Good Sunday Stack October 12th
Any typos are cold-brain's fault
Hello and good evening!
Greetings from Hackney Downs Park, where I’m snagging some fresh air amidst a mostly homebound weekend. I feel like I always get sick around this time every year, something with the changing of the seasons. Being sick in and of itself always sucks, but for a wannabe cinephile like me, newly armed with a projector, it has its redeeming qualities.
Friday night, feeling the beginnings of a cold coming on, I made a huge pot of Italian wedding soup. I then returned to The Victoria to rent and download The Sting as I’m still offline at my flat. I found a spot tucked away in the corner, next to their stage door where folks in for a much livelier night than me were having their names checked to see what sounded through the wall like a decent indie band.
After a while, the closure of their patio forced a group of friendly swedes onto my turf. The woman who’d been manning the door had just called it quits so I took her spot – allowing my new friends to convene on the couch.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how I ended up bouncing this random band’s pub show Friday night. Folks all felt obligated flash me the stamp on their wrists, and it was easier to nod and wave them in than explain that I was just an internet-less refugee downloading a movie to watch that night.
The other story I wanted to share from my week came from a bus stop around the corner from me. I arrived at the stop and nodded at my fellow waitperson, an elderly woman carrying some tupperware. A few minutes later, a bus pulled up and I gestured to her that she go first. As she boarded, the driver recognized her and greeted her warmly. She passed him the Tupperware and wished him well before, to his surprise, getting off the bus to return home, her mission completed.
What I’m Reading
I’ve just finished Patrick Radden Keefe’s exploration of The Troubles, Say Nothing, perhaps more well-known as Hulu series with the same name. I wish I’d read the book first as I feel like I didn’t learn anything new until I was about two-thirds done, and I’d rather have learned them from the book as Keefe’s writing makes the often-grim subject matter continually engaging. If you haven’t seen the series yet and have any interest in the conflict, Say Nothing is a strong compilation of firsthand recollections weaved together to paint an appropriately murky moral picture.
I also recently read Giri Nathan’s far lighter but no less engaging Changeover. Nathan writes of the period of tennis he came to own as a sportswriter during: the fall of the big three (Nadal, Federer, and Djokovic) and the rise of Sincaraz. Admittedly, I’m a little biased here as Giri took pity on me a few years ago when I started writing and offered some helpful wisdom, but if you’re any level of tennis fan this is worth checking out to read about the soft spot he holds for Daniil Medvedev, as well situate yourself as the 2025 tennis season comes to a close.
What I’m Watching
Well, with the cold I picked up, a lot.
Harris Dickinson’s directorial debut Urchin wasn’t my cup of tea but was did leave me with plenty to think about. The story of Mike, a homeless Londoner played by Frank Dillane, and his inability escape the cycles that put him on the streets in the first place though some faults of his own and some of a holey social safety net.
Spike Lee’s He’s Got Game admittedly had a high floor. Spike telling a New York story armed with Denzel Washington as the lead? About basketball no less? The product is a saturated sports movie delving into the pitfalls of the then-emergent now-prevalent high school basketball industrial complex. Come for that heft, stay for some the basketball scenes and Spike’s perfect capturing of Coney Island.
Alexander Payne’s The Descendents is the third Payne movie I’ve seen (Sideways, The Holdovers). It hos and hums through a father, Geroge Clooney, parenting his two daughters while his wife is in the hospital amidst a rough patch in their marriage and manages his cousins as they sell a little slice of paradise in Hawaii. The island setting contrasts with a meditation on family and grief that hums along but never blows you away until the credits roll and you’re glued to your chair, ruminating and missing your dad.
What I’m Listening To
I listened to Tom Petty’s first two albums Damn the Torpedoes and Full Moon Fever a bunch this week. I quite like the contrast between taking in the sights of London with classic rock playing in my earbuds.