Michael Crichton And The Return Of Reading

The first thing I remember reading correctly was a road sign. I was cruising along in the backside of forrest green mini van when I spotted the sign, and everything just clicked into place. I thought to myself two things: 

1) That sign definitely says "SLOW."

2) Now that you can read, what do you do now?

Well the obvious answer was start reading books, not some children books, but some real deal books, the ones that are about as  thick as a diesel hamburger. At my brother's recommendation I dove into one author in particular: the legendary Michael Chrichton.

You name the book I read it. Congo, Sphere, Jurassic Park, Timeline, State of Fear, Prey, Next, Great Train Robbery, The Box Car Children, uh just kidding, don't know how that got in there.

So when awoke this morning to learn that he has one more book coming out after his death, I was excited. When I learned it's historical fiction about pirates (real deal pirates, not these wanna be young jacks in the Carribbean, old school parrot talking, plank walking, and eypatch rocking pirates) I was jazzed. The book comes out on November 24th, Spielberg is already talking about directing the feature adaptation. Time to enlist back in the high seas of literary adventure.

Hero Captain To Become Heroic Movie Star

Today it was announced that Richard Phillips, the Captain of the ship who fought off the pirates, and then was rescued signed with Creative Artists Agency. They will be helping him navigate the waters of film and book deals.

This is just one example of how life is becoming a movie. I mean, it's not that surprising considering the whole saga of Captain Phillips plays like a summer blockbuster. Pirates, courageous crew members, badass NAVY SEALS, noble captains, bravery, valor, you know the usual dope action movie business. I mean how can Hollywood resist?

The really interesting question here though regards the future of Captain Phillips. Is he going to continue at Sea, or will the waters of Hollywood prove more thrilling and perhaps more profitable?

How I feel about pirates?

Way back in September, I wrote in this blog about how cool the new modern day pirate is. I must say, I should serve some time in the brig for this post. As this new pirate problem continues to escalate, I think it's time we look past the "Holy Shit, Pirates!" mindset and really take a look at what is going on here. POVERTY.

Somalia is a country roughly the size of Texas and has a national GDP that is not even close to that Lone Star (and apparently seccesion happy) state in the South. These pirates are born out of poverty and a lack of stable government, and while as I stated before, it's tough not to get a little excited about badass naval SEAL snipers and daring sea battles, the fact of the matter is, this is a serious problem. Not necessarily for the ships, but for the people of Somalia.

The answer to stopping piracy is not in more naval battles or gunfights, but on the shore. As my Dad put it, you can't just string up the bodies of the pirates in the port as a sign. Instead do what somebody did in the Caribbean. Instead of robbing the boats, just invite them to your docks, charge high prices for trinkets and drinks, and rob people of their loot legally.

Pirates are real (how cool is that)

With all the wild news this week swirling around the stock market, the congressional bailout, the election, and the playoffs, sometimes a story so damn cool just slips through the cracks.

So, in case you were worrying about the future of the financial industry let alone the country, you probably did not hear about the freighter ship full of TANKS, GUNS, & AMMO that was boarded by pirates in the Indian Ocean.

As a kid you learn about pirates (well kids now probably just watch metrosexual Johnny Depp Pirates) but, then you find out the harsh truth that they don't "exist" anymore. Well let those childhood dreams roar back into existence because according to CNN, pirates are alive and well. And just because they have no sails they are inherently the same. Still break the law, still plague the Indian oceans, still have weapons, in other words, they are cool as hell. However I would never want to meet them on the high seas. I'm sticking to meet hot maidens.