Neuromancer

March 18, 2015 | Posted by Lesley Jakobsen | Fiction, THUMBNAIL REVIEWS |

Mr Gibson

(William Gibson). I thought that, having read Neal Stephenson and Philip K. Dick, I knew all about cyberpunk and would find Mr Gibson’s most famous book old-fashioned and dull.  Wrong.  Mr Gibson invented it all.  This book is even referenced ( via a bendy, circular world) in the recent blockbuster, Interstellar.  Read it.

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Boyhood

March 18, 2015 | Posted by Lesley Jakobsen | Drama Film, THUMBNAIL REVIEWS |

Mozart didn't goof off in the darkroom

(Dir. Richard Linklater) (2014) Why all the fuss?  The only evidence of twelve years of production is the aging of the characters. A tired story line – a feckless, unthinking mother, no father.  Boy falls in love with girl next door.  As Dopey Mum says, “I just thought there would be more.”

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The February Teacosy

February 24, 2015 | Posted by Lesley Jakobsen | Annabel Lee, CRAFT, Crochet |

I decided against the subtle Victorian look – I just cannot stick to pales.   So this second teacosy, is rather like the first – but even busier.   The instructions are here and here.  If I am to make one teacosy a month this year I need some new ideas,  or I will have twelve all pretty much the same.  Can anyone give me some inspiration? pp

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The Crimson Petal and the White

February 19, 2015 | Posted by Lesley Jakobsen | Fiction, THUMBNAIL REVIEWS, WRITING & LITERATURE |

Petals & Thorns. Both good and bad.
(Image by Y Nekonomania)

(Michel Faber) I have never understood the concept of “beach”, “holiday”, or “summer” reading.   The idea seems to be that, for some reason,  when my toes are being lapped by a foreign sea,  I want to read the sort of rubbish which I would not give shelf space to at home. Because my feet are damp, my brain must be too. Being the gullible type, I have fallen for this publishers’ spin in the past.  I have packed “light”, much vaunted contemporary fiction in my carry-on bag and have optimistically bent back the first of the 600 or so pages as the A380 taxis.  By the…

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Classical Greek at the WEA

February 18, 2015 | Posted by Lesley Jakobsen | Annabel Lee, HISTORY |

A Greek manuscript accidentally "aged" with WEA hot chocolate.

I have  attended many WEA courses over the years – languages, silk painting, photoshopping, website wrangling, grasshopper breeding.  At present I am  trying to be a good girl and diligently do my homework during the hiatus between the WEA year long courses in Ancient Greek I and Ancient Greek II.  But Great Zeus!  drilling oneself in Middle Voice Progressive Participles is  boring, and as for  Thematic Second Aorist Active Imperatives!!  I can’t wait for the term to start in late February.  Our teacher, Dr Alessandro Boria from Rome is a polyglot of great patience and good cheer. The dozen or so stalwarts who completed…

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