tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33539211445010967502024-03-13T23:06:57.068-07:00Pirate Envy Hollywood300 Years Out of Their Element. . .Wench Whispererhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15589439410613677518noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3353921144501096750.post-65416126889959689182023-06-28T04:52:00.000-07:002023-06-28T04:52:33.278-07:00Incoming!<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWUrK-pzJQ2ViMYaeFh2aZibKOZvWYs6XEghmsUMtOJjoB4Gj429EShKQHKlSvYA0BmVn7PX5Du6IwQfzSSg6tMiOsyFrVJiRat3AzPAMSkDjIFTFoLsmrN03P6PxR8SO9gCx2vLG3gMVdWpmTx0TB5YIdRX5zQrzZu0iVqsfZ5fPtLHhAB9t3qpFHKJ3z/s1200/PhotoRoom_20230626_201601.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWUrK-pzJQ2ViMYaeFh2aZibKOZvWYs6XEghmsUMtOJjoB4Gj429EShKQHKlSvYA0BmVn7PX5Du6IwQfzSSg6tMiOsyFrVJiRat3AzPAMSkDjIFTFoLsmrN03P6PxR8SO9gCx2vLG3gMVdWpmTx0TB5YIdRX5zQrzZu0iVqsfZ5fPtLHhAB9t3qpFHKJ3z/w640-h640/PhotoRoom_20230626_201601.JPG" width="640" /></a></p><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://PirateInvasionLongBeach.com"><b><i>PirateInvasionLongBeach.com</i></b></a><br /></p>Wench Whispererhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15589439410613677518noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3353921144501096750.post-80955958393024429212022-08-05T13:50:00.001-07:002022-09-30T09:51:43.492-07:00Pirate Invasion Long Beach - 2022<p style="text-align: center;"></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizZrDjjW9bnQX02iQf-lDOf91zpTnsQrCruibhGK-dp35ln0K2d7zWup0UOopQ5yeAQjNSKaJ5KMi7wpc05WmzFKXpio6GQ6RuExDNaQDcbPDHd57Ykb8eJgcb5epyNTYXP6mFgqx3vL8Yvfdj8A5smKPqU2o5syAOGv6q6tecVvvTaLq-kCi0OqeyOg/s4032/IMG_2150.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; 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margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHTxueYIW_YQkZ_HSl0bXzntn6JbCwAsZWUY2pcl_WkxeDQEiMURhfnkxtDCxA03TkzQhjBEBlNFs9ZVsHm75mIVZ-drhKI3dAz7UfJgb3fYSyY2aWpfx7n7qZGwpSb_lD9WRMUHXpmDwIfBfxS8FwUiJs_mn7yCPnaD2NqgIi6YLJEfFdmdOIBGZHPg/w640-h480/IMG_2135.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgLFWGo5DgL71ZsV0dHCzigJXHiiOIGeADZ-GyoR9HjDHtX17oheg6hlfhZ958WQCVRa9DL3H7XoQtT8DBhs9oxzhMUUoFRQG7NpuYUcXr_TtXkX5pe427FmC7PsKCKDgkhelU4KurhalIz2ocU0yOr_11c_3j06SMNEaSBD4sMzQsSrsiK8EYWmaTEw/s842/ImaginePirates.PILB2022.1%202.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="676" data-original-width="842" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgLFWGo5DgL71ZsV0dHCzigJXHiiOIGeADZ-GyoR9HjDHtX17oheg6hlfhZ958WQCVRa9DL3H7XoQtT8DBhs9oxzhMUUoFRQG7NpuYUcXr_TtXkX5pe427FmC7PsKCKDgkhelU4KurhalIz2ocU0yOr_11c_3j06SMNEaSBD4sMzQsSrsiK8EYWmaTEw/w400-h321/ImaginePirates.PILB2022.1%202.png" width="400" /></a></span></div><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">More pictures and blood evidence forthcoming. . .</span><br /></p>Wench Whispererhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15589439410613677518noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3353921144501096750.post-75613054793243742662022-06-09T13:05:00.022-07:002022-07-06T23:14:17.972-07:00There Will Be Rum<div class="separator" style="clear: both; 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margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="569" data-original-width="859" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9EScdbg8Qk7_MlMgECr_UtQrBrxXb3pOr4fVTQFF3nbjj-7oeUBrE_qg_hscsDDXmXptqMvEcgT7hyJou_FmvOwGJx5dkdpPs07gJi0WthRFSM70aRpSi4u4uB5AA1xHJu5K-A6AqLvbstjejJKUcKw863kNm_R4M9hWt_wk6QIT3f5fDjj0t0rBG7w/w400-h265/68824009_10220079791208844_3982955243548704768_n%202.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDiZIhPHdIFZwPCEhsYI6qInpJIE2V-S-rZjKUcBPbaZh2OBX1zJdz0CnWtZu6qw1_POJNJRLWlSHm4M8KL7flUGmAMcYP8VtwxlF-BBioQMxGaS4xL5pVWfzlXSo8OsTm4WOKlZbJ6YQ2TdDuOhd6FjtGh6wtBq6eGILzdFd8_nqrKGuW445im46J7Q/s2576/20190817_180201.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1932" data-original-width="2576" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDiZIhPHdIFZwPCEhsYI6qInpJIE2V-S-rZjKUcBPbaZh2OBX1zJdz0CnWtZu6qw1_POJNJRLWlSHm4M8KL7flUGmAMcYP8VtwxlF-BBioQMxGaS4xL5pVWfzlXSo8OsTm4WOKlZbJ6YQ2TdDuOhd6FjtGh6wtBq6eGILzdFd8_nqrKGuW445im46J7Q/w640-h480/20190817_180201.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>Wench Whispererhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15589439410613677518noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3353921144501096750.post-76450103105568197482022-06-09T13:04:00.072-07:002022-07-06T23:23:42.809-07:00Pirates Murder Shakespeare<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;"> First posted February 23, 2020:</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;"></span></span></p><p></p><p>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfVyyDKMeXhPYDo9g0DEW9eheLnizkhBmlERN2Y8oEp4p7slA4BRKaXRBcFew06jLcBHZw4bBUES3hIJaHxD6XT3RcKZssMgISAwXPwhoTgKHVLmqzLuin82kKl7LSLFIJGCorfWxdigz3LfxpDa4EX2Ih7H8nVGGTOm4ZHSY82PRDaQlPVZioJiBqxw/s1382/I.P.Hamlet-2018%20copy.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1275" data-original-width="1382" height="369" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfVyyDKMeXhPYDo9g0DEW9eheLnizkhBmlERN2Y8oEp4p7slA4BRKaXRBcFew06jLcBHZw4bBUES3hIJaHxD6XT3RcKZssMgISAwXPwhoTgKHVLmqzLuin82kKl7LSLFIJGCorfWxdigz3LfxpDa4EX2Ih7H8nVGGTOm4ZHSY82PRDaQlPVZioJiBqxw/w400-h369/I.P.Hamlet-2018%20copy.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></span></span></div><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span>We had a five person show ready to go
then lost two pirates at the last minute and had about six hours to
rewrite the scripture for three pirates and rehearse intensely to absorb
the new script whilst unlearning the previous version. For a moment we
considered canceling the gig but one should never run from a
challenge. </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw82gQ6yREdDw7e2RPrFpJnBNOdZdWQKl_GQfs4DtBKiUFPwsrxM9-RUnGVcEhAs96w1gyeZiAbFGIloOWaqOtTOzH-8KNJiZFob_JdpT9BC2rC8DEdZJw0RsF8uk7FJBZybcY6NSET9A5LFs348-wf64z_ftq0I9bu_xXflD1iq5WjTxZTHasy4r8VA/s603/87316651_10163171613240096_5486116539276984320_n.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="355" data-original-width="603" height="376" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw82gQ6yREdDw7e2RPrFpJnBNOdZdWQKl_GQfs4DtBKiUFPwsrxM9-RUnGVcEhAs96w1gyeZiAbFGIloOWaqOtTOzH-8KNJiZFob_JdpT9BC2rC8DEdZJw0RsF8uk7FJBZybcY6NSET9A5LFs348-wf64z_ftq0I9bu_xXflD1iq5WjTxZTHasy4r8VA/w640-h376/87316651_10163171613240096_5486116539276984320_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span> </span><br />
<span> We did it. <b>We slayed.</b> Slaying is what we do. Shakespeare might disagree. My crew might disagree but i think we killed it. Well, except for that one thing. That one horrible thing. . .</span></span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr2l_Y3YHO2gf7MXRiXDZNJIEvqkXJveM0qOpNXJrKuI7qe4xfoxpF3xcc4pjOBmtSwDE0vXqjVQRdOqk61sxlSGDHEAMb_V0yNtKlqln9ULDPeQoAt28_h0a1q0ZZiilHeOtW1L3acAD2oIj02_iIfnM-0Mvo38N_csaZzEvKSQU9ifL4dL2-11EejQ/s597/ImaginePirates.BoobieTrap251.3.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="597" data-original-width="569" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr2l_Y3YHO2gf7MXRiXDZNJIEvqkXJveM0qOpNXJrKuI7qe4xfoxpF3xcc4pjOBmtSwDE0vXqjVQRdOqk61sxlSGDHEAMb_V0yNtKlqln9ULDPeQoAt28_h0a1q0ZZiilHeOtW1L3acAD2oIj02_iIfnM-0Mvo38N_csaZzEvKSQU9ifL4dL2-11EejQ/w610-h640/ImaginePirates.BoobieTrap251.3.png" width="610" /></a></span></span></span></div><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span> The thing: i, Bullet, forgot a line of
dialogue. Fact. Truth. i did. And not just any line but a crucial, pivotal line of exposition
without which the rest of the show made no sense. Realizing my
unforgivable misdeed i tried to correct it by inserting, awkwardly, the
requisite information into an ad lib a few seconds later but that just
wasn't graceful or effective. no, the show was weakened, considerably, nigh irreparably, by my incompetence. Me, an experienced performer who should have reasonable skills by now. Apparently i don't. i hadn't screwed up this bad since i was a youngling thespian struggling thru <i>Hurlyburly</i> in Ted Harris' acting studio 30 years ago. That one was forgivable though. Everybody f**ks up <i>Hurlyburly</i>
the first time they do it. Those thousand lines about "stuff" and
"stuff on top of stuff" and "more stuff" all sound alike and it's easy
to lose your place. Rabe probably wrote the d*mned thing just to torture
actors. </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYmt-1sjq_LVBtKOVsGajmqNZ1fpC6kMTAPtSmf3mEo1TDPA4KOVW5uxjh4qu0ZUklZoPxIQXIk-vZnJ5gkvu8oMJSiQqM2HLPSWlQUs8L7LCP2j24HRU-wqbVHIY8kOMUBqy9umImHiY9WONaoCdrMoRZKMrmX75nWV909nGPOW1HOTVh8Zv-rFTwOA/s960/Joe.Bullet.Ed.BoobieTrap.1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="603" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYmt-1sjq_LVBtKOVsGajmqNZ1fpC6kMTAPtSmf3mEo1TDPA4KOVW5uxjh4qu0ZUklZoPxIQXIk-vZnJ5gkvu8oMJSiQqM2HLPSWlQUs8L7LCP2j24HRU-wqbVHIY8kOMUBqy9umImHiY9WONaoCdrMoRZKMrmX75nWV909nGPOW1HOTVh8Zv-rFTwOA/w251-h400/Joe.Bullet.Ed.BoobieTrap.1.jpg" width="251" /></a></span></span></span></div><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span> But this thing i'd adapted myself, proudly breaking the eight minute record set by <i>Skinhead Hamlet</i>
by cramming the entire tragedy into four short minutes. i had no excuse
for mangling it to this magnitude. It was <i>my</i> show;
director/actor/writer (with Shakespeare, of course). No other
explanation: i'm just a sh*tty actor. i'll own it. <br /></span></span></span></p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span> Favorite critique of the evening, from a fellow performer: "Well, the Bard sure took a beating tonight, didn't he?"</span></span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></span><br /><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mLMDHAz_SO4" width="556" youtube-src-id="mLMDHAz_SO4"></iframe></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR6w8b_XzPHIC66IS_SgYL-B6bt4dPx5jice6CufI9QtudbDa9AkP2HWP63gwKv11YLOiEmycUawiwMmgBSmnfhb0AAXj7D3C33mJSP5WGN-QvMfoBVZ6Y8GTIW8Ai86ygkgQwb5zaP6xIN93SPBa_LFnyPpV2MhtCQUGnWUCgnUqSqZfbLBpb3bttkg/s958/ImaginePirates.BoobieTrap.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="958" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR6w8b_XzPHIC66IS_SgYL-B6bt4dPx5jice6CufI9QtudbDa9AkP2HWP63gwKv11YLOiEmycUawiwMmgBSmnfhb0AAXj7D3C33mJSP5WGN-QvMfoBVZ6Y8GTIW8Ai86ygkgQwb5zaP6xIN93SPBa_LFnyPpV2MhtCQUGnWUCgnUqSqZfbLBpb3bttkg/w640-h428/ImaginePirates.BoobieTrap.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"No more pirating! It would be too great a loss to the arts!"<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh71eNRA19UU06RSOsllj8eksYewqNsQVMPXRD-__VSmrBEW-3D5ld2SiZ_-3mvy71q1dGKHiROs17E9PNhZQRggZ-bao07LpJZaQVo0SEZhWFkgqU76MbkLJxrtEbn0FFT55pzaMiUAtS1WRmet5MVk-I_zFnounURJNPYxjLPfjb9F9yYf8Jpe_5cEA/s958/Joe.Ed.ImaginePirates.22.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="958" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh71eNRA19UU06RSOsllj8eksYewqNsQVMPXRD-__VSmrBEW-3D5ld2SiZ_-3mvy71q1dGKHiROs17E9PNhZQRggZ-bao07LpJZaQVo0SEZhWFkgqU76MbkLJxrtEbn0FFT55pzaMiUAtS1WRmet5MVk-I_zFnounURJNPYxjLPfjb9F9yYf8Jpe_5cEA/w640-h428/Joe.Ed.ImaginePirates.22.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"The potent poison pearl is. . . something."<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-6YBbTF3LZaYwG0YZPKkLuRDjFX6GN-zuJyHIaMWtqsI-C_JOmiiRmAcXyF36AVTWMcebFUk4TRntyHdwQPd6gH3lb4Y41CDEHQbNBRKus4ZR_uqMPBeuLxNuCw-29OOIw-flcUFZKeHSs6smn4I4PgHbXIMlG1MrwMYMjRddNNv6KakkbUPs_d0u-w/s653/ImaginePirates.BoobieTrap251.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="596" data-original-width="653" height="365" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-6YBbTF3LZaYwG0YZPKkLuRDjFX6GN-zuJyHIaMWtqsI-C_JOmiiRmAcXyF36AVTWMcebFUk4TRntyHdwQPd6gH3lb4Y41CDEHQbNBRKus4ZR_uqMPBeuLxNuCw-29OOIw-flcUFZKeHSs6smn4I4PgHbXIMlG1MrwMYMjRddNNv6KakkbUPs_d0u-w/w400-h365/ImaginePirates.BoobieTrap251.png" width="400" /></a><br /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wrote it, directed it, have no idea what's happening here.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6DPZzGcGGja6T9vWczQY5I-upQ1d0H4EcHljMj5mucnGHsQdH_8uGP62DpyWsJHfPoz745y7nHe2UOeUWfvZmMq24qIP0P5lj78nqdHkeMV6P1RcvPKWLmQYFLtSaTHqlf0KUMcFyv2IwUwVn3oGHY7ROstwtFH0Jj1DHrAcV_STNWh7vPcIbduWAXw/s1199/ImaginePirates.bow.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1199" height="484" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6DPZzGcGGja6T9vWczQY5I-upQ1d0H4EcHljMj5mucnGHsQdH_8uGP62DpyWsJHfPoz745y7nHe2UOeUWfvZmMq24qIP0P5lj78nqdHkeMV6P1RcvPKWLmQYFLtSaTHqlf0KUMcFyv2IwUwVn3oGHY7ROstwtFH0Jj1DHrAcV_STNWh7vPcIbduWAXw/w640-h484/ImaginePirates.bow.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZpVQmasoDyh5KGLyV6nRUPy8t_ZvUGZc0vkLddAfcbTbuwSYv6W_oZ7XQ4xs0mrrypJIKxHYWo4MJaRcgz3bm6rfy2IwrPjW82iZgR2YWvY6GtuVSGnOEsbPWSnKmEwHvSC7F2XwQQnboEI23i32zEamUeGL7ifJj4injLQXtDenyVpYYQbRfpOfqhA/s1667/ScotNeryBoobieTrap1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="962" data-original-width="1667" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZpVQmasoDyh5KGLyV6nRUPy8t_ZvUGZc0vkLddAfcbTbuwSYv6W_oZ7XQ4xs0mrrypJIKxHYWo4MJaRcgz3bm6rfy2IwrPjW82iZgR2YWvY6GtuVSGnOEsbPWSnKmEwHvSC7F2XwQQnboEI23i32zEamUeGL7ifJj4injLQXtDenyVpYYQbRfpOfqhA/w400-h231/ScotNeryBoobieTrap1.jpg" width="400" /></a><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0KI3DV6SmhzxpRRhGg1umzz8ZEfls16Rv-lGA0MKW6IAJ5NcTSXTQlTQCLQBuXZCnbLkxoLAvYFxAZ5-ALwEzZUiK0VYU3sXPGuTp96bm7ke1yx72qHHQSQHKX88aN-tztHJ_nxleMpTfmDw79chB9Vlo8Txkqt2OkFwBbPi5Hyxi26uRvb16lDJl9w/s684/ImaginePirates.BoobieCast.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="404" data-original-width="684" height="378" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0KI3DV6SmhzxpRRhGg1umzz8ZEfls16Rv-lGA0MKW6IAJ5NcTSXTQlTQCLQBuXZCnbLkxoLAvYFxAZ5-ALwEzZUiK0VYU3sXPGuTp96bm7ke1yx72qHHQSQHKX88aN-tztHJ_nxleMpTfmDw79chB9Vlo8Txkqt2OkFwBbPi5Hyxi26uRvb16lDJl9w/w640-h378/ImaginePirates.BoobieCast.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>We shared the bill with the great Pop Hayden and the show-stealing Michael Rayner.<br /></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNnUO9X5iZj2zOyccQ1IQ-QOSezREIDoaro9IyyA3Y8mi73xvLPRpqMnsxEpUVRJaXQ1YzwTpKKU_-eb5Uz8HWpgtt0m_H6fH2jOaZAtyZNdvcu2qfksIhdE2EnBBcACVuWF57zrkLvUKbbCEQBHebQ7UPCd0mhIp6nUZvKCijcWvXwMBTN6HQ3QDCFA/s958/MichaelRayner.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="958" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNnUO9X5iZj2zOyccQ1IQ-QOSezREIDoaro9IyyA3Y8mi73xvLPRpqMnsxEpUVRJaXQ1YzwTpKKU_-eb5Uz8HWpgtt0m_H6fH2jOaZAtyZNdvcu2qfksIhdE2EnBBcACVuWF57zrkLvUKbbCEQBHebQ7UPCd0mhIp6nUZvKCijcWvXwMBTN6HQ3QDCFA/w400-h268/MichaelRayner.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Michael Rayner.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcUbMt_NpvQ-qloZxxhGtaTD9jA2O_Jeo1vgYYy5hlBR_kuCNL0zG5GgfZZq0rurKiE3MK3niZobVOpFzh1PBcfqQH316iFE8IOkRu4I1MrMUpJW37m8_fFkCM_u-ovOmYCar3OR_CsA8CcgytqkJPOQ1-5Fbuah7wjz_IIdA-5F1tNTHtVBGmXH06Tg/s1200/ImaginePirates.ScotNery.1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1196" data-original-width="1200" height="638" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcUbMt_NpvQ-qloZxxhGtaTD9jA2O_Jeo1vgYYy5hlBR_kuCNL0zG5GgfZZq0rurKiE3MK3niZobVOpFzh1PBcfqQH316iFE8IOkRu4I1MrMUpJW37m8_fFkCM_u-ovOmYCar3OR_CsA8CcgytqkJPOQ1-5Fbuah7wjz_IIdA-5F1tNTHtVBGmXH06Tg/w640-h638/ImaginePirates.ScotNery.1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The technologically, photographically proficient Scot Nery took this himself.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Wench Whispererhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15589439410613677518noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3353921144501096750.post-29229855990966181632022-06-09T13:02:00.041-07:002022-07-06T23:26:07.233-07:00Screams from Rehearsals <p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"> Joe was never in town long enough to learn complex sword choreography so we had to include this same sequence in every single show. We decided that captain should be too cool to get into more than one fight per show anyway. Here's Joe versus Bullet. This same fight would eventually be Joe vs. Ed, Joe vs. Alexandra, vs. Samantha, vs. Ozero. You get the picture. He was great at it though:</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='529' height='312' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxoaDSfQo41V5WyUTWYuNqSuK_zqwe6TUn0b-ZQ_EFjSibYXHekyjPZzoLIh7YNZpUF5CUZLrFg37VLz-HpqA' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div><div><br /></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Here's Jill establishing her pirate-cred. This is from her audition, believe it or Snot:<br /></span><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='506' height='309' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dx2v9dhVcde6aW1d_hxA870YNiJwbzDaOKRFCDfN9Wi7oXG56QZGLP9AFuA2ls9qwGLvQNwLVX_mZGdU0iWBQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>Bullet directing <i>Sea of Darkness 5</i> rehearsals. With Deedle, Tor and Spoo from the <b>Pirates Charles</b>, and Blue, Mary, Severine and Louie. Brandi Wyne choreographed the short sword fight. Deedle spontaneously composed the theme song "Take that F**king Sword." So much talent in a single show (and i was there too):</span><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="373" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BWHkU8vIWfY" width="584" youtube-src-id="BWHkU8vIWfY"></iframe></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>Wench Whispererhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15589439410613677518noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3353921144501096750.post-82160893821947111262022-06-09T13:02:00.040-07:002022-07-02T17:41:54.088-07:00Lone Star Pirates<p style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="328" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LoL8hL2xOP0" width="513" youtube-src-id="LoL8hL2xOP0"></iframe></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPJxEdZY5nZ7jLmSHlHkc8BtreHvbG1Zt6tGJWaPAkESamTR9Mq212gYFrrGlOhXNVP1CvCeEtneObfNvj2-I7ycrcUtT8VyWV0W336uAlzDyOnoqEYfYe_5SXxjMX5tJlJwCFvi5xSicH54pfsZJC11Sw4RVVUZxSCPqE_w7SrBSvVjG-MFGx1_GG0g/s1600/ImaginePirates.Texas.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1393" data-original-width="1600" height="349" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPJxEdZY5nZ7jLmSHlHkc8BtreHvbG1Zt6tGJWaPAkESamTR9Mq212gYFrrGlOhXNVP1CvCeEtneObfNvj2-I7ycrcUtT8VyWV0W336uAlzDyOnoqEYfYe_5SXxjMX5tJlJwCFvi5xSicH54pfsZJC11Sw4RVVUZxSCPqE_w7SrBSvVjG-MFGx1_GG0g/w400-h349/ImaginePirates.Texas.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jim and Joe in San Antonio.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtrIoGJbzEBcJ85eNXx28vxGYUhwn3zhi7Y0I4Wg5zio2PNFPXvxQFPx23Gk-_8_UyWqkux93bWf6a3OJhH5ZtOMBHUZPbWx7ZC6mFWhafSj-VzhvAAJrBZl4bbSbgXcyv4gty7jTeqsbk_t-nC5sM1_ssK0M4EcFtjLqQnPFRhJ1Z7SYMHVYigvtIhQ/s1440/ImaginePirates.Texas.6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1440" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtrIoGJbzEBcJ85eNXx28vxGYUhwn3zhi7Y0I4Wg5zio2PNFPXvxQFPx23Gk-_8_UyWqkux93bWf6a3OJhH5ZtOMBHUZPbWx7ZC6mFWhafSj-VzhvAAJrBZl4bbSbgXcyv4gty7jTeqsbk_t-nC5sM1_ssK0M4EcFtjLqQnPFRhJ1Z7SYMHVYigvtIhQ/w640-h480/ImaginePirates.Texas.6.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrnKcXp3-wjJa59GD4H_WD3jd9EMwEPfHY1Pjw-AysU453-6ZjDvOPRVw1NBEgAuWnpGtePSPpmuFNEXEwJtm25kv8gJPUCG0jL05iM_8_yUriXjSUy6aU6kOA9W3bhjaw0Wa6cNoqPAGbC4jIFMovm3JbaNjr6Mhr-BqGjDjq3SvwoMDbuy32MO6bFQ/s4032/IMG_2597.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrnKcXp3-wjJa59GD4H_WD3jd9EMwEPfHY1Pjw-AysU453-6ZjDvOPRVw1NBEgAuWnpGtePSPpmuFNEXEwJtm25kv8gJPUCG0jL05iM_8_yUriXjSUy6aU6kOA9W3bhjaw0Wa6cNoqPAGbC4jIFMovm3JbaNjr6Mhr-BqGjDjq3SvwoMDbuy32MO6bFQ/w480-h640/IMG_2597.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Joe in Corpus Christi.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table>Wench Whispererhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15589439410613677518noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3353921144501096750.post-24385935608243923152022-06-09T13:01:00.006-07:002022-06-14T12:51:02.182-07:00Pirate Invasion Long Beach 2019<h2 class="date-header" style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 0px; position: relative;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium; letter-spacing: inherit; margin: inherit; padding: inherit;">Sunday, July 14, 2019</span></h2><div class="date-posts" style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"><div class="post-outer"><div class="post hentry uncustomized-post-template" itemprop="blogPost" itemscope="itemscope" itemtype="http://schema.org/BlogPosting" style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; min-height: 0px; position: relative;"><div class="post-header" style="line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><div class="post-header-line-1"></div></div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-6019526222105801787" itemprop="description articleBody" style="line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 610px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizHDPNkWM-bKvtMSxj-MXICEKFcfgCsDKk60aCMDqT5wmmQAjK0jtFFyfkrZsGFihRzl1s0rbQJGluI7AE6Bu6cif1JKMZRW57q6Vl8Kxb1t78ENZLXdrnY059PqFFegrtjs-CilMA0lep/s1600/ImaginePirates.PirateInvasionLongBeach.M.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="621" data-original-width="1147" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizHDPNkWM-bKvtMSxj-MXICEKFcfgCsDKk60aCMDqT5wmmQAjK0jtFFyfkrZsGFihRzl1s0rbQJGluI7AE6Bu6cif1JKMZRW57q6Vl8Kxb1t78ENZLXdrnY059PqFFegrtjs-CilMA0lep/s400/ImaginePirates.PirateInvasionLongBeach.M.jpg" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; background-color: #222222; border: 1px solid rgb(17, 17, 17); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 1px; position: relative;" width="400" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span>We did a guerrilla performance on the main stage at Pirate Invasion, this following three performances at sea and a frantic rush from the docks to the parking garage then thru the Invasion to main stage arriving in time to desperately search for a sober person to video our show. Comedian Phil Johnson was hosting the event and was gracious enough to film from stage left. Thanks, Phil!</span><br /><span> Afterward, we made our weary way to Dock 3 to board my favorite tall-ship, the American Pride, seaworthy again after a few years. Once at sea, we performed a quick skit in which world traveling adventuress Kendra Guffy joined us to deliver a couple lines and slap Ed's face. Mary Widow videoed this one and caught somebody really laughing at the "Quantum Pirates" joke which has validated me as a true writer of comedy! </span><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/j5ZEYQ3NvKo/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/j5ZEYQ3NvKo?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-size: large;">Fifty-thousand people attended Pirate Invasion this year! </span><span style="font-size: large;">The event was featured on multiple television segments and Imagine Pirates</span><span style="font-size: large;"> were in a couple of newspapers. </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2bCqWy7KiDwL42z6BT4Vh4AfUdVqawZpiDhionfO_TB4jSMnuDeqOFnsVA4DK2Q96umNMXEPqZBYlXavWQEWWL34HpFe6BtAum3jtMGZeSwzFlhJQZ5kjbE7m_2Vmox3na8TSWGSSYdgn/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-07-03+at+8.25.47+PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="599" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2bCqWy7KiDwL42z6BT4Vh4AfUdVqawZpiDhionfO_TB4jSMnuDeqOFnsVA4DK2Q96umNMXEPqZBYlXavWQEWWL34HpFe6BtAum3jtMGZeSwzFlhJQZ5kjbE7m_2Vmox3na8TSWGSSYdgn/s400/Screen+Shot+2019-07-03+at+8.25.47+PM.png" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; background-color: #222222; border: 1px solid rgb(17, 17, 17); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 1px; position: relative;" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Bullet was wanted -but so were his friends. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">(Pirates hang together. Swing one, swing all!):</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMMKbtQ6bgn7FUfI-95rj6BERGCn-sqZPQyoZ9VmFUu7PGkhBP3zAJGLLi4iheAgN1MWHVbs-fVyvmZTVMyILybed7sDaMU-0EPRQ8xwaftrV5GGGB7dkJpQk-Rc3zQWfCNJ1RPnx31rBl/s1600/20190630_101738.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1498" data-original-width="1280" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMMKbtQ6bgn7FUfI-95rj6BERGCn-sqZPQyoZ9VmFUu7PGkhBP3zAJGLLi4iheAgN1MWHVbs-fVyvmZTVMyILybed7sDaMU-0EPRQ8xwaftrV5GGGB7dkJpQk-Rc3zQWfCNJ1RPnx31rBl/s400/20190630_101738.jpg" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; background-color: #222222; border: 1px solid rgb(17, 17, 17); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 1px; position: relative;" width="341" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Main-stage show:</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMLlKuZ29D2oECYoLxOiwPfmScNnOndKY5FradNZzfjGuzmA8qkPVdSfZH5vI4ZD4kiueLXmsVFFebnu-ZniUnZGWAH2QN1K1YgK0Jeaa3UkbsdhNnCSSX5xaAcj8kOucBFp3hHoFiheSY/s1600/ImaginePirates.LongBeach2019.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="760" data-original-width="1600" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMLlKuZ29D2oECYoLxOiwPfmScNnOndKY5FradNZzfjGuzmA8qkPVdSfZH5vI4ZD4kiueLXmsVFFebnu-ZniUnZGWAH2QN1K1YgK0Jeaa3UkbsdhNnCSSX5xaAcj8kOucBFp3hHoFiheSY/s400/ImaginePirates.LongBeach2019.png" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; background-color: #222222; border: 1px solid rgb(17, 17, 17); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 1px; position: relative;" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjILjVi8rVCbzgcd_OgX66d5yVuKUvE-7S_XMcY8h0PbI5jbZRdseKCwa3f_UvQ7jxt9vQAg1ek8EhEhgm2zgD0a2CvxNziD-DVlVrwJa5y2mChyphenhyphenSVRM4KXZX1SFon287pO46fqDhAiJmDl/s1600/ImaginePirates2019.2.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="729" data-original-width="1600" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjILjVi8rVCbzgcd_OgX66d5yVuKUvE-7S_XMcY8h0PbI5jbZRdseKCwa3f_UvQ7jxt9vQAg1ek8EhEhgm2zgD0a2CvxNziD-DVlVrwJa5y2mChyphenhyphenSVRM4KXZX1SFon287pO46fqDhAiJmDl/s400/ImaginePirates2019.2.png" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; background-color: #222222; border: 1px solid rgb(17, 17, 17); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 1px; position: relative;" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Ship show:</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipQSGs_3xna8bH5J2lw0lcUhkgMH9TpFzcBzbfbjBqsBHZF5yeQRRHiZYAAj2MgEylPn2v3PMfDuYd2wiSF009ows3YTX8-8vEAuQZBLTgwhnFbWspann0adCFJmRdBmAHduDuh8NANLix/s1600/ImaginePirates.2019.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="753" data-original-width="1505" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipQSGs_3xna8bH5J2lw0lcUhkgMH9TpFzcBzbfbjBqsBHZF5yeQRRHiZYAAj2MgEylPn2v3PMfDuYd2wiSF009ows3YTX8-8vEAuQZBLTgwhnFbWspann0adCFJmRdBmAHduDuh8NANLix/s400/ImaginePirates.2019.png" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; background-color: #222222; border: 1px solid rgb(17, 17, 17); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 1px; position: relative;" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNGXh056W1sFJjx4KFn6sOjP_mAejRtX8wxev55D6sWLQiSeqtzzdR8bHFAHNHv2_5VZ8gp9IrPbDnlt2RiSt7UB1Swa74NDwTRutSUWpNWyjTIzCDJfEj_n1isO3UkHJc8qswrKFzGSgE/s1600/ImaginePirates2019.3.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="818" data-original-width="1342" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNGXh056W1sFJjx4KFn6sOjP_mAejRtX8wxev55D6sWLQiSeqtzzdR8bHFAHNHv2_5VZ8gp9IrPbDnlt2RiSt7UB1Swa74NDwTRutSUWpNWyjTIzCDJfEj_n1isO3UkHJc8qswrKFzGSgE/s400/ImaginePirates2019.3.png" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; background-color: #222222; border: 1px solid rgb(17, 17, 17); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 1px; position: relative;" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><b>Friends and Co-Pirates:</b></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The Brothers Galahvan.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5MuF9TTAmHXZ13jTNK9FMOdJpeu_OZW7USACuh1-NgZzStuuQxyN8ZR7IwwCJO3F425R85O3GT7Yt6QfXZTXg1kZecWzThuHEDyssQvVmJd3baLP2YkQlZ3lEN_pOXd1ftrc2x1ch2a9I/s1600/66252297_10219137295684574_5725005330404868096_o.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5MuF9TTAmHXZ13jTNK9FMOdJpeu_OZW7USACuh1-NgZzStuuQxyN8ZR7IwwCJO3F425R85O3GT7Yt6QfXZTXg1kZecWzThuHEDyssQvVmJd3baLP2YkQlZ3lEN_pOXd1ftrc2x1ch2a9I/s400/66252297_10219137295684574_5725005330404868096_o.jpg" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; background-color: #222222; border: 1px solid rgb(17, 17, 17); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 1px; position: relative;" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Captain Mark of the Aqualink.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLjHKz_ZDvjFvpXsZsTE5TnsRQT9JsbWFAXmIg1VRWmnj3WIfm9x-ehi0EecAM94URgg5xAmiSPe-SuDofW4pEBj9w9Pi6_Ul1uM4nb8qkC3HqrH2Uowp0y0itWv29Ef2KkMWnzMwfSfAF/s1600/20190630_143918.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1065" data-original-width="1600" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLjHKz_ZDvjFvpXsZsTE5TnsRQT9JsbWFAXmIg1VRWmnj3WIfm9x-ehi0EecAM94URgg5xAmiSPe-SuDofW4pEBj9w9Pi6_Ul1uM4nb8qkC3HqrH2Uowp0y0itWv29Ef2KkMWnzMwfSfAF/s400/20190630_143918.jpg" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; background-color: #222222; border: 1px solid rgb(17, 17, 17); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 1px; position: relative;" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Kendra and Mary Widow.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVWH0suAaMnqMQLrKiGaG5ULlWGsvO4ErRVnLvWYreXny6qHWBLml_HBhSIHeAgVui9oSHAww8Tjy0BDz9FVOPTAToOyJmooM3jLupMdS0TZY7ozt8f6EkYSdMOa7dIJpOJ2KHxIeWUlao/s1600/20190629_201232.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1554" data-original-width="1600" height="387" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVWH0suAaMnqMQLrKiGaG5ULlWGsvO4ErRVnLvWYreXny6qHWBLml_HBhSIHeAgVui9oSHAww8Tjy0BDz9FVOPTAToOyJmooM3jLupMdS0TZY7ozt8f6EkYSdMOa7dIJpOJ2KHxIeWUlao/s400/20190629_201232.jpg" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; background-color: #222222; border: 1px solid rgb(17, 17, 17); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 1px; position: relative;" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Everyone but me.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8ZFl7zu1gPbnv9YR_W7tMptbHcYGdFDooO4ov5Qxqzu4uR7kty_cfVqmqR8s3SkM_zyC7D8vHey8ZqW7hoGklSDfjilAMbWx9UGdWkW9ifqQNkgc6i4qkdj2fB5Fv3krfI9bScS1ajp8e/s1600/65911521_10214241277008293_8053250648516329472_n.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="596" data-original-width="960" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8ZFl7zu1gPbnv9YR_W7tMptbHcYGdFDooO4ov5Qxqzu4uR7kty_cfVqmqR8s3SkM_zyC7D8vHey8ZqW7hoGklSDfjilAMbWx9UGdWkW9ifqQNkgc6i4qkdj2fB5Fv3krfI9bScS1ajp8e/s400/65911521_10214241277008293_8053250648516329472_n.jpg" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; background-color: #222222; border: 1px solid rgb(17, 17, 17); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 1px; position: relative;" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">All for Rum!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh0zvtuJGZz1MUb1krqyR-JIAuN3YO5seVJZUnsxXjOijVfpQ0fPvAIDqyKmeUiqCHuujfohuJqeT6hBEUaMQN_dtOkl984bWP23we3g-YvKHO0HR63GA10rxXYfqVzEifqnEkgiqBKkm9/s1600/IMG_1344-1.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh0zvtuJGZz1MUb1krqyR-JIAuN3YO5seVJZUnsxXjOijVfpQ0fPvAIDqyKmeUiqCHuujfohuJqeT6hBEUaMQN_dtOkl984bWP23we3g-YvKHO0HR63GA10rxXYfqVzEifqnEkgiqBKkm9/s400/IMG_1344-1.JPG" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; background-color: #222222; border: 1px solid rgb(17, 17, 17); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 1px; position: relative;" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">More to come...</span></div></div></div></div></div>Wench Whispererhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15589439410613677518noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3353921144501096750.post-64637703846644403372022-06-09T12:59:00.009-07:002022-06-18T19:12:27.043-07:00Coming Out Stabbing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><p></p><p>First posted on February 23, 2019. </p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSqMoEKX_WQSmo93IXwmB2Y3DzP_YVTNKZ1sHNDD4IVVjHnMkgI2CJOqfMbd9ziyX4hsHHpy_LyRIwmNBM3L4cJKYEmlP8sa2iDFboABpApBy69TcZ-FaRqMrvrRJ979nphq1oSTSAet1V-ohhzkFfdaytdiGzunjiwPGQjQQmAc1yjqetrUeCmcXY5w/s1037/PirateEnvy.ImaginePirates.Hollywood.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="714" data-original-width="1037" height="440" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSqMoEKX_WQSmo93IXwmB2Y3DzP_YVTNKZ1sHNDD4IVVjHnMkgI2CJOqfMbd9ziyX4hsHHpy_LyRIwmNBM3L4cJKYEmlP8sa2iDFboABpApBy69TcZ-FaRqMrvrRJ979nphq1oSTSAet1V-ohhzkFfdaytdiGzunjiwPGQjQQmAc1yjqetrUeCmcXY5w/w640-h440/PirateEnvy.ImaginePirates.Hollywood.png" width="640" /></a></p>Wench Whispererhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15589439410613677518noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3353921144501096750.post-66822204501238694742022-06-09T12:56:00.030-07:002022-06-10T20:37:06.945-07:00Safety Last (part 1): Finding the Sense of Danger<div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; min-height: 14px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><br />"Nobody ever went into battle shouting: 'Give me safety or </i></span><br /><i><span style="font-size: large;">give me death!' And neither </span><span style="font-size: large;">shall we go on stage preoccupied </span></i><br /><i><span style="font-size: large;">with our physical well-being. The show is bigger </span><span style="font-size: large;">than any of </span></i><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><i>us, so if you're more concerned about your own survival </i></span><br /><i><span style="font-size: large;">than about </span><span style="font-size: large;">performing a great show, then you're on the wrong </span></i><br /><i><span style="font-size: large;">pyrate crew! Safety is not </span><span style="font-size: large;">worth dying for, </span><span style="font-size: large;">and it's </span></i><br /><i><span style="font-size: large;">not </span><span style="font-size: large;">worth the show dying for..."</span></i></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: large;">In the early 1990s i wrote my first script for Brethren of the Coast. Our director complained the script was "unperformable" and demanded changes. So i changed the director. The new director didn't work out either so i directed everything myself from then on. The next year we did a new show, 'Sanguinarium,' which i proclaimed to be my masterpiece but which Wolf described as: "an anguished cry for help." Before our first performance i said a few words to the cast to get them into the proper spirit.</span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span>"The sound of an audience laughing and cheering is </span></i><i><span>worth </span></i><br /><i><span>more to me than </span></i><i><span>my own life. So it's certainly </span></i><i><span>worth more </span></i></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span>than any of your lives. Therefore: </span></i><i><span>i don't </span></i><i><span>care who gets </span></i></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span>the laughs, just as long as the show is </span></i><i><span>funny. And i don't </span></i><br /><i><span>care how many of you get </span></i><i><span>hurt or killed, </span></i></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: medium;">only that the fights look good..."</span></i></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif; text-align: center;"><i><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLDX7RxSM6NIlHsFau3dYBu9R14GoEyHQX95FIV3tRCWPlSdYbql08TM-gftGPtrB_jku_LyB54J3oWa356_qvge7krb7Ef0sSbAwZzVbdOOAPIYGMaRNNBEmdg1Ui520cpav6dgt4drJeB5VMYbOBrgufqVcc36oXeLuHTG4IUDJqfkb1D83WDSq-Cw/s400/SpeechBeforeShow.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="215" data-original-width="400" height="344" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLDX7RxSM6NIlHsFau3dYBu9R14GoEyHQX95FIV3tRCWPlSdYbql08TM-gftGPtrB_jku_LyB54J3oWa356_qvge7krb7Ef0sSbAwZzVbdOOAPIYGMaRNNBEmdg1Ui520cpav6dgt4drJeB5VMYbOBrgufqVcc36oXeLuHTG4IUDJqfkb1D83WDSq-Cw/w640-h344/SpeechBeforeShow.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Bullshitting the crew. i've got skills at this.</i></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></i></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif; text-align: center;"><div style="min-height: 14px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> In truth, there were only a couple of the crew whose deaths i would have been indifferent to but it was Brethren policy to cultivate our reputation as reckless, heck-raising pirates so i did my part.</span></div><div style="min-height: 14px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="min-height: 14px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Wolf and i had spent some weeks and broken some swords choreographing a double-cutlass duel. i wrote a quick five-person skit that incorporated the duel so we could perform it for the rest of the Brethren on Catalina Island. During that voyage Lazarus drank 12 bottles of Guinness, puked on himself, then passed out below deck. We revived him when we docked at the island and he hiked to the isthmus with us to perform. Badly, very badly. The skit got a great reaction though so i rewrote and expanded it into the 12-person show that became <i>Sanguinarium</i>.</span></div><div style="min-height: 14px; text-align: start;"><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmHwp25NNkvbdd1JccXEJIhtSOIrhwRHRBQv-Ro5YFxKezVqdBob-mYdmQg5u55cZuPfXlo3Et3fX4-0boHV-zuyiRCW5dNFVlM6RduQt-ebPCaDRbPbeRHJ8X8LBPxR8nVDfuR4OvN2VkRBl0raPdcg-n96rD9FhYO5Fvb_inRDDX_ToOjTqEcudfYQ/s772/Lazarus_shipboard.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="610" data-original-width="772" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmHwp25NNkvbdd1JccXEJIhtSOIrhwRHRBQv-Ro5YFxKezVqdBob-mYdmQg5u55cZuPfXlo3Et3fX4-0boHV-zuyiRCW5dNFVlM6RduQt-ebPCaDRbPbeRHJ8X8LBPxR8nVDfuR4OvN2VkRBl0raPdcg-n96rD9FhYO5Fvb_inRDDX_ToOjTqEcudfYQ/w400-h316/Lazarus_shipboard.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Lazarus: Hours away from a great performance</i>.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="min-height: 14px; text-align: start;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheb9b3yp7VjWDFC7g_7gWAKDNMgG40S9fWtKuEyD5x94LtGPj9lCBRx-kGyR22FcdBCQoFzQ1JG8HU8JjUBd6FvxUAdlqaea2sQPJZWuslce9zS1B451CUaFWDPpo_MFZx5CpO8PTZjBmrek2C26mGj6p53kvwJfVRHc7bTgeon0ru4y01cAE_0ghf5Q/s903/Lazarus_Severine.CatalinaPhotoByJessicaBlack.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="834" data-original-width="903" height="370" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheb9b3yp7VjWDFC7g_7gWAKDNMgG40S9fWtKuEyD5x94LtGPj9lCBRx-kGyR22FcdBCQoFzQ1JG8HU8JjUBd6FvxUAdlqaea2sQPJZWuslce9zS1B451CUaFWDPpo_MFZx5CpO8PTZjBmrek2C26mGj6p53kvwJfVRHc7bTgeon0ru4y01cAE_0ghf5Q/w400-h370/Lazarus_Severine.CatalinaPhotoByJessicaBlack.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: large;"> The gist of the plot was: each of several pirates attempting to steal o box of treasure from the others thru fighting, palaverance, backstabbing, treachery and dirty tricks. Beginning with a dozen pirates, it got down to four, then two who seem to have co-conspired against the others but, naturally, then betray each other until just one wench, Severine, is alone on a stage surrounded by dead pirates. She thinks she'll finally claim that treasure, but then. . .</span></div><div style="min-height: 14px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="min-height: 14px; text-align: start;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYy0LieiUfLwlFHhx5PjqQy7PxEZUqnZigmfN2-1mnd_oMQNlPm1nvbi6-atedlV4pXrDQeFRE0b5YHMI1SiKRYURlf0uM8749CdFO6TSVex_PUPrDySo0Iw_TZtrYKoFXoOXsElybH7NoVXLpekExw1Ib3kn--BjQFv4CXU5T2_DkUBY8pXpPWU2vIg/s1600/Bullet_Wolf.Catalina.PhotoByJessicaBlack.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1058" data-original-width="1600" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYy0LieiUfLwlFHhx5PjqQy7PxEZUqnZigmfN2-1mnd_oMQNlPm1nvbi6-atedlV4pXrDQeFRE0b5YHMI1SiKRYURlf0uM8749CdFO6TSVex_PUPrDySo0Iw_TZtrYKoFXoOXsElybH7NoVXLpekExw1Ib3kn--BjQFv4CXU5T2_DkUBY8pXpPWU2vIg/w400-h265/Bullet_Wolf.Catalina.PhotoByJessicaBlack.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>In those early days our pirate look was not even passable.</i></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix_3odkE53AhDcwKWG64gBclTWEhTnmf_4WUDjZl-EMvxpnJsSHSzrQ4Rjm-oeca_TFUCJl4C-tquRm_rJdHI3RFOY4ecNzyYs2OAUaGYfh1ZnDzPJY5333m08TgKSLC51YCPxOcTIoUKnnlGEaN4mkESOKKHUFUh8_Z1M0w58VWCg-0LR0V8yu07N8g/s1505/Winifred_Bullet_Wolf.Catalina.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="535" data-original-width="1505" height="229" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix_3odkE53AhDcwKWG64gBclTWEhTnmf_4WUDjZl-EMvxpnJsSHSzrQ4Rjm-oeca_TFUCJl4C-tquRm_rJdHI3RFOY4ecNzyYs2OAUaGYfh1ZnDzPJY5333m08TgKSLC51YCPxOcTIoUKnnlGEaN4mkESOKKHUFUh8_Z1M0w58VWCg-0LR0V8yu07N8g/w640-h229/Winifred_Bullet_Wolf.Catalina.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: large;"> i felt it was better if every performer got a few laughs and memorable moments, so there were no "leads" or stars in this show, no heroes, just vile, reprehensible characters whose sole redeeming attribute was that they were interesting to watch. i wrote the script to fit the cast -rather than casting it to fit the script- so everybody was portraying themself; Wolf, Lazarus, Severine, Winifred, Francisco, Baxter, Drake, myself, and Captain Bellows. The few other roles were played by different people each time depending on who was available. </span></div><div style="min-height: 14px; text-align: start;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4KEPLkapPiw2fDdhF7d5YqOfz3ux4rq1teYGNgrlwCZNHnCFsM7bIwJinorsUdqVNN6_bKEUZfMAxXrW4T2SL8HAQ3CARQeEpz-oTwf_io1U8wONKw5BApyKJiqtTgiXXwq714KjGZG2DAPDVDaCGrAaSCCVFfISqqAdUdXS-2GzsnBsE6I2aqbNBrQ/s1351/SanguinariumCast.2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="691" data-original-width="1351" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4KEPLkapPiw2fDdhF7d5YqOfz3ux4rq1teYGNgrlwCZNHnCFsM7bIwJinorsUdqVNN6_bKEUZfMAxXrW4T2SL8HAQ3CARQeEpz-oTwf_io1U8wONKw5BApyKJiqtTgiXXwq714KjGZG2DAPDVDaCGrAaSCCVFfISqqAdUdXS-2GzsnBsE6I2aqbNBrQ/w400-h205/SanguinariumCast.2.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: large;"> We did 'Sanguinarium' at different venues throughout the summer and something always went injuriously wrong. Winifred stabbed my hand in one performance. It swelled up before the second show, two hours later, so much that i could barely wrap my fingers around a sword hilt and when the blades met during the double-cutlass the wound popped open, squirting like a fat angry zit. The hilt became wet, slippery then sticky, i struggled not to drop it. The fight was awkward but the show prevailed.</span></div></div><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif;"> A week after that i cracked Wolf's nose with a belaying pin (not intentionally). He had to wipe with his sash and snort blood before each line to finish the show. A couple days later i stabbed Lazarus during rehearsal, into the back of his hand and out the palm. It was bloody. He had a gig that night with his band and went onstage with a wad of cotton taped to his palm and a maxi pad over his knuckles. They were punk rock so nobody noticed.</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif;" /><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif;"> For the first dozen shows someone got hurt in every single performance yet we always got more applause than the other acts so we began to suspect that, like a NASCAR race, certain people watched us just hoping to see a wreck.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje046k5NoR2acT5TnqShzEfwvu6LjgI0x51Eu3IT0nyvDv0e1_E3mWoFQrOPOQQUcVIaYXV1FUdYpn_lT3vUO7tnT77O38Ha6dTy0YQfe6x1jRgqRrpWFrrkHDM3etzsSs7ByAmnx4zaUVOPm7K4SOjGQ9VqwQt5faOcLb6WDvcdvrfLTqXWigHbzuUQ/s1600/SanguinariumCast.1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="566" data-original-width="1600" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje046k5NoR2acT5TnqShzEfwvu6LjgI0x51Eu3IT0nyvDv0e1_E3mWoFQrOPOQQUcVIaYXV1FUdYpn_lT3vUO7tnT77O38Ha6dTy0YQfe6x1jRgqRrpWFrrkHDM3etzsSs7ByAmnx4zaUVOPm7K4SOjGQ9VqwQt5faOcLb6WDvcdvrfLTqXWigHbzuUQ/w640-h226/SanguinariumCast.1.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"> But after we'd done it enough times it started going smoothly. We'd adapted to the complications of blood-wet slippery stages and stepping over the dead during combat. (the dead always had their eyes open in terror that a weapon would land on them) We also got comfortable with the sword choreography and this was not a good thing. It didn't seem as piratey when everything worked. The fights were tighter, even graceful, but the audiences weren't gasping or cheering as much. The verbal jokes still got laughs but something intangible was missing. We had evolved into a polished theatrical troupe and polish did not work when you were a pirate.</span><p></p><p><span></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: large; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjME3YkdEeIwL7E5Vv4fpFDpJWe2nVItHpPDTzxSdzU-gd3dt9IzO2SnX81KcTPHkORJiO74MyrIZQD4ZFXfqpC_jM9kBmv0ZPnw6scXRxPnn2nGtqacgB7-sef8xVMAYiTd1uZU-Wd4rIU6rkwoYMtSx25GW2HBuM-HdTOgOkZCR5wQpQS9jNLbtTIBQ/s1012/Winifred_Lazarus_Severine.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="587" data-original-width="1012" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjME3YkdEeIwL7E5Vv4fpFDpJWe2nVItHpPDTzxSdzU-gd3dt9IzO2SnX81KcTPHkORJiO74MyrIZQD4ZFXfqpC_jM9kBmv0ZPnw6scXRxPnn2nGtqacgB7-sef8xVMAYiTd1uZU-Wd4rIU6rkwoYMtSx25GW2HBuM-HdTOgOkZCR5wQpQS9jNLbtTIBQ/w400-h233/Winifred_Lazarus_Severine.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Winifred, Lazarus, Severine.</i></td></tr></tbody></table><span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"> Lazarus did tattoos at Voodoo Ink on Hollywood Blvd. We were there one afternoon drinking tequila shots, watching a stripper get her nipples pierced when he proclaimed: "Something's wrong with the show! It's not fun anymore."</span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"> "i know it, man. i know."</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"> "We're just a bunch of actors now. I don't feel like a pirate anymore."</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"> "Maybe we need a new show."</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"> "We can't do a new show. I finally have my lines almost memorized." (by "memorized" he meant able to remember that he had a line when it came up, not so much able to deliver the line correctly)</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"> "The jokes still work. It's something else..."</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"> "It's the fights. That double-cutlass thing used to be the sh*t, but it doesn't pack a punch anymore. It looks like choreography."</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"> "That's because we don't screw it up like we used to."</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"> "That's what's wrong with it! When you look too rehearsed people realize they're just watching a show. There's no sense of danger unless you f*ck up once in a while so it looks like a real fight."</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"> "Sh*t! We should drink before the shows, so we're sure to f*ck things up."</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"> "Good idea!"</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"> Naturally Lazarus thought it was a good idea, he'd never done a sober show yet. Still, i resolved to test this theory (strictly for science) so at our next show i stealthily downed a few jiggers of rotgut rum just minutes before stagetime. i was discreet about it because i'd always discouraged the cast from over imbibing.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"> The show began with a three on one fight against our captain, Jaimie Bellows, with him prevailing and vanquishing us. The liquor crept up on me thru those first moments. i couldn't tell what effect it had on my swordfighting but it sure well worked on my mind. i felt GREAT! Like a true pirate, completely in character. This was awesome! The only thing that went wrong in the whole show was a squib not breaking, nobody even got hurt. What a triumph.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"> "Helluva show!" said Lazarus.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"> "What a show," said Bellows. "Now we can get a drink, finally!"</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"> "Umm, yeah," i said. "Let's get a drink." i was already four sheets to the hurricaine but i presumed they couldn't tell. (they could tell but i was too drunk to tell that they could tell)</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"> Severine wasn't fooled. She began shouting at me: "What the hell were you doing, going onstage drunk?!"</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"> Had i been sober at that moment i would have realized the futility of trying to explain it to her but, alack, in my diminished state, i tried: "i thought the show might look more natural if i wasn't so sober."</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"> "Well it didn't. You forgot half your lines!"</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"> "You're exaggerating. You're a pathological exaggerator.."</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"> "And you totally grabbed Winifred's ass in your scene with her."</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"> "i don't remember that." If i had done that i regret not remembering it.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"> "Oh yeah, and you scared the hell out of Cabinboy." It had been Cabinboy's first show with us. (We called all the new recruits Cabinboy until we came up with proper pirate names for them).</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"> "Why? What's his problem?"</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"> "When his squib didn't break he was afraid you were going to stab him for real just to get some blood in the scene."</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"> "He's right. Blood is very important for this show. Next time i will stab him to get that blood. He moved out of the way this time." i meant that as a joke, of course, (no, honest, it was a joke).</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"> "You should go talk to him and tell him he's safe. He thinks you're mad that he didn't let you stab him. Now he's afraid to do the next performance."</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"> "No, he isn't."</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"> "No, he really is! You need to talk to him."</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"> "Balls to that! i'm drinking."</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"> i staggered off toward the bar. Severine followed. "I need a drink too…"</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"> Cabinboy didn't show up for the next day's performance.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOsK2VgmiUvraNj01XqQKs_xwyVDKh8oxp1ocS2DdGxIptXnnyYOUIOK04YpIBSonNE3FxQe29GrxgncZ0_ZB2xom5L7nvyvq23XimM8Y1eSFJ4rWtSp5JhQEWqkBWg09sNw83HIo1dDUgL1Fymd-VEsQhzDY6bhK1xvbuVE2Kl9gnPPItoUp1xqddqg/s818/Severine.1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="818" data-original-width="408" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOsK2VgmiUvraNj01XqQKs_xwyVDKh8oxp1ocS2DdGxIptXnnyYOUIOK04YpIBSonNE3FxQe29GrxgncZ0_ZB2xom5L7nvyvq23XimM8Y1eSFJ4rWtSp5JhQEWqkBWg09sNw83HIo1dDUgL1Fymd-VEsQhzDY6bhK1xvbuVE2Kl9gnPPItoUp1xqddqg/w200-h400/Severine.1.jpg" width="200" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Severine.</i></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"> </span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"> i had resolved not to drink for the next show but it was too late, the precedent had been set: "If the director can drink," the crew reasoned, "then we can drink too." It was immediately clear that something was wrong. Wolf was slurring his words. He was thoroughly, obviously drunk. This is going to go badly, i thought. And it did. The fights did not look like choreography though, and the crowd applauded during the double-cutlass.</span><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGU4Z7V9vlREO49MZoJxbaQ70Hf9OdCVYQPLWoZog3LeHQxUSaDxEJlUqYw-gOLw3jko3NVyYG7sKB5INOre8UIRydjtFBXN5PzKbuX2z7owkowCgx0lsfSM2G25neSE9uH3GUhORy3cHKRrZi_ozKnaVmt9n4CY1wVlX5fSZLe_5UGioa9EZs4wNvFA/s1600/Winifred_Bullet.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1052" data-original-width="1600" height="420" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGU4Z7V9vlREO49MZoJxbaQ70Hf9OdCVYQPLWoZog3LeHQxUSaDxEJlUqYw-gOLw3jko3NVyYG7sKB5INOre8UIRydjtFBXN5PzKbuX2z7owkowCgx0lsfSM2G25neSE9uH3GUhORy3cHKRrZi_ozKnaVmt9n4CY1wVlX5fSZLe_5UGioa9EZs4wNvFA/w640-h420/Winifred_Bullet.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"> Bellows got us gigs like the CutThroat Island screening and the Redondo Beach pier opening but we also did a few non-piratey things like histrorical festivals and faires. i really hated the faires. They always contained at least a few meddling, busy-body, "safer-than-thou" types. (Lazarus called them "safety-nazis"). Sword performers who held to a narrow opinion of how things should be done and were hostile to anyone who deviated from their orthodoxy. These were broadsword/rapier/etc. fighters. As pirates, we used different weapons hence we did things diferently. We didn't criticize them for being different but they sure came after us.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"> At those events we could measure our success by the amount of hostility we got from the other performers. We quickly realized that whenever someone told us how bad our show was it was usually because our show went over better than theirs had, it was just jealousy, so if we came off stage to the rebukings and admonishments of other artistes we knew we'd done well.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"> Some criticisms were reasonable, like: "Maybe you guys need to rehearse more." i would respond by pointing to the Brethren of the Coast placard next to the stage and asking, "Does that say 'Refined demonstration of thespianic skill?' No, it says: 'PIRATES!'"</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"> Sometimes the older sword performers would try to lecture us, affecting superiority and then boring us with "safer-than-thou" platitudes and suggestions -like "Never drink before a performance"- that would have only weakened our act until it sucked as bad as theirs had.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"> We pirates felt that, as long as the audience didn't get hurt, the performers were adults who could decide for themselves what risks we were willing to take by getting onstage with one another, we could only blame ourselves for our injuries so it wasn't anyone else's concern. But these "lecturer" types presumed that we were trying to do what they did: polished proficient swordfights. They were wrong; we were pirates and there is no polish or gracefulness in piracy. It was they who wanted what we had: the fun of performing.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"> One memorable "Safety First" crusader insisted on condemning us for recklessness after we'd done a particularly successful show. This guy got so angry that Lazarus and i couldn't resist antagonizing him, we eventually made a sport of these perpetually outraged busybodies. This fellow berated us for several minutes, seriously shouting things like: "Your whole crew is dangerous and you shouldn't be allowed to perform anywhere, at all, ever!" i again pointed to the placard. "Does that say 'Polished demonstration of the proper and gentlemanly techniques of swordplay?' Well, does it? No. It says: 'PIRATES!'"</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"> "Well I'm reporting you for drinking!"</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"> "Dude, we're pirates. PIRATES!" He just didn't comprehend it.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"> "You're the most unprofessional group I've ever seen!" He was furiously mad even though we'd given him no provocation other than winning over an audience he had failed to, and our cheerful demeanor (which we knew would get his goat). He finally stomped away, probably to yell at somebody else he disapproved of. There's always somebody who'll try to make you feel bad about feeling good. F**k those people.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"> Bellows asked: "Who's he going to report us to? The Temperance League?" Lazarus said: "Let's get a drink!"</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"> We never discovered what that guy's problem was but i will speculate that he suffered from a bad case of Pirate Envy.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);">The lessons to be learned from this: 1: There is no polish or gracefulness in piracy. 2: If Patrick Henry had demanded "Give me safety or give me death!" nobody would remember him today. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);">Godspeed!</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"><i>Thanks to Jessica Black Photography for several of the pictures here</i>.</span></span></p>Wench Whispererhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15589439410613677518noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3353921144501096750.post-84315108439632323792022-06-09T12:55:00.021-07:002022-06-15T20:56:16.588-07:00Sinking Before Swimming<p> First gig ever. Shoreline Village, Long Beach CA. 2017.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Ready or not. In this case not. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">i'll add more soon.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9JXIVRRiLgc" width="320" youtube-src-id="9JXIVRRiLgc"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ruzi1NqK32s" width="320" youtube-src-id="ruzi1NqK32s"></iframe></div><br /><p></p>Wench Whispererhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15589439410613677518noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3353921144501096750.post-37854028418497330452022-06-09T12:53:00.027-07:002022-06-12T18:31:06.648-07:00Sea of Darkness 4: Thru the Straits of Dire<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDf5SKPxrfEMglZabWi8gCseE_x9E5nEB1fpR_GeSPBJe9qLwO4rsef7cLRnUTqhIYfVnWKCWwj0pXk0ZMZd8LyRDGI1IAiuUnxwuAoNXHpBjUx5ZRhthxBeha3RidHtkgRhPYzYo6ZIXpcQLOvgebMQeeXjcVlWS98KMcUwLgjwo8NmiMhEr4Np6_zw/s719/Crow_OldeNick-1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="464" data-original-width="719" height="414" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDf5SKPxrfEMglZabWi8gCseE_x9E5nEB1fpR_GeSPBJe9qLwO4rsef7cLRnUTqhIYfVnWKCWwj0pXk0ZMZd8LyRDGI1IAiuUnxwuAoNXHpBjUx5ZRhthxBeha3RidHtkgRhPYzYo6ZIXpcQLOvgebMQeeXjcVlWS98KMcUwLgjwo8NmiMhEr4Np6_zw/w640-h414/Crow_OldeNick-1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div></div><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: large;">By the year 2006, after more than a decade of pirating, i finally had a troupe that was getting some traction in show business, hitting the stages of Los Angeles in an escalating maelstrom of performances. These were often tailored for our specific audience of the moment hence we would come up with plot scenarios whilst driving to gigs, then ad lib the rest during the show, -you can do that sort of thing when you've been working with the same people for a while. These landlocked shows took <span style="text-decoration: line-through;">most of my time</span>, all of my time.</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: 13.199999809265137px;" /><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: large;"> In the spring of that year, for reasons unfathomable and despite my soberest judgement, i allowed my crew, <b>Revenge From The Sea</b>, to talk me into doing a pirate cruise. </span><div><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: large;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1IaB-_TNO0FNW44_zysjiq3RTg220ess3j83XxFF0PKMK8sSVRfMUOnLYdV1E3VtWlOwZY7ClmuWpxdmF-as_Vj-J7aPbJ46rQjgwjyZh1slmB5CbJo1TpzWQjDhVqCRFEwLHf5O_gxtT3IU9bMNam_MJa5EA2VAo78l8spdVWgZUCR88y77ryloQvg/s1600/B_B.show.1.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1041" data-original-width="1600" height="416" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1IaB-_TNO0FNW44_zysjiq3RTg220ess3j83XxFF0PKMK8sSVRfMUOnLYdV1E3VtWlOwZY7ClmuWpxdmF-as_Vj-J7aPbJ46rQjgwjyZh1slmB5CbJo1TpzWQjDhVqCRFEwLHf5O_gxtT3IU9bMNam_MJa5EA2VAo78l8spdVWgZUCR88y77ryloQvg/w640-h416/B_B.show.1.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Brandi: <i>"Hey, you should do a pirate cruise this year!"</i> Bullet: <i>"i'll kill you!"</i></td></tr></tbody></table></span></div><div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> Unlike my theatrical troupe, RFTS did their pirating on a ship at sea rather than on some silly stage. i would insist they do a performance on the ship though, just because i thought it was fun and because it was the only time that i could write a script exactly how i wanted, without having to consider anyone else's tastes. </span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> Besides writing the script, doing a cruise meant making hundreds of phone calls to organize rehearsals, getting Omen to paint a cool cover for the invitations, writing, printing then snail-mailing the invitations, (we didn't send email invites because we didn't want people forwarding them). We also needed to determine a 'share of plunder' to hand out, then design and create 100 of them. Oh yeah, and there was the money problem. i'd have to pay for rum, mailings, plunder shares and the ship itself. </span></div></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7DVefQ0s35jQv14v_ELHyf3NZOtFZ-azyq13rnQejbR2mGu45UyJYcEAj_04vHgVeI6mh2YRgPhK2E_4--ac1QssM1yySYCPQd-0hJfGyqOpd0O2g419ZjKDCTewlyrsPyYWp2ZGI2isFkDkDYOuxa-mS4oQhOc94JI4aaSuw_Xk2_pXMI1KGY0WUQw/s1280/CIMG5992.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7DVefQ0s35jQv14v_ELHyf3NZOtFZ-azyq13rnQejbR2mGu45UyJYcEAj_04vHgVeI6mh2YRgPhK2E_4--ac1QssM1yySYCPQd-0hJfGyqOpd0O2g419ZjKDCTewlyrsPyYWp2ZGI2isFkDkDYOuxa-mS4oQhOc94JI4aaSuw_Xk2_pXMI1KGY0WUQw/w640-h480/CIMG5992.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> Deciding that sleep and sanity were for wankers, we commenced preparing for the cruise. My irrationally optimistic business strategy for this event was to reserve the ship then mail out the invites and hope enough people bought passage in advance that i could cover the cost of the charter and other expenses. This didn't always work. Sometimes i had to use my rent money to reserve the ship because people didn't pay up in time. They'd show up just before we sailed, cash in hand. There wouldn't be time to count it all, i'd just shove it in my pocket and hope it was enough to cover the check i handed to the ship's captain, telling him, "Please don't deposit this for a few days." The next morning i'd pay rent with apologies to the landlord for being three weeks late, laying out hundreds of dollars in piles of small bills on his desk. He became suspicious once and asked if i'd robbed a liquor store for the money. i told him, "No, man. i was <i>pirating!</i>" There were no further questions.</span></div><div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> Other than a few crossover people, Revenge From The Sea were a very different monster than the landlocked troupe. Most of us never even saw one another except during the few weeks of cruise rehearsals each year so we were an harmonious group, by pirate standards, in that we weren't sick of working together and only a few of us hated each other's guts. </span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> Los Angeles is geographically vast and we were scattered throughout it so we never managed a rehearsal where everyone was present at the same time. We practiced in shifts where about half the cast were present and a few valiant performers read multiple parts to cover for those who weren't there. We had two months -rather than the usual three- to make this cruise work. i'd written the script quickly, furiously, and somewhat incompetently. It included foolishly whimsical ideas like trying to rhyme "Caribbean" with "Gonorrhea." My reasoning skills were obviously diminished because, at the time, i really thought that would work.</span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">CROW: <i>"..once a mighty pirate of the </i><b><i>Caribbeah</i></b><i>, now a pirate of the </i><b><i>gonorrhea! </i></b><i>That's why i never engage a doxy without my proper wenching hat."</i></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">DOXY POX: <i>"But sir, you don't wear a wenching hat."</i></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">CROW: <i>"Not on my head, i don't."</i></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> </span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> The whole script was this level of nonsense. It was crap but i was too exhausted to notice. Wolf quit after the first rehearsal, i should have realized then that something was wrong but i was preoccupied with other things. Wolf had been pirating with me for twelve years, he had a powerful voice that held an audience's attention and kept the other performers in line. The show wouldn't be as good without him in it. He left a note for me that read: <i>"This script is nothing less than FINE."</i> Whenever i didn't like something but was trying to be diplomatic i would describe it as <i>"fine."</i> Wolf calling my script <i>"fine"</i> was the worst insult possible but, again, i was just too busy to think about it. i did a quick rewrite -further weakening the bad script- to accommodate his absence and we continued rehearsals.</span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO4W4HIxqgbH9OKxJ6K7Tnp27DvD5ITBzetrxw5JHIqbQLFPbU1EEX7QytR7eE_8hIL1Lo9Mvtq5ZdlwXtKxYBgoXf_OGld3sp8L_xkCbcz3r-JtwzdM-7lnE_hdM33PvVoNxMQoSgwOzYCvY5tSo1BqsxlIxDSokjXrqyupLBmnHdpjUe6BUmITcAdg/s635/revenge06_02.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="476" data-original-width="635" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO4W4HIxqgbH9OKxJ6K7Tnp27DvD5ITBzetrxw5JHIqbQLFPbU1EEX7QytR7eE_8hIL1Lo9Mvtq5ZdlwXtKxYBgoXf_OGld3sp8L_xkCbcz3r-JtwzdM-7lnE_hdM33PvVoNxMQoSgwOzYCvY5tSo1BqsxlIxDSokjXrqyupLBmnHdpjUe6BUmITcAdg/w640-h480/revenge06_02.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> A few things did go well, however. Omen Thistle painted a perfect illustration for the invites. i invented the '69 Splatterer' (patent pending), a new form of squib that shot blood in opposite directions simultaneously. We decided to add an extra hour to the charter so we'd have time to do one last rehearsal before taking off. i rigged a new hanger, from netting and boarding pikes, for the 'Ark of the Kaptaincy' so Olde Nick could command from a dignified position. We switched from Whaler's Dark rum to the more popular, and more expensive, Captain Morgan, fixed our gibbeted skeleton, Jack Bladder, to live up to his name, and Miss Blue revamped the entire Revenge From The Sea website in time for us to promote the cruise on it. </span></div></div><div><span><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlgz6icp54TxGk6B4KQFSKN4P0SX4uCRx0c2sGaaixG05AmR80t5VYy7ljcGyzD4Gze5Tl4w7Kko-AQ-JuGvYWaK3sMK3dMoNHxIojsOBnSVWsiBXs3Hhkc4faqU05aRs1fzqov7Xi-lBvJel4YX9TMUbFECTRdDdIm4Pr69Duse9bbpvziijW8M5x8w/s580/SoD4.Invite.2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="580" data-original-width="480" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlgz6icp54TxGk6B4KQFSKN4P0SX4uCRx0c2sGaaixG05AmR80t5VYy7ljcGyzD4Gze5Tl4w7Kko-AQ-JuGvYWaK3sMK3dMoNHxIojsOBnSVWsiBXs3Hhkc4faqU05aRs1fzqov7Xi-lBvJel4YX9TMUbFECTRdDdIm4Pr69Duse9bbpvziijW8M5x8w/w530-h640/SoD4.Invite.2.jpg" width="530" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Omen Thistle painted the invite cover for <b>Sea of Darkness 4</b>. <br />And i spelled 'Straits' incorrectly.</i> </td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> Then, a week before sailing, something almost sank us. Spillit, and myself did a gig where we had to storm a corporate meeting in an office building to sell the CEO on the idea of having a pyrate theme for their upcoming national convention. After a hyper extended Spinal-Tappian search for our client thru the lobbies and back doors of three separate buildings, we boarded an elevator to the top floor. We were to surprise about 60 of the regional directors who had come from all over the country for this meeting.</span></span></div><div><span><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> Upon emerging, pistols and swords in hand from the elevator, some daft office wench was so startled she hid under her desk and called 911 to tell them that armed terrorists were in the building and there was a hostage situation -because, as everybody knows, terrorists always dress like 17th century buccaneers. (isn't there a law against "piratical-profiling"). We had no idea as we were performing our skit, that the client was downstairs frantically explaining to police that the "armed intruders" were hired performers. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> Upon our departure we found a lobby full of cops waiting for us. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> Spillit said: "Sh*t! We'll have to cancel the cruise because they're taking us to Gitmo!" </span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> i said: "We're not going to Gitmo, dude. We have pyratical immunity."</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> The cops didn't arrest us, they just wanted us to pose for pictures with them. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> The CEO of the company found out about this the following week when he recieved an angry letter from the Irvine police dept. telling him he should warn people next time he plans to invite pyrates to their corporate meetings. He decided against having a pyrate theme for their convention.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Three days before sailing, Severine phoned me. i always thought of Sev as a knee-jerk contrarian. Her first reaction to anything new was to proclaim it impossible to accomplish or just a bad idea. Thus i took it with a few grains of sea salt when she said: "You know, I was thinking maybe we shouldn't do a performance this time."</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> "You don't like the script. Go on, say it! You don't have to beat around the bilge pump with me!" </span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> "Honestly," she said. "You've written better shows. Much better. And we haven't had enough time to rehearse anyway." </span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> She spoke in a tone of transparent tactfulness but i could tell she hated my script. Well, at least she didn't call it "fine."</span></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-1VwVmjVA3eg5O7zcehe4aItengahxzQ-D6VBCb0OUG8DEJ40d96nJOLVO9890WZdg2NSRD_Cnhp3nI6UbhNH9LeJoiVp2x2_XFHyiZjq__VvuQv38QTByfh_8LV9PgIAdH7-qnrRmsuppmA5rGKI15TXDBP97mAOk2wy7LbYWSkTtKTmJpY4kdT6_w/s408/l_5ad26ceb2779a773c9cf7f15a2b000ec.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="362" data-original-width="408" height="355" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-1VwVmjVA3eg5O7zcehe4aItengahxzQ-D6VBCb0OUG8DEJ40d96nJOLVO9890WZdg2NSRD_Cnhp3nI6UbhNH9LeJoiVp2x2_XFHyiZjq__VvuQv38QTByfh_8LV9PgIAdH7-qnrRmsuppmA5rGKI15TXDBP97mAOk2wy7LbYWSkTtKTmJpY4kdT6_w/w400-h355/l_5ad26ceb2779a773c9cf7f15a2b000ec.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Severine. Should i have listened to her? Naaah.</i></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> i considered her advice (only because she was my Most Valuable Pirate). It was true that, even without a show, the voyage itself would be a success because we'd be on a tall ship, out on the water with barrels of rum, cannon firing and musicians playing and wenches dancing in the salty spray. That was what most pirates came for anyway. And we hadn't actually advertised that there would be a show, so we weren't obligated to do it. But, dammit, we'd always done a show on the cruise and people would be expecting one. And i just HAD to do it, i was a pathological performer and had committed to this. There was no going back.</span></div><div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> In the days preceding the voyage my fellow Revengers were all drafted to unpleasant duties like rolling scrolls or chopping coconuts or designing DVD labels until, late in the month of July, by the skin of our few remaining teeth, we managed to launch our fourth Voyage. </span></div></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOxARcfrW8Vq4XncO1Rdfny7k8sxhXH3wRWbs0JUqzQVcCZYAoOb-WDQ_hVef5yA0kfw6keDi35Cp9UmMuCK1Rrs7fZWTZ-MEnWaoZzR2QATyB-KZBrlQHbdP8QN51wy0KChCD3kEaJdSF9Bq9Az4QXkUJcDtJeUeph1LKeMf7s-5A3O-XvSxhNTpwbw/s635/revenge06_56.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="635" data-original-width="476" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOxARcfrW8Vq4XncO1Rdfny7k8sxhXH3wRWbs0JUqzQVcCZYAoOb-WDQ_hVef5yA0kfw6keDi35Cp9UmMuCK1Rrs7fZWTZ-MEnWaoZzR2QATyB-KZBrlQHbdP8QN51wy0KChCD3kEaJdSF9Bq9Az4QXkUJcDtJeUeph1LKeMf7s-5A3O-XvSxhNTpwbw/w480-h640/revenge06_56.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> An anonymous person once said: "The difference between men and boys is the size of their toys." Some people aren't content to play with plastic swords or build model kits of miniature pirate ships, they want a real ship, with cannon and sails, a sea wind to push them onward and cutlasses ringing over a blood splashed deck. And rum, lots of rum. Such people are pirates, and about a hundred of them were gathered at the dock in Long Beach whilst my crew went thru a last minute rehearsal aboard ship. It was the first time we'd all been in the same place at once and only then did i notice how truly awful the show was. </span></div><div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> Usually a script starts out at about 40 pages and then gets cut down to 20 or less pages during the course of rehearsals so that it doesn't run too long (about 14 minutes is optimal). The one we were performing was 29 pages and there hadn't been time to edit it or to determine which elements would work and which would bomb. So everything was left in. Every. Stupid. Bad Idea. Still, we were going to perform it because, like an addict holding a crack pipe, i just couldn't stop myself.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> My strategy was to wait until an hour into the cruise before starting the performance. Most of the audience would be on their second or third drink by this time hence more receptive to the entertainment. The trouble was that most of the performers would also be a few sheets to the wind by then so i didn't risk waiting any longer than that. </span></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUHGOyj-nXFaNCZOSLKgWqG-xTFp_LfdshtIoWVNbY3GkVJFuvx_Rb1ljbyZ_dspymp_pQAWmmKPP9G96HptaM4cBKqHgLRg_9FUp992pxOFPgC5gcmbyhTgJHSR6e81DaqURbCYax2OKs7XbIEKbrgvOxOc08fBAKB3ddbZVY8Q-m1U55kbx7zZbPsQ/s1115/SoD49475.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="846" data-original-width="1115" height="486" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUHGOyj-nXFaNCZOSLKgWqG-xTFp_LfdshtIoWVNbY3GkVJFuvx_Rb1ljbyZ_dspymp_pQAWmmKPP9G96HptaM4cBKqHgLRg_9FUp992pxOFPgC5gcmbyhTgJHSR6e81DaqURbCYax2OKs7XbIEKbrgvOxOc08fBAKB3ddbZVY8Q-m1U55kbx7zZbPsQ/w640-h486/SoD49475.jpg" width="640" /></a></div></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzyzRj5HgbARUtgBTBcatOV6JY4FuRkNGh-rUrmIj9zTaS7w73fNqzqulF398R8ot7h4h1RoFVlERhmFUlbcQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> Doxy Pox began ringing the ship's bell for attention, then the musicians began a military drum beat and Mr. Spillit was led out in chains to hear the charges against him before his execution. Cassandra speaks out of turn and Crimson Bastard silences her with the line: "Shove a cork in yer blowhole, ye flank-felching mutton strumpet!" </span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> The line had been written for Wolf. Bastard delivered it differently than Wolf would have. Not badly, just differently. So something seemed off, right from the beginning (it probably didn't help that the words "flank-felching" dont make any damn sense at all). But things got even more off as we continued. The first bit of banter was Spillit trying to talk his way out of being shot. i'd expected this scene to last a couple minutes but it went on and ploddingly on...</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3VxBMnXdBpRLZqROXAUPReWP_LOK6WrEFjLX0wA-Ji624WDHzsrjpQ1nKZF9h0zAvkWc98sgBQ8B3AYzvIqdxaLW2BVPzgjch4GgzaIWAfmNTm5PxVt4uRJZ_A4EFUZL9X7CnfSs8F7p24G0nAQoYUk5KyfZSqMuP9RQ3NXyWSIF5CBr26T7TeD2x3g/s600/Rev06.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="600" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3VxBMnXdBpRLZqROXAUPReWP_LOK6WrEFjLX0wA-Ji624WDHzsrjpQ1nKZF9h0zAvkWc98sgBQ8B3AYzvIqdxaLW2BVPzgjch4GgzaIWAfmNTm5PxVt4uRJZ_A4EFUZL9X7CnfSs8F7p24G0nAQoYUk5KyfZSqMuP9RQ3NXyWSIF5CBr26T7TeD2x3g/w640-h426/Rev06.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div><div><div><span><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-family: times; font-size: large;">SPILLIT: "Stay yerselves! I may be the new man on this crew, But I do insist I've got the right to a trial!" </span></span></div><div><span><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-family: times; font-size: large;">CROW: "Nobody has the right to a trial, Mr. Spillit! Nobody has the right to any rights. Rights are not a right!" </span></span></div><div><span><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-family: times; font-size: large;">CRIMSON BASTARD: "Mr. Crow is right!" </span></span></div><div><span><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-family: times; font-size: large;">CROW: "Cap ye twig no insurrections fomented by this vain deliverer, this would-be slip gibbeting spawn of a Dover brothel whore who speaketh but to spare himself yer rightful wrath! Heed him not, who would seduce ye by the Devil's own words to the world's far edge and over, into the mouth of Hell itself..." </span></span></div><div><span><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-family: times; font-size: large;">DOXY POX: "But sir, it was you who set our course for the Mare Noc---"</span></span></div><div><span><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-family: times; font-size: large;">CROW: "Dammit, wench! Don't interrupt me when I'm bullshitting the crew! ...Mr Spillit's crimes be of the vilest order since Captain Van Helsing stole my hat!...And my cloak...and my general demeanor and overall characterisation."</span></span></div><div><span><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-family: times; font-size: large;">CRIMSON BASTARD: "Well Solomon Kane does make the same complaint against you."</span></span></div><div><span><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-family: times; font-size: large;">CROW: "Must we cut out yet another tongue?"</span></span></div></div><div><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSBC9Sw_AmWzNt5opY0w6xvUhtwbI7g3F9bvg-K6CEaYP8pS2ftQKZquETfCmH23ynLbkK-M95V_aLKWbDI8GOq0U2Az9ImfRFZ6Njf7LbMGt50IbMmRcMArXAwXbmtt2MGJ1nfSL3xXC2-gV9ry2f8wDkDi2CnIRG5gnIgHyUM8l5hKCG5ntOdznOJg/s600/47b6d910b3127cce985492819d5100000017108EatmbhszbS.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="600" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSBC9Sw_AmWzNt5opY0w6xvUhtwbI7g3F9bvg-K6CEaYP8pS2ftQKZquETfCmH23ynLbkK-M95V_aLKWbDI8GOq0U2Az9ImfRFZ6Njf7LbMGt50IbMmRcMArXAwXbmtt2MGJ1nfSL3xXC2-gV9ry2f8wDkDi2CnIRG5gnIgHyUM8l5hKCG5ntOdznOJg/w640-h426/47b6d910b3127cce985492819d5100000017108EatmbhszbS.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Cassandra; the ever complaining and fomenting.</i></div></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> There were a dozen pages of just talk, talk, TALK... Norma Desmond would have hated this crap. Way too much dialogue and not enough bloodletting. What idiot had written this script? Oh, yeah..</span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidiSubRDsp3ten1ceSLRmItykLoDrrQCu6AxYFBttBkbLEo39_5alutLcJlZdqKFp7_HGYdbty47LYT6rrfB5lzyqYBCFXj0odidxiveJKUM-Ihf9nNK_EoYbSfap9aNIoSlzl3STQBE8euSRCdXoLhg1Yc6Ei909uEDfvxVMqYsBbmjga_tItWFNnKA/s480/SoD4S,C.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="385" data-original-width="480" height="514" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidiSubRDsp3ten1ceSLRmItykLoDrrQCu6AxYFBttBkbLEo39_5alutLcJlZdqKFp7_HGYdbty47LYT6rrfB5lzyqYBCFXj0odidxiveJKUM-Ihf9nNK_EoYbSfap9aNIoSlzl3STQBE8euSRCdXoLhg1Yc6Ei909uEDfvxVMqYsBbmjga_tItWFNnKA/w640-h514/SoD4S,C.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div><span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> Because no one except the valiant Rillian had their lines well memorized, we drafted Mary Widow to the role of 'Girl Interrupter' and had her carry about a copy of the "unholy scripture," rushing from pyrate to pyrate so they could read their lines -if needed- as the lines came up. Our fiddler, DeAnna, was responsible for 'Accentual Musical Elements,' playing to accompany the performers, much like a film soundtrack. We were so unrehearsed though, she wasn't getting her cues. We were torturing her with all the missing and misdelivered dialogue. </span></span></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5qtsR4tGV5wKiDVvZRhF6-582hXrEYGS-KQ2E-XwqE4C_4-XIL6Niu73nx0KDvg5RRNQJqqtTG7yA2oFlJumb2ynD6dc_rDuQeJQUJHEQgYfJMtnRMD6aDQ45hmYn2Mzu98rLYjDvTmmlcnXhrb_OHMJyqWpfgcJDXF0dWb0fm7wsmZWVqnl0yPP3VA/s400/DeAnna.SoD.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="394" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5qtsR4tGV5wKiDVvZRhF6-582hXrEYGS-KQ2E-XwqE4C_4-XIL6Niu73nx0KDvg5RRNQJqqtTG7yA2oFlJumb2ynD6dc_rDuQeJQUJHEQgYfJMtnRMD6aDQ45hmYn2Mzu98rLYjDvTmmlcnXhrb_OHMJyqWpfgcJDXF0dWb0fm7wsmZWVqnl0yPP3VA/w630-h640/DeAnna.SoD.jpg" width="630" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>McAlleenan O'Malley (Deanna): our Musical Martyr.</i> </td></tr></tbody></table></div><div><span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> The action didn't begin until late in the show, after the audience had suffered yet more talk, and still more talk. Cassandra has been identified as the bringer of the pox which has cursed our ship... </span></span></div><div><span><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">CROW: "This be the parcel of pubic pestilence which hast infected us! Make a fire! We'll burn her at the mast!"</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">LOUIE: "Burn her!" </span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">CRIMSON BASTARD: "Witch! Witch!"</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> </span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> Brandi interferes with this plan, Severine fights Spillit then Brandi fights me. It barely makes any sense at all. This was Brandi's virgin voyage with us so she didn't yet have her bearings on how to avoid hitting the yardarm with her cutlass. Things went wrong. i stopped the show so we could do the fight over again, thinking we might at least get a few good seconds of video out of it. We didn't. It went slightly better but then the squib didn't work. The 69 Splatterer, which i had invented myself and was so proud of, was a FAILURE. It was nigh too much to bear but i pressed on and had Sev cut Brandi's throat over and over until it worked. On the fourth attempt the blood finally shot out properly but it wasn't effective because Brandi was already soaked from the previous three throat cuttings. </span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN4OUArUiANA-kXie0kuu0qIseFJj2UKn9mWR3Pm48YjBlb9qGjY84HTix52VPgeLh7C81AJvf5vEBulGS6OvM_IMO0Ur1Xgsbk8bnsbSkMsWayCzicoERqVCZkQ2JEq8j-Blm86-FlFvO6_Xnwe7sNmrNHtyKGCp6Kj-wRgfw1RwkQ0xqN0NMmXxWfQ/s860/SoD4_Brandi.1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="860" data-original-width="635" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN4OUArUiANA-kXie0kuu0qIseFJj2UKn9mWR3Pm48YjBlb9qGjY84HTix52VPgeLh7C81AJvf5vEBulGS6OvM_IMO0Ur1Xgsbk8bnsbSkMsWayCzicoERqVCZkQ2JEq8j-Blm86-FlFvO6_Xnwe7sNmrNHtyKGCp6Kj-wRgfw1RwkQ0xqN0NMmXxWfQ/w472-h640/SoD4_Brandi.1.jpg" width="472" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Yet not a drop of blood in her hair.</i></td></tr></tbody></table><div><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> i was delirious and unhinged from lack of sleep, i started demanding everyone repeat their lines until the audience was satisfied with their performance. Finally, everyone on the verge of mutiny or tears, we finished the show. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> In the end my 14 minute skit had gone on for 43 minutes and seven seconds. And my crew probably hated me. At one point, Crimson Bastard had lacerated my finger whilst handing me a dagger, was it intentional? i'm still not sure.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVwMtghRA0dEKLOLrcvrt1_-hzOtGKnT98ZirYB-JO_K4MiFi9L3RB7t3qInouMn-CCq_CFd_4GYh7erH2B8B8siW7Cdy03D1HVMy8B-1MbFcfazXKW82fG1SLaEq6ZEpZ50-tpnaKxHe3wr-rKdN6JFWTNCimQXMAl67yiIQ7e8aH8-SBYmLiM45UEw/s400/SoD4.8.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="264" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVwMtghRA0dEKLOLrcvrt1_-hzOtGKnT98ZirYB-JO_K4MiFi9L3RB7t3qInouMn-CCq_CFd_4GYh7erH2B8B8siW7Cdy03D1HVMy8B-1MbFcfazXKW82fG1SLaEq6ZEpZ50-tpnaKxHe3wr-rKdN6JFWTNCimQXMAl67yiIQ7e8aH8-SBYmLiM45UEw/w264-h400/SoD4.8.jpg" width="264" /></span></a></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq_VD3G_mL9E9gwrV31ocROSI9c2YalLggaquA2m4nlZh9tCMCdi-OrYYiO6GUsTF2bkWCEW7Rx75HGY-wj739vtqexFu4ya9n_uxtkXSieUZ19LtIQTWJl99H3JL53VQQTvgb2Ia5-gKoz5rSAJdsHc_WdVd7X9blPaB2uCQoFfvB7qTU8QSCdAVwEw/s600/47b6d910b3127cce9854934bdd0300000017108EatmbhszbS.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="600" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq_VD3G_mL9E9gwrV31ocROSI9c2YalLggaquA2m4nlZh9tCMCdi-OrYYiO6GUsTF2bkWCEW7Rx75HGY-wj739vtqexFu4ya9n_uxtkXSieUZ19LtIQTWJl99H3JL53VQQTvgb2Ia5-gKoz5rSAJdsHc_WdVd7X9blPaB2uCQoFfvB7qTU8QSCdAVwEw/w640-h426/47b6d910b3127cce9854934bdd0300000017108EatmbhszbS.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Severine cut Brandi's throat four times. Thanks, Sev!</i></td></tr></tbody></table><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> Other than the show, the cruise went fine. The ship was packed to capacity with pyrates. We finished off both barrels of rum and many a strumpet was groped in the twilight as rum-goggles held sway over over sound reasoning. The sun was just setting and the band played 'Leave Her' as we drifted into port. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfYlliriGib59rDn-s8Rp8aO81vY2yfLBy77akjZiCc03dXjioBp1FoOIZmksLrLDf5Fbm2mXek4NvATAbVj5L3i3LQHaLLrUIW6xWO46dPqD3EI3yAl3_6Yvo2YAuC-ZTjnDm2mxZoiTeK_nTjFafTR-DHN1orEM7BJ3Q0ujE2KTBqpOTucxbghX3rg/s495/revenge06_09.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="429" data-original-width="495" height="554" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfYlliriGib59rDn-s8Rp8aO81vY2yfLBy77akjZiCc03dXjioBp1FoOIZmksLrLDf5Fbm2mXek4NvATAbVj5L3i3LQHaLLrUIW6xWO46dPqD3EI3yAl3_6Yvo2YAuC-ZTjnDm2mxZoiTeK_nTjFafTR-DHN1orEM7BJ3Q0ujE2KTBqpOTucxbghX3rg/w640-h554/revenge06_09.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8UKe6n7U_TkN3fHAegAqvhx7pqJSKh6YvLWx8pVgVtzZDayjyqXpd5hNt7eSIAe33Mwzcvs0te5bl3B-YFYLzTl_J2x4xBzV_bewySpvUE18dSXjcfzAR9itzBAjHj7oByj5-_rZ-2IxusuWmVMy9TEDxnjUjV9mnzI3EcqZgW1BKxMbUgNS5EZEKIg/s600/Sod4.7.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="600" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8UKe6n7U_TkN3fHAegAqvhx7pqJSKh6YvLWx8pVgVtzZDayjyqXpd5hNt7eSIAe33Mwzcvs0te5bl3B-YFYLzTl_J2x4xBzV_bewySpvUE18dSXjcfzAR9itzBAjHj7oByj5-_rZ-2IxusuWmVMy9TEDxnjUjV9mnzI3EcqZgW1BKxMbUgNS5EZEKIg/w640-h426/Sod4.7.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> As our guests disembarked, each received a "share of plunder," that being a DVD version of <i>'Sea of Darkness 3</i>' which Wolf had edited together. At least the show had gone well on that one. Afterward most of us staggered to a tavern on the docks to drink and wench into the late night.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyAoME1n9wIWt2kNzrSIqljcJS-Z9SSsS6P4CDNcG8ASt0EaxJR7UVw4cuHoil3u6QeuW4TiOCqj1KJ0WsZLO8gX-np7cxLvhAztlh89ZM4nE1p7goZGX85xuJCr2Zke_0Cuau9zJrWKyfZvpoU6HZDqhMP8nX5BBXOK7B1gUXEuuNW_Ax4l-OoZKRhA/s588/revenge06_45.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="429" data-original-width="588" height="466" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyAoME1n9wIWt2kNzrSIqljcJS-Z9SSsS6P4CDNcG8ASt0EaxJR7UVw4cuHoil3u6QeuW4TiOCqj1KJ0WsZLO8gX-np7cxLvhAztlh89ZM4nE1p7goZGX85xuJCr2Zke_0Cuau9zJrWKyfZvpoU6HZDqhMP8nX5BBXOK7B1gUXEuuNW_Ax4l-OoZKRhA/w640-h466/revenge06_45.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> Upon closing the tavern we commenced the two hour drive back to Hollywood for the wonderful chore of carrying barrels, crates, gibbet cage and skeleton, wooden sign and weapons, and the Kaptain's head, through two security gates and up four flights to my Crow's nest. Spillit and i did the carrying while Mary Widow guarded the vehicle from criminals and parking enforcement. We finished at 4:00 am. They left. i sat on my couch, spent, no longer sober, and quickly comatose. </span></div><div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> After three hours i was awakened by the telephone and Severine's voice informing me: "We're downstairs. Are you ready?"</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> "Ah, sh*t! i'll be right down.." i'd forgotten we had a gig that afternoon. There was no time to shower so i wore mostly the same sweaty, blood stained clothes i'd slept in. If anyone complained i'd tell them today was 'Smell Like a Pirate Day.'</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> The hangover kicked in like a rosary of pain, like a sounding iron dropping on my skull. The heathen gods of land and sea (and theatre too, probably) were punishing me for my terrible performance yesterday. i swallowed three asprins with a half bottle of beer, pulled myself together post-sloth and staggered downstairs to meet the others. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> Sev spoke first: "Gooooood morning!"</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> "Please don't be cheerful. It might get you killed..."</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> We had to do four shows that day. One of them went really, really well. The other three? Let's just open some rum and drink away that memory...</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The lesson to be learned from all of this: If someone, anyone, tells you that your script is "fine," it's best to just scrap the entire damned thing and start over. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Godspeed.</span></div></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><br /></div><div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><i>Much thanks to <b>Golden Image</b>, and <b>Fourth Realm Foto</b> for sharing pictures and video!</i></span></div></div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif;"><br /></div></span></div></div>Wench Whispererhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15589439410613677518noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3353921144501096750.post-82325400500672966132022-06-09T12:52:00.011-07:002022-06-15T21:15:20.632-07:00When the Show isn't Seaworthy<h2 class="date-header" style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 0px; position: relative;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium; letter-spacing: inherit; margin: inherit; padding: inherit;">Monday, July 11, 2016</span></h2><div class="date-posts" style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"><div class="post-outer"><div class="post hentry uncustomized-post-template" itemprop="blogPost" itemscope="itemscope" itemtype="http://schema.org/BlogPosting" style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; min-height: 0px; position: relative;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><a name="2339290737424960263"></a></span><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-2339290737424960263" itemprop="description articleBody" style="line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 610px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-2339290737424960263" itemprop="description articleBody" style="line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 610px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">After a week of rushed rehearsals we decided it was better to postpone our first performance than go out and bomb. A pirate should have high standards.</span></div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-2339290737424960263" itemprop="description articleBody" style="line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 610px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Here we are making the right decision...</span></div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-2339290737424960263" itemprop="description articleBody" style="line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 610px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" class="b-hbp-video b-uploaded" frameborder="0" height="266" id="BLOGGER-video-ba21da54f7a817c3-11549" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" src="https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzpKpKCU8GiogRsKB4ZTGhfSEsSQCxRgJWX3e6EiO0PcOm8jkXDSY2570Ful3XladHBlnhfN6qQ5pyWhzX4pH_MCIRa0HcwpcBkVghHqZ-j5Ir6xn0A-6tRKw0jY4dtwmtk1ICF" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" width="320"></iframe></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; 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margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="596" data-original-width="714" height="534" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPZiM1OG9f-zHNwBfzmBO70cCCaJcA8z9-mYm9LMg-ld0YRrSembcPirQhQZ8wv2Wt6evYO5XtvFa-IZwN4yEIUJgnuEUgIboKrS1jjA_LewdlgJ6IE84zpv5ou8toIzrKs38N_HElKoxQjGmnouGK2L02fhkPgyS7B90iVmPy-Q24tcLxPywox_G5DQ/w640-h534/PirateEnvy.IPatCBS.1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-Bu5xbb1NBJSjVI3eIs2Y6Y3LeLWiR6uJS5mNrD6iz8DjUYjgxGaIm5HjzmBbVCzGtrD9Rf6pwgZogMe_KaWJqmLjAal1YCoQrs5ogUuqYB1QNjTBKBmIxD-0ScRbWrgSrvtDMr68DgDGY3VXbjeaHInxVA9xljbBnkUJEl73i0h5bGMlkahq2dIoyA/s737/10999502_10152537153672614_457760608294138449_n%20copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="352" data-original-width="737" height="306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-Bu5xbb1NBJSjVI3eIs2Y6Y3LeLWiR6uJS5mNrD6iz8DjUYjgxGaIm5HjzmBbVCzGtrD9Rf6pwgZogMe_KaWJqmLjAal1YCoQrs5ogUuqYB1QNjTBKBmIxD-0ScRbWrgSrvtDMr68DgDGY3VXbjeaHInxVA9xljbBnkUJEl73i0h5bGMlkahq2dIoyA/w640-h306/10999502_10152537153672614_457760608294138449_n%20copy.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; 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margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="621" data-original-width="960" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI0YI8ImyibWDT2J7auGynFAybcSKiU104Ji-3LS_LZ9k8LsN8ocvKCnlB8zeRAZe3ZcVqo0przyMieb3rcsr4zCkNjFu-tgI_1dSwboQcMmZtnh2xRSUvJjjka0o-FZbLeZxsx2XrdopM1xau7S0j2psdBZ60ypCYYpxaeWPfWlVnHWALcRv8u4XKyw/w400-h259/13631538_1747280678819077_1571123008041787751_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1WoRMFFfeJup_oEdP_A8FVh00gTzbt0slEKE-xu5Rcn_fhQg-MS3psl-iWJeArI600BDyuimjgcxIwzCtNVRFikjku-xZBzT9OQNHfO9aJjr7wS0ehdWzOEdym7RW69mBVcAQEmZbPIO5W4mQwm9ncQjnabXQxSGD9mT6syEWEsId4LjN6AiEHcJaCQ/s600/Screen%20Shot%202017-09-18%20at%2011.08.21%20PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="598" data-original-width="600" height="638" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1WoRMFFfeJup_oEdP_A8FVh00gTzbt0slEKE-xu5Rcn_fhQg-MS3psl-iWJeArI600BDyuimjgcxIwzCtNVRFikjku-xZBzT9OQNHfO9aJjr7wS0ehdWzOEdym7RW69mBVcAQEmZbPIO5W4mQwm9ncQjnabXQxSGD9mT6syEWEsId4LjN6AiEHcJaCQ/w640-h638/Screen%20Shot%202017-09-18%20at%2011.08.21%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /></div></div></div></div></div>Wench Whispererhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15589439410613677518noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3353921144501096750.post-75266785528064366192022-06-07T21:33:00.036-07:002022-06-10T20:13:54.925-07:00Sea of Darkness 3: Inveiglement, Sophistry, Epiphenomenalism<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #01ffff; font-size: large;"><i><span style="font-family: times;">Concerning Revenge From The Sea's third Voyage and Complications </span><span style="font-family: times;">overcome to achieve said Venture, viz; the slothful Saboteurs and irrational Accords endured by our </span><span style="font-family: times;">valiant Crewe in their Pursuit of theatrical Grace. </span></i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><i>With certain Names altered to protect the easily butthurt. . .</i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: large; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #01ffff;">In most cases no single actor can save a show yet any one actor can ruin it. When someone screws up during performance somebody else has to cover for them and a painful truth of theatre is that the one doing the covering is usually perceived by the audience to be the one screwing up. For this reason most troupers are wary of going onstage with anyone they suspect is unprepared, or incompetent. Yet it's a pirate's lot that such situations will occur.. </span></span></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgw2yKQT6llvY1oIzBCu-dfA8jPOvLpegGFfQOLUBsEUv9iY-Jf-f2wY7WpcJxAdgctZxCFOdlOJlbSRmo3b7HpIrmquB4bkUEkREoEI72Pi9N6mWSLclTq8fzfYX7xQ7Wi6vDY4AAP75BkENbO6Is978b9pLODJv97VPsLN3iAqOd0LZkKhNv5V65xw/s400/SeaofDarkness3024.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="257" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgw2yKQT6llvY1oIzBCu-dfA8jPOvLpegGFfQOLUBsEUv9iY-Jf-f2wY7WpcJxAdgctZxCFOdlOJlbSRmo3b7HpIrmquB4bkUEkREoEI72Pi9N6mWSLclTq8fzfYX7xQ7Wi6vDY4AAP75BkENbO6Is978b9pLODJv97VPsLN3iAqOd0LZkKhNv5V65xw/w258-h400/SeaofDarkness3024.jpg" width="258" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lazarus drew the invite cover for the third voyage.<br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;"> In Los Angeles there are plenty of people who want to be movie stars but far fewer who are competent actors and fewer still who own a proper costume/cutlass/pistol/etc. hence, during my early years of pirating, casting a show required lowering the usual theatrical standards and settling for people who were already pirates.</span></p><p><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;"> i'd never believed that talent or experience mattered as much as reasonable intelligence and a work ethic. To show up at the requisite time and make a good-faith effort to do the work was all i asked. If anyone drank liquor during rehearsals i wouldn't give them some soberer-than-thou rebuke, most pirates drank, as long as they knew their lines and blocking it didn't matter. Lazarus came to rehearsals sober but he would be drunk during performances. i still considered him one of the better performers though because he never complained about things and there were certain lines he could deliver better than anyone else, like the definitions. Whenever any character used an obscure or uber-nautical term that the landlubbers in the audience wouldn't understand, (i.e., Moses Law, Keel-hauling, Rosary of Pain, Marooned, etc.) Lazarus would follow by defining that term for everybody. But whether he remembered the definitions depended on how much he'd drank, and there was no way to predict that.</span></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVQpQBAUcRHMdiX-v4V4M7zwds5--uSalYzAtbNhAYQ5ep7GB3dO_AVlswHfLeS74rXkLn1PjfgtU3sVhTP8yIasgkHrmuIKtSOyyGpFDJ4jP2MXXe_s5Em4IJ_mL8NGWOp7AgtRXlHy8qkmsNeIfU1uimuh4fvtvxe-KlinXG7MGNRdX2F2mfVvwPjQ/s727/PirateEnvy.Bastard_Wolf.1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: #01ffff;"><img border="0" data-original-height="460" data-original-width="727" height="405" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVQpQBAUcRHMdiX-v4V4M7zwds5--uSalYzAtbNhAYQ5ep7GB3dO_AVlswHfLeS74rXkLn1PjfgtU3sVhTP8yIasgkHrmuIKtSOyyGpFDJ4jP2MXXe_s5Em4IJ_mL8NGWOp7AgtRXlHy8qkmsNeIfU1uimuh4fvtvxe-KlinXG7MGNRdX2F2mfVvwPjQ/w640-h405/PirateEnvy.Bastard_Wolf.1.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #01ffff;">Bastard and Wolf.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span> In </span><i><span>Sea of Darkness 3</span></i><span> my character, Mr. Crow, insists the reason they've all been lost at sea for three years is because the crew's refusal to stop frigging has lost them favor with the Lord. Lazarus stepped forward to define the word "Frigging."</span></span><p></p><p><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;">Scripturally, the scene went thus:</span></p><p><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;">CROW: "Faith indeed, if we are to rediscover His graces and hence find the isle we seek, you must all refrain from this incessant, unholy, and nigh constant frigging!"</span></p><p><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;">LAZARUS: "Frigging: That kindly, though solitary, easement of nature commonly practiced by seafaring men particularly on lengthy and arduous voyages when feminine compire is most lacking. Their worn and calloused hands, indeed providing but the barest relief from that incessant and reoccurring swelling which doth afflict and torment them."</span></p><p><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;"></span></p><p><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;">But Lazarus had some difficulty with the line:</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #01ffff;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dy7mPMK77Aqu7-RImrBEqrChuMuLmAsyEQr1GsiNZNld0_IWfLmCbXC-o_V_yhYLTxubHZ8DY2q1lZNJ05Kgw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #01ffff; font-size: x-small;"><i>Lazarus blowing his line during the last rehearsal </i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #01ffff; font-size: x-small;"><i>yet still not nearly the worst actor in the show.</i></span></div><span style="color: #01ffff;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> After Lazarus blew the line four times at our final shipboard rehearsal i tore that page out of the script and pasted just the one line on the side of his tankard. During the show he held it blatantly in view of everyone yet still read the line incorrectly. He didn't break character at all though and the crappy delivery came across so natural it didn't detract from the efficacy of the scene. No one really expected Lazarus to know his lines because he wasn't an actor; just a pirate pretending to be an actor.</span><br /></span><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq7Frua3yUpJdtWwu1TO_BffCmPnZ7LcbzdL_JldL9I6zYEqnDRLmtgnxzhDRECmWmFnuS6xH75GBd5MV3XBR54vEzOeLsv8D9pZJgiBBl_lkbCDEjqVwrchchSQJr_wrjMvv-Uly82evb4aus0ixkcvqWPgUyQoPM2oB1v5tOtmZC6rk9oTaGZP3i-w/s500/PYRATE-SHIP-022.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: #01ffff;"><img border="0" data-original-height="375" data-original-width="500" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq7Frua3yUpJdtWwu1TO_BffCmPnZ7LcbzdL_JldL9I6zYEqnDRLmtgnxzhDRECmWmFnuS6xH75GBd5MV3XBR54vEzOeLsv8D9pZJgiBBl_lkbCDEjqVwrchchSQJr_wrjMvv-Uly82evb4aus0ixkcvqWPgUyQoPM2oB1v5tOtmZC6rk9oTaGZP3i-w/w640-h480/PYRATE-SHIP-022.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #01ffff;">Lazarus.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;"> Lazarus was worth the trouble he brought because he was a good enough pirate that his acting skills were irrelevant. Not everybody justified the rest of us hauling their weight though. i knew who was good and who wasn't, and scripted the shows so the good pirates got the bigger parts. This caused some grumbling by the incompetents, several of whom quit (as i'd hoped they would), so by the time we did Sea of Darkness 3 there were enough good pirates to carry the show and we were stuck with only a few useless people. A vestigal Idiot Faction.</span></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;"> Nobody is discouraged by a bad actor who is trying to do better, but the ones who don't even try are a poison to the morale of everybody else.</span></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;"> Two of this Idiot Faction were blatantly detrimental to the show. Their very presence was dispiriting to the people who were actually working. These wankers had nothing to offer yet felt entitled to be involved simply because they'd been around so long (that is, they were too dense to realize nobody liked them or wanted them around). You probably know their type: lazy, complainers, excuse-makers, takers of frequent cigarette breaks, habitual fomenters of gratuitous interpersonal drama, constantly affronted by irrelevancies, gigantic egos with irrationally high estimations of what they contributed to the shows. Eventually i outright fired these morons but in those days i had to make Faustian deals just so the shows could go on at all. </span></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;"> One of the Idiots, Monkeyass, (i'll just use the name the others used when speaking of him) had the line immediately following Lazarus definition of frigging:</span></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;">MONKEYASS: "Do you mean waxing the bowsprit?"</span></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;">LOUIE: "I think he means climbing the mast one-handed."</span></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;">DOXY POX (losing patience with their idiocy): "He means jerking-off!" (she moves her hand bell in an illustrative motion)</span></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;">CROW (to Doxy): "Measure thy words! Abbreviation is kin to sloth and is the Devil's playground."</span></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;">WOLF: "Well so is my left hand!"</span></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;"> i had triaged that line to Monkeyass because i knew that if he blew it (as i expected him to) Louie would be there to immediately deliver his own line and give Doxy her set up. The line could be omitted completely without effecting the scene at all. i didn't think the scene itself was funny though. When the crowd cheered and clapped for Doxy's line i attributed that to their drunkenness and her bawdy delivery. The "dumbing down" of the dialogue from Lazarus lengthy definition to Doxy's quick punchline seemed very obvious and downright uncreative. The joke was almost dependent on the audience being drunk.</span></div><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #01ffff;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxMK44rGfOu8DCDWfi4TBEAodvkkC8y3CveaQcPQL7CbGJp0PsNp_P7m6O2M_wsee6NrDp5k2IjVDxQfdXbfQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #01ffff; font-size: x-small;"><i>Doxy Pox practices her delivery</i>.</span></div><p><span><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;"> i decided to reverse the concept: Rather than 'dumbing down' the joke we would 'wise it up.' Instead of reiterating an idea in ever simpler terms until the crew finally grasped it, we'd go the opposite direction and restate it in degrees of escalating complexity, finally culminating in a sesquipedalian gallimaufry of six-syllable words forming an overlong sentence our audience would be tortured to comprehend. It wouldn't be gibberish, it would convey a specific and clear idea, the logic would just be difficult to follow. Having established with the "frigging" joke that the crew were simpletons, this reversal of the approach would be unexpected and, hopefully, funny.</span></span></p><p></p><p><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;"> i worked hours on just the one line, an act of pure science: first listing a few dozen five and six-syllable words then struggling to cram as many of them as possible into a single sentence which conveyed a definable thought. Wolf was the only one i trusted could handle the line. i presented him the page of script as a challenge to his thespianic skills. i didn't actually think this would challenge him -he'd been an actor since he was five years old and starred on Broadway at age six- but hoped if i expressed some doubt in his abilities he'd be inspired to excel all the further. (Yes, i really did read Dale Carnegie and remember some of it.)</span></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAfMciAtIV6soBgKUa0KwrNhTLYXChto0bdjhwq4JUsl8xYot2-ATaaAg6Dt8tgs6yvYmjj3NQoQkwAplDbntAe_wMUJ_zldLk2ewMgyOwHPWQAUdmJGD9qqJxCseWfp3WrqQqeeK0wkZSiJNtfTpej20XtMEucH9ryYZdoqrFg_GxRqmhkNzMEPqA9w/s457/Author2_AlPacine_B.J.Barie.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: #01ffff;"><img border="0" data-original-height="357" data-original-width="457" height="313" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAfMciAtIV6soBgKUa0KwrNhTLYXChto0bdjhwq4JUsl8xYot2-ATaaAg6Dt8tgs6yvYmjj3NQoQkwAplDbntAe_wMUJ_zldLk2ewMgyOwHPWQAUdmJGD9qqJxCseWfp3WrqQqeeK0wkZSiJNtfTpej20XtMEucH9ryYZdoqrFg_GxRqmhkNzMEPqA9w/w400-h313/Author2_AlPacine_B.J.Barie.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #01ffff;">Al Pacino and B.J. Barie (the future Wolf Dekardson) in <i>Author, Author</i>. <br />That kid could act!</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;"> The Idiot Faction of the cast were impressed by the long words and thought it must require a supremely skilled actor to remember and deliver such dialogue. But i thought the big words by themselves almost substituted for delivery: they just sounded like great acting no matter how you said them (unless you said them incorrectly). i began to apply simpleton-psychology to Bugger and Monkeyass whenever one would screw up during rehearsals: "Dude," i would ask, "If Wolf can memorize that long and inhumanly complicated line why can't you even remember to say 'Aye!' on cue?" Wolf went along with this too, playing up the difficulty of the line to the point where the rest of us were treating him as though the entire show depended on his getting that one thing right. The Idiot Faction would shut up their complaining for a moment but neither would work any harder, they just came up w/ new excuses for their failures. </span></span><p></p><p><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;">Scripturally, the scene went:</span></p><p><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;">WOLF: "Quiet! Now be cautious! We all know Mr. Crow has a dodgy way of speaking so don't let him confuse ye with his quick words."</span></p><p><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;">LOUIE: "Quick words? What do ye mean by that?"</span></p><p><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;">LAZARUS: "Aye! What does that mean?"</span></p><p><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;"> (several others express their lack of understanding..)</span></p><p><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;">WOLF: "I mean don't let him bamboozle ye with his double-talk!"</span></p><p><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;">LOUIE: "I still don't understand."</span></p><p><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;">LAZARUS: "Nor do I."</span></p><p><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;"> (others reiterate that they don't understand either..)</span></p><p><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;">WOLF: "I mean don't let him attempt inveiglement of your perceptions via sophistries appealing to yer subjective predispositions to the point of obfuscation of our collective intentions by exploiting susceptibilities often epiphenomenal to your inebriate dispositions!"</span></p><p><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;">BUGGER: "Oh, I get it!"</span></p><p><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;">LAZARUS: "Why didn't ye just say so?"</span></p><p><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;">RUBY: "Long winded son of a Dutchman..."</span></p><p><span><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;"> (the rest of the crew express their sudden comprehension as well)<span> </span></span></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #01ffff;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dyOm0FheC-2a6Fln7yWscgU4Ck7HrHL1bWxvlhfmOwaKxGg6HSKo2gJGmrYpGXWHgcNfGpJNeM-S7hcb-70dw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #01ffff; font-size: x-small;"><i>Here's Wolf getting it ALMOST perfect in the final </i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #01ffff; font-size: x-small;"><i>shipboard rehearsal.</i></span></div><p><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;"> i construed Wolf's long line as a balloon being blown up to complete fullness as he delivered the words, the words filling it to nigh bursting, followed by a half-second pause and then: "Oh, I get it!" spoken fast, like a pinprick, bursting that fat balloon in a loud, sudden POP! </span></p><p><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;"> But Bugger didn't POP the balloon as intended. No, he just let the air out of it steadily, gradually. He didn't quickly proclaim: "Oh, I get it!" Instead he said: "O-o-o-o-o-o-o-oh, I-I-I-I get it..." Rather than the punctuating 'POP!' it was just a slow deflation to nothing followed by the others who had waited for him to finish before they piped in with their own lines. Instead of a gloriously shocking loud noise followed by laughter, Bugger's delivery left us with just an empty balloon, limp and wasted. He may as well have been a deliberate saboteur. </span></p><p><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;"> Why had i cast this undisciplined moron? Oh yeah, because he had whined and begged to be in the show and -idiot that i was- i pitied him. My bad. My very, very Bad. i learned from this experience that an effective director must be Without Pity for anyone or anything except the show itself. </span></p><p><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;"> My mission now was to thwart the Idiots so that the competent people could shine. To save the joke somebody else would have to deliver the line. But Bugger wouldn't just forfeit his dialogue to another, better, actor. He was difficult. A Four Star General of the Butt-Hurt Brigade, he would pout and be a bitch about things and slow down the rehearsal process with his bullshit when we were too close to the performance date to waste time dealing with nonsense. i had to be crafty.</span></p><p><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;"> On the very last day of rehearsals, after weeks of insisting the performers not step on one another's lines, i took Doxy Pox aside during a break and told her: "i need you to betray one of your fellow actors."</span></p><p><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;"> "What do you mean?"</span></p><p><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;"> "i want you to step on his line, to actually say it before he does. Quicker, and louder too, than he does. Steal the punch from him before he ruins it."</span></p><p><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;"> "Whose line?" </span></p><p><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;"> "Bugger's."</span></p><p><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;"> "Hell yes, I'll do it. He sucks and he's an a**hole!"</span></p><p><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;"> i didn't even have to explain which line i was referring to, she knew.</span></p><p><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;"> "Don't do it in this rehearsal though. Wait until the actual performance so he doesn't know it's going to happen."</span></p><p><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;"> "Easy."</span></p><p><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;"> "Thank you," i whispered. "You're saving the show."</span></p><p><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;"> "I know."</span></p><p><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;"></span></p><p><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;"> One of the setup lines got blown and other things went wrong but Wolf delivered his line perfectly (people even applauded) and Doxy Pox came in just in time, loud enough to follow it to maximum effect. So the joke worked, mostly, and the show was saved.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNa1Q3p_Edy15utu7eQbzDP3Kpf2q8vO7Pv6BTuOahhebrGYL5kzRFGKGIrhbJQk_4vRl90KpMD-U8ThSGvU0QWT7Qev4IwRj0R_upxtK6cITbBSzp6BWPsiYypGok6Xx7t22ys1XCPOlNzyxUf5kYcDIJIHiXP2iILNsKo6CAnVaCOAu37QDIfaMh5g/s1544/Wolf_Crow.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #01ffff;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1544" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNa1Q3p_Edy15utu7eQbzDP3Kpf2q8vO7Pv6BTuOahhebrGYL5kzRFGKGIrhbJQk_4vRl90KpMD-U8ThSGvU0QWT7Qev4IwRj0R_upxtK6cITbBSzp6BWPsiYypGok6Xx7t22ys1XCPOlNzyxUf5kYcDIJIHiXP2iILNsKo6CAnVaCOAu37QDIfaMh5g/w640-h424/Wolf_Crow.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div><span><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;"> Mary Widow had printed up two documents on parchment paper, one of them affirming that Wolf had, indeed, delivered his line correctly and awesomely "..as witnessed by all of the crew." the other declaring that Wolf had "royaly screwed up and failed" to deliver the line. We intended presenting one or the other to Wolf after the performance to commemorate his success or failure.</span></span><p></p><p><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;"> We got about half the crew to sign them, thinking the rest could sign on the ship. But the 'success' paper got misplaced and left ashore. </span></p><p><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;"> "Damn!" i said, "Wolf won't get his commemorative document."</span></p><p><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;"> "Unless he blows the line," said Mary. "I still have the 'fail' one." So Mary went about the crowded ship, dodging drunken pirate-folk, surreptitiously getting the rest of the crew to sign it. </span></p><p><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;"> Wolf, of course, delivered the line perfectly, ergo it was with some apologies that we had to present him with a parchment proclaiming his complete and utter failure. </span></p><p><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;"> Oh well. Sorry, Wolf.</span></p><p><span><span style="color: #01ffff; font-family: times; font-size: large;"> A few years later that original parchment, the 'success' one which had been left ashore, turned up in a pile of documents betwixt D.B. Cooper's birth certificate and William Kidd's privateering commission. Behold:</span></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqqFVOTCKGnXr8iaJUB4WIabZDiB2hDVi08xGGUFYdfzgukLfkx0EQuh6V6IZBqzS1SdrFs5Vv6Pjad5VwMQf574oVw5tV8BO6mMFOzm032aF6GKBhDrPKgaAl2O_XQEbbMtYYQsYhdmy5-gYrsP5z2SlEZ2Zv3PfxiQ_CPeJOWdCWBfwv0teWGAQEEA/s1600/BravoWolf.1.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1277" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqqFVOTCKGnXr8iaJUB4WIabZDiB2hDVi08xGGUFYdfzgukLfkx0EQuh6V6IZBqzS1SdrFs5Vv6Pjad5VwMQf574oVw5tV8BO6mMFOzm032aF6GKBhDrPKgaAl2O_XQEbbMtYYQsYhdmy5-gYrsP5z2SlEZ2Zv3PfxiQ_CPeJOWdCWBfwv0teWGAQEEA/w319-h400/BravoWolf.1.JPG" width="319" /></a></div><br /><p></p>Wench Whispererhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15589439410613677518noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3353921144501096750.post-84359446800118123422022-06-07T21:26:00.014-07:002022-06-28T20:05:10.646-07:00Gardiners Island Shoot<h2 class="date-header" style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 0px; position: relative;"><span style="letter-spacing: inherit; margin: inherit; padding: inherit;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Tuesday, December 30, 2014</span></span></h2><div class="date-posts" style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"><div class="post-outer"><div class="post hentry uncustomized-post-template" itemprop="blogPost" itemscope="itemscope" itemtype="http://schema.org/BlogPosting" style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; min-height: 0px; position: relative;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><a name="8436441623480923655"></a></span><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-8436441623480923655" itemprop="description articleBody" style="line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 610px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-8436441623480923655" itemprop="description articleBody" style="line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 610px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Our beach shoot looked something like this. Thank you California for perfect weather even in December. <br />Worth growing a beard for? Aye!<br />Worth wrecking a car for? You decide.</span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-jcajPAevsc" width="320" youtube-src-id="-jcajPAevsc"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #0ef0f0; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #0ef0f0; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #0ef0f0; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #0ef0f0; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #0ef0f0; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #0ef0f0; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #0ef0f0; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK8bLazzy3QlLr4D_kzrJWNkZH2Eajgee3aVMzf4yJhhdkeOYv9IqHw6ZwoPWygI3LgBAyBp0iiKb2mkN4LuPqKysfhg2Xif8Y0i0dDvARs6nd3_fUl6G3mTU9ZEOmzkNMSH6liFNbE8Or/s1600/IslandPirateEnvy10.jpg" style="color: #ddaa6e; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK8bLazzy3QlLr4D_kzrJWNkZH2Eajgee3aVMzf4yJhhdkeOYv9IqHw6ZwoPWygI3LgBAyBp0iiKb2mkN4LuPqKysfhg2Xif8Y0i0dDvARs6nd3_fUl6G3mTU9ZEOmzkNMSH6liFNbE8Or/s400/IslandPirateEnvy10.jpg" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; background-color: #222222; border: 1px solid rgb(17, 17, 17); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 1px; position: relative;" width="400" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSkVurkxOTGfjIDPZTQNI5lWXnI27Ma2mH0SLiU5HEPDD-fxKDNIKErwmjyg4Vlmsjs4OMb-GkiIjhGBH7in1vdbaP3y1B0nme4y9eMCYgdc5-aycDxw7omOzbp7HTKB3EZcaedNaQ4Y_L/s1600/DSC00664.JPG" style="color: #ddaa6e; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSkVurkxOTGfjIDPZTQNI5lWXnI27Ma2mH0SLiU5HEPDD-fxKDNIKErwmjyg4Vlmsjs4OMb-GkiIjhGBH7in1vdbaP3y1B0nme4y9eMCYgdc5-aycDxw7omOzbp7HTKB3EZcaedNaQ4Y_L/s400/DSC00664.JPG" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; background-color: #222222; border: 1px solid rgb(17, 17, 17); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 1px; position: relative;" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #0ef0f0; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5FA_ohd3ao6ea8enJiWK-cOYN9hMkiNrOAGrzIoXHTnvbp84bNEhYJKW0bVqDgILLDbGBfzIOh_gyJ6__a_5ij5yByTcNlhHhUImWleIFmqrowXiXoNxDy3HSNlMW3id8eyUB_9pWKMIY/s1600/DSC00698.JPG" style="color: #ddaa6e; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5FA_ohd3ao6ea8enJiWK-cOYN9hMkiNrOAGrzIoXHTnvbp84bNEhYJKW0bVqDgILLDbGBfzIOh_gyJ6__a_5ij5yByTcNlhHhUImWleIFmqrowXiXoNxDy3HSNlMW3id8eyUB_9pWKMIY/s400/DSC00698.JPG" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; background-color: #222222; border: 1px solid rgb(17, 17, 17); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 1px; position: relative;" width="400" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiOfCEYqvcgNlU55uAYge2aUde8xLAlUGg4UbZ8p1iHLon6hjerrBPxnNkWOUboCH0T9tA8vRXYIPrX5VCeJPEys9KER5vzCy-oEZJWxC6WwAYdMVoDb5HkvCy41PX6aNuD7V5nvDUZgu-/s1600/Gardiner%2527sWalk.1.JPG" style="color: #ddaa6e; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiOfCEYqvcgNlU55uAYge2aUde8xLAlUGg4UbZ8p1iHLon6hjerrBPxnNkWOUboCH0T9tA8vRXYIPrX5VCeJPEys9KER5vzCy-oEZJWxC6WwAYdMVoDb5HkvCy41PX6aNuD7V5nvDUZgu-/s400/Gardiner%2527sWalk.1.JPG" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; background-color: #222222; border: 1px solid rgb(17, 17, 17); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 1px; position: relative;" width="400" /></a></div></div></div></div></div>Wench Whispererhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15589439410613677518noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3353921144501096750.post-33892308568864731532022-06-07T21:25:00.019-07:002022-06-28T20:29:21.225-07:00To the Sea<h2 class="date-header" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 0px; position: relative;"><span style="letter-spacing: inherit; margin: inherit; padding: inherit;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Tuesday, March 11, 2014</span></span></h2><div class="date-posts"><div class="post-outer" style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif;"><div class="post hentry uncustomized-post-template" itemprop="blogPost" itemscope="itemscope" itemtype="http://schema.org/BlogPosting" style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; min-height: 0px; position: relative;"><div class="post-header" style="color: #0ef0f0; font-size: 10.8px; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><div class="post-header-line-1"></div></div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-6869080433024358897" itemprop="description articleBody" style="line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 610px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #0ef0f0; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" class="b-hbp-video b-uploaded" frameborder="0" height="266" id="BLOGGER-video-60bfc39469bbde1f-10376" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" src="https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzLm62SKbys3eIRQ0pYdFLFl9dRUI3miqq4dbUlSBo6HalZohXAht5sdXc3cTifmGCSa7o2OG8Y0TBRYE55nT5vuV5jzzo8RiQed4bcUMpSmglaucGb-85uTUkvczfj9Jb3j5bx" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" width="320"></iframe></div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><i>Mutiny Magazine</i> broke the briny on Saturday last, for their <i>Order of Leviathan </i>induction cruise aboard <i>Revenge From The Sea</i>'s preferred vessel, the <i>American Pride</i>. Attending were pirates from divers crews and distant ports, all of whom agreed that there are few greater sins against the piratical aesthetic than a carnival cruise ship in the background of an otherwise superlative moment.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">(Thanks to Mary Widow for the video and Pirates Charles for the music.)</span></span></div></div></div></div>Wench Whispererhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15589439410613677518noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3353921144501096750.post-37414641534367815702022-06-07T21:24:00.010-07:002022-06-15T20:37:23.291-07:00Rising From the Sea<p><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); letter-spacing: inherit;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Thursday, May 9, 2013</span></span></p><p><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); letter-spacing: inherit;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); letter-spacing: inherit;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwdJcqXwGVxriod8w7oXi4JXBlI5-d-sL-kxCjwEqiVzlJpEo-IqX1hRiHmbbLT4HKf9hmWxMm0U9UywRkSGQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmo7ZQeB8mkEqG7umUD3BaMcJkyluRIPTzX9H7edt8LNNri6boyldsm1RrwPr7h3sQUv6jgUy2o781V88jHmwlRC3FDxRUauMPNWD_hEG7qC6Cgc6LLiXFieqf1TKFlNILhAqUfDl3w75VUXAWkFs1PhULqnJ9QL4gRfikp-qRYhayM_ws0WEu9g9v-A/s623/P.E.group.22.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="347" data-original-width="623" height="357" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmo7ZQeB8mkEqG7umUD3BaMcJkyluRIPTzX9H7edt8LNNri6boyldsm1RrwPr7h3sQUv6jgUy2o781V88jHmwlRC3FDxRUauMPNWD_hEG7qC6Cgc6LLiXFieqf1TKFlNILhAqUfDl3w75VUXAWkFs1PhULqnJ9QL4gRfikp-qRYhayM_ws0WEu9g9v-A/w640-h357/P.E.group.22.png" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><div class="date-posts" style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"><div class="post-outer"><div class="post hentry uncustomized-post-template" itemprop="blogPost" itemscope="itemscope" itemtype="http://schema.org/BlogPosting" style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; min-height: 0px; position: relative;"><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-8443254331939742112" itemprop="description articleBody" style="line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 610px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" class="b-hbp-video b-uploaded" frameborder="0" height="266" id="BLOGGER-video-b1208d2706815c13-9960" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" src="https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dyyxWBMKnatOruhjbreACsoM36SBiOYm-RbhZb9WENM3m52Nzgv-JlAttEeIPGVvU0DeG5tp_FMQXTf2kJfCCkoxqSg2-oNVR7ZPIbnjS9hH2aQtZFhmQQlqlhoNpM5gouLq8I" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" width="320"></iframe></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Despite many squalls of late, we still succeeded in getting our first picture shoot done. Thanks to Lycan and Grace of Mutiny Magazine for taking the pix and our friend Terri King for letting us use her loft (and birds.) About half of the pirates were there and it looked something like this...<br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlE_cWLzJyQ-W6_xW0Y1GC5kq97rynELuD0sSMimPbIJdxb62rpXMmNqmL8eEkr6otpGf_fm0a8qto3LVknLaDl3JwWKVvmo_Qy8Bpc7LyuBk3kAsQ8z2DSdlg7NMU511Hl6GJlc7aqiLJ/s1600/PE.group.color.5.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" height="385" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlE_cWLzJyQ-W6_xW0Y1GC5kq97rynELuD0sSMimPbIJdxb62rpXMmNqmL8eEkr6otpGf_fm0a8qto3LVknLaDl3JwWKVvmo_Qy8Bpc7LyuBk3kAsQ8z2DSdlg7NMU511Hl6GJlc7aqiLJ/s1600/PE.group.color.5.jpg" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; background-color: #222222; border: 1px solid rgb(17, 17, 17); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 1px; position: relative;" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnnglpMYduC5eYBeKsuZXHJpmhqQyNGuzKhL1yDquej6lVdck98KYND7vcvpBycLVYmHnwojMz6BwdD6VOpxXxzzh6hwCGSjBFREWgIctqi9MSy2NPaRoBKMsY7h0Df_-YfcH1Co4MCp4O/s1600/CIMG9138.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnnglpMYduC5eYBeKsuZXHJpmhqQyNGuzKhL1yDquej6lVdck98KYND7vcvpBycLVYmHnwojMz6BwdD6VOpxXxzzh6hwCGSjBFREWgIctqi9MSy2NPaRoBKMsY7h0Df_-YfcH1Co4MCp4O/s1600/CIMG9138.JPG" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; background-color: #222222; border: 1px solid rgb(17, 17, 17); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 1px; position: relative;" width="400" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvKahZWhT70a03g6zAKe-42EMvnDmDc5eOIIAev-UrW6ZTUu8mS1avHKtiExtE-AlFsIQSIL71RmMbyuoFRl6HZ9SfvixgQBzNHsCN_HxdZFhON7O4sCCA4J6tZg_qE5o0WsEvs0LA03gCkcYcioWDO8MWTYDVdB8vkmGfmPsUIUHl_NF2DVuQNbjcBQ/s981/Picture%201.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="381" data-original-width="981" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvKahZWhT70a03g6zAKe-42EMvnDmDc5eOIIAev-UrW6ZTUu8mS1avHKtiExtE-AlFsIQSIL71RmMbyuoFRl6HZ9SfvixgQBzNHsCN_HxdZFhON7O4sCCA4J6tZg_qE5o0WsEvs0LA03gCkcYcioWDO8MWTYDVdB8vkmGfmPsUIUHl_NF2DVuQNbjcBQ/w640-h248/Picture%201.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="295" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CmNOo34CDIU" width="355" youtube-src-id="CmNOo34CDIU"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Here's a full minute of the shoot (thanks Mary!) with cameos by </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Lycan </span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">and Terri King and one of Terri's uncooperative birds.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg71zb3fsChpKFuD9cO3ilb72zlDAFSrCtb2uyYCfUnJ2HcN2xYuYQr7f0D-237hCqR4sAOfP8CtZNqmBYHgK5Cm7PUSC6PW9FQf9YlhMplKlZtEbSMwTaFtjKlh7nlqsLmnanRpRVQkFAy/s1600/TK.99.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" height="363" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg71zb3fsChpKFuD9cO3ilb72zlDAFSrCtb2uyYCfUnJ2HcN2xYuYQr7f0D-237hCqR4sAOfP8CtZNqmBYHgK5Cm7PUSC6PW9FQf9YlhMplKlZtEbSMwTaFtjKlh7nlqsLmnanRpRVQkFAy/s1600/TK.99.jpg" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; background-color: #222222; border: 1px solid rgb(17, 17, 17); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 1px; position: relative;" width="400" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggSTYxOrz4p4A6uQVUamR2w2-VkxCy_OHrXq3Fjhg2u7UOFNT-p5LKew9bu_mgHnOVe-E-5vI07LPj8Bf_uFb57Oi5EFd64mNR03AUX2ZPVF021KYAeaixzkgDFFKe1PSZCv_WVUhKPRUQ8lK_lvpiwAjbd6raNM4EdxBNCu35tBEi63jGw-T96V5YeQ/s2157/TK110.2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; 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margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUBBfjH4v_B3zWKdCIZU3-_KMIU5rTM9YDdoGBq9HShPNS2eH6flGbF175G9uS_VMf6CRHnT0r1RNiS-6LuhAQxs6S6YmvMkiZpsJ0IX6kyaFNk5V0eSd1L8rTvF7fI8g0papIx6ClK-MS/s320/DSC00388.ARW" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; background-color: #222222; border: 1px solid rgb(17, 17, 17); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 1px; position: relative;" width="400" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPysbB3Q4DJ7yNgpKZubcavMLk5n692Y0ZNgBym_dTx0jUoArXOZOE9Tl0nWg1rGQ_YjHkxrkPTBONGUrlqMH1k91mJK3NEURSBs4r_EYGlHs7fFbbqn7NmCJHPaY9rmu8DWIWXa6rRtF5dQ5zk5o4ppSS7ILVMyPEWAoFfFfDomVYBPVqXVl27aG-MQ/s3184/piratefun-934.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3184" data-original-width="2120" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPysbB3Q4DJ7yNgpKZubcavMLk5n692Y0ZNgBym_dTx0jUoArXOZOE9Tl0nWg1rGQ_YjHkxrkPTBONGUrlqMH1k91mJK3NEURSBs4r_EYGlHs7fFbbqn7NmCJHPaY9rmu8DWIWXa6rRtF5dQ5zk5o4ppSS7ILVMyPEWAoFfFfDomVYBPVqXVl27aG-MQ/w266-h400/piratefun-934.jpg" width="266" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; 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font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div></div></div></div>Wench Whispererhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15589439410613677518noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3353921144501096750.post-31919748134875054612022-06-07T21:23:00.009-07:002022-06-10T20:29:17.842-07:00Days of Low Adventure<div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-2086118205811462195" itemprop="description articleBody" style="line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 610px;"><div style="font-family: Times; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><div style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-style: italic;">From the <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Revenge</span> archives circa 2006:</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif;" /><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><div style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDnqAFWKxhHi1LVRbxrUSNpf06xecvtEm27D9mbAcYNpjhfG_ol0gxtvyXWbk0m18EWT4KdOKHvHuUh8bQIZAA4V6R7dIzNxASMAitsyYmHkuiESz9_KD4OEMY8nIQ0iCU9GrSlsRa1AkI/s1600/754646682_l.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black; font-size: x-small;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDnqAFWKxhHi1LVRbxrUSNpf06xecvtEm27D9mbAcYNpjhfG_ol0gxtvyXWbk0m18EWT4KdOKHvHuUh8bQIZAA4V6R7dIzNxASMAitsyYmHkuiESz9_KD4OEMY8nIQ0iCU9GrSlsRa1AkI/s320/754646682_l.jpg" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; background-color: #222222; border: 1px solid rgb(17, 17, 17); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 1px; position: relative;" width="285" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Illustration by Martin Abel </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">(Here's his </span></span><a href="http://martinabel.com/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Official Website</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> )</span></span></span></div></div></div></div><div style="font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">During those unspeakable horrors known to <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Revengers</span> as "cruise preparations" we were asked to perform at something called the <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Hollywood Pirates Ball</span>, which would take place at the <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Key Club</span>, one of my favorite music venues. The Key Club was on <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Sunset Blvd</span>. at the very site where the famous <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Gazzari's</span> rock club had stood from the 1960s to sometime in the early 90s. Old Bill Gazzari, the <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">'Godfather of Rock'</span></span> would do radio commercials where he liked to point out that this was <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">"..the same stage where the Doors, Van Halen, and Ratt started!"</span></span> i'd always wanted to play Gazzari's on a Saturday night and here, at last, was my chance. Never mind that we weren't actually a rock band. Band of musicians, band of pirates; the difference was trifling.</span></span></div><div style="font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> There was no profit in it for us, only a promise (which remains unkept) that we'd receive a video copy of our performance. We didn't have time to put an act together and there was a certain lack of enthusiasm among the others to do this unpaid gig. In fact, it wasn't until the morning of the event that i exerted my dictatorial influence to get them to do it at all. </span></div><div style="font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div><div style="font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> After a long and despairing morning of cruise rehearsals, i asked my core pyrates to stay late. i opened my first beer of the morning and told them: "Let's just take the next hour and pull a show out of our arses and then go and do this thing tonight!" The decision had been made.</span></span></div></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">We arrived an hour before stage time and were led thru the crowded club and out a door to the back rooms and out another door and to our dressing room, which was an old tour bus parked in the alley behind the back exit of the building. There were couches and a mirror and a plastic bucket full of ice and beer. Naturally, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">i wondered if this was the same tour bus <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">"where the Doors, Van Halen, and Ratt"</span></span> had drank beer before their gigs (it looked old enough). </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">The walls and ceiling and floor were covered in band stickers. It looked like every single band that ever played here had left a sticker. There wasn't a square inch of surface that didn't have a sticker on it. Severine spoke first: "I've got one of our bumper stickers!"</span></span></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXa7PZlMEglNthwzOil_GlcaVPrdrBEBoHrv6qWs8ny3XMNGCOYtjhWjLx6TSuC1w3OgMGTpBv1Ljdjnnh11fDt0PrXZ8F7ld6dHnxFnq86S01eGIPYXDi5QRdacGqApfnrOZmDMvUHZvX/s1600/Pirate_Ball_at_KeyClubcrop_(3).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #ddaa6e; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXa7PZlMEglNthwzOil_GlcaVPrdrBEBoHrv6qWs8ny3XMNGCOYtjhWjLx6TSuC1w3OgMGTpBv1Ljdjnnh11fDt0PrXZ8F7ld6dHnxFnq86S01eGIPYXDi5QRdacGqApfnrOZmDMvUHZvX/s320/Pirate_Ball_at_KeyClubcrop_(3).jpg" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; background-color: #222222; border: 1px solid rgb(17, 17, 17); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 1px; position: relative;" width="302" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small; font-style: italic;">Brandi, Bullet, Severine in the bus.</span></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> She pulled it from her bag. It was a big, lame-arsed oversized rectangle that someone had rush printed for us one night when we were desperate. Black lettering on white, sans even a jolly-roger, that read: "My Chest Was Plundered by <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Crewe of Revenge</span>." It was embarrassingly clumsy to behold.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> After several minutes scanning for the perfect spot to stick it, she gave up. It was just too damned big, there wasn't enough empty space to stick it on and Sev refused to cover any of the other stickers, "That would be really rude of us," she said.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> "But we're pyrates. It's our privilege to be rude!" </span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> "No." she said, and opened a beer. "You guys just really need to make some smaller stickers."</span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> "Actually, we need to make cooler stickers."</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> That was six months ago and we still need cooler stickers.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhyphenhyphendgjb-9aLgraLsM380NwT09Kr3bMEJObyJn-_4om8YkkeLEtNlNqTOS5220gvZkmbOynL4ECDWekkRE_GbXTYkYDnuSvIqaRmv93syvPgKKSDIH5E_N8fP9ms1eEAcqd96JP9isSuBqa/s1600/80925598-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #ddaa6e; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhyphenhyphendgjb-9aLgraLsM380NwT09Kr3bMEJObyJn-_4om8YkkeLEtNlNqTOS5220gvZkmbOynL4ECDWekkRE_GbXTYkYDnuSvIqaRmv93syvPgKKSDIH5E_N8fP9ms1eEAcqd96JP9isSuBqa/s1600/80925598-L.jpg" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; background-color: #222222; border: 1px solid rgb(17, 17, 17); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 1px; position: relative;" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>Key Club.</i></span></div></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> <span style="font-size: large;">We drank and practiced our skit in the space betwixt the bus and the building. The girls had come up with something they wanted to surprise me with, so they wouldn't rehearse in front of me. This irritated me because if their "surprise" happened to suck i, as the director, would be blamed for it. i grilled Brandi to tell me what it was. "No!" she said. "Sev and i worked all week on it, and it's a surprise."</span></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> "You know what?" i said. "You're fired!"</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> "Oh, you'll just hire me back again tomorrow."</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> "Not this time! There's the plank, take a walk."</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> She didn't move.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> Spillit kept interrupting our practice to talk to the groupies who were watching from outside the alley gate. He had been assigned groupie-duty since he was the only single pyrate in the show. Sporadically, we ran thru our half-arsed sword moves.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> "Dude," said Spillit. "You really have to stop firing Brandi all the time."</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> "Dude, quit yer bellyaching and go grope a groupie. Or else we can do something bizarre and drastic like rehearse our fight a couple more times so we don't completely suck tonight." </span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> He walked toward the gate where a wench in a skirt and biker boots was waving at him. i opened another beer.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDS4_epa0D6NatNUtiB95aUTgsQJdeU4vb__h6wJoqbwtOdxg-eOZ0c4z8vAi7eva_z5SKXyBFn5FR04ccPX6Pu0fePl9hXexMaad9RbR0c87oAJ3U2SD-yK0lPVO4WEX9YR0Hm1XdCcfE/s1600/187876292_d7dfcb492e.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #ddaa6e; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDS4_epa0D6NatNUtiB95aUTgsQJdeU4vb__h6wJoqbwtOdxg-eOZ0c4z8vAi7eva_z5SKXyBFn5FR04ccPX6Pu0fePl9hXexMaad9RbR0c87oAJ3U2SD-yK0lPVO4WEX9YR0Hm1XdCcfE/s1600/187876292_d7dfcb492e.jpg" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; background-color: #222222; border: 1px solid rgb(17, 17, 17); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 1px; position: relative;" width="400" /></a></span></div></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>Other vaguely piratical acts.</i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> <span style="font-size: large;">Louie wasn't performing with us this night. We hadn't even seen him at all since he'd started POTC3. But he had made it out to the Pirates Ball and was hanging with us -if only for the free beer- and when we went to the backstage door he came with us. </span></span></div></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> i entered from stage right a minute before the others and immediately i knew that something was wrong. Most of the time we have to perform a good show and win over the crowd before they cheer for us but this time i just had to walk out onto the stage and they were screaming bloody mad. i hadn't even done anything yet. It didn't make sense.</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr_a7KexlFKg15olPHCUAgBProUdvOYRz6oBtLqQq6K3xuDVhRm5QlPAtEawybOWlPu0RIkgqpjomwkYi4COJmIKv0OGMhBu8fQcrBb5cKfa0ab3dI27lXWH6oStRqAXtSC458jt5e3ibn/s1600/Keylisajimcrow.2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #ddaa6e; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" height="135" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr_a7KexlFKg15olPHCUAgBProUdvOYRz6oBtLqQq6K3xuDVhRm5QlPAtEawybOWlPu0RIkgqpjomwkYi4COJmIKv0OGMhBu8fQcrBb5cKfa0ab3dI27lXWH6oStRqAXtSC458jt5e3ibn/s320/Keylisajimcrow.2.jpg" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; background-color: #222222; border: 1px solid rgb(17, 17, 17); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 1px; position: relative;" width="400" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRrg2BlUmaeXMsDynLBiPT5fgGoLdVEBx4n4AzU3VsRP0iE2h_8au0fdaWrhj1-Co18zVJxW7L8DaVabT5jDu9nqZW4f9swypEFhogMbJ3QKiUzm2auDPZmXVAWnjDvB0sxsO04Fp1Aw-b/s1600/keylisajimcrow2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #ddaa6e; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRrg2BlUmaeXMsDynLBiPT5fgGoLdVEBx4n4AzU3VsRP0iE2h_8au0fdaWrhj1-Co18zVJxW7L8DaVabT5jDu9nqZW4f9swypEFhogMbJ3QKiUzm2auDPZmXVAWnjDvB0sxsO04Fp1Aw-b/s1600/keylisajimcrow2.jpg" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; background-color: #222222; border: 1px solid rgb(17, 17, 17); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 1px; position: relative;" width="400" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Brandi, Spillit, Bullet: Live on the Sunset strip. (pic by Tiger Lee)</span></span></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> <span style="font-size: large;">Spillit and i had some dialogue but we weren't wearing microphones and the crowd was never quiet enough to hear it, so we gave up and just pantomimed some business which included him throwing a coin toward me as an insult, thus provoking our fight. It went over fantastically. They laughed and then cheered as the swords came out then pressed toward the stage during the fight. The girl's were next and their "surprise" was the addition of breakaway clothes, which they tore off of each other during their catfight. i liked it and so did everyone else, apparently. Brandi and i then did a double-cutlass duel to climax the show and then we were done. The whole thing had lasted about six minutes.</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwe6dq4jMlGiG1ozccdqXGaaYk_c7-2UBrAs4kqcwX2Y9PSBFDIgDJdRk5UQXeJjs_R0ymSbD8ZIWTn2Gw7uH0QM8SkAO6fgu4PKN-x9AKpHw85UjY_WBHA7d6_-_YWPEB-n8QtEFChGQY/s1600/keyclubsev.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #ddaa6e; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" height="383" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwe6dq4jMlGiG1ozccdqXGaaYk_c7-2UBrAs4kqcwX2Y9PSBFDIgDJdRk5UQXeJjs_R0ymSbD8ZIWTn2Gw7uH0QM8SkAO6fgu4PKN-x9AKpHw85UjY_WBHA7d6_-_YWPEB-n8QtEFChGQY/s320/keyclubsev.jpg" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; background-color: #222222; border: 1px solid rgb(17, 17, 17); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 1px; position: relative;" width="400" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Severine.</span></span></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVQFSynE5uOYom_VrfjCCD6GzqEdyjIw4dlkMS8jdfo_0w9ePk-yWvV5qiPlH9z7bhgIkCyheqzW2iwGmSq0Sr8jgQFqJrShPyKbJr0j1AgGRaLoAqTCeIKBou2QRa9D-o0damYj4zdCjl/s1600/Keylisasev.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #ddaa6e; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVQFSynE5uOYom_VrfjCCD6GzqEdyjIw4dlkMS8jdfo_0w9ePk-yWvV5qiPlH9z7bhgIkCyheqzW2iwGmSq0Sr8jgQFqJrShPyKbJr0j1AgGRaLoAqTCeIKBou2QRa9D-o0damYj4zdCjl/s1600/Keylisasev.jpg" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; background-color: #222222; border: 1px solid rgb(17, 17, 17); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 1px; position: relative;" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Brandi and Sev</span></i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> <span style="font-size: large;">Louie had followed us out onto the stage and when we took our bows he came right up to the front and bowed alongside the rest of us even though he hadn't actually done anything in the show. That took nerve and i totally respected him for it. What a f**king pirate!</span></span></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> i noticed my hand had been bloodied during the show but i couldn't locate the cut...</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: 12px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFt1ceAgONEsz4nwHiDPBeR9N2JoPIe7sVwWAP_3lsjQxqhZBcDnvz3AXYOittjn8B7mR5kJ6JiZWtDqeRwjHIltIp2avn5P7MOWO0Eoc_mDSbrrxEIlk4pvZX5sapFx1bg0I_VagTDs0Y/s1600/J:Bpistols.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #ddaa6e; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFt1ceAgONEsz4nwHiDPBeR9N2JoPIe7sVwWAP_3lsjQxqhZBcDnvz3AXYOittjn8B7mR5kJ6JiZWtDqeRwjHIltIp2avn5P7MOWO0Eoc_mDSbrrxEIlk4pvZX5sapFx1bg0I_VagTDs0Y/s320/J:Bpistols.jpg" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; background-color: #222222; border: 1px solid rgb(17, 17, 17); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 1px; position: relative;" width="400" /></a></div><div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"> </span> <span style="font-size: large;">Back in the tour bus, Spillit asked me: "Did you hear that crowd?"</span></span></div></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> "Yes," i said. "But something's wrong. We just can't be that f**king popular."</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> "We're not," he said. "Remember what you did on that pyrate cruise? When you planted people in the audience?"</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> "You mean quackers? To incite the crowd..."</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> "Yeah. I put Adam out there. I told him to get some of his friends and to all scream loud as hell as soon as we came onstage."</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> "How many friends did he have?"</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> "Only like three, they were just really loud and got everyone else going!"</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> "Sh*t! i'm gonna buy him a beer!"</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzK2cwtHYrjGIz2sfY-wuQk3AflDLgwjWrD3xu9qcLHO2kDt3TRmqtM1DSQCqYmJ8i8IkC0c2NQzriARl5gGHnfYOX2L_ETuSpu7DS2wkvwW17L3q6QAWCzM_AQqWLTsOKE-L2MTYlE_PO/s1600/Keyclubgroup2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #ddaa6e; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" height="357" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzK2cwtHYrjGIz2sfY-wuQk3AflDLgwjWrD3xu9qcLHO2kDt3TRmqtM1DSQCqYmJ8i8IkC0c2NQzriARl5gGHnfYOX2L_ETuSpu7DS2wkvwW17L3q6QAWCzM_AQqWLTsOKE-L2MTYlE_PO/s1600/Keyclubgroup2.jpg" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; background-color: #222222; border: 1px solid rgb(17, 17, 17); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 1px; position: relative;" width="400" /></a></div></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> <span style="font-size: large;">Some rocker kid stopped me at the bar. "You guys were f**king great! That was the coolest sh*t I ever saw!!"</span></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> "Thanks," i said, and dove into my first rum and coke of the evening. The kid didn't go away.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> "I'm Steven," he said. "I'm writing an article about the Pirates Ball. Can I interview you?"</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> The last thing i felt like doing was talking to him but.. "Alright." i said. (we're media whores, have you noticed?) "Just promise me you won't say 'arrrgh'."</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> "Why not?"</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> "Either promise or i won't talk to you."</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> "Okay."</span></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: medium; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR9I28PRnRmRaXD-7oV0naobwqv798099S-cFwMrFM8PV2yhggC6ZrTQI09ZzyoDFLRhkAQgsxKbjILaIcoDrw_ehrejxVOQPAWSm9Dxa07Ols1H3wRVvSFpjmhgRIpuhHslhWM85_lmcM/s1600/CIMG.1570.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #ddaa6e; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR9I28PRnRmRaXD-7oV0naobwqv798099S-cFwMrFM8PV2yhggC6ZrTQI09ZzyoDFLRhkAQgsxKbjILaIcoDrw_ehrejxVOQPAWSm9Dxa07Ols1H3wRVvSFpjmhgRIpuhHslhWM85_lmcM/s320/CIMG.1570.jpg" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; background-color: #222222; border: 1px solid rgb(17, 17, 17); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 1px; position: relative;" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: medium; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Louie, Brandi, Bullet.</span></span></div></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> There was beer in the trailer so we went there. He said he'd arrived just as our show started so he missed the performances before us. i told him what happened, careful to mention only our friends by name, viz: Shelby, Courtney, and the Scarlett Harlott, of course.</span></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> We had been playing up the rock star/pyrate parallels in every interview for the past few months so i encouraged him to use that angle. After we plied him with beer and sent him on his way, Sev asked: "Do you think he'll give us a good write up?" </span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> "Of course he will. i told him you'd hack him to death with your cutlass if he said anything bad about us. He's terrified now."</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> She laughed. "Damn! I never would have thought of threatening a reporter."</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> "Well, you're not the only one who knows how to work the media."</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">In the interview i'd had to spin some of the difficulties we'd had that night... </span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">SPUN </span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">(from <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Rock City News</span>): </span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">According to Bullet: "We made a point not to use any of our usual FX. No gunshots, blood splatterings or bottles breaking over heads. We wanted this one to stand on just the sword work alone. Like an acoustic set. Revenge: Unplugged."</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">UNSPUN </span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">(what really happened): </span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Sev forgot to bring the breakaway bottle, Bullet brought the blood squibs but forgot to fill them before going on stage (he'd been drinking), the venue threatened to sue us if we used gun powder. </span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> A few weeks later it was on the newsstands. Spillit called me as soon as he read it. "Accoustic set?" he said. "What kind of bullsh*t did you shovel on that guy?" </span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> To which i could only retort: "Dude. If it was in <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Rock City News</span>, it MUST be true!"</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0awrnlBcPEXc2AFchIGTfxmi3O3XHVGunr7KAhCD72W-WJz8m-NNhQgv07b7ifZmNzVoY7Iq1H-XUtbaTpazjk9i1t-87ZaOEPuNPl3ICdhkU5skGS0cwmJz9HTP0ZFNI9jbnCUk6rZeC/s1600/zJBL:RockCity.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #ddaa6e; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0awrnlBcPEXc2AFchIGTfxmi3O3XHVGunr7KAhCD72W-WJz8m-NNhQgv07b7ifZmNzVoY7Iq1H-XUtbaTpazjk9i1t-87ZaOEPuNPl3ICdhkU5skGS0cwmJz9HTP0ZFNI9jbnCUk6rZeC/s320/zJBL:RockCity.jpg" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; background-color: #222222; border: 1px solid rgb(17, 17, 17); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 1px; position: relative;" width="400" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-size: large;">Well, as you know, the dedicated pirates of </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Revenge</span> were born and are destined to suffer, and to that end we had to awaken early the next day as Spillit, Louie, and myself were committed to do an appearance in Long Beach. Ah, those wonderful post-pyrating hangovers! </span></div></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> i began suffering land-sickness during the ride but a quick stop to lean out the door and things were much less bad. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Pyrate Wisdom</span>: Always remove your seatbelt before casting up accounts.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> We stopped for a bottle of rum and drank it in a hurry as we gassed up the car. i began to feel optimistic after a few swigs of the pirate potion. i found my bottle of sunscreen, alcohol based, and squeezed some onto my left hand. Immediately i located my wounds from the previous night. </span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> "AAaaaaaagghhh, sh*t!!" </span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> There were four small, almost invisible cuts at the base of my fingers. i blamed Brandi for it. </span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> "That bitch! She's fired! She's so f**king fired! i'll kill her!" </span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> My pirate brothers only mocked my misery.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> Louie: "Oh my god! He fired Brandi!"</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> Spillit: "Again? You bastard!"</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> And the worst was yet to come...</span></span></div><div style="clear: both; font-size: 13.199999809265137px;"></div></div><div class="post-footer" style="background-color: #222222; border-bottom-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #cccccc; font-size: 10.800000190734863px; line-height: 1.6; margin: 20px -2px 0px; padding: 5px 10px;"></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Wench Whispererhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15589439410613677518noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3353921144501096750.post-86416331403269321612022-06-07T21:21:00.067-07:002022-06-13T18:26:32.626-07:00Saint Douglas Fairbanks<p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); color: #0ef0f0; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); color: #0ef0f0; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmP5JkXCAPvuM5mLDEBWWHn2P0Sb_uAbt3GhY9YnLIcSrcGLROk9-Ks4_dIaIaEs1z2--vhVtU4KGOGHmP5obOakViBW6Mg-9G2AaneLCKT-aa6IWS3DYFRFdddu5pRp0njjydOv2zeh8jkJ0e8ePDhEXCki-f4Pkj0BIy8yqaewJFp_2NEWrI3jCdhQ/s320/blackpirateillus.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="221" data-original-width="320" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmP5JkXCAPvuM5mLDEBWWHn2P0Sb_uAbt3GhY9YnLIcSrcGLROk9-Ks4_dIaIaEs1z2--vhVtU4KGOGHmP5obOakViBW6Mg-9G2AaneLCKT-aa6IWS3DYFRFdddu5pRp0njjydOv2zeh8jkJ0e8ePDhEXCki-f4Pkj0BIy8yqaewJFp_2NEWrI3jCdhQ/w400-h276/blackpirateillus.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"> Back in the olden times -1980s- it was a complicated challenge to join the Screen Actors Guild because you weren't eligible to join until you'd performed a speaking role on film or television, but you weren't allowed to audition for those roles unless you were already a member. Of course if you had family in the business it negated these rules (because nepotism is the supreme rule in Hollywood) but for the rest of us this was a formidable obstruction to our ambitions (this, and the $830.50 initiation fee). Other actors respected you for getting into SAG but not because it meant you were talented, rather because it meant you were clever enough to have dodged the Catch-22 regulation. SAG membership was the last great barrier between being a wannabe and being a real actor (or so us credulous youngsters believed in those simpler times). Anyway, it was a big steaming deal.</span></span><p></p><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> Eventually, thru trickery and audacity and winning a role i wasn't "legally permitted" to even audition for, i got into the Guild. There was an "orientation" meeting for new members which was something like a brimstone and hellfire sermon from a James Joyce novel except that the deadliest sin in this case was to work non-union. The meeting wasn't mandatory but i endured it because my friend Donna told me they'd give me my card at the end (rather than mail it to me which would have taken a few weeks), and they did. On the bottom of a SAG card is a line one has to sign to make it valid. Donna said she took her first card to the Chinese Theatre and signed it whilst standing in the footprints of her favorite actress, Ginger Rogers. She described it as though she were adopting Ginger as the patron (matron?) saint of her acting career.</span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> In those days SAG headquarters was located on Hollywood Blvd. just a couple blocks from the Chinese Theatre. i'd always liked Donna's story so i went immediately to find my own patron saint. Naturally, it was Douglas Fairbanks, the first great swashbuckler. (i might have been torn between Fairbanks and Errol Flynn but Errol never got to put his footprints there).</span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEGzu3H1i5LMQvVaxQXPJBYsAfaAyWKerxrmoYY684jj0H3NLCkEqDhbkzb3XOnr2Uz7emv-OyEMqKNjsQ3r5bekMbcBbmAClAFWfKJMQ8-S1wraGxlX_1F2vjvVAA41QlaKLTY_nCHFVz_LuZIipZDGCtts9pOmtlwowGTRfRZYkvLFnX36HrTOAhBw/s537/FairbanksIronmask.1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="537" data-original-width="350" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEGzu3H1i5LMQvVaxQXPJBYsAfaAyWKerxrmoYY684jj0H3NLCkEqDhbkzb3XOnr2Uz7emv-OyEMqKNjsQ3r5bekMbcBbmAClAFWfKJMQ8-S1wraGxlX_1F2vjvVAA41QlaKLTY_nCHFVz_LuZIipZDGCtts9pOmtlwowGTRfRZYkvLFnX36HrTOAhBw/w261-h400/FairbanksIronmask.1.jpg" width="261" /></span></a></div><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span"> </span><span> What i knew about Doug was that he'd had his own studio back in the 1920s, and total control over the movies he made; casting, scripting, stunts, directors, set design, etc. he had the final say on all of it. He built colossal sets for <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">The Thief of Bagdad</span>, and an entire castle for <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Robin Hood</span>. Many of the scenes in his <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Black Pirate </span>movie were directly modeled after Howard Pyle's paintings. He embraced the fun of life and it showed in those films. He seemed to scale every wall in his path and never came across a sword he didn't pick up to wield against injustice. For several years he'd been the biggest movie star in the world, and now he would be my patron saint. i knew i wasn't worthy, and Doug might have been affronted at the idea, but i was arrogant. Hell, i'd just gotten into SAG, hadn't i?</span></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwiHDhOGwlOhNwjKknes5IfOXtkzj7VmiI4ATapd29WY9m4Eo599DFZCnyP1h-aVqvhAY7PA5M8zxaonGHHGZK_ZXJzAcWgyS32s4pZN9lNCGpQOsAQUGLlz5Mrbj_wKEOJsOLbxdjCAtFbOPiYUGPymxboP4bjSKPOqiQPhJQuJkjyUVtGYCBFs73KA/s1500/Black_pirate_1926_poster.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1002" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwiHDhOGwlOhNwjKknes5IfOXtkzj7VmiI4ATapd29WY9m4Eo599DFZCnyP1h-aVqvhAY7PA5M8zxaonGHHGZK_ZXJzAcWgyS32s4pZN9lNCGpQOsAQUGLlz5Mrbj_wKEOJsOLbxdjCAtFbOPiYUGPymxboP4bjSKPOqiQPhJQuJkjyUVtGYCBFs73KA/w268-h400/Black_pirate_1926_poster.jpg" width="268" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> Doug was among the first to leave his footprints in cement at the Chinese Theatre. i knew the spot, between the box office and the front doors. i pushed my way into the courtyard and found him. Ignoring the tourists who still crowded on all sides -even at 11:00pm, i set my feet in Doug's prints, traced my pen through his signature, then set down my card on his hand print and signed it. </span></div><div style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> "What are you doing?" asked one woman in a foreign accent. </span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> "It's my SAG card!" i shouted, excited as hell. "It's my SAG card!!"</span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> She backed a few steps away, as though i were crazy. Behind me, a voice asked, "What the hell is a SAG card?"</span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL-Erqj657kARH6uru-nToXIH3KONS8PWWnjtAikNTHJcl7YT0k0TOUaFY9H8N1vsXQ6alqt1T_fBWlgFqTmyMUxEInGODJ3ijGgfET3GCU3n2ktE9qQ4v4z8wnzfTxbhaBlB-MHcztFuN894cDEb1vi5h9bLF6SkblQGjtXS5wFIvcT2J-E_rrVLX_A/s1963/DouglasFairbanksHandFootPrints2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1689" data-original-width="1963" height="550" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL-Erqj657kARH6uru-nToXIH3KONS8PWWnjtAikNTHJcl7YT0k0TOUaFY9H8N1vsXQ6alqt1T_fBWlgFqTmyMUxEInGODJ3ijGgfET3GCU3n2ktE9qQ4v4z8wnzfTxbhaBlB-MHcztFuN894cDEb1vi5h9bLF6SkblQGjtXS5wFIvcT2J-E_rrVLX_A/w640-h550/DouglasFairbanksHandFootPrints2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> i never got to perform in a swashbuckling movie. Nobody was even making such things anymore. As my career fell miserably short of those first Fairbanksian aspirations, i was stuck playing roles like 'Heavy Metal Kid #1' or 'Maladjusted Student' or 'Junkie #2' on bad television shows when i should have been swashbuckling instead. Doing <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0p5cEVgkFI" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">this</a> when i just knew that God intended me to do <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaBud6ii5Wk&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PL20BD69B826653E25" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">this</a>. Grateful for what i had but not at all content.</span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii2TX3GcdzEvJcCZqOJLCwvSeVcT9zVAS7RGVvbbjIYq8OG2ZQRb2hewNbvWz-HlPo9MZT5EJqksBu-gwJ-M4UUgK0sVZv-XrTaeRBrAzJzXax6DIU3RyNOkANhIWpBtXB-jmPy7JB7arqOM70UrVljzaWXiW-Lwwzz-PIDpNgCFA8pnU8PgGKRs5SnQ/s1232/Wilding%204.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="743" data-original-width="1232" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii2TX3GcdzEvJcCZqOJLCwvSeVcT9zVAS7RGVvbbjIYq8OG2ZQRb2hewNbvWz-HlPo9MZT5EJqksBu-gwJ-M4UUgK0sVZv-XrTaeRBrAzJzXax6DIU3RyNOkANhIWpBtXB-jmPy7JB7arqOM70UrVljzaWXiW-Lwwzz-PIDpNgCFA8pnU8PgGKRs5SnQ/w400-h241/Wilding%204.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>"i'm not complaining but i'd rather be boarding ships and<br />hacking shit up with a cutlass."</i></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> Doug was in the Hollywood Cemetery and i would visit him frequently, even doing a picture shoot there which rendered my most successful headshot, but he never spoke to me to tell me where i was going wrong. i returned many times, hoping for a word or a sign from Saint Doug. But nothing.</span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicTshyDz9HKU0yZVl7iWK07AZFM34AeD3vA7pbfLVaNajsED7nt9chqIH2ox5k2_14H1zzm7xOhvhFZCiXuhkuPMMBgby1kuiJQSSQ_JVjnD9FAW3qYxOFMSAP0OFyfOYP0dkSwuFAGILhkHK0ORxnBCeWIeUGRENajDt4DeJNwFTKgZISzsRIK5kE1w/s1600/Fairbanks39.1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1129" data-original-width="1600" height="453" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicTshyDz9HKU0yZVl7iWK07AZFM34AeD3vA7pbfLVaNajsED7nt9chqIH2ox5k2_14H1zzm7xOhvhFZCiXuhkuPMMBgby1kuiJQSSQ_JVjnD9FAW3qYxOFMSAP0OFyfOYP0dkSwuFAGILhkHK0ORxnBCeWIeUGRENajDt4DeJNwFTKgZISzsRIK5kE1w/w640-h453/Fairbanks39.1.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span> In 1993 my friend Severine brought me into a pirate group she belonged to called Brethren of the Coast. She was trying to form an acting troupe out of them but most of them didn't have the discipline or interest for it. There were a few good people though and the group got some good gigs, including opening for the <i>CutThroat Island</i> movie at an early screening and inaugurating the Redondo Beach Pier. So i wrote some scripts and we did a few shows, but it was futile. Even after i brought in Wolf (an actor i'd met filming </span><i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1TrFjLKryc" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">The Mask</a></i><span>), who was talented and enthusiastic, we were still outnumbered by those who -even though they'd </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">begged</span><span> to be in the show- came to rehearsals only to lounge about drinking rum. BOTC did do some cool things, like sailing a tall-ship to Catalina, but Sev and i wanted to be on stage.</span></span></div><div style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> Then, after years of waiting, Saint Doug finally spoke. Probably just so i'd stop bothering him.</span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> In June of 1996, the Los Angeles Conservancy presented a screening of <i>The Black Pirate</i> at the uber-historic Orpheum Theatre in downtown L.A. The film, made in 1926, had just been released on video with a newly recorded soundtrack by the 20 piece Robert Israel Orchestra. The orchestra would be performing the score live during the screening. A stage show would precede the film with two singers followed by a comedy skit. At some point during rehearsals the director realized that his sword battle wasn't going to work at all. Instead of swords the actors were using flimsy foils and just didn't know what to do with them. Hell, i wouldn't have known what to do with foils either. </span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> An acquaintance of ours, Louis, was in the cast and he phoned the Brethren of the Coast about coming in with some pirates and doing a big sword fight to close the show. This seemed to me a great opportunity and, with the Douglas Fairbanks angle, like a destined gift of fate. We could finally get pirates into the real world of show business. The BOTC agreed to do it, and then -a couple days before the event- decided not to. i was heck-bent to do it though, with or without them. Sev and i phoned Louis and told him we were still in. Wolf and Christina joined us.</span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBAISvDSWaIdWahJcyDg3aeLXcIuqERm75CwvyBBFS0JjYs1RMFhQM5i1IcEMXOKl7RRbOLoWH3Pyi7M8aJIy3u6Y25uPPMle6io56tPGbBRJXTpYn7lWGxVr61A6983zKz6iKTVqBFfrKgYAQcGi5OwGd-KhJo5QJerV8fvz-8EaRJK7b2ujKKmM4hg/s1336/Sanguinarium_1995.1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="794" data-original-width="1336" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBAISvDSWaIdWahJcyDg3aeLXcIuqERm75CwvyBBFS0JjYs1RMFhQM5i1IcEMXOKl7RRbOLoWH3Pyi7M8aJIy3u6Y25uPPMle6io56tPGbBRJXTpYn7lWGxVr61A6983zKz6iKTVqBFfrKgYAQcGi5OwGd-KhJo5QJerV8fvz-8EaRJK7b2ujKKmM4hg/w400-h238/Sanguinarium_1995.1.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The four of us rehearsing during the Brethren days.</i></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> Wolf and i had some half-arsed duel choreography which needed a lot more work, whilst Sev and Christina had nothing, so we weren't prepared at all. But when opportunity rings you answer the door whether or not you're dressed. Anyway, we four were the disciplined pirates and this time we'd be able to work without any drunken, lazy fools hindering us. </span></div><div style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> We showed up at the Orpheum next morning and rehearsed thruout the day whilst the musicians tuned their instruments in the orchestra pit. It was a gigantic stage and the director, Stanley Sheff (alias Maxwell DeMille), seemed grateful to have us there and worked our fights into the plot of his show.</span></div><div style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> Sev and Christina did just some very basic sword moves, switching off attack and defense so they each did both sides and stretched out the fight. Then they added a few slashes and a disarming. There were only four cutlasses between the four of us so the hardest problem was finding a graceful way for Wolf and i to get hold of the girl's swords in time for our double-cutlass segment. We all went thru our fights over and again for about eight hours and became confident with the choreography but the sword acquisition part still seemed like it could go terribly wrong. And it did, even in the final dress rehearsal.</span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Here's a video that illustrates the sword procurement problem:</span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-family: times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dynXlUvJhKpW9QMsnGMYBQuz6HvHiIZFfqtds9sbGwyujff7ewSZ4mQOY5jh6zVIwMmylafnFEhJ2SbqaoZWQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-family: times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: times; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OpyQn5fjhjQ" width="320" youtube-src-id="OpyQn5fjhjQ"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: times; font-size: x-large; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> We hoped to go thru it another few times, focusing on just that element, when the woman from the Conservancy ran up to the stage and asked, "Can we open the doors a little bit early? Those people are lined up across Spring street!" Spring st. was around the corner and a block east.</span></span></span></div></div><div style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;"><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> "Cool!" shouted our videographer.</span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> The show was SOLD OUT. 2300 people. And i knew that Doug was smiling down on us.</span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9WNacpNWlF5Wi3aYXJ33H8LAktZWpx1Wkzib-kuZh35r_E7H1Id1RJp4ggoHqUnADXQ6jTtzJ6ZNMI2Y1n90iQXUkml8Ay1_GpXW-npHV2r0sWhETcGF1fOadkUweqbDdZXmY8V5gy8EqooVKz0r_TxsNN0KfGp2lbyCoocUeG2Wpcz318kjVleNF8w/s1600/Fairbanks%20Sr.,%20Douglas%20(Thief%20of%20Bagdad,%20The)_01.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1281" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9WNacpNWlF5Wi3aYXJ33H8LAktZWpx1Wkzib-kuZh35r_E7H1Id1RJp4ggoHqUnADXQ6jTtzJ6ZNMI2Y1n90iQXUkml8Ay1_GpXW-npHV2r0sWhETcGF1fOadkUweqbDdZXmY8V5gy8EqooVKz0r_TxsNN0KfGp2lbyCoocUeG2Wpcz318kjVleNF8w/w320-h400/Fairbanks%20Sr.,%20Douglas%20(Thief%20of%20Bagdad,%20The)_01.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> Sheff said a few words at the opening, and introduced the singers. They each sang a song and then the spotlights followed a couple pirates as they chased some screaming women thru the isles of the theatre. The curtain was raised to reveal a stage full of pirates with a giant skull and bones backdrop. The audience cheered at this point. It seemed to be going well but the dialogue was hard to follow after that, and some of the actors seemed lost trying to wield their flimsy foil blades. Wolf and i stayed at the front of stage left, waiting for our moment.</span></div><div style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> "Prepare to save the show," he said. Wolf -like me- was an arrogant bastard.</span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> "Sure. If we don't fuck up completely..." i was worried because we'd never gotten thru a single rehearsal perfectly. This might go really badly for us.</span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span> </span><span>Sev and Christina did their fight and didn't screw up, thus raising the bar of audience expectation. By the time Wolf and i began we had their full attention. One strike went wrong in the second sequence but we didn't even pause. As the tempo of the fight picked up so did the orchestra and i felt more powerful. Wolf pushed me across the stage and i landed, pulling off my baldric as he did a long leap and brought his cutlass straight down at me. i rolled and picked up Christina's sword, raised the two blades over my head to deflect his attack, then taunted him. </span></span></div><div style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-family: times; font-size: large;"> "i have two swords!" i turned and spun them in front of me. "i have two and you have only... Two??"</span></span></div><div style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-family: times; font-size: large;"> "Aye!" he shouted. </span></span></div><div style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span><span><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"> Having taken Sev's sword, he beat the two blades together -they rang like church bells- then charged. A few seconds into the double-cutless duel the audience gasped and began cheering and clapping. It was the first glorious moment i'd ever had as a pirate performer. The fight got faster and the music along with it. The choreography was simple but flashy, with a few silly moves. We kept it a trifle slower than rehearsal speed to avoid disasters. One sword did slide into the orchestra pit at the end and a musician had to dodge it to avoid being impaled, but it all worked.</span></span><span><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"> </span></span></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240);"> </span></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.199999809265137px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCjru2-yC5Nf2QxyzSO2_szAQWTJ285uuaGRgZimS6_pcdy5j5_ljU0UKDx94M_pDYaLOHsexk4DpJYa6jtVxM2ySPRaavjwt-WZVEM_xVKGxv1QuOSzkFdElk2Ch4zp446m-Zx1zvzHdmE4-c_-8LUrxJia5Dynj2eRjDbzlpjPgKAGdhjFyP5ora2g/s300/pirate4.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="300" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCjru2-yC5Nf2QxyzSO2_szAQWTJ285uuaGRgZimS6_pcdy5j5_ljU0UKDx94M_pDYaLOHsexk4DpJYa6jtVxM2ySPRaavjwt-WZVEM_xVKGxv1QuOSzkFdElk2Ch4zp446m-Zx1zvzHdmE4-c_-8LUrxJia5Dynj2eRjDbzlpjPgKAGdhjFyP5ora2g/w400-h320/pirate4.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The duel ended with "baseball sword," a gag Wolf and i had come up with that got a big laugh. The other actors finished their skit quickly and the curtain closed to great applause. The stage went dark and as the cast lined up for the curtain call i searched frantically for one of the other swords and found it just in time. The curtain opened and Wolf and i crossed our swords overhead as we took our bows.</span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">And, thanks to the sorcery of 21st century technology, you can watch the whole thing</span></span> <a href="http://maxwelldemille.com/pirate.asp" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">HERE</a> .</span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> Afterward we finished up backstage, got our pay in cash, then rushed to one of the balconies where some seats had been saved for us to watch the movie. The Black Pirate was filmed in two-strip Technicolor but most video releases of it had been in black and white. The color had been restored for this new version we were seeing tonight. Also restored was the original musical score composed for the film. Silent films were never really silent but were intended to be seen with musical accompaniment, whether a single organist in the small venues or an entire orchestra in the great movie palaces, like this one. So the sound and sight combined again as they had in 1926, and Douglas Fairbanks' masterpiece got its due that night.</span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPEM047eEBH0VAVOSixPp5CcoA2CYZ6v94Muo_LoZps5nwTs7KMbK4mBglsiffPVAWiBvORX-6LYYPR6MX7TOfh4z2NY0AvsjukMuRr7_Ks_wLVjiuFSpUaVqiAABHEzkTgx-_o3Hs2rIn361zObGKdKbWeKmMKfc9BMEmDy59PDTh0snaGX0oCDsu8w/s4032/IMG_1480.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPEM047eEBH0VAVOSixPp5CcoA2CYZ6v94Muo_LoZps5nwTs7KMbK4mBglsiffPVAWiBvORX-6LYYPR6MX7TOfh4z2NY0AvsjukMuRr7_Ks_wLVjiuFSpUaVqiAABHEzkTgx-_o3Hs2rIn361zObGKdKbWeKmMKfc9BMEmDy59PDTh0snaGX0oCDsu8w/w300-h400/IMG_1480.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(14, 240, 240); font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">On my way out i pirated the lobby poster -which hangs over my desk as i type this, a fitting prize for a night of piracy. Thanks, Doug.</span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Wench Whispererhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15589439410613677518noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3353921144501096750.post-82479215376446354222022-06-06T22:44:00.002-07:002022-06-06T22:44:46.510-07:00<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9Jl6GCBsnbUdlHL4zpNv4dtMH0VPYazjPo0OYDjUCBbaqwOBW3inTTjLLcS0bnRGw0bw7RaQ-HlAVHBh3lC1VdqQoNNVrirVqHzncNdFeIf4hBZevyE1ATObegcZS7P64jIfbmVcbwi7AIuUkWS-u-9lDhlsg5dzB6gbRBKq8lKbWvVw8PIDRIHHfEw/s1600/IP.SP8%202.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1600" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9Jl6GCBsnbUdlHL4zpNv4dtMH0VPYazjPo0OYDjUCBbaqwOBW3inTTjLLcS0bnRGw0bw7RaQ-HlAVHBh3lC1VdqQoNNVrirVqHzncNdFeIf4hBZevyE1ATObegcZS7P64jIfbmVcbwi7AIuUkWS-u-9lDhlsg5dzB6gbRBKq8lKbWvVw8PIDRIHHfEw/w640-h400/IP.SP8%202.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p></p>Wench Whispererhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15589439410613677518noreply@blogger.com