Welcome to Richard Washington's
Blackbeard's Castle!
So, ye finally made it here, did ye? Well, welcome aboard, and drop yer
'ook!
Ye've reached the very heart of Blackbeard's Castle --- the Great
Edifice itself! Here, I'll be a-showin' ye some of the things what have made
yours truly the beastly, ferocious, rollickingly lovable ol' salt o' the sea the
world has been knowin' and lovin' (and in some cases, loathin'!) fer close to
400 years! Ha-har!
Even so, there is, I has ter admit, a human side to ol' Blackbeard,
too. So, if'n there be a few occasions where ye might unexpectedly notice a
tear or two tricklin' down me cheek, don't shiver yer timbers. We Pirates 'ave
been known t' let our feelin's show. 'Tis happened to even me from
time to time!
But anyway, ye watch them planks now, 'cuz the Castle per se be in a constant state o' construction. We be a-plantin' down all them new an' ol' Piratical links, to beef up this 'ere humble
collection o' homepages, spawn'd as they be from the mind's eye of young
Master Washington; and presented to ye 'thout charge, as you Mortals say,
by our shipmates at Yahoo!/GeoCities. (Ha-har!)
Now, ye may have noticed that we be missin' a few planks in our ship. That's becuz, as I said ter ye, we be a-reconstructin' some o' our pages. When we finish off that little task (which, hopefully, we will!), the Castle here will be havin' the followin'
in its corridors:
- The Tale of the First Electric Pirate ---
Richard Washington's amazin' saga of the makin' o' Roman Polanski's "Pirates" --- and of how its rise and fall came t' change the lad's young life.
- Dear Roman: An Open Letter, wherein our Mr. W finally confronts Roman Polanski regardin' that aforemention'd movie,
why it failed, and the story behind that failure which caused our
Fearless Leader to seek out me Piratical spirit.
- A Pirate's Hello! This'n be me personal greetin's to all of you, as well as a look at what ye can find 'ere at the Castle, and what'll be lyin' ahead.
- The LinkCenter is me new home fer all me links to all the sites what loves ter be sailin' the Cyberseas!
- The Blackbeard's Castle IndexCenter, which be manned by me faithful first mate, Israel Hands. Izzy'll clue ye in --- again, if need be! --- as t' what's here, what's comin', and other stuff.
- --- and lastly, there be me Blackbeardian Banners, where ye kin link to all me favorite Pirate site 'thout having to hear ol' Teach grumble 'bout them thar bandwidth constraints (Aaaargh!) !
Now, remember, mates, that there be a lot fer us to put up and re-establish 'ere, so please excuse me humble Piratical self --- and the
rest of our humble Family of Inhabitants, fer that matter! --- if'n we don't pay too much attention to ye! Remember, tain't easy constructin' a Castle --- particularly in cyberspace! (Ha-har!)
Stormy seas ahead, mates --- and not just fer yers truly! Our humble hosts at Yahoo!, Inc. have decided to keelhaul GeoCities later this summer --- so me here at the Great Hall, and all o' us in me Blackbeard's Castle Network might not be here fer much longer. We have, however, been promised that there might be a way fer us to stay alive on the web. Me shipmate Blackwolf'll let ye know what be up as soon as possible.
Well, it looks like ol' Teach be about ta take over yer tellyvision yet agin, eh what? Thank'ee kindly, Thirteen/WNET; fer yer latest installment in that Secrets o' th' Dead series o' yourn be starrin' dangerous little ol' me! "Blackbeard's Lost Ship," the show in question be call'd, and in this 'ere scurvy hour, they be focusin' on them archaeologists what claims t' have found me good ship, the Queen Anne's Revenge, off th' North Carolina coast. The question they be askin' is as follers: did I accidentally run me ship aground, or did I deliberately make a bid ta betray me mates n' cheat 'em out'n their share of the plunder we took? Well, ye ain't 'spectin' me ta tell ya that now, are ye? Ye'll just have ta tune in to the blarsted show to find out! Ha har!
Meet Cap'n Jolly Roger! After over 3000 entries submitted by the young folks, the Pittsburgh Pirates' new mascot will be sailin' alongside the beloved Pirate Parrot fer the whole season! Together, they'll scan the baseball seas fer a shot at post-season thunder, if'n ya would!
Someone else ye be needin' ta meet: Bryson Cowan, 2008 Maine Lobster Festival Sea Goddess! She, King Neptune (Mike Miller), and yers truly, in th' person o' Brian Messing, had a jolly time greetin' the landlubbers, sayin' hello to ev'ryone at the Parade, and whatnot! Take a look-see fer yerselves, sez I, as we remember some o' the sights o' a lovely week! We're doin' it yet again, beginnin' July 29th, so 'oist yer knickers thar, er else! Ha-har!
International Talk Like a Pirate Day 2009 be just less'n 5 months away, me 'earties! 'Til then, here be our fav'rite Pirate ditty, as croon'd by Cap'n Slappy and Ol' Chumbucket, along wi' young First Mate Chumpail: "I'm a Pirate." (Sing along, ye scurvy divils, or walk th' plank! Ha-har!)
An' our Pirate Guys spent the past year tourin' the country, a-pluggin' their book, The Pirate Life: Unleashin' Yer Inn'r Buccaneer, from Citadel/Kensington Books, now available ev'rywhere, includin' Amazon.com and all Barnes & Noble and Borders Bookstores, and, o' course, through talklikeapirate.com! Here, as they did in their last book, Pirattitude!, the lads take ye though it all: in bizness, while out on a date, dietin', exercisin', raisin' yer brats, etc. --- and there also be the Pyrate Guys' full sellooshun to ye olde Pirates vs. Ninjas debate! Buy th' book, or we'll keelhaul ya! Aargh! Meanwhile, Ol' Chumbucket and the Baur bunch be 'appily settled at their new digs in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands! Follow their latest adventures on their blog, OnOurIsland.blogspot.com!
Next, Cap'n Slappy n' Ol' Chumbucket disembark'd at the Franklin in Phillydelphya Town on Talk Like a Pirate Day proper, where, at the Mandell Center, they did a book-signin' an' meet-n'-greet thing in support of the Real Pirates travelin' exhibit, from them brainies at National Geographic! Aargh!
Meanwhile, here in Electric Pirates' home port o' Manhattan, the Pirates o' New Amsterdam had but at least three official New York City Pirate Cellybrations: the biggest o' these wuz 'eld at Riverside Park's West 79th Street Boat Basin Cafe, where yer hostess, Bloody Suz, Terror o' the Central Park Reservoir, greeted them what dared to show up twixt noon n' midnight! Over at Pier 63 on the North River near Chelsea Piers, the good lightship Fryin' Pan hosted its own Talk Like a Pirate Day Buccaneer Bash! Finally, over at the
Staten Island Zoo, their
Sunday Pirate Day Party offer'd Pirate-inspired kids' activities; banners, signs n' decorations were tossed all over the Zoo; and Staten Island's own jugband, the Wahoo Skiffle Crazies (whom ye can also find 'ere), croon'd sum sea chanteys worth lissenin' ta!
Now takin' over yer DVD player and/or Blu-ray console: those mighty Mormon maritimers, the Pirates of the Great Salt Lake! Hook up with 'em here, too!
Gasparilly 2K9 was fun fer us, too, becuz the the PirateFest and Parade featured the Pirate Guys, Ben (Blackbeard) Cherry an' First Mate DeeGee, Cap'n MacLeod an' Jamaica Rose from NQG Magazine, the Mystick Krewe o' Neptune and a whole mess more! Aye, they were all out thar, shiverin' everyone's timbers n' stuff!
The scurvy brother-n'-sister team of Bobby n' Laura Sams have their own little film studio, which they calls (natch!) Sisbro Studios, LLC! Their first project be a little number entitled The Riddle in a Bottle, an' they've made a book fer the wee Buccaneers from it, and that one be called
A Pirate's Quest (fer 'is fam'ly heirloom peg-leg)! It be illustrated by Heiner Hertling, host of Your Brush w/Nature, airin' on selected PBS stations! Starrin' as "The Riddle-solvers," Bobby n' Laura discover the titular riddle, whose three clues lead to a very special Pirate song called The Peg-leg Song! Ye can also meet Bobby n' Laura's cuzzins, Carl R. Sams, II n' Jean Stoick, the 'usband-'n-wife photogs what did
Stranger in the Woods and its sequel, Lost in the Woods!
And at the Disney Parks, Pirates of the Caribbean be havin' more'n just meet-n'-greets wi' our boy Cap'n Jack Sparrow (not to mention ol' Squidbeard, Mr. Gibbs, and the Turners, as well!): ya got th' Bilge Rats, who sing some songs, tell some stories, and raise their battle cries o' freedom! Then ya has the Bootstrappers, who also croon classic Disney pirate tunes and authentic sea chanteys! As fer Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, let's start drinkin' some grog to th' aforementioned Davy Jones, mates! Thanks ta him an' those landlubbers from Industrial Light n' Magic, th' #3 billion-dollar grossin' worldwide movie landed the one treasure what REALLY matter'd: the Academy Award fer Best Visual Effects! Grab th' DVD now, and see why fer yerselves, lest ye be forc'd ta walk th' plank! (Aargh!) And the whole Pirates Movie Trilogy be on DVD, HD DVD and Disney Blu-ray, too! Trouble is, the World's End ended up wi' just two o' them blarsted Visual Effects Society Awards: Outstandin' Animated Character in a Live-Action Movie (why, that would be Davy Jones again --- Marc Chu, Jakub Pistecky and Maia Kayser, Character Supervisors) and Outstandin' Created Environment in a Live-Action Movie (The Maelstrom: Frank Losasso Peterson, Paul Sharpe, Joachim Arneson and David Meny, Sequence Coordinators)! And they even gave ol' Spielberg hisself their Lifetime Achievement Award, too!
Alas, me 'earties, in the end, not even ol' Oscar was kind ta us Pirates! @ World's End got nominated fer Best Makeup (Ve Neill an' Marty Samuel) and Best Visual Effects (John Knoll, Hal Hickel, Charles Gibson and John Frazier) --- and we lost 'em both, blarst it all!
Well, at least we Pirates still be havin' this, this an' this ta groove to, aargh.
More ta say re the aforemention'd 2008 Maine Lobster Festival: their Grand Marshal were one Sam Collins, last survivor o' the original crew what founded the Festival some 61 years ago! Click here fer me own assessments o' last year's controversial Festival opening weekend! Aargh!
Poet an' bard Bill Harley (also here) be wantin' ya ta meet Dirty Joe the Pirate, as he seeks out the world's dirtiest socks --- and then takes on Stinky Annie and her crew of nasty tighty-whity filchers! Their adventure sails at bookstores now, and ye can also check out Dirty Joe's Dirty Pirate Poetry Contest!
Up grog ter our mateys over at Mutiny Bay @ Alton Towers Theme Park & Resort in Staffordshire, England! Word is, they wuz after the Guinness World Record fer the largest-ever gatherin' o' fully-costumed Pirates! Aaargh! Now that's somethin' ta be boastin' about, eh what? (Hmmmmmm...... wonder if'n they made it....?) Aargh!
In them bookstores what got it be the Backbeard sequel, Backbeard, Pirate for Hire! Matt McElligott and the Backbeard crew would love ta be havin' ye read it!
Our e-mail addresses, if'n no one's reminded ye o' late, are electric_pirates@hotmail.com and blackbeardian@yahoo.com! Use 'em if'n ye wants t' be floatin' a cybernote me scurvy way, mates! Aargh!