go ask alice...i think she'll know

I was doing some searching on Netflix for Kate Beckinsale movies, because even though we're madly in love (I sent her a letter about it, and since I haven't received one back, I'm going to assume that my feelings are reciprocated), I've only seen a few of them. I saw an Alice move on the list and moved it to the top of my queue. I guess it was made for British television, but it had a really good cast (Ian Holm, Steve Coogan, Ms. Beckinsale, and a few other really good British actors who I've seen a billion times but don't know their names).

It was very childish, but in a good way. It was obviously made for kids, but even the most saccharine portrayals of Lewis Carroll's work kinda freak me out. I told this to my roommate and she said that the Disney cartoon gave her nightmares when she was a kid. I still get an eerie chill when I think of some of the scenes in that.

What I like most about Carroll's work is his poetry and how he mixes it into his prose as if they were nursery rhymes passed down through generations. Ian Holm gave a beautiful reading of this poem in the telefilm, and it really got under my skin.

`I'll tell thee everything I can;
There's little to relate.
I saw an aged aged man,
A-sitting on a gate.
"Who are you, aged man?' I said.
"and how is it you live?"
And his answer trickled through my head
Like water through a sieve.

He said "I look for butterflies
That sleep among the wheat:
I make them into mutton-pies,
And sell them in the street.
I sell them unto men,' he said,
"Who sail on stormy seas;
And that's the way I get my bread --
A trifle, if you please."

But I was thinking of a plan
To dye one's whiskers green,
And always use so large a fan
That they could not be seen.
So, having no reply to give
To what the old man said,
I cried, "Come, tell me how you live!"
And thumped him on the head.

His accents mild took up the tale:
He said "I go my ways,
And when I find a mountain-rill,
I set it in a blaze;
And thence they make a stuff they call
Rolands' Macassar Oil --
Yet twopence-halfpenny is all
They give me for my toil."

But I was thinking of a way
To feed oneself on batter,
And so go on from day to day
Getting a little fatter.
I shook him well from side to side,
Until his face was blue:
"Come, tell me how you live," I cried,
"And what it is you do!"

He said "I hunt for haddocks' eyes
Among the heather bright,
And work them into waistcoat-buttons
In the silent night.
And these I do not sell for gold
Or coin of silvery shine
But for a copper halfpenny,
And that will purchase nine.

"I sometimes dig for buttered rolls,
Or set limed twigs for crabs;
I sometimes search the grassy knolls
For wheels of Hansom-cabs.
And that's the way" (he gave a wink)
"By which I get my wealth --
And very gladly will I drink
Your Honour's noble health."

I heard him then, for I had just
Completed my design
To keep the Menai bridge from rust
By boiling it in wine.
I thanked much for telling me
The way he got his wealth,
But chiefly for his wish that he
Might drink my noble health.

And now, if e'er by chance I put
My fingers into glue
Or madly squeeze a right-hand foot
Into a left-hand shoe,
Or if I drop upon my toe
A very heavy weight,
I weep, for it reminds me so,
Of that old man I used to know --

Whose look was mild, whose speech was slow,
Whose hair was whiter than the snow,
Whose face was very like a crow,
With eyes, like cinders, all aglow,
Who seemed distracted with his woe,
Who rocked his body to and fro,
And muttered mumblingly and low,
As if his mouth were full of dough,
Who snorted like a buffalo --
That summer evening, long ago,
A-sitting on a gate.'

I'm not quite sure what I think about it yet, but I love the rhythm of it, and the way Holm read it made it all seem really poignant. Maybe it was the accent. Not that I'm trying to be all "tell me your feelings" but if anyone of the four of you who read this have any thoughts about it, I'd like to hear it.

As if the Mets taking two of three from the Yankees wasn't enough to get the coming week off to a good start, I'm also going to sign my life away on a 2005 Scion xB. I got a pretty good deal on it and the payments are pretty low. I'm just really excited about having a car again, even if it means I won't be able to afford taking it anywhere. The one I'm getting is white, which isn't my favorite color (you know, it gets dirty real easy), and I'm not sure what I'm going to name her.