so here it is (merry christmas)

there's a pattern to the releases of the horsemouth as guest DJ mixes on the golden glow. there are three in the first wave (18/12/2015 to 24/10/2016) and there are three in the second wave (24/12/2020 to 12/12/2021). three of these (as you can observe) are clustered in december. 

of course the current (second)wave may continue beyond its allotted three (mid-october would seem to be the cut-off point). 

yesterday horsemouth put up the first of the current wave - they are thematically linked by using stills from the fall of the house of fitzgerald. 

next year horsemouth will probably re-organise the golden glow festival so that it commences with the three december mixes (on their anniversaries the 12th, 18th and 24th) and then a distribution of those from the rest of the year (possibly at 6 day intervals). these will be in some kind of chronological order (by month? by precedence?) but which order horsemouth cannot yet say.

so here it is...

in a bit breakfast (it's the weekend so it's eggs rather than porridge). horsemouth doesn't know if the family will make it out for its usual christmas ramble round the section of the  brecon to newport canal near govilion but time will tell. his brother and their family should be arriving boxing day (covid permitting). 

last night horsemouth watched a somewhat alarming movie. 

return from the ashes  staring ingrid thulin, a young maximillian schell, samantha eggar and herbert lom. our max is a chess prodigy (but he's also an insufferably selfish individualist) by the vagaries of fortune he ends up plotting to kill off his meal-ticket wife (ingrid thulin). the author of the novel on which it is based (le retour des cendres - hubert monteilhet) liked gratuitously alarming plots and cynical amoral characters. moneilhet also liked literary references so there is a brothers karamazov quote. it slightly reminded horsemouth of clouzot's les diaboliques (clouzot liked the director j.lee thompson's work ice cold in alex, tiger bay) but it is (of course) not as good. 

the celebration of the life and work of joan didion must come to an end

horsemouth includes two clips from griffin dunne's the blue nights. joan is now an old lady. she rattles round the new york apartment that is full of stuff accumulated from her life and that of her family before her. her husband and her daughter are gone. she still writes amazingly. horsemouth doesn't have any of her work here (he is relying on dipping google books). he's not really familiar with the novels.