This is what happens when you ask Google Maps for directions from NYC to Dublin.

I Can Die Happy

EW.com Exclusive: Sorkin Will Script Flaming Lips Musical

The ''West Wing''/''Studio 60'' creator will write the script of a musical based on the psych-rockers' ''Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots''

By Michael Endelman

The Great White Way will never be the same: In an exclusive interview, Wayne Coyne, lead singer of the Flaming Lips, told EW.com that the psych-rock band will team up with acclaimed TV writer and show creator Aaron Sorkin to turn the group's 2002 album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots into a Broadway musical.

Sorkin's reps confirmed on Tuesday (March 20) that the West Wing creator has officially signed on to write the musical's script. ''Maybe that means they'll need to build a stage with lots of hallways on it,'' joked Coyne of Sorkin's fondness for walking-and-talking characters. ''It will be a giant tube that's always moving!''

Sorkin is just one of many marquee collaborators attached to the project: Tony Award-winning director/producer Des McAnuff (Jersey Boys, The Who's Tommy) will be overseeing the show. In fact, the unexpected collaboration grew out of McAnuff's fondness for the Lips' acclaimed Yoshimi album. ''When Des heard the record, he heard a lot about death and loss and the triumph of your own optimism... he had an emotional attachment to it,'' Coyne says. The San Diego-based theater producer pursued the idea and convinced the band that the album would make a compelling musical — other songs from the Lips' catalog will likely be included as well — despite the abstract, trippy nature of the source material. ''I tell people all the time, it's not really a story. It's more like a mood,'' Coyne says. ''There's a Japanese girl; she fights some robots; that's five minutes. After that I don't know.''

Sorkin was brought in by McAnuff, who recently directed Sorkin's play The Farnsworth Invention at the La Jolla Playhouse. According to Coyne, the TV scribe listened to Yoshimi while driving from San Diego to Los Angeles; the next day he signed on to write the ''book'' of the musical. ''I didn't know if that was a big deal or not,'' Coyne explains. ''But then Des [McAnuff] called me and said, 'Believe me, that's a big deal!'''

The musical's debut is likely years off, and details of the plot aren't specific yet.

Coyne compares the proposed concept to Terry Gilliam's dystopian sci-fi movie Brazil. ''There's the real world and then there's this fantastical world,'' explains Coyne. ''This girl, the Yoshimi character, is dying of something. And these two guys are battling to come visit her in the hospital. And as one of the boyfriends envisions trying to save the girl, he enters this other dimension where Yoshimi is this Japanese warrior and the pink robots are an incarnation of her disease. It's almost like the disease has to win in order for her soul to survive. Or something like that.'' Sounds bizarre, but so does a musical about a ''deaf, dumb, and blind'' pinball virtuoso. That one turned out okay.

Cheney to Give BYU Commencement Speech

PROVO, Utah (AP) -- Vice President Dick Cheney will give the commencement speech at Brigham Young University on April 26.

It will be one of only two graduation addresses by Cheney this spring, said spokeswoman Lea Anne McBride, who declined to identify the other school.

"It turns out that in 2006, President Bush was invited and unable to attend," McBride said from Washington. "We reached out this year to the BYU board of trustees. They were excited at the suggestion and sent a formal letter of invitation."

BYU is operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is in Utah County, very friendly territory for conservative politicians, 40 miles south of Salt Lake City.

Cheney will find a "very receptive and very hospitable" audience, predicted Kelly Patterson, director of BYU's Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy.

I am not sure how I feel about this. My first response is that BYU is overstepping it's grounds by showing political favoritism. It seems to suggest that BYU (The LDS Church) supports the war in Iraq. I know that I have the tendency to jump to conclusions, but it's doubtless that many will view his presence on campus in a similar fashion. Regardless of whether or not this is true, BYU has historically honored it's political neutrality in public. Usually a general authority gives the commencement speech.

On second thought, however, Dick Cheney is currently in office as vice president. So, using that logic it could be considered an honor to have a current political leader speak at our graduation ceremony. Still, it seems very unlikely that BYU would have invited the vice president to speak if he were a Democrat.

I think this is going to turn into one giant controversy à la Michael Moore at UVSC. Expect boos from some members of the audience.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day from the parade on Fifth.

VideoJug: How To Give A Great Man To Man Hug

Pepsodense

Why is this sold at the BYU Bookstore? Why is it not approved by the American Dental Association? Why doesn't it say it's for dentures on the package? Why did I buy it? WHY?!

I'm Still Famous

Top Ten Reasons to put Romney in the White House

(from an email I received)

10) The National Cathedral could be renamed the National Tabernacle

9) NASA could commission a satellite to 'Hie to Kolob'

8) The Secret Service could be renamed the Sacred Service

7) All official government prayers could include the phrase 'that we all can get home safely'

6) Napoleon Dynamite could get someone other than Pedro elected

5) The President could not only explain things in Layman's terms, but also Lemuel's terms

4) The President could issue pardons in exchange for 100% home teaching

3) Not only could he pronounce 'Nuclear' but also 'Mahonri Moriancumer'.

2) At his inauguration he would swear on the Bible 'as far as it is translated correctly'

1) Finally a first family large enough to fill up the White House

I'm Famous!

Found in the HBLL. Thanks Kenny!

Speaking of Great Books

Check out this fine children's book. Once upon a time the author and I went to Preference together.

The Little Red Lighthouse And The Great Gray Bridge

There's a little red lighthouse in Manhattan hidden way up in Inwood by the George Washington Bridge. I fell in love with it last summer after jogging there one blistering afternoon. (See Stupid Run 2006) Anyways, the lighthouse has become a legend of sorts partly because of this 1942 children's book. Today I finally got the chance to read it at the SLC Public Library. (Hey, I gotta stay literate somehow. Even if it's kid's books.)

R.I.P. Honor Code

Another Face Generator

Make your own here.

Radical Promotion for UPS/Amazon

Click here to see Wayne Coyne make a special delivery.

Cousin Reunion 2007

For the first time in well over a decade, cousins from all four families on my dad's side got together for dinner. Long overdue!! It's so wierd now that we are all grown up; now we're the ones chatting up a storm. (In typical Hill fashion, it took like half an hour just to get everyone out the door.)

Everyone agrees more reunions are in order in the coming years.