march 2018 - books, films, gigs, events

books 

illuminations - walter benjamin (introduction and work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction again), the philosophy of marx - etienne balibar (start), hebrew myths - robert graves (genesis and dips), think of the self speaking - harry smith interviews, psychology, racism and fascism - michael billig, wolf among the wolves - hans fallada

films

the medusa touch (a psychic richard burton), 10 cloverfield ave,  reservoir dogs, pulp fiction (tarrantino season), pride and prejudice and zombies, masque of the red death (vincent price, roger corman, american international pictures), the american, wolfcop, howl, late phase (werewolf season) johnny cash: the man, his world, his music,  ozark (some)

gigs

moongazing hare, in gowan ring, united bible studies (london branch),  alison mcdonnell - awesome once again, great version of borderline  by nico, trappist afterland, revolutionary army of the infant jesus

‘this restless hungry feeling does a body no good’ (an action whose meaning we can no longer be sure of)

aargh! horsemouth is out of time with the universe. thursday he went for a pint with sten (which turned into four), they ate, and chatted to various locals (pleased to meet you peoples - even the attempted table reserver).

in the morning though he felt anxious (daryll seemed to be having boat difficulties but by afternoon they had evapourated). it being long good friday the libraries were shut so horsemouth had to forgo his communion with the world wide confession (ok he sneaked onto sten’s computer later in the evening but still). john clarkson was due to come and johnny was over visiting and there was a garden party - but horsemouth did not feel up to it and stayed in (feeling bad about staying in).

horsemouth watched johnny cash: the man, his world, his music - johnny cash seems to be suffering with something - the whole time he's not onstage or in a recording studio his interpersonal 'music' seems to be wrong. whence the first quotation at the start of this post. johnny cash visits his family's old place, the family sing, he plays san quentin. later horsemouth watched a bit of pride and prejudice with zombies  (which cheered him up a bit).

in an old london review of books (rescued from recycling) horsemouth found an article about writing a biography of chaucer that mentions in passing foucault’s moi, pierre de riviere... (and thence rene allio’s film of the same title). pierre murders his mother, sister and brother - his case is extensively documented in the courts and by pierre himself (who writes a kind of autobiography). whence (from the article) the second quotation at the start of this post.

tonight horsemouth will be staying in being good - sunday he's working with howard he needs to be on tip-top form.

my very elegant mother just served up new potatoes (oh great now that’s two things I have to remember)

first a mnemonic for remembering the names of the planets in order.

second a criticism of the whole notion of mnemonics.

harry smith first went to university near seattle - as a result of the record drive for shellac during the second world war (it had uses in airplane manufacture) the whole city was awash with old records from the early blues, hillbilly, and cajun era - this was the start of harry smith’s collection (the one that later formed the basis of the anthology of american folk music).

curiously enough he says there were a lot of japanese and chinese records as well (presumably from communities interned during the second world war).

unlike fahey etc. harry smith had no need to go door-to-door on record collecting trips to the south (running the risk of being mistaken for voter registering civil rights activists, shot by racist vigilantes and buried in the woods).

later he finds a record warehouse out in new jersey (but that’s another story).

‘darkness and decay and the red death held illimitable dominion over all’

over the weekend horsemouth  watched roger corman’s masque of the red death - american independent pictures and samuel z. arkoff production, starring vincent price (all the marks of quality right there).

‘darkness and decay and the red death held illimitable dominion over all’

wolfgang (mr. ‘the secret is to have but few needs and thus time to live your own life’ ) in hans fallada’s wolf among wolves makes his money by gambling. pawning his property, betting short, with small stakes, making enough to live and then getting out fast. fallada takes us into the almost silent gambling dens of weimar era berlin held in the rented for the night parlours of respectable bourgeois families - a kind of dr. mabuse der spieler. 

mid-morning of the day after wolfgang wants coffee - but his landlady doesn’t want to give him any because the exchange rate versus the dollar is about to come out and the replacement coffee will almost certainly cost her more.

 wolfgang bemoans inflation; ‘this is an ingenious, entirely post-war, invention; they rob you of one half of the money in your pocket without touching the pocket or the money.’  

over the weekend horsemouth went to make music (maybe) - himself and howard would have been working  on marrying up denise ishaque’s vocals on sliabh (recorded in her kitchen in carrigaline sounds like) with the backing track they made in howard’s bedroom in hackney. but they were too knackered and didn't want to risk making important decisions while tired.

horsemouth thinks the result will be a stunner - some elements of the guitar will have to go he thinks (there’s been some tune wandering over the years on horsemouth’s part).

sleepless night thinking about it all again...

horsemouth is a little tired - he didn’t sleep well. sten (suburban bushwacker) on the other hand is up and around and full of beans (or at least he was last night). at least horsemouth has some more beer stashed against the apocalypse (he probably owes daryll another pound for it though).

horsemouth was thinking about it all (again) - thinking about the musicians of bremen volume 3 album (provisionally titled the musician of bremen so that horsemouth can sell it at his solo gigs).

at the moment the tracklisting looks something like this - satan (your kingdom must come down) probably end with this (always good to end with a hymn), worldes blisse keep this far away from satan... on the basis of their similarity, the devil song well it is what it is by now,  sliabh... with denise ishaque singing on the first half and howard singing on the second.

all these are the vocal tunes and then there are some instrumentals to be had, her hair like some glittering gold (for macol finzi-contini) which is la fille au cheveux de lin by debussy as a slide guitar instrumental (nearly), when the faun met alice again slide guitar but a more experimental piece, pantisocracy on the susquehanna a harmonium/ guitar duet stressing their essential equality, serpent(S) an attempt at the indestructible beat, all of these were recorded with howard mostly using john clarkson’s harmonium and melodica (horsemouth regrets not getting the omnichord in there).

horsemouth is debating adding an edited version of one of the slide guitar tunes he recorded over snatch foster’s place (in his bathroom in fact) - renamed funeral music for john fahey and robbie basho- edited down he thinks it would fit.

but perhaps some tunes are weaker than others and should be left on the cutting room floor.

and perhaps horsemouth needs to think about the track names more.

‘the secret is to have but few needs and thus time to live your own life’

so remarks wolf(gang) in hans fallada’s wolf among wolves. horsemouth hasn’t read the introduction like he normally does (there isn’t one) but there is an afterward (which he has - until now overlooked). he suspects it is not going to be so simple for wolfgang.

it doesn’t look like horsemouth will get much time away over easter (which is good because he could do with earning money so that he won’t starve) or perhaps they will radically swap the work off him (who knows). he’s only got tomorrow morning to do and then he is free.

horsemouth has his health (that’s the main thing he reckons).

wednesday he walked up into walthamstralia - the most excellently large oxfam is gone (replaced by a lidl - ok that's a lie). he bought a book on philosophers and kings.

saturday (4pm-ish) he’s round howard’s working on denise’s version of sliabh - he’s very hopeful. he also thinks it might be an idea to use part of a recording he made round snatch foster’s house one time - a track that manages to lift two fahey-esque motifs and grieg’s mars - bringer of war (he’ll have to copy it off the CD it’s on though). if anything the major attraction is the harsh reverb on it (it was recorded in snatch foster’s bathroom).

an absolute precariousness (in the mirror of practice)

‘for individuality, considered as an absolute, amounts in practice for the masses to an absolute precariousness or ‘contingency’ of conditions of existence, just as ownership (of oneself, of objects) amounts to a generalised dispossession.’ - etienne balibar, the philosophy of marx., p. 37-8.

the equinox 2018 has just taken place (16:15 on tuesday, 20th march). it is also the anniversary of the visitation of alice coltrane by the spirit of igor stravinsky.

"stravinsky has once again wonderfully inspired me. the infinity sound of the eternity permeates his music. I am truly grateful to stravinsky for his offerings, and for the sharing of his gifts with us: and for the channel through which he communicates to me from the other world."  - alice coltrane. her version of  spring rounds can be heard on the eternity album.

from the equinox onwards  horsemouth will no longer be in the long dark tunnel, he will have emerged into the light. there will be easter, there will be british summer time, there will be may eve, there will be the summer solstice. sometime between may eve and the solstice (roughly equidistant) - horsemouth will be finished work for the year.

phew this will be a lucky escape (though there is of course ‘next year’ looming over the horizon towards the end of september - but it is far enough away that it doesn’t have to be thought about (yet)).

thereafter horsemouth will devote himself to playing music and reading books and going on long pointless walks. yay.

denise has recorded a vocal for sliabh (said sleeve if horsemouth is reliably advised) - himself and howard have it (by the wonders of email) and should be able to add it to the track. just in time.

a helpful soul has put up a copy of fahey's master's thesis

materials for the study of religion and culture in the lower east side

‘harry was down on another floor, engaged in a long recording project called materials for the study of religion and culture in the lower east side, which included murderers babbling on amphetamine in the streets, jump-rope rhymes, bawdy songs, rap, (the) complete canon of gregory corso’s early poetry...’ - allen ginsberg interview with hal willner, introduction to think of the self speaking: harry smith - selected interviews.

another day for horsemouth another celebration of harry everett smith, anthropologist, ethnomusicologist, avant-garde film-maker, recorder of peyote rituals and the fugs first album, and compiler of the 1952 anthology of american folk music (which basically inspired everyone you’ve ever heard of to pick up an acoustic guitar and start singing those songs again).

"we all knew every word of every song on it, including the ones we hated.” - dave van ronk

ED sanders recounts that smith was the key advisor for allen ginsberg and the fugs's effort to levitate the pentagon including recommending having a cow present to represent the goddess hathor.

the police were careful to keep the cow away from the pentagon.

today it really is 7 days to the vernal equinox.

late in his life (towards his death) harry smith would often ask his carer (rani singh) what she’d done today that was creative (here again he was ahead of the curve). eventually he dies and ginsberg goes to sit with his body in the morgue. later his ghost haunts the film-makers co-op of jonas meekas.

werewolves and retirement communities (‘you've got to walk that lonesome valley all by yourself’)

so last night horsemouth watched a film on werewolves and retirement communities (late phase).

our blind (but ex-military) protagonist stomps about like zatoichi with an entrenchment tool - the werewolves kill his guide dog after that it’s only a matter of time before the silver bullets fly.

horsemouth also watched a recent(ish) episode of the simpsons where homer gets mistaken for a grandad while out babysitting (this has happened to horsemouth) and then gets to meet hipsters.

horsemouth is beginning to return to an even keel of work after a period of stress and illness (so at some point they will probably ram and sink him from a submarine). all he has to do is survive out until easter and let things cool down and become boring. there is (in fact) a pattern where he does this stress/ anxiety thing every year (so he should be used to it by now).

february as a german expresionist poem (for micòl finzi-contini)

werewolves and therapeutic communities
(in killafornia)
the anniversary of the death of sheridan le fanu
- author of monkey paw


‘this is presented as a work of fiction 
and dedicated to nobody. 
it began as a mistake...’

sex pest horsemouth to keep anonymity
‘he who makes a beast of himself gets rid 
of the pain of being a man’ 
(werewolves of wall street)

horsemouth invokes the colditz defence

‘we must ask the reader’s forgiveness 
for giving him this book, 
and warn him 
of what he will find in it’ 

a pyramid scheme as a song

horsemouth is sometimes praised for his work (why thank you).
sometimes he is denigrated and criticised for his work (er...).
it is often the same work.

horsemouth must learn to ‘treat those two impostors just the same’. 

stellar regions (countdown to the vernal equinox)
‘profound changes are impending in the ancient craft of the beautiful’ 

serpent(S)

horsemouth has survived another day - he’s leaving his calendar for march blank in the hope that this will make time flow quicker.

sunday horsemouth nipped round howard’s to listen to the first mix of serpent(S) - horsemouth pronounced it most chaotic (it not making use of the ‘stomps’ to bind it together and having the main guitar turned down) - still it sounded pretty good - more adventurous than it would have sounded.

having listened through to a few things they adjourned up to the pizza restaurant for a pizza (a morrissey) and a beer. it was an expensive place to have both but horsemouth pronounced himself well satisfied. 

howard announced that he had been listening to the first record (and pronounced it good) - horsemouth admitted that he felt similarly.

books, gigs, films february 2018

films

• the howling, 
• island of terror,
•  tales from the crypt, 
• the fog, 
• jack the ripper (hammer jtr vs. sherlock holmes), 
• lobster, 
• monkey paw, 
• the lost continent 

books

• anti-memoirs (andre malraux), 
• post office (bukowski), 
• exploring the new river (michael essex-lopresti), 
• colleges in crisis, 
• liar's poker (michael lewis),
•  the suitcase (sergei dovlatov), 
• garden of the finzi-continis (giorgio bassani),
•  work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction essay again (walter benjamin)