BELTANE (international workers day)

when it is the morning horsemouth will go around changing the calendars.

his dore abbey calendar will show a cross on the roof. the countryfile calendar (two copies - office and kitchen) will show a somewhat crazed sheep. his brother and his wife's calendar downstairs (dining room) will show his brother, and his wife, and their youngest high above the river in porto. 

horsemouth has been transferring events to his diary. 

wednesday may 1st - egg delivery, take down the rubbish to the bottom of the drive. (egg deliveries wednesdays and sometimes saturdays, rubbish and recycling alternate week by week. tuesday and fridays take milk over to the garage). 

thursday may 2nd - bring the hopefully emptied rubbish bin back up the drive, celebrate the 1808 rioting of the population of madrid against the napoleonic invaders. (fail to vote in london mayoral election - sorry sadiq).

friday may 3rd - continue celebration of the 1808 rioting of the population of madrid against the napoleonic invaders. bandcamp friday, publish a golden glow and a kafka quote from 1915. 

saturday may 4th - mum goes to the garage (pick up the saturday daily torygraph which includes the TV guide). 

sunday may 5th - publish a golden glow and a kafka quote from 1915.  perhaps some more discussion of the mokrani revolt.

tuesday may 6th - publish a golden glow.

wednesday may 8th - 1871 claude debussy's father (manuel debussy) is arrested and flung in jail as a communard. 

thursday may 9th - deathday LTC rolt (whom horsemouth has been reading recently and plans to read more of)

and so on...

round about the 22nd may horsemouth will return to the wen. 

there are a number of gigs (mini pops, triple negative) he wants to see and he has promised to cat-sit a house on the borderlands. 

at some point in june there will be the meeting of the communal endeavour members in the houses with the guys who have been designing the retrofit of the insulation to the properties. further ahead he has noted some free classical gigs at the QEH at the start of july, some free organ recitals at dore abbey every saturday in august, and the hereford river carnival nearly the last saturday in august (24th). first saturday in september hymn of praise by mendelsohn at the abbey (£5). 

yesterday border checks on the vast majority of foods coming from the EU started (a full 8 years after brexit because they've been putting it off). horsemouth expects it to be proper shit with camembert doubling in price and halving in availability etc. 'we might not always have cheese like we used to...' 

this morning another olafur elaison installation - the sun strobe lighting the mist in the valley (but soon the sun is risen and hidden behind clouds and now it is just misty). now it is due to stay grey all day and then rain in the evening. 

'my syntax when I speak is not to my liking...' (a reminder to himself)

'my syntax when I speak is not to my liking.

I don't finish sentences or I interrupt them.' 

- yvonne rainer, interview with yvonne rainer,

the white review no.12. 

above - howard's golden glow from 30th april 2017 (with more beats than usual). 

it's a rainy, grey morning and horsemouth has missed the dawn. he has put a reminder to himself to take the milk over to the garage and put it in the fridge out there (releasing the chickens he will probably leave to his mum). 

last night the john hurt (2010) version of whistle and I'll come to you, a ghost story about dementia. that the body can outlast the soul, now there's a terrifying thought. and after that a police drama set in belfast and then the news (humza yusaf goes down to defeat).

'I love a good ponzi scheme...' remarks an FTer. they then attempt to distinguish between markets in their bubble phase and ponzi schemes - what differentiates the early years of apple (suck in the money, pay those leaving the scheme early out of the new deposits (rather than out of real profits)? fake it until you make it. 

their argument is that its not a ponzi scheme if the accounts are honest (not that undue pressure can be brought to bear on auditing firms or that accounting practices can't be declared to have been dodgy at a later date). 

bubbles form because investors with money are looking for a return (higher than inflation). the bubble means that they capture more of the value produced by society than is strictly their 'fair' share (and at the same time other sectors of production are denied access to the finance that would have enabled them to achieve their 'just' return).

bubbles - incorrect valuation - are the way by which wealth is manufactured. far from being an error in the process they are its heart, a heart that beats bubbles and crashes and pumps the value generated in society to the already wealthy.

we are at the last day of april. it is may eve (as celebrated in the devil rides out). beltane to those of a more pagan disposition. we enter into summer (or do we enter into it on june 21st at the summer solstice?).  

books, films, gigs, events april 2024

books 

- joan didion where I was from 

- the white review no.12, foreword by george szirtes 

- ltc rolt landscape with machines

- m. john harrison viriconium

- maxwell fraser welsh border country (dips) 

- franz kafka diaries, 1915 as and when.

- antonia white, diaries 1926-1957

-  t.s. eliot the waste land.

- isabella tromboli resonances on carla lonzi in nlr sidecar and in feminism and art in  post-war italy: the legacy of carla lonzi  ed. francesco ventrella and giovanna zapperi

- mario tronti a message from the emperor, nlr sidecar (reread)

- art forum review of annie ernaux and david ernaux-briot's the super 8 years, 2022 by kit duckworth

films

-  captain sensible being serenaded by a table full of portuguese ladies on his 70ieth birthday

- billy connolly telling rishi sunak to fuck off

- outlaw bookseller, bookpilled/ thrift-a-life, spain speaks, novara media, gary's economics

- 3 youtube video of an architect restoring a house in a french fishing town and his film on françois breton outsider artist in brittany

- steve albini on record company deals (and why not to take them)

-  ken sanders, rare book dealer, tells the story of rough play in the book trade. mark william hofmann american counterfeiter, forger, bomber, murderer.

- jon snow on portugal's 1974 revolution, radio 4. 

- solar panels: are they really worth it? C5 alexis conran

- syd barrett documentary (sky arts)

-  the john hurt (2010) version of 'whistle and I'll come to you' (talking pictures). 

gigs none

events 

met mike and becky at gordon's wine bar on st. george's day, AGM of the communal endeavour, abbey locking and unlocking rota duty, bell-ringing, visit the abbeydore work houses, planting out of six of the broad bean plants (he will do more when they come up) and the potting up of more seeds (basil, coriander). anniversary of lenin at the finland station, RIP loren goldner, RIP drummer albert "tootie" heath of the heath brothers. RIP john sinclair,  anniversary of musicians of bremen recording sessions 2022, horsemouth's 2000th blogpost.

written in the evening/ written in the morning

howard's golden glow mix from this day in 2018 (opening with a tune by howard and then proceeding off into the ambience). the meal is a typical howard meal from the time, pitta bread, posh cheese, humous, dhal, spinach as a salad (delicious).  

we enter the the devil rides out timeline once again in the run up to beltane. this afternoon rex will fly in. himself and the duc will drive to their protege simon's house and discover him preparing for a black mass. 

yesterday a bright but cold day (light rain in the morning and in the evening). horsemouth did two trips down to the abbey, on his own in the morning and then again with his mum in the afternoon (same as yesterday). in the morning, while he was doing some remarkably shoddy fencing, he heard the bells ringing. (remind him to finish it off). that's him and his mum for the abbey duty for the next 11 weeks.

he dug out a little more of the garden to get some more broad bean plants in (the slugs have been waging war on the ones he put in earlier). the leeks seem to be coming up well (but he will wait a while before he puts these out). nothing else seems to be on the go yet - perhaps the peas. 

horsemouth watched some clips and read about sculptor françois breton. in a way his son's remodelling  of farm buildings strikes horsemouth as more interesting. he owes finding out about it to an architect who had moved to a breton fishing town to refurbish a house in an ecologically satisfying way. the architect mainly does sailing videos. 

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and so we progress onto the written in the morning material.  

it is always more hopeful at the sunrise - but then the sun ascends into the heavens and behind the clouds (the day assumes its proper demeanour, though that may of course change). the sheep seem unbothered. the garden is mainly growing buttercups. 

(ok the sheep are gone. richard (the neighbour) has just come to move them. maybe

'there is no real way to deal with everything we lose'  remarks joan didion as a pay off line to a chapter. 

having dealt with her ancestors and the founding myths of the family she is forced to deal with her father and mother's deaths. one day in the false 'old' part of town with her mother and (adopted) daughter she realises that her daughter isn't part of this (the family history/ the family myth) and she finds herself growing free of it. 

'the tenacious (and, as I see it now, pernicious) mood of nostalgia.' 

her life is already filling up with memorabilia that she wants to discard and move on from, not to take them across the mountains and make of them a family keepsake. more tragedy will strike (as it does), her husband and her daughter will die, she will live on in new york alone. 

tomorrow more golden glow. horsemouth's books, films, gigs, events list for april. 1st may, 2nd may, 3rd may important days in the spanish uprising against napoleonic rule, may 2nd the local elections (horsemouth is out of town and so will not be voting).  

autoritratto/ autocoscienza (self-portrait)

'and it may be that our present life, which we accept so readily, will in time seem strange, inconvenient, stupid, not clean enough, perhaps even sinful...' - anton chekhov

‘the work of art felt to me, at a certain point, like a possibility for meeting, like an invitation to participate, addressed by the artists to each of us. it seemed to be a gesture to which I could not respond in a professional manner.’ - carla lonzi

horsemouth read two articles yesterday - one a review of  the super 8 years (2022) an assembly of home movies by french autobiography queen annie ernaux and her son david ernaux-briot, the other a review of the work of feminist and art critic carla lonzi (though her main aim was to escape such categorisations). 

there was a recent book collecting lonzi's writings. horsemouth can't show you any of that book but he can show you some of this one. 

ernaux (but first her husband) with the super 8 movie camera (and later her son who directs the movie).

lonzi with her tape recorder. recording and cutting up the great and the good of art (autoritratto - self portrait) and then splitting from art in its entirety in a world of politics (autocoscienza - consciousness raising).  

horsemouth is up slightly later than usual (it's about 8am). it's another rainy grey day here in the shires (but it may clear up later). remind horsemouth to go and open up the abbey in a bit. he has his cup of coffee.

last night a documentary on syd barrett - poor syd, patron saint and poster boy for the crack up. such extraordinary beauty and talent. there's a bit, near the end, where like john clare, he walks back to oxford from london. 

memories of the visit (abbey rota morning reminder)

RIP mike pinder (keyboard player with the moody blues)

horsemouth is going to write down here some memories of the visit that did not make it into the first cut because of the pressure of events.

april 23rd (st. george's day) embankment 3.30pm

on the circle line on the way over a woman wearing a flag of st. george seemed intent on getting some cheering going for st. george's day. the tube carriage were a little nonplussed, or just pain unresponsive, she muttered darkly about so many others being over here. 

out of embankment tube horsemouth recognised the rendezvous from last time (gordon's wine bar) and walked up the road trying to find a place to get a snack (the better to line his stomach in preparation for the carnage to come) - ah a pret a manger next to a pub (the princess of wales), horsemouth ducked in but could find nothing non-meaty or non-fishy (strange that). he headed out the door past the brace of english flag wearing types by the door of the pub, one gave him the security eye once over (horsemouth affected not to notice. horsemouth is a civilian now.) 

he wandered down to gordon's, down the steps and saw mike almost immediately. 

as you know horsemouth is not a fan of nationalistic bollocks.

april 24th a neighbour's recycling

horsemouth has brought many of these books back to herefordshire with him (excepting  a smile in the mind: witty thinking in graphic design) which was too large to transport easily. 

april 24th museum gardens 6pm or so

having walked down (54 mins claimed google maps, or was it TFL) horsemouth arrived 20-30 mins early for the meeting so he sat down on a bench in museum gardens. a girl paced around talking animatedly into her phone, another sat out on the grass with a book, a homeless dude patrolled the benches for dropped coins or fag butts. 

the meeting itself went well (despite horsemouth's fears). it's an important lesson for him about keeping things in perspective. 

after the meeting horsemouth followed the masses round the corner to the approach. there he tried to drink sensibly but failed (the others seemed quite intent on enjoying the night and horsemouth was happy to see everybody). thereafter there was the long march through hackney (if he'd have thought about it clearly he would have got the bus). 

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horsemouth is back out in the wilderness. it is a grey rainy morning (but he doesn't feel too bad on it). he's just had his coffee. in a bit he will go and open up the abbey. after closing up the abbey last night his mum and himself sat down in the conservatory and had a beer. today it looks like rainy all day.  (there may be some sun sunday).

 

sweet global warming and climate change

'according to the met office, 1,695.9mm of rain fell from october 2022 to march 2024, the highest amount recorded for any 18-month period in england.'

yesterday (goes the temporal fiction) horsemouth had a lazy day in recovering from the post-AGM beers. the walk back will have helped but really he should have got in more food. the wonder drug paracetamol was of use to him again.  if he had arranged to do anything he would (of course) have gone and done it (but he didn't). 

horsemouth was charmed by a clip of captain sensible being serenaded by a table full of portuguese ladies on his 70ieth birthday (apparently the day after his birthday is quite big in portugal). 

this is  what horsemouth should have been doing yesterday- celebrating the portuguese revolution.

'everyone was in the streets. I just felt happiness.'

'if interest rates stay high, energy costs will rise rather than fall in the years ahead. so now is the time for planning on how we deliver the energy investment surge while protecting lower income households.' - jonathan marshall, senior economist at the resolution foundation.

after a quick visit horsemouth is due to travel back to the wilds of herefordshire. in a bit he will start packing and try not to leave anything important behind this time. he read a little of the white review no.12 - george szirtes foreward, more reading for the train perhaps.