the behaviour of nomads

'akhmatova, like gogol, wanted to posses nothing. she gave away the presents given to her... this characteristic recalls the behaviour of nomads.' 

- e.m. cioran, the lure of disillusion. 

yesterday in the morning horsemouth recorded. he took a crack at il est né le divin enfant, he recorded himself singing some of travailler c'est trop dur to handclaps and he recorded a  crack at the headhunters' rhythm from you got it, you get it (you got to get it). 

hopefully some of that will stick. 

rob (in far off rio gordo) has processed some photos of horsemouth for the far future village band project. strangely the most conventional photo has come out the best. 

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oh dear. looks like the day starts with a death. horsemouth will let you know more when he is sure. 

'terribly sad to read of the passing of mickey mann, music producer and engineer, who connected the dots between the shamen, aphex twin, orbital, ramjac, moby,  irresistible force and many more. I was honoured to work with his band pressure of speech too.'  - robin rimbaud  (scanner)

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last night a very mixed bellringing. horsemouth missed catching the sally practically as soon as he started (and down came the bell). however got straight back up on the horse and indeed had a second go without incident (ok he missed catching the sally again early on but recovered). 

afterwards the pub. 

no lift in (so he walked). otherwise everything came together to enable him to go.

worst oil shock ever!

ok so horsemouth's current plan is to take a crack at il est né le divin enfant (a french christmas carol as covered by siouxsie and the banshees and featured in the film the curse of the cat people - you remember the one, the one that doesn't feature any cat people).

he doesn't think you need all the verses just

he is born the divine child...

we've been waiting for this a long time...

did I mention the divine child has been born... 

of course the real question is what else can he offer up. 

he has been thinking about attempting a version of poor black mattie as pauvre henri (or henry callaghan or some such). perhaps the opening chords to fauré's pavane (op.50) aka. theme from an imaginary (spaghetti) western. maybe rework a la luna yo mi voy. 

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the world has been proper shit of late 

(as you may have noticed) 

and horsemouth thinks it is going to get worse (as the oil shock and inflation and interest rate rises hit). of course the argument will be that this is the fault of the incumbent government (however useless they actually are) rather than the fault of an orange shitgibbon in washington starting an unwinnable war on the advice of his genocidal mate. 

add to this a leadership contest in the government (one where you won't get a vote on it for two and a half years) and mobs of racists partying it up in the streets (and that's all proper shit). 

this morning rain. and it looks like it is in all day. (and quite possibly all tomorrow). 

horsemouth has fed the chickens in a bit he will go and get the bin from the bottom of the drive. (ok nix that plan - it's raining too hard).

autobiography (camouflage) (myths of the near future)

'... all his works are merely a more or less camouflaged autobiography, an adept introspection, a diary of his mind, a promotion of his experiences...' 

- e.m. cioran in valéry facing his idols (1970).

and you could say much the same about horsemouth and his 'literary' endeavours. isn't he telling you too much? inviting you to delve into his life to explain his works? (such 'works' as there are).

valéry is buried in the (now renamed)  cimetière marin of his poem.

'ce toit tranquille, où marchent des colombes,

entre les pins palpite, entre les tombes ;

midi le juste y compose de feux

la mer, la mer, toujours recommencée...' 

or at least that's how it was quoted by iris murdoch in her novel the unicorn. like dark places a haunted place novel. strangely, anachronistically, gothic. 

a strange day

'thunder blossoms gorgeously'  (jean toomer)

then almost immediately the sun comes out

meanwhile various of horsemouth's substack posts. the flux wedding. (george and billie maciunas)

and various horsemouths playing guitar (mostly) and the heron that flew into no.10 downing street (symbolising the imminent collapse of the government).

not last or least the pyramid of oyster shells from the graveyard of the outcast dead. (now collapsed and revealed as hollow - but still great nonetheless). surrounded by hollyhocks (horsemouth believes).

last (but not least) another grid. howard, la chinoise. various horsemouths, post-it notes, enza, horsemouth playing a gig, a j.g. ballard book cover (myths of the near future). as a result of going looking for thsi he also found a guardian article on a biography of ballard by writers nina allen and christopher priest. 

'ballard made a mistake when he wrote empire of the sun, that the work that came after was less intense, less radical, that in revealing the source of his inspiration he had drained himself dry.' 

horsemouth hoped the rain would drive the chickens in early. 

it's the morning. today the egg delivery day. the bin down the drive day. perhaps some weeding. 

four trees (dark places)

'writing is a vice one can weary of. in truth, I write less and less, and i shall doubtless end up no longer writing at all.' - e.m. cioran, foreshortened confession (undated).

'the two students also asked me why I had not stopped writing and publishing. not everyone has the luck to die young was my answer.' - e.m. cioran, rereading (1978).

both essays collected in anathemas and admirations (1986). this is going well. it being less concentrated than a history of decay. 

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yesterday a walk on the common.

in the evening horsemouth watched dark places (1974) a 'psychological thriller' starring robert hardy, christopher lee, herbert lom and elizabeth taylor. there's the old ruined house, there's robert hardy there in search of treasure, there are the local scheming to get their hands on it. 

jane birkin is in it too. 

horsemouth has watched it before (but he can't remember when). 

horsemouth was up early enough to miss the first light shower of rain for the day. yesterday the weather was remarkably good. today 

today  it looks like an 'off and on' sort of day. horsemouth has stuff he should be getting on with and must avoid getting into a dither. 

far future village band II (poor black mattie)

'I climbed mount gassan on the eighth. I tied around my neck a sacred rope made of white paper and covered my head with a hood made of bleached cotton, and set off with my guide on a long march of eight miles to the top of the mountain...' 

- matsuo basho from the narrow road to the deep north. 

meanwhile the far future village band II  has arrived from rob lawson in far off riogordo 

it features horsemouth (or perhaps his french cousin mâchoire d'âne) on vocals on three tracks. horsemouth also plays harmonium, guitar, and handclaps on one track each. he is glad to be out singing and playing again on this the first release he has been involved with in five years. 

that is not to say that horsemouth can't spot mistakes in his french or poor pitching and phrasing choices but he's glad (nay excited!) to have got it out. next time more harmonium (as initially promised) better recorded!

in the week rubbish weather. 

the week after better weather (it sez 'ere).

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it's the morning. horsemouth is back from feeding the chickens and has his coffee. 

he is relieved to have got something out. just lately he's been working on the guitar part to poor black mattie (as played by rl burnside). burnside plays the bass (1 and 3) with his thumb and the chord (2 and 4) also. his forefinger picks the melodies. 

horsemouth tried it burnside's way and then went for a simpler approach (thumb bass, forefinger chords and melody). 

it's in openG. this means horsemouth could take a look at la fille au cheveux de lin. or his version of am I born to die? 

he thanks one of the youtube dudes who teaches this stuff (feedback guitar academy).

sunday afternoon a zoom call with enza. he sent her a link for future village band to see what she reckons. 

'rereading this book ... I try to recognise the person I was...'

the diversions of satan 

'dined at llan thomas. a family party. major thomas showed me his stereoscopic slides 'the diversions of satan' which he bought in india. they were made for an indian prince, but were not pronounced enough to suit his taste.' 

- kilvert, diaries, on this day 1872. 

this made horsemouth search for stereoscopic slides - the idea being that the image(s) are taken from slightly different positions producing a 3D image in the mind of the viewer if the correct apparatus is used. 

as a child horsemouth used to own a set and a viewer (a 3D viewmaster) for the tv series UFO. 

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it's the morning. greyish. coolish. horsemouth thinks the basho deep north stuff kicks off again tomorrow (as he climbs another mountain). 

he has pulled down e.m. cioran's anathemas and admirations down from the pile. it it is a book 'goverened by the fragment... the epigrams constitute a series of perplexities'. 

it ends with a chapter rereading... an apology (of sorts) for his earlier a history of decay and its madness (and, once again, horsemouth has abandoned reading it).

'rereading this book, which is now over thirty years old, I try to recognise the person I was...' 

a friend has this problem (horsemouth probably has it too). they are trying to recognise themselves back 40 years ago. back in the mid-80ies. a very strange time. 

yesterday horsemouth went for a brief walk up on the common. he's just not up there enough and doesn't make enough effort to get round the other sights in the neighbourhood.

later a phonecall. 

a bookfair in very sunny london (and an entirely written in the morning blogpost)

aha! an entirely written in the morning blogpost (how did that happen?).

no kilvert today (drat! horsemouth will have to make it up himself).

a friend has sent him photos from a bookfair in very sunny london. hot air balloons are launched. small children run around in arsenal tops (in high barnet?). typewriters are demonstrated. there is merciless sunshine and heat (by the look of it). 

horsemouth is very envious. he regrets not being there but it was simply impossible to get away. 

he should check on his contacts in london. he should see how they are doing. zoom calls and such like. 

here in the wilds it is now rainy and grey

here in the wilds it is now rainy and grey. horsemouth is not sure what to do. 

he has been out to feed the chickens (here endeth the tasks for the day). 

last night the wave debb show 61 - strange musics from the ambient dub swamps. 

in the day horsemouth delivered the eggs up the hill. on his way (round the back of abbey dore court) he saw a long grey adder in the grass. as he stepped towards it it slithered off. 

(he's forgotten to mention on wednesday there were people abseiling down the outside of the abbey tower, presumably doing structural checks).

this follows up from his slow worm encounter. 

ten years ago horsemouth was crossing into portugal (through the tunnel so new it wasn't on the GPS). on the map the car floated over the mountains.