Weeknotes #42: sunset boulevard – get there in your slippers

Week commencing Monday, 6 November 2023

Sunset Boulevard at The Savoy Theatre. Sign outside the theatre.
Sunset Blvd.

Quantified Self

  • This week: Stand 5/7; Exercise 4/7 and Move 5/7. (67%, maybe, average). Morning walks: 0/3 (days in the office don’t count). Office days 0/5. Total steps: 47,434

Life

  • Back in London after a peaceful weekend on The Island. Robert Elms on BBC London thinks you should move back to London as you get older, “Old age is when you need to be here … because everything is near and you can get there in your slippers.” He has a point.
  • Wouldn’t textcasting be cool?
  • Jamie Lloyd’s reimagining of Sunset Boulevard was brilliant. We booked for Monday Guest Star, Rachel Tucker, and she did not disappoint as Norma Desmond. A show, in black and white, with no props doesn’t sound great. It’s wonderful. The video techniques are impressive.
  • There’s a couple of innovative video scenes in Sunset Boulevard which, appear to be live … but who knows with theatre magic? I thought I might have to stand outside The Savoy Theatre one night to see but on Thursday, at Rachel Tucker’s album launch event, she confirmed it was live.
  • Also, Thursday, a good catch-up with ex-colleagues at our usual Thirsty Thursday venue off Carnaby Street. Now the Christmas lights are up. They’re not that festive but quite impressive.
  • I wrote top-line product requirements, in my own time, for fun. My current employer won’t build this but other ad tech might. It’s not wholly original – other systems do similar – but it is needed by smaller broadcasters or steamers who monetise with ads. I don’t know why I did it except to get it out of my head.
  • Oh come on Wikipedia, if you live in London, and have even the remotest interest in the transport around you, it’s the Dangleway!

Media

  • Christmas ad update: John Lewis 2023 is out. Apparently, they changed advertising agencies this year. Obvious Little Shop of Horror vibes. Not sure about it. The pros at work reckon TK Max is a great one.
  • I binge-watched Heartstopper Season 2 on Friday night and it was a good at the first season – although the characters started to annoy me by the last episode. But I don’t think I am the intended audience.

Archive

To save the links getting lost in the future I checked the Internet Archive to see what they had saved for the posts linked here. If the source above no longer works, these should.

Author: jon

Jon Curnow writes on curnow.org about things that interest him. The site has been around for many years in various forms and he always wants to write much more here than he does.