star - magician - sun

‘this share goes against our community standards on nudity or sexual activity’ - facebook

well not this note no - unless they intend to remove the rider-waite tarot pack from facebook (though think about it - the cards mentioned feature a naked woman, a naked child, water, rocks, a wall, a tower, a horse, two dogs, a lobster, a bird (all naked), various sunflowers, a path leading off into the mountains). in this it resembles not at all the cover of houses of the holy by led zeppelin (which features two naked children clambering around on some rocks - at the giant’s causeway in fact while covered in silver paint).

the album was released in 1973, it's led zeppelin so it probably sold a few copies - The photo shoot featured two children, stefan and samantha gates. as an adult, in february 2010, stefan gates was featured on a BBC radio 4 documentary about the cover. He said there was something sinister about the image, though his sister disagreed, their mum just replied that it was the 70ies and people did that sort of thing. he also admitted never having heard the album. the programme ended with gates returning to giant's causeway and listening to the album on a portable player and finding it cheerful and happy and inspiring (not normally words horsemouth associates with led zep).

frankly the world is a terrible place full of wars, pestilence, famine death racism, homophobia and capitalism - there are many terrible images one would not wish to encounter before breakfast, yemeni kids killed by US made bombs for example - so a bit of nudity is not the real problem - isn't the real problem the targeted advertising and content of facebook and the like, the activities of the likes of cambridge analytica just revealing the process, revealing the opportunities for surveillance and control.

after much tooing and froing facebook decided that the cover of houses of the holy does violate their community standards - horsemouth could accept the decision or he could complain about it to improve their service at a future date but their decision still stood. he complained about their decision so as to improve their service at a future date.

of course all this does is remove the file with that particular name - the same image with a different name will not be removed.

presumably all over the world people are having their summer holiday photos of their children at the beach banned. facebook will of course be a better place when all this has been removed.

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horsemouth had a tarot reading - an all major arcana 3 spread - it went star - magician - sun. the tarot pack was not rider-waite but tarot de marseille so the sun (naked child on horseback sunflowers in the background) had been replaced by twins (the ibeji).

at first horsemouth could not recognise the magician (he thought it was the page of wands - but the meaning is similar).

there is of course something about the sun, sea and rocks - and we experience it each summer holiday when we go to the seaside - a clearing out, a simplification.

horsemouth the magician is assembling his tools preparing to do things, but he’s still thinking about the past, dredging up material from his subconscious (star), but he’s preparing to move forward once again entering solar regions (the sun).

yesterday he babysat. earlier he wandered through the maze of streets by the canal. howard has been busy - he's done a jazz compilation.

unearthing something nasty

yesterday's helpful reminder occurred in a discussion of 'hauntology' on the folk horror revival page. there was an ill-advised accusation of bert lloyd being a 'cultural marxist' (or at least an implication that his ‘researches’ were of a similar, i.e. low, level of scholarship).

true bert lloyd was a communist - but as one commentator put it 'there was nothing 'cultural' about a.l. lloyd's marxism'. he was an old school stalinist ('a tankie' in horsemouth's terms) he'd have a problem using the ideas of jacques derrida (the er. ‘father of hauntology’ if you will) in his writing because frankly he was already dead (hmmn or maybe not - but anyway, no sign of derridean thinking in bert lloyd’s writing that horsemouth can detect).

now onto this term cultural marxist and the people who use it

the term 'cultural marxist' is used by one of horsemouth's friends when horsemouth thinks what he really means is 'shitty patronising new labour councillors who won't give me a council flat', horsemouth’s friend may beg to differ and claim wider political aims, but this is how horsemouth hears it. horsemouth thinks his friend is wrong to use it in this fashion but hey, at least he has a real problem.

but more often the term  'cultural marxist'  is used by alt-right types as a means of having an anti-intellectual or anti-communist witch hunt in all but name.  at no point is any evidence offered or any serious reading done. it is simply slander and innuendo .

the sample argument here is ‘hauntology is no good (because derrida’s a marxist), bert lloyd was a marxist (so his research must be no good)’.

firstly is derrida even a marxist? he publishes a book the spectres of marx which sort of affiliates him to the marxist tradition, or at least shows that there is a deconstructive reading (derrida’s thing) of the marxist tradition possible - but then loads of other theorists (terry eagleton etc.) most of whom would almost certainly be described by alt-righters as cultural(ly) marxist, weigh in (in a a book called ghostly demarcations) arguing that derrida is not a proper marxist, or that a deconstructionist reading of marx cannot be made and it still be marxism.

secondly the problem for such people in the folk horror world (and there do seem to be some neo-folk types about, people who like to spice up their lives or flagging musical careers with a hint of fascism) is that the fifties, sixties 'folk revival' world was (largely) hewn into existence by writers, archivists, performers and promoters deeply interested in the working class and the independent culture of the working class - a pack of communists, lefties, peaceniks, civil rightsers and fellow travelers (such were your seegers, lomaxes, macolls and crucially here bert lloyd).

now horsemouth does not think propaganda always leads to the best music (he's with john fahey and harry smith on this one) its... oh look, just watch this documentary, clearly there is no mileage in arguing with bert lloyd's folk bonafides. and clearly there is also a danger of folk being  used to promote essentialist, nationalist or just plain racist myths - of it being (re-)hijacked by the right.

horsemouth could tell you a tale of cultural studies - of people wishing to study the culture of ordinary people, he could tell you a tale of a young generation of philosophy students enthused by rock and rave wishing to study it and deploying the new ideas coming from the continent following the dethroning of marxism in 1968 (deleuze and guattari in particular but derrida also). he could tell you a tale of the beautiful dawn of these ideas and their partial eclipse (as the problems with their application became obvious). he could tell you a tale of the rise of hauntology in the editorial office of the wire.

as to the term hauntology applied to music horsemouth is not particularly into it himself (there’s a nina power article somewhere where she questions its value). if it helps you write and create all well and good, if it helps you arrange your record collection and structure your taste all well and good. if you want to use it to slander people you can fuck off with that.

(horsemouth had a look in the photos of this critic of bert lloyd and derrida - and what should he find there but the logo of national vanguard/ national action - us fascist organisations).

does horsemouth play american primitive guitar?

John Fahey 1981 Santa Monica from Creative Differences on Vimeo.



...or APG as he has seen it.

but does he? what’s the definition? could be.

'every man do his thing a little way different' - there's a kottke clip where he hails fahey as the founder of it and mentions charles ives. but if everybody cooked with the same recipe - something like 'solo steel strung acoustic guitar incorporating classical music elements into old blues and folk tunes' - then it wouldn't it get dull and same-y very quickly?

the guy at dying for bad music seems to be able to find acres of this stuff (and most of it is fairly decent and interesting) . but basho is not fahey is not lang is not kottke - even fahey is not fahey (look at his later electric phase). and horsemouth definitely prefers some things to others.

the day before yesterday horsemouth walked up through the valley of the agapemonians to walthamstow and bought books - a history of mermaids in art (with illustrations - down boy) and a. alvarez’s bluffers guide to samuel beckett in the fontana modern masters edition (sally army opposite the william morris museum - one pound). he could have doubled down - four books/ CDs/ DVDs for a pound - but as you know he has storage/ hoarding issues.

he was due to be babysitting (but the gig got cancelled - maybe tomorrow). yesterday he helped howard move some stuff and an old friend came to visit (and pick up a copy of musicians of bremen volume one). sunday the clerkenwell festival with andrew minty (probably).

the great san berdino facebook spam algorithm debacle

Is horsemouth posting spam? discuss

someone (or some algorithm) at facebook seems to think so because nearly everything horsemouth posted there yesterday has been labelled as spam at some point. facebook seem to be testing some algorithm because lots of people have been having this problem.

so how was your day on facebook horsemouth?

Our reply Today

Thanks again for letting us know about this post. We've taken another look and found that it doesn't go against our Community Standards, so we've restored your post. We're sorry for the trouble and appreciate you taking the time to get in touch with us so that we could correct this.

Our reply Today

Thanks again for letting us know about this post. We've taken another look and found that it doesn't go against our Community Standards, so we've restored your post. We're sorry for the trouble and appreciate you taking the time to get in touch with us so that we could correct this.

and,

Our reply Today

Thanks again for letting us know about this post. We've taken another look and found that it doesn't go against our Community Standards, so we've restored your post. We're sorry for the trouble and appreciate you taking the time to get in touch with us so that we could correct this.

ladies and gentlemen anything that stops you from meditating or going for a walk or making love is spam - all of facebook is spam, all of web 2.0 (remember that) is spam, the bits not labelled spam are just better bits of spam, accept nothing less than total immediate gratification of your desires (even your desire to have no desires) right now... in other words is it not (in the big picture of things) all spam?

now piss off and leave horsemouth alone he's just a boring old sod and find someone more entertaining to annoy (I know it's not possible, but try)... of course this is a firstworld problem.


spam today was brought to you by the sir coxsone outernational sound system (1986), the uk government ministry for brexit (23/08/18) and the guardian newspaper (23/08/18) - of them only coxsone can be argued to have improved the lot of humanity...

this is not spam. this is a comedy routine for the education and upliftment of humanity. horsemouth thanks you (spam label-er) for showing him the true meaning of S-P-A-M.it may be a processed meat product (but it's the processed meat product of champions) - facebook (on the other hand) is just processed meet

signed; the spam fritter

no new material was created to enable the writing of this post.



on the plus side horsemouth has been enjoying the 'new' john coltrane both directions at once album big time (cheers howard) - for once a big and bad and heavy jimmy garrison, elvin jones doin' it (these dudes are cooking with gas on this one - fucking bopping), coltrane, mccoy tyner, some familiar stuff - vilia, impressions, nature boy, some new, unfamiliar, not even named...

good old father time is dragooned into the revolutionary forces (universal love as terrace chant)

your humble interlocutor is here. outside of the window it is a grade A grey day. who knows - maybe it will clear.



horsemouth's musical item of choice today is   everybody get together by the dave clark five (and the youngbloods) but actually originally by dino valenti of quicksilver messenger service. in the dave clark version it is universal love as terrace chant.


horsemouth first found it as a shortened live from big sur (joni mitchell, crosby, stills, nash (no young?) and a crowd full of hippies) version.

horsemouth’s book discovery of the day was time for revolution (by antonio negri) in which it is suggested that not only is it time for revolution but that good old father time is dragooned into the revolutionary forces because what is equivalent in capitalist exchange is not merely money but the labour time involved in making it, so time not merely measures work but reduces it to a homogenous substance - time is thus the form of productive power, the thing that makes the workers necessary, the thing that gives power to the workers. today - more reading.

tomorrow back to the city (and beers with howard probably).

‘whether autumn should follow’

horsemouth's gig of 2015 - long pike hollow-  it was a raw february and freezing in the chapel.

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‘I hear people say we have to stop and debate globalisation. You might as well debate whether autumn should follow summer.’ Tony Blair, October 2005. 

the first iteration of globalisation/ triumphant neo-liberalism/ the end of history has fallen - capitalism and competition will no longer solve all your problems, for it has produced its enemy from within it, an economic nationalism. the wise leader appears on the balcony in the sensible costume of the way things used to be and promises to protect his citizens. a grateful populace applauds. such is the dream of not just a political class that has not yet achieved irrelevance but a people that hasn't learnt better yet.

the putative my people first economy is still within the world of capitalism as a world system, the planes will still fly, the container ships will still sail, emails will still arrive from distant lands. (maybe)

but of course just because the bus’s destination board says economic nationalism/ britons (or whoever) first it doesn’t mean it is actually going there - to achieve this dream will require hard sacrifices says our leader (a little later) as the costs of doing business rise (in customs fees, in tariffs, in increased currency fluctuations, in skills shortages, in ratings agency downgrades of the nation’s credit-worthiness, in increased costs of servicing national and personal debt).

horsemouth should of course welcome a world where the tail of economy doesn’t wag the dog of politics - but that isn’t the world that is coming - we are witnessing a rebalancing of the forces between economics and politics and between the state and capital but ultimately it is merely the replacement of one ideology by another, an earlier one, one that is already dead. it is a game of dress-up played with a rapidly ageing cast, the bumptious middle-aged eton boy, lord snooty, the frightfully loyal head girl of her grammar school, the little swot, and a whole dorm of lesser sneaks. (here horsemouth gives it you as geoffrey willans, ronald searle’s molesworth books of public school folly, where a younger person might give it you as harry potter).

once again workers will confront national capitals (like they did in the 20ies and 30ies - and we all know how well that went).

and it is (as are all transitions) a time fraught with risk - the dealmaker appears on the balcony but he’s ti-jean the trickster god of business, the old gods cry when they come (because no-one summons them any more). he strides backwards into the future wearing the costumes of the past (like he’s in a jean cocteau film) his speech stripped of all causality and puffed up with will instead.

there’s an nip in the air today (but is it autumnal?) after the summer of sunshine and football and beaches, and  soon winter will come, but for now warmth above the seasonal average.

horsemouth has no truck with people’s sentimental nationalisms the proof of the pudding is in the eating and we will soon be on short rations (and school dinners).

it would be nice (or at least more logically satisfying) if capitalism developed in a straight line (ok no it would be terrible) rather than this zig-zagging, half-stepping, towards the future in the costumes of the past bullshit. the leninists and althussarians tell us to look for the weakest link in this conjuncture - but horsemouth cannot see it yet.

back from ireland (sideways into august)

horsemouth is back amongst you (though he still hasn’t as yet unpacked). he must plan for august - he needs to get a musicians of bremen duo gig in before howard goes back to school (and then some solo gigs to give him an opportunity to sell the musicians of bremen volume three CD to the masses). he’s listening to the CD now - it sounds good.

there’s a nice diagram online - a juxtaposition of two diagrams it has
A) the plan - a nice straight line moving directly to the goal and it has
B) what actually happened - a meandering route with many doglegs and loops leading to an outcome roughly 50% lower than the direct route.

life is of course way more B than it is A (horsemouth should know this as a derridean). but it doesn’t suit him - he’s way more an A type person than a B type person - he just wishes he could relax and enjoy the meandering more. the journey as he believes it’s called. sadly horsemouth is an anxious person, he is not someone who swims confidently out, he is someone who inches round the swimming pool of life holding onto the side (hence all the planning and theorising - attempting to make all that flux and mutability bearable).

today a quick run up the supermarket (aldiidllidl aldilidllidl) in pursuit of more erstwhile bargains before it gets too hot. yesterday horsemouth researched various versions of katy cruel - he has a version of it he can play but he’d like to extend it out with more lyrical and musical material.

‘letters of a deceased person’ (religious visions after a meal in cork)

the day before yesterday horsemouth mainly sat about and read - sometimes there was sun (in which case he was out on the patio toasting himself). he did some shopping but he’s rapidly come to the conclusion he doesn’t have time to eat it all before he goes (see you only have to show horsemouth a bargain and he’s off - aldilidllidl aldilidllidl).

as others saw us: cork through european eyes is a book on what visitors thought of cork that leaves out british writers (and the normans - excepting bernard de clairvaux, and the vikings). in this it prefigures the post-brexit city, forget about fishguard, forward to bilbao and santander. it’s side-by-side original text and translation (so there’s half the book horsemouth can’t read and comment on).

brother marcus, an irish monk, writes, in 1149 in latin and in ratisbon bavaria, of the impious knight tnugdal who dies for 3 days and then comes back with stories of hell and a noticeably improved attitude, noted german travel author (and gardener) hermann von puckler-muskau’s letters of a deceased person is an account of his journeys through ireland in 1828. bernard de clairvaux our earliest visitor (1090-1153 ad) writes of the miracles of st. malachy.

broadly the visitors are a snobby bunch (complaining of the beggars and the lack of anything to see) - the french (including de toqueville) blame the british and imperialism (when not applauding the prisons), the germans, dutch, czechs and scandanavians (mostly) blame the irish and the want of protestantism. sometimes the grand houses and thoroughfares and shops are to their taste (sometimes not). all praise the situation of the town (in the arms of the lee river, in the valley) and the natural advantages of the harbour and the bay.

victorian cork is a giant slaughterhouse and buttery sending first salted and later tinned beef (and cannon-fodder) to the british army all over the world (now there’s some lucrative contracts me boys). the food all goes for export, the merchants of cork get rich, the poor in the countryside starve and save for emigration or sign up. like dublin there’s a huguenot community.

in the 20ies there’s the agitation for home rule and the border war - the black and tans murder one mayor of cork, burn down half the centre of town as a reprisal for a bomb thrown at one of their armoured cars, a second mayor (terence macswiney) dies on hunger strike in brixton jail. he becomes a hero to galician nationalists. it was events by these that probably helped strengthen henri beraud’s hatred of the english - in the second world war he wrote for vichy newspapers and after it was sentenced to death by de gaulle (later commuted to life imprisonment).

eventually there are trade shows and factories on the road to cobh.

july 2018 gigs, books, films list

  gigs

•  5th - gwenifer raymond, john mcgrath 

 books

• gogol (biography of) - vsevolod setchkarov 
• church fathers, independent virgins - joyce e. salisbury, 
• writings of the desert fathers (introduction), 
• felix holt (stuck in the middle)- george eliot, 
• the ghost rider, the siege, palace of dreams - ismail kadare 

 films 
sicario, ripping yarns, the train (burt lancaster), faster (2010), true grit (coen brothers), iron sky, high rise, 12 monkeys (series), picnic at hanging rock (series - first episode)