreds. This trip was nothing I could have ever expected. I packed the bare minimum and let the trip take me instead. I was up for anything and elected heavily against sleep. I accumulated 7 hours in the 4 days. Most of which were on pool decks in beach chairs, or flat on the sand next to the great Atlantic. I still look at the pictures and have to convince myself the week really happened, and that I was really there.

I could have posted under "Music" because no matter where you went, you couldn't get away from it...even though no one was trying. We had great live shows throughout the day and evening, and Francisco Vidal took it upon himself to play until about 4am Monday morning, only stopping just in time to pack his things and check out of the boat. But if you weren't in the casino, you could catch one of our several jam sessions on the Lido Deck. This boat was packed with so many great musicians it was hard to tell who paid to get on the ship and who was being paid to be there. It was to my surprise that all of the hosted musicians were beyond amazing. Guest's were falling in love several times a day. Mostly with musicians, sometimes with other guests . You could leave the Lido deck screaming "I LOVE DAVE BARNES" only to find yourself in the Caribbean Lounge laughing, crying, and falling hard for Brandi Carlile. With only a half hour to reflect on the way the Brandi just changed your life, before you know it Colbie Caillat takes the stage and your heart is now torn 3 ways. When your Captain, John Mayer, hops on stage with her during "Battle". you come to realize you'll never be the same. Colbie was offstage at 1:30am and somewhere and 2:00-2:30ish-3:00-4:00ish I found myself spinning her around in the Disco listening to DJ Dela. Maybe it was the corona dancing...maybe it was the Lemon drops that Dela and I shot in the DJ booth with Logic. All I know is that my hangover was cured when Colbie dedicated song "Out of My Mind" to me the next morning in the Adriatic Lounge. She asked if she was bad last night, I told her she was perfect. She laughed the way you remember laughing as a kid, when you smile because you want to, not because its the polite thing to do. Then a group of the nicest guys backed her up as she was singing my song...and I felt my heart melt. I felt my heart melt in the same way I melted in the Q&A with John Mayer. I fell in love with this guy (in the straightest way possible) years ago when I heard the songs on his self released album "Inside Wants Out". I knew that every word he said was genuine and real. He didn't say it to impress you or mislead you. He said his words because they tore at him from inside and he needed to let it out. Over the years, Mayer's life has been well documented by TMZand US Weekly, and there have been times that I've wondered if the fame has gotten to him. But during the Q&A session he re-enforced every reason I ever fell in love with him in the first place, not just as a musician, but as a person. He's one of the few people that can make one simple statement and make you feel like you were never alone in the first place.

As Mitch Albom once said, "The only time wasted, is time spent thinking we're alone". This got me realizing what this cruise became to me. It wasn't just a few days of great music, endless partying, and never ending food in a Utopian setting of the Bahama's. To me, it was about the people. My friends.

I felt as though each person on that ship was the best friend I ever had. As if we were all friends since grammar school. As if we shared every moment together for the past several years. I stood beside a woman I had just met while Brandi Carlile performed her song "That Year" about her friend who took his life at age 16, and her inability to forgive him until nearly a decade later. There must have been 500 people in that room feeling the same tear fall from one eye. At that moment the woman and I felt such a unison, the whole room became one as Brandi stood with her pigeon toes and microphone. We all felt heard what she said. We all felt what she felt. We were all best friends mourning the loss of a loved one. It was pure intimacy. And we all felt it. I don't know how else to describe it. Dave Barnes was also able to create a unison among the crowd with "Everybody Knows but You". He simply told us the lines to the chorus, and we belted along like our mothers recited those lines to us in nursery rhymes. We all celebrated, for no particular reason. We were all just happy to be there under a unifying purpose, love of a common thing. Weather the common love be as broad as music, or a specific as John Mayer...we each had it in common. And it was so strong I came back a different and enlightened person.

I spent 4 days with the best friends I ever had. You can see all the pictures in the album entitled "The Cruise!". Rumor has it (from John himself) that next year will be 6 days...so I better start training. To my friends, I'll see you all next year...and don't ever lose touch!

-Jay

TryJM: Mayercraft Article: John Mayer is still way cooler than you

2008-02-27T11:44:00.001-08:00

Mayercraft Article: John Mayer is still way cooler than you

Thanks to Shu and Lea for emailing in the following article:

MySpace: Barnes' aka SocialCasualty's MCC Blog

2008-02-25T20:34:00.000-08:00

Argh!!!!!!!!!

I can't get the layout on this one right. So, if the layout is buggy for you too, click over to MySpace to read it. Sorry. I'll fix it when I get the time.
-------------------------------------

Thursday, February 21, 2008

- MCC Friday, Feb 1st
Current mood: drained

On the seemingly greatest day of my life, 9:30 am, I got a phone call that changed my life. I waited for this cruise for 8 months. Counting the days down, making t-shirts, making door decorations, the anticipation…all overshadowed by some really shitty news.

Bad news never had good timing….

Moving on, after the tears were temporarily dried and the car was packed up, Amy, Mom and I jumped in the car and headed for the Port of Miami. The closer we got, the more I wanted to barf out of excitement. The first "event" of the day was whoever wore the funniest / craziest shirt won $100 onboard spending credit. I thought for SURE one of the three of us would win. Of course we didn't. We lost out to some douchebags that put feathers on their shirts. The girl's shirt said "Chick" and the guy's shirt said "Rooster".

The shirts should have said "stupid shirt" and "cocksucker" they didn't deserve to win. Oh well. My shirt rocked, here's the front and the back:

Front:

Back:

My shirt represented the Taracraft Carrier. I figured, if I wanted to be on a boat with John Mayer, he should want to be on a boat full of me. I'm fun, people like me. ;)

Before we get on board, I learn our tickets for the 2^nd Mayer headlining show are in the 3^rd row center!! (You were only guaranteed access to one of two headlining shows, and the show on the Lido deck for everyone at the same time.) I also noticed in my envelope that I got a ticket to go to a Question and Answer Session with Mayer!!! The only question I wanted to ask is if I could get a pic with him, and then have sex with him in his bathroom on board. More on the Q&A later.

So we finally get on board, head straight up to the lido deck. Not even there 2 minutes and Amy and I have a drink in our hand. I recommend the "Fun Ship" drink. You can't go wrong with a cherry in a drink. We ate a little bit of lunch at 11:30 and realized the rumors are true. The food on Carnival sucks ass. Half of it was unrecognizable and I felt like I was eating something with the word "Surprise" in it, which I make a habit of not doing. Pasta Surprise…Chicken Surprise. I don't want to be surprised when it comes to my food. I decided to continue drinking the "Fun Ship" drinks.

We were able to get to the rooms right after we ate our breadsticks and hotdogs. I have to say, I was surprised (a good surprise) at how nice the room was. I dreaded checking out the bathroom. I'm a bathroom snob. I remember on Royal Caribbean the shower had a glass enclosure and there wasn't enough room to bend over to wash from your knees down. You had to kinda squirt some soap by your knees, rub and hope the friction would get you clean enough to get away with for a week. Carnival just had a shower curtain. Hooray for clean feet!! Of course, this means the floor will be wet, but I called first shower so it wasn't my problem to deal with. Granted, you could lean forward and brush your teeth in the sink while you were sitting on the toilet, but that could come in handy after a night of heavy drinking...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=KD7fVr2DAC0

As a bonus, everyone on board got an AKOG bag which was pretty sweet.

I was going to buy one, and now I don't have to! At this point, Amy and mom started decorating the door for the "Best Door Ever" contest, which we ended up winning $100 onboard spending credits!!

So we drop off our stuff, and I grab Victoria to run around the ship to drop off the tags I made to get the MCC Mafia members to show up for a photo-op.
I sent out an email on the message boards with a clue that people would be getting something on their doors from me before 5pm the first day. SIDE NOTE - Since I was named "The Godfather" of the MCC Mafia, I'm making an official proclamation that we all either need to be on the same floor, or all on the same side of the ship. Victoria and I walked all up and down the hallways of EVERY DAMN FLOOR. I'm not doing that shit again. Anyway, more on that stuff later.I can't upload the video explaining the tags. I'm working on it and will make another post with it later.

After the tags were dropped off and we figured out what floor Mayer was staying on (7^th floor) I ran into Melanie

and I think Kara (sorry if it wasn't you Kara – I have a crappy memory) on one of the floors. She told me she just ran into Colbie Caillat and she was a bitch. Not even two seconds later, Colbie comes around the corner. I said hi, she totally snubbed me. Bitch, you've got one song out, and will most likely be a one hit wonder, who are you to snub me!? Her friend Bree posted on the message boards (think Trace Ayala trying to cash in on his best friend) and so I figured well…if Colbie is gonna snub me, I'm gonna make her friend feel awkward. I told Melanie to hold on a sec and I said "BREE??!" She looked at me, I ran over and said, "OMG I'm socialcasualty – its so nice to meet you from the boards!" I then leaned in and gave her a hug, which I know she was totally uncomfortable. Colbie looked at her like "WTF" and I was like "K bye!" and went back to Melanie and Kara, who were laughing. Colbie and crew got on an elevator, and I said I was going to tell everyone that she was a bitch. Got up to the Lido Deck, ran into the Mafia and told them all she was a bitch. Snapped this pic of her at the pool with her stupid hat on.

This rumor spread like wildfire around the ship. She had snubbed about 10 people at that point and everyone pretty much avoided her like the plague. Melanie told me later that Colbie found her on the ship a few hours later, said that she heard that Melanie was telling people she was a bitch and apologized to her. She never apologized to me, so I'm still stating on record that she is a bitch. More on Colbie later.

At this point Katie (if you are a big enough fan of Mayer, you know who Katie is) walked behind me and I stopped her to say hello. She knows me enough from being at all the Mayer events, so we chatted for about 30 seconds. She asked if I was going to the first or second Mayer show. I told her I was going to the second and she said, well who are you here with? I told her technically 3 people, but in a group of 30. "How many are here right now?" she said. Counting really quickly, I said "Ten…why what's going on?" Katie then handed me 10 blue bracelets that got us all into the first headlining Mayer show. I almost pissed in my pants. I thanked her, got mobbed by a bunch of people I didn't know, and gave out most of the bracelets to the Mafia.

Out of nowhere, someone screamed OH MY GOD THERE IS JOHN!!! So I walked to the edge of the deck, looked down, and there he was right under me.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ao_nWEm0BtU

Unfortunately, that was the closest I got to being on top of Mayer on board. I was unusually calm considering the man was at my feet (as he should be) and so he waved to everyone, walked up a few steps and was pretty much mobbed. It was like the paparazzi were there. I heard someone say "Tara go get him!!" but I just kept saying "If it is meant to be, it will be, I'm not going to stalk him." I eventually walked a few feet closer to him and snapped a pic because I figured this would be the closest I'd get to seeing him chill out on board and I wanted to take advantage.

At this point, the horn went off for Muster. I screamed for Amy, who was drunk already, to go down to our rooms to get our lifejackets.

Don't ask me who that guy is. Amy was joking around with him and he said he was forever in our pic. F!

It was then time to head up to the Bon Voyage party on the Lido Deck with Brett Dennen. They served free drinks in bad ass hypercolor cups (Amy you owe me a few of those btw) and the drinking continued. Amy and I walked around with about 7 cups, most of which Amy drank. I managed to get near the stage just in time for the ship to blow the horn to leave port during Brett's performance, which was pretty funny.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Kx1SXHB5sds

Anyway, I lost Amy somewhere and decided to walk around. It wasn't hard to find Mafia members, we were all over the place. I said hello to everyone and eventually ended up on top of the Lido Deck near Lisa and AC and a few other Mafia members.

At this point, Boyle came over and said "What are you drinking?" It was just fruit punch. He gave me a bottle of "water" which has since been named Boyle Juice and is MCC famous. I added some to my juice, and the following few hours became a blur. If you join us for MCC09, DO NOT drink the Boyle Juice. Check out the "I was drunk" section for photos I can't explain. I apparently got around the ship, because the next day, people were like HEY TARA!!! I don't want to know what happened. I somehow ended up with my mom in line at the Merch area, bought 3 shirts and 2 posters, and got brought back to the room to pass out. I found out later that Amy was already there since about 8pm passed out in bed. The room was spinning….I had to take a nap. I completely forgot about getting into the first John Mayer headlining show……

More blogs from the boat coming soon!

YouTube.com: ibelieveinmiracles2's Videos from the Mayercraft Carrier

2008-02-25T16:00:00.000-08:00

Thanks to ibelieveinmiracles2 for the heads up on these videos.

I've posted them in rough chronological order: Show 1, Colbie Caillat's show, the Lido Deck set and Show 2.

I'm too lazy to look at set set list (oh, hell, I'll do that too...hold on. Done.)

John Mayer - Ya Owe it To Yourself!

John Mayer - Mayercraft - No Such Thing - Show #1

John Mayer - Mayercraft - Something's Missing - Show #1

John Mayer & Colbie Caillat - Mayercraft - Battle

Colbie Caillat - Mayercraft - One Fine Wire

John Mayer - Mayercraft Lido Deck - Bigger Than My Body

Although, really, John...I actually like my life, but I know, I know...you weren't just speaking to me.

John Mayer - Mayercraft - Vultures - Show #2

John Mayer - Mayercraft - No Such Thing - Show 2

Something's Missing

2008-02-21T22:23:00.000-08:00

From the first show:

"You owe it to yourself."

Thanks Johnny.

Kathe's Myspace blog: The Experience (Unabridged)

2008-02-21T22:13:00.000-08:00

Sunday, February 10, 2008

The Experience (Unabridged)

We started our journey, like everyone else, with a lifeboat drill. We made our way down to the fourth floor to stand around for twenty minutes. While we were down there we were told that John had made his way onto the Lido deck and was being pestered. Such ashame that some people have to ruin it for the rest of us. How cool would it be just to hang around him? I had made up my mind early on that if it meant I had to make an ass of myself to get something, I didn't want it. I would much rather keep my dignity than get an autograph from him that pisses him off to have to do. Anyway, back to the drill. While we were down there I asked if anyone had seen Scotty. The lady on the other side of me asked who Scotty was. Blink. Blink. Thinking she had not heard me I added his last name to the mix. You know, Scotty Crowe. Nothing. She didn't know who that was. OK then.

We get done with the drill we high-tail it to our room to drop off the life jackets and then head up to the Lido deck to see Brett Dennen and take part in the festivities. Our very own Captain Mayer greeted us; however, was interrupted by the sound of the horn. The first two times he stopped, but by the third time he kept talking while it blew. There is no telling what he said. He very nicely asked us to not take photos of him milling about and not to ask for autographs. He said that if we did that he could hang with us more. Brett Dennen had a good set and also did some Bob Marley for us.

We saw Colbie Caillat, James Smith and Sherrod Small that night and then later made our way to the disco to watch people shake their booty. No ass shaking for us (that is a good thing). We eventally called it a night sometime early Saturday morning because we had an 8:15 a.m. excursion planned. We found out later that we had just missed the man himself. Oh well.

We decorated our door with a poster and markers. We just wanted people to stop by and sign, we weren't interested in winning. Some of the signatures we received were "John Mayer's Ball Sack" "John Mayer=Booger Face" and "Asshole" Other people just signed. We had one that said, "Be real! Have fun! So be it.....'Necronomecon'." Which intrigued me.

The next morning we made our way down to the bowels of the ship to get off for the excursion. Groundhog Day. We just wanted to relive this trip over and over like Bill Murray. While we were waiting, a lady looked at my bag (which we received in our cabin) and asked what does AKOG stand for. Um, you know Another Kind of Green, just a little song that John Mayer wrote and performed and is using as a name for environmental causes. She still looked perplexed. Seriously, how do I attract these people. But I was very nice on the outside.

We made our bus trip to do our excursion which included sailing on a catamaran and snorkeling. We found out that we were doing our excursion with members of the Bomb Squad. I know that Mike, Ian and Dan were there. Very nice people. Down to earth and just good people. The water was a little nipply, but it was easy to adjust after a few seconds. We had motored over, but we sailed back. It was beautiful and worth every penny. We also found out the captain had played as an extra for Barbosa on Pirates of the Caribbean and stayed on the Black Pearl for 10 days. He had pictures to prove it

Later when we got back, we hung around on the Lido deck just to relax and people watch where I pointed out the Triple J. I said that someone needed to buy him a drink. My sister got up and bought the man a Corona. She chatted with him a little and he came over and met me. Pretty damn cool. A little while later Brett Dennen wandered out. Cool.

Later that night we went to Eighties trivia. Our team was named Number 5 (is alive) and we pretty much sucked after the first three questions. It was quite amusing that I ran into someone from Sixthman who I went to high school with (Ashley). It is such a small, small world. No wait, that is a Disney song. It is just a small world. No, that is a Disney ride. What a coincidence!

We had every intention of making it to the Bomb Squad's 10:30 p.m. show on the Lido deck, but didn't make it. We ended up staying to see Bob Reynolds and were absolutely taken aback by his talent. David Ryan Harris played with him. Utterly and completely amazing.

We stuck around and saw James Smith and Sherrod Small again. It was even better the second time. Sherrod made some reference to John Mayer being able to get all the girls but that he didn't have the anatomy that Sherrod did. Later, we thought we would check out joke-e-oke, we made it through two people and had to leave. Not my thing.
After that, we just wandered around aimlessly and eventually called it a night in the wee hours.

Sunday was THE Mayer day. We got up early and made our way to stand in line for the Local 83 Q&A session since it was general admission. Let me back up. I worried about this for two days because I realized when we got on the ship, that my sister had a ticket and I didn't. I was crushed. She offered to give me her ticket, but I never would have taken it. Come to find out, I should have gotten one too and was directed to the Sixthman desk. Phew. So we get in line and we were fifth and sixth in line. Sweet. We get in and I ended up as far right on in the front middle. Perfect view. My sister sat across the aisle from me and had just as good a view. We were asked not to videotape and not to ask personal questions. I didn't want to ask a question because I couldn't think of one that hadn't already been asked or that I soon after thinking of, didn't decide was lame. He came out and his first thing was he asked us, "Is it just me or is this boat rocking like a motherfucker?" That became my mantra the rest of the trip. He was asked several questions and I guess I am just greedy but I am not ready to blog about it just yet. I will though as a separate blog later. He was very nice and very kind. I took very few photos because I wanted to listen to what he had to say.

We left that with our heads in the clouds and quickly made our way up to the Lido deck for the 3:00 p.m. Mayer show. We got pretty crappy spots because people had been staking them out all day, but that is ok. We ended up stage right on the upper level standing behind people. I was pleased to have the L83 thing, so no worries. I had also wanted to see the VH1 you ought to know performance with Colbie Caillat and Brandi Carlile, but that was right in the middle of the L83 thing as well.

I couldn't see when John came out, but I heard it and what I heard was, "Oh my God he doesn't have a shirt on." (let the teeny bopper shrilling begin) There were plenty of people in bikinis and bathing suits and it was a very relaxed atmosphere. John played a couple of songs and then exited to take a piss, while David Ryan Harris played. John came back, played a few more,and then David Ryan Harris left (for quite a while) to do the same. In the time DRH was gone, he played snippets of several songs. "Sucker" "Love Soon" "Man on the Side" "Only Heart" and "Say". He said he played "Say" just to prove he wrote it. My sister was happy he played her favorite song "Love Soon". I was hoping for "Why did you mess with forever", that didn't happen. He did an awesome rendition of "Bigger Than My Body." Wait for YouTube. Trust me. He went up to the sun deck which we only found out after we sat down at the Siren's Pool because people were standing and staring at him from afar (because it was roped off) like they were at the zoo. Ashame!.

We went back to take a nap before the show and ended up rushing downstairs at 10:00 for the 10:30 show. John didn't come on stage until 11:00, but it was well worth it. He played until after 1:00 a.m. The set list:

Vultures
Good Love Is On The Way
I Don't Trust Myself (with loving you)
-He bantered about getting home tomorrow (Monday) and throwing your keys on the table at your house (in essence being back to reality)
No Such Thing
-He said something about taking it home and don't have to put it through a metal detector then proceeded to play Clarity
Clarity
Gravity
-Played part one handed
-Mentioned "I've got dreams, dreams to dismember"
-He then went to drink water. He said that this song was brought to us by water. He said nothing bad happens when you want water. He said he said something like I see you there with very little clothing and a wedding ring. I am going home to drink some water.
Waiting on the World to Change
-He intro'd it with, "One, Two, Eleven, Cinco."
-Changed the words to "Me and both my friends" and "missed Christmas three times before."
Bigger than my Body
Heart Of Life/In Repair
Belief
I Don't Need No Doctor
-where I looked at Robbie McIntosh to see a red dot on his forehead. I am pretty sure that is what I saw.
--encore--
Can't Stop Thinking About You (with Martin Sexton)
-Mentioned that people can say what they want about him but they can't say that he doesn't like good shit.
Wheel

"Gravity" was fucking awesome, as always, and I can't wait for the recording. But the most moving song was "Can't Stop Thinking About You." WOW. Just Wow. That was the sexiest most sensual song. Unbelieveable. I was completely enraptured by it. Good shit.

And then it was over. We got in the car and drove home to reality.

We are in for Mayercraft Carrier Part Deux.

I know this was long and I know I will have forgotten something, but I had to get it out of my brain and in print. It was starting to hurt.

Lori's Myspace blog: Recognized The Moment

2008-02-20T21:12:00.000-08:00

Recognized The Moment~
Category: Travel and Places

I had an incredible blog prepared regarding the Mayercraft Carrier....which was eaten up twice by Myspace...(I hate Tom).
So instead I am just gonna posted my pictures and videos, with a small synopsis for each.

MYSPACE THE MOVIE...IN 3D~

A huge highlight for me on this trip, was to see a very dear friend of mine....Abby.
She was my maid of honor in my wedding, and I have not seen her since my wedding day and we live on different coasts, me in California, and her in Miami, Florida. So almost 18 years later, I was able to see her again.

We were extremely privileged to have been invited to stay with our great friends and CREW members, Robin, James and their sweet little boy Taylor at their timeshare in Miami for a few days before the cruise for free. They went over and above. Many thanks to them.

We were finally able to board the Mayercraft Carrier aka Carnival Victory. Got to drink and party with all my favorite friend, myspace peeps, meet many great Mayer fans, and was introduced to some incredible musicians!!!

John came out on stage to welcome everyone, and I happen to catch it on video.....it is actually quite funny....let's just say that this was the most 'horniest' he had every been in public. *Tongue in cheek* He did mentioned that to enjoy this cruise and have him hang around with everyone, that maybe we could leave the cameras behind....um...yeah.....this cruise was so not just about him, I did respect his wishes, and short of the Lido Deck show, whenever he was around, I left my camera off.

Went to check out Dave Barnes set in the Casino Lounge...didn't take any pictures or video of that show, but was blown away by him, however, my friend took this picture of me and Caroline with him.

Got fairly shit-faced that night and was apparently named 'Queen of the World'.

Saturday we got to go shop and spend the most beautiful day in Port Lucaya, Bamahas. I almost felt guilty leaving my family behind in the cold.......almost. ;)

One of the many musicians that I was excited to meet was Dave Barnes, who was absolutely amazing, but was also surprised by another awesome musician that sat in as Dave Barnes' keyboardist.....
Gabe Dixon.

We checked out some more of the ship and some others sets. Ran into a few of my favorite myspace peeps....The incredible Miss Mara aka BearHeadedGirl and is one of the best bloggers out there.

Went to meet the awesome David LaBruyere, he was a hell of a nice guy!

Caught a surprise set in the casino lounge with Francisco Vidal, Dave Barnes, and David Ryan Harris.

I actually had not planned on taping the Lido Deck Show per Mayer's request...and the highlights of the cruise were Mayer's performances. In a lot of cases, I feel guilty that I am a female fan because a great portion of his fans are women, which he seems to roll his eyes at because as a musician...I'm sure he wants to be taken seriously and not the magazine heart-throb that he seems to be labeled as, which I totally get and after seeing his performance with the Trio, it was all about his music, and nothing about "him".....but then....the son of a bitch had to walk out with no shirt on, and he actually looked pretty good....and I am only human...so fuck it, I turned the camera on. Damn it.

Got to meet another myspace friend whom I adore...isn't she beautiful....Miss Cia.

What's this all about Miss Lisa?

Caught David Ryan Harris' show next. He was awesome as usually.
Picture time with my friends!!!

Went dancing a little with the Crew, Matt Mangano and Gabe Dixon....yes John was there, but we didn't pay much attention to him.

I have been introduced to many new musicians over the last few years that I love and I also have turned my 14 year old daughter into a huge fan.....one of them is David Ryan Harris. I have seen him perform many times. I told him about my daughter Hailey, and he was kind enough the make little video messages for her, he has done this several times actually:

Well....I have posted this in a bulletin already, but she also loves Colbie Callait, and she also made a video message for Hailey as well.

Having to get up at 8am in the morning to get off the boat was pure torture, since I didn't go the bed until 5am...but I couldn't leave without getting footage of our cabin.

All in all...I had an amazing time, met amazing people, and heard the greatest of music....and I can not wait to go again next year.......IF.....John follows through.
But the best ending to any trip for me...was coming home.

Mayercraft Carrier Official Cruise Photo Website

2008-02-13T21:49:00.000-08:00

Here is the official cruise photography website (click here or click on the photo):

Mayercraft Carrier - Photography by Will Byington

I can tell by the shots that I never saw this guy once on the ship. I was up late constantly...ooops. However, there are a lot of great shots.

I'm still on vacation, so I haven't had the chance to check it out in detail. There are tons of pics on it and if you spot yourself, you can purchase the photo ;)

TryJM: Mayercraft Carrier Review from Italy

2008-02-12T19:12:00.000-08:00

Mayercraft Carrier Review from Italy

Thanks to Antonella from Italy for sending in the following MCC review and photos!

If Mayer doesn’t come to Europe, Europe goes to Mayer.

So we did. Even if Italy is not so close to the Bahamas.

Me and my friend Chiara had been planning and dreaming of our Mayercraft for so many months… we “just” had to save some money, pack our bags and take a 2h flight to Paris and then a 10h flight to Miami, did I forget to mention that I’m afraid to fly...

No panic! I WANTED to be on the ship and see his show, my first John Mayer show (I had missed it when he was in London last September, because I was not in Europe).

It was so strange seeing him just two steps away from me while the ship was sailing. In his white shirt he seemed so shy in front of all those people looking at him. (I know he is always in front of thousands of people looking at him, but that was my impression).

Strange but true… his music, every morning in my car, every evening in my home, and every time I need something that I don’t know what it is… and everytime it is able to make my day just a little brighter… his voice is a part of my day, so familiar, so comfortable… and it was so strange to realize that he is real! The first thing I thought when I saw him was: “So, he does exist… and I am here!!!”

But nothing can be compared to the show I saw that Sunday… my best Sunday ever! I was in the front row at the afternoon performance and it was so special… John, his guitar, the sunlight, the sky, the idea of being in the middle of the ocean… and singing my “Good Love” at the top of my lungs!

And the night show was even better… everything was so perfect. “Vultures” was supreme, and also “I Don’t Trust Myself”… and yes, “Clarity” really encapsulated the whole experience of the Mayercraft.

In the end, while he invited us to keep on singing “you can’t love too much one part of it” he left us with the best words I wanted to be left by him… I think we all know them… “I believe that my life’s gonna see the love I give returned to me”.

See you in Europe, John. Or anywhere you’d like to play. You know we'll be there.

Here some photos from the Lido Deck:

TryJM: Videos: Mayercraft Q&A

2008-02-09T22:04:00.000-08:00

Videos: Mayercraft Q&A
Here some excerpts from John's Local 83 Question and Answer session from the Mayercraft:

Best Week Ever: 2008 Mayercraft Interview

2008-02-08T20:20:00.000-08:00

Best Week Ever: Colbie Calliat on the 2008 Mayercraft Carrier

2008-02-08T20:12:00.000-08:00

MayercraftMedia.com

2008-02-08T11:33:00.000-08:00

Here is a site created by Further from the MayercraftCarrier forum.

It's a place to share conversation, pictures and videos of the trip.

Have at it! Have fun! Click here or click the pic.

Martin Sexton and John Mayer - Show #2 performing "Can't Stop Thinking About You"

2008-02-08T10:53:00.000-08:00

Check it out, Martin w/ John Mayer playing "Can't Stop Thinking 'Bout You". This one's a classic!

Download the 2nd Mayercraft Show

2008-02-08T08:58:00.000-08:00

The set list:

Vultures
Good Love is on the Way
I Don't Trust Myself
No Such Thing
Clarity
Gravity
Waiting
Bigger Than My Body
heart Of Life
Belief
I Don't Need no Doctor
I Can't Stop Thinking About You/ with Martin Sexton
Wheel

The link @ DivShare

Thank you Debbie for your hard work.

YouTube: A Bunch of Mayercraft Carrier Performances

2008-02-08T00:12:00.000-08:00

A lot of videos of various performances are popping up on YouTube.

Enjoy!

Heart of Life (w/ Inrepair) MayerCraft Carrier

John Mayer Mayercraft 2008 Show #2 Opener

John MayerCraft 08 Show 2 - Belief

John MayerCraft 08 Show 2 - Clarity

John MayerCraft 08 Show 2 - Banter Intro

John MayerCraft 08 Show 2 - Don't Need No Doctor

John MayerCraft 08 Show 2 - I Don't Trust Myself w/ Loving U

John MayerCraft 08 Show 2 - Gravity Part 1

John MayerCraft 08 Show 2 - Gravity Part 2

John MayerCraft 08 Show 2 - Heart of Life

John MayerCraft 08 Show 2 - Clarity

John Mayer MayerCraft Lido Deck Show - Gravity (Acoustic)

John Mayercraft *Deck*--Bigger Than My Body (beatbox intro)

2008 Mayercraft - John Mayer, Medley

John Mayer - Old School Acoustic Mix

John Mayer Dancing to DRH's song on Mayercraft

Judy's blog @ MySpace.com: Mayercraft '08

2008-02-07T23:59:00.000-08:00

Mayercraft '08

Friday, February 08, 2008

Mayercraft ’08
Current mood: tired
Category: Music

Well, I've been home for 3 days now and I am still on a high from our trip. Words cannot describe what it was like. You really had to experience it for yourself.

We arrived Miami on Thursday night and stayed at South Beach Plaza hotel. It was nice and it was great to be in South Beach. We found an amazing sushi restaurant and walked around. There are many beautiful people there from all walks of life. The next day, we hung out and tried to find Erik an 80's outfit for the 80's prom on the boat. We couldn't find anything and he refused to buy a pastel colored polo shirt for $70.

We get on the boat and we go straight to our room. We have a room on the 10th floor with a balcony. It was very spacious and nice! We were pleasanly surprised. Then off to the lido deck for some bahama mamas, beers and pina coladas. (not all at once of course!)

John shows up and there's pure pandemonium! He was hounded by all the screaming, crazy fans. At one point, he was escorted to one of the decks and was surrounded by security. All the people around him was snapping pics and screaming for him. I actually felt sorry for him. It reminded me of the panda exibit at the zoo. Evertone wanted to see him. So he gets on stage in his cute sailor hat and greets everyone. He asks everyone to put away their cameras and just hang out. His goal was that by the end of the trip, people would see him as a regular guy and not JOHN MAYER!!! Well, good luck! The funny thing is that I thought the crazies would be all the teenage girls. Come too find out, they were all the suburban soccer moms! lol

So we start off with Brett Denned who had such a cool sound. It was kind of reggae, soul, calypso type music. I really dug him. Then during the trip I think he got confused and thought it was called the Brett Dennencraft! He came off as arrogant. I gave him the benefit of the doubt and thought maybe he was just having an off moment but everytime I saw him he thought he was all that. Come on, do we really have to waer our sunglasses at night!?! Oh well....

We also saw Colbie Caillet and I was pleasantly surprised. To be honest, I had gotten so annoyed at hearing "Bubbly" everywhere. She had a lot more to offer so I really dug her. Plus they were all super cool. Tim Fagan and Justin Long were sweethearts!

I caught Dave Barnes in the casino lounge and he was brilliant! Also, that same night I caught Martin Sexton. All I can say is "WOW"! He's oozes pure talent!

Erik got to shoot John Mayer's 1st show in the main stage. I tried to sneak in and told the security guard that my husband was the photographer. He wasn't buying it and told me to hurry along....I later found out a bunch of people got to sneak in. I'm bitter now!

The next morning, we land in the Bahamas. We end up going to the beach and found a great spot behind the Westin (I think) and hung out there. We met a great couple Rick and Debbie from Connecticut. We exchanged business cards and Rick who is on hiatus from work right now said he didn't have a job and no business card. So we all realized that was our aspiration. To have no job and no business card!!!

In the evening we had the 80's prom. I wore a black dress, black opaque leggings, patent leather pumps, big hair and big earrings! Rich and Gina our friends on the trip went all out and Gina was dressed a la Madonna circa 1985 and Rich was Don Johnson from Miami Vice. We went to dinner with a bunch of cool people who's names escape me now. There were some hideous dresses! i can't believe we actually wore clothes like that in the 80's...lots of lace, pastels, big hair and blue eyeshadow!

We go to see Bob Reynolds who is magical on the sax! He was so cute and humble and the song he did with DRH was AWESOME!

We made it to see the Bomb Squad and again, I was pleasantly surprised at how good they were. Brenna the singer was on fire! She was so energetic and was full of charisma.

Then it was off to see comedy with James Smith and Sherod Small. I enjoyed them both. After that I was pretty pooped. I headed off to bed while Erik shot Colbie's second show. I was bummed when Erik came back to the room and said that John showed up and jammed with Colbie. ARGHHH!!! That's what I get for sleeping.

The next morning, I went to do yoga with Brett Dennen. Actually there was an actual yoga teacher, Brett was just there taking the class with about 40-50 other people. It was so amazing to be on the top deck in the blue skies with the breeze on your skin.

Next, we had tix to the Q&A with John. It was only open to the fan club members (I know I'm a dork!) It was very cool and he was so honest. He seemed a little hung over but still was very present and intelligent and honest and funny! People asked great questions like what would he be doing if he wasn't a rock star? He said he wanted to be a graphic artist. I was teasing Erik that John wished he was him!

At 3pm John performed on the Lido deck for everyone! He came out without a shirt and it was complete chaos!!! He was pretty tipsy and having a great time. At one point he had to apologize to his fans for being a little sloppy. We forgive you John!!! It was entertaining! He had to take a piss in the middle of the set so DRH filled in for him and sang, "Pretty Girl". When John came back he sang the rest of the song with him! One of my top 3 moments on the cruise!!!!

Right after John's set we head over to DRH set. Man, that was breathtaking!!! The man is a complete genius! Every song was flawless even though the band was totally wasted! Some girls kept sending them tequila shots on stage and they kept taking it! At this point Roy kept buying me mudslides and I was very happy:-) When "Yesterday Shutting Down" came on, I got up and started to dance!!! My friend Gina later told me she was sure i was gonna get up on the table or the speaker or something crazy! Nope, I was fine....;-)

Superbowl was next. Erik is the biggest Giants fan you will ever meet so he was really excited to watch it. The only problem was that we were soooo exhausted by this point. I decided to crash before John's concert that evening. Erik came back to the room to get ready and we were in the 4th quarter. Giants end up winning and Erik is in hysterics!!! I dared him to go outside and do his dance ( in his underwear) and he does!!! There was a girl in the hallway that was not expecting that!!!

Anyway, if you're reading this, sorry this is sooooo long...I just wanted to document my experience so I don't forget. We get to John's last concert on the last night of the cruise and the energy is just electric! Besides having to share a table for two with eight people and having two amazon 8 foot women standing right in front of me, it was the BEST John Mayer show I have ever been to! And this was my 17th or 18th show, I lost count! I think he was trying to redeem himself for not being polished on the lido deck earlier in the day. He rocked it like I've never seen him before. His guitar solos were unbelievable and he played "Wheel" for his finale! The first JM concert I ever saw he closed with "Wheel" and it was the beginning of my obsession. "Gravity" was on a different plane! And the duet with Martin Sexton was just so sultry and sexy!!! WOW!!! I wish I can put in a bottle what I was feeling that night in that room but it's something that only I and 1200 other people can ever relate to.

We went to the disco afterwards and got our groove on! We didn't get to bed until after 4am and had to disembark by 7am!!! OK..I'm too old for this. I'm not used to partying like a rock star! I'm a suburban, mini driving, soccer mom who is obsessed with John Mayer!!!

Anyway, my husband was one of the photographers on the boat. as soon as he sorts through all 5000 shots, I will be sure to share some.

Until Mayercraft '09...goodnite!

JohnMayer.com (Tony Held's blog): MAYERCRAFT CARRIER

2008-02-07T22:08:00.002-08:00

MAYERCRAFT CARRIER

A few pictures from the cruise. Enjoy!

POSTED BY TONY HELD AT 01:25 PM FROM LOS ANGELES

Best Week Ever: John Mayer Speaks: On James Blunt, Culottes… and Murder

2008-02-07T22:08:00.001-08:00

John Mayer Speaks: On James Blunt, Culottes… and Murder

Written by Michelle Collins

For those out of the loop, pop megastar John Mayer chartered a Carnival Cruise to the Bahamas for himself and 3,000 of his biggest fans. And we here at Best Week Ever were the only people allowed on board with video cameras! Mayer, who I am now personally in love with, took time out of his busy balls-in-the-wind schedule to get within 30 feet of me for an exclusive on board interview.

He covers everything from his upcoming album, to cruise ships, to competing with James Blunt… even taking a moment to cover Britney Spears‘ “Piece of Me.” And oh yeah… we hug.

So check out my exclusive Mayercraft Carrier interview with John Mayer!

Source: Best Week Ever

Just Jared: “John Mayer Thong Girl” is Famous

2008-02-07T21:58:00.000-08:00

“John Mayer Thong Girl” is Famous

Thu, 07 February 2008 at 3:27 pm

Erin Horgan, the blogger who posted pictures of John Mayer in a green Borat-like thong, is now famous!

She was just interviewed by the Cape Cod Times to talk about her experience aboard the John Mayer cruise, aka Mayercraft Carrier Cruise.

Horgan writes on her blog, “What a way to spend my birthday!! My blog has absolutely blown up over the last 48 hours and it’s still not setting in how much of a riot this is causing.”

Watch the video interview below of the famous “John Mayer Thong Girl”!

“John Mayer Thong Girl” is Famous

More Borat/Mayer video

2008-02-07T12:35:00.001-08:00

Thanks Lori!

TryJM: Download: The Mayercraft Lido Deck Show - 2/3

2008-02-07T12:28:00.001-08:00

Download: The Mayercraft Lido Deck Show - 2/3

Thanks again to Debbie for recording and sharing.

Setlist:

Belief
No Such Thing
Slow dancing in a Burning Room
Good Love Is On The Way
Pretty Girl ....David Ryan Harris/ John Pee break
Sucker> Love Soon>Man on the Side> Only Heart> Say
Gravity
Next 12 Hours banter
Bigger Than My Body

And here's the download link.

TryJM: Download The First Mayercraft Show - 2/1

2008-02-07T12:26:00.001-08:00

Download The First Mayercraft Show - 2/1

Thanks to Debbie for taping and sharing her recording:

Setlist:

Belief
Good Love Is On the Way
Trust Myself
No Such Thing
Slow Dancing (I Can't Make You Love Me*)
Waiting
Doctor
Bigger Than My Body
Portable Intro > Why Georgia
Vultures
"Get Funky">Stronger$
Gravity (I've Got Dreams to Remember)
Encore:
Something's Missing > In Your Atmosphere> Something's Missing (Wooden House tease) (solo acoustic)
Wait Until Tomorrow (Who Did You Think I Was tease)# (solo electric)
Heart of Life Full Band (In Repair tease)
Find Another You

* - Bonnie Raitt
$ - Kanye West
# - Jimi Hendrix

Download the show here.

TryJM: Video: John Mayer Frolics on Maiden Voyage of “Mayercraft Carrier”

2008-02-07T12:23:00.000-08:00

Video: John Mayer Frolics on Maiden Voyage of “Mayercraft Carrier”

The first-ever Mayercraft Cruise Carrier sailed from Miami, FL to Freeport, Bahamas this past weekend, bringing with it John Mayer, his handpicked roster of singer-songwriters and a few thousand enthusiastic fans (ranging from the single twenty-somethings to families and aspiring Mayer clones). Despite recently shutting down his official blog due to being “done & dusted & self conscious & back to work,” Mayer took every chance he could to show off for his fellow passengers during the three day cruise.

On Sunday morning, Mayer opted to don a Borat bathing suit and take a short jog around the upper level of the Carnival Victory’s Lido Deck — much to the joint amusement and horror of the crowd of about fifty catching mid-morning rays. Check out his attention-drawing get-up above, and click the jump for more highlights.

The rest of the weekend’s top five Mayer moments included:
- Sunday afternoon’s acoustic set on the Lido deck: after admitting he had been drinking earlier in the day, Mayer took a bathroom break midway through the forty-five minute set and returned for a medley of “Sucker,” “Love Soon,” and “Man on the Side” — three older tracks that hadn’t been seen on set lists for quite some time.
- Sunday’s fan club Q&A session: between Borat and the acoustic performance, Mayer took time to answer questions from a few hundred fan club members, shedding light on some of his inspirations, his mother’s influence on him and offering an impression of the vocal similarities between Janis Joplin and AC/DC’s Brian Johnson.
- A surprise solo from Mayer during Colbie Caillat’s Saturday night set, for which Mayer came on stage dancing before joining Caillat on “Battle.”
- Mayer’s headlining sets Friday and Sunday: since the largest performance space on the boat could only fit one half of the audience at a time, the headlining gigs were split into two sessions. For each, Mayer and his seven-piece backing band put on a two hour set consisting both of setlist rarities and standards, all of which had a fresh energy thanks to some time off the road over the last few months.

Source: Rolling Stone Online

TryJM: Many More Mayercraft Carrier Reviews, Photos and Videos

2008-02-07T12:08:00.000-08:00

Many More Mayercraft Carrier Reviews, Photos and Videos

Thanks so much to everyone who sent in stories, photos and videos. Thank you so, so much. Here are a few selections:

John dancing to David Ryan Harris' "Pretty Girl" on the Lido Deck:

The probably most interesting cabin door:

Some Photos from the Boat
Photos taken by Lauren from Jupiter, FL

from the first headlining show friday night:

from the sunday afternoon pool deck show:

from colbie's saturday night show, john playing on "battle":

dave barnes/gabe dixon lido deck show:

the second headlining show (sunday night):

and from the q&a session on sunday:

John Mayer - Say
Taped by Carly

David Ryan Harris - For You
Taped by Carly

Colbie Caillat Live
Taped by Carly

Brandi Carlile - Cannonball
Taped by Carly

Gabe Dixon & Dave Barnes - Signed, Sealed, Delivered
Taped by Carly

Candy by Martin Sexton
Taped by Mike

you owe it to yourself
Review written by Jocelyn from New York, NY

i got back from the cruise this afternoon, after a lovely round of standby musical chairs. my flight home was originally booked for 5pm, but since my friend and i debarked at ~8am, we had a lot of time to kill. i can't believe the cruise is over, especially after looking forward to it for such a long time. i am so happy and thankful that i got to take this trip & it was refreshing in more ways than i can count. now onto my semblance of a review:

my friend colleen and i got down to florida on thursday, so we boarded the victory mildly-to-very-much-so sunburned. aloe, check! i saw some t-shirts for crazy t-shirt day that made me wince, recoil and check my gag reflex. there were some good ones, though, like the series for a family of 4 - two little girls and their parents with various photos of john. on the back, it said "[random] family from [san jose?] loves john mayer." i know that if i were a kiddo, that would be a crazy vacation, but certainly one i'd remember for my lifetime. the most hilarious one i saw was one worn by a dude who photoshopped john's head onto the rolling stone cover with christina aguilera's naked, guitar-holding body. he changed the headlines, but unfortunately i can't remember them.

john had a deck cordoned off above the back lido deck pool, and it was certainly an exercise in human dynamics on friday when i was watching all of these people (mostly women, but i'd say the ship was gender split 75F/25M if i had to take a guess) watch john. they were yelling and doing things just to get his attention and i was somewhat ashamed to be on the same vessel with them. it made him seem like a caged animal, and that depressed me for him. i understand the fascination of fans, but i neither understand nor identify with the behavior. that said, i pretty much expected it. fortunately, things got much better once the music began.

i caught the tail end of brett dennen's set on the lido deck and i think his music fits well with a cruise atmosphere. i'm a fan & love his live shows, though they took awhile to grow on me. i can understand why he's not everyone's cup o' tea, but such is music. after brett was done, colleen and i shifted back to the siren's pool a.k.a. the back of the lido deck, where we ran into some old friends and made new ones.

then we moved on to the first of john's shows. i saw an earlier review that said the crowd wasn't into it and there weren't die-hard fans there. i beg to differ, not only because i'm obviously one myself, but my seats were also near the front and people were absolutely into it. sure, there was a drunk girl or two that talked way too loudly during guitar solos, but i'd say that's the minority.

this is tied for the sunday night show as the best one i've EVER seen/heard from john. the dynamic between him and the crowd was amped up because everyone in that room loved his music, at a minimum, or they wouldn't have been on the boat. aside from the killer guitar solos that were prevalent throughout the set, i loved john's banter. he asked the crowd how many of them got passports just for the mayercraft, and a ton of people screamed. in not so many words, he said that underscored how cool and memorable this whole experience was. that people were heavily invested and it was going to be amazing. he reminded us to put all of our other shit on hold.

he explained that he was out at some club with [90] cologne bottles in the bathroom, and after he washed his hands, the attendant said, "have a good night. you owe it to yourself." this became the mayercraft mantra, and it made an appearance in last night's set as well, though not nearly as pronounced. you owe it to yourself to check what's weighing you down at the door.

i loved the reappearance of coldplay's we never change, though it was weird to hear it in a song other than not myself. good love and why georgia both appeared in the set as they usually do, but no matter how many times i hear them, i don't get sick of either. one of my favorite moments of the set was wait until tomorrow solo. also, bob reynolds had a ridiculous solo somewhere in the set, but i cannot remember the song. overall, it was some of the tightest playing i've ever seen and the set lasted for two hours.

my friend and i woke up really early on saturday and took advantage of the hour by grabbing some chairs on the lido deck for relaxation and hilarious conversation throughout the day. after all of the lounging around, we caught dave barnes' set, which featured matt mangano on bass. for newer fans of john, matt used to be john's guitar player and roommate (in both boston and atlanta). [speaking of old band members, michael chaves was also onboard.] gabe dixon also joined in on the keys and played some of his songs for the crowd per request from dave. i'm definitely going to investigate his music more. dave was excellent & hilarious as usual. i can't wait to hear his new album, which is slated for release this april.

we moved on to the 80s & trivia about that wonderful decade when jem and the smurfs ruled the world. team "members only" had a strong showing, but unfortunately we couldn't pull out a victory. the 80s outfits were seriously impressive. all the hairspray, glitter, sequins fuschia and mullets. matty nay would have been proud.

after grabbing some food (the only mediocre part of the cruise for me), we caught a few of teddy thompson's songs on the lido deck. his voice is great & i liked his sound a lot, but i couldn't stay for too long because i wanted to see martin sexton play in the caribbean lounge. i hadn't seen martin play in over 2 years, and it was great to hear his voice again. in addition to his own tunes, he pulled out a johnny cash cover.

next it was on to the bomb squad at the lido deck and they were fuckin' awesome. i loved their sound and their vibe, and since they're NY-based, i know that i will be checking them out again. brad mason & his brother are in the band, along with many others. brenda gethers of american idol fame is their vocalist & i loved her stage presence. when i ran into her the next day, she was incredibly sweet.

then we hit the adriatic lounge to laugh our asses off. first up was james smith, who hails from australia. my stomach literally hurt from laughing so hard throughout his set. his boy-band thing nearly had me on the floor. i'd seen him once prior at the comedy cellar, and i definitely want to check him out again. sherrod followed and the crowd roared the most when he brought john's name into the set. my favorite john-based joke had to do with the ridiculous girly dance that females do at john's shows. holy louisiana purchase is another favorite of mine. if you have no idea what i'm talking about, then you should see one of sherrod's sets.

we capped off the night with colbie caillat's set at the caribbean lounge. i like her voice, but need to give her lyrics a closer listen. the crowd seemed to latch on to her, and then john appeared during battle (i believe that's the title), and the insanity level ratcheted up. it was cool to see john step onstage that way, as it wasn't expected when we got there for the set.

we woke up early the next morning, yet again. this time, though, the lido deck was completely saved and/or filled by 830am by people that had been camped out since 530am. it's possible there were people there earlier, but that was the craziest time i encountered. crazy crazy CRAZY. that's the only word to describe the madhouse. since we actually wanted to enjoy some time outside, we made our way back to siren's pool, where there were plenty of empty lounges at the time. great conversation with friends again, and a good time chillaxin'. at some point in the morning, john went up to the deck that was cordoned off for him. my friend and i were thankfully under his deck, as opposed to the gawking side.

when john came down to go to the bathroom, it got a bit crazy again, but that was nothing compared to when he stepped out in a bright neon something. there was a sarong involved and it looked like neon suspenders to me. it made no sense, but whatever. i realized how wrong i was when i heard the crowd of ~50 people scream/laugh and snap photos. john had dropped the sarong and broke into a jog around the deck. if you've seen borat, that's all you need to know. if not, look it up. i'm guessing photos will pop up here or elsewhere soon, if neon non-bathing suits are your thing. i've never laughed so hard in my life; cheers to john for his willingness to, uh, let it all hang out for the fans.

after that hilarity, we headed to the L83 Q&A which was surprisingly insightful. some questions i can recall are, "what's on your bucket list?" and "having written daughters, what's your favorite thing about your mom? what would she say is her favorite thing about you?" i did crack the hell up when someone asked a question and then said they'd "envisioned" themselves asking john the question. use the filter and keep that part in your head. pee yourself internally, as john explained.

then it was onto the lido deck for cooper, tim bradshaw's band. i really enjoyed seeing a different facet to the musicians from john's band. i hope cooper keeps at it, and i look forward to hearing more from them. once they finished their set, it was onto john's 2nd show.

the chairs had been removed at 1, so the all-day campers had to stand or lean. the set was hilarious and i loved it. who wouldn't love a random medley with sucker > love soon > man on the side > only heart > say? (order may be wrong in the middle). thank goodness for the full bladders onstage or we wouldn't have gotten that medley or DRH's pretty girl with john joining in once he returned. if you're looking at whatever pictures have been posted, it looks like there's a new tattoo on his arm, but it's just a drawing. it was gone by the final set last night.

i'd be hard-pressed to pick which set i enjoyed more - friday's or sunday night's. sunday's gravity was absolutely INSANE. the jams were incredibly intense again and i distinctly remember my eyes widening during a particular guitar solo. i couldn't believe what i was hearing or watching. i found both clarity and wheel to be perfect for the set. i was thrilled to hear wheel because i'd only heard it once, in 2004. it was as gorgeous as i'd remembered. it was especially fitting given john bringing martin out during the encore, with martin having inspired john when he was just beginning his career.

clarity encapsulated the whole feeling on the mayercraft:

by the time i recognize this moment
this moment will be gone
but i will bend the light pretending
that it somehow lingered on

john enthusiastically stated a bunch of times that he'd absolutely be up for this again next year. judging by his face when he was playing in the caribbean lounge both nights, i could tell that he was having a blast on stage. i can easily say it was my best weekend ever, no pun intended.

if there is indeed a mayercraft II, book yourself a cabin. you owe it to yourself.

Photos from Night One and the Lido Deck Show
Photos taken by Caitlin from Boston, MA

pardon my language.....
Review and photos by Erin

But the past 72 hours have blown my fucking mind.

Seriously.

I don't even know how to begin to explain the fantastical-ness of the Mayercraft Carrier. The reality is that there's no way I can explain to you how beyond rad the whole experience was. From boarding and wandering the ship and finding our room to debarking this morning at dark thirty (yeah, it's a time, look it up). A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.

On the drive home from Providence tonight my Mom asked me what my favorite part of the whole trip was. The dolphin experience was fab. The prom was pretty rockin'. The food was delish. The weather was perfect (who cares that I'm as red as a lobsta right now). Watching the Superbowl on a screen that's bigger than my freaking house was pretty sweet. But I'm gonna have to say that the time span of about 10AM-4PM Sunday takes the cake. As we were walking back to our room to drop the camera off so we could jump in the hot tub, our friend Erin's friends start yelling my name and tell us to head up to the top deck ... one deck above where John "I'm So Hot With My Shirt Off" Mayer is sunbathing with Sherrod Small and a few people from his crew.

When we got up there (after running just a little bit :) we were the only ones hanging out, besides Erin. So cool! We ended up staying for about two hours. John and Sherrod waved directly at me and I'm pretty sure that Sherrod was commenting to John about my paparazzi-ish lens that I was using to document the whole event. John rubbed Sherrod down with suntan lotion in a very sexual manner that had the newly formed crowd up on the 11th deck laughing up a storm.

And then it happened. Someone brought up a wad of bright green fabric, which turned out to be a replica of the bathing suit/man thong that Borat wears in the movie. Un-freaking-real. So we're all hooting and hollering and egging him on, and.... he puts on the effing suit. Yes, folks, I witnessed John Mayer in a man thong. It pretty much made my life. He came back upstairs with a wrap around his waist, proceeded to drop the wrap and start posing like he was gonna be on the cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuits Edition. Then he decided that it would be a sweet idea to take a lap around the deck ... jogging ... in the man thong. Priceless. I'm still laughing about it. No lie.

After the man thong incident, I went to the Q&A Session for fan club members where a tipsy Mayer answered questions from fans for about an hour. It was so cool to listen to his answers, and the questions that were asked were really interesting.

Then, as if it couldn't get any better, we went to the show on the Lido Deck from 3-4. Hello drunk John Mayer who informs us that "he's gonna take a break at some point during the set because I'm gonna have to take a piss." HA! And he did. I got super fantastical shots at this show, and Mom video taped the whole thing. I'm so excited to go watch it before I finally make it to bed tonight. Seriously, the show was probably the best one I've been to even though it was only an hour long. Just the atmosphere of being on the deck of a cruise boat with John Mayer playing not even 10 yards infront of me was pretty much the coolest thing ever. Oh, and not to mention the two buckets of ice cold Bud Lights that I purchased before the show started. Yeah, they rocked too.

TryJM: Vote and Submit Your Favorite Mayercraft Carrier Photo on Sixthman Site

2008-02-07T12:06:00.000-08:00

Vote and Submit Your Favorite Mayercraft Carrier Photo on Sixthman Site

Please check out this contest on Sixthman.com.

Some photos that have already been posted over there:

Photo Credit: Kimberly R.

Photo Credit: Stephanie S.

Photo Credit: Stacey G.

Photo Credit: Jessica P.

Photo Credit Lauren C.

TryJM: Video: Something's Missing from the First Mayercraft Carrier Show

2008-02-07T12:03:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Susi over at TryJM for giving me permission to repost their blogs. With that said, I'm posting in reverse order.

Video: Something's Missing from the First Mayercraft Carrier Show

VH1 Blog: Ahoy, Maties! Mayer’s Cruise Docks, Pictures Galore

2008-02-07T11:38:00.000-08:00

Ahoy, Maties! Mayer’s Cruise Docks, Pictures Galore

Last Friday, a few lucky seafarers and John Mayer set sail for a four-day cruise on the Mayercraft, a sea-worthy vessel if there ever was one, complete with performances, an ‘80s themed prom, and Mayer sporting a Borat banana-hammock of a swimsuit. Best Week Ever stowed away — check here for their full coverage.

Being the awesome folks that we are, we offered a free trip on the Mayercraft to one lucky lady, Kristan Harris, the winner of the VH1 Livin’ Suite on the Mayercraft Carrier contest, then sent her to work for us. After the jump, check out Ms. Harris’ interviews
with YOK artists Colbie Caillat and Brandi Carlile, and more pictures from the Mayercraft.

Winner Kristan Harris: Have you ever played on a boat before?

Colbie Caillat: I’ve played on a teeny little booze cruise. It was in San Diego – it was cool. But not like a cruise cruise. It was gorgeous.

KH: What’s the strangest part of the cruise so far?

CC: The strangest part of the cruise is all the people coming up to you asking if you want more drinks every 5 seconds, and they don’t leave you alone.

KH: If you were headlining a cruise, what would it be called?

CC: The Coco Breeze Cruise.

KH: Have you ever played on a boat before?

Brandi Carlile: I used to play on a boat singing back up vocals for an Elvis impersonator days. I got [sea] sick. It was about 7 or 8 years ago.

KH: What’s the strangest part of the cruise so far?

BC: Yesterday I went into port and I found this little place off the beaten path on the beach and had a burger. And then I decided to go on one of those banana boat rides. We were going at dusk and we kept getting flipped off, it was really very surreal.

KH: If you were headlining a cruise, what would it be called?

BC: That’s a tough one. Maybe like Love Songs Boat? Like Love Boat…Songs Boat? It’s not that good, is it.

The Boat

John Mayer Performs

Colbie Caillat & Brandi Carlile Perform

Photo Credit: Katie Friesema

Paste Magazine: Mayercraft Carrier: Decompression chamber

2008-02-07T11:28:00.000-08:00

Mayercraft Carrier: Decompression chamber
Wed, Feb 06, 2008 by rachael

I’ve been back from my Mayercraft Carrier voyage for a few days now but I am still trying to figure out what to say when people ask me, as they inevitably do, “How was it?” Though each time I have strained anew to express exactly how it was, I always return to the simplest, and perhaps truest, reply: “It was weird.”

Because I’d never really had the desire to go on a cruise at any point in my life, and because I’m not the biggest John Mayer fan, I approached the trip with bemused, detached excitement, unburdened by the idealized standards of my fellow travelers—you know, all those people who were actually really keen on the idea being stuck on a boat with a few thousand strangers and the man who penned the line “your bubblegum tongue,” perhaps the most underratedly creepy turn of phrase in all of pop music. With nothing to lose and nothing to prove, I was left to ponder just exactly how weird the experience was going to be.

I expected throngs of screaming, rabid fans chasing any scent of their Chosen One around the vessel like a pack of cracked-out bloodhounds. I expected home-made t-shirts, posters, fainting, crying and heated discussions of favorite song lyrics and impassioned trivia exchanges. I expected rumbles between fan club factions. I expected a “security situation” and a late-night helicopter evacuation. I expected a population of 99% women and 1% men, made up of either beleaguered husbands and boyfriends or opportunistic creeps whose attempts to score with the ladies so unsuccessful on land that they finally just turned to the sea, hoping the salt breeze and the free-flowing umbrella-ed drinks would aid their cause. I expected throngs of young professionals, twenty-somethings with ridiculous disposable incomes and a penchant for mellow, guitar-oriented pop-rock. I expected violent exposure and scathing public ridicule upon being exposed as not-so-much a huge John Mayer fan. I expected insanity. And I knew—I knew it was going to be amazing. Just imagine the stories to be told! The pictures to be taken! The hearing to be lost! The stampedes to avoid! Now that I was excited about.

But much like the doubtlessly sizeable population of young ladies who hoped being trapped on a giant, tacky, floating hotel with Mr. Mayer would somehow result in their meeting and falling in love (or at least some serious canoodling in his stateroom), reality soon proved my early assumptions to be wholly without merit. I was wrong on all counts. People were normal. Except for the “wacky t-shirt contest” on the first day, people dressed—and acted—pretty much like regular human beings. If there was any stalking, it was covert; if there were any superfan battle royales, I must have missed them. When John Mayer himself walked out on the Lido deck Friday afternoon, flanked by a few yellow-shirted event staffers, the masses first grew quiet and then began to wave and flail and scream, but most seemed content to take ridiculously poor-quality digital photos at a distant rather than stampede him. There were women, but there were a lot of men too—not just significant others dragged along, but honest-to-goodness fans themselves. There were grandparents and little kids, teenagers and college students and moms and dads and whole families. No one found out that I didn’t like John Mayer, because no one cared. And the food? Mediocre at best, endless though it was.

So it was all far less weird than I expected, but that somehow made it even more weird. And all the other weird stuff, which I hadn’t even anticipated but was actually weird? Like the mass conflation of Greek, Native American, Chinese and Random Nameless Island Peoples mythologies in the ship’s decor? And how the elevator foyer of every single floor looked the same, so you were never really sure where you were? And how five pieces of lettuce and two croutons served in a shallow dish constituted the dining room’s idea of a Caesar salad? And how toothpaste and razors were free in the room but you have to pay $16 for three pairs of Jockey Women Hi-Cut Briefs if you forgot to pack underwear? (Which I did?) And how you’re standing on the Lido deck double-fisting unnamed fruity drinks in hot pink Best Week Ever cups and that Natasha Bedingfield song is playing and you’re not sure if you feel like you’re in the shampoo commercial or on The Hills?And how the water slide was run with salt water but there’s no sign telling you about that so you have to find out the hard way, at the very bottom of the slide, when you hit the water at 15 miles an hour and suddenly your sinuses are full of saline solution? And how there are a dozen blue-shorted cabana boys swarming you at any given second when you don’t want a drink, but how when you want a drink—or anything else, for that matter—there’s no one around? And how there is mid-to-up-tempo pop music playing all the time from speakers you can’t even see, so it’s like Kelly Clarkson is being piped directly into your brain? And you can’t stop it? And how they just played “Young Folks” for the fifteenth time but you’ve only heard that Regina Spektor song once, what’s the deal, can’t you spread it out a little, and while you’re at it, play something released before 2004? All that? Yeah, it wasn’t even all that weird, because the baseline level of weirdness for a cruise is just so much higher than in normal life that everything that experienced on the boat just seemed par for the course, very rarely exceptional or odd according to the Mayercraft Carrier’s own strange laws of relativity.

That said, if I’d witnessed John Mayer doing his best Borat, I do believe that would have registered as unequivocally weird by any standards. (Best Week Ever had a video up of it earlier today, but I can’t find it now. Oh well. Their liveblog coverage of the weekend provides play-by-play the likes of which I could never recreate at this point.)

With the existential purge out of the way, next comes a rundown of the cruise’s musical highlights. Photos, too. Stay tuned!

Sixthman Blog: Cruise Number 4 and Still Kickin’ It

2008-02-07T08:53:00.000-08:00

Cruise Number 4 and Still Kickin’ It

We’re 27 days into this cruise adventure, and while we’re all exhausted, it’s the best kind of exhausted. If there is such a thing.

We loaded up the Mayercraft Carrier yesterday and had an amazing day! This trip is extra special for me because my mom, my sister, and my Peepers (don’t ask) are onboard. After being away from home so long, it’s great to have a couple of familiar faces around.

The weather was perfect as we sailed away and John welcomed everyone on the Lido deck, and the Carnival staff passed out free drinks in hypercolor cups (maybe my favorite invention ever). Brett Dennen played the sail away party, and another trip was underway.

We hosted a Local 83 Happy Hour that I attended, and it was so awesome to meet people I’ve been talking to all year. Almost all Mayercrafters are new to me, since this is a first year cruise. I’ve spoken to a ton of people throughout the year via phone or e-mail, but have met very few in person. It was a great time! And I’ll never get tired of introducing myself to people and hearing the excited response, “Oh! You’re Lauren!?” It’s pretty cool knowing you had a hand in making people so happy.

Lots of great shows yesterday – Colbie Caillat on the deck, Dave Barnes and Oakhurst in the Casino Bar, good ol’ Fran in the atrium, and (of course) John’s main stage show. It was probably one of the best concerts we’ve seen in that room since our cruising began. But the show that really gave me chills (and, actually, the only concert that I’ve seen that I wasn’t scheduled to work all month) was Brandi Carlile.

She played right after John in the same theater, and she wasn’t afraid to let people know she was nervous. The first thing she said was, “Great, I’m the chick who has to follow John Mayer with nothing but an acoustic guitar and a cello player. Fuck.” Let me tell you – she didn’t need anything else. There were only a couple hundred people in the room, but while she played, everyone was perfectly silent and completely in awe of her voice and stage presence. She played a bunch of her own songs and threw in some of the best covers I’ve ever heard – Creep, Bohemian Rhapsody, and Hallelujah. I can’t wait to see her again tonight. Brandi – if I could, I’d marry you. And make you sing to me every minute of every day.

Yesterday was one of the best days I’ve had all month. Thanks, Mayercrafters.

Source: Sixthman Blog

TryJM: Lindsay's Mayercraft Carrier Blog No. 1

2008-02-07T08:45:00.000-08:00

Lindsay's Mayercraft Carrier Blog No. 1

Aloha Mayer fans (note: they do not say aloha in the Bahamas but I felt it needed to be added in for tropical effect.)

Lindsay from team JM here... We are currently docked in Freeport, and I just got off the deck after a long afternoon of sun/clouds/bahama mamas. The weather keeps going in and out but is definitely not taking away from the atmosphere here on the ship.

We arrived yesterday to a beautiful day in Miami... And set sail near 5pm as Brett Dennen rocked the Lido Deck for our "Bon Voyage" party. Brett's set was incredible - if you're not a fan, you probably haven't seen him cover Bob Marley's "Could You Be Loved" on a cruise ship as the sun sets. If you're still not a fan, I really have nothing else to say to you. He brought the party out (with a wonderful introduction by John himself).

We're all having such a blast on the ship - I wish you were here. And I really mean that in a 'all John Mayer fans deserve an experience like this' kind of way. You owe it to yourselves.

John's set last night in the Caribbean Lounge only gained more energy as the night went on. I can't even begin to explain how I wish you could have all experienced it. A little Something's Missing acoustic with In Your Atmosphere in the middle. And of course I can't forget the tease "I want to live in a wooden house... Making more friends would be easy...". Man, I haven't heard that live since around 2002.

Anyway, you want it. Here it is.

John Mayer Setlist Numero Uno

Belief
Good Love Is On the Way
A little jam > Trust Myself
No Such Thing
Slow Dancing (I Can't Make You Love Me Tease)
Waiting
Doctor (dude, CRAZY JAM)
Bigger Than My Body
Portable Intro > Speech about how much he loves his fans> Why GA
Vultures
"Get Funky">Stronger
Gravity (w/ I've Got Dreams to Remember)

Encore:
Something's Missing acoustic> In Your Atmosphere> Something's Missing (Wooden House tease)
Wait Til Tomorrow (solo electric w/ a WDYTIW tease at the end)
Intro "I'm short of good enough"> Heart of Life Full Band (w/ an In Repair tease)
Find Another You

Thank god for my blackberry skills during the show.

After a night of great music, a few too many drinks and amazing conversations, I'm heading to bed. I mean, it's only like 4am.

Lindsay

Oh, and PS - DRH and Bob say "hhheyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!"

Thanks a lot to Lindsay for taking the time to write a blog for us stay-at-homes! Just amazing!

TryJM: Lindsay's Mayercraft Carrier Blog No. 2

2008-02-07T08:44:00.000-08:00

Lindsay's Mayercraft Carrier Blog No. 2

Hey guys!

Lindsay here again. I hope no matter where you woke up this morning, you had a beautiful view like me when you looked out your window. We are somewhere in the middle of the ocean sailing our way back to Miami. Today's a big day for the band and crew and I can't wait for it to get started.

L83 fans are gathering this afternoon for a Q&A with JM - I'll do my best to transcribe what bits I hear and get it up on here tonight. Then John will rock the Lido Deck before it's time to bring out the JETS jersey and prepare for the Superbowl. And by prepare I mean drink heavily while playing intense flip cup. And, yes, I know the Jets aren't in the Superbowl. I came to the realization it might never happen again a long time ago.

Anyway, back to the cruise. Last night there were live tunes all over the ship. Brett Dennen, Martin Sexton, Colbie Caillat and Brandi Carlisle all rocked the Caribbean Lounge til 1am. One of my favorite sets of the night however was definitely Bob Reynolds's. DRH sat in at the end to cover a real great 60's soul/jazz tune by Les McCann called "Compared to What". David's voice dominated and I can't wait for his solo set this afternoon.

DJ Dela and DJ Logic ran the disco floor all night spinning classic 70s songs among dancin' grooves. Dela said he'll make me a mix of some of the songs - maybe I'll list them here so you guys can have your own dance party at home.

Other highlights of the night included: JJ and Bob sitting in with Soulive outside until 2:30am on the Lido Deck. (You guys gotta go check 'em out.) Also, Gabe Dixon and Matt Mangano playing with Dave Barnes during sunset as everyone happy hour-ed on the deck.

Tonight's the last JM show - I'll do my best to get the setlists up here at the end of the night for all you who couldn't be here. Look out for some more pictures too!

See you tomorrow in Miami... And then New York :-)

Lindsay

Again, thanks so much to Lindsay for updating us this weekend! :-)

TryJM: Lindsay's Mayercraft Carrier Blog No. 3

2008-02-07T08:43:00.000-08:00

Lindsay's Mayercraft Carrier Blog No. 3

Just came off the deck after John's acoustic set with DRH and Robbie. What a way to spend the day. I can't go on writing until I give you the setlist... Well, because it's that amazing.

Belief
No Such Thing
Slow Dancing
Pretty Girl (w/ a No One Tease)
Sucker > Love Soon > Man On the Side > Only Heart > Say
Gravity
The Bigger Than My Body Remix

There was a lot of jamming, a few people had to pee and well, the big news is John has announced he's doing it all again next year. So all you fans who didn't get a chance to be here, you'll get here eventually, so don't worry. Mayercraft Carrier II is coming.

Back to the show. When JM started strumming for Sucker, I knew we were all in for a great surprise. The fans here are absolutely incredible - what would we do without you. I'm heading over to DRH's solo set and then Brett Dennen's songwriter workshop. Pictures tonight followed by a detailed description of the last JM show and the Local 83 Q & A.

And to answer the questions:

Yes John ran around the track in the Borat suit. I'm actually kind of glad I missed it, but I think a few people have video. Also, he's doing his best to mingle with fans and has not stopped reiterating how much you all mean to him. He has "the best fans in music". At least that's what he said this morning.

Talk to you later tonight!

Lindsay

Again, there can't be enough 'Thank Yous' to Lindsay!

TryJM: The Mayercraft Carrier Crew Sings A Tune

2008-02-07T08:35:00.000-08:00

The Mayercraft Carrier Crew Sings A Tune

In the dinningroom Sunday night the wait staff sings "Waiting on the World to Change" for us:

Paste Magazine: Mayercraft Carrier, ahoy!

2008-02-06T11:32:00.000-08:00

Mayercraft Carrier, ahoy!

Sun, Feb 03, 2008 by rachael

Greetings from the severely overpriced internet cafe in the Greek vase-bedecked Ionian Room of the good ship Carnival Victory aka the Mayercraft Carrier! Among all the various things that the fine Carnival people don’t want you to do-- throw your cigarette butts overboard (there are signs everywhere), go hungry (there is food everywhere, at all times of day, and it’s free), save lounge chairs for friends (people do it anyway)-- using the internet is apparently right up there. This place is like the Bermuda Triangle. I’ve been on the boat since Friday afternoon; it’s Sunday now, and I just now figured out where it was. But give me a break-- everything is teal and shiny with names that reference ancient mythology! I can’t even find my own cabin half the time. Pretty sure I saw a Minotaur lurking around here somewhere.

Though strange and amazing stories abound, with internet so scant it looks like the rest of Paste’s Mayercraft envoys and I will have to wait until we’re back on dry land to blog about it all.

Till then-- peace, love & sunblock! (No severe burnage yet, we’re happy to report.)

The Huffington Post: John Mayer's Borat Moment: Singer Strips On Cruise

2008-02-06T07:50:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Kirstie for sending me this link via email.

John Mayer's Borat Moment: Singer Strips On Cruise

thatsblogtastic.typepad.com is back from the Mayercraft Carrier, a cruise arranged by John Mayer and full of his fans. The singer-songwriter can add Borat impersonator to the list, as he donned the neon green swimsuit.

She wrote about the trip (and has more pictures on her site - including a jogging-from-behind one):
Someone brought up a wad of bright green fabric, which turned out to be a replica of the bathing suit/man thong that Borat wears in the movie. Un-freaking-real. So we're all hooting and hollering and egging him on, and.... he puts on the effing suit. Yes, folks, I witnessed John Mayer in a man thong. It pretty much made my life.

Video: John Mayer in the Borat Suit

2008-02-06T00:00:00.001-08:00

My Stupid Mouth: You Owe It To Yourself

2008-02-05T23:54:00.000-08:00

This is a great review by Jocelyn on the My Stupid Mouth forum.

Enjoy

You Owe It To Yourself

i got back from the cruise this afternoon, after a lovely round of standby musical chairs. my flight home was originally booked for 5pm, but since my friend and i debarked at ~8am, we had a lot of time to kill. i can't believe the cruise is over, especially after looking forward to it for such a long time. i am so happy and thankful that i got to take this trip & it was refreshing in more ways than i can count. now onto my semblance of a review:

my friend colleen and i got down to florida on thursday, so we boarded the victory mildly-to-very-much-so sunburned. aloe, check! i saw some t-shirts for crazy t-shirt day that made me wince, recoil and check my gag reflex. there were some good ones, though, like the series for a family of 4 - two little girls and their parents with various photos of john. on the back, it said "[random] family from [san jose?] loves john mayer." i know that if i were a kiddo, that would be a crazy vacation, but certainly one i'd remember for my lifetime. the most hilarious one i saw was one worn by a dude who photoshopped john's head onto the rolling stone cover with christina aguilera's naked, guitar-holding body. he changed the headlines, but unfortunately i can't remember them.

john had a deck cordoned off above the back lido deck pool, and it was certainly an exercise in human dynamics on friday when i was watching all of these people (mostly women, but i'd say the ship was gender split 75F/25M if i had to take a guess) watch john. they were yelling and doing things just to get his attention and i was somewhat ashamed to be on the same vessel with them. it made him seem like a caged animal, and that depressed me for him. i understand the fascination of fans, but i neither understand nor identify with the behavior. that said, i pretty much expected it. fortunately, things got much better once the music began.

i caught the tail end of brett dennen's set on the lido deck and i think his music fits well with a cruise atmosphere. i'm a fan & love his live shows, though they took awhile to grow on me. i can understand why he's not everyone's cup o' tea, but such is music. after brett was done, colleen and i shifted back to the siren's pool a.k.a. the back of the lido deck, where we ran into some old friends and made new ones.

then we moved on to the first of john's shows. i saw an earlier review that said the crowd wasn't into it and there weren't die-hard fans there. i beg to differ, not only because i'm obviously one myself, but my seats were also near the front and people were absolutely into it. sure, there was a drunk girl or two that talked way too loudly during guitar solos, but i'd say that's the minority.

this is tied for the sunday night show as the best one i've EVER seen/heard from john. the dynamic between him and the crowd was amped up because everyone in that room loved his music, at a minimum, or they wouldn't have been on the boat. aside from the killer guitar solos that were prevalent throughout the set, i loved john's banter. he asked the crowd how many of them got passports just for the mayercraft, and a ton of people screamed. in not so many words, he said that underscored how cool and memorable this whole experience was. that people were heavily invested and it was going to be amazing. he reminded us to put all of our other shit on hold.

he explained that he was out at some club with [90] cologne bottles in the bathroom, and after he washed his hands, the attendant said, "have a good night. you owe it to yourself." this became the mayercraft mantra, and it made an appearance in last night's set as well, though not nearly as pronounced. you owe it to yourself to check what's weighing you down at the door.

i loved the reappearance of coldplay's we never change, though it was weird to hear it in a song other than not myself. good love and why georgia both appeared in the set as they usually do, but no matter how many times i hear them, i don't get sick of either. one of my favorite moments of the set was wait until tomorrow solo. also, bob reynolds had a ridiculous solo somewhere in the set, but i cannot remember the song. overall, it was some of the tightest playing i've ever seen and the set lasted for two hours.

my friend and i woke up really early on saturday and took advantage of the hour by grabbing some chairs on the lido deck for relaxation and hilarious conversation throughout the day. after all of the lounging around, we caught dave barnes' set, which featured matt mangano on bass. for newer fans of john, matt used to be john's guitar player and roommate (in both boston and atlanta). [speaking of old band members, michael chaves was also onboard.] gabe dixon also joined in on the keys and played some of his songs for the crowd per request from dave. i'm definitely going to investigate his music more. dave was excellent & hilarious as usual. i can't wait to hear his new album, which is slated for release this april.

we moved on to the 80s & trivia about that wonderful decade when jem and the smurfs ruled the world. team "members only" had a strong showing, but unfortunately we couldn't pull out a victory. the 80s outfits were seriously impressive. all the hairspray, glitter, sequins fuschia and mullets. matty nay would have been proud.

after grabbing some food (the only mediocre part of the cruise for me), we caught a few of teddy thompson's songs on the lido deck. his voice is great & i liked his sound a lot, but i couldn't stay for too long because i wanted to see martin sexton play in the caribbean lounge. i hadn't seen martin play in over 2 years, and it was great to hear his voice again. in addition to his own tunes, he pulled out a johnny cash cover.

next it was on to the bomb squad at the lido deck and they were fuckin' awesome. i loved their sound and their vibe, and since they're NY-based, i know that i will be checking them out again. brad mason & his brother are in the band, along with many others. brenda gethers of american idol fame is their vocalist & i loved her stage presence. when i ran into her the next day, she was incredibly sweet.

then we hit the adriatic lounge to laugh our asses off. first up was james smith, who hails from australia. my stomach literally hurt from laughing so hard throughout his set. his boy-band thing nearly had me on the floor. i'd seen him once prior at the comedy cellar, and i definitely want to check him out again. sherrod followed and the crowd roared the most when he brought john's name into the set. my favorite john-based joke had to do with the ridiculous girly dance that females do at john's shows. holy louisiana purchase is another favorite of mine. if you have no idea what i'm talking about, then you should see one of sherrod's sets.

we capped off the night with colbie caillat's set at the caribbean lounge. i like her voice, but need to give her lyrics a closer listen. the crowd seemed to latch on to her, and then john appeared during battle (i believe that's the title), and the insanity level ratcheted up. it was cool to see john step onstage that way, as it wasn't expected when we got there for the set.

we woke up early the next morning, yet again. this time, though, the lido deck was completely saved and/or filled by 830am by people that had been camped out since 530am. it's possible there were people there earlier, but that was the craziest time i encountered. crazy crazy CRAZY. that's the only word to describe the madhouse. since we actually wanted to enjoy some time outside, we made our way back to siren's pool, where there were plenty of empty lounges at the time. great conversation with friends again, and a good time chillaxin'. at some point in the morning, john went up to the deck that was cordoned off for him. my friend and i were thankfully under his deck, as opposed to the gawking side.

when john came down to go to the bathroom, it got a bit crazy again, but that was nothing compared to when he stepped out in a bright neon something. there was a sarong involved and it looked like neon suspenders to me. it made no sense, but whatever. i realized how wrong i was when i heard the crowd of ~50 people scream/laugh and snap photos. john had dropped the sarong and broke into a jog around the deck. if you've seen borat, that's all you need to know. if not, look it up. i'm guessing photos will pop up here or elsewhere soon, if neon non-bathing suits are your thing. i've never laughed so hard in my life; cheers to john for his willingness to, uh, let it all hang out for the fans.

after that hilarity, we headed to the L83 Q&A which was surprisingly insightful. some questions i can recall are, "what's on your bucket list?" and "having written daughters, what's your favorite thing about your mom? what would she say is her favorite thing about you?" i did crack the hell up when someone asked a question and then said they'd "envisioned" themselves asking john the question. use the filter and keep that part in your head. pee yourself internally, as john explained.

then it was onto the lido deck for cooper, tim bradshaw's band. i really enjoyed seeing a different facet to the musicians from john's band. i hope cooper keeps at it, and i look forward to hearing more from them. once they finished their set, it was onto john's 2nd show.

the chairs had been removed at 1, so the all-day campers had to stand or lean. the set was hilarious and i loved it. who wouldn't love a random medley with sucker > love soon > man on the side > only heart > say? (order may be wrong in the middle). thank goodness for the full bladders onstage or we wouldn't have gotten that medley or DRH's pretty girl with john joining in once he returned. if you're looking at whatever pictures have been posted, it looks like there's a new tattoo on his arm, but it's just a drawing. it was gone by the final set last night.

i'd be hard-pressed to pick which set i enjoyed more - friday's or sunday night's. sunday's gravity was absolutely INSANE. the jams were incredibly intense again and i distinctly remember my eyes widening during a particular guitar solo. i couldn't believe what i was hearing or watching. i found both clarity and wheel to be perfect for the set. i was thrilled to hear wheel because i'd only heard it once, in 2004. it was as gorgeous as i'd remembered. it was especially fitting given john bringing martin out during the encore, with martin having inspired john when he was just beginning his career.

clarity encapsulated the whole feeling on the mayercraft:

by the time i recognize this moment
this moment will be gone
but i will bend the light pretending
that it somehow lingered on

john enthusiastically stated a bunch of times that he'd absolutely be up for this again next year. judging by his face when he was playing in the caribbean lounge both nights, i could tell that he was having a blast on stage. i can easily say it was my best weekend ever, no pun intended.

if there is indeed a mayercraft II, book yourself a cabin. you owe it to yourself.

Live Journal: guess who!

2008-02-05T23:40:00.001-08:00

guess who! by peachstock

From Perez Hilton

2008-02-05T23:34:00.000-08:00

Sod reposting for code. Just click over.

Here are the links:

Worth the Price of Admission
Nicely Manscaped
From Behind

MAYERCRAFT CARRIER 08: John Mayer performs at the pool on the Carnival

2008-02-05T23:31:00.000-08:00

John Mayer performs at the pool on the Carnival Victory ... also known as the Mayercraft Carrier.

Best Week Ever: Mayercraft Carrier blogs

2008-02-05T22:31:00.000-08:00

A direct link to the Mayercraft Carrier blogs by Michelle over at the Best Week Ever.

The computer I'm on sucks right now, so I'll take the code and repost when I'm on a more cooperative machine.

The Concept

2008-02-05T21:57:00.001-08:00

Thanks to Tara for suggesting this. It just didn't cross my mind that with so many people going on this cruise that there would be tons of websites, blogs and forums talking about the Mayercraft Carrier experience.

I write a lot, but describing events and reviewing things really isn't my forte. There are others who are better at it. Therefore, I'm going to use this blog to collect and repost anything and everything I can find on the Mayercraft cruise. That way it's all in the same spot. Basically, I'll do the surfing and repost it here.

Let me know if I miss something.

Right now, I'm still on the road and will be traveling until February 20th. I'll do what I can now on the road, but I'll be able to put in sleepless nights once I arrive back in Seoul.

Greetings!

2007-12-26T00:28:00.001-08:00

Hi everyone!

Welcome to The Mayercraft Carrier Chronicles.

If you're going to be on the cruise, you're welcome to contribute. Basically, the idea is this could be a permanent place on the web to share your Mayercraft Carrier cruise experience.

We've got about four more weeks until the departure date, so stay tuned. This is going to be a fun cruise!

The blog announcement on the Mayercraft Carrier forum: here.