the skies are illuminated (but not the lands)

'perhaps a book... will grow out of these scraps'

- lawrence durrell, prospero's cell.

it's interesting, horsemouth has found much more in the book this time of reading. 

horsemouth has taken to locking up the chickens early (when he feeds them). it makes it harder to forget to lock them up (which has happened he's sad to say (though infrequently)). 

today a walk to the crossroads to deliver some eggs and he walked the bin down the drive (remind him to bring it back up tomorrow).  

tomorrow a possible visit by his brother's eldest (or maybe friday) and maybe a visit by an old work colleague of his dad's friday or saturday (no one can tell right now). 

and so much for what horsemouth wrote yesterday. 

on to today which looks pretty good so far. (given that the sun has barely risen up above the hills).  the skies are illuminated (but not the lands). rosy-fingered dawn.

horsemouth's sides of the clouds are dark but those facing towards the dawn are a kind of golden orange. 

something happens with the clocks soon. horsemouth has a poor understanding of the mechanism of it. the clocks will go back. we will have an extra hour in bed but it will be darker soon in the afternoons/ evenings. people will require cheering up (diwali/ halloween/ bonfire night). 

circular dances (star dances)

'coming over the crest of a hill behind kastellani we see that a dance is in progress... through the hum of human voices one can hear the scratch and squeak of the violin and guitars, and the hollow beat of the drum, resonant and vulgar as a full stomach struck with the palm of the hand . 'ah look,' says N, 'just look at the dancers.' 

a multi-coloured  circle of flowing head-dresses and skirts moves slowly round the axis of the musicians, reversing and advancing with slow rhythmic measures. in the centre of the circle, moved by the current but free, the young men dance, each improvising his variations upon the theme...' 

- lawrence durrell, prospero's cell. 

N is durrell's first wife nancy myers (for once she gets a mention). 

the theory is proposed that the round dance moves are connected to the movement of the stars. 

'ah,' says theodore with pleasure, 'it is a star-dance, called the corcyrean dance. as you may know I have theories about the origin of these dances, some of which are very ancient...

all the circular ones I call star dances,' says theodore. 'I read somewhere that dancing originated in a desire to imitate the movement of celestial bodies - the early clock as it were.' 

the documentary makers have done very well to find this scene still being lived when they revisited corfu with durrell. 

meanwhile 

tracks keep coming from rob in far off riogordo. horsemouth tried several cracks at the first two verses for le bateau ivre (the drunken boat). rob has repurposed one take (a without clapping take) as a song sung in a late bar with a tentative backing. it really works quite well. this is probably because it is not on a click (as it were) like most of the stuff horsemouth sings.

horsemouth is up early. he has just been out to feed the chickens. a grey day with little to recommend it. 

silent days in sommières

more lawrence durrell. this time in the south of france. the sun is shining. 

horsemouth followed it up by researching lawrence durrell's four wives. 

- nancy myers

- yvette (eve) cohen

- claude marie vincedon

- ghislaine de boysson

horsemouth supposes he will finish up prospero's cell and then move on to reflections on a marine venus and bitter lemons. if he comes upon any of the others in his travels he will probably pick these up. the women are airbrushed out of durrell's writing (mothers, friends, wives, daughters). men stay up late drinking and discussing poetry (at least the way durrell tells it). 

he'll take a crack at this radio documentary too.  

it's a rainy grey morning out there. fortunately horsemouth does not have to do too much. it's rainy and grey for most of the next two weeks (which is preparation for the winter to follow). 

far future village band IV is sounding good (very good in fact) - rob has sent him a link to all the tracks (except that more continue to come). now there's just a matter of weaving in the stories. there is the matter of embracing the limitations of their recording set up. 

night walk (rain and snow)

horsemouth has made a list of the tracks for far future village band IV. these broadly break down into rob's instrumentals and rob's responses to horsemouth's singing and clapping or whistling or wordless singing. 

on one of the tracks horsemouth jangles some guitar while whistling (but he's whistling badly so he's not sure if that one will make it on). no harmonium this time (so far). 

so far he only has night walk from off the album to play you. to peek behind the curtain -  horsemouth whistles the theme, rob improvises the backing (across several tracks). it came out well. 

horsemouth's general theory is first take best take but he's by no means an improvisational purist. he is not particularly committed to honour your mistakes (as your hidden intention). he believes in nip and tuck. 

there are also horsemouth's recitations of his tales of the far future village band  and its times (the far future). 

there's a pronounced nautical theme this time - which is strange given the inland setting of the village (ok it's on a river we know that much). 

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yesterday horsemouth wandered the eggs up the hill (and it was pretty sunny). things are starting to look pretty autumnal. 

from tuesday the 20th the weather goes to shit with rain most days. the rainy weather keeps it a bit warmer at night which means the plants will last longer before the frosts get them. or, at least, so horsemouth supposes, looking on the bright side and that. 

horsemouth isn't worried about the flooding just yet. the land is still bone dry from the summer drought. it will soak up a lot of water before it starts running off (horsemouth hopes). this time last year the dulas brook at ewyas harold was flooding. 

by the time you are reading this it will have rained overnight. that's not to say that there won't be sun next week (just not very much of it). 

it's the morning. it has rained. last night horsemouth watched lawrence durrell revisit corfu. there was no footage of puppet shows but there was  film of a corfiot wedding complete with musicians (about 15 minutes in). the music wasn't like horsemouth thought it would be.  chunks of the text of the book were repurposed as commentary. 

'dancing is never a performance so much as a communal rite. the transmission of an enigmatic knowledge which the musician has summoned up from below the earth. it flows upwards through the dancing feet which are building the dusty circles stitch by stitch like a fabric being woven, step by step like city being built. and the darker circle outside, the lookers on, gradually absorbs the rhythm which triumphs over them by sheer repetition, being laid down in the consciousness like successive coats of a thrilling colour. one can watch the crowd being drawn into such a dance man by man impelled by something like a gravitational law which decrees that autumn windfalls should plunge towards the centre of the earth when they are ripe.' 

- lawrence durrell comments on a corfiot wedding dance and its music (1975).

ask and you shall receive

today an entirely written in the morning blogpost

yesterday zoom beer with howard (and a dream where horsemouth failed to keep up when they were running for a train). howard woke up remembering a hymn (ask and you shall receive). horsemouth said it reminded him of chapter 24 by pink floyd. 

yesterday (and doubtless today) more reading of prospero's cave (lawrence durrell). the old count lawrence and his wife have taken to visiting has a theory that shakespeare visited corfu and that corfu is indeed prospero's island. it's almost certainly bollocks. they will not meet until the 21st of september 1937. right now (in 1937) lawrence is wrestling with his friend's zarian's historical accounts of the island.

yesterday the anniversary of the release of levitation by hawkwind in 1980.

tim blake, ginger baker, huw lloyd-langton, harvey bainbridge 

(completely by accident dave brock has assembled a competent band). 

the album is excellently recorded. 

huw in particular is playing his heart out.

horsemouth saw them on this tour (only his second ever gig). 

today a wander up the hill to deliver some eggs. 

an account of a puppet show (and the music)

in lawrence durrell's prospero's cave (p.47 onwards) there is an account of a puppet show with kharaghiosis and his sidekick hadjiavatis. 

it was a shadow-puppet show. it is possible the shadow puppet show originated in indonesia and was brought to the ottoman turks by the trade routes (and thus to the greek islands).

'two violins and a drum keep up a squalling sort of overture, punctuated by the giggles of children and the pop of ginger beer bottles...

our seats are right at the front, where the orchestra can scrape away right under our noses... thus equipped we prepare for the spectacle of kharaghiosis, whose greek is sure to baffle us however much his antics amuse... 

presently the acetylene lamps on the hedge are extinguished... but the orchestra is still driving on with the awkward monotony of a squeaking shoe... the familiar noise of sticks being rattled together sounds from behind the screen. this is a sign for the play to begin...'

kharaghiosis (black eye) is a hunchback with one outsized prehensile arm. he and hadjiavatis are always poor and engaged on some ridiculous get rich quick scheme. in this case a getting elected to public office.

'the drama reaches its peak with a faked election, in which kharaghiosis, in order to win, manages to resurrect all the corpses in the local cemeteries, who pass in grizzly single file across the stage to the polling booth to vote for our hero.' 

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yesterday a visit to town

accessions diary

- orlando (virginia woolf) - one squid hospice shop in a pretty vintage classics edition. this contains a baileyshome.com bookmark (a shop near bridstow near ross-on-wye).

- travels into bokhara (alexander burns - cousin of robbie burns, victorian explorer and spy) - one squid hospice shop  in an eLand edition. 

this copy contains an off-peak day return rail ticket from wivenhoe to london terminals (£26.70) as well as a dedication happy birthday mary. phil.

supplementary expenses 

£3 each way on the bus, £3.20 sandwich, £1.30 bus down the valley. walk back. 

whilst he was there he saw sproatly smith but didn't manage to speak to him because he wasn't convinced it was him. (but they chatted briefly online later).

it is the morning. it is a cold morning. horsemouth has been out to see the chickens who seem remarkably unbothered. 

the best thing that can be said of it is that it is over

horsemouth is self-medicating with beer. 

the situation horsemouth hates is to be stuck between two people. he has got himself out of the way and hopefully done enough so that it all worked out.

remind him to never do that again (he says now).

the best thing that can be said of it is that it is over. 

all he has to do now is let it go.

what is tomorrow like? ah rainy all night then decent over the weekend. maybe horsemouth can do a run into town and indulge in some retail therapy (books mostly). 

in the morning 

he's up. he forgot to lock up the chickens last night (blue bloody bastard bollocks). fortunately no deaths.

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my mix playlist

joy - john coltrane (the classic quartet version first meditations 1965)

john is up and cooking. elvin too. mccoy tyner horsemouth can hear it is good but it's a bit too chordy for him. it's jimmy garrison on bass but as usual you can barely hear him (until right at the end). 

next up marion brown bismillahi rrahmani rrahim (by harold budd from off vista 1975). reggie workman on bass this time. great piano. 

earth is no resting place jesse may hill (1927-1933). earth is not home you say. 

more john coltrane stellar regions (1967) the great rashied ali on drums. named by alice coltrane when she rediscovered the tapes but named by coltrane dream chant at the time and venus a week later on the interstellar space session. 

song john fahey.

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last night another song from rob in far off riogordo - thursday sailor's song - and very good it is too. very wickermany.