I nearly always end up writing about the weather in the introduction to these posts, I don’t know why. I don’t really need to write an introduction at all, I could just dive right in and talk about the week’s stuff, it’s all fairly self-explanatory. But there’s something off about that. I feel like we need warming up before we dive right in, like we should engage in some small talk, some polite foreplay if you will. Being British it is completely natural to make talk about the weather with complete strangers and…very little else, really. It’s all that’s in the news at the minute anyway. Oh, well, that and Boris Johnson but I don’t want to talk about him.
So, weather. It’s been hot! Let’s talk about that. Right. It’s been hot. Really hot. The hottest, nearly.
I think that might be it actually.
Ah, let’s get on with it.
Reading…
I’ve got a lot of books waiting around to be read. A lot of them are from Mr George R(oger) R(abbit) Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire megalodon sized series, but I just don’t feel like reading them right now. Fantasy isn’t calling to me, reality is. So I decided to indulge a little.
In reality, that is.
Around the World in 80 Trains by Monisha Rajesh is the chronicle of a journey around the world, mostly by train, and mostly focused not on the destinations, but on the train journeys themselves. Monisha focuses on the microcosm environments that are created between the long-haul commuters, writing in loving detail about the comradery, and the conflict, between the carriages. It is a romantic, inspiring piece of travel writing that I highly recommend. On a basic level I simply do not like train travel, but that’s modern British train travel, where there is no romance, only delays and standing next to the toilets because the train is stuffed to the brim with sweaty London-bound businessmen. The sleeper train, which I have once experienced in Thailand, is something entirely different, and the strange allure to return to that experience calls out from these pages.
Playing…
It’s been-a-Mario-time for the last few weeks round this way, and there’s no change this week. If you’d like to read my thoughts on the game in more detail check out my experiences by clicking right here.
Listening to…
I’d say I’ve come out of my Stranger Things induced nostalgia-phase for now, except, what’s this? Steve Harrington has released a song? Joe Keery himself? Surely it can’t be any-
Oh, it’s really good.
A$AP Ferg has also dropped a couple of ludicrous bangers, just slapping listeners in the face with weird, heavy production, and off-the-wall adlibs. It’s this wildness which makes Ferg stand out of the dense crowd of trappers. His output over the last few years hasn’t caught my imagination in the same way his music did when he first emerged, but this is top stuff.
Rich Brian has also blessed us with his latest album, and I’ve got a lot of time for it.
Watching…
I finally watched Hereditary, the critically acclaimed horror and for the first hour, I got it. I caught the bug, I was entranced, horrified, disturbed even. Then as the clock ran down, it lost me. I don’t know what it was exactly, but to me it seemed like the movie was trying too hard to explain itself and in doing so I thought it accidentally meandered into the realm of the ludicrous, delving into corners of its world that I thought would have been best left unexplained. The best comparison I can make to explain my feelings is with The Witch (or The VVitch, as it was styled). It tackles similar subject matter but leaves much of the reasoning behind the horror veiled in shadow, even as the credits roll. For me that is far more effecting. As Hereditary explained why the horror was happening, it stopped being horrible.
Speaking of horror, Beverly Hills Cop 2. Why did I watch this? I don’t know, it was on Amazon Prime and it was getting late and I just needed…something. I had fun, I suppose, but Eddie Murphy is just…just…awful in it. So many scenes devolve into him yelling very quickly and incoherently at people, often women, until they succumb to his whims, and he is left victorious. I think it’s meant to be a comedy. Great soundtrack though, and an amazing wardrobe. It’s pretty horrible, but did I enjoy it? I’m sorry to say I did. You’d never get away with making a movie like Beverly Hills Cop 2 these days, and not just because it would be weird to make Beverly Hills Cop 2 again, but because of the tone and language and politics, and that’s good, that’s how it should be. Seriously no one make this movie again, okay? Okay. But once I accepted that was what the movie was, I did kind of enjoy it’s crapness.
Running…
Yeah running. A lot of running. Morning Running. Evening running. Treadmill running. The streak continues, and I have to say I have expelled so much fluid over the past week I don’t understand how I can possibly be hydrated ever again. Even getting out early and avoiding the peak heat of the day hasn’t stopped the sheer outpouring of sweat, and it’s not even just while I’m running oh no, it’s the twenty minutes afterwards. It’s me getting out of the shower and drying off and thinking oh I missed a bit oh wait no that’s just me still sweating.
Gross right? Which makes it the perfect point to end this Sunday Morning Stuff which in turn marks the end of a stuffy, sweaty, ultimately gross week in the United Kingdom.
Cue the anthem!
run into words 