horsemouth up with the lark and away (he's gone already so he is)

horsemouth's visit to the town rolls to an end 

he would have been up two days earlier but his brother's eldest was busy with interviews etc. 

shame he'd have liked to hang around for longer and seen more people but poor planning has put paid to all of that. (he's gone already so he is).

schedule/ cast list 

wednesday - lift from joe, travel, the house (ian, sten, daryl) plus liam and colin (online meeting)

thursday - bank, shepherdess walk excursion, back along the canal (6 miles or so)

friday - TG (welcome to the velodrome), anthony and minty (stepney massive)

saturday - howard (net zero inspection, pizza, beers)

sunday - brewdog canary wharf (last time horsemouth promises) friend and her friends (so 4 in all)

monday - walk over to supermarket, charity shop trawl (3.6 miles)

tuesday - colin visits, over to east ham for a curry (howard again)

wednesday - walk up to walthamstow (charity shop trawl - 6 miles), mike T and lou and kids and back (4 miles)

thursday - TG in the morning, diner in the evening

friday - he will be up with the lark and away (probably a lift back from the station with his brother, see his sister-in-law)

so that will be 16 or so people. sorry if horsemouth didn't see you this time. 

his visit enabled 

- the adding of autoharp to howard's next lot of recordings

- three more books to be added  to his collection (and one more to howard's)

- the house meeting about the decarbonisation and a meeting with colin about overall strategy

- an exploration round shepherdess walk  

plus he got to drink rather a lot of beer (particularly in the first weekend) and ate probably too much curry (midweek). he ate a falafel wrap, had pasta and pesto and beans etc. 

he will be taking back another box of books, his three new books, the stuff he brought and maybe another guitar (if he's feeling keen). 

soon (22nd to the 28th) it is fahey week (featuring basho day). 

horsemouth's plans 

- to get on with more guitar stuff (he was a bit ashamed when lou asked him what he was working on and he didn't have any new tunes to offer)

- to make visits into hereford (or abergavenny) in search of second hand books and the like

- to get on with the garden and the growing of food

- to keep on with the bell- ringing. 

back from diner round enza's. up with the lark and away. 

'a series of reversions' (omnichord is go)

'the film itself appearing to undergo a series of reversions: to black-and-white, then to the awkward jerkiness of very early movies, then to a crookedly jammed frame which proceeds to blacken, bubble and melt away, leaving only the white glare of the projection bulb, which in turn deteriorates to leave the theatre in darkness, and might almost leave the moviegoer wondering what sort of dilapidated, antique jalopy he'll find his car-keys fitting when he goes outside' - tim powers on PKD's ubik: the screenplay. 

book haul/ accessions diary - 19th february - walthamstow oxfam

- ubik, philip k. dick, to replace horsemouth's earlier copy (which went walkies - as they do) £1.99. 

- colonel chabert, balzac, hesperus edition, forward by a.n. wilson, £1.99. 

horsemouth is reasonably sure he no longer has them both. to purchase them a walk up to walthamstow (along the valley of the agapemonites and then back along the northern part of the black path) a little above 6 miles all told. 

the collis (the worm forgives the plough) goes well. p.70 so far. 

he fantasised about going out to see gweniver raymond play in bognor regis (but the days don't match up).

later (for he writes this in the day) he plans a trip out to see mike T and lou (2 miles each way, a 45 minute walk each way google maps contends).  horsemouth got a little lost on the way over there (but no worries). when he got there lou was learning willie o'winsbury. he had a quick chat with mike about the man in the high castle book and tv series (it seems apposite now that nazi usa is coming true). in the tv series version they receive short clips of film from the alternate universe (horsemouth thought this was smart). 

meanwhile the government is debating how to apportion their warm homes wave 3 money - it looks like the small housing providers (less than 100 properties in the bid) will get 100% of the money they ask for (which is good for the communal endeavour who are a small provider). 

meanwhile horsemouth has lent howard john clarkson's omnichord. howard has purchased the correct power transformer. it works perfectly.  now to find a track to use it on. howard has pronounced it 'a great little toy'. he has thrown  it in as a texture on quite a few tracks. horsemouth has heard one (it sounds brilliant).

when asked by lou what he was up to horsemouth could only stutter something about doc watson's waiting for the times to get better and his anne briggs by way of joy division version of go your way (my love)  which lou has heard already. 

this morning a walk around with TG. tomorrow the journey back to the wilds. but first coffee. 

a visit to east ham for curry

it's the day before (as it often is in blogland). 

horsemouth was up for 7.20am. the coffee. a blog. a walk up to the shop to get a loaf of bread and some margarine. more reading of the book sitting upstairs in the sunny chair.

‘we glorify the present only when it has become the past…

we imagine the creation took place in the remote past. no doubt it did. but the same thing takes place today. the third day of creation as fabled in the book of genesis, happens every year no less certainly…' 

he awaits a communication from howard 

there's a plan to meet up near his for food and (maybe) beer. he's been for a wander around in that edge up towards the clapton roundabout (no front wall potlatch).  he'll have another look on his way down to the train. (and failing that he may wander up into walthamstow tomorrow to try the oxfam there). 

ok so here's a photo of horsemouth up in east ham  in the process of eating more curry than was good for him. he was literally groaning with pain and had to abandon his post-curry pint.

 (it was good though) (ah well live and learn)

howard was fine (he hadn't eaten much since breakfast). he went for the paneer while horsemouth went for the vegetable kofte.  

horsemouth has a thing about not leaving food or indeed drink (but there are times when it is necessary). 

this was a pity because it meant horsemouth didn't pay much attention to howard's tale that he was finishing mixing an album's worth of material and was going to get it mastered and released. this will be very good in horsemouth's opinion. this puts the release date the other side of the summer holiday. 

he did succeed in passing the alan bennett book on to howard (untold stories). 

horsemouth returned home early. the walking did him good and sorted him out  and he slept like a king. he was up at his usual time. 

just because he wanted to hear it last night

yesterday someone beeped horsemouth from a car and yelled out his name - was it you? 

were you heading down towards ASDA?  

will horsemouth ever find out? (could have been adam? could have been dave?)

horsemouth was off shopping; 2 tins of chopped tomatoes, 2 tins of baked beans, 1kg of brown onions, 200g of soft cheese, 200g of greek-style cheese, 1.1kgs museli, a small jar of pesto. broadly enough to hold him for his visit and leave a stockpile for the next one (damn he forgot the margarine). 

(about 3.6 miles all told)

he has a 5kg bag of red lentils he should probably take back to the wilds. 

bread he usually gets from local shops - turkish skateboard bread usually either with humous (or with cheese slices if he's feeling rich). 

book haul (accessions diary): 17th february

- the worm forgives the plough: john stewart collis - £1 RSPCA. the kind of book that has a robert macfarland intro (yup). ah. one of collis' acquaintances was rolf gardiner (who was a bit dodge as we used to say). horsemouth is now reading the collis (who is an engaging cove). he has (of late) had a problem reading - in that he had little desire to read - but look a new book seems to have ensnared him. intro read and up to p.14 so far. 

- untold stories: alan bennett (garden wall potlatch free) probably a gift for howard (if they can indeed manage to meet up).

horsemouth did a walk around - up to the powerscroft road book-box, then to the RSPCA, then down via the park to the charity shop on the top of mare street (shut), then down to the CRISIS (a j.m. coetzee dusklands  but too expensive) and finally the one on the top of morning lane (seems to be gone).  

today (the tues of days) horsemouth is due a visit from colin and perhaps he will get out to see howard in the late afternoon (say 4.30pmish). 

wednesday (the weds of days) he is free 'to do what he wants to do' etc. 

the thursday (the thurs of days) he probably sees TG in the morning and then claudia and then he is away to diner in the evening. 

friday (the fri of days) horsemouth travels back (starting early). his brother has offered to pick him up from the station (in the wilds). this saves him a dash, a bus, a wait, another bus home (alternatively the last part could be replaced by a muddy clump across the common). 

ok horsemouth is awake and he has his coffee. he posted this last night because he had a sudden desire to hear pagodas (and by the vagaries of stuff that was the only way he could do it - ok ok he could have played one of the CDs). today (like he says) the visit from colin and an attempt to meet up with howard. 

ten days in feb ('he stands in the desert counting the seconds of his life')

'he stands in the desert counting the seconds of his life' an excerpt from a film by jonas mekas 

here featuring some footage of the funeral of hollis frampton (artist)

so horsemouth is up from the wilds to the wen for 10 days (including the days of travel)

yesterday he doesn't know yet (because most of it hasn't happened yet). 

horsemouth has repurposed a 2013 appointments book for 2025 (really he should have waited until 2030). it is one day out but has the correct number of days for the year etc. it's a page a day and A5ish.

... and he's back from docklands having gone out to enza's friend's brithday (with her brother and another friend) and very friendly they all were. he cracked and got a falafel wrap on the way back (£6 and delicious). 

in with the beer it will not have been a cheap day but it's ok because horsemouth was out banking cheques on the thursday. 

he thinks he will have a quiet day monday to make up for all the expense, alcohol and excitement.

horsemouth dreamed many strange dreams - he dreamed that he saw huw lloyd-langton play acoustically for example, he rationalised that it must be some time ago. matt was there they said hello (and the dream popped). 

he also dreamed he was in a classroom. a test had been set but horsemouth had not paid attention and did not know what to do with the files with squiggles on them, nor could he work it out from what his fellow students were doing (it was the classic horsemouth academic failure dream). eventually he went to find the teacher to ask. the teacher seemed to a small muppet type dog thing (rainbow coloured and with very long fur). horsemouth confessed his problem and nervously patted its head (in case this was the wrong thing to do). 

'you seem to have been administered a substance...' began the dog thing and horsemouth realised, with a sinking heart, that he would never be able to understand because his brain was fucked. 

very PKD don't you think. 

--------------------------

it's a bright sunny clearskies kind of day - horsemouth will try some wanders and to avoid drinking any beer. 

 

horsemouth is back from the sunny east

horsemouth is back from sunny east ham 

don't let the photo deceive you 

howard was on good form 

he's about to have a well-earned week off for half term).

he will do some music and such like. he's very keen on a song by broadcast at the minute. 

but first they explored howard's house with an eye to all the possible future net zero doing

  

horsemouth had to admit (sadly) that while howard's roof is south facing it has a hat over the front bay window making it less suitable for solar panels - so liam's suggestion (as retro-fit designer) about putting them on the garden shed now make's sense.  (howard and the house have their meeting with liam soon). 

like horsemouth's house the kitchen and bathroom extension is cursed with having a solid concrete floor with tiles on it that will just suck in the heat. similarly the sidewall of the house (as shown, for it is semi-detached) is much colder than the double glazing of the windows. 

horsemouth noticed for the first time the silver metal chimney up the sidewall  (he had never noticed this previously). the chimney breast had been excised from howard's room upstairs but was still present in the living room. by dint of unscrewing a vent (more heat loss) and with howard's phone camera they got a shot of the start of it. 

as far as horsemouth understands it is useless as wood-burning stoves are basically banned in the city on air quality grounds and the whole point of this net-zero thing is to stop people burning things and sticking CO2 up chimneys anyway.

they then adjourned to the pub with pizza. 

er. and had a pizza each (sorry no photos because they were too hungry to think of it at the time).

 they managed to stop drinking at three pints (which was only one too many really). they very nearly got out at two (which would have been better). 

after they thought about going for a final pint in the denmark arms (aka. the big empty pub) but then remembered that it had closed

over at the hammer museum in LA they are getting in some gigs for alice coltrane on sundays at 5pm PST. this is about 1am the next morning GMT. horsemouth doesn't know if they will be streamed or put up on youtube or whatever.  

sunday horsemouth doesn't have anything planned yet. he's wrapped up in bed with his coffee. later he thinks a visit to a supermarket. he couldn't find a good cheap diary in w.h.smiths. enza is out meeting friends horsemouth will have to check the story. 

come on down (welcome to the velodrome)

ok in the morning a wander over to the velodrome with TG (and back again)

in the evening a wander down to stepney to meet up with minty and anthony.  there's a plan to meet up with howard out in east ham on saturday. he's trying to arrange a meeting with colin (monday, tuesday). he's got something arranged for thursday evening. 

the rest of it is free for him to fill as he sees fit.

so far no joy on the book-boxes (he may have to resort to some charity shops). the city is just very good for books (just look a the collection horsemouth has amassed - what's this? a parisian affair guy de maupassant, ah horsemouth may have started on it once). 

the walk down to stepney took about an hour. he walked back too as he was feeling suitably enthused. (saturday with howard he doesn't expect to do much walking - maybe a mile each way). 

he has packed another box of books in his wheelie-bin but would he not in fact be better off taking his CD player instead (the better to play the CDs he already has at his mum's). 

recorded this day in 1967 but the tapes not found again until 1995 - stellar regions is john coltrane with alice coltrane on piano, with jimmy garrison on bass and rashied ali on drums but without pharaoah sanders. this makes it a more lyrical proposition - some of the themes appear on the later interstellar space (a duo recording with rashied ali). the songs were titled by alice coltrane.

'to those of us who remain, the last words of one no longer among us are special... haunted by our foreknowledge that what will follow them is silence...' - david wild, album notes.