Author Archive: Lesley Jakobsen
The Doomsday Book
Are we in...when?
(Connie Willis) Connie Willis’s To Say Nothing of the Dog (1998) time-travel novel was so disappointing that this (often hasty) reader determined to read and to say nothing of this author again. However, the main ingredients of The Doomsday Book (1992) (Oxford, time travel, Middle Ages) were interesting enough to cause this (often ridiculously optimistic) reader to give Willis another go. I hoped that the author might have honed her skills after finishing To Say Nothing of the Dog, and have travelled back in time to improve the earlier novel. Or something. But I was (surprisingly) wrong. An amusing idea is thinly imagined and stretched. The cast of characters…
Continue Reading →Vue de Monde
July, 2015 The Vanished Culture had previously enjoyed the street level, race trim sister, Bistro Vue. But nothing had prepared us for Vue de Monde – 55 levels steeper and taller than its sister in every way. Degustation is a horrible word but, since Vue de Monde, it is one of The Varnished Culture‘s favourites. We took our phlegmatic Melbourne relative N (a chicken-and-chips man) there mid week and even he was impressed – although you wouldn’t know. Don’t go there if you don’t like culinary experimentation and weirdness. Strange and magical little courses were served (and explained) by enthusiastic staff, the youngest one so new that he shook…
Continue Reading →Mercato @ Daylesford
Winter, 2015 We drove into Spa World (Daylesford, country Victoria) and immediately re-visited this terrific establishment for lunch, which we had last been to in 2010. We liked the place so much that we returned a few days later for dinner. It’s a non-descript wooden edifice on Raglan Street, the main drag that leads into Daylesford proper, but its big windows display the glow of fires and mood lighting. Tables are small and close but expertly configured for privacy. The art is inherently horrendous but suitable as part of the décor. For example, there are two plain black and white pieces…
Continue Reading →Seveneves
Sir Richard in Space (Image by Arnfinn Christensen)
Neal Stephenson Now, before we start…..is there anyone here who has not read Stephenson’s “Cryptonomicon”, “Snow Crash”, “The Baroque Cycle” and “The Diamond Age”? If so, please just take some time. Go out and beg, buy, borrow or download them…all of them…and read them while the rest of us wait….. Welcome back. As promised, the rest of us waited here because we wanted to be sure that everyone has read the best of Stephenson before we proceed. If the first Stephenson I met had been “Seveneves” (or “Anathem” for that matter), I just might never have read Stephenson again – and that would be…
Continue Reading →Mollie Makes
If Mollie Makes were a woman she would own “Millie’s”, a quirky organic vegan café. The cafe, her house and her daughter Charlie* would all be decorated in a quirky retro, minimalist style featuring lots of polka dots and woodland animals. On Sundays Mollie Makes would dye her severe bob black or purple, pop on her quirky red-rimmed glasses and cycle with Charlie to roller derby practice. The magazine is as worthy as that – heavy on the Scandanavian look, white walls, foxes, deer, owls, recycled furniture and dots. The projects are usually at the easy skill-level. Of course beauty is in the eye of the needle, but to this crafter the Mollie Makes projects are too often offputtingly err……
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