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. 

when the hard frosts come

in the day a walk upon the common and some photos.

 shadows and tall trees

ok so another holiday plan has manifested (now to get on with it). 

half terms

it might be too soon. people might still be knackered/ busy etc. horsemouth won't know until he checks. 

where are we? one hundred years of faust. 

(also in black and white (and sepia tinge) lest we forget).

this the best photo of the bunch (horsemouth feels)

a misty morning (for sure) and possibly a frosty one (if not actually frosty it is certainly near). a lot of the remaining growing depends on delaying the frosts. last night horsemouth had some of the runner bean beans (and good they were too).  the weather forecast says the frosts will hold off for the next two weeks at least. 

when the hard frosts come and the nasturtiums die back horsemouth will dig out the bed where they are and dump the soil elsewhere (so that the nasturtiums will be successful elsewhere). at the moment their riotous growth mocks his vegetable growing efforts (only the runner beans vaguely compete). 

he will uproot the giant overgrown spinach plants also. 

there are still a few potatoes and some parsnips in there. horsemouth will lift these. the sprouts and the cabbage he will wait to see how these do. 

how does horsemouth write?

he doesn't have a desk. he writes propped up in bed with the laptop in his lap. (he was just reading a piece on writers' desks, the view out of their window, their hours of work, lunch etc.). he writes a bit (or a lot) and then goes unconsciously and farts about on the internet. 

this afternoon/ evening the version of le bateau ivre (first two verses) comes back from rob (it sounds good), horsemouth is trying to work out a title for it - boat trip (gone wrong), downriver - something like that. it sounds cheerful even. 

today (this morning) the electricians are coming. horsemouth has woken up the chickens. he figures he can get them into one shed while the electricians work on the other (to reduce the amount of chicken underfoot). there is no chicken problem with the garage. 

today the anniversary of john fahey live in hobart tasmania in 1980. it's an exemplary gig by the old curmudgeon. 

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.