"How to Talk Like a Pirate" Film

An arrr-nonymous reader writes, "With International Talk Like a Pirate Day mere days away, it's best to be prepared with this high-school film reel 'for the less nautically inclined among us.'" Dave Barry gave momentum to this international movement. You'll have to decide for yourself which of talklikeapirate.com or talklikeapirateday.com more accurately conveys the genuine holiday spirit.

Comments

A Real Pirate

[mysterystevenson]

I sailed the waters of the Bahamas, and swam with sharks, and the closest to pirate talk was "Yah Mon You know You got that right MON" in Jamaica. The pirates all were hijacking cigarette boats and floating square groupers when the Coast Guard narrowed in on the blood thirsty thieves. There are still real pirates today in traditional pirate waters, But I hear they now fly a red flag. Reality.

For Those Willing To Do A Little More Research

[Master of Transhuman]

There is an album out of pirate ballads, sea songs and chanteys as indicated below. My favorite rock singer Andrea Corr is on it, dragooned by her friendship with punk rocker Gavin Friday and rocker Bono who are also involved.

Wednesday June 21, 2006

GORE VERBINSKI, JOHNNY DEPP AND HAL WILLNER
JOIN FORCES WITH ANTI RECORDS FOR THE AUGUST 22 RELEASE:
"ROGUE'S GALLERY: PIRATE BALLADS, SEA SONGS & CHANTEYS"

BONO, STING, LOU REED, BRYAN FERRY, JOHN C. REILLY, RICHARD THOMPSON, LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III, LUCINDA WILLIAMS ARE AMONG THE DIVERSE ARTISTS ON THIS TRULY EXTRAORDINARY COLLECTION

"The ocean. It's all about the vast blue that engulfs two thirds of the planet. The human being cast against that abyss creates an interesting bit of perspective. I think the sailors of the time were dancing with death, and these were their tunes. They resonate with people on some internal level that is not immediately obvious because it's not in our memory, it's in our blood. It operates on a cellular level. It's what makes us feel so alone."
--Gore Verbinski

Film director GORE VERBINSKI, actor JOHNNY DEPP and music producer HAL WILLNER have joined forces with ANTI RECORDS for the truly extraordinary two-CD set ROGUE'S GALLERY: PIRATE BALLADS, SEA SONGS & CHANTEYS. Due out August 22, the collection is filled with contemporary reinterpretations of songs from a genre of music that has all but disappeared. BONO, STING, NICK CAVE, BRYAN FERRY, LOU REED, LUCINDA WILLIAMS, LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III, RICHARD THOMPSON, GAVIN FRIDAY, VAN DYKE PARKS, ANDREA CORR and RUFUS WAINWRIGHT are only a few of the distinguished artists who turn in uncompromising and honest performances that illuminate the power of traditional sea songs.

The idea for ROGUE'S GALLERY originated when Verbinski and Depp were working on their second film together, the upcoming Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. "I slowly became fascinated by the idea of a contemporary reinterpretation of the sea chantey," explains Verbinski. "I imagined the artists that I listen to and respect doing their take on this age-old music: the song of the sea."

Verbinski then "described the project in detail to my old friend Brett Gurewitz (owner of Epitaph and Anti) who immediately understood its wondrous and strange potential. I also asked Johnny Depp if it might be something that he would like to be involved with. He has a great musical aesthetic, and as my partner in the films, his opinion is one I value. I've always believed Johnny is a musician first and the actor thing is just his day job. We met with Brett and put together a list of artists that we intended to go after, but were immediately confounded with the question: who would produce? Who would be mad enough to take this on?"

The project took shape when Hal Willner became "the captain of this vessel," says Verbinski. "From that germinating withering pubic hair of an idea, Hal set sail and returned with what you hear today. He did everything." Willner brought his knack for matching maverick musicians with extraordinary material to the project, as shown on his best-selling Disney tribute album Stay Awake and his acclaimed tributes to Kurt Weill, Charles Mingus, Nino Rota and others.

"When I was asked to do the album, I went into a world I didn't know--which is what appealed to me," says Willner. Immersing himself in antique bookstores, eBay, old record stores, and the Internet for hours and hours, Willner collected some 600 songs and then went about narrowing the song selection down for the album. In March 2006, the recordings began--and the process was joyously freewheeling.

"We were just crawling around, just seeing who was around," he explains. "The Akron/Family was rehearsing, so we recorded them. And then we found Baby Gramps. And that's kind of how we worked all over. We'd go up to London or Dublin or to New York and L.A., with just a sketch and one or two things planned. And then we got on the phone. Most of the time people just came into the studi

pirate RPGing

[Mistshadow2k4]

The best resource for genuine pirate-style gaming I've found is GURPS Swashbucklers. It's full of interesting historical information about real pirates (for instance, did you know that "walking the plank" is fictional?). A glossary of genuine pirate-speak is included on one of the ubiquitous GURPS sidebars. I made good use of it and I play D&D, so most of it works with all games.