history and conjecture

horsemouth admits

some of this was written the day before 

the idea occured the night before that even when horsemouth settled down to read a few pages from lawrence durrell's prospero's cell: a guide to the landscape and manners of the island of corfu (or as he calls it corcyra).

now this is based on time spent there from april 1937 to the end of september 1938. there should therefore be chances to discuss what durrell was up to in the various months as they occur. horsemouth's edition is a faber and faber (ff) edition from 1983 (horsemouth would have sworn it was earlier).

strangely it seems to have been printed on two paper stocks (or two papers of different ages). the first 32 pages are darkened down considerably, the remaining 110 pages have stayed bright. 

'their daughters are called sky and freedom..,' 

history and conjecture

in october 1937 durrell is reading histories of the island - history and conjecture he says - diodorus, thucidides...

in the morning horsemouth walked the eggs up the hill. he returned to contemplate his reading...

and there horsemouth left it

not seeing a part 2. not seeing, or finding in his reading, something that could be placed in juxtaposition to it. 

this morning part 2 is still proving elusive. 

overnight over on substack he had two likes. a psychologist and someone who has liked his stuff before. the previous liker liked his quoting henry miller's the air-conditioned nightmare. he himself liked a post arguing that people producing work through AI had vastly expanded indicating that the motive was less self-expression than taking up more space in the world. this horsemouth liked by way of agreement. 

the land is dark but skies are bright. the vapour trails of the aircraft brilliant white. the sun breaking through. 

anyway here he is

last night horsemouth had a look back through his posts going back about a year. he was looking for a post where he expresses an opinion about the genocide in palestine. 

as you might expect horsemouth is against the genocide in palestine. 

he didn't have any luck finding his earlier post. (but he did enjoy reading his earlier posts).

to horsemouth it is important that he writes what he likes. others may feel he should do or say more or less. he doesn't care that is simply not his business. 

over on substack horsemouth wrote something on selling your time for money. 

this is something horsemouth did for many years. unfortunately he wrote the piece in a real hurry because his computer started beeping and making strange noises. horsemouth's broad point was that many people are dreaming away on social media sites and one of those dreams is that they will invent a cultural commodity the ones and noughts of which can be sold and  will make them money. 

now horsemouth liked the structure of work, employer, employee - there were boundaries and a pattern there. (not that he was a big fan of it whilst he was in it).

it is important to horsemouth that free activity be freely chosen (well as much as is possible) - activity that is not freely chosen falls into three interlinked categories work, slavery, necessity; 

work is where you sell your labour to enable you to survive, keep a roof over your head, put food upon the table etc. it is for the most part an activity that merely reproduces you (though you may find pleasure and satisfaction in parts of it/ it may move you or other people forward).

slavery is when you are forced and coerced into activity. the decent lineaments that hide the element of compulsion within the system are removed. 

necessity is a rawer version of  work - you have to do it in order to survive  - the decent lineaments of civilisation have been weakened or removed. 

broadly horsemouth views all of this as climbing the pyramid that is maslow's hierarchy of needs. 

hannah arendt would be another guide here. (the human condition rather than anything else)

one thing horsemouth bemoaned was that he has not become mega-creative now that he no longer works. 

horsemouth accepts that his ideology that work (for money) and freely chosen activity (not for money) are different inhibits his ability to make money out of his creativity/  freely chosen activity. he has noticed that many people do not see them as separate and are thus more successful at it. 

anyway here he is. 

today a rainy gray day. later a walk up the hill to deliver some eggs. 

when the real crisis starts

an entirely written in the morning blogpost (excepting the following quote he wrote down in his diary last night).

'a piece of writing is a whole that proceeds as a whole - it never presents itself as a matter of choice...' 

- marguerite duras, practicalities. 

forever war (the stupidest war ever)

horsemouth has said he thinks the current gulf war is the stupidest war ever. unlike the war of jenkins ear it is not the pretext for this war that is stupid, it is the complete failure to think through the consequences.

horsemouth fails to see whose strategic interests it serves and for this reason he thinks it is the stupidest war ever. 

the israelis have lunched their reliable ally status with the US. the US has lunched its reliable ally and hegemon status with the rest of the world by precipitating an oil (diesel) crisis without any clear way out. it is a forever war in which the enemy cannot be dislodged from their fortress and that fortress controls a vital strategic asset. 

the full effects of the crisis have not appeared yet because the world is running on its reserves of diesel. when the reserves are gone the real crisis starts. 

when the real crisis starts

production and distribution can happen because of energy - you need energy to get the workers to work and to  run the factories, and diesel (in particular) to transport the finished goods to market.  a major part of any saleable item in a globalised economy is the transport costs, if these rise (as they will) this will drive up inflation and thus interest rates and thus reduce investment into the economy and drive up unemployment as demand falls.

(horsemouth should really talk to his brother's eldest about this - it's his area of expertise). 

as usual the rich are well placed to ride this out (and indeed will make more money out of the crisis to the extent that they are invested in oil) but the poor of all countries will take the beating. 

the suffering will be pretty much incalculable. 

now the US as a country (as the world's reserve currency and net energy exporter) is well placed to ride this out, the other countries of the world that are not oil or gas producers will take a beating. 

it could be argued that this is a blow against china (and, as a by-blow, other far east economies) in the sense that this is where the oil from the strait of hormuz goes - but no, china has far greater oil reserves than the US and is better placed to ride it out. 

arguably russia is one of the few countries to do better out of the crisis - it gets an export market for its oil and gas. (the people of russia do not benefit from this, the oil and gas they would have used gets exported)

but (similar to covid, the 2008 financial crisis, the ukraine war gas price shock) things that harm the global economy can have side effects in terms of weaning states and populations off oil and driving the electrification of the economy. of course the economic effects of the crisis will limit the ability of the governments, companies, people,  to electrify their energy supply or require greater effort to do so. 

there is the further benefit that the production and consumption that does not happen does not generate the CO2 it would have generated which is then not dumped in the atmosphere, does not contribute to global warming etc. 

further, while gas supplies from the US will drive the EU towards them the knowledge that it was the US that kicked off this crisis will drive the EU (and the rest of the world) away and towards greater independence from the US.

of course horsemouth may just be overthinking it. the direct benefactors are the oil companies (who can now charge a much higher price for their product) and the states that produce oil and gas (and who can get their oil and gas to market). 

we may just have witnesses the beginning of the fall of the US as world hegemon. this does not mean that china will simply and directly replace it or that the world will become multipolar (a bloodbath of competing powers). 

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ok having opened up this issue horsemouth will return to it soon. 

the apocalyptic warning of m. segalot

so this is an entirely written in the morning blogpost benefitting in full from horsemouth's wit and perspicacity...

it should be very short then (is all horsemouth can say).

well he's had the first cup of coffee and is progressing rapidly through the second. 

yesterday he read a little in the french to perform some dialogues for far future village band. he focused in on the madison scene from jean-luc goddard's bande à part. in particular he focused in on the apocalyptic warning of m. segalot.

'oh my poor friend. empires are falling. republics likewise...' 

'bravo m. segalot. ca c'est du meuble.' 

in keeping with the maritime theme of recent far future village band songs (though quite how this can be made to fit into the story horsemouth is unsure) he attempted most of the first verse of paul valéry's  le cimetière marin (the cemetery by the sea but it might as well be the cemetery in the sea). 

he also attempted a few lines from jacques attali's bruits (noise) on the round dance (viewed as annunciatory of the new political economy of music). 

he's hoping the bande à part will fit into an already recorded bar scene with accordions. he's hoping the attali and the valéry will insipire more music.  

he found a book of french proverbs from before the 15th century (formerly the property of birkbeck library) and cassell's colloquial french (a handbook of idiomatic usage). 

rob has proposed taking a crack at le bateau ivre (the drunken boat) but it's very long and complicated. the pogues robbed a verse from it (drunken boat for the 1993 album waiting for herb) but in a bit of a cack handed fashion in horsemouth's opinion. léo ferré set the poem into music also using  two first quatrains as a chorus (this might be more possible - nice ouai on it too). 

there's a strong rhyme scheme (an alexandrine) and it all seems fairly regular. (horsemouth thinks you might get it over the junction signal). 

an entirely written in the morning blogpost (except for this line)

the commons water society

so last night horsemouth went to a meeting of the commons water society (and very good it was too).

things progress on keenly. the water supply is getting out from under its section 18 order but it will cost money to do this (which has to be raised). fortunately the sums to do it are not huge (at least in this incarnation) and the members are (mostly) reasonably well heeled. horsemouth thinks it should be possible to prevent a tragedy of the commons. 

the members of the committee are very smart and competent bringing plenty of skills to the table. 

horsemouth can't help but compare this situation with the communal endeavour. he should send them an email to see how it is going. 

at the end horsemouth got a lift back (having taken a torch and prepared himself for a walk back across the common). 

so this is an entirely written in the morning blogpost (except for this line).

horsemouth is up and has been out to feed the chickens in the dark. his body is waking him up at 6.30 for some reason and by then it is still dark (and will be increasingly so). 

horsemouth and his mum an nibbling at the heating and will soon have to move on to lighting the fire in the evening. in a way this would be horsemouth's preferred option for heating the house - it saves on expensive fuel oil, they have a shed full of wood and it looks good. the fly in the ointment is the time when his mum is cooking (and then when they are both doing the washing up) before his mum sits down to watch tv or read is quite long. this means the time for his mum to sit near the fire is comparatively short. 

in which it will all sort itself out

horsemouth is waiting for the arrival of the far future village band III radioactive reptile bootleg CD to come. he's got his eyes out for the postie. 

soon there will be the far future village band IV CD and download. this last he imagines it will come with a booklet and he can get some copies of it made and get into distributing them round. 

rob has proposed taking a crack at le bateau ivre (horsemouth thinks this is a bit ambitious). 

horsemouth 'an angry prophet denouncing the hypocrisies of our times'

 'a book which goes backwards and forwards, advances and retreats,,,' 

- abram tertz (andrei sinyavsky - birthday today), a voice from the chorus. 

excepting the above a wholly written in the morning blogpost.

ok and excepting this...

horsemouth has been trying out a robbie basho guitar tuning (an open Gm/D - dgbflatgbflatd) and most trance inducing it is too. 

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the night before horsemouth watched network (1976). practically every line made him chortle. 

this morning he was haunted by the junction signal by blyth power. he also had a dream where he was trying to buy two vegetable samosas but the correct money would not be found in his pockets and there was a big queue waiting behind him. junction signal belongs to a very specific part of horsemouth's life (as does the zimbabwean tune take cover that was bothering him also). 

he awoke early and went and fed the chickens in the dark. he turned on the heating. 

himself and rob are coming to the end of their campaign on far future village band IV, they have enough songs for the album, and, with the addition of the accordion they are all sounding great. horsemouth would probably nip and tuck a few of his 'performances' (left to himself) but rob is more an 'honour your mistakes as your secret intention' man. 

this evening the commons water society meeting. 

psychic abilities (birth of liquid plejades)

today is judee sill's birthday. today grey all day (it looks like). 

'judee developed her psychic abilities at this time and became a gifted reader of tarot cards...'

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excepting the above an entirely written in the morning blogpost

during horsemouth's chat with mike the concept of a boo-leader became important (not a cheer-leader but a boo-leader). here we were, endlessly pointing out the ways in which society was bad. 'you. yes you. boo. you suck...' and so on. 

coming up abram tertz (andrei sinyavsky)'s birthday. horsemouth has started collecting quotes and re-reading a voice from the chorus.

how paranoid is horsemouth? 

when the platform pacer (on his recent journey to cheltenham) said he used to work in cheltenham horsemouth only really knew GCHQ as an employer in cheltenham, he therefore assumed he was dealing with some signals intelligence spy type (probably hacking his laptop while he was using it on the train). by way of comparison the old dude on the bus, the young engineer in abergavenny, horsemouth does not suspect of perfidy. 

hmmm

something has complicated his mood

maybe this is the right thing for it (he listened to it last night)

tangerine dream's birth of liquid plejades

edgar froese – christopher franke – peter baumann

with additional musicians

florian fricke of popol vuh– moog synthesizer

steve schroyder (earlier member) – organ outro

the cello intro played by

christian vallbracht

joachim von grumbkow; credited as jochen von grumbcow; co-founder of hoelderlin

hans joachim brüne

johannes lücke

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ok just heard the version of trois matelots (3 sailors dance) with accordion (it sounds rocking!).