hail porphyrion (the destruction wrought by a demon emperor)

horsemouth is spending time in the cloud forest. he has fed the forest beasts.

this morning he rose early, ground the coffee, and then wandered off (through the forest) to water the allotment. while he was up there rain fell. the storm clouds have now cleared and it is sunny again. today perhaps a bar-b-cue. he needs to find a power cable for his laptop (then he can enjoy that full internet access thing).

monday/ tuesday - a jam with paul and claire (probably). wednesday - the remove from the forest and a visit to a cemetary.

in the bosphorous a huge enraged whale nicknamed porphyrion was a danger to shipping for the best part of half a century. meanwhile on land procopius speculates that the imperial couple (justinian and theodora) are in fact demons sent to destroy humanity (viz. chapter five: the destruction wrought by a demon emperor). ‘the actions of demons are unmistakeably different from those of human beings’ 

like the andreotti of il divo the emperor prowls his apartments late at night unable to sleep, like him also ‘he could not be trusted in anything except inhumanity and avarice’, like him also he could be very friendly, charming even, but usually gave no indication of his feelings. like trump his pronouncements were random and chaotic, a near illiterate, uncouth, rude, ruthless.

a narrative of the mutiny on board the ship globe of nantucket, in the pacific ocean, jan 1824. and the journal of residence if two years on the mulgrave islands: with observations on the manners and customs of the inhabitants.

here we see a ritualised journey into a symbolic south (seas)  - of the kind made by melville and murnau (we could imagine a murnau - a secret history of metropolis at the triangulation point of horsemouth’s current reading). there are narratives of ascent from the south - of a differentiation of an individual self from community and history, narratives of immersion also, of a return to community.

today is the birthday of harry smith, collector of the folkways anthology of american folk music;

 “had he never done anything with his life but this anthology, harry smith would still have borne the mark of genius across his forehead. I'd match the anthology up against any other single compendium of important information ever assembled. dead sea scrolls? nah. I'll take the anthology.”
– john fahey

in the library sat opposite a dude in an 'I didn't go to work today...' t-shirt

today is hot and sunny (horsemouth is hiding - for a little while - in the library). yesterday was himmel fahrt - the day german men head to the mountains with trolley-loads of beer. horsemouth forgot to mention it.

this is as good a way to celebrate ascension day as horsemouth can think of - other than playing ascension very loud - he played ornette coleman’s free jazz instead (like really, really really free).

instead horsemouth and sten watched a richard curtiss film about time travel and the middle classes (horsemouth and sten are children of this particular institution) and had a bottle of beer each.

time travel (like film) gives you time again (and as such it is haunted by the ghosts of what might have been). this works well because many people are haunted by the ghosts of what might have been too - the job of richard’s film was to reconcile people to this (or at least to propose a way of doing this). the tension is between the singing of the sirens of memory and the possibilities of the present moment (faced with the disruptive possibilities of the present moment many people take refuge in the siren’s (sweetly) singing).

richard has his central character relive life each day (but a little better than he did first time around) - so far so groundhog day. at the heart of this all for richard (of course - in these modern times) is the family.


next there was a film staring orlando bloom as a 20th century humanist born early enough to participate in the crusades - not even liam neeson as his dad could save him (and the presence of jeremy irons in full mission mode didn’t help either). then something strange started to happen - life became itchy and uncomfortable - the dishwasher wasn’t working properly, a bill hadn’t been paid, the room was a little untidy (ok very untidy).

this morning horsemouth and sten discussed the musicians they had known - and measured their potential against their achievement. people prefer the story that they won through with their superior talent (rather than the one where they just got lucky and then knuckled down and just got on with the work).

subsequently (this morning) horsemouth has felt a little siren struck but as he converts it into writing it seems to be clearing. he goes this evening to hide out in the forest and fiddle about on the internet - there is an allotment too (joy of joys).

as usual, when work ends, horsemouth gets a little anxious, then when work begins again, he gets a little grumpy.

last weekend’s events (charles’ river holy boys tuning)

friday night (as you know) horsemouth was in the pub with howard (one pint became four - but fortunately no more).

saturday horsemouth was out toasting in the sun (reading mostly) and then staying in (watching a dvd box set of the sons of anarchy season two).

sunday he planned more of the same but andrew minty invited him out first to a community gardens and next the park. in both places he (playing fool that he is) played a little guitar and attempted to impart his hard won guitar wisdom. he then went for food with minty and lisa (thank you for inviting him).

lisa had her guitar tuned in standard eadgbe - hence some cover versions were attempted (jolene, wind beneath my wings, something by the grateful dead).

the girl in the community gardens had her guitar tuned dada(-12)be (or something like that, nearly as horsemouth is fond of remarking) but her main interest was short little repeated phrases (though she professed to be a john renbourn fan). horsemouth recommended african music (funk would have done it too) ali farka toure etc. and is usual standbys john fahey and robbie basho (he’s a bit of a basho evangelist). he could also have recommended robert fripp’s league of craft guitarists (more than one person doing small repeating riffs in a knock-off minimalist fashion).

in both cases horsemouth recommended getting ones thumb perpendicular to the neck of the guitar when holding down chords (it just gives you greater strength and better string termination - and hence a clearer sound), in lisa’s case he recommended a cheat for playing the a-chord.

the sons of anarchy is ostensibly about the problems of community (a very horsemouth issue) but in fact it is mainly concerned with problems of masculinity (or rather their erasure in a fantasy). horsemouth enjoyed it (though it is a little grim) - maybe he should watch season one sometime.

he’s been reading dazzling stranger (a biography of bert jansch) - from whence the charles’ river holy boys tuning - it’s a bit stodgy and fattening (like all music books - music is incredibly difficult to write about well) and dvd boxed sets.

monday night and one turns into four again and horsemouth staggered home drunk. this was deeply deeply foolish. at some point he got some chips (he hopes he paid for them).

by wednesday  horsemouth had recovered his equanimity - he’s away to inspect his quarters (and various allotments)  in the forest - today he was away to sunny greenwich (CD and book buying mission). he should have bought dazzling stranger a double CD compilation of the finest moments of bert jansch’s career (including the later neglected bits), instead he bought a 2 CD’s in one compilation of jack orion and nicola (and free jazz by the ornette coleman double quartet - but that’s another story).

books wise it was another visit to halcyon(and on) but the muse of book buying was not with him so he only emerged with procopius’ the secret history (one squid)- a book in which bad things happen among the late romanochristian ruling class. it’s page three and we’ve already had some murders and an outbreak of incest. (kind of like I claudius  on steroids).

‘why was the book written if it could not be published?’ wonders g.a.williamson in his introduction.

horsemouth was on point hill, an artist was there having drawn the new vista from there (for engraving later), as was his wife (horsemouth presumes) and a woman walking her dogs. the dogs made friends of everybody. apparently beneath the hill there are caves - party spaces before the war, air raid shelters during. he then descended via pigsty alley and past the house  where  alfred salter quaker mayor, doctor and member of the settlement movement was born (a quaker like many yankee whaleship captains). melville has published moby dick when a series of attacks on whaleships by an enraged whale begin, he writes, ‘I wonder if my evil art has raised a monster.’ 

the horrors at big sur

horsemouth has survived the weekend - sunday he spent mostly being hungover. ok there was a little light babysitting sitting in a park in the shade groaning. friday night he babysat also (being a gig enabler).

it was saturday night that did it - emboldened and enthused horsemouth and andrew minty wandered off to a stoner/ sludge metal gig in camden - four bands - horsemouth’s favourite were surya who described themselves as ‘post-metal’ (kind of shoegaze cut with black sabbathian creeping dread), black shapes, a two piece were on first, there was a three piece in an MC5 type mold (power chords, clenched fist salutes - kalloused (?) horsemouth thinks) the guitarist had an anarcho-syndicalist sticker on the guitar. decent.

thereafter horsemouth’s will buckled and he allowed himself to be dragged out first to the regent and then, with a girl they met there, up to the eyeliner bar. there he drank and danced to northern soul and then walked back in the early hours (having acquired an additional two young people).

and of course sunday he suffered (as you know)

kerouac has retreated to a cabin in the woods at big sur - alone in the transcendental nature of thoreau and emerson- but it’s not going well, he pursued by the horrors, by a gnawing sense of dread. horsemouth found it (garden wall potlatch) on his way back from the park sunday, together with sigmund freud’s three essays on the theory of sexuality.

he still has the common stream (rowland parker) on the go.

tommorow huntington ashram monastery day (the anniversary of its recording) - today unicorn sludge/ stoner metal day - yesterday was old may day.

horsemouth has survived another ‘week’ of ‘work’, soon, he is fond of kvetching, the great poverty will begin - horsemouth will sit around in the sun reading books, playing a bit of guitar and farting about on the internet, he will travel (as much as his finances will afford). horsemouth is intrigued by the story of the cragg valley coiners - the weavers of raveloe gone bad - counterfeit money manufactured on epic proportions (with the aid of local publicans).

the week after next horsemouth is away to hide out in the forest for a few days.

next weekend it will be twenty years since horsemouth joined the monkey-on-a-stick housing co-operative. they have housed him and enabled him to continue his low rent existence on the margins (this in itself is no bad thing) - horsemouth would like to extend this opportunity to more of the youth. it not quite time yet to abandon the seaside towns to the cupcake shops and the flat whites.

welcome home husband (however drunk you are)

such is the name of a herb (diuretic, eaten in salads in poorer part of europe) that horsemouth found in suburban bushwacker’s book of edible/ medicinal plants (not richard mabey’s food for free but something similar). what would it do? worried horsemouth and the bushwacker.

horsemouth is suffering with an undeserved hangover (ok no- he deserves it). he went out to see stick in the wheel play (with myk and lou) at a folk club in romford. getting there was a little trying - broken down trains, district line to upminster - shuttle train to romford via emerson park - but horsemouth did it in the end (as did myk and lou who merely started later and waited for the next train).

so what happened at the gig?


stick in the wheel - poor horse but no allan moore song. horsemouth may have sung along. he is up a from here beer mat. myk suggested starting a not from here record label.

the elderly brothers - memorable name that. three men older than horsemouth cover neil young.

jolene - memorable name that. joan baez type thing. three or four songs - not horsemouth’s thing but decent.
aisline ___ - in gaelic so don’t ask horsemouth what it was about.

a song about pension age getting further away - a social issue now closer to horsemouth’s heart than it once was.

a satirical song about trump’s great wall ‘down mexico way’.

a small child played a tin whistle to rapturous applause (think ralph wiggam but small blond and female). 

songs?

there was a great version of down by the bonnie banks of fordie (horsemouth’s scottish granny’s maiden name), a great farewell nancy sung unaccompanied by a member of rom shanty, and a traditional handfasting song that resembled the wedding of george and billie macunias (but the other way around).

today horsemouth will install his newly purchased (and not entirely paid for) oaken chest. wednesday he will work. thursday he may go out and see stick in the wheel again (down nunhead way) if he can get any takers. friday is the birthday of dante gabriel rosettti, sunday is huntington ashram monastery/ under milk wood day. he has finished reading robert louis stevenson's travels with a donkey in the cévennes and even checked up some of the locations on his map of france. 

that boy's no fool (he brings sandwiches)

horsemouth has survived until the weekend (all that remains is to drink his celebratory bottle of beer). sunday he may well be off to romford (stick in the wheel) - any takers?

last night horsemouth was at a william basinski gig - overlayed ambient loops faded up and then er... nothing much else happened. the dry ice boiled nicely under the lightshow. strobe flowers moved round the walls of the round chapel.

at the end of the first song there was a mistimed ‘whoo -yeah! clap...’ intended to trigger applause (which succeeded in stifling it utterly).

at the end of the second ‘song’ the gig was over and we had applause of classical music duration and intensity. william made an engaging host.

there was support - horsemouth can’t find the name but he was an engaging and similar (but using crunch 70ies metal loops and some singing) - overall horsemouth preferred him.

to tell the truth horsemouth was not in sympathy for the gig - he had rushed like a devil to get there through crowds of posh boys attempting to pick fights with street preachers, past a hellfire and brimstone preacher at the entrance to liverpool street station - ‘hellfire’ said the preacher, ‘fire pon dem! FIRE!!’ rejoined horsemouth meaningfully in passing.

it is the end of the (academic) year where because of an infinite series of nails, then an infinite series of horseshoes, horses, prince harolds, kingdoms , and futures of the western world are lost. horsemouth has broadly at least 3 years on the go - an academic year (ending), a financial year (just started), a calender year (about 4/12ths in): in addition to that there’s a cyclical equinox/ solstice year further divided with celtic quarter days and the john and alice coltrane festival calendar (with additional dates as and when required).

today (and tomorrow) is the anniversary of the recording of sweet earth flying  by marion brown. sean will visit later.

travels with a donkey in the cévennes

by "AF" - the london magazine, vol. xxxiv, may 1765; reprinted in
montague summers, werewolf (1933), Public Domain, Link



a book purchase from yesterday (robert louis stevenson one squid bookmarx bargain bucket). the other book was an ethnography of creative writing courses (ditto).

initially stevenson can tell us nothing (except how much hard work it is to beat a recalcitrant donkey up hill and down dale) but as soon as he gets a goad (and the donkey becomes used to her new owner) he becomes more observant . he sets out on the 23rd of september with modestine the donkey and sells her on (and completes the rest of the journey by stagecoach) on october 3rd. remind horsemouth to revisit it at the appropriate time.

the locals are still terrorised by the beast of gévaudan  Élie berthet's 1858 novel la bête du gévaudan attributes the attacks (in part) to a werewolf.

even more worrying, for the raised protestant but catholic curious stevenson, were the hermits wandering around - most notably at our lady of the snows. stevenson is well primed he used to study a copy of marco sadeler’s hermits as a child and has a copy of peyrat’s pastors of the desert (a history of clandestine protestant lay preachers) with him tucked in his sleeping bag (and was familiar with samuel bastide’s les pasteurs du désert).

horsemouth goes to work this afternoon.

books, films, gigs, events april 2017

books

• another life (trifonov) 
• the return of the political (chantal moufe) 
• connectography, 
• gogol (ukrainian tales, the overcoat)
•  imperialism (george lichtheim) 
• industrial society (raymond aron) 
• a vision (w.b. yeats)

 films 

• the ghoul 
• cronos 
• black sunday 
• back sabbath 
• castle of blood (bava italian horror season) 
• time of the wolf 
• code inconnu 
• the piano teacher 
• hidden 
• white ribbons (haneke season) 
• creature from the black lagoon 

gigs adrian sherwood with creation rebel 

events 

• matt's opening (beer rebellion gypsy hill)
•  picnic lordship rec 
• denise visits 
•  visit folks in green

sundown on may eve (dialogues and soliloquies)

sundown on may eve is of course when the witches sabbat happens in the devil rides out. successfully negotiating this transition (the last period of darkness before the relocated may day) is an important part of the cycle of the year.

horsemouth could have spent it in a circular building listening to sludge doomer stoner metal, or he could have been blagged into an avant garde techno gig (with the italian equivalent of steve hillage) but instead he was at matt’s exhibition opening in sunny gypsy hill (downstairs at beer rebellion just opposite the railway station). he urges you all to go and purchase art (minimally you should at least purchase the new one which includes horsemouth in cartoon form).

horsemouth talked to lots of people he hadn’t met before (but proportionately one person who had met him before avoided speaking to him). on the way back he discussed polish authors and film makers, while he was there he discussed the films of terry gilliam and the hassidim of stamford hill (with a stamford hill resident who was less than enamored of them).

horsemouth (conversely) is a big fan of the hassidim because on the sabbath they are not permitted to work (or even operate labour saving appliances such as light switches). no they just have to sit there and contemplate god. (ok ok - if it is desperate they can ask a non-jew to do it, a shabbas goy).

saturday horsemouth was away out of the seaside towns to sunny totenham to see lou and myk and associate scenesters.

mayday itself the libraries were closed so horsemouth was prevented from sharing his wisdom with you. he began reading boll’s women in a river landscape: a novel of dialogues and soliloquies.