horsemouth is up early. his eyes are still a little unfocused. but he has his coffee (so we can begin). it's a grey morning (and not improving until this afternoon according to bbc weather).
last night the shadow strikes but in a lamont cranston urbane criminologist style rather than a 'who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men'.
horsemouth has compiled his books, films, gigs, events list for june 2022 (a little early).
'the culture we choose to consume is more than just a sideshow; it’s an impression of our lives...' argues a recent guardian article,
so what does horsemouth's watching and reading mean?
the first thing to say is to say that horsemouth has recognised and incorporated podcasts, made for youtube videos and zoom lectures (filed under films) and blogs (filed under books) into his books and films list. indeed he very seldom goes to the cinema anymore (it's just too expensive). his last visit was more than a year ago now (and even then it only occurred because his friend richard was showing the films).
the second thing to say is that things that are digitally distributed have (because of convenience and as a result of the pandemic) come to replace things that are physically distributed (or visited).
look at horsemouth right now, he has a CD player and loads of CDs but no functioning amplifier or speakers over which to play his music. he has DVDs but basically he never watches them any more (there's a player round here somewhere). the record decks are not set up, the mixer lacks a lead, his records gather dust, his cassettes are long gone.
even while his amplifier was working he did not tell you about the music he listened to from his collection only about youtube videos he finds (new discoveries). when howard visits and horsemouth wants to play him what he had been listening to he either turns to this blog or to the my mix feature on youtube.
horsemouth almost never buys new music online (from bandcamp etc.). he still prefers to buy physical CDs.
the exception to this is books - the rise of book boxes and garden wall potlatches has meant that more books come from this source (look at horsemouth's recent re-reading of some old SF). conversely he has also gotten rid of some excess books to the book boxes. when he worked he was often in second hand bookshops, charity shops and outside browsing bargain bins during his work breaks (as a reward to himself for working). the pandemic has put paid to that (at least temporarily).
but then the fact that people are putting out their books is a product of two things - increased digitalisation of entertainment and lifestyle magazines favouring de-cluttered looks.
horsemouth does not have a kindle (or such like). he has read some books (particularly theory) in pdf or excerpts from them on google books but in general he prefers things printed out.
his selections do not include much of his regular listening or reading. he does not include the 5.30am news briefing on radio 4 that he will listen to on i-player radio catch up as soon as he has finished blogging or the guardian newspaper website that it is his habit read immediately after that. he will then take a look at the NLR and LRB websites to see if there are any new blogs - these days he just notes this reading in general but formerly he would pull out, name the more important articles and discuss them.
the films he watches (and the music he listens to) are old mainly because they are available for free upon youtube, daily motion etc. (streaming sites), he doesn't torrent and download, he doesn't have netflix etc. (streaming services). he evinces a distrust of the contemporary.
horsemouth forgets what he watches or reads quickly unless he makes an effort to keep it in front of him. hence the themes (gialli, cornell woolrich noirs, e.m. forster). for instance this month he forgot that he had watched stalker and it took compiling the list to remind him that he had done it.
similarly horsemouth initially wrote down no gigs before realising he had seen some youth physically playing some music at the coldfire festival (horsemouth apologises young people he should have paid more attention to the names of your bands). if he had gone to the leigh folk festival he would have endeavoured to provide you with a list of bands he'd seen.
the last item on news briefing and the facebook memories feature both tend to guide horsemouth towards anniversaries.
horsemouth has the collecting bug (to some extent). indeed it was once predicted (by a careers teacher) that he would become a librarian (this would have been a better use of his limited talents).
ok horsemouth is going to pause it here and get more coffee.
he has started reading the travels of marco polo. (he should add it to his list).
today a wander round in the afternoon (when the weather has improved). now he will go up the road to see if a kindly neighbour has chucked out their copy of the FT weekend again (success!).
No comments:
Post a Comment