May Globus

About May Globus

Vancouver City Editor May Globus is obsessed with the sartorial and all that surrounds it: art, design, culture, music and film. Oh, and she really likes writing about it, too. A left coast girl at heart, her Sweetspot finds just might show why the westside really is the best side.

Finding Wonderland

the view from vancity Vancouver (Mar.10.10)

I remember as a kid, when the rest of the kids were going crazy over Disney's Aladdin and The Little Mermaid, I was the oddball child that preferred the very eccentric Alice In Wonderland.

The Caterpillar charmed me with his smoke rings and classic line "Whooooo are yoooooou?", the Cheshire Cat creeped me right out with his wild grin, Twiddledee and Twiddledum made me giggle, the Queen of Hearts frightened me with her unfounded rage, the White Rabbit puzzled me with his neurotic obsession with time, the Mad Hatter drove me nuts (because he was nuts) and -- despite all of that -- I still wanted to fall down a rabbit hole wearing a blue and white dress with a black headband in my hair.

Well, not much has changed twenty years later.

Except for the fact that Tim Burton has remade this 1951 Disney classic into his own screwball, scary Burton take of this weird world.

So in honor of both the classic and the new, I'm turning into my own version of Alice (called May) in my own little Wonderland (called Vancouver).

To blow smoke rings out of an argelee (also known as a hookah) just like the Caterpillar, I'm heading to the Persian Tea House on Davie. Smoking regulations prevent the place from offering real tobacco, but they do offer herbal-only shisha in flavours like apricot, mint and really anything else you want. Bonus: they also serve bottomless cups of tea in cute little glass cups.

For a spot of tea -- sans the Mad Hatter, unfortunately -- I'll hotfoot it to the Secret Garden Tea Company in Kerrisdale. They have fruit, black, estate and decaffeinated teas for the sipping, as well as adorable little tea sandwiches and other sweet treats worth dragging out the hat and gloves for.

To make sure I'm never late for a very important date, a la the White Rabbit, I'm taking a SoMa trip to Ark Clothing on Main, where there's currently a stash of good quality, big-face black digital watches -- originally priced at $79 -- going for a mere $19.99.

Eliciting a hearty giggle and guffaw from me is no longer the job of Tweedledee and Tweedledum. It's the job of Ed O'Neill, Sofia Vergara, Julie Bowen, Ty Burrell and the rest of the cast from ABC's Modern Family. You know where my PVR and I will be on Wednesdays at 9pm come September.

It's a fact that if I put on a blue dress with a white apron, I'd look like a fool (thank you to Blair Waldorf and Gossip Girl for making headbands cool again, though). It wouldn't be so foolish, however, to put on something by local label Allison Wonderland. Designer Allison Smith's Beach Ave. Dress and Granville Blazer from her Spring 2010 collection will have me looking very pretty while looking for that next rabbit hole.

Are you excited to see Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland?

Tags: blogs, May Globus, city editors

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