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.