Tacky tiki

It appears that a Trader Vic's is opening in Bellevue in March. (Warning: the linked story is a nauseating puff piece that made me want to stab my eyes out with little cocktail umbrellas.) I'm kind of surprised to hear that Trader Vic's still exists, since it vanished from both Seattle and Portland over a decade ago, and I always figured that meant the company was on the rocks. Is there still one in San Francisco? Isn't that where athenais and others (alces2?) used to hang out in legendary days of yore? There was some tiki place that I remember going to with a bunch of fans in 1987. It had a lagoon in it that would occasionally have a rainstorm over it. That was some pretty high class tiki, if that's not an ironic oxymoron. It was probably someplace totally hipper than Trader Vic's, which was, after all, your father's tiki.

The re-advent of Trader Vic's locally may require a fannish expedition. That's probably the only way I'll get motivated to travel to that far away land beyond the lake. Mmm, rum drinks the size of your head. Who wants to be the designated driver? Hm, perhaps I'll have to look into bus routes ...

Further Gondry/Rucker rumor -- just add Clowes!

Attention, holyoutlaw. SuicideGirls reports that Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) is turning to an adaptation of Rudy Rucker's Master of Space and Time with a screenplay by Daniel Clowes (Ghost World and Eightball). The film will star Jack Black. This may be for real now.

Gondry has two movies coming out this year. Block Party is a Dave Chappelle concert film with musical performances by the Roots, the Fugees, Kanye West, Mos Def and like that. The Science of Sleep sounds like a variation on Eternal Sunshine, about a guy held hostage by people in his dreams. It stars cute and hunky Gael Garcia Bernal and that offspring of Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin, Charlotte Gainsbourg.