*SHANTIES 2001*
[1]
Click the pic for photos from the trip!
Feb. 24 - 27, 2001
THE JOLLY ROGERS
TRIP TO:
*POLAND*!
On the surface, this appears to be just another story about The Jolly Rogers
and their increasingly common international exploits. The truth is, once you
read between the lines and get to the real heart - dare I say, soul - of the
story you see that it is an account of the marvels of modern technology, a
tribute to the warmth and giving nature of the human heart and above all a
lasting and poignant testament to the limits of human endurance. Firstly,
however, I feel duty-bound to offer my most heartfelt apologies to those who
may feel somewhat slighted at the tardiness of this account. To them, I can
only say this: you have to remember whom you're dealing with here. The Jolly
Rogers. Such a force of sloth [2], procrastination [3] and laziness [4] has
never been seen before in recorded history. If only we used our powers for
good.
But I digress. It all started with an e-mail to our website at Chivalry.com.
An exact quote being unnecessary, suffice to say that the aforementioned
e-mail pointed out that we were great and asked if we would be interested in
a gig in the sun-drenched oasis of Europe known as Krakow, Poland [5].
Always suckers for flattery, we replied with an eloquent "YEAH!" and awaited
word of the status of the negotiations being conducted on our behalf by
someone on another continent that we didn't know.
Imagine the surprise when we received word that we were in. Imagine the
heated rush for passports. Imagine Kurt's cardiac arrest when an ACTUAL
CONTRACT was faxed to him. A magic time, to be sure.
And so The Jolly Rogers began to make ready for an epic journey into a
faraway land. Suddenly, a pothole in the highway to international fame: Mark
Stahl, filled with blazing hubris, entered Jolly Roger headquarters. "I will
not go with you. When I left you, I was but a learner. Now I am the master!"
To a man, we answered in unison: "Only a master of evil, Stahl!" [6] The
battle was joined. A massive melee, in the Jeet Kune Do [7] style, was
waged. And though _The Jolly Roger Dojo and Latte Bar_ was destroyed in the
process, Mark held his own. Another guitarist would have to be found.
It was then that the sun rose on The Jolly Rogers' darkest night. Sean
Foree, a.k.a Sean the Gimp, a.k.a. "Beano" Foree, a.k.a. Sean Beluga came to
The Jolly Rogers in this, our most desperate hour. "I will help you. I will
sacrifice for the greater good. I will suffer an all-expense paid trip to
Europe. I will do this thing, for I am selfless and kind!"
We were back on track. As David Hasselhof [8] is in Germany, so would The
Jolly Rogers be in Poland.
The flight was uneventful, mostly because the author slept through most of
it. I am told of drinking binges and seeing the British Isles, blah blah
blah.
The graceful silhouette of the LOT [9] airlines dirigible touched down on
Polish soil. We were met by the radiant Monique who, with our resourceful
driver, promptly took us to the exotic Hotel Krakus [10] where we
immediately fell unconscious for a few hours.
From this point on, our daily schedule went something like this: wake by 8am
to shower and eat breakfast; by 9am begin tours of various points of
interest in and around Krakow; at 5pm, eat dinner; arrive to the Shanties
2001 Festival [11] by 7pm; leave the Festival around 12am and go around the
corner to the local pub; leave local pub by 3 or 4am. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Sleep? We don't need no stinkin' sleep!
And so dawned the day of our first performance on foreign soil. Eschewing
the normal contingent of Secret Service bodyguards so that we could be
closer to the people of this strange land, we descended into a
shoulder-to-shoulder mass and moved about as best we could. All too soon
came our turn at the microphones, and we were greeted with the kind of
applause that can only come from the largest single group of people that we
had ever performed for. After wetting ourselves thoroughly, we began. They
clapped with the songs. They sang (in Polish) with us. They danced. They
drank. My dear friends, for the first time ever in a Jolly Roger
performance, there was a mosh pit in front of the stage. Had I more courage
I would have leapt headlong into that seething mass and ridden the hands of
that mob to wherever they would have taken me. Sadly, I am a coward and can
only wonder what would have happened. Instead of boring you with all the
sordid details, let me just say this: our experience at this Festival was
better than any of us had ever even hoped that it could be. Brian slept with
a smile on his face that night, Cliff enjoyed a cigarette and watched the
smoke rise into the sweet Polish night, Sean's eyes glinted with tears of
joy, and Chris and Clint held each other a little closer as they slept. And
I? I was still able to deliver presents to all the little boys and girls of
the world in only one night.
We saw the Wawel [12] (VAH-vel) Castle [12], seat of Poland's monarchs. We
saw the Salt Mine of Krakow [13], whose labyrinthine passages, awesome
chambers and carved chapels were the closest we would ever come to stepping
foot into J.R.R. Tolkien's Moria. We walked the streets that Schindler's
Jews [14] might have walked, and saw the old city walls [15]of Medieval
Krakow. We talked with people whose native language was not our own about
politics, literature and culture. We also discovered that Chris can drink a
hell of a lot of vodka [16]. No. Seriously. A HELL of a lot of vodka.
Now, in closing, I want to mention the people that truly made our trip into
the amazing experience it was: our guides and interpreters, who also became
our friends. First I have to thank Simon, whose cyber-surfing brought him to
our website and started this fantastic chain of events; he was with us from
the very start to the very end. Sylvia, whose company was as invaluable as
the assistance she gave in helping us with this trip. Dorota, she walked
virtually every street and saw virtually every sight we did, she stayed up
as late and got up as early; she was one of the best things we encountered
in Poland. There were many others, of course: Agnes, Monique and The Driver
(I don't remember his name, but if you want to see some AMAZING things done
with a minivan, he's your man).
This little story doesn't begin to tell the whole tale. We saw, and
performed in, Warsaw [17] and Wroclaw [18] as well as Krakow. We saw amazing
sights and met amazing people in those cities as well. We traveled by car
and by train. Afterwards, three of us traveled through Germany and Belgium
to see Paris, France [19] and then moved on to beautiful Lucerne,
Switzerland [20] where we nearly killed each other before continuing back to
Poland to make the long flight home.
There's a lot left out of this account, but you get the idea. A better trip
could not have been had, better people could not have been met and a better
audience could not have been played to.
Thanks to all of them.
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[21]Last update: 28 October 2016
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Jolly Rogers. All rights reserved.
Site hosted by Chivalry Music
1: http://www.shanties.pl
2: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Set/1478/sloth.htm
3: http://www-csli.stanford.edu/~john/procrastination.htm
4: http://www.shambhalasun.com/Archives/Columnists/Pema/PemaNov98.htm
5: http://www.krakow.pl/en/
6: http://www.originaltrilogy.com
7: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeet_Kune_Do
8: http://www.esquilax.com/baywatch/index.shtml
9: http://www.lot.com
10: http://www.hotel-krakus.com.pl/
11: http://www.shanties.pl/
12: http://www.wawel.krakow.pl/emenu.htm
13: http://www.krakow-info.com/wielicz.htm
14: http://www.shoah.dk/Schindler/Default.htm
15: http://www.krakow-info.com/mury.htm
16: http://www.ivodka.com/vodkaguide/zubrowka-poland.htm
17: http://www.explore-warsaw.com/
18: http://www.wroclaw.pl/ms/english/
19: http://www.paris.org/
20: http://www.lucerneguide.ch/
21: http://www.chivalry.com