in which the novelist intrudes on his own work to tell you what you are reading

here josh rosenthal, owner and manager of tompkins square records  is interviewed  by max reinhardt (long time uk scenester) from 21.30. not so much on american primitive per se but an interesting listen (b.j.cole, harvey mandel, bola sete, gwenifer raymond, michael chapman).

and here horsemouth discovers that bola sete (said bola set) in fact  means "seven ball". in snooker, which is fairly popular in brazil, the seven ball is the only black ball on the table (like the eight ball in pool). 

and here we have a tyrannosaurus rex song with steve 'peregrine' took's backing vocals turned up. 

today 32C (for mike over in texas it is 102F). horsemouth is washing his duvet (on a day like this it should dry quickly). 

'most of the book was written... in a concentrated rush... I have no doubt that it was benefited by the special energies that attend a polemical purpose.' - lionel trilling on e.m. forster (preface to the second edition).

horsemouth misses writing with a polemical purpose. one way to avoid having the novelist intrude on his own work (to tell you what you are reading) is by means of plot. one plot device e.m. forster uses is the sudden death. 

but horsemouth is also not writing a novel so he cannot use plot  (or indeed sudden death) to redistribute the forces. he slips between the day-to-day  (a commonplace book) and an essay like discussion of whatever seems important to him at the time. 

last night he watched 1947's johnny o'clock (a noir lifted from a story by cornell woolrich). like black angel it is set around the world of upscale entertainment (in this case a gambling club) and mobsters pretending to be civilised.  

he's just agreed to more coffee (and put the duvet out on the line). he needs to write an email summarising various things (to help him get his head clear).