'the impulse to write things down is a peculiarly compulsive one, inexplicable to those who do not share it, useful only accidentally, only secondarily, in the way any compulsion tries to justify itself...' - joan didion, on keeping a notebook.
horsemouth has survived 2021 and at some point in the night of the 31st (and with fireworks - but not out here in the countryside) it will become 2022.
and thank fuck for that.
horsemouth is reusing this proforma how was your year for you from january 1st 2019
2021 began well at least (despite the fact that it is after the final countdown and britain had left the EU). a friend of howard's has an internet radio show over in funky kingston (the comfort zone on green futures festival radio 8-11pm fridays) and he played two tracks from the latest musicians of bremen album - sand storm and dark was the day.
nevertheless horsemouth has had only a moderate year in terms of cultural production. horsemouth had thought he was entering a productive part of his life but this was largely supported by other people's willingness to engage with digital technology which- he must admit - he is not that keen on doing himself.
horsemouth hopes to do some recording in 2022 (but he has none planned currently). he can either re-release something he has recorded before, or he can pay or cajole someone to record him. hmmnnn.
horsemouth did one gig last year at cafe babar in hereford for wierdshire (24th june - midsummer - thanks sproatley). he has one planned for the year coming (down at water into beer in february - thanks martin). musicians of bremen did not release anything of their own in 2021 but howard may release a solo album in 2022. howard put together a number of mixes over on the golden glow. two of these this year used material selected by horsemouth (thanks howard).
horsemouth has been slowed down by the pandemic. he has been distracted by the apocalypse. the apocalypse of staying home (if not so much the apocalypse of reading books as he would have hoped). instead it has been the apocalypse of farting about on the internet. horsemouth has survived this far.
he worked with catastro/fille and with en za (thanks to both - though this material isn't out yet). horsemouth hopes this will continue in some form. an attempt to relaunch peter, paul and enza failed (thanks to all - one day we will get it up and running again).
in 2021 he did voice over an animation for catastro/fille (poplarism) and that was released. he would like to do more of this (but on the other hand he just saw an AI powered voice over/ text reading service advertised on youtube so that's probably his (putative) ideal job out of the window (again).
but there were no major projects released in 2021 (like 2020s the fall of the house of fitzgerald or the slew of musicians of bremen recordings)..
he kept on writing this blog. he read a fair bit (though not with the concentrated effort that he has managed in previous years), he watched a lot of films (mostly giallos, horrors, and ghost stories).
horsemouth's paid work has ended. he has been made redundant - the working from home and the furlough did not (in the end) save his arse (though it seemed at the time it might). he's probably not doing enough to prevent boredom but he has savings, the redundancy cheque, an advance on the pension and his works pension (small though it is).
and because he's staying home he is in fact spending hardly any money at all (except for rent).
but though he knows he shouldn't he's been back up the pub (with howard), and out to get pizza, and on public transport. he knows he can't really afford to do this if he's going to avoid working again.
his homestead (the gaff) - horsemouth remains cautiously pleased with. he has returned the living room to use and cleared out the corridors. (of course he expects it all to roll back down the hill while he is away.)
meanwhile the back and front gardens have gone to fuckries again and will need to be purged.
in his room he needs to have another book sale if he is going to get mobile. there are a lot of books horsemouth bought just for the pleasure of a bargain or passing interest and he's not sure that he loves them enough to want to move them again.
the communal endeavour all meets online now. horsemouth has genuinely tried to keep his eyes on the prize and to avoid annoying people. in the wider world politically horsemouth expects it all to continue to be shit, just because brexit is 'done' it doesn't mean that the current spate of nationalist bollocks won't drag on forever. he apologises to his EU friends.
he walked less than in previous years (no walking for work/ not much walking for books).in previous years he'd replaced getting the tube into the centre with getting the bus in and for anything not directly in the centre he'd taken to getting trains or tubes round the outside of zone 1 and walking in. further he had extended this to walking to bookings, or between bookings, whenever possible. generally when there were still physical bookings horsemouth would attempt to get there for the least amount of money possible (even if it took more time).
if he bought far fewer second hand books and fewer CDs than he would have in a normal year, he also spent far less on coffees, sandwiches, croissants, bags of chips etc. he continued cooking more regularly (but a limited range of dishes). he continued to be a lazy, morally compromised lacto-vegetarian.
for yet another year he didn’t manage a foreign holiday (but hopes to manage one in 2022). he spent a lot of time at his folks (which has been good).
horsemouth thanks howard, enza, catastro/fille for joining him in his creative endeavours and all who have read, watched, listened to him, or liked or commented on the things he has produced. in particular he thanks m.j. filius, marc cattini, john clarkson, mikey gee, matt boyce, martin howard, zoe gilmour, and remotecore (is that you fergus?).
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having used a pro-forma horsemouth may write again later on to get his necessary revelations in.
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