'he loves the public, but not as people'
so horsemouth went out to hear adam sherry (of dead forest index) sing a solo gig at an exhibition of max's photographs in the crypt of the little dorrit church (st. george the martyr - borough). he has a good voice and layers himself up nicely with a loopstation pedal, his guitar accompaniment is effective and unshowy with an unfashionably relaxed attitude to guitar tuning. as usual horsemouth would advise (as he would for himself) more structural variation in how the tunes are put together.
with the loopstation horsemouth would make a comparison with david thomas broughton (who uses the loopstation to undermine/ supplant / call into question the moment of performance) and its use to provide a seamless redoubling of the performance (to allow one to harmonise with ones-self etc.).
horsemouth has been considering the following quote about robert moses, the famous carver out of the cross bronx expressway and faust as developer in chief in marshall berman's all that is solid melts into air. the quote is from frances perkins (america's first secretary for labor under FDR),
'he loves the public but not as people. the public is ... a great amorphous mass to him; it needs to be bathed, it needs to be aired, it needs recreation, but not for personal reasons - just to make it a better public.'
new improved sociability horsemouth has been out two nights in a row - surely this is a bit excessive.
'association with human beings lures one into self-observation'
one of many statements in Kafka's notebooks later published posthumously in Parables and Paradoxes (1946), and The Blue Octavo Notebooks (1954) as translated by Ernst Kaiser and Eithne Wilkins - ths is now a shop billboard on redchurch street in shoreditch (but is it a clothes shop or a restaurant or a perfumiers? - horsemouth could not tell).
sunday, though horsemouth doesn't think much of him as a painter, horsemouth went out to a william burroughs exhibit - he liked the things that had been shot at, he liked three little morrocan themed minitures by brion gysin - he liked the dreammachine (but he had seen it before at the perfume launch). strangely horsemouth bumped into jen (who he has not seen in a long time - she asked to be remembered to ross and elsie). they then went round myk's awesome flat nearby for a coffee (horsemouth repo'd his copy of david grubb's beneath the visiting moon) and then for vegan cake in the horror that is brick lane - but the cake stall wasn't there so horsemouth had a tagine instead.
they then (for they were mob handed) went off to a cafe in hackney in search of improvised music (there horsemouth met merv who horsemouth also hasn't seen in a long time). they then went to a pub near liverpool street to round out the evening (and discussed life, love and movies). for the whole time of horsemouth's existence in shoreditch (about 10 years) the pub (the crown and shuttle?) had been derelict - inside it has stripped walls and a beer garden and a selection of real ales at 4 pounds plus a pint.
horsemouth had thought of visiting the exhibition with sean the previous evening - but sean demurred saying that the last time he'd seen the shot at things william burroughs himself had been there.
here we see burroughs and kafka reappraised in terms of their positive benificent aspect -'association with human beings' and 'self-observation' are understood postively and immediately re-incorporated into the business of hustling us to seek satisfaction for our wants in material items. the couples walked around hand in hand - the gaggles of friends stopped for frequent consultations (in spanish or italian) - it all loooked very pretty in the slightly autumnal sunlight. monday people are back to work but for now they want to run and play (and later cake).
horsemouth doesn't feel himself a part of it - but he sees the lure of it - new improved horsemouth is trying to get as much socialising in as he can before the world of work begins again and he's down the rabbit hole for another year.
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