2008-02-22: Pirates of the SeaBus!

Dans le port d’Amsterdam / il y des marins que chantent

(Please note that this post be processed through an automatic English-t’-Buccaneer translator.) Tho th’ Creakin’ Planks be t’ some extent first conceived o’ as a sea dog band, as suggested by our very name, an’ Squeezebeard definitely brought on board t’ further our collective shanty options, since th’ anomalous appearances logged at Lowbrow on th’ High Seas 3 an’ Talk Like A Pirate Day 2006 be goin’ largely unrealised. That be, until tonight, when th’ Vancou’er Public Space Network presented an extraordinary flashmob-style event (as ZombieWalk fans all somethin’ we`re nay strangers t’), riffin’ off o’ th’ success o’ the’r Hallowe’en SkyTrain party: a sea dog-themed party on th’ SeaBus, Vancouver`s commuter ferry between downtown Vancou’er an’ North Vancou’er across th’ Burrard Inlet.

How could we pass this up? Ye be correct: we couldna possibly. An’ so a rowdy complement o’ Planks turned ou’, includin’ an extraordinary (if unheard) appearance from Rusty Sawbones, along wi’ hundreds. An’ hundreds. O’ would-be piratical scallywags. (An’ also a handful o’ very confused ninja, jus’ t’ li’en things up. Me, I always thought th’ whole point o’ bein’ a ninja be nay bein’ seen.) Also along fer th’ ride be Toot-a-Lute, whose costumes put sea dogs an’ land lubbers alike t’ shame, an’ Empire Alley lurked (as “Empirate Alley”) beneath th’ PriceWaterhouseCooper dome (an’ ‘ere pray tell be th’ Dreadnoughts?) fer afterparty entertainment followin’ a booty hunt in North Vancouver. Some early photos (c/o JMV, Leslie Stripey Hart an’ Seitanguy, thanks!) o’ Planks in action be havin’ turned up on Flickr an’ Facebook; keep yer one good eye peeled t’ th’ relevant tags an’ groups fer more pictures (an’, nay doubt, youtube movies) t’ turn ou’. Ye really did be havin’ t’ be seein’ ‘t t’ b’lieve ‘t.

(As per usual we over-prepared, but perhaps this will serve as early groundwork fer a sea dog weddin’ we`ve been invited t’ play in th’ Fall! Th’ arrays o’ shanties we unearthed be deemed insufficiently rude by Orange-eye Sabertooth Skipper, fer whom I recommend Salty Dick’s Uncensored Sailor Songs, a great nautical find unearthed c/o thar hard-workin’ fools o’er at Accordion Noir. An’ now here’s a comic from Sticks and Stones!)

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Name-checked in the Ubyssey’s SeaBus piracy coverage (March 4, ‘08)!