Author Archive: Lesley Jakobsen
Boyhood
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.”
Continue Reading →The February Teacosy
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
Continue Reading →The Crimson Petal and the White
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…
Continue Reading →Classical Greek at the WEA
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…
Continue Reading →Peter Lorre Takes to Santa with a Bat
Hollywood Canteen (1944)
We at TVC have not seen this 1944 film, Hollywood Canteen, but we want to. See TVC’s review of The Lost One here. And then Peter inveigles Mickey Rooney to take a loan for a date (in Quicksand)…is there no end to his perfidy?
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