PIRATE AAAAAAAART!

I live in Tampa Florida. I remember back about as far as I can and one of my earliest memories is of this painting by my dad of a bunch of drunken pirates sitting around at this table half passed out with all their treasure. I would sit and wonder what their story was all about. Where did all the treasure come from? As a young tike I remember going to the Gasparilla Parade along Bayshore and watching the pirate invasion. I was so stoked and I got this plastic pirate sword and I was set to fight them off! But they weren't really invading. Just having a big party. The got the drunken part down for sure though.

Of course living about a hundred miles from Disney we made many treks to the "Happiest Place on Earth", and one of the highlights being The Pirates of the Caribbean ride. We would usually go with My Great Uncle Hubert who lived in Orlando. As the boats tug and pull through this world of crazy pirates, you come to a small town where they are pillaging and plundering to their very best. There is a gorgeous red headed lady in a red dress being auctioned off in the town square. I will always remember Uncle Hubert would yell "I'll take the red head!" I think if we road it a hundred times in a row he'd yell the same thing. (My Aunt Hellen was a red-head so it was all good.)

Growing up in Tampa I have always been a die hard Tampa Bay Buccaneers fan. My blood runs orange. Not pewter. Not red. Orange! I endured the early years. I roasted painfully in the scorching Florida sun, as they would loose one game after another, ultimately becoming the laughing stock of the NFL. Their original team colors were that cream sickle orange and they had the big goofy pirate in the giant hat logo. They were doomed to loose, I think in the early year, before they ever hit the field. Once the logo and team colors were decided. Well, that was it. Selling team gear back then wasn't all that successful either. I mean there really isn't anything that goes with cream sickle orange (even in the late 70's and early 80's). It was almost as bad as if we were the Tampa Bay Clowns and you had to wear red noses and giant bow ties. In the mid 90's, when the team logo was revamped, you couldn't get enough of the gear. It was a skull with crossed sabers! Freaking awesome! They even put a pirate ship in the end zone!!!  Naturally we became a team to be reckoned with, marched our way to the Super Bowl, and ultimately annihilated the Raiders (another pirate team)!

So here are some of my own pirates. The second one kinda...eh...kinda bothers me. He's cool but reminds me of Jesse the Body Ventura. This is not really bad (i.e. the first Predator movie) but I see Jesse before I see a pirate. Probably just me. Or he reminds me of those commercials where you draw the little pirate in the pamphlet and mail it away. I think for some drawing school or art classes of some kind. So yeah, pirates.

Sea Pirate 1

Sea Pirate 2