My favorite Martians: Review of a red planet

By Michael Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer

For the library: Ray Bradbury's 1940s classic "The Martian Chronicles" is more famous, but Kim Stanley Robinson's award-winning trilogy — "Red Mars," "Green Mars" and "Blue Mars" — is a modern favorite of sci-fi types. You were expecting "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus"?

For the DVD player: "Mars Attacks!" Even if all the jokes don't quite hit their mark, we at least know this modern nod to campy 1950s space invader flicks is trying to be funny. Unlike the sadly hilarious "Mission to Mars," starring Tim Robbins and Gary Sinise.

For the CD player: Sorry Smiths fans, Johnny Marr is a full letter off our theme. But L.A. band the Mars Volta is plenty spacey enough. The best Mars song has to be the nine-note ditty British band Blur composed on demand for England's Beacon2 Mars project.

For eternity: We couldn't decide who to induct to a Mars Hall of Fame first — Looney Toon Marvin the Martian or Mars Blackman, Spike Lee's old sneaker shill. So we picked both. They're the same height, right?