Monday, December 31, 2012

Happy New Year!!

2013
13 Is My Lucky Number
So Here's To A Great New Year!
Adios, 2012... You Were A Pretty Good Year... Best We've Had In A While.
Our first day of 2013 will take us to a new marina to base out of. We've decided after 4 years it's time to find us another base marina. We started feeling like the furniture around here, worn out and pushed around.
Old Port Cove seems to be a good fit right now. So, tomorrow we'll be having our Traditional New Year's Day Good Luck Blackeyed Peas and Collard Greens in Palm Beach.
A new year... a new day... a new home.

Cheers,

Istaboa

A New Year's Eve Tradition

Dancing Merengue Dog




When asked how she trained her human so well, she had only one response... "Tequila!"

Sunday, December 30, 2012

New Technology Is Making Us More Like the Amish

Read an interesting article today on Slate.com and thought some of you might find it as interesting as as I did.

We’re becoming a bit more Amish
I know. You own a slim titanium ultrabook computer, an eye popping LCD 3D HD television, an iPhone with a custom-designed carbon fiber cover, and a sports car with 360 horsepower under the hood. You don’t have anything in common with the Amish.
It’s possible. But there are a lot of us who are beginning to adopt some practices that are pretty close to the Amish. No, I’m not talking about the Amish belief in adult baptism or the importance of farming in daily life. I’m talking about the decisions the Amish make about technology. More and more of us have begun to think about the impact that technology has on our relationships with others and we’ve begun to alter our practices. The complete article here.

And, saw this; I definitely think this is an important message that should be passed along.

Then stumbled upon this.

And the whole slide show it came from... Here


Maybe more... It's a stay in the boat kinda day and football's not too exciting unless you're an Indy fan.


Cheers,

Istaboa

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Monkey Saves Puppy

Here is a bizarre bit of news coming out of the pipeline explosion in Nanjing, China that killed 13 people and injured 300, and no it is not the news that 4 people were arrested - it is this remarkable photo of monkey grabbing a puppy dog and running away from the explosion and fire.

or... That Monkey Stole My Puppy!!

Seems to be a bit of controversy surrounding this photo... Interesting though.

 "Dinner was fabulous! Monkey over a bed of Puppy... Anyone have floss?"

I know, that was bad... PHSD... Post Holiday Stress Disorder. 

I'm Bored.

Cheers,

Istaboa

Pic O' the Day


Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Pic O' the Day

The dirt dwelling of our friends aboard Broulee. 
The perfect place to spend Christmas. What a beautiful home.

Monday, December 24, 2012

Merry Christmas

From all of us aboard Istaboa
Have fun, stay safe, and be kind to others...
Enjoy




Thursday, December 20, 2012

The End Is ....

Here!
So in a few hours (Unless you're in Australia and it's already happened.) we'll find out if we've made it through yet another Apocalypse

Good article from Smithsonian Magazine
Ten Notable Apocalypses That (Obviously) Didn’t Happen

Y2K was still my favorite of them all; being in the computer business, we made a fortune, and it ended as we, "partied like it's 1999".

Cheers,

Istaboa

Pic O' the Day

 
Highborne Cay

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Monday, December 17, 2012

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Pic O' the Day

Great Shot!

Home!!!
Finally back aboard Istaboa; we're happy, the pups are happy, and life is returning to normal again.
We've an opportunity to do another Hot Spot in the islands so who knows how long we'll be here.

Hope everyone is enjoying their Holiday season so far.

Cheers,

Istaboa

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

A stunning video

Karen, our friend from Fort Lauderdale sent this to us... She's right, it's worth 5 minutes of your time.
If you haven't seen it, enjoy. Go full screen, the HD is amazing.
Thanks Karen.



On the road to Jacksonville.

Cheers,

Istaboa

Pic O' the Day

Riding the edge of the Gulf Stream just offshore from Fort Lauderdale.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Best of the World 2013

View from standing on the wrong side of the River

Hmm... this isn't going to one of those short narratives.

Our time in Memphis has narrowed down for the year... we've had a blast with friends, seeing shows, basketball games, concerts, and generally having more fun than we've ever had in Memphis before.
But, it's starting to get cold so it's time to go... we're heading east before we head south. The loose plan is for a stop around Atlanta then Jacksonville to play with our Grandson... then home to Stuart and Istaboa.
Remember, it's the dream being realized? Time to head back, the nice weather, and friends that go with it.
And, yes I know, there are those who feel there is no better life than full time living aboard our boats, but we've been doing the cruising thing for many years and we like to think of the boat life as a dream being realized, but sometimes, for us anyway, it's fun to hop on the Bus and say — there's no place like home — and our dream remains floating somewhere awaiting our return.
For the first time, we're—gonna—miss—Memphis!
We're just discovering that something's happening here and, yes, I've written about it a lot recently.
One of the things I find most interesting is how Memphis constantly ends up on the list of some magazine, website, TV show, or anything else that ranks cities. We're either the most dangerous, least attractive, most interesting, and once upon a time, the most beautiful.
For whatever reason, our hometown of Memphis has found itself on a lot of lists in the last few years... Notoriously, in 2010, Forbes.com awarded us the dubious honor of being The Most Dangerous City In America, then, the next year we lost our ranking to Detroit and slipped to the second most dangerous city in America. In 2010, Travel and Leisure named us the city with the Least Attractive People In America, but somehow within 2 years we became the 26th of 37 in the same category. (Maybe a lot of our dangerously ugly folks moved to Anchorage, which is 37th on the list.)
A year or so later we were named the second Most Interesting City In America To Visit by Trip Adviser.  In the 1950/60s we were routinely ranked The Most Beautiful City In America by whoever ranked things in those days.
So now,  it seems the times they are a changing.
Now, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC has put us in the Top 20 Must See Places in the World and there are only 4 cities in the USA on the list.


Cut from Nat Geo's website:

Memphis

Photograph by Bob Bronshoff, Hollandse Hoogte
Tennessee’s fast track
It’s easy to forget about Memphis, a mid-size American city wedged into the southwest corner of Tennessee. Our collective memory of Memphis seems frozen in the mid-20th century: Elvis and Graceland, B. B. King and Beale Street, Martin Luther King, Jr., and his “Mountaintop” speech—the last he’d give before his assassination on the balcony of Memphis’s Lorraine Motel in 1968.
Certain aspects of Memphis’s past stifled the city for decades, snuffing the spirits of residents and scaring away visitors. But there’s something newly electric in the air.
The Stax Museum of American Soul Music, located on the grounds of the famous Stax Records, is at the forefront of that revival. The museum, along with its Stax Music Academy and the Soulsville Charter School, celebrates its tenth anniversary in 2013 with concerts, parties, and Stax to the Max, a huge outdoor music festival. It’s far from a solo act.
All around Memphis, locals are pursuing grassroots projects more often associated with Brooklyn or the Bay Area. The nonprofit Project Green Fork has certified dozens of Memphis restaurants as sustainable, linking chefs with farmers and stimulating a vibrant local food community along the way. Running the culinary gamut from down-home Central BBQ to upscale Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen, the eateries are held to admirably high standards in sourcing and sustainability. The complete article here.
Me thinks it's all that danger lurking in the River City... Really?  No, not really.
It's more dangerous out in the burbs, and the most prevalent threat out there is standing in line at WalMart on Black Friday or road rage on Germantown Parkway during rush hour. Think the gangstas' got guns in the city... check out the good ole boys in the burbs.
Crew Istaboa's reasons for leaving the suburbs and moving back into the City of Memphis had to do with things like: we have no kids, rush hour traffic, the lack of diversity, food? No, our little burb Cordova had excellent ethnic fare, though undeniably, the best dining in the Mid-South is in Midtown and Downtown, but the main reason we left our burb was... well... boredom.
Dangers in Memphis and it's surrounding areas are like anywhere else, there are always parts of town one should be wary of... and, one had better respect that or the possibilities of suffering harsh consequences are great.

But really, there does seem to be a strong collective vibe that things are happening here, some of it can be attributed to the changes in politics, but the really positive changes mostly revolve around the arts.
Remember, we've been absent for almost 20 years and I'm sure that this has been in the making for sometime, but these are our thoughts.

The Music:
Our young musicians have picked up the mantle that was laid down by their predecessors when they, understandably, left for California, Nashville, New York, and Atlanta in pursuit of fame and fortune.
Some of these new artists are now dusting off those old vinyl records and digging the old Stax tunes by David Porter and Isaac Hayes and the plethora of Memphis R&B artists who came out of Booker T. Washington High School.
The young rockers are revitalizing the Rockabilly Sun Studio styles of Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Elvis, the Burnette Bros, and Johnny Cash. (Yes, Cash was a rocker before he wasn't.) Many of these young local artists are merging the past with their own innovations and producing some very interesting results. e.g Star and Micey, Amy Levere, Harlan T. Bobo, and The North Mississippi Allstars.
The local Hip Hop scene has evolved into one of the most influential styles in that genre...(I'm an older white guy so I know of this from my young friends, Melonie, and Google) Crunk or Krunk originated in Memphis by Hip Hop artist such as Three 6 Mafia and Al Kapone and many others.

Of course the Blues is the foundation for all the above and Memphis pays homage to it almost everywhere, everyday.

Blind Mississippi Morris
From yesterdays unveiling of the first Blues Trail marker.


Want to taste a little Memphis Music Flavor?  Talented photographer and award winning filmmaker, Alan Spearman, has put together an interesting collection of videos starring some outstanding examples of the young Memphis Sound. Hotel Memphis
And, here's another one of our recent discoveries...
DittyTV.com
Cut from their site: 
DittyTV.com
Our mission:
To build a community by educating, entertaining and inspiring a diverse audience through highly interactive live shows combining music, education, and conversation.
Really interesting virtual concerts by groups from all over the country. All of this comes out of a sound stage around the corner from our apartment, done by very talented folks, and some are old friends. Check 'em out here

The Art, Photography, Film:

Within the Parkways that serve as boundaries for areas such as Midtown, The Pinch, Downtown from North to South Main, and the up and coming Crosstown Arts District, there is art everywhere... also, on a strip of land where homes were once demolished to make way for Interstate 40 until the citizens of Memphis fought, won, and diverted I40 around the city in order to protect Overton Park, Broad Street has now joined the other areas as an Arts District... in these creative little Bohemian sectors one cannot throw a rock and not hit a gallery or an artist.
And yes... Memphis  made another list. Flavorwire's Best City for Young Artist.
Move over Austin, ’cause with a cheap cost of living and lots of public art works, Memphis is attracting your hipsters. They may have sauntered in for the delicious home cooked meals, but creative minds have come to love the sleepy Southern town thanks to initiatives like Live from Memphis and the Urban Art Commission. The crowning achievement, Memphis in May, is a month-long shindig celebrating foodies, at the World Championship BBQ Cooking Contest, musicians, at the Beale Street Music Festival, and a kitschy International Week where one far-flung country is celebrated. Guerilla artists, you’ve met your match. No medium is too weird for Memphis.
 Like that... No medium is too weird for Memphis.

Our longtime resident artists, such as John Robinette, Bill Eggelston, George Hunt, Craig Brewer,  and Willy Bearden to just name few, are ushering in and cultivating a whole new generation of young artist of all genres.
There's definitely some mojo in this town... Listen to what award winning film producer, Craig Brewer, has to say.

Craig Brewer from Choose901 on Vimeo.

So Memphis, Thanks! We've had a great time and look forward to returning Home, that's Home, with a capitol H, in a few months, but now it's time for this crew to do some cruising aboard Istaboa.
We can't wait to leave and can't wait to get back.

Happy Holidays... Merry Christmas, Happy New Year.

Adios, Mi Amigos, see ya when we return.

Cheers,

Istaboa









Pic O' the Day

Wow!

Monday, December 10, 2012

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Just a funny pic

Monkey loose at IKEA... Nice coat!

Boat launch gone wrong...

... this should go on the Marine Services Review.

Pic O' the Day

 Three pics to be exact... Earnestine and Hazel's redux
I wanted to go back to do a few more shots of the place just because it's so funky and colorful, So, I load up my big camera and off we go to have some burgers and beers and take a few pics.
Yeah, while there... we had the possibility of a paranormal experience. It just depends on who you ask.
While we were upstairs taking these pictures, I'm focusing in on one of the smaller rooms and behind me in a dark corner, a stack of trays, covered in cob webs, that appears as if they haven't moved since the place was last painted come crashing down. I laugh and say, "Ghosts", and Mel still believes it's so.
Me, being a skeptic, thinks it could be Russell the owner set it all up, or just—Shit Happens.
Russell later tells Mel that it was definitely one of the dearly departed girls up there, he points at me an says, "They like musicians, they were just playing with 'em.".
Russell lives upstairs and often tells stories about the ghost turning on the juke box and playing some of the old 45s.
Many folks truly believe the place is haunted; of course many folks believe in Big Foot.

Who knows? If I were a ghost, I would hang out here.

Cheers,

Istaboa

ps... a talented photographer named David Taylor... no relation, has done a nice gallery of photos from our hood... If you want to visit, Click here

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Friday, December 7, 2012

Pic O' the Day


 These old anchor ties on the cobblestones at Memphis river front. 
They're over 150 years old.
When just a kid, I remember my father's crew tying up his boat to these very same rings.


Thursday, December 6, 2012

'My Other Yacht Is a Support-Yacht'

Well, of course it is...
 Support yachts are for people who have outgrown their mega-yachts and need more space for their helicopters, speedboats, launches and submarines. The support yacht acts as a floating garage, trailing alongside the main yacht with all of the owner's oversized "toys."
While support yachts have been around for a while, the yacht-maker Amels has launched the Rolls Royce of support yachts -- the Sea Axe -- a gleaming, 220-feet ship that can hold a mega-chopper, loads of speedboats, a submarine, and all the scuba gear, jet skis and floaties an oligarch or sheik could ever want.
Article here 

Never thought of that... we've just been towing our Submarine for years. 

Pic O' the Day

The Better Half of Crew Istaboa, Crewing a DC-9
Melonie, when we first met, circa 1982

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Pic O' the Day

I've been waiting forever for you to get back.
(we took the trash to the end of the dock)
Bahia Mar, Ft Lauderdale,FL

Monday, December 3, 2012