Caraccioli

It wasn't his accent I was referring to, it was that low growly thing he did with his throat occasionally. Sort of a pseudo "Arrrrr..." If I remember correctly, Rush created that specifically as some sort of balance between the fictional Hollywood pirate cry and reality. (I seem to remember reading or hearing that somewhere.)

I thought my IPod would revolutionize the way I listen to music. For awhile it did - I could listen to my movie soundtracks to my heart's content. Then my heart got pretty content and, for the most part, now I listen to the radio more than anything. Funny, that. Same thing with my laptop - I thought it would be great to be able to connect using wireless and now that I have it - I don't use it that much. I just type from my office. Technology always seems to be what I need (or, more accurately, want) until I get it.

I doubt that. I didn't see it, myself. I usually watch movies to escape into other, more idealized places, not to view the Hollywoodization of reality. (Although, interestingly, these are also idealized versions of reality, so maybe I'm missing something.) Interestingly, a lot of people seem to dislike/like it for "political" reasons. In my mental worldview, that's an unreasonable approach to movies - either a flick stands as a good film or it doesn't. If someone goes in with the idea that the film is a bunch of crap because of the how or why it was made, seeing it at all seems a waste of money to me. (And if someone didn't see it and they have the temerity to condemn it because of their perceptions...shame on them. That's beneath contempt.)

It was an interesting show, but I agree about the commercials. How many times do I have to see the bike change styles at the click of a mouse? (Ok, I get it - at least show us a different commercial about the bike.) Also, why did they cut Bonnet out? Maybe they didn't have a ship to represent him. Maybe they wanted to be able to get more commercials in. (Maybe I'm being cynical.) I was pleased to see that they didn't use extra sound effects for the guns. There were several nods to the Hollywood characterization of pirates, though. Beads, earrings, firing pistols into the air (Who would do that with a gun that took so long to reload?) and so on. Oh...Frenchie? Where did that character come from? I don't recall any historical reference to such a person. Is there a book I should have read? Did anyone else think that he was sort of channeling Rush playing Barbarossa some of the time? (Of course, Rush's character was based more than a little on Blackbeard, so I guess that's fair.) For those of you who missed it, it will probably be repeated several times throughout the coming month. Cable stations usually do that.

Speaking of maps...oh, Apollo! http://moon.google.com/ (For fun, zoom to the highest resolution on the map. )

Oh, yeah! Alan Rickman. (Who's worth watching in whatever he happens to decide to do...)

I like the learning angle. We could all do worse than to focus on what we've learned/are learning/will learn. That's pretty cool, Patrick.

Look at 0 and every number divisible by 9. They're all the same symbol. By following the equation they give you (ab-(a_+_ ) you will always get a number divisible by 9 (9, 18, 27, 36...etc) or 0. Each of these numbers are matched with the same symbol if you study the chart. So unless you make a math mistake, you will always produce a number divisible by 9 or 0 and since all the symbols for those #s are the same, viola! Note that the symbol used for 0 and all the numbers divisible by 9 changes every time you reset it, so it appears as if the machine has magically divined your 'new' symbol/numeric value when all it has really done is changed the symbol for the value you will inevitibly get by using that formula. Since it is a new and different symbol than the last try, it looks like magic. Oh, ah. As for tarot and all that nonsense, I love what the great writer James Michener said in his autobiography. A woman he called Princess had taught him to read fortunes using an ordinary deck of cards. He used her technique to great success in local fairs as "Mitch the Witch". He finally gave it up when people started believing too strongly in what he had to say. Being an intelligent, honest and inquisitive man, however, he had this to say about the whole thing: "Fortune-telling as the Princess taught me to practice it bore a striking resemblance to storytelling. In both activities one used observation, shrewd guesswork and the proper selection of emotion-laden words to create empathy. One also performed best if one relished the jovian exercise of moving mortals here and there on the chessboard. There the similarity between my fortune-telling and my fiction ends. Never once, not even when I was reaping great acclaim as a seer, did I believe a word of what I told my subjects, nor did the Princess. We each had an animal type of cunning, seeing things that others missed. We had an overdeveloped sense of humor, and we loved the world's wild contradictions." "...by sheer accident I hit just enough truths or near-truths to cause neighbors to tell others of the remarkable record I was compiling as a man who could really forsee past and future. It was then that I uncovered the real secret that the Princess had kept from me. In the course of telling a fortune the seer makes about forty-five seperate statements, and at least thirty-five will be totally wide of the mark, but if he or she succeeds in the remaining ten to hit even one right on the nose, that is what is remembered, and the subject leaves the tent asking his friends, 'How could he have known that I bought stock in the dairy company?' It was a string of those lucky hits that established my reputation and began to attract clients from considerable distances. In the process I discovered that one of the profound secrets of fortune-telling is that subjects want to believe what they are being told and will sometimes go to extreme lengths to make these prophesies come true." I know, I know, there's a bunch of you who still believe in it and whatever I or Mr. Michener say will not convince you otherwise. But to me, it's just like ghosts - you only see them because you believe in them. Our minds are powerful machines.

Ah, mazes. I've created several black-lit, fun-house style mazes. My first attempt was a small maze with several fluorescent picture frames of varying size, set at various angles along the walls of the maze. Two of the frames were actually holes in the wall through which people could jump out. (The glowing picture frame draws the eye away from the black inside and people aren't apt to notice the holes. Quite effective.) My second was a giant, insane cartoonish maze. Several weeks and even more artists went into executing that one. I liked it so much I had a friend come in and photograph the whole binge. Another link: The Amazeing I've been half thinking about a clock-themed, light effects sort of maze for this Halloween (I can't describe it much better than that as it's still roaming around the corners of my mind), although the year is still young.

Eh, it's a publicity stunt. It should address the push towards the abdication of personal responsibility if it wants to get to the nub of the thing. Politics? The environment? Do go on...

I had chance to wander through Croce's little monument to Piracy today in Key West. It's...ok. It cost me $15 to go through and I'd say that's steep for the goods delivered. There's a lot of stuff that must have been unearthed from Port Royal (dutifully labelled "Port Royal pre-1692" or something like that). There's also some stuff brought up from Blackbeard's ship (including a beat up tin said to be BBs own plate - I'm doubtful on that claim.) Included in the first half among the bits and pieces are several weapons, medical instruments, books (including a first edition of Captain Johnson's little tome), pottery, utensils and miscellanea. In the middle is a curious thing - an electronic "book" describing the lives of various pirates. (Electronics and piracy - rather a curious combo, methinks.) It followed the lines of what you find in most printed resources fairly well. I was sort of surprised to find the pirate Black Caesar in the line-up as there's a great deal of debate about the truth of this pirate's story and even his existance. Several BCs exist from what I've read, but I think they trotted this one out to play off the alleged Fla. historical angle on one of the Caesars. They also had a pretty strong exhibit on Howard Pyle, identifying him a sort of slave to pirate picture authenticity. (Pyle being the first one to propagate a lot of the hollywood-style pirate myths - earrings, bucket boots and whatnot.) Then there's a mouldy exhibit featuring a talking animatronic BB head hung from the bowsprit giving us jokes about nobody (no-body ) along with a short recitation of the facts of the printed story of his fall. They had a gibbet with a fake rotting skeleton inside - a highlight for me, but not enough to justify 15 greenbacks. Some poor cove was sitting in authentic hollywood pirate gear making the occasional museum traveller pose for a picture which you could buy in the gift shop I suppose. Tew's chest was the climax as far as the staging went. They claim it to be the only such pirate chest with provenance - a claim I've seen debated hereabouts. It was sort of neat because the lock is on top, with a fake version on the front where it'd be expected. There was also a flake of gold brought up from BBs ship near the end. (And I mean a wee, small flake.) The gift shop didn't show me much (except for the door.) I had hoped to find a nice polo with a skull on it, but nothing of the sort was to be found hanging about the place. Overall, it was ok. Not worth 15 bucks, but I doubt that would stop a traveller finding themselves at the door with a keen eye for all things pirate. I was particularly fascinated with the medical instruments from Port R, myself. Personally, I'd suggest shelling out the cash for a day at Disneyworld and enjoying that bit of fantasy over this - you can find most of this stuff in the books - and not have to fend off the poor re-enactor chap trying to get you to pose.

Sahara was playing on the flight back from Australia. I watched it three times in a row. (It was up against Hitch, Robots and some other movies I don't recall and was by far the best choice.)

Yeah, what Ed said. Earrings were in fashion pre-GAoP.

I was looking at your profile...you work in a haunted house? I like designing them as much as working in them, but if I can come up with an interesting character, working them can be fun too. Mute is my favorite creation to date: Mute's Page

yestreen (ye-STREEN) n Yesterday evening I'm going to see if I can't use that one in a (verbal) sentence tonight.

I have. We were on an extended canoe trip and someone caught one and killed it. (Not a sea turtle - this was freshwater.) The trip guides instructed us on preparation - in which I had no part so I can't tell you much about that. As I recall, it reminded me stongly of tough chicken, a notion corraborated by some of my trip-mates. (It tastes like chicken! What did you expect?) Of course, we hadn't had any fresh meat for a week at that point, so who knows?

Bit of a scholarly read? Righhhht. (Dr. Evil pinky turn) Professor Burg's book is a lot of theory with very few facts to back it up. He basically admits this in the intro to the book.

Could it be a holdover from the focus of the publications on the subject? The commercially successful General History of Pyrates which seems to have brought piracy into the public consciousness in a big way spends a lot of time on the Golden Era. In the 20th century, John Robert Moore was trying to make a case for Daniel Defoe being the author for the General History by (among other things) stocking the libraries with copies of the book with Defoe attributed as the author. So you had a widely available book with a GAoP focus being used as the genuine source material. Very convenient when piracy become the purview of hollywood. Purists were less in evidence at that point, so the book was used (in conjunction with other things) to determine the future view of piracy. So incidents in popular culture may have accidentally conspired to make the GAoP our piracy focus. Just a thought.

I found this site called virtual cave that has a section devoted to sea caves that I thought was sort of neat. (Sea caves being something of a piratey thing in my book.) http://www.goodearthgraphics.com/virtcave/...s/seacaves.html There's a link to a nice sketch and map of one of the caves (leading to a whole new website with all kinds of interesting sketches and maps).

It's not that it was confusing from a philosophical or scientific POV, it's just that I didn't get it. There were a few things that were funny, a few things that were clever, but for the most part it was just odd. It didn't hang together well. Oddly, I get a similar vibe out of the Hitchhiker's books - although not quite as intensely. It's as if the writers have a bunch of dislocated ideas to give us and they want a framework on which to hang them.

I don't believe there should be any missing pages. After seeing the movie a few months ago, I went back and re-read them (except the fifth book which I never bought) and the first Dirk Gently novel. You know...they're sort of interesting, but...I can't quite put my finger on it. Part of Adam's humor is that minor points become major setpieces later on in the novels, but... what is it? Ah. They just seem to wander all over the place and have no real point other than to show how vapid and pointless everything really is. They're sort of funny, but not hilarious funny. They're British pop humor in that British pop humor sort of way. But so's the Avengers tv show and the Jeeves novels - both of which I like better and find funnier. Still, I've read the HHGTG novels twice and I haven't tossed them. OTOH, I've a friend who loves them and thinks they're the epitome of humor. Speaking of humor that's something of an acquired taste, I watched Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead. Some of it was funny, some of it was completely out of place (and time) and some of it was just plain weird. Overall, though, I suspect I didn't get it. Do you have to be a Shakespeare fan?

The comic strip? No, not at all. Here's another quote from the same movie: "Wine, sir? Mouton Rothschild ’55. A happy selection, if I may say?” “I’ll be the judge of that. That’s rather potent. Not the cork, your after-shave. Strong enough to bury anything. But the wine is quite excellent. Although, for such a grand meal I had rather expected a claret.” “Of course. Unfortunately, our cellars are rather poorly stocked with clarets.” “Mouton Rothschild is a claret. And I’ve smelled that after-shave before and both times I’ve smelled a rat!”

No? How about this one: "Thank you very much. I was just out walking my rat and I seem to have lost my way."

There are several sites where you can create your own poll, so I doubt you have to be a psychologist or psychiatrist to write these. Anyone remember the pirate/ninja/cowboy poll we had going around here? The site that hosted that gives you the ability to make your own poll if I remember correctly. I find it sort of humorous that people want to fit into the crew of the shows they like. It seems to be based on how you feel about government, independence, teamwork and that sort of stuff. If you like Star Trek but you fear the government for example...you're probably not going to wind up with ST very high on your list.

Christine was almost on the right track. It's from The Adventures of Robin Hood made in the 30s. (Some of the stuff they got away back then is interesting. I was just watching Bringing Up Baby with Rock Hudson and Katherine Hepburn. Through a series of contrivances Hudson was running around in a negligee and is asked why, he responds in great frustration, "Because I just went gay all of a sudden!") Christine, you put up a quote.