booklist for the year 2016

off to richard and stass’s - see you in the wen in the new year

themes journals/ diaries /disguised (auto)biographies - journals1889-1949- andre gide, bergman’s autobiography the magic lantern, deer hunting with god - baigent, searching for robert johnson - guralnick, our village- mitford, mardi and the journey thither - herman melville, valis and radio free albemuth - philip k. dick, anna akhmatova (biography) - haight, lesek kolakowski pamphlet, narrative of my captivity among the souix indians - fanny kelly, the art of growing old - john cowper powys, beneath the visiting moon - david grubb, agota kristof - the notebook, the watcher and the red deer - richard perry, jean genet - our lady of the flowers (introduction by sartre and dips), allen ginsberg biography - barry miles, anna kavan, landscapes - john berger, hugh brody - the other side of eden, a precocious autobiography - yevgeny yevtushenko,

theory and utopia (some of) history and class consciousness - lukacs, marx in his own words - ernst fischer (introduction), on violence - hannah arendt, metapolitics - alain badiou, after derrida - nicholas royle, echolalias - daniel hiller-roazen, the revolution of everyday life - vaneigem, a history of reading, mimesis, music and the irish literary imagination, the fable of the bees, styles of radical will - susan sontag (first few essays), marxism and form - frederic jameson (adorno and benjamin essays so far), raymond williams (critical perspectives) - terry eagleton, metapolitics - alain badiou, , into unknown england: selections from the social explorers, a history of the chinese cultural revolution - jean daubier, utopia - thomas more (in its anniversary year) and so also jacques ranciere - on the shores of politics, jean jacques rousseau - political economy in discourses and social contract (introduction and dips), utopia: mitos y formos: colloquium 17-20 jan 1990 ed. yvette centeno (papers in french and english),pleroma - hamacher (introduction), history and utopia - e.m. cioran, the restoration of order - milan simecka (and his piece in communism the TLS reader - and bohumil hrabal's), theories and narrative -alex callinicos.

the french and the portuguese cesar birroteau -balzac, the search of the absolute - balzac, jesus christ in flanders - balzac (the human comedy project rolls on), eca de quiroz - the sin of father amaro, jose saramago - blindness, the double - jose saramago, guy de maupassant - short stories, portugal: 50 years of dictatorship,

science fiction makes a return the commited men - m. john harrison, frankenstein unbound - brian aldiss, best sciencefiction of the year - volume 6 - aldiss and harrison, the day of forever - j.g.ballard, the invention of morel - adolfo bioy casares,

catching up on heritage themes thomas hardy - far from the madding crowd, the white goddess - robert graves, into unknown england: selections from the social explorers, mill on the floss and essays by george eliot, the gamekeeper at home - richard jefferies (bought, dipped), the survey of london (everyman hardback edition) - john stow (1598),

random heap chess - stefan zweig, roger scruton -a short history of philosophy, the ask - lipsite, the rampage - miroslav holub, introduction to pascal's provincial tales, silence and christian history - diarmard macculloch, the portable twentieth-century russian reader - ed. clarence brown (leant to sean), the feeling of things- adam caruso, the acquisitive society - r.h. tawney, instituta benjamenta - robert walser, three critical pieces (from the penal colony) - franz kafka (translated clement greenberg), introduction to idiom of the people - james reeves, the foundation pit - andrei platonov, austerity - kerry anne mendoza, edna o´brien - august is a wicked month, gangster girl (thriller- part), the shadow and its shadow (surrealist writings on film).

december 2016 books, gigs, films, events list

books

• journals1889-1949- andre gide, 
• lesek kolakowski pamphlet, 
• deer hunting with god - baigent, 
• searching for robert johnson - guralnick, 
• our village- mitford, 
• mardi and the journey thither - herman melville, 
• (some of) history and class consciousness - lukacs, 
• bergman’s autobiography the magic lantern

 films

• life is a long quiet river, 
• guy maddin's dracula, 
• back to normandy, 
• faithless (liv ullman), 
• drunken angel (kurosawa), 
• jeanne la pucelle: the prisons, 
• devils of darkness, 
• canterbury tales (pasolini), 
• dr. mabuse: der spieler (lang), 
• all tomorrow's parties (nico), 
• into the wild (part), 
• BBC ghost stories at christmas (whistle and I'll come to you, lost hearts, a view from a hill, 13, the stalls of barchester, stigma, the ice house, a warning to the curious) , 
• lady in the van, 
• men in black 3, 
• carry on screaming, 
• crooked house, 
• close up (kiarostami),

 gigs

• none 

events

• winter solstice, 
• hiding out in countryside with folks, 
• end of work for the year, 
• end of year pizza (on the corporation), 
• anniversary of first horsemouth and howard mix, 
• rick burners 2nd ever gig, 
• sean visits.

they fall in with strangers

howard has been busy

horsemouth (on the other hand) has been watching lots of BBC ghost stories at christmas - mostly lifted from m.r. james - lots of cathedral libraries, witchcraft dabbling clerics, waking up in cold old houses in the middle of the night, lots of stalking ghosts. he thinks he’s watched the lot. lost hearts he watched again with his brother’s daughter (he thought she might appreciate it).

mardi and a voyager thither (melville - south seas - whales, but not centrally) has lots of short chapters - hence horsemouth is up to chapter 39 (they fall in with strangers) already. he also read a little online of do not sell at any price a book about 78rpm record collectors - the author starts by recording the collapse of recorded sound as a commodity (the sheer vast overproduction of it).

horsemouth has watched some films on tv - captain sully, lady in the van etc. - on the whole he finds them indictments of society.

‘well you say you got money... you’d better be sure...’

horsemouth has been much concerned with two songs of late - skip james' hard time killing floor blues and 13th century monk’s complaint the worldes blisse last ne time no.



horsemouth is currently putting some work into learning the former (well no he’s bodging it with Em, G, B7 rather than playing it in the open Dm tuning people say skip james used) and once upon a time he put some work into learning the later - having first arranged it for the chords G7, Bflat7, now this he plays using an open D5 ‘nashville’ tuning - it would probably work dadgad too).

worldes blisse he learnt from edward lee’s music of the people (second hand bookshop/ library sale - somewhere/ sometime) laboriously ‘translating’ the dots without an audio recording to help him along - he could therefore have got it hideously wrong. this makes it a trad.arr. - a traditional tune, arranged by___, in songwriting terms.  in any event he played it live (and explained his arranging techniques) at the solo (plus guests) musician of bremen gig some time ago.

since then he has discovered at least two other attempts to make use of this tune. peter maxwell davies played a 40 minute orchestral version at the proms in 1969 provoking a near riot, soundtrack (and choral music) classical composer geoffrey burgon did a version with two counter-tenors, and it looks like ancient and traditional music singer and lutenist john fleagle has done a version. none of these has horsemouth heard yet.

for the writer of worldes blisse the world is a fallen creation, life is mired with care and sorrow, you are better off dead really. for skip james it’s just hard times - better times may come, but even then ‘well you say you got money... you’d better be sure...’

horsemouth particularly liked gary lucas’s introduction (he has picked skip james’ blues as one of his three favourite things);


"in the darkest hours of my life, when I felt completely alone in the world and without hope, I found a tremendous solace in listening to skip james."

‘doctor faust saw the devil ; but you have seen the “devil fish”’

late last night horsemouth started reading mardi by herman melville (and very good it is too), kind of like a south seas set moby dick (but without the whale, just lashings of melville’s insane prose). sir thomas browne even gets a mention (as a failed debunked of spurious beasts).



horsemouth also began to think about possible future mixes - the hurdy gurdy from lost hearts, the sound of a whistle stole from a grave in whistle and I’ll come to you (you see he’s been watching a lot of those BBC a christmas ghost stor(y)ies, the penderecki inspired opening title music from children of the stones by sidney sager,


another possible piece of music (if it could be found) would be the theme  from the treasure of abbot thomas - written by soon-to-be-feted soundtrack composer geoffrey burgon (who would later write the themes for life of brian, the dogs of war, tinker, tailor, soldier, spy and brideshead revisited).

composing soundtracks was very much his dayjob. he also wrote church music, including a version of worldes blisse a song of roughly the same age as summer iz y-cumen in that horsemouth has attempted to cover.

outside it is sunny and bright - horsemouth will go for a wander soon.

the gift that keeps giving

horsemouth is hiding out with his folks in the countryside. breakfast has been eaten and there has been an exchange of gifts. now read on...

the internet (the gift that keeps on giving) has tracked down a concert by pentangle in norway from about the time of their first album (1968). the star or stars of the show are not renbourn, jansch, mcshee, the guitars and vocals frontline, (as you might expect) but danny thompson and terry cox (the bassist and the drummer). it is danny thompson’s version of charles mingus’ haitian fight song that really does it, that and terry cox’s party piece pentangling. for the band as a whole the ingredients are all there but the recipe isn’t quite right yet .

they end with bruton town and you can hear that the recipe is finally there - the song has enough drama to stop them from noodling. there’s little point in getting your jazzy blues from pentangle, it’s just too well mannered.


the internet has also cast up on the shoreline  almost an hour of a slightly fuddled john fahey set up in a corner of his santa monica home in 1981 and videoed pretty much ad hoc. he’s supposed to be packing for the move to oregon, he’s been sleeping badly, he hasn’t warmed up beforehand, he keeps forgetting the tunes and their titles, he praises charlie patton and blind blake (and points out that nobody can do like they did it anymore not even himself) and bola sete. it’s pretty great.

'bonnie? how are we doing on tape?'
'I'm ready to put in the next one' she says.
and the recording ends.

a warning to the curious

howard has been busy again - tracks from  david crosby, balam acab, alemu aga, woods, and MoB mainstay pharoah sanders. it begins with the ethiopian debussy (emahoy tsegué-maryam guèbrou). as a nun of the ethiopian church she was concerned about the poverty of her fellow adherents and made efforts to ameliorate it.

horsemouth is hiding out at his parents in the country.

as usual the transition to leisure does not bring immediate happiness - there is a period when horsemouth still thinks he should be productive and be ‘getting on with it’, if at least only culturally productive (this is the logic that facebook taps into - this is why it can make people miserable).

(ah the smell of bacon - horsemouth no longer eats it but it still smells good)

that having time to think does not bring happiness (like you think it would when you are busy over-working yourself) is one of the insights of thoreau and montaigne (and many others who have tried it). for the desert fathers and the solitary monks the noonday devil would appear suggesting that they’d got it all wrong.

horsemouth is privileged to have led a life free from the constant battle for survival but it has made him over-reflective and a bit of a solitary. horsemouth has savings - he’s quite a few pay cheques away from the street - he’s free to up sticks and wander off whenever he feels like it (but at some stage he’ll probably be back and having to work again). horsemouth dreams of small scale fuck you money (as the stockbrokers put it) - never have to work again money.

 what would horsemouth do then? probably go back to work.

same old man the ides of march

horsemouth is hiding out at his parents' in the countryside. now read on...

horsemouth has been fiddling about on the internet and not really doing any reading. he watched george clooney’s vanity project the ides of march (george clooney as fantasy sensible democratic candidate).

there’s an album of karen dalton’s lyrics (with some chords indicated) that people have recorded - the two horsemouth can find online are a glitch piece and a spirited but slight tune. it’s her voice that does (both on the early material and on the late material) it not the songs themselves (horsemouth opines).

there’s a photo of a young karen (presumably with her first husband).


howard has done a mix encroaching on horsemouth’s jangly guitar area (but with more up-to-date practitioners), the only oldster horsemouth recognises so far is karen dalton singing same old man. horsemouth has been taking the opportunity to listen to music online. he’s brought a guitar (the nashville). ok the sun is shining horsemouth should get out and have a wander.

a friend has recommended a man vanishes (1967) as being similar to close-up the kiarostami film horsemouth just watched - it is about (ostensibly) a man who walks out of his life (and the search for him). horsemouth is reminded of robert johnson (as depicted in peter guralnik’s searching for robert johnson) who, as described by the musicians who travelled round with him, would just up and walk out without warning .

this wandering sickness seems genuinely incomprehensible to horsemouth (he likes his creature comforts too much), this is why he’s much more of a hoarder

a dream with singing

tomorrow - the 18th - is the anniversary of the first joint mix put up by the musicians of bremen on mixcloud (here you see horsemouth impersonating a 'down-and-out' olympic mascot - photo by max 'crow' reeves)

‘success - a form of social persecution’ - pasolini (quote modified)

and sadly one of the few social persecutions horsemouth doesn’t suffer from. he’s slightly hung over (having invited darsavini out for beers after the development committee and having drunk more beers than is sensible for a worknight). still he doesn’t have to work until two thirty.

the world continues to be a dreadful place (except where horsemouth is - where it is only annoying).

legislation intended to prevent the conversion of vast swathes of london into private landlord hell with houses in multiple occupation is now preventing the monkey-on-a-stick housing co-op from creating social housing (because it would be creating houses in multiple occupation). here horsemouth sighs. ah well - fuck it (and fuck newham) - the entire time horsemouth has been engaged in this social housing lark all it has ever done is get harder to create social housing. of course the trend towards houses in multiple occupation (rather than houses housing families) is driven by low wages - only multiple occupation makes the rent affordable - precarity (both of income and of immigration status) results in ‘churn’ (a high turn over in tenants). legislation will not prevent the proportion of dwellings let to families drop in newham (for example) or elsewhere throughout what horsemouth refers to as the seaside towns.

apparently there’s a lot of cheap(er) housing in hastings.

afterwards horsemouth and darsavini discussed teleology - the bugbear against which we are all supposed to fight - and yet horsemouth thinks there are historical and political contradictions that force things in particular directions (if not at so great a level to inevitably lead to communism), they can (indeed) point the other way.

afterwards there was a dream with singing.

tales from the riverbank (‘to think that lillies so often grow out of the arses of corpses.’)

apparently predictive text has been rendering horsemouth's job as 'otter' for years (mind you one of his employers was often rendered 'the centre for the dead' allegedly). otter is probably a step forward over beachside donkey - they are sleek mobile creatures (though horsemouth is not looking forward to the fish diet).

horsemouth has survived another week and has bought some books as a reward (charity shop- sarf lun’un - four squid total).

firstly there’s a little pocket book, something by lesek kolakowski, freedom, fame, lying and betrayal (sadly not a ‘how-to’ manual). this horsemouth finds most trite and annoying and has taken to rendering quotations from it in the style of e.m. cioran, for example; ‘the total erosion of our mutual trust is (sadly not yet) an unlikely occurence.’ in it one can find tyranny (and her handmaiden anarchy) taking the waters. horsemouth thinks of it in terms of another quote whose provenance he has lost ‘to think that lillies so often grow out of the arses of corpses.’ (ok that’s a director friend of ingmar bergman reviewing another director’s efforts). once read horsemouth will chuck it in the ‘to-be-chucked’ pile.

his other acquisition is joe bageant’s deer hunting with jesus - a pre-financial crash account of class war in america (allegedly), it is in fact a kind of rednecks and gun-owners for beginners. it’s a fun lightweight read (the section on gun ownership may have shifted horsemouth’s position) but it needs harsher editing - the section where he takes at length against small-business owners reeks of small town hatreds, though the bit where he sees the few ‘successes’ lording it in neo-conservative propaganda over the ‘failures’ in the bar (and everybody accepting this as natural) sounds about right.

horsemouth has not lived in a small town for a long time - and this may be some sohn-rethel deep insight into how class domination in small town america works - or it may be just bitching. each section pulls its respective chapter off course and dilutes the impact of more interesting material that is more thinly described (attempts to resist illegal evictions, slum-landlords and alike). he points out that the mortgages on trailers -a devaluing asset - taken up by people with shocking credit histories due to a limited ability to earn given low wages (so high interest) are already sub-prime and are sure to be rinsed out later (as indeed they were).

this book is probably also not a keeper either - but it will probably go out as a gift.

horsemouth took up with bergman’s autobiography the magic lantern (or at least started dipping it) after watching liv ullman’s faithless (a fictionalisation of young ingmar’s bad behaviour). he has some more bergman somewhere he should give it a go.

a tour of the monuments of passaic new jersey

horsemouth is back in a cheerful frame of mind having wrestled with the angel of remorse - he wrestled the angel (off and on - work permitting) until about 4pm monday and then the angel vanished in a puff of smoke (leaving horsemouth in his current cheerful frame of mind).

he went to visit iona and denise (and iona’s flatmate) - iona fed him and then they adjourned to the pub (has horsemouth still not learned his lesson you ask? - er. no probably not, no.). there was some discussion of the importance of structure - structure (having to get up the next day to go to work and not wishing to be savagely hungover while doing it) is enough to save some people (arguably it has been the salvation of horsemouth). other people (maybe horsemouth one day too) just have to quit - really and truthfully their drinking etc. etc.is just destructive and selfish.

horsemouth is sad to say that he doesn’t think music can save these people either (or perhaps not even himself) - it works on the bit of the personality that alcohol works on.

in the night horsemouth dreamt of a league of underground satanists (who wore jeans and black t-shirts) at first he was ok with being in their beer hall but then it looked like it might all turn violent and horsemouth fled before becoming lost in the darkness. earlier horsemouth had had a more enjoyable dream trying to find a bar in dalston with jaime (and a woman called claire), earlier still there was a dream involving mandy and a half-human half animal god (in the style of otto rank).

rick burners II

horsemouth has survived the birthday party, he survived the hangover and is now wrestling with the angel of remorse.

the first set went well (although it was largely played in the living room round the corner) and the rick burners (horsemouth and andrew minty - still they don’t have an agreed name) largely played their hits - abba eagle, painbirds, gene clarke silver raven (the ornithologically themed part of the set), muddy waters mojo working, howling wolf back door man, various shit-kicker hymns power in the blood, how great thou art.

there was then a relocation (at siobhan and morven’s insistence) round the corner actually into the kitchen (this set too was well played and sung - as far as horsemouth can recall). there then followed some enjoyable playing through of songs from songbooks.

horsemouth then took a break (feeling a little worse for wear but still strangely invincible). it was then that he made the mistake of returning to the fray but sadly by now he was worse for wear and his reading and his timing was off and his singing voice appeared to have deserted him.

this is the reason why horsemouth is wrestling with the angel of remorse (other than that he had a good time and enjoyed himself - hopefully he wasn’t too out of order).

the party broke up at some unreasonable hour and horsemouth returned home to bed. ok in the cold light of day (and the days commute and work done) probably no harm done. probably. a friend is over visiting - horsemouth goes to meet them for food (and some others).

ok perspective is returning to him. no photos this time - so you’ll have to make do with some from last time.

‘this is not an aphorism’(language is everything)

sean has been in touch;

'kate bush - really? I suppose if she's good enough for sonny sharrock far be it from me to be critical, but still... horsemouth is incorrect - radio free albemuth is, in fact, better than valis. The latter dials down the sf in favour of something more autobiographical, but seeing as sf is dick's strong point, this is counter productive. OMAC is better than either, of course .might try and catch up sometime late next week...?'





‘he died right here in park, one of them says. that communist speaker, and from undernourishment. that’s the way bonar died... that’s the way they all die.’

this from the speakers by heathcote williams. calder theatre bookshop, the cut, four squid. horsemouth’s reward to himself for having survived the week (great cover too). horsemouth was interested to discover that the alleged free speech at speakers' corner was derived from the privilege protecting the words of those about to be hanged ('under the protection of imminent death' as foucault puts it). axel he may have met.

the first part of today’s title is (not) an aphorism by derrida (he wrote on aphorisms? - like krauss, adorno, brecht and canetti? tell horsemouth more!). the second part is the name of a business selling interpreting services - to which horsmouth replies with another of derrida’s (not) aphorisms (rearranged in a horsemouth fashion) - translation in necessary (but impossible).

at seven last night horsemouth went to practice with andrew minty for the next rick burners (or whatever they are called) gig - it would be good to get in the bleak midwinter into the set (and some other christmas tunes - that fleet foxes one about snow for example - seeing as they are playing the gig in december).

horsemouth has a mere two weeks to work and a pizza to eat and then he’s away to the wilds of herefordshire. last night horsemouth watched two guy maddin films (both of which he enjoyed) - dracula (the musical) which seemed to use some of dormez-vous and the heart of the world. both imitated the style of black and white silent movies - with that smart montage, vaseline on the lens, tinted film etc.

drag me to hell - the casting of the runes - the hounds of love

she may be a tory but... 'two questions ... alone seem worth knowing about... the riddle of the miraculous gift that makes an artist... and... to comprehend... better the value and effect of his (sic.) works’

 says freud - horsemouth has butchered the quote a little (freud’s real interest was autobiography). er that and telepathy and the shakespeare -bacon controversy. or at least so says derrida (or nicholas royle in his after derrida).

last night horsemouth watched drag me to hell - ambitious bank girl evicts gypsy granny - gypsy granny curses her by stealing a button of her clothes - after seeking occult advice our heroine is advised she must pass it back and announce it as a gift. this is not quite as textual as night of the demon (based on m.r. james the casting of the runes) and this the source of the sample in kate bush's the hounds of love... but nearly.

(there’s even a train).

there’s also a thin(ish) subplot involving stolen files and workplace competitor. we are with farmgirl (with her elocution lessons and new coat) as she tries to keep her bourgois boyfriend in the face of maternal hostility. horsemouth suspects that friends will laugh in that as a university employee he is expected to have spare cash to fund her hiring occult professionals.