High sea adventures (and a song)

This photo is the sign of a local pub, aptly called The Ship. When I drink there, I usually have a Smuggler or a Mutiny, depending of what's available. Strange name for a pub, as this town is close to a river, but far from the sea.

I was thinking about my childhood games around the family swimming pool, and many of them were high sea adventures. In a way, I didn't really grow up: instead of playing make belief games about high sea adventures, I daydream about them, drinking a beer with an evocative name, in a pub with an evocative name. The ship image reminds me of a movie I particularly love: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea . it was showing on TV recently. I watched a bit of it, distractly. I said back in 2008 that I needed to buy the DVD. I still haven't done it. It is the kind of movie that needs to be watched during summertime. I better hurry up, as it will not be summer for much longer. I know I uploaded this song before, but since this blog needs music from time to time and since it is still summertime and I had this in mind, I thought I would upload it again, this time with Kirk Douglas's movie performance. It is quite funny, if you think about it, a genuine musical number in an adventure, high budget blockbuster movie. And it works beautifully.

A Whale Of A Tale

In order to shamelessly use the pictures we took at the London aquarium (since they go so well with they go so well with the background of this blog), I have decided to put here a song from the movie 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. I already blogged about the movie. As a child, I used to love the song. I always liked Kirk Douglas, he was maybe more a charismatic actor than a great actor, but what a presence he had (and I guess has still). He was perfect to play the action man and he also had a perfect voice for this kind of song, raspy like one could believe a sailor man would get after spending months breathing the salty air above the ocean. I am in need of a holiday. My job is getting boring and one of the colleagues I mentioned recently is getting increasingly difficult. Until then, I have this song.

Nostalgie estivale

Il fait toujours beau et chaud, en fait c'est très collant, ce qui ne me dérange pas du tout, because l'été précédent. Et je ne travaille pas, alors autant qu'il fasse beau. Cela dit, à part suer et se promener, qu'est-ce qu'on peut bien faire ici une splendide journée d'été? Il me faudrait une piscine.

Comme vois l'avez sans doute lu dans mon dernier billet en anglais, l'été qui est là (et bien là!) me fait rappeler les souvenirs d'enfance. Surtout ceux autour de la piscine, où on jouait du matin jusqu'au soir quand nos aprents étaient là (parce que quand ils travaillaient, on suait jusqu'à cinq heures). La piscine faisait office d'océan Pacifique ou de mer des Caraïbes. On y jouait aux pirates, au monstres marins (requins, pieuvres géantes, etc.), aux histoires d'espionnage à la Thunderball, au épopées fantastiques-médiévales ou une combinaison de ces différents genres (une épopée fantastique-médiévale qui se passe en mer, par exemple, ou un groupe d'espions qui se battent contre des pirates modernes, ou des pirates aux prises avec un requin). Parfois, nos histoires étaient trop élaborées pour nos amis. Il ne faut pas grand-chose pour stimuler l'imagination d'un enfant. Les avions ou hélicoptères qui passaient au dessus de nous étaient des engins ennemis, les planches en styrofoam qu'on avait étaient des requins ou des dauphins (ou Moby Dick), etc. Bien sûr, quand on sortait de l'eau, on était sur une île déserte ou sur le bastingage d'un navire. Ou dans un sous-marin... J'avais découvert 20 000 Lieues sous les mers grâce à un long-jeu du film, acheté lors d'un voyage à Montréal. Ca nous a aussi passablement influencés.

20,000 Leages Under the Sea

Hey, You can find 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea on youtube. There's a nice little adventure movie right there. I always loved it. I am feeling a bit guilty about watching it on youtube, but sometimes it is the only way to get your hand on something when you want to watch it. And it has been put there by people who genuinly love the movie. I will need to buy the DVD eventually. Summer puts me in the mood for escapist movies and literature, especially sea adventures (that said I never watched Pirates of the Carribeans nor cared about it), or stories with tropical settings. If I want to watch a James Bond this time of year, it will most likely be Dr. No or Thunderball. If I want something a bit more serious, it will be Moby Dick with Gregory Peck. I was crazy about that movie when I was a child. Anyway, I read Moby Dick twice (once when I was 11 after watching the movie, once when I was 18 in cégep) and I promised myself to read it in original English. I will also have to read the original 20,000 Lieues sous les Mers novel one day. This year, I already have a lot to read for the summer and I don't have the book yet. I want to read it in original French of course. Jules Verne was not a great writer, but he was inventive. Sometimes that's all you are looking for. I am surprised I haven't read it yet actually. When I was a child, my brothers and I had an obsession for high sea adventures. Our family got a pool at an early age, and our child out games during summertime set around the pool usually evolved around pirates (ancient or modern), shark attacks, giant squid attacks, typhoons (use making waves in the pool) or a variation of everything. We had a wild imagination.