gigs, books, films, events january 2022

books

- that awful mess on via merulana (carlo emilio gadda) 

- life after lockdown: how do we best recover from the pandemic? by rebecca seal, the observer 16/01/22

- the year of the big spring clean in the year's best science fiction no.6 1973 (brian aldiss)

-  rose simpson's and mike heron's autobiographies (part)

- montaigne's essay on books

- lea ypi's free review in the nlr (and her interview on talking politics). 

- dangerous visions and new worlds guide to the new wave of science fiction (part). 

- whack-a-mole by rivka galchen article (and talking politics podcast on vaccines and anti-vaxxers) 

- hitchens versus didion lrb inigo jones

- various short things on chris marker's early career 

films

gialli etc.

- eyeball (gatti rossi in un labirinto di vetro - 1975) umberto lenzi

- shadow of illusion (ombre roventi 1970) 

- something is creeping in the dark (1971)

- the black belly of the tarantula

- the fifth cord

- dario argento refresher (suspiria, profondo rosso, the stendahl syndrome, four flies on grey velvet)

- seven deaths in the cat's eyes (1973)

-  autopsy (aka macchie solari or sunspots, armando crispino)

-  l'etrusco uccide ancora (armando crispino)

- the red queen kills seven times

-  all the colours of giallo (giallo documentary)

- la polizia chiede auito

- 23 paces to baker street featuring a blind detective which is the inspiration for...

-  the crimes of the black cat (1972)

- giallo podcast fragments of fear 

other films 

- dementia (1955), john parker soundtracked by early blue oyster cult

- the booksellers, a documentary on NY antiquarian and rare bookdealers

- the brood (cronenberg)

-  a documentary on lean urbanism

- ramblings at dawn robert calvert

- je t'aime, je t'aime (alain resnais)

- chris marker (junkopia and clips from sans soleil, jean-pierre gorin's appreciation of him etc.)

-  mudflat sculpture park (ric reynolds)

- outlaw bookseller various videos

- islands of abandonment by cal flyn (radio 4 series)

- the coming storm podcast

- viewfinders: ways of seeing (john berger) at 50 

events

webb david's techno-dub show on new river radio, the CD of the new album by the robert lawson trio arrives, comrade S visits, claudia's 50th.

that metalwork in the kitchen is generally considered a bad idea

it had to happen sometime. RIP norma waterson. 

metalwork in the kitchen? well yes, opines horsemouth. it is a capital offense.

especially when there is the entire  rest of the house, a garden is available, and there is even (whisper it), the possibility of hiring premises in which to conduct the metalwork. if the offending one was the kind of person who tidied up meticulously after himself and put stuff away this would not be so bad... but he is not, he is an enthusiast who leaves every forgotten project to gather dust exactly where it fell from his hand when the enthusiasm left him. 

it is wearing remarks horsemouth. horsemouth has expressed himself frankly on the matter and he thought he had secured agreement and then came down to find the fucking machine running one morning 'just for ten minutes'. in a nudge he has transported the machine upstairs to the (misnamed) living room so that, if, in an access of enthusiasm, the offender should be tempted to turn it on it will in fact not be in the kitchen. 

he is tempted to rename the kitchen the forge of vulcan.  

of course horsemouth could always bang in a complain to the relevant co-op authorities. 

progress is being made (at least) in returning the living room to a condition where anyone in the house could in fact use it as somewhere to sit and read or watch television (or indeed grind metal). the metalworker has had need of the space (and so has been forced to make it appear).  huzzah mutters horsemouth. (the space will presumably vanish as soon as the metalworker no longer has need of it. but horsemouth has at least seen the floor boards for this ritual year). 

there was the same bollocks last year. oh the comedy. so much for cyclic time. 

we are sneaking up on imbolc- halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox and to celebrate horsemouth has a gig (5th february at water into beer). 

ironically it is brigid, the celtic goddess of healing, purification, childbirth, fertility and smithcraft, who is honored at imbolc (or so says one page). 

horsemouth has not been feeling the music of late perhaps it will come back to him. he will pray for the return of his mojo. having played only at midsummer  last year (thank you weirdshire people) horsemouth now wants to get on with music making, travelling and the transformation of his lifestyle into that of a trustafarian -  a lazy good-for-nothing who lives only for their own pleasure (or so horsemouth would have thought when he was a dole-bludger).  

horsemouth has published (slightly early) his gigs, books, films, events list for january 2022.

it is a necessary corrective to his feeble memory that would tell him that he has read nothing (for it seems to horsemouth that he is reading much less). what he is doing is watching lots of gialli, he should add five dolls for an august moon 5 bambole per la luna d'agosto (1970) to his list (featuring the generously proportioned edwige fenech). he awaits the release of the next hawkbinge podcast (on the mighty levitation) but in the meantime is making do with the outlaw bookseller's  'unboxing' of the atomhenge reissue of sonic attack.

can horsemouth learn to love the post silver age horsemouth catalogue (literally the bronze age)? having once walked away from it. nik turner's punkadelic inner city unit / bob calvert and krankshaft  were a better fit to the post-punky times than hawkwind's (misguided) attempt to smuggle space rock within NWOBHM when the audience were all off at festivals.  

'if you have ghosts... then you have everything'

horsemouth is not too proud to admit that this is actually the first version he ever heard. 

he should be a knowledgeable oldster and know the roky erickson version (but no). he thinks it is quite sweet really. the goth youth of phoenix arizona are there in their goth finery (green hair, black lipstick, studded leather jackets). he thinks in later years it will be seen as an error to have focused the camera on the band. the swedish band ghost perform in a mock european accent, some kind of 'the count' style anglo-hungarian. 

ghost make the song stadium rock. the audience know the words already and sing along. 

roky erickson's own version is steeped in that southern south and psych. now you may know roky from his 13th floor elevators' song the kingdom of heaven is within you (this is another song that is big with horsemouth - largely because of scriptural reference). 

horsemouth spent a lot of time singing it round and round attempting to find a version he could sing where the tune was similar to the original (or even ghost's cover) and suited his voice. but all the while he was failing to learn the niceties of the lyrics and tune. despite this he thinks it's a runner.  he'll spend some time today writing it out. 

that was pretty much his evening ladies and gentlemen. in the day he child-minded (transportation duties). today he is shocked to discover a snap election in portugal (well it has been on the cards for about 3 months since the failure to negotiate next years budget) - the left of centre alliance containing the socialist party, bloc izquerda and the old-school communist party having fallen. it will be interesting to see where it all goes.   

the harvester of eyes (malaga to barcelona)

the CD from the robert lawson trio (live in malaga) has arrived. the gentlemen are gathered round their musical equipment all wearing hats and coats (this is a very good look). they all look very intent and focused.  the download is available to purchase here. 

horsemouth is just listening to it now. the bass  is a bit too prominent for horsemouth's tastes given horsemouth's speakers which are set up from drum and bass and modern musics (i.e. a bit bass heavy). in comparison when he was listening to the video of  it over his computer speakers he couldn't really hear the bass, all he could hear was that the dulcimers were a bit quiet. the drumming is good and the drums are clear. unfortunately this squeezes the dulcimers out to the edge of the frame where it becomes texture, a detailing on the beat. 

horsemouth would probably wind even more treble off the bass to put it even more in jah wobble rather than bill laswell territory (but then he likes those kinds of bass) and then (by the miracles of mastering or overdubbing) turn up the dulcimers.

there are times when it has a kind of electropop feel - as if we are not dealing with dulcimers but with marimbas and balafons or some keyboard analog of those. (marimbas and balafons appear in the distance). certainly when the dulcimers are on their own they produce a very strong atmosphere. there is some nice interplay and good solid performances. 

last night horsemouth watched eyeball (gatti rossi in un labirinto di vetro - 1975) by umberto lenzi. a barcelona (and sitges) set giallo (nice to see the old place). horsemouth hasn't been there in at least a decade - he would have gone at new years with tim and darsavini attempting to reach some teknival or other but ending up on the ramblas for an outbreak of world peace and cava bottle smashing. 

today is something like the 30th the anniversary of a benefit gig horsemouth's onetime band bush house played at the samuel beckett in stoke newington (a benefit for the waterloo defendant's campaign).  by that time the band had gone all ravey davey gravey there was a backing track etc. 

horsemouth is feeling (a bit) better this morning (thanks for asking) which is just as well because he is off to do some child minding later. there was the possibility of beer and pizza over at howard's but horsemouth was keen to fulfil his obligations. 

'this book is the last of its kind' (dangerous visions and new worlds)

a while ago comrade S was recommending japanese jazz (of which there have been many stellar re-releases lately). here we get an almost perfect coltrane quartet reading of scarborough fair (down to the mccoy tynerisms on the piano). mind you horsemouth quotes from the comments  'beautiful modal remaking of a great simon and garfunkel tune'. 

he also recommended french band (horsemouth thinks) slift who play a great suzzy hawkwind/ pink fairies thing (horsemouth hears steve hillage as well - he went and looked them up last night). as a comix (horsemouth does hope he's got that right) fan comrade S was mainly enticed by the cover. 

athbhliain faio mhaise dhuit (he says - that's happy new year to you and me).

'2022 is looking good, brexit is going well. hey, you know what they say about britain's difficulty being an opportunity for the irish. not only is a 32 county republic on the horizon - it happens in 2024 according to star trek - but we're (the irish) the only people with free movement in europe AND the UK.

for the British... well, this year will be harder than last year, but it will be easier than next year.

good to hear the hawkbinge lads are into PXR5. 25 years is definitely the weakest of the calvert-era albums (and I'm including captain lockheed in that)...' 

the political situation continues to look hopeful to comrade S (but then his main interest remains irish unity). 

he hailed brexit for placing northern ireland in a separate customs condition to the rest of the united kingdom (as it should be). as to the rest of the united kingdom he frankly disparaged the scottish nationalist's  political will to achieve independence given their tactic of delaying demands for independence until after the pandemic (the welsh and cornish likewise presumably). 

the last time they met comrade S was pressing horsemouth about new material - there is a plan for comrade S to do a cartoon cover for the next musical outing. 

there then, (if horsemouth's memory is correct, for this conversation did take place a while ago) followed a great discussion of barney bubbles' 'lifts' (comrade S memorably describing the doremi sleeve as 'barney bubbles does jack kirby'). which horsemouth would love to reproduce for you but at this late remove would require further communication from comrade S to do so.

now that the rock bands of horsemouth's youth are getting their just recognition (hawkwind even  got the cover of record collector magazine recently) the campaign begins to critically re-evaluate the literary science fiction of the era - the scene round brian aldiss and harlan ellison's dangerous visions, michael moorcock's new worlds and the science fiction releases of the women's press. horsemouth recently enjoyed some clips he found online of brian aldiss recounting his life story (and so did comrade S).

it is a week to go until horsemouth (and howard's) first gig of 2022. yikes! horsemouth better get on with it then. he seems to have recovered his ability to sing the high d required for hear us o lord. it's a greyish day out. horsemouth will drink some more coffee and contemplate some musical work. howard is working. ian is off out the door. the dustmen have been. 

'she has taken his hand' (the revenge of vera gemini)

good morning (grey morning). horsemouth is alive and well and living in ________. 

horsemouth was delighted to find a whole silent movie (dementia (1955) directed by john parker) sound tracked with early (near b&w) blue oyster cult (ok ok there's a couple of tracks from agents of fortune in there). it's a rough old life for our un-named heroine on skid row, alcoholics, grabby bullying men, procurers, fortunately she has a flick-knife to defend herself with.

in the evening horsemouth attended (via zoom) a meeting of the communal endeavour. it all went more smoothly than he imagined it going, an attempt to roll back a vote was defeated. 

later he watched loads of videos by modern metal band ghost (not to be confused with japanese semi-improv band ghost). who play nicely with genre conventions between 80ies metal and black metal and clearly have a budget. they had been suggested to horsemouth as a kind of modern equivalent to the blue oyster cult in that it is both poppy and creepy. 

 

horsemouth spent some time yesterday singing through the revenge of vera gemini. (the albert part) it has one of those nice diminished chords and a horses  referencing chorus. 

he also found a great song by singer tina and poet david meltzer (actually another east-coaster) let the door stay open which has a kind of magic incantatory part to it (hmmm doubletracked vocals). he thinks that may make it on to his next mixcloud compilation, he thinks it would go well with ennio morricone's macchie solari. 

today? more walking. horsemouth's cough seems to be improving (but he did throw up last time he went for a walk). more reading. further consideration of the question are book collectors crazy?

should horsemouth need to take public transport or go into a shop (or any crowded area) he will continue to wear a mask. 

the further adventures of the greased piglet

here we see the similarity of the projects (but the differences also) in jacken elswyth's latest mix -pharoah sanders' japan and john fahey's red cross, disciple of christ today you know the mule appreciates (for he has anthologised them himself before). but there are the differences also, more modern stuff. a better (deeper) appreciation of the acapella english folk tradition. for example horsemouth appreciates derek bailey (but he's unlikely to pick a track by him for you). 

the mix seems to have garnered some likes from horsemouth's friends (which is good). 

jacken's experimantal band sullow play water into beer thursday night and then there's the gig with musicians of bremen on saturday february the 5th.  

'in 1980, a third of people lived in socially rented homes, at genuinely affordable below-market rents. that’s now fallen to 17%. over the past 30 years...'

this evening a meeting of the communal endeavour (whose central project is housing lest we forget). at this horsemouth will be continuing his campaign to get the communal endeavour to create a miniscule amount of social housing. 

in other political news the greased piglet continues his extraordinary political career. not one tory MP can find the bottle to stand up and challenge him so they were holding out for the gray report to come out before going in for the kill. but now the gray report is to be delayed and redacted to allow for the police investigation. how wonderful, horsemouth hears you say, the  police having been convinced to do their duty so conveniently (and how wonderful to live in times where a police investigation of the prime minister is good news). 

if the prime minister (the greased piglet) can make it to may (oh the irony) and the local elections he stands a chance. wouldn't he be happier on the after dinner speaker circuit anyway? probably but he needs to be a glorious success of a piglet (and crucially to achieve it all without doing his homework). 

horsemouth is doing his homework honest. (god he's such an egregious swot). horsemouth's cough means he is having difficulty hitting the top notes in hear us o lord (he's been thinking of dropping it to c) and the arthritis in the little finger of his left hand makes playing it a little difficult. he is starting to think he should farm the singing of the top line off on howard. 

it's a grey morning. horsemouth has had his coffee. next it's the museli and the news. 6 years ago horsemouth was off with john clarkson to the isle of grain. all the current evil was but a twinkle in the eye of the universe residing in some batcave somewhere. 

last night's gialli? 

shadow of illusion (ombre roventi 1970) egypt set ancient gods/ woman in peril thriller (beware the evil hippies babe (cos they're gonna get you yeah)),  then something is creeping in the dark (1971) dark and stormy night marooned travellers haunted house sort of thing. 

the black belly of the tarantula (so long and thanks for all the fish)

horsemouth is up. sten just departed for work (he doesn't seem to have taken his recycling with him). last night (post giallo  - the black belly of the tarantula) he read more of that awful mess on via merulana (well done horsemouth, we must get this reading lark back up to scratch). horsemouth had watched black belly before, he realised a little way in.  

it is the centenary of modernism (according to  pound who finds 1922 the significant year) there are various radio shows. 

wednesday a meeting of the communal endeavour. horsemouth (as you know) is a forwards ever backwards never kind of person, there was a discussion, the business plan was written based on that, it was voted to be accepted by the management committee, it was taken to a vote of the members who passed it and now someone wants to go back and re-invent the wheel and do something different. 

oh for fuck's sake (mutters horsemouth). 

horsemouth supposes that should the current scheme fall through (which it might) then we will be back to the previous scheme (which rehouses less people thanks for asking).  people may be more satisfied with that one.

ah well fuck it. it's not his problem. he is satisfactorily housed in the house with the hoarders (and all their junk on every available surface - mostly the floor). of his friends still in short-life he thinks they will have to admit they've had a good run. (so long and thanks for all the fish). 

that awful mess in the garden of the finzi-continis

check it out robin williamson speaking french (he seems to be doing ok). 

'every effect is determined by multiple causes, each of which has still another, numerous causes behind it' 

so italo calvino writes his introduction to that awful mess on via merulana. there was a film, there was even a film treatment by the author of the novel  carlo emilio gadda. the main joy of reading it for an italian, argues calvino in the introduction, is seeing the different dialects and registers of italian speech rendered - venetian upper class, roman semi-criminal etc. this of course this cannot be reliably be achieved in translation.

having started reading (way-hey!) horsemouth set it down to watch an undistinguished rome set giallo the fifth cord. horsemouth supposes that his giallo phase is similar to his french crime thriller phase of a few years ago (jacques brecker rather than dario argento). 

horsemouth continues to have a filthy cough, a dripping nose, and a headache. he guesses it's an actual cold rather than something more modern but he will test again in a bit to see. 

it looks like he does not have it (but then again he is never convinced he is testing himself correctly).

a cousin has gone blind in one eye as a result of a blood clot due to her covid vaccination. in some ways horsemouth sympathises with people resisting vaccine mandates (and in some ways he doesn't). 

people have a tendency to cherry-pick the events they view as significant. horsemouth includes himself in this. people want to return to normal (but normal may not be there to be had yet).  

'baissez le rideau, la farce est jouée'  (bring down the curtain, the farce is over)

a senoir tory quotes rabelais. 

other than the filthy cough horsemouth is reasonably pleased. he threw down yesterday in an attempt to bring the living room and the front garden back into use. of course only time will tell if good intentions are enough. 

 

the cough of winter descends

good morning! good morning!

horsemouth has a disgusting cough (the cough of winter) and he has a headache (he's two paracetamol in - remind him he has to do a run out to get some more paracetamol in a bit). he doesn't feel too bad on it, the headache might be the bigger problem and that might be due to beer. ok the coffee seems to be shifting it.

last night horsemouth was jolly having consumed two zoom beers while on a zoom call with howard. looks like they may be off to see martin carthy in april. 

their plan for their own gig (at water into beer on the 5th february) is to play two individual solo sets, a howard grange one and then a horsemouthfolk one (ok maybe horsemouth will let howard sing some backing vocals). the gig is with martin howard who you know and jacken elswyth (of whom you have heard horsemouth tell). 

there's a plan to get hear us o lord from heaven thy dwelling place up and running. (er. and maybe I want you to want me). howard is keen on new stuff. horsemouth is keen on playing people stuff they might know. 

post the zoom call horsemouth watched suspiria again. in a way horsemouth finds the murders the least interesting part of it (to tell the truth he finds them a bit icky), it's more the lighting, the art design and the music (goblin rather than ennio morricone).  

horsemouth has stropped. and received meaningless reassurances. his demands are fairly simple - he wants a shelf in the fridge that he does not share with the space invader, he wants the front garden cleared of the building waste allegedly stored there temporarily, he wants the living room cleared of the space-invader's archives (allegedly temporarily stored there) and work tools (ditto) to permit its use by any and all members of the house. 

the house has a storage room this is the room that should be used for that purpose not the communal areas of the house (suggests horsemouth). 

he has just received a reassurance that these things will in fact be done. he thinks this is bollocks. but it is at least the start of a negotiation. 

this follows on from the space-invader's 'painting the front room' episode in which the members of the house were denied the use of it for seven months (in fact an elaborate scam to permit him to store worktools etc, in there for the aforementioned seven months).  the space invader is perfectly affable, or can be, but he has a hoarding problem (horsemouth diagnoses despair).  

on horsemouth's temper ('celestial sensations... everything spoke')

horsemouth loses his temper (again) in an exchange of emails. to quote cartman's blues;

'I hate you guys....' (never mind senjor cerveza to the rescue).

it's the morning. horsemouth has a cough and a cold and a headache... but he has his coffee also and somewhere, somewhere there is some paracetamol. he's supposed to be seeing howard today but he's not sure if it is wise to go see him with a cough (ok they have arranged to do it through zoom). 

horsemouth has a terrible temper and he finds the collective process thoroughly infuriating. ok the second part of that statement is true, the first part is the typical gaslighting the poor mule has to endure every time he opens his mouth (or at least that's what it feels like). 

but then it's like that in his house (when he complains about the occupation of the front room and the front garden and the back garden and the corridors by the kipple of the one housemate for example). 

and when he worked it was often like that at work.

when he was in a band (a long time ago) it was like that in the band. 

eventually horsemouth learned to keep his mouth shut and to only do what was necessary (and to only think about things when necessary).  horsemouth is not process oriented (how is everyone? how is it going? is everyone having fun?) but results oriented (does it sound right? are we getting the best out of it?). he thinks that he should take a break from the communal endeavour really. or maybe he should just sit it at the back and mind his manners and that will be safe enough. 

last night's giallo was dario argento's the stendahl syndrome. stendahl became disoriented by a sudden access to art in italy, asia argento's policewoman character experiences the same in the uffizi gallery while on the hunt for a murderer/ rapist. she falls (like icarus) into the sea of a painting.  

'I was in a sort of ecstasy, from the idea of being in florence, close to the great men whose tombs I had seen. absorbed in the contemplation of sublime beauty... I reached the point where one encounters celestial sensations... everything spoke so vividly to my soul. ah, if I could only forget.. life was drained from me. I walked with the fear of falling...'  - stendahl (marie-henri beyle).  

the book in the movie is graziella magherini's  the stendahl syndrome. this would not be the first time stendahl has contributed to psychoanalysis. in on love  we find an early description that becomes the basis of the psychoanalytical concept of condensation. 

now there's a lot to dislike about this movie but there is a semi-interesting point about art and crime, crime and the sublime. but in relying on art that is not his own argento sabotages the movie and in his own art there is less that is interesting. 

horsemouth himself is reading less. 

he watched the booksellers a documentary on NY antiquarian and rare bookdealers and had a chat (online) with his friend mikey about the book as material object, the record as material object. for horsemouth it is the fortuitous discovery, the (little) present to the self that makes buying second hand books and records irresistible. that said he has barely done it for the last two years. downloading things (or even ordering them online) simply doesn't do it for him. 

the film of the bookshelves in the book-dealer's homes does something for horsemouth. 

people have a much more read and throw out attitude to books these days. 

horsemouth is currently receiving a terrible lesson about the psychological harms of hoarding as a result of living in his current home.  as he has remarked before if he is to get mobile he must potlatch  his book collection. 

that horsemouth is the author of his own misfortunes

RIP badal roy (amarendra roy chowdhury) tabla player. he played with john mclaughlin, miles davis, pharoah sanders, john hassell.  here he is with john mclaughlin on the first half of my goal's beyond. most notably he played with miles on big fun, on the corner, on the clanking funky electronic ones.

that horsemouth is the author of his own misfortunes. 

sometimes this thought escapes unconscious supervision and bubbles up into horsemouth's consciousness. horsemouth regards it with the kind of warmth reserved for landmines and scorpions.  nonetheless when it appears it should be acknowledged. he was intrigued by the story of a woman who cannot forget (that, to horsemouth, seems a great misfortune).  

yesterday he washed the sheets and went for a walk with andrew minty down to hackney wick (and across to victoria park). they discussed their plans for the year. earlier TG had nipped round for a visit to drop off some photos and a photo book. 

later he watched cronenberg's the brood (starring samantha eggar who you may remember from one of the giallos). upstairs sten moved in more tools from an ended jobsite (and stacking them in the hallway). horsemouth will wander upstairs in a bit to assess the damage. 

in parliament play is getting rough. the speaker sir lindsay hoyle has warned government whips and special advisers are 'not above the criminal law' with accusations of bullying and threats to withdraw funding from projects in MPs areas if they vote against the government. such would be standard practice (horsemouth guesses), the fact that rebel MPs have decided to drag all this out into the open is novel. talking politics have some (early) discussion of it.

boris is probably one of the few people on the planet praying for a war in the ukraine. 

in many ways boris is a least worst option. he is not a minimal state ideologue but merely a lazy opportunist. the crew he has gathered round him are fundamentally useless. the danger is that the conservative party is gripped by a lockdown sceptic/ netzero sceptic technopopulist faction determined to take us in the direction of a low regulation singapore on thames. they open the box and steve baker flies out. there's a whole pack of these sovereign individuals  in there, all reading their copies of how states fail. 

today horsemouth has a cough. he will mostly be shuffling round the house. it's a bright sunshine-y day (if cold) so there should be decent solar gains in the living room.  

musique française et américaine de la même époque et d'il y a longtemps

last night more staying in bed to keep warm. more gialli (the plural of giallo). seven deaths in the cat's eyes (1973). a haunted house/ mad relatives gothico-giallo by antonio margheriti featuring jane birkin as a young ingenue and serge gainsburg as a wisecracking detective (dubbed into a scottish accent). 

today's music an engagingly speedy (3/2 feel) version of erik satie's gnossienne no.1 by french guitarist (and ukulele player) cyril lefebvre. born in 1947, died 7 april 2012, he started his solo career after leaving the underground band maajun in the early 1970s, exploring left-field folklore and blues for an unclassifiable mixture of styles documented on 3 solo LPs. for example his musique française et américaine de la même époque et d'il y a longtemps features a version of debussy's golliwoggs cakewalk. 

there was a lot of interest amongst french composers for ragtime music and among parlour piano players for the new style, notably debussy's général lavine – eccentric. horsemouth recorded a version of gnossienne no.1  a long time ago which uses a greek rhythm (he has it sitting round here somewhere). 

later horsemouth is supposed to be undertaking a walk with andrew minty (round hackney wick probably). he will take a covid test before he does (he has a winter cough, and seeing as he was out being naughty at claudia's 50th birthday party he would now like to reassure himself he is not a fully functioning typhoid mary). 

he has bought a £1 supermarket diary for 2022 in an A6 kind of size. while there he checked his finances - broadly he is spending the rent, this bodes well for his ability to schlep it out in the seaside towns (assuming he survives the black death).  

excess sunspot activity

good morning peoples! it looks like the internet is down. this morning would have been a good time to go shopping. 

(it is later. horsemouth has been shopping. the internet has come back up. now read on...)

but for now horsemouth will have to devise his own entertainment. maybe he will test himself for covid. maybe he'll do another round of shopping at a different food supermarket, maybe he'll actually do some reading or practice some guitar or work on some songs. (hopefully the internet will come back on before he is forced to such desperate measures). maybe he will launder his bedsheets/ pillows etc. put the vacuum cleaner round. 

maybe he will play a CD or watch some daytime TV. 

it's a greyish day. the central heating is set low (it seems to lack a comfortable middle spot). first to check if there is any coffee left in the pot then to get some museli. 

yesterday horsemouth finished off watching armando crispino's autopsy (aka macchie solari or sunspots) an engaging giallo with a slight science fiction edge - sunspots happen, there is dissonant music on the soundtrack, and the heat seems to ripple through the film stock. 

later he watched the red queen kills seven times - this has a more conventional stately home/ inheritance / sealed will plot but then it's also set at a fashion house (which is very giallo). 

yesterday horsemouth ate some rice (and because he cooked too much he will have to eat more rice today). 

horsemouth is (as usual) dissatisfied with the condition of the gaff. he's been contemplating murder, but he doesn't fancy the jail time.  the wicked will once again have to go unpunished (sigh). 

on taking the electoral poison (sunspots)

'rather than pushing their politics somewhere new, the covid crisis seems to have sent terrified tories back to their old beliefs – in small government, untrammelled business...'

well this is good (horsemouth opines) because there is no going back for them. having leapt over the abyss of brexit (admittedly in a number of stages and renegotiations meaning it can never really be 'done'), or perhaps it's jumped the shark of brexit, the tories were all set to reap a crop of voters disenfranchised for decades by new labour and the first past the post system. 

getting these voters on side (the red wall etc.) would have lead to systematic tory majorities but brexit also means losing the votes in the 'prosperous south' of anti-brexit tories (the kind of people who will hold their nose and vote lib dem). 

they have (in any event) spent the money on covid and committed to 'levelling -up' (attempting to twist the hand of the market to produce better outcomes up north), if they don't deliver on that now they will be 'reneging on their promises'. 

under covid they have enacted 'authoritarian measures' that they themselves couldn't keep to, and signed contracts for PPE and testing with people they probably shouldn't have (and all of this will slowly unravel and come to light). 

the temptation for the tories is to jump back to default thatcherite settings. to attempt to bank the economic gains of brexit (whether such things exist or not) by an outbreak of looting of labour value from the workers by deregulation and improvements in productivity. (brexit with an inhuman face if you will). 

horsemouth thinks such a manoeuvre is electoral poison (he therefore recommends it to conservative central office). the tories moral authority is weak, they have squandered it. 

a full 63% of tory party members want boris to carry on (if you'll pardon the pun). probably considerably less tory MPs want him to carry on but can they afford to wait until the local elections in may and decide whether to keep him or not on the back of that? 

horsemouth is having a third wave of giallo watching. he is moving on to the films of armando crispino ( l'etrusco uccide ancora, macchie solari). there was another etruscan filmed giallo horsemouth remembers (but he can't remember the title of it right now). here the track is ansimando (breathless?) from macchie solari (sunspots). mimsy farmer is working in the morgue, there is a wave of suicides in rome, allegedly caused by sunspots, for mimsy the dead keep rising up off the autopsy tables. the giallo podcast were keen on it.  

yesterday a wander round with TG. saturday a meeting up with howard. in his dreams horsemouth was attempting to save a small post-soviet nation (something about gasmasks).  

reframe the shitshow (an uplifting way to look back)

'coincidentally, I recently tried something similar, inspired by an article by daisy dowling in the harvard business review. rather than a story, she encourages us to list our achievements throughout the pandemic – which could include not snapping all your child’s pencils in an impotent rage while home schooling, or cooking 654 dinners in a row since march 2020, as well as more traditional wins. it was an uplifting way to look back and reframe the shitshow of the last two years.' 

- life after lockdown: how do we best recover from the pandemic? by rebecca seal, the observer 16/01/22. 

so what is horsemouth doing when he copies this piece of text? the main part of the article is a self-help co-counselling kind of thing for dealing with post-disaster PTSD widely trialled in 'developing' countries (except that descriptor isn't used any more). it encourages survivors to formulate a story where they not only survived but thrived (and came to terms with their losses). 

the broad thrust is that we too need counselling for our trauma of the pandemic but (of course) this being the guardian in sunday exile the author can't help but offer us daisy dowling's list work (a piece of writing rather than an exchange with another living human being).

of course horsemouth (being a grumpy old sod and a hopeless optimist at the same time) can't help but respond positively to some of this and negatively to the other bits. horsemouth was not sweating in home made PPE watching people die in intensive care, he was sat comfortably at home doing some typing. once in a while, true, he would sometimes have to wander out and take public transport (but not that often). what sort of a pandemic did horsemouth have? he had an easy one.  

currently horsemouth waits to see if there is any karmic payback for his going out and enjoying himself saturday. (he does hope not. he does hope everyone will be ok).

it's three weeks until musicians of bremen's next gig at water into beer (a double header with jacken elswyth (sometime member of sullow and martin howard saturday 5th february 19:30). horsemouth is looking forward to it. he's meeting up with howard saturday to discuss it. this will be the end of week one of his preparations. 

horsemouth watched profondo rosso again. one of the better productions by dario argento. again it features a book (modern ghosts and black legends of today by (allegedly) folklorist anna righetti). this contains the tale the house of the screaming child it is this tale that enables hemmings to find the haunted house with the secret room. the secret room contains the secret that must never be told and thus the site of the trauma that because it cannot be confessed must recur.  

there was a good site horsemouth found where there was a discussion of the movie in terms of writing and orality (in a kind of claude levi-strauss kind of way). david hemmings and carlo are musicians (so oral right?) - but hemmings is engaged in writing music, carlo improvises music in a bar, there's an exchange where carlo tells hemmings that he (carlo) is the proletariat of the music world and hemmings the bourgeoisie. 

in comparison the women in the film are writers, they are reporters or folklorists, (or in the case of carlo's mum an ex-actress). the thing that gets the psychic killed is sitting down to write it down. the psychic researcher? he gets killed too (after a lot of damage to his mouth, presumably to encourage him not to talk). 

on the whole these reviewers found the original suspiria more to their taste. 

yesterday horsemouth went for a wander (and farted about online). today horsemouth goes for a wander also (with TG). he sang some songs through (sometimes our dreams, somethings on your mind, boadbury down, gentleman john, the werewolf). 

profondo rosso has a wonderful fake ending. david hemmings is shown realising that the ending to the story the film has proposed will not work, that there is still work to do before the story can be completed. he must see again if he is to understand what he did not see the first time. 

horsemouth writes (as you know). he believes in the writing cure. he finds it most therapeutic. but he has run out of diary. he has the calendar. he still has notebooks. the 2021 diary has still not made its way up into the box of diaries. he forgot to get one on his journey to islington. 

 

when this bloody 'demic's over (oh how happy we shall be)

horsemouth is back from claudia's 50th (it was great dudes, thank you very much). he drank. he danced, he chatted up some girls. dave DJed. a youngster DJed. adam DJed from off a phone by bluetooth (o tempora! o mores!). lots of 80ies, 90ies nostalgia.  

horsemouth was presented with a vision of what life will be like when we are restored to full sociability (when this bloody 'demic's over oh how happy we shall be).

alex was there (he's living out in east ham not down on the south coast racing sailboats). jo, patrick, lethal. megan etc. etc. 

now all that remains is to wait to see if he has caught covid. (there was a brief discussion of a friend who has gone lockdown skeptic). 

horsemouth is feeling surprisingly well (all things considered). he has his coffee. he will now go back to bed for a bit. 

'those who have given themselves up to reckless optimism'

someone handed him an orange (and then the dream was over).

horsemouth's plan (as you know) is to stay sat down and out of the way and with a paper bag over his head and wait for the whole thing to be over. the hermitude suits him. 

the virus is real. the vaccines work. the lockdowns and social distancings are necessary. 

what we are not living through is a cunning plan by the ruling class to seize control and in fact they are not using it for totalitarian purpose as much as they might because they have been singing from the entrepreneurial hymn-sheet for so long it has fucked their brains. 

the anti-vaxxers are the people who were dissatisfied with everything and who saw the hand of the state everywhere, the anti-lockdowners may have a point (after all the working class are still compelled to go to work by economic necessity - how can that be safe?), the anti-mask wearers may have a point - where is the research on how this airborn virus spreads? anti-mandate people are probably right (compulsion is probably not the way to go in terms of getting more people vaccinated/ getting staff to stay on). 

but on the whole horsemouth thinks the anti- arguments are bollocks. people are upset at losing control, they are disturbed by the irruption of danger into the safe world of consumption. (and when the virus is declared to be no worse than the winter flu and thus tolerable there will still be global warming).  

despite that horsemouth has a busy social calendar today. (test permitting). some child minding and then a social event  for a friend's birthday. 

horsemouth should probably deal with agamben's statements and the backlash against him. the pandemic has of course resulted in a vast expansion of bio-power (the extent to which the state is interested in our bodies and our health), but the alternative is the one the state keeps trying to revert to, a laissez-faire 'if they die they die, if they live they live, god will know his own'. of course they were partying it up in the garden of downing street because they were young and exceptional (your natural biological betters to whom the rules do not apply, our sovereign lords by virtue of their intellect and clear sightedness now having to apologise and act humble (such are the injustices of egalitarianism and democracy/ another promising career ruined)). 

you have to realise the strategy they planned to run was no lockdown let it rip this is not china. 

when the great accountant gets to review these years he may decide that the economic and social harms of lockdown exceeded the harms of the virus had we let it rip - but there was no way of knowing this at the start (just as there is no way of knowing what the next variant will be like). 

agamben did not think it was so lethal that it necessitated the lockdown (and true it does kill mainly old people) but people also get sick, there is long covid and a health service broken by covid is not in a position to dole out the care an ageing population requires (so more people die). vastly more people have died than they initially thought would. vastly more people have acquired long term chronic illness. the accounting of the death toll is not a matter of 28 days since your test but will not be clear for decades. 

agamben has the right to say these things though, because that is philosophy, socrates must be allowed to speak. 

anyway as horsemouth said, test permitting a day of social activity. he will then return to his hermitage by the river. 

two crows fucking in the bushes (a train journey back to the wen)

this is what horsemouth would guess from the noise and then they flew from out of the bracken and brambles up into the skies. this was on horsemouth's last visit (of this trip) to the common. there was a frost on the ground wherever the sun did not reach. the air was crisp and clear and the sun shone. 

at newport horsemouth nearly missed the train back into london. the city was shrouded in fog horsemouth started to daydream. then he noticed the train had pulled in behind him and he had to run back along the platform to get it. round bristol the fog thinned out and the sun shone strongly. it seemed a shame to be travelling on such a beautiful day. 

horsemouth had been away for a month. when he looked at his ticket he realised he had to travel back that day (or pay for an additional single).

and so horsemouth is back in the wen. the kitchen was relatively tidy. the recycling had been done. the front room and corridor have gone to shit again. 

rob, horsemouth's friend in malaga, has released an album of a live gig (both on bandcamp and on physical CD). there's a video of the gig to whet your appetite. horsemouth likes it already, it's tight and focused. 

today horsemouth plans to bank a cheque. he's just sitting here wrapped up in the duvet drinking his coffee. in a bit museli for breakfast. then a journey. tomorrow a social gathering (which horsemouth has been preparing for by being anti-social). 

horsemouth should probably re-institute publishing his scribbles. he claimed that, now that he no longer works, he is no longer bored and so no longer does scribbles. but this is not true (as a brief look at his diary will convince you). 

on the subject of diaries horsemouth should get one for this year so that his 2021 diary can join the others in the box. 

a pack of rabid dogs attacks the king

so last night some movies. horsemouth went in search of a late mario  bava crime film cani arrabbiati (rabid dogs) mentioned in a giallo documentary (all the colours of giallo). it's a robbery gone wrong film where the villains flee by hijacking a car containing a sick little girl who has to get to hospital. he found what he thought was it but it turned out to be another giallo (la polizia chiede auito).  

cani arrabbiati features a great 3-beat  theme (it reminds horsemouth of the main theme to long good friday). 

horsemouth missed listening to boris johnson apologise for partying it up during lockdown  (due to an internet outage). can the boris survive? stranger things have been known. 

the tories will be trying to kick it into the long grass until may, waiting until may to see how this all plays in the local elections (by which time people may have forgotten), then it's the summer recess of parliament, they will have to mount the campaign to oust him (leaving his replacement enough time to get to know the voters before they are off out campaigning for the 2nd may 2024 general election).  

meanwhile a theme park in lancashire is converting itself into a zombie experience. 

yesterday/ today a frosty morning. the bull finch is in the tree outside his window. horsemouth will return to the seaside towns tomorrow (he reckons).  he'll check the trains and see what the delays cancelations are like. 

the year of the big spring clean

'this year has been fine (but I am looking forward to next)' - brian aldiss in the year of the big spring clean in the year's best science fiction no.6 (1973). horsemouth has (re-)punctuated it after his fashion. 

horsemouth has been watching dwelling shows - where people build houses (usually far out in the wilderness with composting toilets). he also watched a documentary on rush. he'd always assumed alex lifeson was some kind of a swede but it turns out his family are from (the former) yugoslavia. what horsemouth liked about rush  was that they were nerds from the suburbs (horsemouth was a nerd from the suburbs). 

while on the subject of power trios burke shelley of budgie  has died. they deserved to be much better known than they were. two years ago there was the mari lwyd. horsemouth looks forward to the mari lwyd next year. 

horsemouth returns to the wen soon enough - tomorrow or friday. he then has a social event saturday (which he will attend gingerly). he has a cheque to bank. he has communal endeavour stuff to be attending to and (early february) he has a gig to play. presumably there will be some child minding at some point. 

hopefully he returns to a seaside towns where the current variant has hit peak and is in decline. 

horsemouth needs to have a year of the big spring clean (he initially thought it was the title of a science fiction story - probably one where the wastefulness of throwing things out is revealed). if horsemouth is to get mobile (even if he does not move) he needs to do things like get his papers in order, potlatch his library, put his records in storage, etc. etc. sell/ give away/ abandon his furniture (such as it is). 

outside there's been a frost (but now it is a bright sunshine-y day). 

karen dalton and the dog that refused to bark

it's the 50th anniversary this year of the release of karen dalton's in my own time. there's a bumper re-release with lots of extras including the montreux golden rose pop festival performance from 1971 (which briefly appeared on youtube a while ago). 

in other news the parliamentary standards watchdog will not be investigating decorationgate - where boris had various tory donors pay for the redecoration of the no.11 prime minister's flat. 

why is horsemouth not surprised?

'the BBC understands downing street received a letter from the commissioner last week confirming there would be no further inquiry.'

horsemouth is quietly furious. the regulator has said she thinks it is a matter for the register of minister's interests but seeing as this (like the priti patel bullying case) is a matter of the prime minister marking his own homework he would have to dob himself in  to the cabinet office.

righty-ho. ministerial code it is then.

'there must be no bullying and no harassment...  no misuse of taxpayer money and no actual or perceived conflicts of interest. the precious principles of public life enshrined in this document – integrity, objectivity, accountability, transparency, honesty and leadership in the public interest – must be honoured at all times...' - PM boris johnson in his introduction to the ministerial code, august 2019.

horsemouth liked this documentary on alternative livings (frank lloyd-wright, arcosanti, tiny houses etc.). on escaping the tyranny of the housing code. at arcosanti they want to preserve the urban feel and concentration, elsewhere they want to spread out and scatter (avoid the man and live free). the family take a road trip in search of alternative living - it is of course easy to have a composting toilet and a shower cubicle with no door when you don't have any neighbours. 

meanwhile a fire in a new york tower block, 19 killed, 9 of them children, it reads like there were no door auto-closers  either on the flat doors nor on the door into the stairwell (or that they had been disabled). it reads like there was no extractor system to keep the stairwell smoke free.

it reads like because it was social housing those protections were not in place. the fire alarms went off all the time said the residents - so everybody ignored them. 

but it also reads like the stay in place advice was correct because the block had not been clad. the fire did not spread, the people who died died trying to escape of smoke inhalation on the stairwell. 

today horsemouth goes with his mum to pick up a framed picture. soon he will be back in the wen. 

it seems like the state are moving to declare the pandemic over (but of course it is not in their power to call this).  horsemouth's sedentary hermit-like lifestyle protects him from most risk.  

 

the parts you don't hear (making other people sound good)

'the french revolution might be described as the remote but inevitable result of the invention of the art of printing.' - william hazlitt, the life of napoleon. 

a similar idea is professed by the coming storm. that the populist delusions and the madness of the crowds of the last few years are driven by the internet. and of course the internet changes the nature of work as well (or at least where it can be done). 

and so we come to the world in action theme music (this, and mountain's nantuckett sleigh-ride being used as the theme for weekend world) led to horsemouth's interest in current affairs as a child. it is the site of a dust up between  john shepphard, (producer for world in action who paid for the recording sessions) who actually got all the royalties from the recording, shawn phillips (who you may remember from playing sitar on donovan's 'three kingfishers', who wrote the descending guitar part (the tune) and thus should have got the lion's share of the royalties), and mick weaver (who, horsemouth guesses, is actually playing the organ on this track - which is the thing that makes it, who got nothing, not even the bus fare to the session). 

it's a lift from bach's toccata and fugue in D minor anyway.

the studio was the place of work where the recordings were done. how people got paid was based on a notion of copyright derived from when sheet music sales were the main earner. 

the home studio and the internet have utterly altered it but not in as complete a fashion as one might think. 

rose simpson's father was involved in amateur dramatics (and so was she when she was a child). to escape the dullness and difficulty of her english degree at york she used to go rock climbing. she's a yorkshire lass anyway. it was from these sources that she derived the power to go out on stage before tens of thousands. and there she is (decades later, in another century) on the settee surrounded by beautiful cushions holding forth about the incredible string band. 

she argues that she can't play but that robin was such a good player he could make anyone sound good. and indeed making other people sound good was what musicians spent their time doing. 

horsemouth had a quick look for the parts you don't hear: the untold story of sound techniques (the recording studio where the great and good of folk rock recorded).  

horsemouth had a quick look at mike heron's autobiography as well.

earlier horsemouth had listened to webb david's techno-dub show on new river radio (and very good it was too).  there's an archive. 

it's a grey morning. outside it's appalling (a pouring). horsemouth can see a bull finch from the window.  

'je vous ecris d'un pays lointain' (on collaboration)

and here we have bob calvert live from his front room as the sun comes up. bob doesn't like reggae or funk (he is a prisoner of his cultural assumptions). this is after his 1981-2 theatre space  gigs (horsemouth and his friend adrian simon went to one of them). he's trying to move it in the direction  of poetry and books (but evil rock still pays the bills). 

for him hawkwind  is over. it ends with hawklords. 

he works with the same musicians over and over because these are the people he knows, whose phone numbers he has, later he will do a lot of things with electronics. 

horsemouth has scan read the first pages of several chris marker primers - his pre-62 films (the ones he effectively repudiated) and (in more frenchness) he watched la traque (kind of the french equivalent of straw dogs) with mimsy farmer. 

on collaboration

horsemouth has (in his time) worked with two bassists called andy. both added to, and immeasurably improved, tunes horsemouth had come up with. in fact just about everything they ever played on got suddenly better. 

horsemouth would like to believe that everybody he has ever worked with or for as a guitarist has experienced the same feeling. but he doubts this is true. once in a while horsemouth has produced the genius cat from out of the bag, on other occasions it came out after a little coaxing,  on others horsemouth's parts ended up in the dustbin of history. 

he has rocked the spot / he has failed auditions. (horsemouth's lack of formal musical training has held him back there is no doubt). 

as a song-writer things have gone similarly. sometimes he has managed to pull fully formed songs out of his forehead (the devil song, the lyrics to gentleman john) in little more time than it takes to sing the song, in others the song just has not come.  

and he has collaborated. he generally likes this. someone else provides the material and horsemouth gets a reasonably free hand to embellish it.  (conversely he has also stood and played and done what he was asked to do (well mostly) for instance in the snatch foster band with nick). 

the work with howard has been consistently the best horsemouth has done - there are not just the improvisations (snake(S), on the banks of the susquehanna, humming, malkin tower) that have come together well, there are also the songs they were involved in writing together (new years day, sorrows of tomorrow, noah) 

then there were the songs where horsemouth  got to add a killer guitar part (noah, amarach) or the songs where horsemouth helped shepherd the song to a good conclusion (turn your heater on, broadbury down, blindspot). and then there were the songs that were horsemouth's that howard helped him get out there (most of volume three for example). 

but there have also been times when the spirit would not descend or where howard had a more personal vision of the track and there was nothing that horsemouth could do that was going to pass muster. at these times he would  just leave howard to get on with it. some of these he really likes - wonky for example. 

horsemouth has had his 'the joys of working with technology' years (when it appeared as if compromises with other musicians did not have to be made) but in this he was revealed to be sadly mistaken. 

horsemouth has generally learnt to relax and let people get on with following their dreams. if they like what horsemouth adds - good, if they don't - no problem. his nose is seldom out of joint these days (but it can still happen). he generally thinks it is more important to get the music out there (either to play the gig or to get it recorded and released) than to get exactly what you first wanted. 

yesterday a morning walk (but not an afternoon one).

four flies on grey velvet (je t'aime, je t'aime)

it's a grey rainy morning. horsemouth is up. he has sniffles and a sneeze (but that's seasonal probably).

last night he watched four flies on grey velvet by dario argento and then je t'aime, je t'aime by alain resnais.

in  four flies on grey velvet (the last of argento's animal trilogy) the over enthusiastic drummer of a rock band is blackmailed by a figure wearing a dario argento mask, his girlfriend (mimsy farmer  - giallo fans may know her from lucio fulci's the black cat and the hippies from more). it's very stylish and very hitchcock and the murders are (reasonably) tastefully done. 

in  je t'aime, je t'aime we have one of the first of the new wave of film as time travel movies (a direct inspiration for marker's la jetée) - a man takes a drug that makes him travel in time through his life at one minute durations. he flits from disconnected moment to disconnected moment. his life is structured by a tragedy but in the end resnais lets him escape. to leave him prisoner of his memories would be too grim an ending. 

in some ways the trailer (with a voice over and still photos) is more successful.  

today horsemouth does not really know. it is rainy and grey. he will complete his morning routine (coffee, blog, breakfast, radio news, guardian) and then see if anything occurs to him. it may be the kind of day on which he can get some reading done. 

'the willow sees the heron's image upside down' (repair the web of time)

allegedly a haiku by matsuo basho (repeated in chris marker's sans soleil). above a short film by chris marker on art installations on some mudflats near san francisco made out of driftwood (and now sadly gone). horsemouth sees the sense of it. mudflats are fragile habitats and you don't want art fans tramping through them destroying the plant cover in search of an aesthetic experience. 

the mudflat sculpture park (here's another film by ric reynolds) makes it into harold and maude. the idea is replicated up in humbolt bay (in the town of eureka) and at various other places in SF. horsemouth thinks of it as of a piece with jean varda's marine utopia. 

horsemouth has continued with his chris marker researches - notably jean-piere gorin's appreciation of sans soleil  and some youngster and their appreciation of la jetée/ 12 monkeys. some are clear that marker is aware of the invention of morel, of time recycling, others pick through his sources (notably alan resnais je t'aime, je t'aime and hitchcock's vertigo).

it is typical of horsemouth that he hadn't realised chris marker was french (why he has an english name doesn't he?).  

the appreciation of  john berger's ways of seeing  continues as does a rather engaging/ infuriating discussion series on population. the west (the first world) is ageing - soon it will be short of workers to pay for its old people (unless the old people keep working or unless it imports new workers or it accepts drops in the material quality of life (at least for some)). the direction chosen by his horsemouth's fellow countrymen is into population decline and senescence (by means of low(er) immigration). the direction of travel is japan - a quiet world of old people. 

in sans soleil  an older japanese couple conduct a funeral service for their missing cat - because the cat is missing they will not know the correct time to do it so they are doing it anyway 'to repair the web of time'. 

horsemouth is up. he has his back to the radiator and he has a cup of coffee on the go. today the funeral service for jim bermingham - horsemouth is out of town and so will not be going, he wishes everyone the best with it. 

today the usual. he thinks he will be staying in over the weekend. next week (at some point) back to the seaside towns (a friend has a birthday, another friend is coming over). 

finally pink floyd playing jugband blues (which is so good).

the moment of influence (it is not over) TRUMP WINS

first off  hail the deposers of colston! (and hail the jury that acquitted them). 

few thing inspire horsemouth with hope. few things make him think things are getting better. this does. 

a beautiful golden sunshine-y morning out here. (but later on cold and rainy)

yesterday up on the common horsemouth met the guy with the mohican. (the cardiacs fan. he's doing well). meanwhile the clean up the wye campaign makes it into the daily torygraph business section p.5 under the headline river-polluting companies are starting to clean up their act. of course all this hides the fact that the river is dying because it is full of chicken shit. the local (tory) MP is interviewed and says all the right things meanwhile shifting the blame across the border and ignoring his own government's role in gutting environmental protection agencies. 

today is the anniversary of the january 6th run around in congress. 

the Qanon and militia schmucks who went are feeling the wrath of the state (ok if they'd have been black they'd probably have been shot dead on the day and those jail sentences would have been measured in decades but still). 

bison horns or no, maybe they aren't the story, maybe the eastman memos are? - the memos showing that trump had a plan and a mechanism to steal the election.

you may not believe that the government is literally run by satanic paedophiles but how about metaphorically believing that? how about claiming to believe that as a wind-up? horsemouth himself is not above claiming our leaders are lizards (it's why they can't sweat etc.).

the BBC reporters interview the americans  - they are charming and helpful (as americans are when they are being charming and helpful) but they are mad. the disinvested are fertile ground for the sowing of dragons teeth. the general advises them to look for the moment of influence.

of course it is not over. many have retreated to the base of the republican party and are occupying it in preparation for another run (if not trump then who?). go to the school-boards says the general. 

and in 2025? dust off the eastman memos. an alternative slate of electors. TRUMP WINS. 

'at the end of the third lockdown I went to london...' (red sky in the morning)

soon the anniversary of january 6th. 

it is interesting that ambrose evans-pritchard (then of the sunday telegraph and son of a noted anthropologist) is one of the key spreaders of the early conspiracy theories about the clinton presidency. he writes the secret life of bill clinton but he is basing it on procopius's the secret history which tells the tale of justin and theodora devils in human form sent to ravage the roman empire but this time with bill and hillary in the lead roles. 

it is a necessary antidote to the notion that suddenly things have got much worse and suddenly people have started believing mad shit. it's been going on for a long time now. perhaps the origins of totalitarianism's most necessary corrective is this, that people have been believing in scandal, corruption and conspiracy theories for a long time.   

'... and we haven't ended have we'

'at the end of the third lockdown I went to london...'

it starts to sound like la jetée to horsemouth's ears. a juxtaposition of cataclysmic worldwide events and personal detail. but it's someone off to the national gallery to look at a painting and getting a 55 bus into town walking down through soho.   

'of course, chris marker is dead, so he doesn't have to see it, what la jetée spawned' - terry gilliam on the 12 monkeys tv series. but of course, by means of time travel he could. 

horsemouth imagines our guides to the times the ghosts of chris marker and john berger.

by other means of time travel back from the bbc vaults from 1986 comrade dad - britain under soviet occupation - red guards in a renamed trafalgar square. 

the hitchcock style thriller 23 paces to baker street (blind author overhears murderous conversation in a london pub and starts to investigate) inspires much of the plot and several of the scenes in the crimes of the black cat (blind soundtrack composer overhears murderous conversation in a copenhagen bar and starts to investigate). horsemouth is indebted to the fragments of fear podcast, in which two knowledgeable giallo fans discuss neglected works from the genre, for this knowledge. 

in 23 paces... it's the 73 bus that is of interest (but in its further kensington reaches which, being west london, horsemouth never has reason to visit). 

horsemouth is still out at his parents. last night a frost this morning a red sky. 

'a rising tide lifts all boats'

horsemouth dreamt about a party. the 2 metre rule (if there is one) was not being  observed. people seemed to have been returned to a younger age. (gosh it was fun). horsemouth was given permission. he said thank you. 

horsemouth is awake late (it's 9am) that shows how good the dream was. there were toasts (in some undefined spirit). possibly to keep our boy asleep. 

it's the 50th anniversary of the publication of ways of seeing (there's a bbc appreciation on all this week) and it's the 20th anniversary of the physical institution of the euro as the currency of the eurozone. 

in fact countries have continued joining even after the eurozone crisis (aka. the greek sovereign debt crisis) revealed the problems with it and some have even adopted it as a currency unilaterally (kosovo, montenegro, the four european microstates, with partial use in various states in financial or otherwise difficulty,  cuba, syria and zimbabwe for example). 

of course the problem for poor areas (of the eurozone, but this is a problem with all currencies in general) is that their prices become linked to the prices in the rich areas, areas with different strength economies become tied together and lose their flexibility to vary how much the currency can actually buy to meet local conditions. people from the rich areas of the eurozone can always show up and purchase things with their wealth that the poorer people living on the edges of it cannot, prices are driven up and the poor of the regions become unable to afford things like housing. to keep the whole project on track the centre must distribute aid to the regions (and when times are not so good for the populace in the centre this is not very popular). 

the theory is that 'a rising tide lifts all boats'  but this requires careful management.

of course this problem exists for any two disparate regions linked together not just the first world and teh third world, but germany and greece,  london and the north east of england, or even west london and east london. 

the euro requires other changes as well, changes in the language. it is one euro, two euro (except in britain where it is one euro,  two euros etc.). the cents of it are differently said across europe.

of course horsemouth is no particular fan of nations but neither is he a fan of supra-national bodies. except that he is, he views them as a necessary stepping stone to world government (which he regards as a transitional stage to world communism - but he digresses). 

in fact it is less world government that interests him but rather proletarian internationalism - that the workers of the world see that they have no country (erm. except that they do, rather a lot of them). 

horsemouth watched a giallo (the crimes of the black cat 1972) heavily indebted to argento's animals trilogy but also to bava's fashion house set blood and black lace. it has moments of great style (and moments of tacky sadism and gore). he found it having heard it discussed on the podcast fragments of fear. 

yesterday a zoom call from john in far off porto. he had been reading adolfo bioy casares' the invention of morel (kind of a recycle time drama) after he realised that he didn't know any argentinian writers. (horsemouth can only name you two - casares and borges).  horsemouth was watching a fan video for robbie basho's bardo blues when he realised he was watching an excerpt from a film of it (this enabled him to track down the film).

yesterday also an email from sean. 

on books: 'if one book wearies me I take up another'

concorde crashed. sabotage. the metal panels folded it up and it shot off to crash somewhere further east. horsemouth fell to the ground and attempted a 'duck and cover'. shrapnel and bits of metal fell near horsemouth cutting down power cables. horsemouth got up and made a run for home. the people were still out in the street market though and this slowed him down. 

earlier in the dream horsemouth had been trying to organise a film show in the park on sunday (such are horsemouth's dreams at 3am on a monday morning). 

horsemouth was reading montaigne's essay on books (a topic close to horsemouth's heart). 

montaigne's honesty is refreshing. 

'I may be a man of fairly wide reading, but I retain nothing.'

'if one book wearies me I take up another.' and earlier,

'if  I come across difficult passages in my reading... after making a charge or two I let them be.'

for plain delight  montaigne favours the decameron and rabelais, he has fallen out of love with ovid and ariosto, though virgil and terence meet with approval. 

for authors useful to montaigne's own project he favours plutarch and seneca (who he finds in agreement) over cicero ('to tell the truth boldly... his style of writing seems boring to me'). he favours the historians (and particularly those who held high office and knew the actual affairs of state).

montaigne is a follower of the modern cultural studies style of annotating books the better to understand them as he reads them. (he tells us this in passing)

'I have more than once happened to pick up again, thinking it new and unknown to me, a book which I had carefully read several years earlier and scribbled all over with my notes.'

he may even write a short summary of the text (containing his opinion of what it reveals about the author) at the end of a book to remind himself of it when he comes back to it. 

yesterday whilst out wandering with his mother a sad discovery. earlier an evasion round the common (horsemouth was not in the mood to chat).  

online in the evening horsemouth re-listened to musicians of bremen volume four. 

the first time back listening to it in a while. howard listens to am I born to die  a lot, but horsemouth does not, he does not like his own vocal on it and he does not feel it works well with the rest of the album (plus current 93 got there before him). ah well - too late to fix it now. 

otherwise a ghost story and some book porn (best russian books of 2021) and some book shop porn (hurlingham books in fulham and skoob). the second halcyon exists (john has been there) but it is not the magical cave that halcyon was (ah well). oxfam st. james' street walthamstow is good, the salvation army near the william morris museum yields the occasional beauty. of late horsemouth has taken advantage of the neighbourhood enthusiasm for putting out books once read and for 'book boxes'. 

horsemouth will soon be potlatching his own books (the better to get mobile) if anyone is interested. 

today (no doubt) more of the same. 

blog breakfast news walk tea one o'clock news desultory faffing another walk faff dinner read/watch/listen shower sleep (perchance to dream) and repeat.

welcome to 2022: 'I cannot vouch to other people for my reasonings...'

Soylent Green Opening Scene from David B on Vimeo.

 [A] horsemouth is up. he has his coffee.  [B] it seems colder and clearer out.  [A]he was dreaming about being a roadie (of sorts), punk rock nick seemed to be leading the crew. after the gig horsemouth was left behind but he ended up in a tower block with loads of musical equipment. there was also a hump-backed bridge but there had been a flood and water was flowing over it.

 [A] 'and what can anyone understand who cannot understand himself' remarks montaigne in the footnote. horsemouth was reading his way through m.a. screech's introduction to the complete essays (a housebrick of a book).

 [A] montaigne of course does the thing. he retires from life and makes use of his time to study. at first this does not go well. his mind turned on itself and he had to turn to writing to stabilise himself. for the studies of the time he has a major advantage in that he is probably the last first language speaker of latin (having been raised in that dead language by a very forward thinking parent). 

[A] that said he writes in french. he wrote and he rewrote, resulting in a text littered with letters { [A], [B], [C]'s} to indicate the order of the texts writing or its additions. 

[B] ok that's enough of that [A], [B], [C]ing. it disrupts the easy flow of the text and the easy flow of the ideas. 

last one horsemouth swears

[A] as  dante placing the virtuous pagans in a reasonably comfortable bit of hell (but hell nonetheless) montaigne has to accord the arguments of the classical philosophers the weight they have in debate round him and simultaneously handle the fact that they may not be as good a fit with the teachings of the church as is often claimed. he handles their thought with a careful patchwork of their own procedures to produce the desired result of conformity. (or so screech says of his commentary on an apology for raymond sebond).

[B] from here on in horsemouth will pretend that he writes without emendation or editing and that he never has second thoughts. 

... and then we are on to the essays themselves where montaigne can stretch out at length. 

let us look at book 2 essay 10 on books.

'I cannot vouch to other people for my reasonings. I can scarcely vouch for them to myself...'

there is even sunshine outside now (it is often more sunny in the mornings when horsemouth is writing than later on when horsemouth does manage to get out for a walk). montaigne is pleasantly doubtful and a good companion. in preparation horsemouth listened to a bbc essay series on him. 

the book itself (being housebrick sized) is a bit too big to take out onto the common to read. it is impractical. horsemouth suspects it is too big for its binding and will thus prove difficult to read without damaging it. it was a gift from horsemouth to his father (it accords with his father's strategy) but as a single paperback it is unusable (really it does need to be split into separate books). horsemouth guesses there must be a collected essays round here somewhere (which would be more manageable). 

-------------------------------

in addition to jai guru horsemouth remembers he has the beginnings of a song called spaceship modelled on gnossienne no.1  but in a ska/ cabaret style. 

he'd got the first few verses and has an idea for the middle 8.

here he is attempting to follow howard's advice about making lists.

actually he had already made the list - making lists and writing things down is one of the main ways he forces himself to get things done over his natural laziness. people sometimes find this disturbing that horsemouth has a plan. that he likes to plan ahead. invariably a mob will arrive at some point (with burning torches and sharpened pitchforks) and horsemouth will be forced to flee.

today (the same as yesterday) a walk and a wander.  

the first day of the new year (and we are now on to a different round of the game)

it was the warmest new years eve on record. over the hill (either up on the common or down in ewyas harold) they let off fireworks.

but that was last year and we are now on to a different round of the game. (horsemouth is of the opinion that the day starts in the morning and so does the new year). 

traditionally this would be the part of the year when horsemouth would feel the absence of structuring tasks upon his time. there would be not much to do but to listen to music, read and go for walks. and indeed it is so. 

today is the day when additional problems will start at the border with the EU (additional documentation will be required for import or export). once again british politicians will feign outrage that having left a club they are not allowed the benefits of membership. they will pose as defenders of the will of the british people against a sell-out in westminster and evil authoritarian EUrocrats.

sadly we are still not out from under that particular game.

and in another continuing game the coronavirus pandemic is now in sync with itself - daily cases, hospitalisations and deaths are all now increasing by a third. this is the trend on the up buoyed by christmas and then new years eve celebrations which will take about a month to work through (and then it is just a matter of waiting for it to hit top again). 

it's a grey morning. last night horsemouth watched a bit of pupi avato's la strelle nel fosso (the stars in the ditch)  as part of a season with his  the house with the laughing windows (la casa delle finestre che redondo) and tutti defunti... tranne i morti (all dead...  even the dead?). all feature the same cast and are filmed in the same marshy cold region of northern italy (near bologna) but they are respectively a semi-improvised art movie, a giallo (slasher) thriller, and a pink panther style slapstick comedy of the who is going to get murdered next variety. the giallo had subtitles.  

so horsemouth has to get on with difficult second album (aka. volume three part two) now that he has announced it.  but he has no material for it yet. well he has a number of parts for a song called jai guru grown from elements within across the universe and he has a list back in london of other songs he has written or attempted to learn once upon a time some of which may make it.