hurricane

Makes me wonder if you have some saints in your family history - St. Bernards that is.

And Peter Ustinov didn't in Blackbeard's Ghost? Moviemaking by its very definition is about interpretation. Jean Lafitte didn't look anything like Yul Brynner, but I liked him in The Buccaneer. It goes back to, these are not documentaries and the use of historical characters within a broad and even sometimes ludicrous context is part of the rich fabric of the cinema. I certainly know that Cleopatra looked nothing like Elizabeth Taylor, but I enjoyed the interpretation nonetheless. And I know for certain that Mr. Potato Head never really sounded like Don Rickles. At least not my Mr. Potato Head (but I digress into something extensive and expensive therapy already addressed).

Exactly. Rarely does artificial aging look realistic, at least to others in the re-enactment world. The best way to age it is to do like the folks did back then - live in the stuff as much as possible. Eat in it, garden in it, clean your guns... it will age beautifully all by itself and best of all, you'll appreciate it more because you'll remember where every stain, hole and fade came from. Believe it or not, they did have new clothes back in the day. It didn't come from the tailor or your mom looking ratting. Took time. And don't forget to experiment with reversing the pattern. Often, coats, vests and such were given a new life by the tailor. He would take out the lining, reverse the cloth and sew the lining back in. So, it would look new even though it was old. I've rarely seen people doing this at events but there are records of it.

I would much rather have a good actor play the role than a bad actor who happens to be 6'6". They could have just as easily used an apple crate below the guy if they wanted him to be tall. Dustin Hoffman has been using one for decades. This isn't a bloody documentary -- it's a fantasy for god's sake. Enjoy it for what it is.

Wow. I think mine need to visit you.

It's definitely worth it - gun fire in the streets of a town. How can you go wrong. I will be there this year. At least that's the plan. It's definitely worth the drive.

Ahoy all! The preliminary schedule for the Pirates in Paradise Festival at the Truman Annex Waterfront is up at www.piratesinparadise.com. It includes several new events: 1st annual Boucan Cookoff 1st annual Home Brew Fest 1st annual Sea Chantey Championship Interactive Movie Night 1st Annual Jolly Roger ‘Hard Aground’ Land-ship Sailing Race 2011 marks the return of the Tall Tales Championship, two performances of the Tryal of Anne and Mary, guest lectures, Coloring with Don Maitz, the Pirate Pub and the El Meson de Pepe Pirate Feast. Several events have changed dates to make room for the new events and End of Hurricane Season, which falls on Wednesday. The Bad Ass Pirate & Buxom Wench Costume Contest is on Tuesday this year. The 7th Annual National Walk the Plank Championships are now on Saturday. An all-hands Pirate's Ball is tentatively scheduled for Saturday night. I'm sure new stuff will be added as the year moves along but wanted to get this up for those planning to attend Pirates in Paradise this year. That is all.

You post them in the Gallery. Go through your profile and set up a Gallery if you don't already have one.

It has never lacked for a pirate presence - pirates and pirate encampments were there, at least the times I've gone. The best part of the event is the live shooting competition with rifle and pistol. And the shopping is fantastic!

That sir, at best, is laughable. And I did need a good giggle this morning. Thank you.

It would be hard to steal something you had salvage rights on -- Mel Fisher had the legal right to retrieve the treasure, unlike the perp that heisted it from the museum. There is some consensus among the locals that it wasn't the real bar. When Mel Fisher used to wear that iconic chain around town, it wasn't real either, or so says some of his friends. He told them he'd be nuts to wear that much gold around in a town where a thief could easily roll him in an alley. Makes sense.

There were lots of photos taken of it at the National Walk the Plank Championships. It was Klaus' main gimmick this year.

Well remembered, Diosa. I recall all this fondly as well. 2004 was indeed a fun year and we had a really great crew there, including Wrongway, my son. I had also invited my ex-wife's group down to perform - the Thyrce Whycked Wenches, which is another story entirely. The beach was terrific for the village market. No one camped there at the time and we were closer to the refreshment stand (and the bathrooms) under a canopy of trees. A great location. It was fun having the games table that year and we also had a group building the little boats you see in the photos Diosa posted. We had a falcon/hawk demo exhibit as well as Oreo. That was a great addition. The National Walk the Plank Champions had Paisley as a nun offering last rites and communion (Nilla Wafers) just before we booted the contestants off. Bloody Jen won and the first prize that year was a costume from Cutthroat Island. What was I thinking? This was the year of Sir Nigel. Oryginal Cinn autographed his back with five deep fingernail scrapes from the left should to the right waist. I offered that it looked a little uneven so she repeated the marking, making a huge bleeding X on his back. Looked like he had received 10 lashes. The Kid's Day at Mel Fishers was a blast. They had rigged up games for the kids to play, including walking the plank. We performed and gave out a lot of treasure. As I said, we were a lot more visible in and around town, doing these events and promoting the final weekend, which was just a small part of what we were doing. I loved going on the sails aboard the WOLF with the crewe. And what a great crewe we had that year - Diosa, Sheila, Olaf, Studley, Sir Nigel, Oryginal Cinn, Deadly Aim, Paisley, Merrydeath, WrongWay and Black Skot. If you ever get a chance to go sailing with Finbar do! Diosa right, we did work our butts off there. But it was such a fun time for us all, none of it seemed like work. And yes, I did try to walk on water. It almost cost Sir Nigel his guitar. I was taking it back to the van and didn't really bother to notice the pool in between me and the walkway to the parking lot. I stepped into mid air, guitar in hand, noticed the pool and by the miracles of miracles, found my way back to the pool's edge. Still don't know why I didn't end up in the drink that night. Oh, and I picked up a really nice glicee at the auction that the Wycked Wenches wanted. I just kept driving up the bid because I could back then. Ended up with a $1500 pirate glicee for $250. Love the auctions there. That is all, until I think of something else and edit, since Diosa loves it so much when I do. Oh, and I see she is copying me now and edited hers as well.

The secret is Shoe Stretch. It's a little spray bottle that you can get at Wal-Mart. Spray it inside, wear until it dries and leather shoes form fit to you. Love that stuff. I had to wet, wear and repeat three times before they were perfect. An old girlfriend taught me about the magic of Shoe Stretch, in finer and less fine shoe departments everywhere.

It wasn't me. I'm content with the gold bar I got from Mel Fisher's.

I think it popped on facebook about a minute after it went live. And then through the miracle that it is, it went viral withint seconds and is smattered on everyone's site. Love that about facebook. On the movie note - looks great, but of course, it has Penelope Cruz, so who needs anyone else in it?

That's not necessarily the case. I myself played with an older gentlemen, an Irishman who played baritone uke. He never used a pitch pipe or had any tuning except his. If you wanted to play with him, you tuned to him, even if you had a pitch pipe or tuner. I think that would be the ordinary way back then - you would tune to the lead instrument and we've done it ourselves recently. We tuned to each other and off we went. If we were all a half step lower than normal, it was OK, as we were all tune. A lot of people have no sense of pitch or what a proper tuning is, especially amateur musicians, as I assume most singing or playing in a tavern at the time would be (and I am only referring to the impromptu entertainment, not a group of professionals).

Yeah, I had to change the size of the socks I wore. I also ended up added a Dr. Scholls thingy into them, just to add cushion over the pebbles and rocks of Key West hinterlands. But I couldn't be happier. Glad you found them to be the same.

No Quarter Given did a great tutorial on how to make shoes out of these in one of their issues a couple years ago. Me, I may be the only one whose Loyalist shoes fit but I wore them 12 hours a day down in Key West for five days straight without a single pain, callous, or blister. They saved my feet for sure. As I noted. I got my fit from measuring three different times over two weeks to compensate for swelling and other issues. Then I averaged the measurements and converted into centimeters to get a good fit. But I know others have not had similar pleasant experiences.

Wow! That's very interesting. In the U.S. (and I speak for Florida only) any reproduction of a period fire arm is considered an antique and as such requires no registration. Funny thing about it is my guns come from Loyalist Arms, which is in Canada. Go figure!

That was my first year, too. The DVD Release party was quite the coup for the festival. And they didn't spare any expense in putting it on. One of my favorite things our crew did that year was story time at the library. We also visited the retirement home on Stock Island to bring the festival to those who weren't physically able to go there. I still remember getting the van at Miami and piling six or so of us into it and driving down the keys for the first time. It was dark when we got to Miami and when we drove down, the sun turned the blackness to this amazing turquoise and green - still my favorite time to drive down to Key West. The trial was at the Old City Hall back then - still the best venue for it. It looked the most like a court room and you felt like you were really watching the trial. My son married Bawdy Be that year. I think he was 5 then. They still talk on the phone occasionally. After the evening's events we were all in the streets of Duval so all the pirate crewes would continue to meet up and spread the word about the festival. That was really a great part of the event in those days. I married this reporter girl at the Mel Fisher Museum for 24 hours. My toes were tingling. Oddly, the place we stood there to exchange vows was at the Pirate Dinner Theater in Orlando when we exchanged our real vows for Diosa's first marriage and first ex husband. That was also the year that Sir Nigel fell in love with Yellowbeard's step daughter and I thought he was going to be punched out by him at one time. The fight circles were over at the Historic Seaport. I will have to post the hilarious photo of Wrong Way and another pirate passed out on the dock there together. Really good times and there wasn't the distinction between crewes as there is now. It was just one big rolling party of good friends and good times. Loved the events at the Customs House, Banana Bay and Mel Fisher's. I'm sorry we don't do those any longer.

Sorry, this post is below. I quoted myself for some reason. Don't ask. And besides, I'm never post without editing because Diosa loves is so when I do, don't ya dahling? :)

This is response to Beowoulf... There is no division between the two groups and no divisiveness. I really can't emphasize this enough. When Spike and BiBs were in charge, yes, animosity, but purely for business reasons that I won't go into here. Certainly not now with Fayma and the Friends of the Fort running the FTPI. In fact, Fayma is an officer in the Conch Republic Navy. Finbar made her a Lieutenant this past year. He certainly doesn't bestow such honors on people who are his enemies. There is a space issue and always has been. The fort only has so much space. Although some campers cancelled at the last minute, there was initial concern that all the campers wouldn't fit into the fort, let alone vendors. Additionally. the mission of the fort is to represent living history. Many of PiP's events don't even remotely fit into that mission and neither do many of the vendors. Even the tryal of Anne and Mary isn't truly historical, not with Tizzy in it (and I wouldn't trade Cascabel's comic relief ever for the historical version). PiP is once again in a high growth mode, i.e., the non-period events. Next year, the grounds will be twice the size that it was this year with more events and activities geared to the community. We only had 10 weeks this year to get the site together, given the late start on the permitting with the city. I can't explain all the new additions as they are in process, but they certainly wouldn't fit into the fort, either in terms of space or in terms of philosophy. No one blames the fort or FTPI for gravitating more toward period representations. I camped there myself for several years and loved it. But PiP serves many masters, and its first obligation is to the city organizations that support it, including the historical society, the Mowhawk and Ingham, the visitor's bureau, the hotels the in-town venues and the City of Key West who issued all the permits this year for the Annex. I personally look forward to another year of working with the FTPI team and PiP to make them both even more amazing this year. Let's just live with the fact that they are different and distinct. They have different missions, different bosses and different business models. But that doesn't mean they aren't on friendly terms or don't take advantage of the synergies available to them whenever possible During this past year, Fayma and Julie were in constant, sometimes daily communication. I was in on many of them. It's easy to assume that there is no coordination, but none of you (outside of Sterling, Haunting Lily, Fayma, Diosa and myself on this board - and forgive me if I missed someone) are in on the day-to-day of what goes on with these events. There is plenty of communication, coordination and sharing of information and resources. There are always vendors who are unhappy with their time there. It happens every year. Ask Diosa. We used to vend. We used to hear the griping. I spoke to many vendors at the Annex who were absolutely thrilled with their time there. I heard several say how much they love coming down to PiP and FTPI because they are able to break even on a vacation in Key West. They don't even care if they make money since they can fill an empty space in their vending calendar with a usually warm visit to the tropics. To return to the initial point - there is no animosity here. We make due with the conditions as they arise. We adapt as the requirements of the city and the fort change. We alter our marketing and advertising to meet the stringent requirements of grants (you'd be surprised what these are), and we try to put on the best respective festivals we can. To put it out there for others that we are dysfunctional or have a feud going on is so far from the truth that it is laughable at best. It's easy to sit on the sidelines and judge what has been happening for years to keep these events going without any funding, without any support at times and with the "peanut gallery" griping about why we can't have one big love fest for pirates. I could tell stories here that would shock you about how close this thing comes every year to falling by the wayside. But people like Fayma, Julie, Haunting Lily, Diosa and I do this because we love Key West and we love our friends to come down to our neck of the woods and play pirate with us. Countless times we have simply willed these two events into existence at the last minute just so everyone can come down and have some fun in the sun. I hope we can all move on and quit psychoanalyzing everything from the grandstands. It does nothing to improve FTPI or PiP. If anything, it makes us wonder why we do all this hard work in the first place. It is at best a thankless job. If you want to truly help us improve these events, volunteer to join the groups planning them and work with us throughout the year. We could sure use the help and it could be a real eye opener for you. I know it was for me.