The Smarmy Carny

I am a big fan of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events and of the audiobooks read by Tim Curry.

I downloaded a free Daniel Handler interview via iTunes. If you're interested, just go to the iTunes Store in the program, search "Snicket," and look for the free listing. In the interview, he answers one question I have been wondering about some time regarding the switch between Tim Curry and himself reading the audio books.

Another piece of information that he divulges is that his friends had created an adult beverage called the Lemony Snicket Cocktail, due in part to the fact that his friends had an "overactive lemon tree."

What's in a Lemony Snicket?

• Plenty of lemons
• Powdered sugar
• White rum (Australian, when possible)
• Soda

Handler didn't give further details (such as how much of each item is used or which type of soda was generally used), but as I don't drink alcohol, it doesn't much matter to me. He did note that the drink generally evolved over time, and he invited others to figure out their own Lemony Snicket recipes.

War of the Worlds

Title: War of the Worlds
Opens in wide release: June 29.
Actors of consequence: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman (Narrator), Steven Spielberg (Director)
Plot/Summary: H.G. Wells' classic visits the silver screen yet again.
Trailer: Theatrical trailer and three teasers, all on one page.

Thoughts: As this is one of the "summer blockbuster" movies, part of me felt rebellious enough to instead discuss "Rebound", and part of me felt sensible enough to review the movie everyone else was reviewing. You can clearly see which part won out this time. Coming from Spielberg, I expect some spectacular special effects and touching plot points interspersed with various destruction and such. Spielberg knows how to please the masses, and he will doubtless keep to his usual formula. If the trailer is any indicator, it looks like I'm right.

H.G. Wells' book and radio presentation are once again reincarnated on the silver screen. No doubt, modern special effects will give the story a treatment that no previous version has accomplished. Still, such a classic story being retold by such a mass market director as Spielberg has sort of turned me off to this movie. That is, until it hits Video On Demand.

Rush just released the Club G'itmo T-Shirt. The back of the shirt states "What Happens in G'itmo Stays in G'itmo." Good times.

Join the club. Club Gitmo.