This past Saturday, I got a chance to go see The Striking Viking Story Pirates, an awesome improv/theater troupe here in New York City that takes stories that real children have written, and turns them into hilarious shorts, usually with a musical flair.  While I prefer the stage version, here is a hilarious short film based on a sentence written by an 8 year old:

The Story Pirates are great, but have dueling personalities.  By day (well, all the time actually), this is a non-profit charity that travels around New York, doing important educational work with the aim of improving creativity and literacy in area schools.  And by night, The Story Pirates bring a more risqué version of their show to an adult crowd at The Drama Bookshop on West 40th Street, which, if you can get out to see it, is well worth the price of admission.

Check these guys out and donate if you can; or get tickets for one of their shows…while it’s still possible!  The Story Pirates are not going to be small potatoes forever.

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Today I was watching “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.” At the monsoon-destroyed ruins of Hotel Citroën on the island of Little Ping, Steve Zissou (Bill Murray) notes:

“What a shame. They had a bartender here, Kino, made the best Rum Cannonball I’ve ever tasted.”

The question comes to mind: Is this a real drink, or something invented by Wes Anderson? From internet discussions and references, it’s hard to tell if this drink actually existed before the movie. Based on an average of posted recipes, I made a Rum Cannonball (actual photo).

The Rum Cannonball
•1 part white rum
•1 part gin
•1 part orange juice
•1 part pineapple juice
•1 part lemon-lime soda
•1 part strawberry soda
Serve over ice with a key lime, pineapple, or tropical orchid garnish.

What does it taste like?: Not bad . . . fruity fizzy booze.

An alternate recipe also exists:
•2 oz rum
•Top-off with orange juice
•4-5 dashes of Angostura bitters

What does it taste like?: Not bad . . . rummy spicey o.j.

Bonus Round: Drink one while wearing a Hotel Citroën t-shirt.

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I heard about Joe Meno’s “The Boy Detective Fails” from the blog of Jackson Publick [the co-creator of the oh so amazing "Venture Brothers"].

In simple terms: Great story.

In complex terms: Billy Argo was the boy detective - famous and unbeatable, the constant subject of newspaper headlines. He solved the mysteries of haunted candy factories and amusement parks.

Now in his thirties and living in a psychiatric halfway-home, Billy’s life is on the decline. Recent odd happenings force him to resurrect his childhood vocation: Who is making entire buildings in the city disappear, who is the mysterious pickpocketing woman in pink, who is the man with no face, and - the biggest question of all - what happened to Billy’s sister Caroline?

What does a boy detective do when his arch enemies are now elderly and senile, and will he ever regain the lost purpose and enthusiasm of his youth? This is a beautiful story of loss and failure and the struggle to continue on.

Meno also adds wonderful emersive details to this story: coded messages that you, the reader, must decode and an awesome super-secret hidden story.

An entertaining and philosophical read.

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September 19: Talk Like A Pirate Day. That’s right around the corner. Mateys.

December 8: Pretend to Be a Time Traveler Day. If you’re stumped, the Web site offers many helpful suggestions about how to carry this off:

• Walk up to random people and say “WHAT YEAR IS THIS?” and when they tell you, get quiet and then say “Then there’s still time!” and run off.
• If you go the “prisoner who’s escaped the future” try shaving your head [Contributor's note: This one would work really well for fellow Blogadiller timbotron] and putting a barcode on the back of your neck. Then stagger around and stare at the sky, as if you’ve never seen it before.
• Take some trinket with you (it can be anything really), hand it to some stranger, along with a phone number and say “In thirty years dial this number. You’ll know what to do after that.” Then slip away. 

I can hardly wait to see who actually observes these…holidays.

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Behold! The Super-Awesome Action Hero Name Generator!!! Push the button for non-stop crime-fighting Action Hero names!!! You can’t fight zombies with a name like “Scooter.” Push the button and get ready for ACTION!!! [Does not work well with Internet Explorer - the browser of the feeble].

©2007 Blogadilla
Concept (and names): Timbotron
Actual Labor and Creation: Steve B
Machete Photograph: Y. Trottier.

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[This is not so much a movie review as a warning]
Ahoy! Set sail for deus ex machina!
“Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” is a treasure-trove of lame tropes and plot loopholes big enough to sail ships through. The words “sea sick” sum it up well. This film was not on par with the previous two. Watching it was like being subjected to a three hour Renaissance Faire with eyepatches and greasier hair. After the first hour, it made me want to mutiny. By the second hour, I would have voluntarily walked the plank. It was the “Phantom Menace” of The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. I was amazed to learn that Joel Schumacher was not involved in the making of this film.

I wish I wore an eyepatch to the movie - two of them.

The only redeeming items in this Johnny Depp cluster-f*ck:
•Geoffrey Rush with hepatitis-yellow contact lenses
•Cameo by Keith Richards (his hepatitis-yellow eyes were real)
•Davey Jones with the cool octopus tentacles

Super-double irony: an anti-piracy sign at the movie theater.

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Becoming a pirate has always been a personal aspiration for me… while it seems unlikely I’ll be able to actually accomplish that goal, at least I now know where to go to find some good grog and peglegs! Justin over at Galing.com has put together a list of the top 5 pirate hangouts - here they are in no particular order:

Somalia:	Strait of Malacca:
Bangladesh:	Nigeria:
Indonesia:

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