this is what you hold in your hand. or would hold in your hand if it were a book (horsemouth's frame of reference, more so even than a record). if it were a thing (rather than a collection of ones and zeroes stored in a digital file somewhere - indeed possibly in more than one location, arriving to you from more than one route).
'they wander in deep woods, in mournful light, amid long reeds and drowsy headed poppies' (virgil/ausonius)
yesterday was record store day (horsemouth should hurry up and go) but he hasn't got his record decks (or indeed a record player ( a turntable) set up). there's 'new' karen dalton to be had for starters that should have tempted him out. the last time he talked to andy, andy was bemoaning horsemouth's lack of interest in purchasing new music.
it is strange that the record and the record player are not landfill technologies. he still has his weight in records with him (he got shot of a lot of them when he was moving out of pop(u)lar - mainly the drum and bass 12"s- before that about half of his collection went west when a door blew shut behind him when he was moving out of hackney 27 years ago and he couldn't face breaking back in).
he thinks record covers are much more satisfying size than CD covers (see another landfill technology) and he likes the ritual of putting records on. with both of these he likes the physical ownership - he likes that they are a thing.
he was thinking about records yesterday when he was watching young people effortlessly doing beatmixes (blending two records running at the same tempo) on those audio controllers - it was hard work for horsemouth to do this on vinyl (and here are these young fuckers doing it effortlessly and fiddling with their phones the whole time).
almost all of his records were bought at the record and tape exchange or reckless or out of charity shops and library sales.
similarly with the books. he has been recycling some of his lesser loved books back out into the community via the local book boxes. (though to be fair he has been picking up books from garden wall potlatches and book boxes for a while - his new neighbourhood is very good for that).
yesterday he got the fan-powered organ out its storage place (wedged into a corner beside the low-efficiency CD storage cupboard) and had a go at playing along with various new musicians of bremen tunes (mostly using its somewhat limited autochord facility or duplicating guitar lines). it's not particularly heavy but it is cumbersome, he could stick it in a rucksack and take it up to howard's. in an ideal world horsemouth would be thinking of using the harmonium they have (borrowed from john clarkson) but it is tuned at +50% so horsemouth would have to play the part hideously out of tune and then get howard to retune it in the computer.
the fan-powered organ is noisy (granted) but it does sound real and authentic - like something someone from the 60ies might play. they used it a lot on volume one (and thereafter not so much).
later today horsemouth will go for a walk. later the sunday chat on the phone with his mum. this week (gone) (after the visit with relatives monday - the hoarwithy ramble II) lots of child-minding (birthday party, overnighter, violin lesson), lots of listening to the new songs.
tomorrow the dude(s) are coming to fit smart meters for the gas and electric (hopefully - last time they went to the wrong address).
later on monday a zoom meeting of the communal endeavour. the cost of heating and hot water is about to skyrocket for the members and it is time to get out in front of it with more insulation and double glazing (a shallow retrofit as it is termed). next it is time to get on the case with solar panels on the roof. finally (and horsemouth is sad to admit this is years down the line) there should come the deep retrofit of the stock with air-source heat pumps instead of gas boilers and all the new plumbing and radiators that requires.
a case study 47 greenleaf road walthamstow
a retrofit of a victorian terrace to raise its raise its energy efficiency performance from an E to an A and then fitting fitting solar panels to provide electricity and an air source heat pump to heat the property and the hot water cost £110k. the CO2 savings per year were about 6800kgs/ year (impressive) but the cost savings to the occupiers were only about £2k/ year. so we would be looking at a payback period of 55 years.
the problem for social housing landlords is that there is no new money for this. it all has to come out of rent in (rent taken from people who are poor anyway - which is why they are in social housing).
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