horsemouth last post (the wormwood star / fat cat day)

last post of the year.



there are several ways of dividing up the year - horsemouth practices all of them. horsemouth is hiding out in the green far from humanity (well ok with his family) until such time as the hue and cry has died down. then he will return among you to survey the wreckage.

once again horsemouth’s friends and family are denouncing the departing year as a bit of a pig - next year (in the chinese horoscope) is the year of the earth dog (though it won’t begin til February 16th) - the departing year is the year of the fire rooster (which was supposed to be a good one for getting things done).

horsemouth has already published his books read, films seen, gigs attended list for the year - it’s a bit too unwieldy to be useful - a bit to full of random ephemera watched because it was on tv or read because it was a quid in a charity shop, or free from a front garden.

gig of the year? the alice coltrane ashram choir (though an honourable mention for the l’ocelle mare at the start of the year, adrain sherwood with creation rebel, the fado).

he re-read the philip k. dick sci-fi this year (and will get more of it), and the milan kundera, rewatched some michael hanneke, discovered mario bava and italian horror. but it was a strange year in that there were no goncourts, zolas or balzacs, no dostoyevskys or gogols.

theoretically no concerted efforts this year - perhaps a mild bump after seeing ben’s dead the ends (just about the only thing he saw in a cinema all year). kracauer’s late (ie. USA) theory of film had the most beautiful sentences. CD of the year? probably charlie marriano’s helen 12trees. the ecstatic music of alice coltrane in second. (ok maybe the other way round).

‘like many surrealists, he detests music’ - bunuel on breton.

horsemouth has grown interested in marjorie cameron and in leona wood - leona not only soundtracked cameron’s the wormwood star but also (by curious chance) illustrated w.h.hudson’s jungle utopia green mansions.



just about everyone in horsemouth’s family has a filthy cough. today another day of reading, farting about on facebook, a walk on the common. tomorrow more of the same.

the day after (the 2nd) he is back to the wen - the 3rd is the anniversary of the day on which the initial events of true detective take place, the 4th is fat cat day - when the average FTSE 100 chairman will have made the same amount of money as the average worker makes in a year. horsemouth will not even be back at work yet.

'he tells a strange story... about harry smith’s spirit haunting the anthology basement..'

John Fahey - Yttrium Festival, Chicago 1996 from Tyler Hubby on Vimeo.



'he tells a strange story... about harry smith’s spirit haunting the anthology basement. steps would be heard. film cans would suddenly fly off shelves. he arranged an exorcism to get rid of the spirit but cancelled the exorcism, deciding that he should let harry’s spirit... stay put...'

harry smith alive was an awkward cuss (and an awkward tenant for jonas mekas and the film anthology), dead he was no less so. but as soon as the exorcism was cancelled his spirit became calm (true to the spirit of his pranksterism).

ginsberg went to sit with his body in the morgue (that’s what probably triggered it off).

horsemouth’s back is a bit rubbish at the minute (too much time spent lolling about on the internet - he has found john fahey wearing dark glasses in a dark room and playing lap steel, he has found marjorie cameron, a film of her made by curtis harrington soundtracked by philip harland and leona wood).



he’s debating whether to stay out in the wilds a bit longer (or return to the seaside towns) to see in the new year.

the tracks from the most recent musicians of bremen recordings have come through (howard has been busy)- horsemouth is giving them a good listen.

books, gigs, films 2017

gigs of 2017

·                     THAMES Big Band and Senior String Ensemble

·                     stick in the wheel, jon boden, laura smyth & ted kemp, lisa knapp (winter solstice)

·                     old weird albion (sharron kraus, justin hopper, wendy pye, angus carlyle). 

·                     the ecstatic music of alice coltrane -st. luke's old street.

·                     adam, micalef and a double bass and dub poetry duo play max's closing party (friday 13^th)

·                     adam and gemma thompson (the guitarist from the savages, micalef, niall mcdevitt, the bass and dub poetry duo (max’s opener)

·                     four artists read a panegyric to their favourite artists (mayakovsky, tarkofsky, cage, hélio oiticica) and two of them played sambas - vamos passear (let´s go for a wander) on the way back Mão Morta (porto)

·                     locals fado (past massaleros in porto)

·                     puppet show (near fontinhas in porto)

·                     william bassinski (round chapel)

·                     bermondsey folk festival – stick in the wheel, martin simpson

·                     unicorn stoner sludge rock fest 

·                     adrian sherwood with creation rebel 

·                      caesura/ acceso launch (theresa may and her 'my little pony') 

·                     snufkin, stick in the wheel (west) 

·                     l'ocelle mare, kelly jane jones (sarf) 

Books 2017

Auto(biographies)

·         my last breath (luis bunuel).

·         round Ireland in low gear (eric newby)

·                     praeterita (ruskin) 

·                     the glass teat - harlan ellison, 

·                     co.aitch - american civil war memoir - samuel r. watkins.

·         Orwell – raymond Williams

·          the era of german expressionism (ed. paul raabe),

·                     words and characters - lytton strachey, 

·                     in search of robert johnson - guralnik, 

• far away and long ago (w.h. hudson)
• an imagined life (richard hoggart)
• in the prison of her skin (violette le duc), 
• the mayor of macdougal street (dave van ronk)
• colerdige on shakespeare (ed. terry hawkes), 

·                     unto this last (ruskin), 

·                     recollections of rosetti (hall caine), 

·                     the music of angels (michael tippett papers vol.2), 

·                     christ stopped at eboli (carlo levi), 

·                     here comes everybody (encounter therapy), 

• travels with donkey in the cevennes - robert louis Stevenson      

Film/ photography / theory/ art

·         early cinema: space, frame, narrative (ed. thomas elsaesser),

·                     photography (eric de mare),

·                     theory of film - siegfried kracauer, 

·                     a concise history of photography, 

·                     8 metaphors (because the moving image is not a book)

·                     an artist of our time - john berger,

•  imperialism (george lichtheim) 
• industrial society (raymond aron) 

·                     the new spirit of capitalism - boltanski and chiapello  

• strategy safari (mintzberg et al. excerpts)
• the condition of the working class in england - engels, 
• the main currents of marxism (vol.3) - lesek kolakowski, 

·                     thinking fast and slow - daniel khaneman, 

·                     understanding media - marshall mcluhan,

• the return of the political (chantal moufe) 
• homo sacer (agamben), 
• unto this last (ruskin)
• the future of the image (ranciere) 
• poetry language thought (heidegger) intro and dips 
• music and the irish literary imagination (w.b. yeats chapter) 
• revolution and war (marx), 
• gramsci (james joll),  
• the midnight disease
• minima moralia 3,6, 36,63 (adorno)
• ways of seeing (berger)

sci-fi returns

·                     the difference engine (sterling and gibson),

·                      the silver bees - ernst junger,  

• the man in the high castle - philip k. dick, 
• do androids dream of electric sheep- philip k. dick, 

·          

the gothic continues

·         gothic short stories (ed. david blair)

• 12 gothic tales (various)

·                     early medieval art - ,

• yankee whalers in the south seas - a.b.c. whipple 
• mardi (continued)
• lonesome traveller - jack kerouac, 
• the art of death

·                     hunting pirate heaven - kevin rushby,

• the enchanter - vladimir nabokov                 
  

history/ local history

·                     the people - selina todd,

·                     the bulwark shore: exploring thanet and the cinque ports - caroline hillier 

• ship of fools (fintan o'toole)
• unhealthy state, 

·                     days of the year (dates as appropriate and intro)

• the secret history (procopius) 
• london's pride: a glorious history of the capital's gardens, 

                 

books various 

·                     the private life, 

·                     the lost honour of katherina blum (boll), 

·                     into the woods, 

·                     folk revival: the rediscovery of a national music - fred woods 

• music in the US: a historical introduction
• isabelle/ symphonie pastorale (gide)

·                     the art of the novel, ignorance, immortaity - milan kundera, 

·                     recent writing from italy,

·                     knowledge and control 

·                     a whole life 

·                     women in a river landscape - heinrich boll

·                     another life (trifonov) 

·                     connectography,

• the examined life - stephen grosz
•                   an anthology of i-ching, 

• freefall - william golding, 

films

·         anniki-bobo

·         Arabian nights 1: the restless one

·         hound of the baskervilles (hammer horror version),

·         legend,

·         Bronson,

·         through a scanner darkly,

·         supernatural (1st series)

·         summoned by bells (sir john Betjeman)

·                     the assassination of jesse james by the coward robert ford, 

·                     through a scanner darkly, 

·                     the kingsman service, 

·                     dog soldiers, 

·                     the phantom/ the shadow, 

·                     six feet from the edge, 

·                     various mockingjays and x-men

·                     rewatch true detective series one. 

·                     series 1 and 2 homeland,

·                     possession,

·                     bonnie and clyde,

·                     dead the ends,

·                     tales from the crypt,

·                     the vault of terror (amicus),

·                     children of the corn (feeble remake)

·                     the magic box, 

·                     at the earth’s core,

·                     warlords of atlantis, 

·                     the lone ranger, 

·                     pressure - horace ove, 

·                     child 44, 

·                     utopia / eden / arcadia, 

·                     carrie (2012) 

·                      django unchained 

·                      to live and die in LA 

·                     the witch 

·                      thx1138

·                      the revenant 

•  2 manson family documentaries
• urban legend 
•  'without a clue' (sherlock holmes)
•  high rise (j.g. ballard)
•  american sniper
  
  
  
• a wanted man 
• star trek 
• I robot 
• the sons of anarchy (season 2) 
• aliens 
•  the ninth gate  

·                     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

• semikrasky, 
• conversation piece, 
• cosmopolis, 
• repoman, 
• cross of iron, 
• eagles over london, 
• inglorious bastards (original), 
• sleepless, 
• two days and one night (dardenes brothers)
• be glad for the song has no ending (incredible string band), 
• control (joy division), 
• gaslight (couldn't watch it), 
• the tunnel, 
• demons, 
• foxy brown, 
• the cat o' nine tails, 
• chungking express.
  
  
  
• finding vivian maier, 
• blood simple, 
• mademoiselle (jean genet), 
• zatoichi, 
• illuminacja, 
• akira, 
• wiseblood, 
• horns, 
• sin city, 
• do widenia do jutra, 
• the gleaners, 
• the lighthouse (mayak) 

·                     hamlet

·                     the leopard man

·                     arabian nights 1

·                     susana

·                     un chien andalus

·                     l'age d'or

·                     the castle (hanneke)

·                     the testament of dr. mabuse

·                     before the revolution

·                     maitresse

·                     les stances a sophie

·                     les amants de pont neuf

·                     henry fool

·                     the theory of achievement

·                     ambition

·                     joy + helen

·                     jean vigo collection 

·                     l'une chante l'autre pas

·                     blood on satan's claw

·                     under the skin

·                     terence davies trilogy

·                     fanny and alexander

·                     loves of a blond (milos forman)

·                     battleship potemkin  and various grierson movies about trawlers and fishing (drifters, granton trawler, north sea) and len lye trade tattoo

·                     nobody knows

·                     35 shots of rum

·                     the man from london (bela tarr)

·                     dr. phibes rises again

·                     rivals to sherlock holmes: carnacki the ghost detective - horse of the invisible