Trippiest Birthday Cake Ever
Last night we were discussing mad ideas for birthday cakes. Out of the repitlian recesses of my brain, I remembered the video to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ “Don’t Come Around Here No More”. An homage to Alice in Wonderland, this 1985 drug-indcued gem features Tom Petty as the Madhatter and the band as his court. It does really effective work with changing scales–Alice is drinking tea then she’s swimming in it, Tom’s clothes get crazily oversized. The pig-woman in the baby carriage also wigs me right out.
Near the climax of the video, we see Alice laid out on a table as a birthday cake. Tom and the band cut slices out of here (she’s apparently made of cake) as she protests fruitlessly. Feminist examinations aside, that image has stuck in my head for the last 20 years. After the Dire Straits’ ‘Money for Nothing’ and Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’, this is probably the video I remember most from the 80s.
And, thanks to the magic of the Internet, you can watch it on this page (scroll down to Tom Petty). It’s RealAudio, and the server seems to be powered by an arthritic gerbil, but it’s worth the wait.
UPDATE: And, speaking of weird baked goods, check out the thoracic cavity cake (grossness ahead).
Heather 
vi 
Christina 