See full version: Make/Play/Watch/Read: A Pirate; s Life for Me
Treasure Island has continued to inspire storytellers and artists for many years. One of my favorites is Italian artist Lorenzo Nuti. You can see Nuti’s artwork here, with a collection of 33 illustrations to pay tribute to Stevenson’s story. They are all gorgeous, and they capture the stirring nature of the story in a beautifully evocative way. Worth checking out for any pirate-themed day.
The eldest spawnling recently celebrated his birthday. We have a tradition in our family of making birthday cakes to fit a theme for the birthday star. Each year, the spawnlings set me a new challenge, and, bless their land-lubber hearts, they enjoy it when I completely fail too. The now-15-year-old especially. Lucky for me, I noticed his loose interest in pirates over the last couple of weeks and took a punt. Even luckier, he loved it.
Can we really have a pirate theme without mentioning Pirates of the Caribbean? Of course not. You might have noticed the news out E3 about Pirates of the Caribbean being included in the latest Sea of Thieves upgrade as well. Naturally, this leads to a revisit to the film and the eventual franchise. here
Many of us will be familiar with the storyline though we may never have read the book—thanks to the Muppet version (and Tim Curry). However, the book is far more gripping than any movie. This is the original. This is the beginning of Long John Silver, treasure maps marked with X, and the infamous “Black Spot.” It starts with an old sailor, Billy Bones, who meets an innkeeper’s son, Jim Hawkins. Bones tells young Jim to look out for a one-legged seafaring man. A former shipmate of Bones soon arrives and confronts him with a fight. Though Bones wins the fight, he is then visited by another colleague, a blind beggar named Pew, who gives Bones the Black Spot—a summons to share a map leading to buried treasure. Alas, Bones doesn’t make it, so Pew and his accomplices attack the Inn, with Jim and his mother escaping with a small amount of money and a mysterious packet from Bones’ sea chest. Inside the packet is a map of an island. Jim shows the map to a trusted physician and thus begins an adventure to search for the hidden treasure.
If you are new to the franchise, start at the beginning with Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) and then watch them in chronological order. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (2006) and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (2007) are more like a two-part movie, and the first three movies have the same main characters to continue the story. The fourth in the franchise, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011), is the first break-away from the original story and characters. The fifth, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, returns (in part) to the original cast. [links]
Captain Jack Sparrow, ultimate pirate [links]