Little Flutters

Made 37 years after the book was written, this was the first film adaptation of Alice in Wonderland. Marvel at the special effects of 1903.

It’s really cool that the British Film Institute put this on YouTube. Otherwise it would just  gather dust in their archives. Well done, I tip my hat off to you BFI.

Funnily enough, Cecil Hepworth, one of the directors of the 1903 film, cast his wife as the Red Queen. Just like Tim Burton did for Helena Bonham-Carter in the most recent Alice in Wonderland.

I saw it over the weekend. It was AMAZING! To be completely honest, Burton doesn’t have to do much to amaze me but this film was so magical and colourful, my mouth was agape for much of it.

Oh, and about the video above, the scene at 4:05 mins scares the bejesus out of me. Still does. I’ll probably have nightmares tonight.

I’m leaving the States in June for a three month stint through South America and Europe, finally settling back in Sydney.  Isn’t it amusing how when you have a deadline, suddenly a thousand things pop into your head?

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been writing a list of things I want to do in this land of opportunities. And since I, like everyone else alive, likes the feeling of accomplishment, I included some of the things I’ve already done.

Most of them involve food, and 80% of food cravings come from the Simpsons or other American films, but hey, don’t pass judgement on my needs.

If you tasted American bacon, you would go ape shit for the crazy food combos too.

So with pompous glory, I present to you, my list of American things to do before I leave the country. Stuff I’ve done is in orange.

• Shoot a gun at something that is not alive.
• Make red beans and rice from scratch.
• Watch Alice in Wonderland. That’s not really America related but important nevertheless.
• Check out all the photog stuff at B&H in New York.
• Finish the largest Big Gulp known to man in one day. Be walking distance to a loo.
• Do a keg stand and drink beer from a red plastic cup.
• See the Grand Canyon.
• Visit every Smithsonian museum in D.C.
• See Obama, at least from afar.
• Buy lots of Halloween shit to take back home.
• Have the best cup cake in the world.
• Learn conversational Spanish.
• Play a game at Chuck E. Cheese.
• Eat at In-n-Out.
• Have a true blue American chopped salad.
• Go to a Unity Woods yoga workshop.
• Eat a peep.
• See Ballet at the Kennedy Center.
• Have a New York style pizza slice (that is hopefully bigger than my face).
• Go to a basketball game.
• Go to an ice hockey game.
• Eat at White Castle.
• Send a postcard to PostSecret.
• Go to New Orleans.
• Spend at least another day in New Orleans.
• Eat at Taco Bell.
• Have a cocktail named after an American president that I don’t know.
• Visit the theater where Lincoln was assassinated.
• Hike through Great Falls park.
• Go to a goth club.
• Have dinner at one of those places where they dress up as knights, serve  medieval food, talk funny and then fight each other, to the death, all for my amusement.