the nature of horsemouth was irrepressible (whiplash)

well as someone suggested (or as horsemouth read in some puff piece in a free newspaper recently) it is the year of the monkey on its way in. but it has (sneakily and typically) arrived a little early and already begun upsetting everything and tearing down any old established patterns. jobs, housing, friendships, all that was solid melts into air. 

horsemouth’s face continues to heal (after he took a drunken tumble saturday night - well sunday morning really). horsemouth is sensitive about his looks (or such of them that still remain). you would think he would know better by now than to drink like a fool (but no). horsemouth doesn’t feel much in the way of shame yet - though doubtless after he has been made to explained his predicament a few times he will.

before he fell over (and before the karaoke) there was a gig at the moth club in hackney. horsemouth liked the first band on ES (they’re also in Primetime, Gloss Rejection, The Worms and Black Fungus) . they reminded him of the fatal microbes, crass, er...hormone rage that sort of thing. curiously there was a band working that crass/ pop group thing at the last metal night horsemouth and andrew minty went to at the angel (what were they called again).

last night horsemouth watched whiplash - a film on jazz drumming - which made horsemouth glad he was never that serious a musician - bullying in the musicspace, games of affection, that urge to be the best. it is (horsemouth suggests) a good dad/ bad dad movie with the hero born again after his struggle with the bad dad of culture (kind of like platoon) . there is of course no ‘out’ to this system (he cannot go off and play in a rock band instead, he cannot return to his biological dad who watches french movies and to the rest of the family who do not appreciate him).

the drumming is of course excellent - this was the main thing that horsemouth liked about jazz (not having the harmonic knowledge or a good enough ear to appreciate properly what was going on in the top line) - art blakey, max roach, elvin jones, ‘philly’ jo jones - it fed into (and misdirected) his appreciation of early jungle.

horsemouth (of course) no longer rages - in truth he’d just like a quiet life - but the universe won’t give it to him