Weeknotes 350

More rain, more cool air. So far I’m absolutely loving the autumn, although I’m conscious we’re still getting plenty of daylight at this early stage.

Three gyms.

I finished Redemption Ark as predicted, despite various technical difficulties which made the audiobook run slightly past the end of Friday’s gym session. I mopped up the last few minutes sat on the sofa yesterday for the sake of starting next week with a clean slate and, well, not undermining my prediction.

Despite my initial struggles I did eventually get into the story and begin to develop a degree of curiosity about the galactic-scale events surrounding it. I certainly enjoyed getting more straightforward information about those events than the first book provided. So, quibbles aside: pretty good!

Having come this far I now feel somewhat obliged to finish the “trilogy” so I’ve bought both Absolution Gap and Inhibitor Phase to keep myself entertained for another 46¾ hours.

On Monday Anna baked me a double chocolate zucchini bread to celebrate us shipping something. The veganisation turned it inadvertently brownie-like, dense and delicious. What a delight.

DAVID MITCHELL CORNER: I finished the first series of Ludwig and am two episodes into the second. They did change it structurally a little bit, but if anything that’s taken some of the tension out of it. One very brief scene aside, David Mitchell’s still playing David Mitchell. There is some gentle comedy, e.g. the running joke of him being inexplicably unable to operate a seat belt. It’s watchable, unchallenging fare as long as you aren’t repelled by the prospect of multiple Davids Mitchell.

DAVID ROBERT MITCHELL CORNER: In an accidental segue from last week’s passing mention of It Follows, I watched The End of Oak Street from the same writer-director and went in with high hopes. Unfortunately it turned out to be lazy, derivative, superficial rubbish; the initial premise is surprising and sort of fun for a few minutes, but it quickly goes nowhere and doesn’t try to take itself seriously enough to become interesting. Great visual effects but I lost interest after the n^th generic ████ ███.

DAVID MITCHELL CORNER: About twenty years ago I read Cloud Atlas and found it surprising and engaging. I remember feeling like I was accidentally participating in a collective cultural moment when I saw other people also reading it on the train with multiple bookmarks. Haven’t seen the film.

I was not previously aware of this fantastic live performance of the peerless Bank Account but now, thank goodness, I am.