JoshuaRed

Thankee for th' headsup.

Aye, I signed up fer the group earlier this morning. Does admission tend to take long? I'm dyin' to get involved!

There have been many many versions of this song over the years...all of them wonderful. This is one of the most sweetly haunting melodies I've ever heard. It's just one of those "I have to stop what I'm doing and listen to this and sing along" tunes! :)

Excellent! I'll get on yer list at once. I enjoy Mt. Gay's Extra Old, picked some up in Barbados in April. Ever try Calico Jack rum? It might just be local brand. Not very good, but worth it for the killer label!

I'm getting ready to read Dampier's "Discourse On Winds" which should have some good info...I'll share here soon as I get to it.

Hey BlackJ! So far, would ye say that the new Rediker book delves noticeably deeper into piracy than Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea? Is it worth getting?

Hey Black John! As I've mentioned before, I'm moving down to the Phila. area in about a month...once settled I would love nothing more than to get involved with your fine brotherhood. My reenacting experience is nil, but I've been a fanatical student of piracy, seafaring life and life in early Colonial America for going on 10 years. I'm dying to get in to reenacting, so if you might have me, I'd be a quick learner. Perhaps we could get together for a double rum somewhere in Del. this fall and discuss further? My treat.

Never heard of him, but that doesn't necessarily mean he isn't good. :)

Slopmaker Cripps, I dig yer sig, man. Right on! Were Pyle & Wyeth so far off in their research/props? If only they'd realized just how much impact their work would have on the impending Hollywood Machine.... I'm really impressed with the specific knowledge you all have!

That is a good book, piratelassie. I enjoyed it very much. I was skeptical at first, but it's a very believable follow up tale.

Gawd I love Plunkett & Maclane! What a cool flick! Very underrated if you ask me. Now then, for another cool look at 18th century sex, check out The Floating Brothel, about how England began rounding up prostitutes to ship to New Holland. A bit late for your period, but still a good read.

Nice. Mind if I ask which game?

Is that the online version at the Canadia site? I started reading it online, but found myself craving a hard copy version to peruse. abebooks.com has several affordable editions if anyone is interested.

Is that Rediker's new book solely on piracy? If so, I perused it at the store, but passed on it only because it seemed to be somewhat of a rehash of his previous book, Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea, which was also excellent. I'm sure his new one is great, but my reading list is too full already! I recently finished up A Pirate of Exquisite Mind which was terrific, and consequently bought Dampier's complete works from Ebay. I'm dying to begin reading them, but the books are currently defumigating. (They are about 100 years old and smelled like decades old cigarette smoke)

Anyony else who's bothering to watch any Olympic coverage notice that NBC has very frequently used the POTC score in it's various athlete bios and montages? Kinda cool....

Pirates is VERY cool. Walter Matthau is just amazing as Capn' Red. I believe that is now available on DVD, or will be soon.

Hmmm. This is tough. I LOVE POTC, it's a tremendous comeback for pirate films and is endlessly watchable. However, my criteria for the best pirate movie would HAVE to include some actual piracy instead of treasure hunting and assorted derring do. As my mate BlackJohn says, Heston's Treasure Island is excellent, probably better than POTC in terms of capturing the grittiness of the era. BUT, again....no actual piracy as defined by the robbing of vessels at sea. To get the best scenes of pirates actually being pirates, you have to go waaaaay back to the silent era, for Doug Fairbanks Jr.'s "The Black Pirate". Trust me, this movie is KILLER. Mostly. The various pirate characters and the plundering scenes are jaw dropping even today. Doug Fairbanks produced the movie, and intentionally modeled the look of it after Howard Pyle's legendary paintings. And boy did he succeed. It just "clicks". So, if it's got this level of gritty pseudo-accuracy, why doesn't it get my vote for Best Pirate Movie? Because Doug wears this downright odd black jumper-type outfite with shorts, and just looks more gypsy than pirate. Also Doug isn't really a pirate...he's just a vigilante infiltrating the pirate gang by posing as one of them, so he can lure them in a trap and capture them. Another critical criteria of Best Pirate Movie is that the lead character should BE a pirate. Which brings me to Errol Flynn. Capt Blood is also VERY good, and remarkably ahead of it's time in many ways. AND if I'm not mistaken, I do believe Blood and his men actually plunder a vessel or two and even divy up loot. Granted, Blood is still a "good guy", but he still embraces the pirate life. On to The Seahawk. In my opinion it's even better than Capt. Blood, although it's more about the Elizabethan era sea dogs and the like. But the long battle/plundering scene in the opening movie is spot on. Again, ahead of it's time in terms of the battle scenes, effects, pacing and action. The icing on the cake is that this time Flynn is a straight up privateer after gold and glory. Hurray!!! So taken as a duo due to their close time of production and leading man, I would vote for Captain Blood & The Sea Hawk as the best pirate movies for capturing the essence of plundering at sea better than any movie to date. Course my favorite to watch with a stiff double rum is probably Heston's Treasure Island. And Jack Sparrow is the best pirate ever on screen. But that's a whole other topic.... ***PS - For what I feel is the best depiction of the short, brutal tragedy that is the pirate's life, check out High Wind In Jamaica. As a movie, it's not so hot overall, and it's set a century & a half too late for what a true pirate picture should be, but it's surprisingly honest. Sorry for rambling on. It's late and the rum has kicked in. Cheers!

Ladies and Gents, we have a winner. Bess has offered up the quintessential worst pirate movie. I forgot all about that one! Good call, IB!

Crimson Pirate has it's moments. The chemistry between Burt Lancaster and Nick Cravat as Ojo is a joy to watch. But it's not a flick I find myself watching over and over. I think the worst "Pirate Movie" ever made is Goonies. It's highly entertaining, but as a pirate movie....ugh. Now I know it's for kids, and it's all in fun, etc, etc....but c'mon. Even at the tender age of 10 my pals and I found it quite laughable as a premise.

Glad you enjoyed 'em BlackJohn! It was a great time indeed. Btw the Kalmar Nyckel will be in Wilmington in mid-Sept, doing "pirate sailings". :)

I'm with ye, 100% Blackjohn. It would be fantastic on DVD. Not only is Heston amazing, but Christian Bale is bar none the best Jim Hawkins ever portrayed. And Oliver Reed's Billy Bones? Fuggettabowtit! He's incredible! And there's Christopher Lee as Blind Pew, Ilsa Blair as Jim's poor mum, and one of my fave character actors, Peter Posthelwaite as George Merry. Throw in the superb production values and a terrific score by the almighty Chieftains and you got yerself one helluva good flick!

Ebay in itself is perfectly fine & upstanding. I've bought many fine & authentic items from books to prints, posters and more. You just need to be careful and stay away from things like props and autographs which are notoriously prone to being faked. But blaming Ebay is like blaming the gun instead of the murderer holding the gun. :)

Hot Topic has women's POTC shirts. I guess that's sorta official....?

Bess, apologies if I stepped on your toes, it certainly was not my intent to offend all the Swashbuckler fans, cast and or crew out there. I just didn't care for the movie, that's all. Course there's no accounting for my tastes...after all I love Blackbeard the Pirate despite it ludicrous plot line. Go figure! PirateQueen, the Heston version of TI is fantastic. Probably the best all around pirate flick to date, except POTC of course. Sadly it's still not on DVD. I'll go quietly to me hammock on th' gundeck now.... :)

Yeah I agree. I got it from Netflix awhile back, and couldn't get past the first 20 minutes. Robert Shaw's red jumpsuit thing was too annoying and distracting.