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Images of Murals at the Lewis Carroll Children’s Library in Islington, London, UK

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There’s no debt to Tenniel in these murals at the Lewis Carroll Children’s Library in the London Borough of Islington (that’s London UK, not London TX, AK, OH, PA etc.). Instead there seems to be something of an early-Atari-meets-Crayola 64-pack influence at work. They are fun though.

The library is London’s only stand-alone children’s library and has been open since 1952. Apparently, within these colorful walls, the library hosts a reading group for teenagers, homework clubs and a rhyming session for babies. Ga Ga Gaa Aaah…

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Screening of McLeod’s Alice in Wonderland (1933) in Vancouver this Weekend

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Do we have any readers in Vancouver? Near Vancouver? I don’t know, but if we do they should go to Vancity Theatre – the Vancouver International Film Center – on Sunday to see a rare screening of Norman Z. McLeod’s Alice in Wonderland from 1933. See Cary Grant as you have never seen him before – totally concealed inside a giant mock turtle suit!

From the Vancity Theatre website:

“Extravagant all-star assaults on the work of Lewis Carroll – like the forthcoming Tim Burton-Johnny Depp movie – are nothing new, as this rare item from the vaults of Paramount Pictures goes to show. With a screenplay by Joseph L Mankiewicz (All About Eve) and designed by William Cameron Menzies (Gone with the Wind), this has considerable pedigree even before you check out the cast list.

“But what a cast it is! WC Fields steals the show as Humpty Dumpty, but underneath splendid (if uncomfortable-looking) costumes you may also recognize the voices of Cary Grant as the mock turtle, Edward Everett Horton as the Mad Hatter, Gary Cooper is the White Knight, and Edna May Oliver as the Red Queen. Curiouser and curiouser, it has never been released on DVD or VHS.”

Alice in Wonderland, Sunday, January 10th, 2.30pm. All ages.
Vancity Theatre, 1181 Seymour St, Vancouver, BC, Canada, V6B 3M7

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Disney’s Alice in Wonderland Press Kit: Books within Books, USB keys, & more

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Blogger Elizabeth Snead reports at The Dishrag that “Tim Burton’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’ press kit is a trip in itself.”

The lucky recipients got “a very large box” containing “a large faux antiquarian book of Alice in Wonderland.”
Inside the first book with drawings/photos of Tim Burton and the Lewis Carroll is another a delightfully smaller book with illustrations of locations and sets.
Inside that book is another smaller book with illustrations of the characters, Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp), the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter), etc.
Inside that book is another smaller book containing a heavy metal key. And there’s a note that needed a magnifying glass to read it that says: The USB key will take you beyond the gates of Wonderland and unveil the many secrets that await you.”
We were kinda hoping for one pill that would make us larger, but whatever.
Anyway, breathlessly, we stuck the key in my computer and….
On the USB key is a cool new trailer and three photos from the film.
Leave it to Disney to make their “Alice in Wonderland” press kit as exciting an adventure as Burton’s adaptation of the classic tale promises to be.
The rabbit hole has never been like this.

Thank you Ms. Snead for the images and description. Now, how do we get one!?

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Alice in Lojban, the Logical Language

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The Rev. Charles L. Dodgson made important contributions to both Logic and Language. He died around a century before Lojban, a logical language, was developed–, so we’ll never know what he might have thought of (as the wikipedia defines it) “a constructed, syntactically unambiguous human language based on predicate logic.” Is language inherently logical, or can words mean what we choose them to mean? Does organic language have a sort of nonsense logic to it? How would Rev. Dodgson feel about a made-up language based on logic?

This website lojban.org describes its “effort to translate Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland into lojban” as “ongoing.” They’ve placed it in the public domain, and it is downloadable in a number of formats. We are told by Michael Everson of Evertype that it will be published in the near future. I would love to hear from one of the contributers how they approached the translation of the puns and wordplay.
It’s an elegant-looking language, if it does have that certain made-up look to it. Here’s the “Lobster Quadrille”:
e’o sutra doi cakcurnu i ko ti’a zgana ua pa
xajyfi’e noi jbitrixe gi’e me mi rebla stapa
i ui a’a ro le jukni e le respa ca se ganse
gi’e denpa mi le canre i pei do ba kansa dansu
i aipei naipei aipei naipei aipei do ba dansu
i aipei naipei aipei naipei naipei do ba dansu
i do ka’enai se xanri le nu pluka co mokau
ca le nu mi’o se renro fi le xamsi i’a au
i dardukse i dardukse sei cy spuda tolselmansa
doi merlanu ki’e ku’i i mi na ba kansa dansu
i ainai einai ainai einai ainai mi ba dansu
i ainai einai ainai einai einai mi ba dansu
i na selvai le ni darno sei le pendo ze’i frati
i iasai lo drata korbi ca’a drata mlana zvati
i le ni darno le glico cu ni jibni be la frans
i ko carna doi cakcurnu i ei do ba kansa dansu
i aipei naipei aipei naipei aipei do ba dansu
i aipei naipei aipei naipei naipei do ba dansu

UPDATE: I just discovered a recording of the Lobster Quadrille in Esperanto, for comparison:

Lewis Carroll – Esperanto – Lobster Quadrille .mp3
Found at bee mp3 search engine
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Unbirthday Card Kits and Rubber Stamps

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Even though it was Humpty Dumpty who first proposed the observance of unbirthdays, it is now of course often associated with Mad Tea Parties. For the crafty: Very Merry Unbirthday Cards and Card Kits sell two craft kits for making “Alice in Wonderland” and “Mad Hatter’s Tea Party” themed greetings cards, and other card-making products. That site also links to MadHatterStamps.com which in 2010 is celebrating Alice for obvious reasons. Both the cards and the stamps are from the classic Tenniel illustrations.

“You Don’t Need a Reason to Send an Unbirthday Card”
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New Poppet Alice from Lisa Snellings

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Artist Lisa Snellings makes Poppets. In her words, “They’re adorable… and sort of… creepy.” Last year she made an Alice in Wonderland series that ran to eight or ten pieces and it seems she may be starting 2010 with a similar project. Currently she is auctioning Alice and the Caterpillar on Ebay (auction closes January 6th) but the item descriptions suggest more Wonderland Poppets may be on their way.

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[Your name here]’s Adventures in Wonderland

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Here’s a strange one…

Imagine opening Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and starting to read. Except instead of Romeo and Juliet, Tybalt and Benvolio, the names you see are yours and those of your family or friends. Each Personalised Classic is custom-printed with the names you choose for the main characters (up to 6 names) and your own dedication.

This is the slightly unsettling service offered by Acorn Gifts. In addition to Romeo and Juliet, you and your loved ones could also star in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland or Pride and Prejudice. It’s interesting that two out of three of these options contain explicit discussions about the relationship between names and things. Even stranger, there does not seem to be a way for the buyer to specify which character gets which name. What a thought-provoking gift.

***

[Capulet’s orchard.]
WANDA [Coming forward.]:
But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?
It is the East, and Steve is the sun!

***

“Must a name mean something” Nevaeh asked doubtfully?”

“Of course is must,” Peaches Geldof said with a short laugh: “my name means the shape I am—and a good handsome shape it is, too. With a name like yours you might be any shape, almost.”

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Alice Pop-Up Book shown on The Simpsons

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The Simposons, Season 21, Episode 8, which premiered a few Sundays ago, featured Lisa reading an Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland pop-up book to her baby sister Maggie. (It begins at 5:34 in the episode embedded above, available for a limited time from hulu.com.) I’ve got a half dozen AAIW pop-ups open in front of me to figure out which one the fabulous animation from The Simpsons was inspired from, but it seems to be their own creation using Simpsons-esque versions of the Tenniel illustrations. Is this right? (If you do not own any Alice pop-ups, I recommend the breathtaking version by Robert Sabuda, available here on amazon.com, & shown in the youtube below.)

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Alice Fashion in 2010

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Fashion is a weak suit at Let “Universe” Be “Books”, but since Disney declared Alice is the New Black at a Las Vegas trade show back in September, Alice, and the prospect of tie-in merchandise, have been inspiring a number of fashion creations probably worth mentioning.

The Los Angeles Times reviewed the playing field on December 6th, name checking designers such as Donatella Versace, Jason Wu, and Antonio Marras, one of whom I have heard of. Mr Tom Binns is also making jewelery around the theme of absolutely smashing tea parties (New York Times photograph below).

Then there’s Swarovski (pictured at top), always hot on Disney’s trail; Fashion Times warns us what is to come in the 2010 Spring-Summer collection:

Rabbits, watches, cups of tea, small muffins and donuts, flowers embellish necklaces, pendants, bracelets, rings and earrings, precious and ironic.

Donuts? Anyway.
The cosmetics brand Urban Decay is coming out with a pop-up make-up box that Lewis Carroll would have been proud of, though he may have been less into the idea of little girls wearing eyeshadow with names like “muchness” (green) and “curiouser” (purple). (Thanks go to Diana Ajih from the blog Hot Beauty Health for locating sneak preview pictures.)

Vogue magazine’s naturally prophetic 2003 Alice-themed photoshoot, in which “the world’s most influential designers dress[ed] the original little girl lost in their own visions”, is back for viewing in the blogosphere, while the French department store Printemps has announced that the world’s most controversial designers will be dressing their store windows in one-off designs in time for Paris Fashion Week in February.
And for those who need that little blue dress now, Entertainment Weekly provided a short guide to “getting the look” of Syfy’s Alice.
Finally, Rock ‘n Roll Bride, “a little haven of kick ass weddingness in the overly poofy, pastel and often puke-worthy wedding world” posts Alice in her Wonderland, a photoshoot vision of a wedding with a difference (clue: the bride gets to eat the cake and the groom is nowhere to be seen).
Enough of fashion!
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