horsemouth is late out of bed this morning haven fallen off a bike while drunk (don't ask). he has clacked himself about the right eyebrow and there's a small cut (other than that there are a few abrasions and a little light bruising). it should be a lesson to him to drink more carefully and slowly.
his plan is to go to the triple negative gig this evening so people can inspect the damage there.
the drinking (in the approach) followed a face-to-face meeting of the communal endeavour (their first in a while).
thanks to kind modern beer he doesn't have much of a hangover.
it's a bright sunny day but cold (he doesn't know yet what use he will be making of it).
that's how this post started out. a veritable tabula rasa (that horsemouth created by accident yesterday and chose to use today). later he will press the button marked publish so that people other than himself will have access to it if they go looking for it (it's a somewhat reduced sense of publish). he will place an advert/ excerpt for this post in his facebook homepage posts (ditto), the facebook algorithm will place a number of these adverts in the feeds of some of his friends.
there are a number of people who read these posts regularly (to them horsemouth says good morning). there is a broader (though still small) group of people who dip in if they like the topic.
the sai anantham singers gig above was possibly attended by horsemouth and howard (but it wasn't them who bootlegged it for consumption by the masses). if he remembers correctly there were two gigs an evening so they had to peg it to the earlier gig as fast as their little legs would carry them.it was one of his favourite gigs ever he thinks.
horsemouth remembers when the cold war ended. there was a lot of discussion about the possibility of a peace dividend now that vast military expenditure to (allegedly) deter the russian bear would not be required. production would be diverted to creating solar panels and windfarms etc. and to saving the planet. the lion would lie down with the lamb etc.
horsemouth does not believe that happened. instead we entered the modern world of international travel, immigration controls and terrorism (entering properly and definitely with 9/11). freed of the limiting factor of the soviet union the US embarked upon a series of disastrous wars in iraq and afghanistan and a half-hearted campaign of regime change across the arab world (libya, syria, egypt etc.). the eastern bloc (as was) was dismembered and restructured in a chaotic fashion (think yugoslavia) and then forgotten. it became little more than a source of cheap labour. this sowed the seeds of what we are now seeing in ukraine.
there will be no coronovirus dividend either as far as horsemouth can see.
last night horsemouth watched a little of knife of ice (umberto lenzi 1972) a giallo from the golden era set in the catalunyan foothills of the french alps. there is little doubt that dario argento is the king of this genre and it is because he's a naughty man who derives great pleasure in getting what he sees in his minds eye up on the cinema screen. it is a fever dream where logic and plot is not the deciding factor but pleasure and sensation. no one else seems to have the budget or the eye for it (lenzi, fulci, crispino even mario bava who is arguably the originator of the genre).
it's all hitchcock really.
today a greyish cold morning. later (7.30pm) horsemouth goes to a face-to-face meeting of the communal endeavour. he will endeavour to test before he does this. he will try to get the guitars out and do some work on his singing and playing.
the good news on horsemouth's escape plan continues. tomorrow the triple negative gig (assuming horsemouth is well) and the last of the cheap gas and electricity. horsemouth will do his gigs, films, books, events list for the month.
horsemouth's phone seems to have survived to see another day (and so, fortunately, has horsemouth).
it's a grey cold morning (ewww.)
the book he was reading by clifford d. simak (catface) turns out to have been published earlier under the title mastadonia. (the outlaw bookseller had even shown him a copy of that edition in the DAW series of science fiction paperbacks). the hero and heroine time travel to the time of mastodons to establish their time travel business (for tax purposes, to keep the money out of the hands of the IRS). they propose to set up a hunting and safari business (this already strikes horsemouth as unethical). there was an interesting reference to karamojo bell the famous elephant hunter.
in other book news he has picked up a copy of bohumil hrabal's the little town where time stood still. as you may know, if you are an attentive reader who has followed horsemouth for a while, horsemouth is a great literary tourist - french writers, russian writers, writers from what used to be known as eastern europe, portuguese writers. hrabal is czech (he's from brno).
one of the pleasures of eastern europe (when horsemouth visited in the mid-90ies and thereafter) was that in a lot of places the redevelopment hadn't started - in the stare mesto (the old town) it was possible to believe that time stood still.
horsemouth saw him play sometime in the mid 90ies at a turntablism event promoted by the wire magazine (with some members of the scratch perverts). jeck had seen grandmaster flash play (as well as the disco mixmasters larry levan etc.) and had made his own arty, dusty thing out of it, a thing of locked grooves and loops rolling out of time. there's an album with jah wobble and jaki liebezeit but it doesn't sound to horsemouth like it comes off (which is a pity).
yesterday a great long 7-8 mile walk with TG broken at tescos in bromley-by-bow to refuel on humous, down the canal and then back through stratford. on the way they bumped into johnny reggae out running (and looking very healthy). at the start horsemouth was togged up with many layers by the end he was carrying his coat and wearing a t-shirt. looking at the sky scrapers it is difficult to believe that time could stand still.
after that he ran his feet under the cold tap and retired to bed.
in the evening the prisoner and then the amazing barbara steele in the ghost a well-made (if a little dull) italo-gothic.
today horsemouth has no plans. some tidying up, some food. wednesday a meeting of the communal endeavour, thursday a gig by triple negative, friday sizd ebedar - picnic day. thereafter april and away to the cloud forest (probably) and hopefully some recording with howard.
hopeful(ish) looking morning (a little cold). horsemouth has an early(ish) walk this morning. last night his mum said they were expecting snow where they are (snow and hail according to the beeb).
he made it to two of a conceivable four events while denise was over. there was some footage of him playing and singing katie cruel using dave's looper pedal he'll have to ask how that came out.
looks like horsemouth's phone is giving up the ghost (first it won't take any credit now it looks like the battery is toast).
horsemouth has found a video of the blue oyster cult singing harvest moon with images from Viy a soviet era and ukraine set horror film based on a story by gogol. last night horsemouth watched some of a barbara steele gothic horror the ghost (1963).
there's an album coming out may 20th by drummer josé medeles in honour of john fahey (with m. ward, chris funk (the decemberists), & marisa anderson). the taster track sounds/ looks good.
ok so today a walk early. the phone is plugged in and perhaps recharging. in a minute a bowl of museli. horsemouth will try and roll all his communications facebook and email-wards until such time as he has got a new phone.
horsemouth is up early. ok no horsemouth has told a lie because of the clocks going forward he is not up early. (now he has to reset the clock on his computer)..
yesterday having correctly executed the child minding tasks he had been given (after an unpromising start) he went up to the fields to catch up with denise, dave and claudia and the fields people (good to see you all) but he didn't fancy a wander up the pub (still a bit too spready).
he regrets this but to be frank he had to have a lie down between the morning's tasks and the fields in the afternoon.
yesterday was anniversary of the release of moon madness (1976) by camel. horsemouth saw them round about the time of stationary traveller (1984). so he didn't see them with the classic line up. a friend first had the live album (which has a cracking version of lunar seas). the early stuff is great sounding because of peter bardens' organs, mellotrons and early synths but it always has a tendency to get a bit clean and tuneful. they were very musical. the best tunes narrowly escape it.
of course in the eighties you could pick all this stuff up cheap because it was unfashionable. the cassettes went west but he still has moon madness and nude on vinyl (somewhere). ultimately the fact that it was so cheap dented horsemouth's appreciation of it.
the outlaw bookseller wanders up to hay-on-wye (well ok no his wife drives him). horsemouth finds these slices of life very enjoyable. he recommends a toothbrush to clean the textblock of the book (to et rid of the dust) and a rub down with hand sanitiser (unscented) to clean the covers. that the spine be unbroken and there are not too many dog-ears is his requirement, that someone has snipped out the price from a corner of the DJ or dust jacket this bothers him less. condition is important to him.
it's a grey morning. the weather is due to go cold and grey again. still even though it is pleasantly hot in the sun in the daytime it rapidly grows cold in the evening. horsemouth still feels whacked. later today a wander.
soon the fifth week of march. a face-to-face meeting of the communal endeavour. triple negative play a gig.
so horsemouth is back home. he is (slightly) hung over. it looks like he doesn't have to work until 11. (which is good because he can get in another round of paracetamol, some coffee and a little lying down). water as well.
the evening went well. it was great to see denise after a two year gap caused by the coronavirus. there was much music - denise has a good version of something's on your mind worked up. there were various attempts to sing things in french. claudia had a good version of patti smith's people have the power worked up. dave played one of the gnossienne.
maybe something will surface from it. (who knows he may even be in tune).
horsemouth was a bit loud. but he wisely started slowing it down at some point. and made it home in good time. now he has a bit of lucky break before he has to be on the ball again.
two years ago horsemouth was just being introduced to all this zoom/ teams thing. he'd just had his first ever remote access video conferencing work meeting.
' Oh, wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in ’t!'
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horsemouth was wrong about the 11am thing. within minutes of typing this he was having to peg it out of the door and off down the street. down at hackney road there was a bikers' rally (of some sort) and then back across the seaside towns in the beautiful sunshine. he thinks he remembered everything.
it's another beautiful morning. horsemouth is up. he has some coffee. his window is open about 1 inch at the top. (that said he was glad of his sleeping bag and duvet in the night). he types this sitting up in bed (cross-legged) with his duvet over his knees.
horsemouth has had good news. his escape plan has moved another step closer.
he's not sure what to say this morning. the political discussions seem to have blown themselves out (while the carnage continues). here's james meek from 6 days in (probably worth a re-listen now that we have reached 1 month of the war). horsemouth's friends mostly seem to be sanguine about the bandera t-shirts but horsemouth thinks it is fair enough not to want to hang around with nazis or give them publicity. he wonders how easy it will be to dislodge these ideas after the war.
it has been objected that horsemouth is being reductive in thinking that people are fighting the war for their bosses but horsemouth would argue that whatever they are fighting it for in the end it will be the bosses who benefit. it seems obvious to us that toppling dictators like saddam, ghadafi, assad is the right thing to do and automatically going to lead people into an era of peace and freedom (but sadly that was not the case).
later today he goes for dinner round a friend's house to meet denise (who's over from ireland for the weekend).
horsemouth will return to aesthetic matters. last night he finished off watching night of the devils (1972) a wurdulac story (a kind of slavic vampire last seen in mario bava's black sabbath). the wurdulac feels lonely so it must infect and must destroy his or her entire family. horsemouth followed it up by making a start on satan's wife (also 1972) which features a black mass re-imagined as a 70ies dance routine (groovy). he also watched the prisoner.
earlier in the day he went out for a wander round the marshes followed by a meet up with TG (at the bench) and then another wander round. thereafter he retired indoors and ran his feet under the cold tap.
horsemouth has republished (well put up on facebook) a photo of his younger self taken by denise on a park bench (actually clissold park by the crescent). he is wearing his anarcho- punk squatter finery (and still has all his own hair). he thinks early to mid 90ies - he's in the band, he's living up that end of town.
it has been objected that he looks more like hugh grant than an anarcho-punk squatter. horsemouth doubts this. (but he is quite flattered and so is pretending to be insulted). it has also been objected that he looks too young (another flatterer).
on the book front he's managed decent starts on richard yates the easter parade and robert shearman's tiny deaths. no sign of the return of hawkbinge podcast, who are about to set sale on the sea of frankly underwhelming 80ies albums. these years are all about the live albums (and huw-lloyd langton's retrofitted guitar) the studio albums are very much of their time.
so what is horsemouth's day's activity prognosis. post this, news, quick look at the grauniad, nlr, lrb and then go for a walk. he will try to go out in shorts (so as to start tanning his legs rather than just his face).
'the most likely endgame is, of course, a negotiated settlement...
ukraine can’t win, NATO won’t directly intervene, and russia can only triumph at great cost...'
but, to quote a friend of horsemouth's, there are many possible outcomes.
horsemouth has argued previously that ukraine can't win - but at the moment it looks like (or we are being told that) it could. horsemouth doesn't think the russian army should be there anyway but having had a modern war fought on your territory would leave the ukrainians the victorious owners of smoking ruins.
getting the war stopped is horsemouth's priority. just to save lives.
NATO won’t directly intervene - again, horsemouth confidently asserts this (like he is privy to the thought processes of the powerful) but really he thinks it is too insanely risky for NATO to confront russia directly. it may be that the russian economy is only marginally bigger than italy's but they have a fuck of a lot of troops and and a fuck of a lot of nukes.
russia can only triumph at great cost - alternatively the endgame may not be a negotiated settlement at all, it may be trench warfare and an ugly syrian stalemate. both leaders get to look like heroes fighting fascism but putin is weakened because he can't get a quick win.
there is the war (ugly, brutal and somewhere else) and there is the global political order that will form in its wake.
'to this extent, the culture war over russia and ukraine is more about the moral rearmament of ‘the west’ after iraq and afghanistan under the ensign of a new cold war which declares putin a legatee of stalin, the resuscitation of a dying atlanticism, the revitalisation of a moralistic europeanism...'
of course neither putin, atlanticism or europeanism were doing particularly well before the war and it is unlikely they can be resuscitated or revitalised in any lasting fashion. (imagine what the re-election of trump would do to all this for example).
ultimately though the fate of the world is in the balance between china and the US.
there's a war on and so there's probably more important things than punk bands and benefit records (say it isn't so).
anyone wanting to help the ukrainians could probably find better ways to do it than discussing the beton record and their wearing of t-shirts honouring stepan bandera (and their subsequent statement about that).
but horsemouth still thinks people are still not taking the time to carefully read the wikipedia entry on bandera - collaborating with the nazis (not once but twice), pogromming out the poles from western ukraine, it's not pretty.
that lots of ukrainians (especially in the west of ukraine round lviv) like him and think he's a patriot (rather than a nazi) is more than a little worrying and does not bode well for the future of the country.
beton's statement sounds like it says all the right things but it's carefully worded apologyfor causing offence -e.g true the nazis sent stepan bandera to a concentration camp (as beton mention), but to VIP quarters in a concentration camp, he was being warehoused in case he would be useful to them again, and when they were on the retreat they sent him in again (to help disrupt the russian advance).
getting the war stopped is horsemouth's priority. just to save lives.
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another beautiful morning, horsemouth will go for a wander.
'there are thousands of ways to kill time and no two are alike, but each is as good as the next.' - georges perec, a man asleep.
so it looks like beton have released a statement (see the bandera t-shirts kerfuffle earlier). billy bragg has put up a link to it (so he seems satisfied). horsemouth will be giving it some thought today and will let you know what conclusion he comes to.
the first thing to say is that workers should not be killing workers. the russian troops should turn around and leave. this invasion should not have happened.
to be honest horsemouth is more convinced by one of the beton members being a medic than by their actual statement. you can see why ukrainians might want to put up statues of stepan bandera and wear t-shirts with his name on (but you can also see from bandera's record why they shouldn't - bandera is no nestor makhno nor even a symon petliura).
but yes it is a war zone, they are fighting an unjust aggression, there is a refugee crisis.
when horsemouth was a youth the stalinists who were in favour of sending tanks into hungary and czechoslovakia (to defend the actually existing soviet variety of communism against the will of the people there for something different) were derided as tankies. the thought experiment for horsemouth is to consider if there is a point where he would be in favour of sending in tanks - can there be a just military intervention? if ukraine were to return to bandera's strategy of pogroming out ethnic poles would that be enough? would you feel more comfortable with polish tanks doing it or russian tanks?
broadly horsemouth views states as protection rackets. one of the things the king (or the democratic institutions) must do is protect (ensure the rights of) minorities - the welsh, the scots etc. if the state doesn't do this people may legitimately leave or rise up or call for foreign intervention.
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there look - horsemouth is drawing a line underneath it. (that won't hold for long).
today is the day of the spring statement (horsemouth always thinks rishi sunak looks like norman wisdom but as a friend of his noted 'norman wisdom would be better at the job').
financially things are looking a bit shit for everybody - gas and electricity prices are going to rise, food prices are rising, because petrol prices are rising the cost of just about everything is going to rise.
wages are probably not going to rise.
in a little while horsemouth will be arguing for a rent rise within the communal endeavour. elsewhere right now he's having a chat with another friend (a university lecturer) about the unaffordability of rent and any possible 'side hustles' to make money.
yesterday a little bit of child minding. horsemouth read perec's a man asleep and re-read the introduction to it.
'the idea of writing the story of my past arose almost at the same time as the idea of writing.' - georges perec, W or the memory of childhood.
today another beautiful day. horsemouth will be out for a wander.
horsemouth awoke this morning with a headache following last night's political discussions.
horsemouth has tended to avoid cheerleading the ukrainian war as he thinks (that like the war in syria) it cannot be won and can only get people killed and driven into exile. people have the right of self-defence but you have to be honest with people about what their chances are. wars (in horsemouth's humble opinion) are workers killing workers in pursuit of the aims of their ruling classes - he can't tell you if he's following luxemburg or engels here (or indeed the international communist current when they were about).
his position is not based on a love of putin or zelensky or a love of residual 'formerly communist' states. what putin is doing is monstrous (but is it any more monstrous than grozny and chechnya? - about which we were not encouraged to care). is it more monstrous than what the US did in fallujah?
the thing that sparked it off was a ukrainian punk band (beton) doing a cover of the clash's london calling as kyiv calling.now this is truly excellent PR destined to get old punk rockers firmly on your side. it's a genius move.
the band may yet pull it back out of the fire, issue a statement and everyone can go back to being enthusiastic about the carnage.
horsemouth thinks the difference in the treatment of refugees from the different conflicts (these conflicts largely encouraged by the west as part of its vision of the end of history and its replacement by liberal democracy everywhere and forever) is stark in its racism. but it also reveals the investment the west has in this particular war that it did not have in libya, syria, afghanistan or even yugoslavia. you will find footage of german people welcoming syrians similar to the footage of them welcoming ukrainians but you won't see footage of turkish naval vessels returning syrian refugees to turkey and preventing them from leaving to europe at the behest of the EU paid for by the germans.
but the welcoming people into out homes thing (again more great PR) horsemouth suspects this has another cause also - he suspects that, unless you are going to seize the mansions of the rich and the empty developments (the sort of means horsemouth would argue for), there just isn't the housing to house refugees in. this is why afghan refugees (and the survivors of the grenfell fire) have spent months in hotels.
state after state has been encouraged down the road of democracy only to be sold out and left as a basket case and with its people driven into exile. if horsemouth has a prediction for ukraine it is this.
but let's say ukraine wins. and putin withdraws (to the pre-2022 borders) and ukraine gets into NATO and the EU - where will it be? in the EU in the same position as poland, hungary, rumania, albania, lithuania, greece, portugal a source of cheap labour for france, germany and italy etc. but you see even this is a step up on where it is now. in NATO it will be on the frontline of the new cold war with russia.
anyway horsemouth is glad to have got his thoughts on the situation clearer.
horsemouth has been proceeding with reading robert shearman's tiny deaths but there's not been a conceit as good as the one of getting a letter telling you when you were going to die yet.
yesterday a wander round the marshes (even up as far as walthamstow) and back round via the industrial estate with TG
today. bouncing the house forward (in line with the spring cleaning).
on the subject of covid it all seems to be going the same way - cases, hospitalisations, deaths all seems to be up 25% from last week. horsemouth is uncertain as to what this makes the doubling time. and there is still easter to come.
'so that was their life, as they lived it.' - georges perec, things.
a small child runs to pick up a stick with great excitement (the urge towards tool use is strong in this one).
it's the fourth week of march. (remember there are 52 weeks in the year so there should be 13 four-week months but instead there are 12 months so we must (perforce) have 4 five week months in the year to get things to add up. calendars are strange, bodged things.
which months get declared five-week months is a strange iterative process. the months have a fixed number of days but what day of the week they start on, and thus how likely you are to claim them as five-week months at the expense of the succeeding month, varies.
it's two years since horsemouth's pandemic got real.
mike T came round to visit (last visit before lockdown).
'how do you think it will go?' - horsemouth
'we will all emerge from it better people' - mike T
'oh jesus christ... oh no' - muttered horsemouth
in robert shearman's short story mortal coil everyone on the earth receives a letter with the date and cause of their death. at first all it causes is people to drive more dangerously and smoke more (if they aren't going to die by that means then why not?) but then it causes people to re-assess their lives and change them.
of course we are still in the region of radical uncertainty (not to mention bargaining). people wish to believe that the variants are getting milder and they also wish to believe that it is, if not over, then on its way to being over. they think we have reached an acceptable level of death and incapacity (which we don't talk about).
the level of death is now so acceptable some have started a war to help it along.
of course it is not over. it is just getting settled in for the long run.
the apocalypse he would have chosen turnsinto the retirement he would have chosen.
horsemouth remembers his (post- financial crash) discussion of 'zombie' firms and 'zombie' jobs - kept alive by low interest rates and institutional inertia (it turns out his job was one of them).
to horsemouth what it does is alter the relationship with retirement and likely length of life.
horsemouth (despite being a puritan) has never been about work for work's sake (he's a lazy sod fundamentally) - he works to earn a living. currently he is rinsing his redundancy payment and the portion of pension taken in advance (bad idea) and a small, beer-money sized, works pension that could be taken early.
horsemouth's chance of reaching state pension age has gone down (what with a chronic respiratory disease on the march through the population) and the amount of time he will get to 'enjoy' his pension has decreased. as he joked recently it would be a shame to die with money in the bank.
plus it seems like a good time to avoid public transport and office work.
he is supported in this by the knowledge that his parents (archetypal boomers) retired early.
but on the other hand the last time he tried this (a return to dole like levels of inactivity after a period of work) he got bored.
at the weekend denise will be over to visit, the clocks will go forward(?) - british summer time, and then in the fifth week of the month there's a meeting of the communal endeavour and a gig by triple negative to end the month. then there's (continuing the nowruz theme) sizdebedar - aka. picnic in nature day and the possibility of a week away in the cloud forest (lots of walks, a little light book shopping).
later in easter hopefully there will be a short but productive recording campaign for musicians of bremen.
it's a bright and beautiful morning and it's the equinox.
there's a precise middle point this afternoon 3.33pm sunday 20th march, but it is essentially meaningless at that scale. the druids will dance (or do whatever it is they do). we exit from the dark half of the year into sunny peace and prosperity, into the bright half of the year.
when horsemouth went for a walk it darkened down (and it felt as if the equinox would be a purely theoretical event) but now that he is back home the sun is out again. he types this with the window open wearing a t-shirt.
'there is no need for you to leave your house. stay at a table and listen. don't even listen just wait. don't even wait, be completely quiet and alone. the world will offer itself to you to be unmasked, it can't do otherwise, in raptures it will writhe before you.' - franz kafka
this is the dedication of the second story in the georges perec book horsemouth has - a man asleep.
the seemingly out-of-character kafka quote comes from the zürau aphorisms. 109 aphorisms franz kafka wrote in the period september 1917 to april 1918 when kafka was staying in zürau in west bohemia with his sister ottla, while suffering from tuberculosis. they were published by max brod in 1931 after kafka's death.
things (the first story in the georges perec book) was great (but depressing). our sociological description of ex-student market researchers resolves into a couple jérôme and sylvie, they become bored and frustrated with their metropolitan life (and with not having enough money to live it as they wish) and move to the colonies (sfax in tunisia, it's the mid 60ies) but it's even more boring there too, there are not the consolations of consumerism.
'at the café tables people looked like complacent fish.'
then the book (with a curious shift of tenses) seems to allow them to move back to the metropolis and resume their lives there. except that they have been broken of the habits of consumerism, the organising principle of their earlier existence. eventually they allow themselves to be absorbed into the managerial structure and distributed to the provinces so as to earn enough money to indulge their stultified tastes.
the book will leave them on the train to their new lives with a quote from marx. 'the means is as much part of the truth as the result...'
in the afternoon horsemouth listened to a truly stultifying discussion on levelling up by a provincial managerial class who wanted to make it work, who failed to understand that inequality and uneven distribution are, if not the lifeblood of capitalism, the standard operating procedure of it. now horsemouth, as you know, is a sucker for the romance of development, for all this holy (being) profaned and all that is solid melt(ing) into air but it was like listening to a lecture on teh need for forward planning from a time capsule.
perhaps those round the table were our modern jérôme and sylvies (or their provincial equivalents now that such a thing can conceivably exist).
horsemouth has just found a modern version of the orbital tune equinox derived from them doing a version of the theme music to tv documentary series equinox. we are at a point of balance in the year. but it is an unstable point it cannot last
last night horsemouth re-watched all the colours of the dark (tense, nervous, depressed? don't seek help from satanists). it is set in a 70ies london where everyone speaks italian.
horsemouth has finished off the coffee from yesterday. now the museli. the news (no longer listened to from the radio). the papers (no longer read on paper). the 13 days of nowruz begins. some spring cleaning has been effected and horsemouth should be celebrating.
yesterday he returned some (physical) copies of the LRB to the general intelligence (the book boxes). but not all. he has a box full of books to get shot of (in fact he has pretty much a roomful of books to get shot of). he played jai guru through.
apparently the film he is in the fall of the house of fitzgerald will be projected at electrowerkz on 14th may as part of the renaissance festival and there may be photos of horsemouth elsewhere in the photo exhibition (but that's not a definite). still horsemouth is delighted the film will be getting seen (plus he's vain as fuck).
perec was the one who wrote a book 'without any Es in it'?
yes. it was translated as a void (also without any Es in it).
perec wrote it under the influence of Oulipo - a literary movement that thought good writing came out of applying limitations to yourself.
things is a paperback book in harvill editions - the ones with the little leopard logo and the stripe. it is number 94 - should you wish to collect the set. they are good looking books, horsemouth has a few.
it tells the tale of a generation. or rather a particular segment. young educated people who worked in market research and then spent their money on clothes and the cinema and decorating their little flats.
and (of course) that's exactly where we still are. every weekday morning the young couples from the converted into flats house up the road walk past horsemouth's window to go get coffees from the cafe up the road and then walk back conversing. similarly the young bourgeois couple from next door emerge and ferry the kids off to their childminding and education (and return with waxed paper cups containing steamed milk and coffee).
'all around them enjoyment was equated with ownership'.
and these are the fortunate ones. they are there. they own and they still have enough money for a few little luxuries. in things they are that post-war generation ascending out of material poverty into a world of richness and acceding to its demands. perec tells you their story at a distance. he gives few names. first names only. not so much characters as sociological types.
the continuities of bourgeois life.
the book itself contains some things (horsemouth's copy is second hand, from oxfam walthamstow, it is not uncommon to find things stuck in books as book-marks). a train ticket - brussel-nat-luchthaven (ok to brussel's airport) from january 1994, a postcard from the victoria and albert museum (a ruskin drawing of zermatt) also sent january 1994 to an address in islington (barford street), the sender lived near wallingford in south oxfordshire. also in the book an undistinguished and unset postcard from the royal academy (mark fisher, an orchard in spring, painting 1919).
this kipple will continue to travel with the book. into horsemouth's stacks (for as long as he should keep it).
'the trouble with market researching is that it can't go on forever.'
horsemouth has yet to start in on the second book he bought the day before yesterday.
yesterday in the morning horsemouth went out for a wander on his own. he then got a phonecall from TG and walked down to see him and then off up in search of the bus. finally he wandered up to see minty at the cafe (and then wandered back to his before he went of to work). it was a beautiful sunshine-y morning.in the afternoon he sat out for a bit on the front steps reading. later he had a snooze. he watched the prisoner (the prisoner escapes to 70ies london, he's dropped off at marble arch). he failed to watch ingrid pitt in the vampire lovers, watching instead edwige fenech in sergio martino's all the colours of the dark (1972) - a giallo set in london with satanists.
it's another beautiful morning. we have reached the weekend.
there may be some of that child portering for horsemouth to do (or they may not). he's had his coffee. he doesn't go out for it (that would strike him as wasteful) but he has his own espresso stovetop pot and drinks lavazza red label. in a bit museli, the radio 4 news briefing (if it is on), then the guardian (online). later a look at the LRB or NLR. no the world at one today (it's a saturday).
horsemouth needs to keep making the effort to thin down his collection. minty (over coffee) was recommending the book exchange (an arm of the famous record and tape exchange). certainly the art books seemed to keep their value. when horsemouth looked online the novels seemed to be worth pennies. he may just return many of them to the free book boxes, these are everywhere in horsemouth's neighbourhood (people just don't have the space to keep stuff the way they used to, especially books).
that even paupers like horsemouth's housemates participate in the great material wealth of the western world (this is the problem).
ok so it looks like we (meaning horsemouth and his audience) have missed festival wednesday (chaharshanbe suri) but that still leaves days until the equinox and then the 13 days of nowruz to celebrate, from the spring equinox on sunday to its ending with sizdah be-dar (the festival of nature, go to a picnic and play practical jokes) which horsemouth makes probably the 1st of april.
the first day of farvadin (the first day of the year) in the solar hijri calendar begins midday on the 21st after the equinox the previous afternoon when the sun leaves its shortest shadow having risen almost diametrically in the east and set almost diametrically in the west.
yesterday horsemouth got on with some house and garden cleaning (does that count?), probably yes, the days leading up to nowruz are the days for getting on with the spring clean.
all this is the fallout of wednesday's major rowing and shouting. of course there is a limit to what can be done in the game of 9 spaces and 8 moveable tiles but still stuff can be more efficiently stored (until its eventual mythical 'chucking'). sten (following discussions with horsemouth) has cleared the fire escape stairwell leading up from the basement door (as per horsemouth's wishes and the terms of his tenancy agreement horsemouth believes). the building waste (derived from sten's construction business) is now more efficiently stored in the front garden. this is not ideal (and may still be in breach - horsemouth will have to check).
at some point the window sills/ door frames etc. on the front and the back of the house will have to be painted and space will have to be cleared to enable this (but that is probably a fight for another day).
... and despite this horsemouth goes off to buy more books.
things: a story of the sixties (together with a man asleep) is by georges perec (harvill edition - oxfam, walthamstow, one squid). it begins with a quote from malcolm lowry.
'incalculable are the benefits civilization has brought us, incommensurable the productive power of all classes of riches originated by the inventions and discoveries of science. inconceivable the marvellous creations of the human sex in order to make men more happy, more free, and more perfect. without parallel the crystalline and fecund fountains of the new life which still remains closed to the thirsty lips of the people who follow in their griping and bestial tasks.'
this seems to point to the great material wealth of the western world (currently clogging the arteries of chateau horsemouth) but also its uneven distribution.
taking advantage of some war or other the government have let it be (very quietly) known that they will not be making any efforts to cap MP's pay from other employments (nor the amount of time that MPs may spend on them) as that would be impracticable. horsemouth is so glad to hear this frank admission of the limits of state power. he has no desire to gripe and be bestial. have a nice day lads (and don't forget to take the piss).
meanwhile the workfarce will have their national insurance contributions increased and the capitalists will continue to take the lion's share of the profits from their enterprises. P&O are sacking the sailors and getting in temps (and this is the bit horsemouth hadn't realised some sailors were led of ships by security guards in handcuffs).
fuck that shit. horsemouth has decided the game of work is not worth playing and has upped stumps and back to the pavillion.
it looks like a beautiful day out. horsemouth will go out and spend some time reading sitting on a park bench. horsemouth has had his coffee. he's had his museli. time to go.
this morning the weather is beautiful and gorgeous (after the blood rain).
it will wash away the sahara sand.
yesterday - horsemouth does politics. today - who knows?
yesterday was also the day horsemouth threw not one, but two, almighty strops. he emerged from both of these feeling righteous. he decided to up the ante rather than continue to feel frustrated and miserable. he is glad he did.
if there is a defect to horsemouth's character it is that he avoids conflict (he doesn't like the odds)
... and so things tend to build up. what triggered it? well maybe it was the weather... and maybe it was five years of persistent fucking bollocks. horsemouth does enjoy a good tantrum. and once detonated he can generate such a good head of steam that no one need ever suspect he's a shandy drinking lightweight and no danger to anybody. (maybe)
and it makes him feel the day hasn't been wasted.
achyfi! more bollocks at the communal endeavour.
this was also 'triggering' as the youth might say and put horsemouth in a proper stroppy mood. he stomped in to sign the form for the bank and then came back moderately cheered up having done his revolutionary duty. he supposes the advantage of horsemouth's homelife is that he can scream, rage and stomp his little feet in a way that isn't available to him at the communal endeavour where he has to remain mercilessly polite with people.
'why? why must I waste valuable time...' sing the smiths.
the old paul (or horsemouth if you prefer) was much more about this kind of fire energy. in horsemouth's opinion the old him wasted too much energy on conflict and might have achieved better results if he'd had a cooler head. sadly this may not be true.
this morning the weather is beautiful and gorgeous (after the blood rain) if a little cold. horsemouth types this in a jumper (or two) with the window open.
today? horsemouth thinks a walk. up the valley of the agapemonians to walthamstralia. perhaps to purchase more books. the maupassant he has stalled on, he thinks he will take up the jean-jacques rousseau reveries of the solitary walker - a book that combines books and walking.a book where after years of disgrace and opprobrium jean-jacques finds peace (because he no longer gives a shit). or so he writes in his book anyway (which may lead you to suspect it is not entirely true). the book is published after his death s it may be he just wrote it to sort his own head out and cheer himself up.
shit dudes. yesterday was fred neil day. (born march 16, 1936)
'what, we don't have enough love in our hearts for two wars?' - det. james 'jimmy' mcnulty, the wire.
the one where horsemouth is being useful.
go on then. tell us that one.
so last night horsemouth child-minded. and better than that he child-minded for the cause (he may even have donated his fee). he ate some chips too (while encouraging his charge to tuck into the associated fish on he basis that it was good for their brains).
what is the cause?
the cause is the defence of a smaller, pluckier country against a larger, more-likely-to-win-in-the-end country. so a benefit gig for iraq, iran, afghanistan, yemen or north korea, then horsemouth? no horsemouth, everyone knows these are bad people. the kind of people who can be sanctioned no problem and left to starve and their kids to die and who will thank us for it later because it will lead to democracy (the greatest of all possible goods) eventually. what kind ofwhataboutery is this?
indeed. what kind of whataboutery is this?
is it the one where we ask what about ( ) and bring in some other case as if arguing they were in some way similar or comparable and belonged to the same world? the one where we disrupt the silo-isation of our thinking (and perhaps, if we are lucky, observer a broader principle in the wild)?
of course horsemouth hates it when other people do this. he calls it shovelling things on the table. horsemouth is cursed in that he is very soon clear about what he thinks the issues are and he is clear when something needs to be done and he just wants to get on and do it...
so is it the one where smart people must raise every possible objection that can be made, shovel them up onto the table and (as if accidentally) swirl them about a bit in order to prevent a decision being made and things being done?
horsemouth is thinking here of arguments like the poor are poor because of a culture of povertyand that is why children go to bed hungry and cold in one of the richest countries in the world. of course it may not be enough to labour in the foodbanks and housing co-operatives, a wider critique of where poverty and political instability comes from may be called for.
horsemouth has left syria off his list (of countries whose plight may not be compared to ukraine - oops there he said it). er. palestine too (for god's sake horsemouth, you're not one of those nutters who goes on and on about palestine are you?).
does horsemouth thinks that ukraine attracts particular attention because its citizens are white (blond haired and blue eyed) where syria and yemen do not (because their citizens are brown with dark hair and with dark eyes)?
well yes he does. but it's not just that. he also thinks a giant game of chess is being played around the world. (here he is indebted to the people who loudly proclaim that he should not be thinking about plucky ukraine like this. thank you dudes you have helped to clarify his thinking).
the campaign for ukraine is being conducted most efficiently, almost as if the west had something to gain out of ukrainian victory (other than the spreading of democratic principle).
of course these games of chess do not have to be won. they can be abandoned in stalemate at any time. peace (that continuation of war by other means) will be achieved and the country (thus depleted by war) can then be profitably reconstructed. horsemouth is not arguing here for some disaster capitalism conspiracy theory masterminded by gary oldman with a bad southern accent, merely that his pattern of basket casing developing states seems to happen rather a lot and we should understand why it happens. we don't need an actual evil gary oldman to achieve this folks - we just need to carry on doing what we are doing.
horsemouth gets why people want to focus on helping the ukrainians or the courage of the ukrainian people. he just thinks that the bigger goal of the west is probably to collapse russia. but if that doesn't happen there will be spoils to be picked from out of the bones of ukraine.
of course the danger is that we actually have a war in actual europe instead of having war in ukraine (pretend europe). horsemouth does not think the west has the stomach for this (in fact he doesn't think the west has the stomach for a war in the ukraine at all but it will gladly let the ukrainians fight and die in it on their behalf).
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horsemouth has to say that the weather yesterday was beautiful. it almost cheered him up.
yesterday horsemouth was a little grumpy. he needs to sort out a doctor and he appears to have lost the email back from them (how can that even happen).
the one may require a visit. the other all he can do is sit and wait. (he thought he was doing so well and now he is just consumed with anxiety).
whilst horsemouth is clearing out his gripe closet he would like the house miraculously tidied. in particular the front and back gardens. the back garden he would like to use (if it's not too much to ask). it needs the sun to get into it to dry it out properly and much of the decking has rotted and needs to be chucked. meanwhile he has got rid of a fair amount of the bollocks in the front room and relocated it up from off the floor (or at least into the corners). of course it is a constant battle not to have things just dumped on any flat (or even moderately sloping) surface.
ok he's got a babysitting gig for tomorrow (by the time you read this, this evening). that's cheered him up (he likes to feel useful).
yesterday. a walk with TG. they bumped into one of TGs friends (a person much exercised by the encroaching of gentrification and development of the marshes). horsemouth had a quick research when he got back in to confirm his belief that trains from lea bridge can get you to cambridge, change at tottenham hale he believes. the line from lea bridge links to the west anglia main line and runs generally north through cheshunt, broxbourne, harlow, bishop's stortford and audley end (near saffron walden) to cambridge, with branches between serving stratford, hertford and stansted airport. the thing to do is not to think of it as a line (going straight to one place) but as a network (connecting to a number of places).
he listened to a podcast about the tottenham hale redevelopment (visible from the top of the waterworks park). 'it's almost like snowpiercer' remarks our flat-viewer on the degree of social stratification available in the new tower blocks.
there's another podcast about the city island redevelopment, also of interest to horsemouth as it was in his former 'hood' and he got to watch it being built from his vantage point in bow ecology park.
last night richard burton was being suitably craggy in equus.the young lad was suitably young (poor dude - horsemouth kept thinking he was nigel planner). horses are of course noble beasts and much stronger than humans (there's an adorno quote somewhere about horses being survivors from the age of heroes).
horsemouth is (of course) himself somewhat horsey. he has made a change from being merely human (much in the way that a superheroes secret identity works). there are losses and gains to this (of course). in the prisonerthey have discovered a way of getting into his dreams (which richard burton is managing in equus by means of dogged detective work and the juxtaposition of images side by side).
animals, in the animal rights way of thinking, arenot ours to eat , wear or experiment upon. nor ride upon horsemouth supposes.in horsemouth's vegan utopia (ssshh. don't mention the fact that he's merely a crap vegetarian) a great separation will be effected between animals and humans - all animals will become wild and all humans will carefully respect their independence (and concentrate on growing food). any association will be voluntary only. there are (of course) losses (to humans and to animals) in this. but there are gains also - the end of factory farming for example.
how animals may be metaphorically used after the great separation is a matter that is yet to be decided.
really what horsemouth needs to be doing is getting his head right for a stint of recording (however big or small it may be) over easter and doing the preparation to ensure that whatever happens goes smoothly. in many ways this, in 2-3 weeks time, is his priority.
it's a monday morning. horsemouth probably needs to get on with things. he had a productive day last week (he also went out for a wander with TG and visited howard in far off east ham).
last night horsemouth was watching mimsy farmer being driven crazy in yet another giallo (the perfume of the lady in black). horsemouth had watched it before (but had conveniently forgotten most of the plot details). he remembered that she has an alice fixation.
it is the week of the spring equinox when the days and nights become the same length. we move up out of the dark half of the year (and into the sunny uplands of peace and prosperity). the overall temperature depends on the heating effect of the sun (and the orientation of the hemisphere) but it is cumulative so it will take another month for the temperatures to start appreciably rising from winter's (at least in this hemisphere). we move towards the summer solstice and the days with the most daylight and then through the warmest months but also back down ladder of shorter days past the autumn equinox and into the long dark tunnel of autumn.
horsemouth has embraced the potentials of cyclic time.
the weekend after that denise is over to visit (way-hey). british summer time kicks in. horsemouth is maybe up to the hills to cat-sit. howard has the easter break off and so there may be music.
if there is to be music horsemouth will have to get planning.
something's on your mind he can probably play and sing straight through on one of the hohners (and then replace the harmonics at the start with ones from the resonator). the only tune he's written on late, jai guru (lifted from across the universe), he thinks he could play that straight through, and then add a track of clapping and chanting (and then maybe some tracks of the melodica and the glockenspiel - think tyrannosaurus rex). hear us o lord (from heaven thy dwelling place) he thinks he could play on a hohner in dropped-d (perhaps there are more lyrics to be had). wondrous love maybe is a runner (again the hohner).
it would be good to get the 12 string on something (and maybe some slide guitar parts on another)
he was reading some maupassant. he had to adopt the strategy of reading the stories in the book in reverse order in order to get himself started.
above the story of hawkwind (the in bath years) and the tour without dave brock(!). the squats and housing co-ops of bath and the bands that came out of them from the band practice rooms within them.
horsemouth (as sten remarked) is showing no great enthusiasm for getting back to work. he's quite happy (so far) to pootle about. his penury is going well (or well enough). the last time he tried this he got bored.
good morning! good morning! horsemouth is up late having gone back to bed for a bit following a beer session out east with howard. as usual howard was the leader of the let's be sensible and go home early party and horsemouth the leader of the let's drink more beer and get insensibleparty.
they drank initially in the pub with pizza (and had a pizza each) and then relocated to the large but empty pub (allegedly for one but you know how these thing go when people show horsemouth beer).
horsemouth made it home ok. (district line east ham to west ham - jubilee line west ham to stratford - rail replacement bus to convenient bus stop then falafel wrap and shanks's pony to his door). the falafel wrap was most tasty (and of a decent size).
the full horror of the night for horsemouth's wallet will be made plain when horsemouth gets his bank statement at the end of the month. on the whole though horsemouth's penury is going well
horsemouth is feeling a little remorseful and very slightly hungover this morning (god bless you modern beer so much kinder on the head and stomach than the toxic lagers horsemouth used to drink).
there is a plan to record round howard's over the easter holiday. (whether it will survive the other tasks clamouring for howard's attention and his post-work exhaustion is another matter). howard plans to be away over the summer so whatever they get from the easter sessions will be musicians of bremen for the year.
'so obsessed did dick become over her financial situation - and what remained of her reputation - that, in 1996, she tried to extract money from the publisher cassell because one of its authors had inadvertently written that she was dead.
dick's ingratitude to those who tried to help her became legendary.'
horsemouth would be most annoyed if someone were to 'inadvertently' write that he was dead. he is not sure that it being 'inadvertent' would be sufficient to mollify him.
smithsonian folkways are putting out loads of stuff by the mighty entourage music and theatre ensemble at the minute (featuring the excellent guitarist wall matthews). it seems a greyish day out horsemouth seems to have a cough and a bunged up nose.
the daily cases are currently at 71,259 that's up 27,242 versus last week. this is getting on for a 50% increase even though less testing is being done.
'since the end of legal requirements to test and to self-isolate after a positive test result, many fewer tests are being taken – once free tests end at the start of april, testing is likely to fall further ..'
as people come out to play, wanting to believe it is over, the virus will get going again.
omicron may be less lethal (and treatment may have improved) but it is more spready so it is still capable of killing people (and giving people long term illness - in a few years time the numbers of people with long term illness may well turn out to be a better measure of the effect of the virus than deaths).
the in hospital figures are up at 11,751 are +1,011 more people than last week (so about a 10% increase). this will be a couple of weeks behind the cases statistic but is now going up again. which means that daily deaths (which are currently going down at 142/ day, 52 less than last week) will start to tick up again.
(in fact his is what has happened we are now at +4 deaths on the government statistics.)
all 3 indicators are now travelling in the same direction and that direction is increase. horsemouth has seen an article arguing that the over 55s are bearing the brunt of it (which is what you would expect - above a certain age you are less likely to be out and working but the older you are the more likely you are to get seriously sick and die. )
the only true measure of deaths is excess deaths (because this captures who has died as a result of indirect effects of the virus - hospitals being full etc. and who has been saved as a result of changes in behaviour (less travel to work means less car accidents etc.). on that measure more than 18 million people seem to have died from covid globally - you would think this would be enough to give people pause (but no).
it may die back over the summer as people spend more time out doors or go on their holidays. but then increased holiday travel means increased chances of bringing back a new variant. and then it's winter again. (and away it all will go).
as usual horsemouth advises caution (in as much as you can practice it given the things you need to do).
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horsemouth is indeed a fortunate bunny. he doesn't live in the ukraine (or syria, or lebanon, or any active warzone). he doesn't need to work (for the time being) or make daily use of public transport. he is engaged in stretching out this period of economic inactivity. he is participating, if a little vicariously, in the great resignation.
the great resignation is (allegedly) a general turning away by the cadres of managers and workers from their positions in the organisation in favour of a lower level of economic activity (and more free time to live life as portrayed in the lifestyle supplements).
horsemouth has had a lot of practice being poor he thinks he has an advantage. he also has no children he must clothe and house (and support through education). he is not, however, totally a selfish prick, he has worked hard on the communal endeavour for a number of years, volunteered his labour in ecological and anti-nuclear groups, and years ago he was what is now disparagingly referred to as a social justice warrior (as if social justice was a bad thing).
inflation will drive many people back to work (because it robs the poor of the value of their money). once again people are faced with the fact that capitalism cannot be relied upon to pay up. horsemouth worries about next winter. but on the other hand the sun is shining outside the window (ok that may have been excessively hopeful).
following on from tower of evil (don't play in deserted lighthouses children) horsemouth watched night of the damned (1971) a film with not one secret book but two.
our detective receives a letter from his old friend the prince, who seems to be in distress because he is sending out messages in code instructing the detective to read particular verses from the same edition of baudelaire's les fleurs du mal that both possess. acrostatics - take the first letter of the line.
the detective and his girlfriend travel to the prince's castle, lit only by candles (because the prince has turned his back on electricity), there they meet the vampy wife and the creepy doctor. her name is an anagram too...
later the doctor is revealed to be using the name of the doctor from the confessions of jean-jacques rousseau (but this seems secondary). so this is not strictly a giallo (because of the supernatural and gothic material). the solution to the mystery is in the library (says the prince).
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'I have resolved on an enterprise which has no precedent and which, once complete, will have no imitator. my purpose is to display to my kind a portrait in every way true to nature, and the man I shall portray will be myself.' - the confessions of jean-jacques rousseau.
now rousseau can be true to his purpose but he cannot control how the work will be received, he cannot prevent imitations. (and indeed the world is awash with these imitations - autobiographies as we have come to call them).
indeed this is an autobiography you are reading (of sorts). yesterday a beautiful sunshine-y day (if a little cold). the plan to go for a walk with minty does not come off so horsemouth does a shopping trip to aldi instead (museli 1.3kg, beer 1l, fakemeat 1kg, two cheap pizzas potatoes, peppers etc.).
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meanwhile the news continues to be fucking terrible. the russian invasion of the ukraine continues, those who can flee. there is a strong media push for us to cheer on the defenders but horsemouth would point to grozny, fallujah, syria and say the main thing resisting is likely to get you is killed and your city shelled or bombed to rubble.
to horsemouth's way of thinking actual wars with bombs and guns are more often than not bad news for the working class (who get to fight and die, be bombed and be shot, but don't get to profit from the reconstruction contracts).
horsemouth suspects that putin is unable to solve russia's real problem - the politico-economic problem of how to integrate it into global capitalism while still retaining it under his rule, and so has adopted fighting wars as a means to stabilise his regime. russia (and its client states on its borders to the south) are stabilised by oil and gas revenues but the world is marching away from oil and gas and this war will accelerate that trend (and retard it at the same time).
putin's regime could fall - an actual war is a pretty desperate gamble. putin, after all, is 70. he's a fit (horse riding, bare-chested) 70 granted but he's still 70. russia seems like a military giant but it has a GDP marginally bigger than italy's GDP (about 8% of the US GDP) which, after the depredations of the oligarchs, must feed more than double the population of italy. it has a vast stock of nuclear weapons but these are essentially un-useable (until armageddon). but it has tanks and squaddies (so tanks and squaddies it is).
horsemouth listened to an old talking politics interview back from time of the salisbury poisonings with bridget kendall, a former BBC correspondent in moscow. he was mainly interested in what putin's position in russia actually is.
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the tompkins square compilation features (near the end) a harry taussig (university friend of john fahey and early american primitive guitarist) version of darktown strutter's ball. it seems to take as its model the reverend gary davis version.
back to the autobiography. the sun appears to be staging a fightback. last night he watched the first episode of the prisoner. the prisoner arrives in the village. he tries to escape... but he fails (more tonight).
a wander round the marshes (and back through hackney wick) with TG yesterday. today there's a plan to meet up with minty and go for a wander round bethnal green.
someone from the american primitive guitar group has posted a 1910 photo of william pester playing his hawaiian guitar at his hut in palm springs, california. pester was one of the nature boys, possibly the first (together with eden ahbez and gipsy boots in the 40ies) who took up a back-to-the-land lifestyle, vegetarianism, sunbathing. one of the antecedents of the later 'hippies'.
this led horsemouth off down into the lands of hawaiian 'slack key' guitar, a different fingerpicked hawaiian guitar style often with a dropped note e.g. instead of an open g chord dgdgbd the third string would be dropped a half tone dgdf#bd giving the opportunity to hammer on f# to g.
horsemouth has a resonator guitar (bought from minty's dad) and he also has a lap steel (essentially a plank with the guitar fittings on it and a pick up used on sorrows of tomorrow). he mostly pays slide on the laramie guitar but he also has a jumbo guild guitar with a raised action (he recorded funeral music on this).
so, to recap horsemouth's guitar collection:
- two nylon strung guitars (a paesold and an almeria used on let all mortal flesh keep silence). there's a third at his parents.
- his usual gigging set up: the hohner (tuned standard) and the laramie (tuned nashville)
- the guild jumbo (used on funeral music) and the resonator (used on noah)
- a lap steel and a banjolin
- there's an electric (a telecaster copy) round at howard's.
and further his musical instrument collection;
- a indian harmonium (tuned +50%)
- melodica, glockenspiel, a cheap keyboard, an electric fan powered organ, a bass guitar, a crash cymbal and a marching drum, an omnichord, a thumb piano, a tambourine.
recently horsemouth has been making moves to register with a doctor, get new documentation and spring clean his room (including the rugs). this involved dealing with photo-me machines (not a success) and photographer's studios (a success but expensive).
he has even gone out into the back garden and moved the potted plants out from off the rotted bits of decking. the sun is coming and will soon appear over the rooftop, shine into the back garden and dry out the decking (to some extent).
it is horsemouth's usual summer practice of the past few years to sit out in the back garden and read. similarly in the morning he will often sit out on the front steps (to get the sun). but perhaps he will avail himself of the public parks and copious beauty this year.
last night he watched the rivals of sherlock holmes: the missing q.c.'s by william arthur dunkerley (who wrote detective fiction under the name john oxenham and founded the idler). that seems to be the last of the series. horsemouth will miss it. he will probably transfer his affections to space 1999, the thick of it and the prisoner.
ian showed him a 'live' 13th floor elevators album from his extensive record collection.
but it is is in fact not 'live'. it isa compilation of outtakes and b-sides with added crowd noise (allegedly sourced from a boxing match). to horsemouth this makes it MORE interesting. live albums are ten a penny but a faked live album that's properly rare. he watched a little of tower of evil (1972) which he will finish off this evening.
today greyish possibly some sunshine in the afternoon. a walk with TG at some stage (post 10am).
'everyone is quoting gramsci on the interregnum, but that assumes that something new will be or could be born. I doubt it... in the worst-case scenario, elon musk will simply lead a billionaire migration off planet.' - mike davis thanatos triumphant,NLR sidecar. 7th march 2022.
horsemouth thinks we are not at the point of off-worlding the billionaires just yet - some workers will have to be sent ahead to make things comfortable. (it's the same problem as coleridge and southey's plans for pantisocracy on the susquehanna).
horsemouth's friend suggested adjusting the billionaires to better suit their new life in space (james blish's pantropy).
... and thus horsemouth realises we will not be saving the race. we will be saving a few exceptional sovereign individuals. an immortal richard branson (with a more efficient tentacular locomotion system) for example.
xeno-transplant succes! 'voila! the rich are no longer human'.
it is then that horsemouth remembers that his friend is not an SF novelist (as he fondly imagines) but an imagineer for elon musk's rapid protoplasming industries.
shit horsemouth forgot the most obvious SF pun 'a billionaire spree'.
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another friend (recently seen arguing with yet another friend, that's not a good look friends) found something else in the mike davis piece.
'we are living through the nightmare edition of ‘great men make history’... there are few safety switches between today’s maximum leaders and armageddon. .. it should make us pay homage at the hero graves of aleksandr ilyich ulyanov, alexander berkman and the incomparable sholem schwarzbard.'
now horsemouth knows enough to know that ulyanov is lenin.
except he's not. aleksandr was lenin's elder brother (the one who attempted the assassination of tsar alexander III), berkman attempted the assassination of businessman henry clay frick during the homestead strike, and sholem schwarzbard actually succeeded in the assassination of the ukrainian national leader symon petliura in 1926.
sadly no-one is going to get close enough to assassinate putin. the workers are going to be sent to fight and die again. the ordinary people are going to have to flee or die. 'wisdom's alternative to war' will remain untried yet again.
in a way it is a feeble article (and mike davis is usually good) because there is no smart plan that will get us out of the current murderous impasse and stop the bombs from falling.
the sanctions on russia are harsh and will seriously harm the russian economy (which is currently about the size of italy's for more than double the population) and thus the russian people. but seeing as they do not apply to the oil and gas europe needs they are basically pointless in the short term. iran has been beaten harder with sanctions (and it still hasn't fallen over).
in the next few years de-carbonisation in the west and an increased emphasis on energy security will harm russia even more.
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'what. we don't have enough love in our hearts for two wars?' - mcnulty, the wire.
here comes the refugee crisis. let's see how much love in our hearts the british actually possess.
ok so horsemouth just missed the anniversary of the golden glow he co-curated with howard from 6 years ago . it features some alice coltrane (from the ashram years) and what should he find yesterday but an alice coltrane public access tv show (which is marvellously strange). it's almost like a piece of early video art. yesterday horsemouth listened to her ptah el-daoud (with pharoah sanders and joe henderson).
he's up, he has his coffee, it has just gone 8am. it will be considerably later by the time he finishes writing this (because he likes to polish his efforts and because he's waiting for the material to occur to him). it's another week.
yesterday the anniversary of the death of mark linkous today the anniversary of the birth of townes van zandt (about whom horsemouth knows even less). today is also the anniversary of the recording of altruvista by alice coltrane.
it was recorded at rudy van gelder's studio, englewood cliffs, new jersey from the sessions that resulted in john coltrane's expressions.
horsemouth's reading of new media in art is producing some strange things. the cover of the strawb's deadlines (1978) shows a man upended in a phone box full of water (horsemouth realises you might have to explain phonebox to the young) this is (it turns out) a lift from various bill viola installations (stations 1994 for example). except that the timeline is wrong and it may be the other way round.
horsemouth supposes that the actual source (for both) is harry houdini's water torture escapology tricks but, in the strawbs album cover, it is meant to symbolise anxiety (that drowning on dry land sensation - this was a very mid-to-late 70ies sensation).
it is two weeks to the equinox. horsemouth should hurry up and practice (and he should get out his guitar and write more songs). he has been playing through you turn me on (I'm a radio) by joni mitchell.
there, he has re-arranged the material, it's about 9 o'clock. (but now it's nearly 11.30 and he is still re-visiting it).
good morning. good morning. after his brush with 70ies nostalgia in the work and words of joyce kozloff, horsemouth is back at it in la belle époque. this is a combination of the charlie kaufman games with time/ faked reality and 70ies nostalgia and crucially done in french (and thus seriously in danger of charm overload). daniel auteil is a grumpy old man not at home in the modern world, eventually his wife slings him out. a company arranges 'experiences' where you can take part in the re-enactment of a historic event. daniel wants to go back to 1974.
'where did all you people go?' asks auteil of a hippie at a party. the modern day actor (playing the part of a 70ies hippie) feigns incomprehension. of course daniel is now an old man, he is a bad fit for the shoes of his younger self. he knows what he knows, and the actors around him are young and cannot answer.
of course (it being a modern french movie) this travelling back in time saves the relationship and re-integrates daniel into the modern world and economy. (here horsemouth is reacting against it). if the film had been made in the 70ies auteil would have exposed the artifice and made a radical breakout to freedom and authenticity - instead we get a layered confection of fictions that leads him through this and back to reintegration.
horsemouth was once accused of liking cinema du papa (pre-nouvelle vague french movies) over the radical offerings of godard etc. the accusation stung (because it has a truth to it).
yesterday horsemouth went down to see enza's photos in an exhibitionat the brady arts and community centre it's on until the end of the month as part of women's history month. some of the work in the exhibition comes from the radical work of four corners and cameraworks at 113 roman road from the 70ies. a fair few of enza's friends were there. they drank (discretely hopefully) and ate snacks, looked at the art, and conversed. horsemouth was a little out of practice at the meet and greet and so left earlyish and so missed suke.
perhaps we are beginning to come out of the pandemic if even horsemouth is prepared to socialise in an enclosed space. (we have reached an acceptable level of risk and death).
today is the anniversary of the death of mark linkous (sparklehorse). about whom horsemouth knows very little. the songs are good though. they do a lot with a few elements. horsemouth spent a little time watching a video on modes. his musical knowledge (and his technical abilities) are in fact very limited. he should take advantage of his free time to remedy this.
monday altruvista day. a friend wants to record (but horsemouth reckons everyone is too busy or knackered to do it). horsemouth is making progress through new media in art (he's made it to chapter two).
horsemouth is mainly interested in pier marton's performance for video (1978-82) and in particular guitar piece.
this 'contains sequences where marton would beat himself with a guitar until it disintegrated.' (new media in art by michael rush, world of art series, 2nd edition 2005.)
in case you are curious it takes two minutes and 33 seconds. but despite his best efforts the few seconds shown above are all that horsemouth has been able to find of it.
'guitar piece is a darkly comical, angry work, in which marton hits a guitar against his head in a rhythmic, yelling "music!" in an accelerating fury until the guitar splinters into pieces.' (catalogue item at electronic arts intermix.)
relax. despite having a surfeit of guitars horsemouth is not planning to do anything like this.
for a start it looks too painful. and second horsemouth is a great respecter of the skill that goes into making musical instruments. (plus he's mean. it would be a waste of money and resources to smash a musical instrument).
such is the outcome of reading new media in art by michael rush. quite how all this is different to performance art (by roselee goldberg in the world of art series which horsemouth also has) is another matter. to exist performance pieces either have to be performed to witnesses, or documented in some fashion, or recorded (horsemouth supposes). they depend on the existence of writing or video (of some sort).
continuing the thought experiment perhaps the audience could be sworn to secrecy. instructed to deny that the event ever took place. perhaps the event could be a training in how to lie.
horsemouth found himself interested in artist joyce kozloff. she and the pattern and decoration movement had a brief moment in the sun in the 70ies (they didn't expect for it to happen and they didn't expect it to suddenly stop either) and then it's gone. she wrote an anti-manifesto against ad reinhardt's minimalism. her name is made. later she becomes more interested in cartography and she picks up large scale public art commissions (doing tile works for railway stations).
- 'a lot of people are asking about the 70ies now...'
- 'really?'
- '... I never really expected this kind of interest again.'
- 'it's true though, isn't it, these things do return. and at least, living in new york today, in this, you know, hyper capitalistic, very gentrified city, it's hard not to...'
- 'it's nostalgia for an earlier moment, yeah.'
it was the photo that drew horsemouth in. a young joyce kozloff and two friends sit out in the park talking (surrounded by hippies doing the same thing). horsemouth can't spot any guitars so he guesses they are artists.
horsemouth has made it to the weekend again. in a sense now that he no longer works it is no surprise that he can do this. when he worked he used to count the hours (literally) but fortunately his work was mostly interesting, and when not interesting it was mostly involving and made up of bite-sized chunks. when he was working the time would zip by and then there were the distractions of travel and the possibilities for coffee and snacks, plenty of opportunities to do a little light book-shopping, perhaps some sitting in the sun reading, some sneaking into libraries.
a friend has two photographs in an exhibit (today horsemouth goes to have a look). the weather doesn't seem to be the best for sitting out chatting. sunday is the anniversary of the death of mark linkous (sparklehorse).
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