Happy Halloween! Some scary Wonderlands on YouTube.

I think the creepiest clip from an Alice movie I've seen recently was unintentionally scary, which Jenny Woolf linked to at her blog, brought to light in re Will Brooker's book Alice's Adventure: Lewis Carroll in Popular Culture (2005). "He suggested looking into the Alice in Wonderland phenomenon in Japan, (where she is known as Arisu)." That's where this animated Lego version comes in:



And what Hallowe'en could be complete without a bit of Jan Švankmajer:

Bedtime Story

Courtesy of Esquire magazine, Mary-Louise Parker reads from Alice.

But not the very best butter knife

"The Texas Radio Theatre Company performed this audio adaptation in November 2008 at the Dallas Public Library. On stage at the time, from left to right: Shannon Atkinson as Alice, David Grant as the DoorMouse [sic], Clark Hackney [who seems to be channeling Ed Wynn] as the Hatter and Reg Platt as the March Hare. Rich Frohlich is adding prerecorded sounds and Ken Raney is performing the live sounds, with the exception of David's noise maker and Reg's horn (or tea cup) ."

Hello Alice

A (pen)grin, possibly with a cat

Blog stuff and film stuff, today.

It remains to be seen if it is actually Alice-related, but the Penguin books blog (http://thepenguinblog.typepad.com/the_penguin_blog/2008/02/non-linear.html) hints that that they will "soon be embarking on a experiment in storytelling." The question as yet unanswered is "What has a grin and six tales?" To see a lovely picture of a six-tailed Cheshire Cat and to be notified when more information is released in March (though isn't it March already?), visit http://pengrin.co.uk/.

According to science fiction author Rudy Rucker's blog entry of February 6 (www.rudyrucker.com/blog/2008/02/06/carrollian-syllogisms/) [Yes, I know it's a month old, I'm still catching up], he is contributing an interview for an upcoming volume of articles entitled The Spaces of Wonderland. He also includes some silly syllogisms inspired by Carroll, a nice link to the LCSNA website, photos of Moffett Field (Sunnyvale, CA), and a sketch of a "beanstalk bridge to infinity" featured in his upcoming novel.

Here is a short but pointed animation of a Lewis Carroll's poem "The Owl and the Panther," by animator and video artist Nick Fox-Gieg:
www.videosift.com/video/Peace-Through-Strength-Nick-Fox-Gieg.

From LCS member George Wallace is another short film made with his students: "We read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and then did the filming out in the countryside of Nagano last September. It is hardly Orson Welles but I thought perhaps you might be interested to see some Japanese university students' interpretation of the Carroll story." www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gfq6Q7LianI