concurrence - a statistical analysis of horsemouth's friends

for the purposes of this study horsemouth has here taken only his facebook friends;

way out in front - at 48 occurences - the musicians. the entry requirement is low, horsemouth has only to have heard you say you played an instrument or sang in a choir, or to have seen you pick up a guitar and play a song at a party one time. djs, makers of electronica, radio show hosts, compilation co-ordinators and gig promoters are included (but no one gets two bites at the pie).

next up - at 19 occurences - the social activists -  here horsemouth has drawn the net quite narrowly here as many of his friends are frankly raging lefties, anarchists, dirty squatter malcontents (thanks for asking officer) or were back in the day... or perhaps we just imagined we were, anyway, to still be on the list people have had to show more commitment than horsemouth to this thing.

two way tie for third -at joint 3rd (with 12 occurences each) are teachers andacademics/ writers (there were also 4 journalists, a publisher, two editors, and a poet).

horsemouth is surprised that there were only 8  artists -he suspects he hasn't being paying as much attention as he should  when people discussed their non musical practices, there were however also, 5 people involved in theatre, 5 filmakers, 3 photographers, 2 craftspeople (clothing and furniture), 1 puppeteer.

that just leaves  - 1 nursery worker, 1 linguist, 1 antique store owner, 1 tramway designer, 1 modern dancer, 1 carnival dancer, 1 psychotherapist, 1 garden designer, 1 restauranteur, 2 deacons,

and last, but not least, 7 suspected (or known) fictitious characters/people with pseudonyms/ institutions.

if you do more than one thing horsemouth will have counted you more than once.

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if horsemouth were to include his non-facebook friends he would also have to add two comic book artists, some more artists and musicians... you know how it goes.

'you and your sister'

horsemouth - the tired, rather than horsemouth - the grumpy, has retired to his bed for the day with a shocking cough - it's by no means the worst horsemouth has had but he'd like to nip it in the bud before it gets any more baroque. horsemouth is trying to bump down his work schedule to something more supportable - wheras before horsemouth's strategy was 'just say yes to anything, get the dollar now - you can always recover later', now his strategy is to be in it for the long game.

to compliment his lungs horsemouth has been reading an article on siegfreid kracauer's sunless prose and a piece by a former member of socialism or barbarism (ah the internet - the gift that keeps giving - so good for  collectors and completists). horsemouth listened to charlemagne palestine (with z'ev) on spotify (or last fart as it is sometimes known) which he really enjoyed (dark horror-movie chimes versus shamanic but tasteful drumming). horsemouth watched a clip of milton nascimento on youtube telling him that nothing will be as it was before (nada sera como antes).

horsemouth has written little lately as a result of tiredness and due to his frozen shoulder (adhesive capsulitis) he has played even less. at howard's suggestion he's been looking at this mortal coil's 'you and your sister'  - it's a neat little tune that requires a bit of learning - intersting to hear liz fraser (is it liz frazier? no it's kim deal and tanya donelly, song by chris bell) singng in english rather than gibberish - the backing is precise and harpsicord-like (rather than the usual cocteau twins flanger-a-thon). failing that he has a stack of back review sections courtesy of andy, he's already enjoyed an article on old age. he reads much more widely when it is physical paper than when it is online. horsemouth thiks he could play an electric guitar or a lap steel, it's just big fat acoustic guitars that are a stretch for him.

if horsemouth were to play a solo gig

horsemouth (in addition to his 'musicians of bremen' project with howard that is going very well thank you) has been thinking about songs he could play in a solo set (or maybe even record).

he would have to have the three songs he has authored or co-authored,

 1) the devil song

2) gentleman john (with rust)

3) all my dreams (with howard)

 then he'd have to have a number of his more successful cover versions,

4) blue crystal fire (robbie basho) or a la luna yo mi voy (eliades ochoa) but definitely

5) je te veux (erik satie and henri pacory),

 then he'd have to have an instrumental, probably,

 6) la fille au cheveux de lin (debussy) rather than gnossiennes no.1 (satie),

 and then from the songs he hasn't learnt/recorded yet he'd probably have,

 7) the werewolf song (michael hurley).

this is where the wolfsbane poem would come in handy
'Even a man who is pure in heart 
and says his prayers by night
may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms
and the autumn moon is bright.'