Captain Charlotte Savvy

Okay, so I'm not Bess, which means that all I know is what I've read in news stuff just like everybody else -- and am NOT an inside source. But with filming rumored to begin in January or February of next year (which was it, Bess?), the Summer 2006 release date sounds right. And that's what I've been hearing at every internet site and news bite that I've run across -- Summer of 2006 for the first one (October, granted, it FALL of 2006, but close enough) and Spring 2007. That's actually "right down the road" in the movie world ... it never fails to amaze me how many years it can take to produce a two hour film ...

Funnier than "South Park"?!! I don't THINK so!!!!

Oh, that's fantastic. And I love the captain -- 'cause I've had days where I feel like that.

Dammit! As Bonny is my favorite historical pirate, I'm gonna hafta buy the cursed thing. Another $27 thrown into Davy Jones's locker. Now, if I can just hold off on gettin' it until payday, that will be something at least ...

ALL the actors playing the Musketeers -- Depardeau, Byrne, Irons, and Malkoveich -- are fantastic. Leo even does a great job. (I really don't like Leonardo DiCaprio, but there's no denying that he's a good actor.) Unfortunately, the script leaves something to be desired; it's heavily melodramatic and a bit unlikely (to say the least). Nonetheless, the fabulous costumes and amazing acting mostly makes up for it, so give it a whirl. Also fun: The Three Musketeers - the Disney version with Charlie Sheen, Kiefer Sutherland, Oliver Platt, and Chris O'Donnell. It's just an all-around FUN movie, and Tim Curry is quite entertaining The Mask of Zorro - a bit silly in some places (not unlike The Three Musketeers), but still a fun view The Count of Monte Cristo - with James Caviezel. Über-spectacular (makes me want to rent it and watch it sometime soon) Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (watch it for Alan Rickman's wondrous performance) There are other fun movies that are medieval in feel, but are definitely fantasy movies as well: The Princess Bride (hilarious -- and featuring a pirate, to boot!), Merlin (the miniseries with Sam Neill; make sure you watch the uncut DVD version and not the single-cassette video version, though), Dragonheart (absolutely outstanding special effects and superb acting except for Dina Meyer, but it's unfortunately hampered by a very butchered script) ...

I love this. My favorites were "Light Traffic," the Supreme Court, and (most of all) Wal-Mart. Absolutely great. Thanks so much for posting that!

Several favorites ... Favorite fun pirate song: "Scurvy" (cracks me up every time) Favorite movie pirate song: "Shiver My Timbers" (from Muppet Treasure Island ... yes, a kids' film, but it's SUCH a fun song, it really does give me chills when I hear it) General favorite sea shanty tune: "What Do We Do With A Drunken Sailor" (I know this is a song that EVERYbody in the entire world likes, because everyone in the entire world has heard it, but I really do love it) Favorite pirate song on General Principle: "Yo Ho, A Pirate's Life For Me" ('cause if it wasn't for PotC, I wouldn't have my piratical obsession ...) Favorite song in the whole world that has nothing to do with pirates but does, at least, have a reference to the ocean: "Jungle Love" by the Steve Miller Band

Also ... almost every store online lets you pay with a money order. I have been buying loads of stuff online for at least five years now, and only twice have I been absolutely forced to use my credit card to pay for the purchase (and one of those times, it was only because I was paying for an auction in England and trying to get American money converted into pounds was gonna be more fuss than it was worth for both of us). Almost every seller at eBay offers money orders as a method of payment, Amazon.com has it, the WB store ... it would take me all day to list the places that accept money orders as a method of payment. You have to wait a few more days to get your item shipped to you, but since I hate to give my credit card number out online (some phobias just never die ), it's never bothered me in the least. I agree that it's much more easier -- and gratifying -- to be able to just go into a store, pick up what you want, pay for it, and leave (no post office hassles, no waiting a week or two for your item to come) ... but so much of the fun merchandise I'm interested in just isn't available to me 'round here (no pirate stores in my little Backwoods town, after all) that I'm grateful to the 'net. ('Course, if I didn't HAVE the internet, I would have saved a whole bunch o' money in these past few years ... but I'd have a lot less piratical merchandise, too! )

Lucky for me, though, I don't care about it being "official" ... I just want it to LOOK right. This works out well, though, since a non-official Aztec medallion is loads cheaper than what they have for auction here. So, boo-ya. By the way, Cap'n Grey, I've been meaning to tell ya this: I adore the second line o' yer signature quote. Cracks me up every time.

From eBay ... http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...bayphotohosting All I can say is, What the heck?!? Who would PAY ninety-eight bucks for this thing?!?!? It doesn't even look like an exact replica, for cryin' out loud ... it doesn't look right. Geez louise ...

Why on earth is it thirty five bucks if you get it directly from Master Replica's site, but only 15 bucks if you get it from http://www.entertainmentearth.com/prodinfo...?number=MRDS104 (because, at the entertainmentearth website, THEY are getting it from Master Replica)????? Go figure ...

Sent you a PM about this, HarborMaster ...

Hot Topic appears to have sold out the necklace, so I might give this guy a whirl -- at the very least, I'm gonna drop him an e-mail and see what happens from there ... and, too, I'll keep my eye on the Master Replica coin coming out in Decemeber or January (which will probably be much cheaper, if not as good quality). Thanks for the link ... and the recommendation (I would have been wary of buying from someone I just stumbled across on the 'net, so the fact that you gave him "positive feedback" makes me feel much better :) ).

... I was going to post a longer response arguing why a rapist attacking a victim "for her own good" is never the good basis for a fantasy for ANYbody ... but never mind. Let me just say that I prefer Dumas to Steele any day ... and that I'd much prefer to be Grace O'Malley than Captain Kidd's wife. But that's just me.

There has been much talk on the board of a guy making "unauthorized" (or some other word like that) replicas of PotC props and sellin' 'em on eBay. Now, while I was trying (to no avail) to find a place to buy Hot Topic's Aztec necklace reproduction somewhere online, I came across this: http://www.entertainmentearth.com/prodinfo...?number=MRDS104 My question is, if none of my local Hot Topics sell the necklace and I be up the creek, so to speak -- is this a legit sort of place to get meself a POTC pirate medallion at long last?? They have 'em on eBay too, for varying prices, but they got so many different sellers ready to pre-auction 'em off it made me nervous, trying to pick the best of the lot and so forth. To any and all of you knowledgable-about-such-things-as-this people out there, I ask: what think you of this site??

I need more money. Seriously, though -- this definitely goes on my wish list. Along with "The Witch from the Sea" (or whatever that one's called) ...

I know my local Hot Topic doesn't carry it, because I shop there frequently ... but that doesn't mean some Hot Topic in my area doesn't. I know of at least two more malls in the immediate area to check out, well, immediately ... Thank you so, so, SO much for this tip!!!!!!!!! More-bronze-than-gold aside ... I am Über-excited by this news. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!! *runs off to explore various Hot Topic stores* P.S. -- Yah, why _doesn't_ the Disney Store carry it instead??? Sheesh.

I don't have to have an actual prop piece of one of the Aztec gold coins ... I just want a _replica_ of one of 'em. That is to say, I want Elizabeth's medallion -- but just a copy (it does NOT have to be one of the ones actually used in the movie). Why Disney hasn't released Aztec pirate medallion necklaces yet is just utterly beyond me. They realize that people will BUY this stuff, right?! They realize that there's a FORTUNE to be made here, right?!?!? What IS the hold-up???? I'm with you, Lady Barbossa ... I just want to buy this stuff in stores already, not order it from somewhere. To Disney, I say: Come ON!!!!!! I want a necklace and a talking Jack Sparrow action figure already!!!!!!!!!!!

I know what you're saying, and you're absolutely right -- it's just my taste in imagining myself in the piratical days of old never involved a fantasy wherein my dashing pirate captain husband sets off once more to sea while I remain at home with our eighteen kiddies to clean the house, milk the cow, churn the butter, weave the wool, tend the gardens, beat the servants, give birth to the nineteenth kid, etc etc etc. It's not the wishing-for-days-of-old that bugged me, it was what parts of the days of old were being wished for. I have a passionate loathing of romantic novels, historical or otherwise: This (besides the bit about wanting to stay at home with the kids while the husband has a life) is what really bothered me. I read in a psych textbook once that the majority of rape scenes (and that's what this is, because "sex by force" is the definition of rape, okay) in romantic stories are portrayed as forced and violent -- but the woman enjoys it anyway. Oddly enough, ACTUAL rape incidents are enjoyed by 0% of the victims. (Actual statistic. Believe me.) I'm not trying to be negative ... I suppose there's nothing wrong with liking a story like this. But it really bothers the heck outta me. I don't dream of the days when a husband could go off and see the world while the woman stayed at home and raised the children, and I don't like glorified rape scenes. The very idea offends me. *climbs off of soapbox* Okay. Sorry. I'm done now. This is just one of my biggest pet peeves of all time (I take my literature seriously), so I couldn't help it. Sorry to all you romantic literature readers out there if I offended you. I didn't mean to offend anyone; I'm just venting about the genre itself, not its readers. Feel free to take a pot-shot at the formulaic approach of every heroic fantasy novel since Tolkien's "Ring" series if it'll make you feel better. (You wouldn't get any arguments from me on that subject anyway.)

Bloody 'ell, I'd just resolved not to shop at Wal-Mart ever again, and they pull THIS!!! Now I'm going to have to go back!!!!!!!!!!

No.

I love the Blackbeard action figure 'ere -- but what I REALLY want is Anne and Mary figurines for my desk ... :)

Now, that I can do. *grins and makes mental note to ask for Circuit City giftcards for Christmas*

If you'd like to see something truly unbelievable, check this out: The Infamous Exploding Whale The webpage explains it just fine, but suffice to say that, thirty years ago on the coast of Oregon, a dead whale washed up on shore. Not knowing how else to get rid of it, the brillant authorities (you just KNOW that this was a guy's idea) decided to bury a bunch of dynamite next to it and blow it up. Needless to say, it didn't go very well. You can read all about it at that link -- and there's even a video to watch ... believe me, there is no more hilarious sight on the internet than this video. Definitely download the high resolution one, 'cause it's well worth the wait. Use dynamite to get rid of it, honestly ...

The third disc does sound like fun ... but I'm afraid I'm gonna hafta give it a pass. I be one impoverished pirate at the moment -- and any extra spending money I may have on hand is goin' into my PotC Action Figures Savings so I can buy Captain Jack Sparrow (doing BOTH expressions -- what do they mean by coming out with a smiling Jack AND a serious Jack?! They know that means I'll hafta buy both of 'em!) and the rest of the series when the first line of action figures finally comes out. I mean, I already have the movie itself on DVD ... so that's just gonna hafta do!