today a walk (weather is looking a bit shit though)

today a walk with howard somewhere - horsemouth is not sure where (weather is looking a bit shit though). 

already this morning a discussion of r. buckminster fuller's idea to project a world map onto the surface of a buckminster fullerine (a 3D shape that's roughly spherical that can be made out of flat panels or even an appropriately cut flat piece of paper (think of a geodesic dome and reflect it through its basal plane).

now once upon a time horsemouth was really into this. this was a long time ago when he was in bush house his fake brooklyn afrobeat band. the other band members were resistant to the notion of world music  and so horsemouth was attempting to reformulate that notion in a way that might be acceptable to them (frankly horsemouth should have just given up right then and there). 

he  bought a book on world map projections (a propaganda pamphlet for the peter's projection which, like all maps, is a  flat piece of paper showing the surface of the world that is in fact on the surface of an oblate spheroid. crucially displays them with their areas proportionally correct - a curved line is longer than a straight line, a curved surface in 3D has a greater area than the flat area linking its four points and so on (don't tell the flat earthers). the continents that mainly benefit from this are africa and south america that in peter's projection you can see are much much larger than europe or the united states. 

in the book of world maps there was a picture of the world map projected on the surface of a buckminster fullerine and this could be stored (before cutting and assembly) on a flat piece of paper - such as the a flyer or a poster for a gig. 

horsemouth had access to a photocopier through work and so he got on with making poster and flyers for the band. eventually they stopped him and returned with a new logo and concept for the band which was a piece of windows clip art.

- bitter horsemouth? 

- no. why bother? it's a bit galling to have been prevented from being unsuccessful though.

he was also a big fan of turning the world upside down (there is no up sign in space). in that this also revalues the relationship between the global north and the global south. his inspiration for this was leon rosselson's the world turned upside down. 

last night he watched umberto lenzi's sette orchidee macchiate di rosso (7 bloodstained orchids) which is a typical giallo (rember he'd watched most of lenzi's spasmo a few days before), the main title theme by riz ortolani is good in a get carter kind of way. he also watched a little of the shogun assassin films (inspired by the same manga series as the lone wolf and cub tv series but much better made). 

other than that he was out sunbathing in the back garden (one the builders were gone from next door) and before that out reading and listening to the radio on the front doorsteps. 

in 1871 the paris commune has gone down to defeat (at 4pm yesterday afternoon according to general macmahon's proclamation). on the 28th goncourt tours the ruins.

'the large scale destruction begins at chatelet and carries on from there. behind the burnt out theatre, the costumes have been spread out on the ground: carbonized silk in which, here and there, one catches sight of the gleam of golden spangles, the sparkle of silver.

on the other side of the embankment the palais de justice has had the roof of its round tower decapitated. there is nothing left of the new building but the iron skeleton of the roof. the prefecture of the police is a smouldering ruin, in whose blueish smoke the brand new gold of the sainte-chapelle shines brightly.' 

meanwhile, also on the 28th (it was a busy day for horsemouth he must needs catch up), pascal publishes his eighth provincial letter. pascal and his sister are jansenists, it is a catholic sect that has just gone down to defeat at the hands of the dominicans and the jesuits and will shortly be disbanded. pascal's sister in particular will not recover. pascal is mightily laying into the jesuits (as lying, deceitful and morally bankrupt) with the weapons of satire and selective quotation. this book has been widely read since then and has been ruining the reputation of the jesuits ever since. 

the jesuits seek to find a way that sins can be excused and discuss a wide range of cases - for example is it a sin not to pay a black magician who has contacted the devil  to predict the future on your behalf? yes it is because he has made reasonable efforts. on the other hand if he had used astrology everyone knows that does not work so you are under no obligation to pay him.