with those who are powerless

horsemouth is up late this morning. he's missing the possibilities of london (not that he'd do anything about them you understand). maybe things will change. the world has had a taste of horsemouth's lifestyle. he doesn't think they can take it. it is (by a strange 1 in 365  coincidence) the birthday of a friend. 

he's had two days of playing the early genesis - the ones his brother has, stored away in a record box downstairs (together with the kraftwerk). there's and then there were three as well (but we don't mention that one as much).

‘cinema... stays in the street, with those who are powerless.’ - charlie chaplin.

horsemouth clicked through to (and read) an article on the films of pedro da costa. he's only seen the one juventude em marcha (aka. colossal youth) - destroyed old men shuffle round their slum flats until they are rehoused away by the city to cold, glittering white walled developments at the edge of town. endlessly they repeat the love letters of their youth, or replay the old revolutionary marches. 

as a film it has its pleasures but it's not exactly cheerful. 

there are more films in this series done with a largely amateur cape verdean cast (largely from the now cleared slums of fontinhas).  horse money begins with a silent montage of early photographs of fin-de-siècle new york tenement life by the journalist and social campaigner jacob riis. (last heard of here, tendentiously, as the inspiration for the cover of spectres by the blue oyster cult). 

then on to an economist podcast about US education. tens of thousands of school pupil's were missing from the rolls even before covid and school funding is dependent on the number of students attending. (remember the fourth series of the wire? the one devoted to schools?).

in texas the schools stayed open throughout the pandemic.  

in chicago unions fought the mayor to a standstill and negotiated local control over school opening and closing.

'the ultimate hidden truth of the world is that it is something we make. And could just as easily make differently.' – david graeber 1961-2020.

today horsemouth doesn't know. a walk (maybe two). he guesses. keep playing astronomy. (he just played katie cruel). yesterday a walk in the snow. the ground was frozen hard. horsemouth took the muddy walk up onto the common. today the snow is gone (so horsemouth guesses there'll be more mud).