The Chop Rents a Car

Posted on May 14, 2013 by The Chop

It’s been well over a year now since we decided drive our trusty old Chevy down to Crazy Ray’s and let them chop it up. So far it’s gone really well for us. We’ve got no complaints and certainly aren’t going to be car shopping any time soon. A year on a bike has made us healthier, more energetic, and a lot more streetwise.

Still though, you can’t do everything on a bicycle. We’ve been away for more than half a year, and the chores and errands have been piling up on us. The grocery store, the mall, Home Depot… what you can accomplish in a day in a car can take a few weeks without one.

The Chop’s new ride… for a week.

So we decided to rent a car for the week. And not a janky little Korean subcompact but a real-deal-two-tons-of-steel Impala. Because aside from the banal to-do list we’ve got to accomplish this week, we’re looking to have some fun too.

We can’t carry a golf bag on a bike. We can’t pedal out to the far suburbs for a family dinner. And most importantly- we can’t ask a date to sit on our handlebars this weekend. We’re driving.

Because after so many months of lashing cargo, hauling lines, baking in the desert and being tossed on the seas we just need to open her door for her, take the keys from the valet and say to ourselves “If this isn’t nice, what is?”

The Chop Returns From Sea

Posted on May 13, 2013 by The Chop

The life of a sailor is a peculiar thing. It’s more like two lives, really. There’s life at sea, which is very regimented and routine and carries over from ship to ship. After you’ve gained enough sea time you start to realize how small the world actually is- seeing some of the same guys over again in different crews and revisiting foreign ports to find that everything is just where you left it when you first discovered it.

And then there’s the glorious life of leisurely unemployment we get to enjoy between voyages. This is the real life. Our personal life. The one we write about here. When you go to sea, time seems to stop on shoreside life. No matter how long you’re gone, it almost feels as if it’s just a pause between one day and the next. And if you’re lucky not too much actually has changed, and you can pick right back up where you left off.

We’ve been at sea for more than 6 months now. That’s a long time to be aboard a ship. But now that we’re home we aim to pick up right where we left off. Since November we’ve visited over 40 ports of call in 17 countries. We’re not going to go into too much detail about that here.

What we are going to do is share some photos. Last Summmer we began using Instagram, and although we got off to kind of a slow start with it, it’s fair to say we’re fully up to speed by now, and got a lot of use out of it on this most recent trip. We’re becoming especially fond of the photo map feature, and ours is certainly a lot bigger than it was half a year ago. Our username over there is thebaltimorechop and if you’re reading this on the web you can feel free to go ahead and follow us directly.

Here’s what you would have seen if you’d been following along…

On the way out- The Chesapeake bay bridge photographed from the deck of the ship.

The Ravenell Bridge in Charleston, SC.

Sunrise in Brunswick, GA.

A neighborhood corner bar in Bremerhaven, Germany.

The town square in the North Sea beach town of Blankenburge, Belgium.

Port of Karachi, Pakistan.

An Egyptian monument to something along the Suez Canal. Probably the 1967 war. They’re still very butthurt about it.

A European cruise ship calling on the port of Salalah, Oman.

The leaning tower of Pisa.

An amusement park in Iskederun, Turkey.

Nice bush. Blankenburge, Belgium.

Ruins of the ancient city of Ayla in Jordan.

A mural by Keith Haring in Pisa.

Bumfuck, Egypt.

Me A-rab. Me play joke. Me put sand in your Coke.

Livorno, Italy.

This pub is almost 1000 years old. The cellar was a pub in the 11th century. The actual building has been a pub since the 1300’s.

A sign on display inside the pub.

This is the bargate referenced in the sign. A relic from when Southampton was a walled city.

Asry shipyard, Bahrain. There are 5 men in this photograph. Can you spot them?

Welcome to Egypt.

Nighttime in Pisa.

‘American Alley,” a street just outside the navy base in Bahrain.

Bahrain at night.

Some Italian guy, Livorno.

Kuwait City, which is actually much, much much bigger than this photo suggests.

Sunset in Karachi, Pakistan.

The castle of Aqaba in Jordan.

A WWII monument in England.

The Rock of Gibraltar.

Aqaba, Jordan.

Fishing boats in Karachi, Pakistan.

Container ships in Salalah, Oman.

A view from the park in Southampton.

Arno river, Pisa, Italy.

A street scene in Aqaba, Jordan. New Year’s Day 2013.

Sunrise in Beirut, Lebanon.

One of many canals in Livorno, Italy.

Bahrain brohaim.

A newsstand in Pisa.

The Grand Mosque, Bahrain.

Abu Dhabi, UAE

A mountain along the coastline in Morocco.

Minaret, Bahrain.

Feet massage, Bahrain.

One of the many Catholic churches in Pisa.

US navy ships in Dubai.

The Queen Mary II docked in Southampton, England.

Springtime in Blighty.

Another view of the Leaning Tower, with its accompanying cathedral.

Dubai.

Near Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.

Ataturk is as popular as Babe Ruth Justin Beiber and George Washington combined.

East Texas never looked so good. Finally back home in the good old US of A.

The Chop Goes to Sea

Posted on November 7, 2012 by The Chop

This is what we’re doing today. This thing in the poster. Literally. We’re throwing a sea bag over our shoulder and climbing up a gangway and sailing halfway around the world.

Some of you reading this already knew that. For others, it may come as a surprise. That’s what we’ve been up to when this blog goes through its periods of months-long hiatus. We’ve been at sea. We’re a sailor. A merchant marine.

We’ve done some pretty incredible stuff that we haven’t seen fit to talk about until now. We’ve sailed around the world on a circumnavigation. We’ve got a merchant marine expeditionary medal for carrying cargo to Iraq. We’ve had close calls with pirates and been to some of the most remote islands on earth. We’ve suffered through hurricane force winds and 40 foot seas. We’ve got a Shellback card.

We’ve seen the head of the Great Lakes and the end of the Mississippi Delta. We’ve steered great ships through the Panama Canal and the Suez, through the Straits of Malacca and Gibraltar and around the cape of Good Hope.

We took a 50 year old steamer and ran it aground on a black sand beach for shipbreaking. We’ve had our life threatened by surly longshoremen and been invited on dates by exotic women. We’ve seen the holiest sites in the world in Jerusalem, the homeland of Gandhi in India and the site of the Launching of the Mayflower in England. We’ve spent Christmas in the slums of Sierra Leone and New Years’ in a freezing North Sea town in Germany. We’ve seen the heights of riches in Tokyo and Dubai, and the depths of poverty in Karachi and Kingston.

Taken together this all sounds a bit fantastic, but it is all true. The romantic world of the sailors’ life- from the Phoenicians and Sindbad, to the Age of Exploration, to Melville and Conrad to the Post-Panamax era- is still alive and well. We’ve done all of this, and we’re going back for more.

We’ve kept mum on the subject until now mostly because this is an anonymous blog. Over the last year or so, our anonymity has been compromised enough times that we’re now more of an Open Secret. If you’re reading this and just now putting two and two together, just keep it to yourself, okay? It doesn’t need to be broadcast all over town.

Today we’re going aboard the Independence II and sailing from Baltimore bound for the Middle East. Where will we be? Well, we just don’t know for sure. The Emirates and Kuwait and Bahrain probably. Saudi Arabia quite possibly. And likely a few odd ports like Alexandria or Doha or Aqaba. When will we be back? Well, we just don’t know that either.

They that go down to the sea in ships,

that do business in great waters;

these see the works of the LORD,

and his wonders in the deep.

For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind,

which lifteth up the waves thereof.

They mount up to the heaven,

they go down again to the depths:

their soul is melted because of trouble.

They reel to and fro,

and stagger like a drunken man,

and are at their wit’s end.

-Psalm107:23-27

List of Baltimore’s Election Night Parties

Posted on November 6, 2012 by The Chop

We’re not sure Why it took us so long to catch on to the whole official election night party thing. It’s a pretty sweet deal. They’re mostly meant as a thank-you to staff and volunteers, but they’re generally open to the public so really any ‘supporter’ can stroll on in and enjoy the free hors d’ouvres and open bar. Plus they’re usually crawling with pretty Democratic women who are all dressed up and having a good time.

We went to the Democrats’ official party in 2010 and enjoyed it so much that we thought we would do a post about where to party for election night this year.

But the homeboy David Moon over at Maryland Juice has already beaten us to the punch and done a better job of it than we probably would have. So this list is sourced from his post on Friday: Election Night Party Schedule: Watch the Returns with Democrats and/or Dream Act & Marriage Equality Supporters

Partying with politicians is fun. Try it tonight at one of 3 Baltimore locations.

Dream Act Supporters & Gov. Martin O’Malley
Arcos Restaurant, 129 S. Broadway

Marriage Equality Rally Party
Baltimore Soundstage, 124 Market Place

U.S. Senator Ben Cardin & Maryland Democratic Party
M&T Bank Stadium, South East Club Lounge, 1101 Russell Street

These are just the Baltimore parties. There are a few other events and more info in MD Juice’s original post so check that out for more. While you’re there you should probably give the whole blog a good read and subscribe to it because it is an excellent source of information on Maryland state politics. We’ve been voting for it daily in the Mobbies, and you should do the same (and toss the Chop a couple of votes while you’re at it.)

Finally there are two footnotes to add:

1/ If you’re looking for GOP ‘victory’ parties in Maryland hahahahaha GTFO.

2/ There was originally a Deicide show scheduled for the Soundstage, and it has been moved to the Ottobar. So the entertaining prospect of random metalheads turning up at the Question 6 party is a very real thing.

2012 Election Predictions

Posted on November 5, 2012 by The Chop

We think Obama’s going to win. That’s not really a shocker coming from a decidedly liberal blog in a decidedly liberal city. We think Obama will win in a walk and that’s always been our opinion, since even before the GOP primaries. There was never even a time when we were even a little bit concerned about it. Not even after the first debate.

How sure are we? At least as sure as Nate Silver is. Over the last few days we’ve had much more fun watching the wingnuts and right-leaning media outlets try to argue with math than watching either candidate’s stump speech. If you’re not familiar with what we’re talking about here is an explanation from The Atlantic as well as an article we particularly enjoyed from Deadspin.

We could write a week’s worth of blog posts on that alone but this post is not about Nate Silver and Joe Scarborough. It’s about our predictions, which are thus:

This is the map we made on 270towin.com. As you can see, we’ve got Obama with 323 electoral votes and Romney with a mere 215. It’s not based on anything more than gut but there you have it.

We think that the GOP’s voter suppression efforts are mostly failures, and that that failure will allow the president to squeak out a victory in Florida. The auto bailout will push Obama over the top in Ohio and Michigan. We think the Hurricane is a help for Obama, and will push him over the top in VA (and won’t hurt in Florida either). We also believe the Harry Reid machine will deliver Nevada for Obama.

Obama seems to be finishing strong with bigger and more excited crowds at every campaign stop. Early voting has also looked very encouraging. The only place we’ve got the President falling short is in Colorado, which is full of stinking Mormons anyway.

These bars came from Real Clear Politics. They show no change in the Senate and we think that sounds about right. They also classify 33 House seats as toss-ups. We believe the Democrats will gain 20 seats in the House. That would leave the Republican majority in tact and change the House make-up to 237 Republicans and 198 Democrats.

There’s been pendulum like action in the house since 2008, and we think this year the pendulum will swing a little more slowly. Obama’s win in 2008 flipped the House Democratic and it swung far too heavily back the other way in 2010. A 237-198 make-up is a little closer to normalcy, and if Obama performs the way we think he will a 20 seat gain is not unreasonable.

So there you go. Our baseless, gut-level predictions. We think they’re as good as any, but hell, we’ve been wrong before.