Tuesday, chocolate cake in the oven

[cleolinda]

Soooo, it's the Alabama rainy season now, and I can't keep my internet up for shit. Which is great, you know, if you like to post on your journal a lot.

Also: wow, painting one's nails in close quarters is a bad, bad, headachy idea.



Here's what I've been doing this weekend. And speaking of internet research, going back to Madame Talbot's somehow started me on a daisy chain of internet wandering that let me to some excellent research on absinthe, during which I discovered that, as of June--i.e., last month--you can get legal, authentic absinthe in the U.S. ("Wormwood is not illegal as long as the finished product meets applicable standards for content. We found that by adhering to the strict techniques used over a century ago, the result was not only a genuine, historically accurate product, but a product that also happens to meet US requirements relating to alcoholic beverages.") It seems to be sold in New York, mostly, but I imagine you could order it in. Note: Absinthe is not, and never was, hallucinatory in and of itself.

(Idiot drinks straight wormwood oil; website that he may not even have consulted catches hell for it.)

Bush spares Libby from prison term; Bush won't rule out Libby pardon. OH, FFS. By the way, here's the opener to that first MSNBC article as it appeared on my Google Reader:

President Bush spared former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby from a 2½-year prison term in the CIA leak case Monday, delivering a political thunderbolt in a highly charged criminal case. Bush said the sentence was just too harsh. [!]

That "[!]"? That ain't mine, guys. And it's not in the article as posted now. Also from MSNBC: "Any outlet for outrage over Libby?"

London police foil major terror plot; Terror police probe al Qaeda links; Doctors at heart of UK terror probe.

NY movie critic Joel Siegel dies at 63.

Beverly Sills, America's Queen of Opera, dead at 78.

Jefferson County, AL: $1.5 million software can't add. *headdesk*

Also how we do it in the JC: Sewer scandal cost: $336,800,000. Yes, million. That's why our sewer bill is more than three times the amount of our water bill. Bastards.

More from the 209: Siegelman, Scrushy get about 7 years; Siegelman, Scrushy go straight to jail. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

(Primer for you non-Alabamians: Richard M. Scrushy, pronounced SCROO-shee, as you'll discover if you're ever in Birmingham because half the buildings are named after him, was not found guilty in the $2.7 billion (BILLION) HealthSouth fraud scandal, in which a lot of people who do not have buildings named after them lost everything they had. This time, he was convicted of bribing Siegelman--our former governor. Who I voted for once, the bastard.)

Spector's lawyer skips trial to tape TV show.

Heir puts 'Dracula's Castle' for sale. "Legend has it that the ruthless Vlad — who earned his nickname because of the way he tortured his enemies — spent one night in the 1400s at the castle." God, it's the Gothic Horror version of "George Washington slept here!" Still pretty awesome, though.

WP: Yahoo unveils personalized ads. You know what? I could actually live with that. I know we worry about advertising being too invasive, but you know what? Advertising is why a lot of things are free, and if I have to look at it, at least I'd be looking at things that interest me. Kind of the way I keep wishing spammers would stop promising to enlarge my pen1s, you know?

Brain Scans Reveal Why Meditation Works.

Knut bb y u so sad?

Man attacks unlucky peacock at Burger King. "A peacock that roamed into a fast-food restaurant parking lot was attacked by man who vilified the bird as a vampire, animal-control authorities said. [...] Beaten so fiercely that most of his tail feathers fell out, the bird was euthanized, said Richard Gentles, a spokesman for the city’s Center for Animal Care and Control. [...] The peacock, a male several years old, wandered into a Staten Island Burger King parking lot and perched on a car hood Thursday morning. Charmed employees had been feeding him bread when the man appeared. He seized the iridescent bird by the neck, hurled it to the ground and started kicking and stomping the creature, said worker Felicia Finnegan, 19. [...] Asked what he was doing, she said, the attacker explained, 'I’m killing a vampire!' "

Okay, there are several thoughts that may occur to you the way they occurred to me:

1. That poor bird, that's awful.

2. Damn, he crazy.

3. Vampire... peacock?

One-eyed gator pulls golfer into pond.

Stardust and Good Omens scents at Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab!

Veggie Booty snack food recalled. Wait, what?

A little J. Alfred Lolfrock. Check the comments for more.

Would sir desire an eating utensil?

7-Elevens become Simpsons 'Kwik-E-Marts.'

Marvel Comics buries Captain America.

Isaiah Washington Explains Why He Used Slur. Note the poster comments at the end: "But I thought that YOU never used the F WORD! I just thought you got fired because your black! ISN'T THAT WHAT YOU SAID?!" Both of which he did say, by the way.

Criss Angel's wife wants to make marriage disappear; Diaz Named in Magician Split.

Daniel Radcliffe Says He Hasn't Agreed To Star in 'Harry Potter 7.' Mmmm, salary negotiations.

Dan Radcliffe Newest Addition to Madame Tussauds. Mmmm, creepy.

J.K. Rowling attends London Potter premiere; Time Magazine Feature on Scholastic Effort to Keep "Deathly Hallows" Secret and Special for Fans; Potter star's nerves at first kiss; Potter V Is True To The Dark; Keith Olbermann Speculates on "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows"; Kreacher Comfort: MTV Solves A ‘Harry Potter’ Mystery.

Get yer girl-faced Draco Malfoy doll here!

Aaaaaaand this is why I don't want to get my Harry Potter book at midnight. Skip to the last thirty seconds or so, which is when the guy starts yelling (hey, yellow belly, why don't you get out of the car and say it? Oh, that's right, because your ass would get BEAT).

A Keira Knightley twofer: Atonement and Silk stills.

Invasion stills with Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig.

Oh, Eva... never change.

You neither, Helena.

(Eva Green's new perfume, which actually sounds yum.)

"Helen Mirren Attends 3rd Annual Helen Mirren Is Awesome Festival."

Meet The Wolf Man.

Christian Bale Talks a Bit About Justice League Movie; Christian Bale on a Third Batman Movie; New Joker Will Be More Realistic, Says Bale.

Anne of Green Gables is Back -- With an Open Casting Call.

'Pirates' Now Claims More Than $900 Million in Booty. And my mother's finally going to get to see it on Thursday!

Ethan Hawke Gets Ready To Suck As Vampire Researcher.

Sophia Myles Bites Into CBS Drama Moonlight.

Emily Browning to star in American A Tale of Two Sisters remake. Aww, yay! I'd been hoping she wouldn't fall off the planet after the Snicket movie. Now where is Liam Aiken?

Kylie Minogue to be in Doctor Who Christmas Special.

J.J. Abrams' Cloverfield Coming Into Focus.

Borat emboldened Moore to visit Guantanamo.

Winslet in Watchmen ?; Exclusive: Thomas Jane on Watchmen.

"Viral marketing" for Watchmen traced back to theonering.net. Oh, lamesauce.

Enter Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium.

Cameron Diaz to Star in Richard Kelly's 'The Box.' Kelly, of course, being the writer/director of Donnie Darko.

Gosling Signs On Lovely Bones.

National Lampoon to Spoof '300.' Yeah, I've been saying for a long time now that the Proud Warrior Underdogs Epic is a mini-genre that deserves its own godawful spoof movie.

trailer_spot: Bourne Ultimatum, Lions for Lambs, Sunshine, Vitus, Golden Age, Hitman, Rescue Dawn; Golden Age, Hitman, Water Horse, Harry Potter, Transformers, This Is England.

And now I get to desperately try to think of something to eat for dinner.

Comments

[la-sonnambula.livejournal.com]

Eva wore a dress from the spring/summer Dior haute couture collection at the Golden Compass party Cannes too. That dress (http://my.opera.com/mystyle/blog/eva-green-cannes-film-festiva) was gorgeous.

[koritsimou.livejournal.com]

Holy crap - I have to say, even with being Not Quite Sure about the swath-y thing, that dress is phenomenal and very suited to her.

[evilbearhunter.livejournal.com]

I want to want the Good Omens perfume, but god help me I neeeeed the Stardust ones and the GO ones bore me. Sigh.

[londonsparrow.livejournal.com]

I definitely file absinthe under "something to try once someday". Though, I know that I and anyone else who's watched Moulin Rouge would then immediately try singing "the hills are alive with the sound of music!" and dancing like Kylie Minogue...

Eva Green is sooo pretty.

[vampirepig13.livejournal.com]

It's lovely, if you like anise.

[lotusbiosm.livejournal.com]

In my experience, when I had it in Prague, it tasted kind of like mouthwash. Very strongly of alcohol, and of fire (b/c you put a sugar cube on a spoon, soak it in the absinthe, light the sugar on fire, and then drop the flaming sugar into the drink and stir. It's cool, but I don't know if that's how the artists drank it). But that's better than it taking like anise, which is what black licorice tastes like, and which is so disgusting to me that I won't kiss someone who's just eaten it.

[akathorne.livejournal.com]

"i do not think they say o hai to me."

Oh, JESUS, I think I'm ded from funny. I laughed and laughed until tears popped out of my eyes.

[koritsimou.livejournal.com]

Seconded with gasping breath.

[artemis-archer.livejournal.com]

Yeah that video is why I'm not going at midnight either. Somehow I was blissfully unaware of the spoiling trend when HBP came out yet still managed to stay spoiler-free but this time I'm wicked paranoid about it. I'm planning on sending out my dad (who can't tell lord of the rings from harry potter) to pick it up for me that morning it comes out. I can't understand why people feel the need to wreck it for everyone but I've been reading the series for way too long to have it ruined.

Isaiah Washington is such a dolt

[pescivendolo.livejournal.com]

Don Siegelman's in jail??? Christ on a cracker, how long have I been gone?? I voted for that man. I met the man. I really liked that man. He did a lot for arts education in the state. AND HOW IS HIS SENTENCE LONGER THAN SCRUSHY'S???

*iz brained*

[christigilly.livejournal.com]

I'm having Ritz crackers with worcestershire sauce. No, I'm not poor, I'm crampy and that's all that sounded good. LOL

Also?

[christigilly.livejournal.com]

Anne of Green Gables LUV! Does anyone know if it's on DVD somewhere?

Re: Also?

[http://users.livejournal.com/selenis_/]

If you are talking about the Megan Follows version, then the answer is yes (http://www.amazon.com/Anne-Green-Gables-Megan-Follows/dp/B00005YNTR)

Re: Also?

[christigilly.livejournal.com]

Woohoo! Franks a bunch : O)

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Hee, I ended up having ice cream and the last of the homemade fudge sauce.

[jigglykat.livejournal.com]

I went to the Kwik-e-Mart by Times Square today. It was crazy awesome and crowded. I got a Squishee and a Buzz Cola. They're sadly lacking in the Duff beer, however.

[everstar3.livejournal.com]

Actually, my FIRST thought was "vampire peacock?" but close enough!

[scornedsaint.livejournal.com]

Sophia Myles Bites Into CBS Drama Moonlight.

SOFIIIYA! Bring David Tennant with you to guest star so we Americans can appreciate him outside of Doctor Who!

Aaaaaaand this is why I don't want to get my Harry Potter book at midnight. Skip to the last thirty seconds or so, which is when the guy starts yelling

Oh, ew. And I had just agreed to go dress up with my dorky library friends at the Borders opening (thought I might put my pink wig to use and go as Tonks). Hm. I will have to think this over.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

But see, if you don't get it at midnight, you lose like 7-8 hours of reading and all the other brave souls will finish it before you even buy it. This is my dilemma.

[scornedsaint.livejournal.com]

Exactly. I guess you could just stay away from the internet for the day. And the radio. And the television. And the outside world. Do all that, and you'll be fine.

I've been buying the books the day they came out since Book 2, but never at midnight. I feel like I should do something special for the last book, but then, why risk it and break with tradition? That's my dilemma.

[trash-addict.livejournal.com]

Exactly. I guess you could just stay away from the internet for the day. And the radio. And the television. And the outside world. Do all that, and you'll be fine.

That's what I've done for the last couple of releases. Managed to get home from the bookstore unspoiled, and then just entered my own little Harry Potter world until I've finished the damn thing.
Fingers crossed I can do it again.

[ter369.livejournal.com]

But see, if you don't get it at midnight, you lose like 7-8 hours of reading and all the other brave souls will finish it before you even buy it. This is my dilemma.

Mine, too!

I was spoiled (maliciously and accidentally) for both Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince. It affected my experience, and no one posturing with "spoilers don't ruin art because there are only so many stories/images/whatevers and it's the way the story is told" can change my desire to read this unspoiled. The way a story is told in a book is with my imagination doing the other part of the work. I'd like to have a fresh experience, thankyouverrymuch.

So, I've got a book ordered at both chainstores in town (the only ones with midnight releases). That way, if either seems rowdy around 11:00 PM, I can move on.

This is a smallish college town in optimistic, organic, Green-centric Colorado, where people in mondo SUVs break for wild geese to cross the road with their goslings. I think the general asshole to decent human being ratio is in my favor.

[lauramcvey.livejournal.com]

Same here. I went to the midnight release for HPB, and nobody spoiled anything for me. Actually, I chatted with another Law&Order fan while we were waiting in line. Good fun. Granted, I live in The Small Town to End Small Towns.

[ter369.livejournal.com]

I went to the midnight release for HPB, and nobody spoiled anything for me. Actually, I chatted with another Law&Order fan while we were waiting in line. Good fun.

That's what my HBP experience was like. Everyone was so focused on their number, how the line bent around the wee store, and getting the book to begin reading, that I couldn't imagine those folks wanting to ruin the experience for their fellow standees.

I chatted with a girl carrying a handmade messenger bag from a T-shirt. Sewing geeks, unite!


Granted, I live in The Small Town to End Small Towns.

Hee. Any spoiler-person would be shunned.

This small college town is too busy recycling and bicycling to be jaded enough to spoil. I just signed a list at the hippies-in-business indie bookstore for my copy of DH. We're invited to hang out at the Dairy Queen next door around 11:30 PM, so we won't be bored as the line moves into their micro-store. Sounds ideal to me!

[chrryblssmninja.livejournal.com]

PBS here in Northern California just showed Tennant as Casanova.

[wintersweet.livejournal.com]

The thing that pisses me off is that Yahoo is putting ads in my PAID "PREMIUM" WEB MAIL ACCOUNT that I get as part of my Yahoo! DSL. I'm going elsewhere for e-mail as soon as I can manage it. Bleh, bleh, bleh!

P. S. Thanks for the links! I always enjoy going through them.

[sorchar.livejournal.com]

Ashleigh Talbott! I have one of her prints I got at the Astoria Sunday Market last year, "Riding Home." It's in being framed now. Yeah, I procrastinate a lot.

[sorchar.livejournal.com]

Also, dude, Anne's childhood was horribly depressing before she came to Green Gables. I mean, seriously, WTF?

[ellaafleck.livejournal.com]

So sad about Beverly Sills. She was absolutely amazing. :-(

[kismeteve.livejournal.com]

Liam Aiken was just in the latest Hal Hartley movie and he did an episode of Law & Order this past season.

[ter369.livejournal.com]

Daniel Radcliffe Says He Hasn't Agreed To Star in 'Harry Potter 7.' Mmmm, salary negotiations.

Y'know ... I read that quote several places before WB announced that the three leading Gryffindors had signed for the final films. It's an old quote.

Also, I've been linked to that site a few other times, where they seemed behind on their net gossip -- and the info posited as "look what might be happening" turned out not to happen.

[dramedy.livejournal.com]

The teeny little community college my mom works for is having a tiny little adults only Potter release party for staff and family. They've only got 150 books. So it's going to be SMALL and relaxed. Yay. And I'll get my book at 12:01 and be able to read while my mom drives home :D :D

[chocolat-violet.livejournal.com]

One-eyed gator pulls golfer into pond.

Is anyone else getting Happy Gilmore deja-vu?

[sorcha-chasdubh.livejournal.com]

I thought the same thing! Hehe...

[thecatiemonster.livejournal.com]

YES! I thought that immediately, clicked the link wondering if the golfer was grabbed by the hand.

[caligogreywings.livejournal.com]

Oh, come now. You know this isn't our true rainy season. THAT doesn't start till November, and usually lasts till March... or, it would if, y'know, we actually had normal weather this year.


Then again, given the presence of our 5 minute miracle sauna-inducing rainstorms that were sorely missed LAST summer, maybe we'll actually have a rainy season.

[gsalinas.livejournal.com]

"More from the 209..."

Hey, L....do you mean 205? 209 is Modesto, CA. Just checking.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

35209. When Ruben Studdard was on American Idol, he used to say that he was "representing the 209." Cheesy joke, is all.

[gsalinas.livejournal.com]

Buh? Am I missing something?

http://www.schwimmerlegal.com/images/studdard.jpg

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Well, apparently I've been hallucinating the whole time--he really is from the same zip code (35209), though, unless I was *also* hallucinating that.

[gsalinas.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure you were. He went to Huffman High School (35215).

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

J. Alfred Lolfrock

Rip-off. (http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/009050.html) Not cleverly thought up by the poster, but massively, massively ripped off, and with no attribution.

[ironclad1609.livejournal.com]

Now that was a lot of interesting movie news to stomach...So many that I dunno where to start commenting.

I wished they had a cast for Watchmen now, the rumors are starting to wear me out.
I wished they gave up on parody movies, because I can't think of one that made me laugh since...Naked Gun 33 1/3?
As for the spoiler guy: He should have been shot. Not because it was Harry Potter, there are more exciting things in the world, but because of giving a spoiler!

In other news, I saw Eva Green's movie The Dreamers yesterday and know every inch of her body now. Yum.

[conejita-diabla.livejournal.com]

You've almost certainly seen this by now, but just in case...in honour of the day, it's 4th of July, lolcats-style (http://cavalorn.livejournal.com/377592.html). Or, as one person termed it, ROFLution. :-)

[darth-snarky.livejournal.com]

The spoiler thing is why I'm buying the next Potter at my small local bookstore, which happens to be in a basement. They'll probably stick to the big obvious chain ones. For backup, I am bringing my iPod loaded with hardcore, and turned up high.

Oh, and the Anne prequel worries me. The third Anne movie was very Not Good, and something that's not sticking to what LM Montgomery wrote doesn't seem to bode well. That, and my veiw of prequels is strongly colored by Star Wars.

[thyroyalmajesty.livejournal.com]

Cloooooooooverfield! *Is excited*

[thyroyalmajesty.livejournal.com]

http://community.livejournal.com/ohnotheydidnt/13624677.html

[jasminelily.livejournal.com]

Sigh, I have no choice but to get my book at midnight (that, or not get it until late on Saturday, and I don't know if I could handle that), and I'm very very nervous.

[blackdiamants.livejournal.com]

We're practically drowning here in Louisiana. Again. It's been raining for 3 weeks and that's SO VERY BAD when you're below sea level. D: [CRY]

May you survive your rainyness.