horsemouth edits his january the 1st 2020 post to mark the end of the year.

horsemouth has edited his january the 1st 2020 post to mark the end of the year.

horsemouth has survived 2020 and at some point in the night of the 31st (and with fireworks) it will become 2021. thank fuck for that 2020 was (like 2019) another turkey. 

in 2020 brexit happened but the similarly reactionary MAGA insurrection was temporarily halted with the voting out of donald trump (or at least moved out of office). black lives matter happened and colston was rolled into the harbour (fucking YES!!!). 

politically it continues to roll in the direction of the eco-apocalypse (as horsemouth remarked of 2019). but the total surveillance society has been a bit of a disappointment (when it would have been useful, in a pandemic). 

for horsemouth the pandemic kicks off mid march. it is, he has to admit, the apocalypse he would have chosen, the apocalypse of staying home and reading books and farting about on the internet. horsemouth has survived so far. 

music and film 

horsemouth didn't play any gigs but he actually had a good year in terms of cultural production.

horsemouth has found the calming down of middle age beneficial and has entered a decently productive part of his life (largely supported in this by other people's willingness to engage with digital technology which is - he must admit - a weakness). 

for example this year  musicians of bremen volume four and a series of EPs, singles etc. were released online howard grange. howard did some performances to support it. they made a physical CD of the album (which horsemouth made a poor showing of dishing out and round but he will return to this project in the new year).

howard also sequenced up a golden glow  mix of tracks sourced by horsemouth. so there are now four of these two hour mixes showcasing the kind of music horsemouth is into or has found influential. 

and then there's the film the fall of the house of fitzgerald that horsemouth made with en za and catastro/fille. he had grat fun making it and even likes the finished product. 

howard released some albums of his own (earlier) electronica, rob lawson released albums of his dulcimer playing, zali played gigs online and showed footage of train marshalling yards, triple negative, gwenifer raymond, xname, robert curgenven and kraken mare did online gigs (all of these horsemouth enjoyed).  

these were the high points of horsemouth's musical year. 

he went to two gigs early on - a gig with lou and martin down at waterintobeer  and gwenifer raymond/ dr. turtle at a pub in hackney, he was going to go to a lankum gig with siobhan (but it got cancelled) and after that horsemouth just decided to stay in. horsemouth played and sang a little up at london fields, at a house party round siobhan's and another up at dave and claudia's - thank you everyone for that.  

writing 

he kept on writing this blog (and transferred it over from facebook when facebook gutted its own blogging tool). he read a fair bit (though not with the concentrated effort that he has managed in previous years), he watched a few films.

for yet another year he didn’t manage a foreign holiday (but then there was a pandemic on). he visited his folks less (but he did manage two visits). 

he walked less than in previous years (not much walking for work/ not much walking for books) and bought less second hand books and fewer CDs than he would have in a normal year. 

things at the collective endeavour continued to move at a slow but steady pace. work continues to roll on but in the new format determined by the pandemic. furlough was very useful to him. the house has survived but the change to working from home/ less holidays has led to a change in how satisfied horsemouth feels about it. he did some babysitting (which by and large he enjoyed). 

horsemouth thanks howard, enza, catastro/fille for supporting him in his creative endeavours. 

he thanks the people who bought downloads online and people who have in the  past helped horsemouth with gigs or the loan of equipment - marc cattini, fergus gracey, john clarkson, mikey gee, zoe, nick doyne-ditmus, myk zeitlin,  lou crisfield, martin howard, rob and emma, ayesha taylor, siobhan, andrew minty, dave and claudia and anyone who has watched the fall of the house of fitzgerald (and anyone involved with that project he hasn't met yet) 350 or so viewings so far. 

once again here's hoping 2021 will be a better year and the forces of light will win out over the forces of darkness and an arcadia or utopia will be established. 

horsemouth.