9 April

Wrote the snarky piece about Dylan I have been threatening for a fortnight.

Feet appear fine. I think the problem is largely “I walk everywhere” and “I need better shoes.” Will nip down to Clarks in the mall at lunchtime and see what they suggest.

Ah. Yes.

I do not feel that I am a better person for having read the last third of Lanark compared with how I would have been if I had only read the first two thirds. It does strike me that Alasdair Gray does the whole “self deprecating para-text” thing rather better than David Eggers, and thirty years earlier.

Our plan to rewatch the canon of movie classics continues with the Godfather. It is amazing how quickly such a long and slow moving film seems to slip past. I always forget what a relatively small part Marlon Brando actually has. Does everyone lose track of who all the different gangsters are or is it just me. It’s a very big plot point at the end about whether Carlo has been working for Brandozi or Vindizi, and I never have  the faintest idea which is who. A little like losing track of the the Earl of Gloucester’s father’s brother’s son’s claim to the throne in one of Will Shakespeare’s histories. You can largely ignore it and concentrated on the characters. The “shutting the door” moment  at the end is still one of purest bits of cinema I’ve ever seen.

“Shakespeare wrote some good things, didn’t he, Jeeves?”
“I understand he has given general satisfaction, Sir”