Caraccioli

Except Calypso turned into an army of stone crabs. It's hard to love an army of stone crabs, methinks. (Although, admittedly, I haven't tried.) I don't remember it clearly, but I had the impression that she is the physical embodiment of one (or more) heathen god(s). The first Brethren's Court what met long ago turned the heathen god(s) into Calypso as punishment or to trap it/them or something like that, didn't they? Not a very stable sort of lover, I wouldn't suppose...

Lara Croft - 75% Indiana Jones - 71% James Bond, Agent 007 - 67% (as opposed to James Bond, Ornithologist) Well, I suppose what's good for Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon is good enough for me... (although I'd probably prefer Marilyn over Joe E. Brown!) I guess I better get a pack of Gillette Daisy Plus Razors. (I am not waxing. Am not!!)

I usually take my mouse, position the cursor in front of the text and hold the left mouse button down while dragging across to select the text in such posts. Once selected, it is pretty readable on my computer (black or blue text on a white background). It's a small price to pay for readability. Someone posts occasionally with the green and someone else with the purple text colors and I have the same problem. Your mouse is your friend in these situations. (The background colors - particularly the dark brown - are not very conducive to reading and editing in general IMO.)

Christine brings up an interesting point - for Will to take command of the ship, Jones has to be dead according to the curse. So we know Jones died. (This isn't to say they can't bring him back, as Barbossa and Jack's re-appearance in the world of the living will attest.) Second, we know Will is still in command of the ship 10 years later. So he is still apparently charged with ferrying the dead to the locker during those 10 years. (What happens after that is open to your interpretation apparently. Iron Bess says the writers told her directly that Will stays on and other sources say otherwise.) So the writers are going to have to step nimbly around what we know to bring him back as the keeper of the crypt (so to speak). Unless they just want to set things ahead 10 years or back before AWE. (God, but this sounds like the messy, overly-complicated, nibbling around the edges of the first film, Back to the Future approach to sequels...yet again...) Something else to keep in mind. Iron Bess already told us that the ship pre-dates Jones. This begs the question...what was it called before it was called Davy Jones Locker in the fantasy world of POTC? Why must it be called Anyone's Locker at all? (Actually, historians don't even know the real basis for this question! It first appeared in print in The Peregrine Pickle by Tobias Smollet in 1751, but no one has yet tracked down the origin of the term. I know of at least 4 different (reasonable) explanations (and several other, patently absurd explanations - one includes Atlantis!), none of which have been proven. But I digress...) My point is that being attached to the name seems sort of pointless. You still hear the term Davy Jones Locker (real life - not fantasy) which is most likely based at least partially on a person's name in history who is long since dead. We still call scads of buildings and universities by the person's name given to them, although the honoree is long since gone. So what? It's named in honor of some august person or the person who made the place famous. Kind of like Lou Gerhig's diesease.

I don't know of anything like that, but if there were a concept sketch, your best chance of finding it that I know of might be in the book I had mentioned in another thread. It's called The Art of Pirates of the Caribbean: Stem to Stem. This whole post brings to mind a sort of hazy, vague recollection of Depp talking in one of his several "playing against type/looks" discussions or interviews. He may have mentioned such a thing as a possibility - if that's not just a mental fabrication of mine, it could be the source of your friend's idea. (Our mind works in terms of images, not words. We have to learn language and, although we appear to be predisposed to do so, the average human brain has been shown to work naturally in pictures. So our minds can sometimes play funny tricks on us and transform ideas into images. This isn't to say there isn't concept art, however. It's just a thot because I seem to recall reading about the idea somewhere in relationship to Depp, but not necessarily in relationship to the filmmakers.)

I was listening to a podcast of Life Matters (a show from Radio Australia) and I came across this word: blokey - typically male behavior, attitude, appearance, etc.; macho. Blokey!

That reminds me of the (totally pointless in relation to the story as near as I can figure) flight of the dragonfly from the beginning of Men in Black. It's got a great Danny Elfman composed theme behind it.

"Fee fie fo fum! I smell the bwood of an English wabbit!" "Wait a minute. You're the giant in the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, right?" "Yes..." "And the giant in Jack and the Beanstalk wasn't after no wabbit, was he?" "Well, I guess that is cowwect..." "He was after Jack. And he's Jack." "It's a lie! My name is....Aloysius. He's Jack! Jack Rabbit!" "No. You are Jack and you know it because it is a fact." "I am not! He's Jack!" "I guess I'll have to open with a paiw of Jacks."

Over lunch I took a look at Borders...and didn't find this at all. I found a several other books on POTC including the one I mentioned, the Visual Guide (which I'm afraid failed to impress me overall - it looked too thin and cheap), several little paperback reader-type books about various characters, including one called - are you ready? - Force of Will! , and a really nice concept art book that had a faux tooled-leather cover. Actually, except for the really nice good color sketch of the undead Jack the monkey that I've never seen before, the cover seemed to me to be the most impressive thing about it. I'd seen a lot of the concept art elsewhere, although I admittedly only skimmed it. Plus, at $49.95... However, I did find an awesome book on Stan Winston Studios called The Winston Effect: The Art & History of Stan Winston Studio that contained some remarkable photos of props and set-ups for various movies that Winston has been involved with. It was absolutely gorgeous and contained more of the kind of detail that interests me in a movie book. I may have to get that one.

Gedanken? Gedanken... "`Gedanken' is a German word for `thought'. A thought experiment is one you carry out in your head." So far, I like gedanken! "In physics, the term `gedanken experiment' is used to refer to an experiment that is impractical to carry out, but useful to consider because it can be reasoned about theoretically. (A classic gedanken experiment of relativity theory involves thinking about a man in an elevator accelerating through space.) Gedanken experiments are very useful in physics, but must be used with care. It's too easy to idealize away some important aspect of the real world in constructing the `apparatus'." This is how I have any understanding at all of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. "Among hackers, accordingly, the word has a pejorative connotation. It is typically used of a project, especially one in artificial intelligence research, that is written up in grand detail (typically as a Ph.D. thesis) without ever being implemented to any great extent. Such a project is usually perpetrated by people who aren't very good hackers or find programming distasteful or are just in a hurry. A `gedanken thesis' is usually marked by an obvious lack of intuition about what is programmable and what is not, and about what does and does not constitute a clear specification of an algorithm." [source of quote: http://www.jargon.net/jargonfile/g/gedanken.html ] Gedanken!

That would make them harder to step on, but much easier to use. (That's what I get for using Google Image Search indiscriminately. I thought that thing looked awfully colorful.) Here, try these: For good measure, here's another shot of the nymph. Creepy-looking bugger, isn't it? One thing that's neat about Fishflies is that there on every freaking surface, sometimes two deep it seems, and you can just pick it up by its wings and let it go. It will quickly flutter back to the nearest surface - even if that's your arm. See? Swarms of them... BTW, jess, you needn't worry...I suspect there will be very few fishflies where you live. Not without some sort of major ground-shaking cataclysm, that is. Nope. No way...

Well, it seems that my insect of the moment thread is long gone, so I'll post this nigh useless diatriabe here. Today, we will consider the humble, yet ugly, yet annoying, yet plague-like, yet mouth-less, Fishfly. (Or Mayfly if you want a more cheerful, but no longer accurate, name for the beast.) Here's a nice photo of one, for those of you who don't live near Fishfly breeding grounds and haven't had the joyous experience seeing what must be tens of thousands of them hanging on every available surface and of crushing literally hundreds of them under your feet on a short walk): According to some website I picked out, practically at random, Fishflies are from the group Ephemeroptera meaning short-lived. This is probably because nature has seen fit to create the thing without any way to feed. In what I suspect that many single-minded (yet short-sighted) folks MIGHT deem as an advantage, their sole purpose as adults is to reproduce. (Maybe I should post this in Way to a Pyrates Heart?) Once they have mated, they die within a period of about 12 hours having never eaten. However, they do get to feed as babies, or "nymphs." Oh, the fine foodstuffs they get to eat! Fishfly nymphs spend as much as two years of their life in the water feeding on dead plants and animals. They are often found in the shallow streams and lakes under rotting logs or in loose sediment on the bottom. They have a bunch of gill flaps located between the legs and tail that move back and forth, creating a current of water to help bring food particles near the mouth and also to help nourish the body with a fresh supply of oxygen. Here's shot of a nymph for your edification: Editorial nonesuch aside, evidence shows that they have been around for about 300 million years, so they've been around longer than us. There are about 700 known species in North America.

Which sort of begs the question, "How does one become a pirate lord?" Ah, more sequel fodder. It would seem that when one procures the icon of a particular lord one becomes a pirate lord based on Elizabeth's experience. Note that Jack could have gotten his coin anywhere in his travels. (If true, this explains why both he and Barbossa were pirate lords, answering a previous question of mine.)

Hear, hear! Of course, the only trouble with sequels seems to be that once they set the formula, the studio doesn't ever want to change it for fear that the audience will revolt or something. Since the POTC franchise is about an ever-increasing number of backstabbing pirates with all kinds of individual ulterior motives, as set for by the pirates Elliot and Rossio (not to mention Beattie and Wolpert - but let's not mention them), now all the sequels must slavishly adhere to this "formula." It's an idiotic Hollywood tradition. (Guys, even the Bond films have managed recently to break format in many ways! Don't be scared! Try it! ) I wonder how Captain Jack audience survey tested for the first movie? Better than Davy Jones? I wonder what surveys would reveal if they were administered a week or two after the film? Product surveys...bah. Their results are often much more spotty and unreliable than they're given credit for. People don't know if they want something new until they have it, so most surveys can't determine this. (This is why entrepreneurs can make so much money.)

Why couldn't I find that? Amazon... What?! No description? Hmm...B&N... Sounds like it could go either way to me...sharp and funny or cute and cloying. If it's anything like the text in the "Making of..." book, I'm betting on cute and cloying. They should list the target audience. "To live the pirate life, it's important to keep to the code (of course real pirates know to treat these rules more like guidelines, anyway.) Contained in this authentic handbook is the Pirate Code, as originally devised by the Brethren Court of pirate lords. Also included are topics detailing everything aspiring buccaneers need to know in order to command the respect of fellow scalawags and pursue their hearts' deepest desires. The Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy of films has created a rich mythology from which to draw the following pearls of wisdom: • How to Swagger • Captain Jack Sparrow on Honesty • What to do When your Compass doesn't Work • How to Lift an Aztec Curse • How to Play Liar's Dice • Elizabeth Swann's Additional Uses for a Wedding Dress • How to bead your Hair and Beard • Will Turner's Sword-fighting Tips • Identifying the Parts of a Ship • Pirate-to-English Dictionary • How to ward off the Black Spot These indispensable tips will prove useful at sea or in port. Filled with the salty humor and lush dialogue from the incredibly popular movie trilogy, The Pirates of the Caribbean Guidelines provides instructional and humorous information—practical and nautical—accompanied by captivating full-color images of everyone's favorite pirates. " http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearc...23106547&itm=35

Couldn't find it on Amazon. What's the name of it, Jib? I can find no trace of such a thing on the net.

Interesting that Mathewson is still down there and involved with treasure searches. He wrote a really fascinating book on the search for the Atocha in the Keys called Treasure Of The Atocha. Highly recommended for learning about what's involved in shipwreck hunting. (I've heard that far more money has been spent hunting for treasure than has been retrieved.)

A banner spam weekend for my email! These are in order, once again. This set makes me feel like I'm eavesdropping on three women having a conversation in a deli... (What could they be talking about?) From: Eve N.Maynard........Better left for evenings. From: Peggy......................There are always exceptions. From: Gertrude Albert.......describe [the?] furthest And then, naturally, the email conversation of SPAM topics turns inevitably towards sex and religion (maybe that's what they were talking about?) From: Sales...........................Make your thing bigger in view [a few?] simple steps From: Sylvester X.Freeman....finite From: potbellied....................conceptual agnostic From: Freeman......................occurrence monk

Really? Cool! Oh, wait...skelton. Never mind.

Yep. Go back a page, I cited their site. That was one of the things Iron Bess and I were talking about.

I was referring to the varied accounts we get of the Will curse, but your point is well taken. The fact that they responded to a question on the web (which I cited somewhere above) is tribute to them. (This reminds me of a sad story of one of my favorite authors who, after putting up with a stream of abuse from someone on the web, vowed never to post or respond to anything further from that medium. Most unfortunate behavior - on the parts of both the lackwit who so insulted the author and the author himself.) In any event, here's to creatively eccentric. We should all be more creatively eccentric.

It's poetry, see? Possibly the beginning of a great epic sci-fi novel, grand in scope and scale, the movie adaptation of which may star John Travolta.

It's not new though. Calypso may have charged Jones with the task (being a heathen god, I guess she could do that), but that doesn't necessarily mean there wasn't a previous captain. Iron Bess works for Disney (in movie services, if I remember correctly) and occasionally has access to the (apparently fickle) writers. I don't know if this is where her info came from, but until a more authoritative source appears (like the writers themselves), I trust her. Or as Bess herself would note...

i think that looking out for ones self is more realistic as far as pirates go. how successful would a real pirate be if their motives were to help others? i never met a real pirate tho so i guess i cant for sure. Quite right. My point was more that Norrington is a better representation of the average audience member and thus could potentially supply most of us a window into the world that Disney created. It's one of those film techniques writers use to give the audience an understanding of what would otherwise be a foreign world. Watch Curse of the Black Pearl and note how much of the environment is exposited through Will's POV. He was the empathetic POV character for the audience. (Although, as William Red Wake has pointed out, these are not very good representations of pirates anyhow - they actually do precious little genuine pirating. )

Ok. (But now we get into that sticky, fan-driven area of "What is canon?" Oh, the arguments I have seen over this (patently silly) question! )