at the flowering of the cabbage: an essay on the limits of painting and poetry

horsemouth is up by a copy of laocoon: an essay on the limits of painting and poetry by the german philosopher lessing (5p shy of two squid judd books) - he was just surprised to find it in his bag just now, it was a blackout book one he’d bought without remembering.

laocoon (as far as horsemouth remembers) was the trojan priest who pointed out that if the greeks had vanished and left a giant wooden horse then probably the best thing to do was to burn it rather than drag it within the walls of troy - the gods then sent a giant serpent rising up from the earth to destroy him and his sons. there’s a statue of it - and lessing’s discussion of it forms the basis of much of the aesthetics of horror.

cassandra (who had the gift of prophecy and with whom horsemouth feels some affinity) probably said it was a bad idea also (but was probably not believed, having been cursed by a god to this effect).
‘fair enough’, thought the trojans and dragged it within.

he has begun reading, the introduction at least, leskov’s lady macbeth of mtsensk, five years before his death leskov writes an autobiography a note about myself.

at the flowering of the cabbage 

outside horsemouth's house the cabbage plants are flowering (because he’s left them in so long they have, in that country term, gone to seed).

horsemouth dreamt he was with friends - then he lost two of them, then he lost the third, then he made it back and found the first two of them in the pub, then he woke up (dear freudians - you would need names to make sense of this).

praise song for the herring horsemouth has picked up this title from somewhere (probably the sabine baring-gould, he lived for a time in east angular) - it’s a good’un.

turbulent priest (‘on broadbury down the ravens croak...’)

from horsemouth's visit to the second hand bookshops of walthamstralia a biography of sabine-baring gould - folksong collector, author of the hymn onward christian solders and the book of werewolves.

horsemouth has read it in its entirety already (which shows what can be achieved when he puts his mind to things). with a huge family to feed baring-gould was a prolific author (1240 titles), sometime novelist, a biographer of similarly crazed north devonshire priest harker of morwenstowe, writer of religious tracts and exhaustive encyclopedias of saints, designer of estate houses for his tenants, collector and chronicler of the antiquities of dartmoor.


but it is his role as folksong collector (and indeed promoter of a show involving folksong and dance and his many daughters that toured devon and cornwall) in the pre-cecil sharp era that interests horsemouth. between 1888 and 1890 baring-gould interviewed and took down songs from fifty plus ‘old singers’, from miners in zell in cornwall, and two men from south brent, richard hall and john helmore. marilyn tucker and paul wilson have sung many of them. there's a festival of his songs at oakhampton in october.

he wrote new words for some - boadbury gibbet (about the last man to be hanged in devon, a murderer called welland, ‘on broadbury down the ravens croak...’) and to a tune collected from wiliam huggins, a mason of lydford, the last of the singers. he writes in a letter,

‘... we have a fine body of traditional music. it is full late now to collect. all my old men are dead but one.’

‘the world is viewed without myself’ ((reading) marker after wells)

horsemouth has been sitting out in the sun LRB’ing it - mainly fredric jameson’s in hyperspace a review of david wittenberg’s ‘time travel: the popular philosophy of narrative’. (LRB, 10th september 2015 - hail people’s domestic recycling)

of course, if you know horsemouth’s writings, this covers a number of his key concerns - science fiction, utopian fiction, time travel and causality, ways and means of reaching a better future. and indeed he is not alone in this - this is ben seymour's territory - and indeed there's a showing of his film . Thu 10 May 2018, 7pm at the whitechapel gallery.

Dead the Ends, Trailer (2017) from Benedict Seymour on Vimeo.


here we are (reading) marker after wells - marker deploys his ‘I fell asleep and dreamed of a better world ...’ (a classic strategy of early utopias) as a technology, but wells provides us with an actual time machine - and a visual metaphor of time viewed from outside, from a kind of hyperspace. then there is the multi-verse...

‘modernity has in fact invented such a hyperspace from which to observe the observer: it is called the camera. and film becomes that logical extension of the time-travel narrative in that paradoxical sense in which... the world is viewed without myself...’

it’s a good(-ish) article - horsemouth will return to it when he has a little more time. (fabula - syuzhet)

last night horsemouth dreamed of being at a gig (hawkwind in a  modern incarnation - thanks for asking) with john clarkson, as another concert goer went to leave he passed horsemouth a whole series of cartoon strips laid out on ribbons (it now strikes horsemouth that they were kind of like film - but still later it strikes him that it is not like a film because the successive  images are read left to right rather than top to bottom).

horsemouth - the philosophising rambler (things are not finished... merely abandoned)

horsemouth is hiding out in the countryside. he will be back monday. until then killer robots will patrol his flat.

things are not finished (someone once remarked - but horsemouth cannot remember who) ;merely abandoned(ok paul valéry, sometimes attributed to leonarda da vinci)

horsemouth and howard have finished recording and compiling musicians of bremen volume 3 -the musician of bremen (of course horsemouth would carry on nipping-and-tucking it ad infinitum). all that remains to be done now is to send it off to be mastered, decide on the track order, design the cover and get the CDs produced, delivered and actually sold.

horsemouth will probably leave deciding the track order to howard - on the other hand he has fairly definite ideas about what he wants to be the cover (but then so probably does howard).

they have added barking dogs and beeping car horns (in a fahey stylee) to a horsemouth guitar instrumental. this is at the moment called funeral music but in fact a mixture of fahey’s version of deep river fading into a horsemouth homage to fahey (excerpted from his recording round macauley house in stoke newington).

horsemouth and howard also imported and edited a version of let all mortal flesh keep silence from the same session to get rid of horsemouth’s (out of tune) whistling - this leaves it very short (at about the one minute mark).

they then (taking advantage of a break in the rain - which has been of south wales-ian proportions) went for a walk across the marshes and up through the industrial estates to walthamstow to the william morris museum (pausing at the coopermill for a pint).

today is the anniversary of the son house rediscovery sessions (the ones that led to the release of death letter ). al ‘blind owl’ wilson was there (to lend moral support and occasional guitar or harmonica).

two ghost images of john fahey

sunday horsemouth made it out to meet up with andrew minty and jam. they played all their standards (and surprisingly played and sang them at least as well as when they’ve practiced) sometimes our dreams (float like anchors), peace in the valley, power in the blood, how great thou art, mojo working, catfish blues, power in the blood... horsemouth played his version of satan (your kingdom must come down) and took his new guitar - howard’s old guitar the one he recorded musicians of bremen volume 2 with.

it felt good to be playing again.

 there were tarot cards - horsemouth beset by worries (ten of swords), changes approaching (tower struck down), a process of justice underway, horsemouth the page of wands...

they then (after much prevarication) hightailed it over to siobhan’s (siobhan, sam - the other sam, lisa) and played some more - river of jordan (or somesuch) struck horsemouth particularly , there was some nice interplay of voices. horsemouth attempted rain and snow which siobhan joined in with knowing it from the pentangle version (where horsemouth first learnt it - hmmmn).

a few nights ago (as horsemouth prepared for bed) he was playing his copy of fahey’s womblife - he stores it in the packaging for days have gone by - the lights shone on fahey’s image and two ghost images of john fahey appeared on the wall.

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today - anna kavan day, anniversary of one of howard’s mixes.

so where was horsemouth when we talked last?

oh yes - off to see denise at the hare.

at first denise was in the dolphin (by mistake allegedly) and had to finish off her pint first (and make friends) before meeting her (earlier) friends (in the hare).

mary-martha was there too - it must be at least ten years since horsemouth has seen her when she lived beneath the sign of the owl in stoke newington opposite the sign of the owltopus- horsemouth asked after all the montreallers.

photos have emerged of a drunken horsemouth (half upon half upon half) - certainly he overdid it, but (at least towards the start) he was reasonably chatty and compus mentis. still he enjoyed himself and it was good to see people.

from the point of view of the universe (as utilitarian harry sidgewick would say) it’s no biggie (but still horsemouth spent most of the next day a little hungover and angst ridden). as a result he didn’t get out to see max’s co-workers show at the tate or lou playing banjo down in brockley or even out to see andrew minty just down the road.
today he feels much better and will attempt to get the minty visit in at least. howard was of course making good use of the good weather with a trip out to t.e.lawrence’s house and to wanstead flats.
horsemouth is prepared in his negative view of drinking by his reading of under the volcano again (bookshop bargain bucket replacement copy - £1). it’s page 41 before we get to do anything but read the consul’s prose (he chunters on about hell), the consul is already dead and we still have not had the flashback into the main events of the book. in the mexican cinema bar in the rain Laruelle (our guide) practices a little book divination (p.40). lowry manages the sweaty damnedness of things very well. it’s all a fever dream (even the moments of lucidity).
john (clarkson) was asking after dark as the grave where my friend is laid - horsemouth recommended under the volcano as a kind of necessary prequel.

horsemouth knew he knew song of a sinner  from somewhere - there's a flying lotus  remix.

horsemouth has survived march and made it to april (time is like a river)

so what has horsemouth been up to since he saw you last?

the long good friday he stayed in being moody.

saturday he went to a gig with john clarkson, johnny and dave (so he feels less guilty about missing dave’s party though he should- of course - feel more guilty).


moongazing hare - nice vocals (not horsemouth’s thing), in gowan ring nice harmonies (not horsemouth’s thing - too donovan-ish) good to end with an arthur lee song, united bible studies (london branch) - a good improvised choir thing with alison mcdonnell (and just about everybody else up on stage), alison mcdonnell - awesome once again, great version of borderline by nico, not necessarily utterly taken by the new songs (but at least she’s not resting on her laurels), trappist afterland (with some old dude - their dad?) good but slightly repetitive, revolutionary army of the infant jesus (not horsemouth’s thing) too goth for horsemouth, well sung, well played, footage of chuntering rumanians or something (did he mention it’s not his thing - but some of horsemouth’s friends liked it).

sunday horsemouth lent his ears to some mixing of the third musicians of bremen album with howard (indeed he just dropped off another track for it this morning - if it’s not too similar to the existing stuff).

monday (after breakfast) himself and howard went for a wander over the salt marshes with a quick visit to a canalside pub.

later today he works, tomorrow he is free.