Ritchie, stand-up comedy, fiber crafts, spring cleaning and low ph

[cimorene]

In my new freedom from work practice - three former workdays of it so far - , I have kept up with the dishes and made a slight start on all the spring cleaning I want to get done (though I haven't made much of a dent yet). I've also slept a lot, obviously. It really is all a bit overwhelming, like those posts on Unfuck Your Habitat dealing with where to start. As a long-time UFYH follower, I know starting with repeated twenty-minute pomodoros is reasonable, but it's still depressing when you stand back and look at the situation as a whole.

We watched Snatch the other night because I'd never seen it. I see why it's seminal. An extremely well-done example of that style of heist film, rendered extra memorable by all the little moving parts and the way they intersect with each other, almost like a farce. It reminded me of a show I love, Hustle (2004-2012), a British series about a gang of con artists who collaborate to take revenge on rich people on behalf of their victims, like a precursor to Leverage. I like it better than Leverage for the style and the cons themselves, though. I'm extra fond of the style of narrative voice-over background explanations you get in this genre, which we saw in Snatch. Next on the list is Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, which I guess I'm not too young for, just too American to have heard of until after the fact.

I knitted for five hours or so the day before yesterday and made some progress on the hat I started January first (which was then on pause for over a month while I didn't watch anything). Very responsibly, then, I didn't knit a long time two days in a row, but spent yesterday evening darning some wool socks instead while watching the second half of James Acaster's Netflix stand-ups. Darning is so satisfying! And yet annoyingly takes longer than it feels like it should.

Wax is having a flare-up of her acid reflux and is tragically forced to cut her tea consumption, which is really extra bad because unlike me, she doesn't like any herbal tea at all. I think the only hot drink she can substitute is cocoa, which doesn't feel tea-like enough to have the proper psychologically soothing effect.

Comments

[yvannairie]

Oh, I remember Hustle! I kept thinking I must have imagined it until a friend of mine who got me into White Collar also brought it up. It had that very... British feeling that some TV shows have, that stylistic flavour that made it a more comfortable watch than the more heavily dramatic American style Leverage occasionally indulges in.

Also now I wanna rewatch Snatch.

[cimorene]

Snatch was on Netflix, I think, but of course, it's a classic so it's probably many places.

I've been a fan of Hustle since the beginning and have rewatched it - usually chunks of it and not all at once - several times. The style and genre are fun to watch and the fact that it's so episodic also makes it pretty easy to drop in and watch at any point without getting lost.

[cimorene]

Also, like many of this type of show, a fantastic revolving cast of high-caliber British guest stars.

And the early seasons are now a time capsule of really amusing at times early 2000s fashion.