Lesley Truffle - Writer

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The Zen of Happiness

August 12, 2021 by Lesley Truffle
Photo of sunrise in Penguin Tasmania

  The Zen of Happiness     Money can’t buy you happiness, but it can buy you a yacht big enough to pull up right alongside it.                                                            David Lee Roth, American rock musician.             To be sure there are people who are largely unscathed by our global pandemic and their happiness seems unblemished. … [Read more…]

Posted in: current news, Nature, Observations, Social Comment, Wilderness Areas Tagged: Asia, Bhuddhist, Bhutan, Buddhism, Buddhist Kingdom, David Lee Roth, Happiness, Himalayas, Lesley Truffle, Lesley Truffle Writer, pandemic, The Himalayas, The Kingdom of Bhutan

The very rich are different

July 30, 2021 by Lesley Truffle

  The Very Rich Are Different   ‘Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft where we are hard, and cynical where we are trustful …’ F. Scott Fitzgerald   A few days ago, … [Read more…]

Posted in: Mavericks & Renegades, Observations, Social Comment Tagged: Amazon, Astronaut Alan Shepard, Bezos, billionaires, Branson, Earth, Elon Musk, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jeff Bezos, Lesley Truffle, Lesley Truffle Writer, millionaires, Musk, NASA, outer space, Planet Earth, rich, Richard Branson, Scott Fitzgerald, Soviet astronaught, Soviet Russia, space mission, space missions, SpaceX, The New Shepard, Virgin Galactic, Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin, Yuri Gagarin

Wine Snobbery

July 9, 2021 by Lesley Truffle

      Wine Snobbery    ‘A man cannot make him laugh – but that’s no marvel: he drinks no wine.’                                                                                                             William Shakespeare   Some time ago I was at a dinner party for eight and it was getting late.  The hostess had got herself ossified on neat Scotch as she prepared a delectable … [Read more…]

Posted in: Mavericks & Renegades, Observations, Social Comment, writers & creatives Tagged: AA Gill, Adrian Gill, Lesley Truffle, Lesley Truffle Writer, the grape, wine, wine critics, wine devotees, wine snobbery, wine writers

Ritual Madness

June 27, 2021 by Lesley Truffle

Ritual Madness   The Ancient Greeks were enthralled by opposing forces and heavily invested in two of their gods, Apollo and Dionysus. Apollo was the god of reason and wisdom – devoted to logical thinking, patience and duty. Dionysus was significantly more adventurous and dealt in the realms of imagination, play and chaos. Dionysus – … [Read more…]

Posted in: art/theatre event, artists, Mavericks & Renegades, Observations, Psychology Tagged: Ancient Greeks, Apollo, Bacchus, Black Rock Desert Nevada, Burning Man, Burning Man Festival, Dionysus, Greek gods, Larry Harvey, Lesley Truffle, Lesley Truffle Writer

Cake in the Time of Pandemic

June 10, 2021 by Lesley Truffle

  Cake in the Time of Pandemic   ‘I’m known in Melbourne for this elegant, sophisticated pastry – the croissant – and the cruller is the exact opposite. It’s a super naughty New York street treat … there is nothing refined or elegant about it.’                                                                             Kate Reid, proprietor of Lune Croissanterie   In 2020 … [Read more…]

Posted in: Australia, cakes and cooking, current news, Melbourne, Social Comment, Uptown Downtown Tagged: Australia, baked goods, cake, COVID-19, crullers, Lesley Truffle, Lesley Truffle Writer, Let them eat cake, Lockdowns, Lune Croissanterie, Melbourne, Moon Cruller, pandemic, pastries, Shutdowns

Finding a Soulmate

May 29, 2021 by Lesley Truffle

  Finding a Soulmate   Unbroken happiness is a bore: it should have ups and downs.      Moliere Some folk secretly hope that hiding in the wings is their one and only soulmate. Many spend their lives looking for this very special person, believing that once they find the one they will live happily ever after. … [Read more…]

Posted in: Historical, Observations, Psychology, Social Comment, writers & creatives Tagged: Alain de Botton, de Botton, Doctor Robert Epstein, Dr John Bowlby, Dr Robert Epstein, John Bowlby, Lesley Truffle, Lesley Truffle Writer, Love, Love Contract, Love Project, Pschoanalyst John Bowlby, psychoanalysis, Psychoanalyst, Psychology, Soulmate

Publish and be damned

May 21, 2021 by Lesley Truffle

  Publish and be damned Well some people try to pick up girls And get called assholes This never happened to Pablo Picasso He could walk down your street And girls could not resist his stare and So Pablo Picasso was never called an asshole … Pablo Picasso lyrics by The Modern Lovers   The … [Read more…]

Posted in: books, Social Comment, writers & creatives Tagged: America, American writer, biography, Biography Phillip Roth, Blake Bailey, Cancel culture, Culture wars, Julie Szego, Lesley Truffle, Lesley Truffle Writer, Peter Carey, Phillip Roth, Portnoy's Complaint, Roth, Sean Kelly journalist, The plot against America, USA, Zadie Smith

Naked in Leopard Skin

April 26, 2021 by Lesley Truffle

Naked in Leopard Skin Born into Italian aristocracy in 1881 and heiress to a fortune made in cotton, Luisa Casati managed to run up personal debts of $25 million.  She and her sister had been orphaned when both parents died and Luisa was only fifteen years old. The Marchesa Casati was a devotee of the … [Read more…]

Posted in: artists, Fashion, Historical, Observations, Social Comment, writers & creatives Tagged: Cecil Beaton, Jean Cocteau, Lesley Truffle, Lesley Truffle Writer, Luisa Casati, Marchesa Casati, Marchesa Luisa Casati, Pablo Picasso, Surrealism, Surrealists, The Ritz, Venice

Cleopatra’s Erotic Vagrancy

April 21, 2021 by Lesley Truffle

  Cleopatra’s Erotic Vagrancy   Cleopatra V11 – born around 69 BC – was an object of fascination and gossip even in her own time. She was a child goddess who was married off to her brother and became Egypt’s queen at eighteen. After many poisonings, killings, plot twists and turns, Cleopatra went on to … [Read more…]

Posted in: books, Historical, Mavericks & Renegades, Observations, Social Comment, writers & creatives Tagged: 20th Century Fox, Caesar, Cleopatra, Cleopatra A Life, Cleopatra V11, Elizabeth Taylor, Erotic, Famous films, Fox Studios, Lesley Truffle, Lesley Truffle Writer, Liz Taylor, Marcus Antonius, Mark Anthony, Richard Burton, Stacy Schiff, The Vatican, Theda Bara

Romancing the Mushroom

March 25, 2021 by Lesley Truffle

  Romancing the Mushroom   pine mushrooms live a thousand years in one autumn             Den Sutejo 1633-1698 (translated by Makoto Ueda) Autumn in Melbourne is a fine time to take a trip to the Prahran Market and visit the wild mushroom man, Damien Pike. For many years he’s been sourcing and selling mushrooms. Much … [Read more…]

Posted in: artists, Historical, Mavericks & Renegades, Mythology, Nature Tagged: Alice in Wonderland, Ancient Mythology, Damien Pike, elves, F.W. Rolfe, fairies, fungi, Lesley Truffle, Lesley Truffle Writer, Melbourne, Mycology, Prahran Market, R.T. Rolfe, The Romance of the Fungus World, witches

The Insanity of Love

March 22, 2021 by Lesley Truffle
Graphic heart Baude Cordier's Belle, Bonne, Sage

  The Insanity of Love    ‘Marriage is the tomb of love.’                    Giacomo Casanova   Some time ago I went to hear Alain de Botton – philosopher and author speaking about modern relationships and love in Melbourne’s gloomy town hall. I’m not sure our drafty town hall is conducive to love. The couple in … [Read more…]

Posted in: art/theatre event, Historical, Social Comment, writers & creatives, Writers & Readers Events Tagged: Alain de Botton, Augusten Burroughs, Baude Cordier, Casanova, Giacomo Casanova, Lesley Truffle, Lesley Truffle Writer, Love, Romance, The Romantics

My Favourite Horror Child

February 25, 2021 by Lesley Truffle

  My Favourite Horror Child   Eloise and I go way back. At about seven I discovered six-year-old Eloise. She was parent-free, running amuck in the Plaza New York with her nanny, a pug and a turtle. I didn’t find it strange that Eloise exercised with champagne bottles, as my sister and I had hidden … [Read more…]

Posted in: books, Historical, Mavericks & Renegades, Social Comment, writers & creatives Tagged: Eloise, Eloise in Paris, France, French, Hilary Knight, Kay Thompson, Lesley Truffle, Lesley Truffle Writer, The Plaza Hotel

25 Cats and One Blue Pussy

February 8, 2021 by Lesley Truffle

  25 Cats Named Sam And One Blue Pussy   The reason I hate regular underwear – and socks, too – is that if you send twenty pairs of shorts and twenty pairs of socks to the laundromat, you always only get nineteen back. Even when I wash them myself, I get nineteen back. The more I think about … [Read more…]

Posted in: animals, artists, books, Fashion, Mavericks & Renegades, Social Comment Tagged: 25 Cats name Sam and one Blue Pussy, Andy Warhol, Cat, Cats, Cats Named Sam and One Blue Pussy, Elizbeth Taylor, Julia Warhola, Liz Taylor, Pop Art, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol, Warhol

Venus in Steel

January 13, 2021 by Lesley Truffle

  Venus in Steel   He has the slimy assurance, the gross patter about transcendence through art, of a blow-dried Baptist selling swamp acres in Florida. And the result is that you can’t imagine America’s singularly depraved culture without him.                                                                                                                                                     Robert Hughes on Jeff Koons.   Jeff Koons has always been a divisive … [Read more…]

Posted in: art/theatre event, artists, Australia, Melbourne, writers & creatives Tagged: Andy Warhol, Australia, Ilona Staller, Jeff Koons, Koons, La Cicciolina, Lesley Truffle, Lesley Truffle Writer, Melbourne, NGV, NGV Melbourne, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol, Venus, Venus de Milo, Warhol, Wilhelm Christian Myer

Phoenix Rising

January 4, 2021 by Lesley Truffle

  Phoenix Rising   ‘Hope. It’s like a drop of honey, a field of tulips blooming in the springtime. It’s a fresh rain, a whispered promise, a cloudless sky, the perfect punctuation mark at the end of a sentence. And it’s the only thing in the world keeping me afloat.’ Tahereh Mafi   Moira Finucane … [Read more…]

Posted in: Historical, Melbourne, Mythology, Observations, writers & creatives Tagged: 2021, Ancient Myths, burlesque, Finucane, hope, Lesley Truffle, Lesley Truffle Writer, Moira Finucane, Mythology, Phoenix, Phoenix Rising, Phoenix Year, Tahereh Mafi

Flash Gordon

November 23, 2020 by Lesley Truffle

    FLASH GORDON   ‘Flash, Flash, I love you, but we only have fourteen hours to save the Earth!’                                                                                                      Flash Gordon (1980)   Ming the Merciless from the planet Mongo, has a delightfully wicked line in evil patter – ‘Pathetic Earthlings … Who can save you now? ’ Played by Max von Sydow, … [Read more…]

Posted in: Fashion, Film, films, movies, writers & creatives Tagged: Alex Raymond, Dino De Laurentiis, Flash Gordon, Freddy Mercury, King of the Impossible, Klytus, Max von Sydow, Ming, Ming the Merciless, Mongo, Queen, Sam J. Jones, Saviour of the Universe

Barbarella

November 13, 2020 by Lesley Truffle

  BARBARELLA Barbarella psychedella, There’s a kind of cockleshell about you. Dazzle me with rainbow colour; Fade away the duller shade of living. Theme song from Barbarella.   When it first hit me just how serious COVID_19 was, the original 1982 Bladerunner movie (set in an apocalyptic world in 2019) suddenly seemed prophetic. I wanted … [Read more…]

Posted in: Fashion, Film, Social Comment Tagged: Barbarella, Barbarella Psychedella, film, Jane Fonda, movie, Paraody, Roger Vadim, Sci-Fi movie, Science Fiction

This Charming Man

October 8, 2020 by Lesley Truffle

  This Charming Man    ‘If people turn to look at you in the street, you are not well dressed, but either too stiff, too tight, or too fashionable.’                                             Beau Brummell (George Bryan Brummell 1778-1840)   2020 is a year where fashion was sidelined. As the pandemic seized control of the globe, fashion was … [Read more…]

Posted in: Fashion, Historical, Mavericks & Renegades, Social Comment Tagged: 1700's, Beau Brummell, Brummell, Dandies, Dandyism, Dior, eighteemth century, fashion, George Bryan Brummell, George IV, men's fashion, Prince Regent, Regency England

Book Dreaming

September 24, 2020 by Lesley Truffle

Book Dreaming I’ve often been asked – what are the books that meant a lot to me growing up. This is a difficult question because there are so many books I love. And I often revisit books, usually classics, I already know are going to transport me. In winter there’s pleasure to be had in … [Read more…]

Posted in: books, Mavericks & Renegades, Observations, Social Comment, writers & creatives Tagged: Ada, Casanova, Eloise, Eloise in Paris, Emily Brontë, Giacomo Casanova, History of My Life, Kay Thompson, Lesley Truffle, Lolita, Nabokov, Vladamir Nabokov, Wuthering Heights

My Life as a Nightclub Cocktail Girl

August 27, 2020 by Lesley Truffle

  My Life as a Nightclub Cocktail Girl   When I was a child, my mother used to play vintage movie songs and the lyrics to Gigi were: The night they invented champagne It’s plain as it can be They thought of you and me The night they invented champagne They absolutely knew That all … [Read more…]

Posted in: Australia, current news, Melbourne, Social Comment Tagged: champagne, cocktails, Cointreau, COVID-19, global crisis, Golden Dream Cocktails, Lesley Truffle, Lesley Truffle Writer, Melbourne, nightclub cocktail girl, Nightclubbing, pandemic, Perrier-Jouët, Veuve Cliquot

The Problem With Henry

August 17, 2020 by Lesley Truffle

The Problem With Henry                                        ‘I swear again, I would not be a queen  For all the world.’                    Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s second wife.                                           Shakespeare, The Life of King Henry the Eighth.   King Henry VIII has been receiving bad press for centuries. Shakespeare, along with later writers and playwrights, got in … [Read more…]

Posted in: art/theatre event, Historical, Mavericks & Renegades, Social Comment Tagged: Anne Boleyn, film, films, Henry V111, King Henry, Lesley Truffle, movies, Shakespeare, The Private Life of Henry, the Tudors, Will Shakespeare, William Shakespeare

There Goes the Neighbourhood Dogs

July 25, 2020 by Lesley Truffle
Dogs face and eyes

  There Goes the Neighbourhood Dogs   ‘A lover tries to stand in well with the pet dog of the house.’ Molière (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin) French playwright, actor & poet.   In my bayside suburb dogs are everywhere you go. There may well be a pandemic rampaging across the globe but for our local dogs, it’s … [Read more…]

Posted in: animals, Australia, Melbourne, Observations, Social Comment Tagged: Bayside Melbourne, café, cafes, dogs, Lesley Truffle, Melbourne, mongrels, neighbourhood dogs, Pugs, street dogs, Whippets

Shakespeare’s Lascivious Lutes

July 11, 2020 by Lesley Truffle

  Shakespeare’s Lascivious Lutes    ‘Grim-visaged war hath smooth’d his wrinkled front; And now, instead of mounting barbed steeds To fright the souls of fearful adversaries, He capers nimbly in a lady’s chamber To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.’          Richard III by William Shakespeare.   I went to a girl’s high school in … [Read more…]

Posted in: art/theatre event, Historical, Playwright, Social Comment, writers & creatives Tagged: Elizabethan, King Lear, Lesley Truffle, Richard 111, Shakespeare, the Bard, Will Shakespeare, William Shakespeare

Devilish Desires

June 11, 2020 by Lesley Truffle

Dorian Gray’s Devilish Desires   ‘The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.’ The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde   In Oscar Wilde’s novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray the characters throw themselves around dramatically and rarely ever sit quietly. They fling themselves at the furniture with … [Read more…]

Posted in: books, Fashion, Historical, Mavericks & Renegades, Social Comment, writers & creatives Tagged: British playwrights, British writer, Dorian Gray, gothic fiction, gothic fiction books, Lesley Truffle, Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde, Oscar Wilde, playwright, poet, poets, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde

Beach Dogs

May 9, 2020 by Lesley Truffle

  Beach Dogs Bayside Melbourne is dog heaven. During shutdown I’ve been walking the beach promenade every day. It provides a complete brain clean. Many mongrels and pedigree hounds are out there on the beach before first light. I chat to the owners outside the Guilty Moose café, as I pick up my morning takeout … [Read more…]

Posted in: animals, Australia, Melbourne Tagged: Australian beach, Bayside Melbourne, beach, dogs, Lesley Truffle, Melbourne, mongrels, The Guilty Moose
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