Trapeze artists catch each other by gripping one another’s wrists simultaneously. So, if one of them accidentally lets go, the other can prevent them from falling.

7.00: I got up. But I’d been awake since 5.30 am. My brain still hadn’t yet adjusted to the clocks going back. 7.30 am: I messaged my sons with a review of Ad Astra, which I’d seen last night at the cinema. This type of commentary is something of a family tradition:

It was better than the trailer led me to believe. (But, then again, some trailers are better than the films they anticipate.) Patently, the director was knowingly influenced by ‘serious’ Sci Fi films, like ‘2001’, ‘Solaris’, and ‘Arrival’. There was a scene at the earth spaceport that showed the protagonist’s gate notification for the moon. It said ‘Gate 44: Tycho’ – which was the crater where the monolith was discovered in ‘2001’. The trip to, and landing on, the moon was a direct homage to Kubrick’s vision of the same.

The production design and cinematography (by Hoyte van Hoytema, who shot ‘Interstellar’ and ‘Dunkirk’) were excellent. The visual feel of the film was very much like the former. I didn’t feel emotionally engaged with the story which, in the end, was rather slight in comparison to that of ‘Interstellar’ and ‘Arrival’. But Pitt and Jones put-in superb performances.

8.00 am: Breakfast preparation.:

I ate listening to the ‘wireless’ and sports commentary prior to the England v South Africa game this morning. I’ve no interest in the sport (any sport). At secondary school, I’d stand, terrified, in my navy blue kit (sans spectacles) watching large blurry forms run towards me. I hated playing the game. On the last visit to my home town of Abertillery, I looked in, cautiously, on the ground of the former Abertillery Grammar/Technical School, on Rose Heyworth Road, for the first time since I was 12 years of age. Entering its gates still sent a chill down my spine:

9.00 am: On, then, with the final descriptor. ‘Turn Table’ (which deals with Christ’s cleansing of the temple) is a more straightforward proposition. All the time, I was trying hard to resist interpreting the work. To interpret is to risk fixing a meaning for the audience. Whereas, often, I don’t want work to have any single or definable meaning; it’s not an illustration of an idea. I’ll tell them only enough to orientate themselves to its concept, intent, and process.

11.00 am: Tea and solace:

‘Discipline, John!’, the voice whispered. It was Saturday; that meant I could have two squares together. 11.30 pm: Having completed the final descriptor, I returned to the first one. On the second pass, the aim was to ensure that all possessed the same themes, components, divisions, style, conventions, and weight.

I pushed on after lunch with the aim of completing the second pass by the close of the afternoon:

4.00 pm: The final whistle blew.

7.30 pm: Off to the Arts Centre cinema – for a second night in a row – to watch Todd Phillips’ Joker (2019).