- three critics of the enlightenment: vico, herder, hamman (introductions and biographical materials) isaiah berlin.
- the day of forever (j.g. ballard) and various introduction to ballard books
- the ethics of life writing (ed. paul john eakin in particular claudia mills' 'friendship, fiction, memoir')
- the trial of socrates (i.f.stone) started
- seeing jose saramago
- guardian article on the mass retirement of older workers
- nlr sidecar and lrb blogposts
- the romantic, herman broch (with milan kundera introduction excerpted in 'the art of the novel')
- guy julier's '20th century design and designers' in the world of art series (introduction and part)
films
- revolution in sound (on tangerine dream)
- documentary on the moody blues
- shetland (two episodes)
- thrift a life/ book pilled / outlaw bookseller / the cottage fairy
- FT podcasts (on matters economical and political)
- R4 series on 'the spanish flu', stand alone drama h.p.lovecraft's 'the tomb'
- lrb film on the war in ukraine (james meek)
- wall matthews of entourage being interviewed by NTS radio
- gweniver raymond interviewed on six strings of tension podcast
- witch story (streghe 2)
gigs
john hannon tribute - feaaturing james blackshaw, tim goldie. the wave debb show (online)
events
anniversaries of the releases of volume four. volume two and covers. holiday with family (extended), visit to stourhead. hand in 'work' laptop and revert to using the netbook. hiding out up in the cloud forest. receive 'under the spell of the calima' from the robert lawson trio
horsemouth is back from the gig - he'd have to check with TG who actually played.
the gig was a tribute to the late john hannon. a film (ravioli me away) he had done the music for was shown (and very good it was too.- well made with excellent songs throughout).
james blackshaw played for sure (amazing set dude - ending in a detuning (the 12 string provides more opportunities for detuning than a 6 string clearly)).
tim goldie recited two pieces by sean bonney and the lyrics to rock for light by bad brains (a favourite of john hannon's apparently).
the others horsemouth would have to check with TG, there was one no show or cancellation, and these he mostly (sad to say) reviewed from the bar - so he cannot comment. cafe OTO apparently waived their usual fees (well done OTO).
sadly, as horsemouth said, by the end senhor alcohol was in charge and he found himself calling for another bar and more beer. the others (john, sarah, TG) were more sensible and pointed out that they were either not drinking or it was a school night. howard had already gone home, he'd hung around for james blackshaw's show and then off. soon enough off to work.
earlier horsemouth and howard had nipped out for a pre-gig pint.
so advises a friend. (it would be good in black and white too).
horsemouth leans in. thoughtful, concentrated, distinguished. and reasonably stylish in a working man's shirt.(you can't see the stains on the t-shirt which is a mercy). his head is tilted slightly as if listening carefully (and as if he were a little deaf).
and definitely not two sheets to the wind after an afternoon's drinking (as he actually was).
seeing goes well. the voters of the blank vote have been given an opportunity to redeem themselves (they have not taken it) but instead have thrown it back in the faces of the political class. the government is preparing to decamp to another city. it's written in those great long saramago paragraphs where everyone gets to speak.
tonight a gig.
last nightwitch story (streghe 2). an american set italo-horror of the 'lots of kids rent a haunted house (what could possibly go wrong)' type. it's well on its way to being the evil dead. in the morning a wander out.
coming soon horsemouth's encounter with the consortium. the beginning of the rock rolling for that.
today. horsemouth is unsure. it is a grey morning (and not looking like the kind of grey that will burn off), dare we say the word autumn.
horsemouth is currently reading seeing the novel set four years after the events in saramago's novel blindness.
the people are no longer blind (and seem to have mostly forgotten about those events). it is the day of the election. in the capital city of the un-named country. after a slow start in the (admittedly rainy) morning at 4pm the people suddenly rediscover their enthusiasm for the practice of democracy and show up at the polls on mass. voting has to be extended by two hours.
'it was gone midnight when the counting finished. the number of valid votes did not quite reach twenty-five percent... there were very few soiled ballots and very few abstentions. all the others, more than seventy percent of the votes cast, were blank.'
the first chapter has gone very quickly.
the other musician of bremen was round to visit. he arrived with a 4 pack of estrellas - so they had two of those and then set off on a walk up to (and round) the waterworks (yes there was a coffee and a tea and photos were taken). on the way back en plein soleil they had a pint at the princess of wales before returning home and polishing off horsemouth's last beer and the final two estrellas. howard then proposed a beer in the pub on the way to the tube (er. which they did - and liking the experiment, they repeated it). there were some photos there also.
the photos of horsemouth continue to be good (horsemouth's photos of the other musician of bremen less so).
the other musician of bremen likes to claim all these beers are signs of horsemouth's incipient alcoholism (and true horsemouth's relationship with the drink are not ideal). nonetheless he feels that the other musician of bremen is (if not an equal) then at least a mostly willing participant in this activity.
they also replaced the bridge on the hohner acoustic in the correct (original) angle (but sadly, by sods law, did not return it to its earlier jangling sound). 'the other' sang through a few things. horsemouth sang through a few things. they got the 12 string out of its case and contemplated it.
under normal circumstances horsemouth would have cooked and fed his guest but sten was engaged in 'processing' vast amounts of pigeons and pears. yesterday horsemouth cleared an area of the living room floor to permit it to be mopped and walked upon (today it is once again covered in random shit). this ladies and gentlemen is progress (sten style).
oh the comedy.
other than that horsemouth's room (at least) continues to look good.
today is a monday. horsemouth is unclear about how best to serve it.
so said dirk bogarde (actor and author of 8 volumes of autobiography)
horsemouth hadn't realised that bogarde had attempted knausgaard style feats of biography. apparently he was very into houses and furniture and crockery. (domestic interiors).
horsemouth is up early (the sun has not yet cleared the rooftops at the end of the street). last night he was to bed early. little interests him on the tv these days and he's too tight to spring for subscriptions to tv channels with dragons etc. his reading is a little desultory these days - instead he watches clips on youtube - the cottage fairy paints a wall, assembles some (temporary) bookshelves, and populates them with books. she puts some potted plants round then and lights some candles. horsemouth hangs on to see what books she puts on the shelves - he is always interested in other people's bookshelves.
he is even interested in his own (annotating photos he's put up online to tell you what books you can barely see in them).
he did the august read, watched, listened to list - there's a chance he'll get in a gig before the end of the month.
in the morning he played and sang through something's on your mind and sometimes our dreams (float lie anchors) - with sometimes he's experimenting with singing a barbershop-style answer vocal (as well as the main vocal), if he can manage it that will be a neat trick (and may even be funny).
yesterday horsemouth made some donations at the powesrcroft road bookbox (he's got to thin down his collection if he is going to get mobile). in the morning and in the afternoon he went for a walk with TG.
horsemouth has already toysed out of the pram this morning. minor infractions - he could hear somebody clumping around late last night (or early this morning) and wouldn't you now it it turned out to be more shit randomly dumped by the nameless housemate of doom. horsemouth has reasonably put his case (and even done some mopping round). now he feels better. (see the 'l' is a bit sticky too).
later a meet up with the other musician of bremen.
horsemouth is indebted to mr. last for pointing this one out to him - nashville high strung tuning.
it is broadly what happens if you have a spare 12 string sitting around and remove the strings in 6 string pitch only leaving the 'octave' strings.(or alternatively if you don't have a 12 string and restring your 6 string with the octave strings from a 12 string. it gives an intriguing seet of jangly possibilities (and indeed apparently it has been used by johnny marr). .
what horsemouth has been calling nashville tuning is daddad - he'd read that players would put lighter guage strings on instead of the bass strings.
now horsemouth, as you perceive has recently acquired a 12 string. he has even attempted some recording on it (jai guru and no name resonate from recent recording sessions).
what times we are having ladies and gentlemen! surely there should be a show about these times? a show we can all go and see!
and indeed we have it for the tiger lillies will shortly be performing karl krauss's literally apocalypticthe last days of mankind - a message to our times from the similarly doomed austro-hungarian empire.
it is almost ten years since horsemouth last saw hawwind (and almost ten years since the ast hawkbinge podcast horsemouth adds with only slight exaggeration).
recommended a friend. what, not as in georges perec's novel? replied horsemouth. translated as a void the letter 'e' has been thoughtfully omitted (and indeed all words using the letter 'e'). the novel was written in french using this procedure and then translated into english (again using this procedure). god or perhaps the translator only fully understands what changes this required.
regretably on the return journey horsemouth's copy of a history of reading has become sullied with tomato juice (which is a pity because it was an exceptionally beautiful volume in good condition
here in the seaside towns it is a beautiful morning.with that great 'magic hour' sunshine. the other musician of bremen's plane should have landed and he should be continuing on his way by the rail and tube system to his home in the far off east of the towns. later there is a plan to meet up (but it may fall foul of the dreaded jetlag).
the trial of socrates continues to go well (well except for socrates - for him personally it's a bit of a disaster but it does clearly show the limits of democratic toleration).
horsemouth types this not on his laptop but with an arcane device he has been storing iin a dusty corner for just such an emergency, it is very much smaller A5 to his former laptop's A4. horsemouth abandoned it when it became too temperamental for employment. he has re-instated it in the hope that it will discourage him from faffing about online and instead move him into the meat world.
failing that horsemouth should bite the bullet, engage with the necessary expense, and go and get a new laptop.
with horsemouth we should contemplate his something similar to 15 years of internet/ blogging activity everyday. the notion of not doing it causes some psychological discomfort.
horsemouth is up and heading back into town (well not right this instant. right this instant he is sitting on his bed typing this).
last night he watched shetland with his mum (he watched it last week too) - vanished teenager, murderous goings on.
yesterday a late publication (to the extent that it is publication) of horsemouth's blogpost. today horsemouth plans to get up and out early (and soon enough, sadly, to be on his way). the wen is calling with its opportunity to hand in this extensively borrowed laptop. thereafter there may be an interruption in blogging service while horsemouth procrastinates over buying a replacement.
tomorrow a text from the other musician so that they can meet up (and debrief- he is back from his adventures in boston and the state of maine).
reading-wise horsemouth has started on the trial of of socrates (he will do more reading on the train), a history of reading (alberto manguel) he has stalled on (but it's a very pretty book to look at so he's not too bothered), the ethics of life writing has furnished him with some quotes and with some cause for thought (he will most certainly be returning to it soon).
further in the future horsemouth will be exchanging postcards with rob lawson (of a poetry/ mailart variety you understand - not of your common and garden 'we were here and the weather was lovely' variety, although that may happen).
further to discussion of the genre of american primitive - yes. old timey music is very much a part of it (at least the way john fahey does it). notably his recording of sail away ladies also includes al 'blind owl' wilson. lots of people have covered it joan baez, odetta etc. and the czech actor jiří suchý (and karel Štědrý) allegedly covered as 'takový je život' ('such is life') on the mighty supraphon label.
so horsemouth published a musicians of bremen american primitive top ten tracklist
you know the sort of thing,
1) blue crystal fire (robbie basho) secret cover version on 'covers'.
2) wonky - late era fahey crossed with syd barrett. on 'volume four'. all played by the other musician of bremen. very nearly an instrumental.
3) pagodas - strange tunings/ slide guitar take on fragments from debussy's 'pagodes'. all played by horsemouth. on 'volume four' …
and so on (and a large chunk of volume three), because while american primitive isn't the only thing musicians of bremen do it is a major part of everything horsemouth does.
the other musician of bremen chimed in that wonky was a genius track, horsemouth replied that it was indeed but only his second favourite track on volume four (after amarach).
the other asserted that it was his first time playing slide guitar. horsemouth asked’ what about 'everything is going to be ok'?’
the other replied that that was the second time. horsemouth argued that that track wasn’t in the american primitive list because that's another syd barrett type guitar part but there the influence is more psychedelic/ trip hop.
it is an odd track. neither here, nor there. remarked the other musician of bremen.
the other musician of bremen then asked
'what is american primitive anyway? what is the definition?’
horsemouth replied that this wikipedia entry seemed very fair and clear. it all begins with fahey's repurposing of fingerstyle blues playing (not to back up singing but as a mainly instrumental music). but it doesn't end there.
for it to be american primitive it must not be a straight recreation of the folk thing (like norman blake, or much rhiannon giddens) nor is it the new age guitar thing (william ackerman/ wyndham hill). it must be neither but it taking or feeding something to both.
the other musician asked ‘what the best example of an american primitive song? (I only ask because someone over here asked me what AP was and I couldn’t give an answer.)’
horsemouth replied;
instrumental or sung? fahey or basho? is there a 'best'? what's interesting is that there is a genre - marissa anderson is american primitive (but she plays an electric) but if anyone is doing neck tapping and using a looper pedal that isn't american primitive for horsemouth. there's a whole sub-genre of what is basically improv on an acoustic guitar.
horsemouth will probably wait until he has had breakfast before he goes for a wander. tomorrow he returns to a rainy day in the seaside towns (thereafter the weather becomes pleasant). horsemouth abandons his trusty laptop to the tender mercies of his ex-employer. there may be an interruption to service while horsemouth rejigs his blogging offer. friday he probably meets up with the other musician of bremen (assuming the other musician does come back from the states).
horsemouth was reading the torygraph (his parents newspaper of choice). it is unsurprisingly pessimistic. strikes, inflation, cost of living crisis, declining academic standards, culture wars etc. but then they always were.
yesterday several wanders on the common. his parents were excused shutting up the abbey (so horsemouth and his mum went up onto the common instead).
well it's beautiful sunshine in the morning on the hill outside horsemouth's window (bbc weather says grey all day and rain wednesday and by sod's law bright and sunny thursday). so it won't last. horsemouth was just the first up (marginally ahead of his dad).
last night horsemouth watched a video of thrift-a-life wearing his bookpilled hat (a carhatt) and a laibach t-shirt opus dei ). in the video he shows us his recent SF. fantasy, weird fiction purchases - the ones that have got to go as part of one of his auctions. he's a believer in the quick sale. next he watched him discuss clothing fashion trends - he is a big believer in brand being the major factor in sales, that and getting the description right (treat it like a doo-dad he says) but even he has to admit there are are fashion trends that cut across this.
gorpcore is big apparently (outdoor clothing - something something raisins and peanuts), super-baggy is big also, 90ies/ 70ies retro.
none of this information is useful to horsemouth.
he has the clothing he has. he hasn't bought any 'new' (read 'new bought but second hand') clothing in about two years (indeed he has too much of it - he has chucked some out and he will soon chuck out some more). he often wears the same clothes round and round for months on end (particularly in the summer - he has just done the best part of two months in shorts and a t-shirt with the rucksack over his shoulder). he has a north face rucksack and a little orange north face fleece somewhere - that's your lot horsemouth thinks. the fleece he is trying to wear less so it gets washed less (because of microplastic shedding).
here we see him. shirt his mum bought. t-shirt (gweniver raymond). puma shorts (from a cwmbran charity shop). hiking boots. north face rucksack.
ok it has gone grey outside less need to rush.
above horsemouth finally finds out where that public enemy horn chant and drum loop comes from for show'em what you got (previously horsemouth had believed a story about it coming from the wattstax soundtrack).
horsemouth has started on the trial of socrates. much hinges on zoon politikon, the fact that man is a political animal as it is usually rendered (that he is a political form of life more accurately), he does not live in a herd but by association with his fellow humans in a polis. this is the distinction i.f.stone is interested in, others (agamben and alike) tend to be more interested in the distinction between zoon and bios which are different types of life (here horsemouth will have to go back and give these sections a read when he gets back to the wen).
horsemouth is of course a zoon politikon and he has a polis (and very annoying dealing with it it is too) plus he lives in a shared house and this provides another set of annoyances.
elsewhere someone has started an american primitive podcast six strings of tensionand interviewed gwenifer raymond. indeed horsemouth is wearing the gweniver raymond t-shirt he bought at her gig slightly over two years ago. she hedges when asked to describe the valleys but points out that newport was once referred to as the new seattle.
ok horsemouth will probably go for a quick wander before breakfast and to do that requires horsemouth to finish off blogging sharpish. later horsemouth may return with some more integrative thoughts.
he has returned (any minute now breakfast). the daily torygraph is predicting interest rates at six percent or higher (this is not good news). this set horsemouth off rambling again.
it's the two year anniversary of musicians of bremen releasing covers - we hope you have enjoyed it.
horsemouth is in the west country. the other musician of bremen is off in maine (hopefully recording some songs). soon a secret birthday but first back to the wilds of herefordshire. thursday (it is the 25th) the anniversary of a gig. thursday horsemouth is back in the wen. friday horsemouth will hopefully be typing this blog on a new laptop.
horsemouth is up a copy of of i.f. stone's the trial of socrates. now this is a book that argues that it may sometimes be reasonable to kill philosophers (what they say may present such a thorough going threat to the health of the state that you may be better off killing them). horsemouth types this in the aftermath of what he takes to be an assassination attempt on aleksandr dugin that resulted in the death of his daughter darya dugina (by his second wife the philosopher natalya melentyeva).
the extent of the influence of dugin and his daughter is debateable but their call for a new russian imperialism is profoundly dangerous (as are calls for a full end of history and the defeat and fall of russia).
here we are half a year into the new russian invasion of ukraine and what it increasingly comes to resemble is syria. is the west really going to back the ukrainians to clear crimea and the donbas? as usual less happens than you think will - russia is forced out of the world economy only so much, it is forced closer to china.
ah well. not horsemouth's problem.
yesterday a visit to stourhead. horsemouth has posted a picture he took ten years ago of his parents there.
his brother's eldest has expressed an interest in the malaga nylon strung guitar. at stourhead his brother's youngest sang a hymn and an unaccompanied folk song in a church (and very good it was too - the acoustics were wonderful).
horsemouth is up early (dammit he's become an early riser this was never his intention).
he has gone out into the kitchen of the rental and made a coffee. he found that someone had attempted one of the sudokus but left it unfinished (so he did the one next to it just to pass the time). he has now retreated into the bedroom, turned on the laptop (soon to be returned to its rightful owners to be scrapped) and started blogging.
last night (after dinner)
as usual when he has something to drink horsemouth becomes elated and full of a generalised universal love for humanity. two women danced in a bar to a covers band. a young guy said no-one was out.
last night the stars were out (horsemouth successfully identified the plough).
once he'd walked back up the hill from the restaurant the energy left him and he went pretty rapidly to bed. he got in some additional chairs from the other flat so that people could sit around the table and talk but people soon broke up into two disparate groups. horsemouth left the family (extended) to their political discussions, and to match of the day for those who couldn't face those.
today a grey day (allegedly).
horsemouth guesses a sunday-ish kind of day (because it's a sunday). monday up and out early (this will not suit his mum who is not a morning person).
following on from the tangerine dream documentary recently this track (birth of liquid plejades) features joachim von grumbkow (co-founder of hoelderlin) one of four people playing cellos, ex- angerine dream member steve schroyder plays the organ outro, florian fricke of popol vuh plays moog synthesizer too.
this was the first album with peter baumann.
"zeit, which means 'time', was based on the philosophy that time was in fact motionless and only existed in our own minds." - paul russell.
the released and recorded months in the wikipedia entry appear to be wrong
'careless and heedless storytelling, if universalized as law, would completely self-destruct, for no-one would be willing to tell stories ina world like that.' - claudia mills, friendship, fiction, memoir.
horsemouth is successfully in ________ (with various members of his family).
horsemouth had been anxious about the journey down (but it turned out ok in the end) he assumes that having seen the way down the journey back up will be even smoother (a dangerous assumption). the only hiccup (from horsemouth's point of view) was a portion of the route through georgian bath (familiar to viewers of outlaw bookseller's posts - and past beckford lane (you will have heard horsemouth talk of william beckford before).
bath has a CAZ designed to keep big polluting vehicles out of the city. horsemouth was initially concerned that it was a congestion charge of some sort and that the car would be affected (and charged) but (after a tour of government websites) it seems not.
yesterday/ last night - a few games of chess. first with his brother's son (sweet victory) and then with his brother (bitter defeat). his brother played the castling strategy early, horsemouth the mobile king (or rather the mobile king strategy was forced on him and he was unable to crack his brother's castle). horsemouth has never been very much of a chess player (he lacks the brains and he lacks the caution). he is of the opinion that chess games are lost by incorrect or pointless moves, rather than won by 'clever' moves. his brother takes his time to consider his moves - horsemouth tends to push ahead, to have a strategy. he views it as a military game in terms of mobilisation - sort of like WW 1 (this may be a mistake). but like life things cannot be forced through
his brother's daughter has got her grade 8 singing exam (bloody hell! well done!) she sang gabriel faure's les roses d'ispahan as one of her pieces (so another member of horsemouth's family who has sung in french).
today a trip over to wells (if horsemouth has understood the itinerary correctly). when everybody has woken up and breakfasted.
'to eschew the richest of all veins of material - ourselves - would be tantamount to making writing altogether impossible' - claudia mills, in friendship, fiction, memoir.
bookpilled/ thrift-a-life (sensitive soul that he is), has been caught vlogging in public (well in his car) 'an entire family...' he regards it as shameful (but not so shameful he won't do it or tell us about it - once he's driven round the corner).
worse he's also caught himself procrastinating, engaging in pseudo-activity, activity that looks like it could be productive but really is just goofing off. sternly he gives himself a talking-to for our benefit.
in this way we observe the rules of autobiography. our informant tells us something but it could also be for our benefit (but the tale mustn't be of direct benefit to the teller when it is told).
interesting the spell checker doesn't seem to know tantamountor at least not in the bumpkin spelling horsemouth was using tantermount. (origin: mid 17th century: from the earlier verb tantamount ‘amount to as much’, from italian tanto montare.)
as claudia mills notes in her essay friendship, fiction and memoir the internet has blurred the boundaries between telling, writing and publishing.
wheras horsemouth would have once written this for his desk diary (well no he probably wouldn't have bothered), writing for the desk drawer as russians once put it, now he pseudo-publishes it, people could find it and know about it, but they probably won't. any confidences breached here are probably safely breached because basically horsemouth isn't famous enough for anyone to care about what he is writing (apart from you the reader).
he tries to anonymise things and places (hell he tries to anonymise himself). people horsemouth wanders about with are generally anonymised, people with public personas, performers and alike, are left as they are (because they've chosen that life).
and here we have a mix of two eras of music horsemouth enjoyed - one is the freak rock of ladbroke grove (pink fairies, hawkwind, deviants, larry wallis, mick farren, motorhead) shading into the post punk anarcho-hippie music of horsemouth's youth (here and now, the astronauts, planet gong, inner city unit, the mob, zounds).
the scuzzy, slightly improv-y take on blues rock the freak rock bands ran was great fun (but not very deep).
now zounds were genuinely good (horsemouth thought, he met steve lake through a friend at one point) if more actual anarcho-punk, here and now, and inner city unit were just great fun live. there was an entire practically undocumented music scene of this sort of stuff.
more people (well at least one person) has been buying musicians of bremen stuff (thank you).
today (bright sunny morning) horsemouth will go for a walk. later he relocates to sunny frome. you may be able to follow him there you may not. towards the end of next week he is back in the wen. with a bit of luck he will be typing this on a different machine.
claudia webbe was a labour MP but then there was an allegation she had harrassed a love rival (including an accusation she had threatened to throw acid in the love rival's face). she was charged in september 2020.
on 4 november 2021, she was sentenced to 10 weeks imprisonment, suspended for two years, and 200 hours of unpaid work. the labour party called on her to resign from parliament at the time of her conviction, and she was expelled from the party on the day she was sentenced.
further she was at risk of losing her parliamentary seat following a recall petition from her constituents (as a result of the prison sentence, suspended or no).
but first an appeal. webbe appealed against the conviction and the appeal hearing commenced on 19 may 2022. her appeal was dismissed on 26 may 2022, but her sentence was reduced to eighty hours of community service, and compensation to the victim reduced from £1,000 to £50 (the acid throwing threat accusation was not believed this time). the reduced sentence means that webbe will now not be at risk of losing her seat.
will this decision be appealed?
interesting. so will she be re-instated into the parliamentary labour party? or will she continue out until the next election as an independent. horsemouth guesses that she will retire at the next election.
even if she is not re-instated (as surely she should be as the allegation has been found to be if not to be untrue at least considerably more minor). the question is will the labour party stick by their candidate and run her as their candidate, or will she run in leicester as an independent against the labour candidate.
now of course, it is fairly lucrative being an MP. even being made to resign is a lucrative business (there is generous severance). in previous years an MP might have resigned to spare the party embarrassment (but not this generation labour or conservative). having been an MP grants a generous MPs pension. this is really what draws horsemouth's ire about the whole parliamentary standards debate unlike TV licence fee avoiders or people fined on the spot for covid infractions by over-zealous cops (where people are fined and carted off to jail) it takes forever to obtain justice against malfeasant MPs (and during this time they are paid in full and have full expenses).
this in turn makes horsemouth doubt their sincerity (you say you want social justice well you know...) when they make radical statements.
outside the sun is shining through the mist (horsemouth's parent's valley is sort of like an olafur eliasson installation). the bbc weather is showing it as overcast all day (but it's looking pretty good out there). today his brother's youngest daughter's a-level results (she's a winner anyway - she got her grade 8 music - horsemouth is pleased that someone else in the family shows an interest in music).
a photo appeared of horsemouth's physical diaries box from 2013 - it has (of course) increased in volume since then (not the box but the amount of physical diaries). houseman's peace diaries 1992 - 1995, work diaries 1998 - 2013 mostly appointments, lyrics, a few real entries and some scribbles. horsemouth has also used bigger diaries since (these have to go on top of the box).
plus - bush house recording session monitor mix (1991-2?) 3 songs cia, soundsystem, run from this.
we are moving into the era of retirement diaries. something like one million brits downed tools during and after covid and decided to retreat into personal life - they seem to be doing well (at least the guardian reader section of them). horsemouth has two small ones on the go right now (little A6 ones).
soon breakfast. horsemouth will go for a wander and (probably) read some of the ethics of life writing. he will make some notes on it in one of his diaries (probably the TG notebook).
tomorrow the journey down to frome (floods permitting) and the meet up with his brother's family. after that a few days back at his folks and then back to london to return the laptop.
it's glorious wednesday but (in anticipation of seasons yet to come) it is raining out there. horsemouth is sick of the rain already. he's waiting for his dad to get up so he can have a cup of coffee.
horsemouth made several walks up onto the common yesterday. a pre-breakfast wander, a lunchtime wander, a gentle wander round with his mum later on (they'd done down to the abbey and out to the crossroads the day before). the ground was mostly dry rather than muddy (its default setting).
horsemouth is potlatching his almeria bm nylon strung guitar. very nice for someone learning to play (but unlike his paesold unlikely to be worth money). needs a new d string. free to a good home. when he gets back he'll make a list of his russians and poles.
there was some discussion of j.g.ballard. some people have a magazine about him (would not a rock opera be more apt). it has the look and the feel of a ballard annual (most strange).
the ethics of betrayal (murder by autobiography)
'who can forgive him for having confessed mme. de warrens while confessing himself.' - george sand on rousseau
if you tell the story of your life (and the truth of it) do you not at the same time tell it of your associates? what gives you the right to do this? horsemouth brought the ethics of life writing with him (another chapter is called judging and not judging parents). given the rain it does not look like he will be sitting out on the common reading it).
'the aberrant form that my idolatry has assumed is the desire to write.' - philippe lejeune
iinstead horsemouth tried some sujikos and sukos (3 by 3 square 1-9 number deduction games). he had some initial successes but then he was discouraged by his failures and stopped. he listened to 2/3rds of a documentary about the 1918 'spanish' flu (a swedish friend recalled the old folks talking about who died in it, he called it the american pig flu). it is important to get this in perspective (it was huge) and to note how quickly it faded from the historical memory, obliterated by what came before and what came after.
as horsemouth notes there is a plan to go to frome. it is most important that horsemouth doesn't get roped in as naviagator. (phew he's just sorted it with his dad).
a time and and date has been set for the unveiling of the blue plaque for robert calvert...
the unveiling will take place at Arlington House Flats on friday november 25th at 1:30 pm.
horsemouth finally got the email from ex-work (aka. the artist formerly known as work) asking where their laptop was.
(at a minimum this means horsemouth has to buy a new laptop)
he's waiting to get the email back to see how they want to handle it. horsemouth is out of town so it is difficult for him to hand it back directly.
it would be a major change for horsemouth to be without a laptop. obviously this whole blogging/ social media lark pretty much depends on it (unless horsemouth is going to return to patronising libraries). the degree of isolation the lockdown called for was only possible because of the laptop. similarly horsemouth's word heavy/ contact light post pandemic lifestyle.
hey hey horsemouth has just seen a rabbit (he's up early typing this). that's good news (it means the rabbit population is recovering). he can't assess age and condition. he tried taking a photo but it's too far away for that to make sense. it's just the one rabbit. locally horsemouth would sometimes see rabbits over by the far fence but far fewer in recent years.
horsemouth's dad has it in for the squirrels but on the other hand feeds the birds.
compared to london it is all very green. horsemouth proposed a rainwater cistern to help with the watering (this place gets a lot of rain in winter). they have tidied up the bit on horsemouth's side of the house.
horsemouth is waiting for people to get up (this is the disadvantage of being able to suit himself).
horsemouth's dad is up. horsemouth mentioned the rabbit. 'plenty of them about' remarked his dad. maybe it is on the turn, maybe the rabbit can come back from the myxomatosis. horsemouth thinks his dad is overstating. he will go for a walk and see if he sees any.
horsemouth is off to frome. (but first he's off to the wilds of herefordshire).
he has (as far as he can recollect) never been there before.
he is also (by the power of sleep deprivation) up early. he's wearing jeans and a shirt (which he may well change out of as being too warm for the journey). horsemouth likes to be up and off as soon as possible when he travels (but he's also got to wait for rush hour to abate and this will give him time to pack etc.).
by going today he escapes the last of the heat but also gets there before the thunderstorms.
he's getting his parents to phone him at midday to see how far he has got.
yesterday was the anniversary of the deaths of both roy buchanan and bob calvert (both in 1988). horsemouth saw roy buchanan play (at the hammersmith odeon) and he saw bob calvert play (at the hammersmith palais or one of those - in these gigs he was fortunate).
boris johnson is on second holiday in greece. he has been greeted with a cheery 'get back to work you fat ponce' by the british tourists (sadly no footage yet).
yesterday horsemouth went for a walk earlyish and he went for a walk late-ish (but sadly neither at the magic hour). in the day he mostly skulked indoors. he read (a rescued copy of the FT). he watched the news. while he's away sten is getting a skip apparently. horsemouth doesn't hold out any great hope (previous great removes have been disappointing). perhaps he will be presently surprised.
last night a bottle of beer (after the heatwave).
howard has been in the states for 18 days (maine/ boston).
good morning! good morning! today more sun and heat (horsemouth will mostly be hiding indoors).
yesterday evening horsemouth went for a wander as the day cooled off. he enjoyed the cool of the evening. humanity were wandering around being beauteous, some were even up the pub by the canalside.
hail the gods of finding things in the recycling (ganesha probably) the FT Weekend back on (woo hoo). two july weekend's worth. in a bit he will start digging in and reading them.
instead yesterday he managed a little light reading of isaiah berlin's three critics of the enlightenment - first a biographical section on hamman, then a biographical section on vico (of naples). both are added to the book and help enormously with reading it
horsemouth has been tempted out to eulogise the 12 dreams of doctor sardonicus one of the best ever records intended to be listened to all the way through. it just sounds better to him than forever changes and sgt. pepper (now that's a heresy for you).
over on thrift a life our reseller has hit the wall (no drama it's a video from a year ago), he attempts to talk people through it, work sucks he freely admits, the arguments in favour of work (as some kind of moral obligation) suck also, nonetheless we need to do it to keep ourselves fed, he proposes various ways to trick ourselves into going back to work.
there horsemouth has finished the coffee. he's up slightly later than usual it is important to get out for a wander round before the day heats up and it becomes hard work. thereafter horsemouth will be closing the windows, closing the curtains and attempting to keep the house cool. from tomorrow it changes. for a bit. sten is saying he is going to clear the front and back gardens.
soon horsemouth plans to be away to his folks.
further horsemouth is trying to get more mobile by purging some of his book and guitar habit. the economic model of living in poverty seems to be viable (now to see what it can do).
horsemouth thinks he will half-write this post, go up to the book-bank (and make a deposit) and then return to finish off writing this. so above tangerine dream and later horsemouth will share shade gate by hawkwind (from a later album - probably the last hawkwind album horsemouth bought) which he broadly views as a lift from it (naughty harvey horsemouth guesses).
in the land of book pilled/ thrift a life there is a slow down in the re-selling. our man insists on the work he refuses speculation about what is causing it (he views this as essentially unknowable). if it is still this way in 6 months time (we may have to think again) he says but (as he also says) can you ever envisage a time when americans don't want to buy things off the internet?
here we see the apocalypse of the resellers, the sky coming down on them - our man is refusing to chicken little. he's taking more of a punt on vintage (not his area), he's targetting the bins more - clothing by weight so lower cost of goods, he's doing a little mining (ok ok - working through the tails of actual mining on a pay to dig and keep what you find basis).
it's like a balzac or a zola novel - you are right there with him as he shoves things into remailer envelopes 'I buy in bulk.'
the problem for the economy is that if consumers are spending their money paying their energy bills they don't have spare money (discretionary income) to go and buy anything else with, so the economy (for this is all it is these days) tanks.
last night horsemouth watched a documentary on tangerine dream - 7pm sky arts (freeview 11) revolution in sound: tangerine dream. this was followed by a documentary on modular synthesis but horsemouth wasn't watching it, he was back off downstairs in the world of thrift a life.
horsemouth has announced is planning to potlatch much of his book collection and some of his guitars (the paesold classical guitar and the avon (rose-morris) les paul copy he guesses). horsemouth works by making lists (otherwise he forgets)
anybody want some of them? if you have a topic area you are particularly interested in tell horsemouth and he will let you know what he has in that area.
horsemouth is very grateful for his shady nook. (p.s. the binmen have been, or are be-ing right now, but quietly - they may even have gone earlier because it's summer).
horsemouth was just getting irate (shit in the front garden, shit in the living room). he was getting irate yesterday as well. and maybe the day before. he will sit sten down and have a chat and see if there's a negotiation to be had (but he will be delaying this until the weather is cooler). he has, however, flagged up that there will be talks about talks.
horsemouth has been battling sten to defend the usability of the living room (but only himself and sten use it to any meaningful extent so why bother). he is now thinking the easiest thing to do is to abandon it to entropy and kipple - let it become its own critique.
in winter the chair by the window that gets the sun is useful to horsemouth, maybe that can be preserved. he sometimes watches tv (the news, the odd horror movie).
the battle over the deposition of kipple would then move on to other surfaces - the front garden, the back garden, the corridors, the kitchen, the refrigerator.
everybody in the house is a hoarder but everybody else keeps their stuff to the agreed areas (their room mostly, their space in the junk room). sten will not because a) it is a diabolical infringement of his liberty b) he needs storage/ waste dump space to operate his business
horsemouth's view is that hoarding is mourning, an over attachment to things, an unwillingness to let time (and things) pass.
people like their possessions, they are emotionally attached to them as repositories of memory and as fulfilments of the promise of capitalism, they have no real desire to live in an ikea blueprint of functionalism (ok no they do based on the horrors horsemouth has enunciated above). such is the material wealth of this society that some excretion is necessary to permit continued consumption (hence the binmen). indeed discipline in the domestic space is necessary to permit its continued enjoyment (tidying). think things by georges perec here.
thrift a life/ bookpilled is attempting to avoid employment (aka. having a boss) by reselling, on e-bay and such like, second hand clothes that he buys from thrift shops. to do this he encourages people to detach from whether they like the item of clothing (and its sensuous properties) and only think about it in terms of how long it will take to sell (the apps provide statistics on this). he attempts to cycle his capital multiple times, pricing low to get a quicker sale.
horsemouth is interested that this is the opposite of why people buy things.
and yet he recognises that on the auction platforms his engagement with the book or item of clothing does result in a better sale price (it is coming to resemble more normal selling, a relationship between seller and buyer). he recognises that he does have knowledge of menswear/ vintage/ books and that this is valuable (it helps him do what he does) even as he struggles against it and argues for the metrics of the market.
formerly horsemouth rewarded himself for working with quantities of snack food (espressos, sandwiches etc.), second hand books (sometimes clothing) and things found in the street. since he has 'retired' he does these things much less - yesterday he acquired a miniature vodka bottle (for use as a guitar slide) and a tiny cardboard cloud on a cocktail stick (just because). but in general he is moving to a 'don't buy shit (or bring shit back)' position. he has attempted to balance his book acquisitions with some distribution of books out to the book boxes. he will attempt to accelerate this.
he realises this is a tedious topic he will therefore detach and move on to topics of more general interest.
horsemouth is planning to potlatch much of his book collection and some of his guitars. anybody want some of them?
horsemouth was complimented on his brown-ness. he likes to get out and get the sun in early in the season before it gets too hot. horsemouth can only see the point in hot temperatures if you are at the seaside (or at the lakes).
the sun now rises at the end of the street. or so horsemouth guesses from where it was when he was out emptying out the kitchen waste into the compost bin. it sets behind the block of flats visible from the back garden (or maybe even further north west than that - when horsemouth goes up the park the sun appears to be setting in upper clapton).
the axis of horsemouth's house is thus not angled perfectly south (as he fondly likes to imagine) but south east. his house also has a butterfly roof - the roof is highest at the walls and then descends in a V to it's lowest point along the midline of the house (with the axis pointing south east).
the result is that horsemouth's house has almost the worst roof possible for fitting solar panels. (ideally for solar panels you want a south facing roof, flat or pitched - either will do). many roofs in the co-op are like this (butterfly roofs pointing south east) and the houses are narrow, meaning the size of the array (and thus the power generated) will be small. (horsemouth hates to break this to people).
that at least is horsemouth's opinion - what the co-op really needs to do is find someone who knows.
the whole current ecological drive (to net zero) seems very strange to horsemouth - the silicon wafer for the solar panels will need to be produced (it is produced in china smelted in giant vats heated by burning chinese coal (releasing lots of CO2 )). the towers for offshore windfarms are steel manufactured in vietnam (releasing lots of CO2 ). these items are then shipped to the UK (er...releasing lots of CO2 ) to help with our de-carbonisation.
everything has to be manufactured and shipped and the workers to assemble or install it have to travel to your location. the fantasy is that the technology will miraculously arrive to enable us all to live our lives without having to make changes.
actual decarbonisation (affirms horsemouth) is more likely to be driven by increase in costs of power thus leading to people consuming less because they can no longer afford it. decarbonisation has real costs which will (probably) be born by the working class because they lack the means to defend themselves.
horsemouth was watching some videos by thecottagefairy(now this has a slightly different meaning in english - a fairy was an abusive term for a gay man, a cottage was a place where gay men would gather for anonymous(ish) sex).
in comparison thecottagefairy in american seems to be a good looking girl (ok ok woman) who has rejected city life and retired to the countryside to do a little gardening, forage wild plants, bake biscuits with flowers in them, write in commonplace books and all while dressed in long skirts and such like (there doesn't seem to be any mud in this version of the countryside which is somewhat shocking to horsemouth. there seems to be no need for wellington boots). a piano plays and she discourses in soft, relaxing, reasonable voice about her lifestyle choices. she works as a bookseller - it's all nicely photographed.
and this is when it strikes horsemouth that there must be a very nice digital camera on a tripod somewhere filming this.
and of course horsemouth types this on his laptop sitting up in bed (cross-legged) wearing a slightly stained short-sleeved shirt (in a pale purple and white gingham he guesses) and a pair of blue fila shorts (with white and red piping). in a bit he will go for a patrol - this he does because a) he is bored b) to get in his exercise before it gets too hot, and c) because people do not always take their donations to the commonweal to the book-boxes but frequently just leave them out on their garden walls. (he's still hoping the dude on chatsworth will cough up the copy of the FT weekend into the recycling from whence horsemouth can snaffle it).
in the city (where horsemouth lives) the rental news continues to be bad (quite how bad horsemouth had not in fact realised). the long awaited day of retribution has half arrived (and yet it looks like it may be delayed out). timing of course is everything.
it is certainly true of horsemouth who took the opportunity granted by the redundancy cheque and the activation of his work's pension (in particular the proportion of his work's pension taken in advance) to jump ship.
bye bye good ship capitalism (actually the filthiest of down-on-its-luck luggers), you will not miss me.
- why do people work?
- because they need money to live (mostly). (there are other reasons. people like the status. the role. the sociability. they may even like the task itself).
- if you had enough money to live on would you work?
- maybe...
horsemouth thinks of himself as retired but he worries that he does not have enough money to coast it out until pension day - when the state pension kicks in.
the big problem (as horsemouth sees it) is the decline in the real value of pay (and indeed money in general) and the concomitant increase in profits and just pure wealth of the ruling class. now if there's a shortage of workers then the workers should be able to challenge the bosses for better wages. horsemouth hopes that in struggle things move forward and contradictions are worked through.
well ok let's see you says horsemouth.
from the long hot summer to the winter of discontent.
good morning! good morning!
horsemouth has the window open (and to be fair he's wearing a jumper). we enter another heatwave. though not quite as quality as the one before. it's early (well not as early as it was when horsemouth woke up and started writing this).
yesterday horsemouth mostly hid indoors but he also patrolled the neighbourhood a few times. he went up to teh powerscroft road book box but it was being visited the first two times he passed by (this is good news).
on his mission (in nearby colenso road) he found a copy of three critics of the enlightenment: vico, hamman, herder by isaiah berlin (pimlico edition 2013 good condition).
and yet three critics is a book of the type composed after the event - it may have been berlin's intention to write a book on this topic he never did and thus this is not it, it is a combination of various essays together as if they were a book, as if they all had the same object.
the 'these essays originate...' of berlin's author's preface repurposed in this book does not refer to all the essays included in the book, it is in fact the preface to his book vico and herder: two studies in the history of ideas. to make the two studies into three essays requires more than the inclusion of a further essay on hamann the magus of the north (an author horsemouth has never even heard the name of before) which itself includes passages not used in the original.
and then there are also the essays not included in the book (his josephde maistreand the origins of fascism for instance).
on wikipedia there are quibbles about the referencing too - that the secondary sources referenced by berlin in his original essays may have been swapped for the primary sources (that berlin may or may not have read).
of course any book can be objected to on these grounds (this is pretty much that is the lesson of derrida if not the lesson of althusser).
but what of berlin's (reconstructed) intent, to quote wikipedia;
'three critics was one of berlin's many publications on the enlightenment and its enemies that did much to popularise the concept of a counter-enlightenment movement that he characterised as relativist, anti-rationalist, vitalist and organic and which he associated most closely with german romanticism.'
now there's a lot of this counter-enlightenment thinking about (perhaps as a necessary corrective to the instrumentalist reason of the enlightenment). the various currents embrace various parts of the history authorised by the enlightenment (this is vico) but also by counter-enlightenment thinkers. these are dangerous times. anyway horsemouth has made it through the introductions and as far as p.22.
today? more reading. a few quick patrols before it gets too hot. maybe a walk with TG at some stage.
it is the anniversary of the recording of the first of marion brown's georgia trilogy afternoon of a georgia faun (curiously enough recorded in new york). horsemouth is letting it pootle away.
so the photos are coming in from the camping trip horsemouth did not go on (dammit).
yesterday a walk up to walthamstow st. james street - there and back again 5 miles or so. horsemouth pretends he was going there to look for books but in his heart of hearts he knew the oxfam was shut and that the other two charity shops he visits on the bottom of the market have very limited selections. really he went for the walk and he went early - not quite the first customer in the doors but nearly.
he types this wearing a jumper (it is a grey morning only just clearing). this he thought would never be possible again yesterday afternoon. a week of plus 30 beckons.
for the early part of yesterday afternoon horsemouth hid in doors - a friend described mabley green as being like death valley. he listened to the hawkbinge podcast episode about PXR 5. they take as their guide the order in which the albums were released and only take the studio albums. horsemouth suggested that really you should listen to hawklords next (which was released before PXR 5 but actually recorded after) so the order would be astounding sounds - quark - PXR 5 - hawklords. this would be a good guide to the calvert years.
possibly sonic assassins too. chipped in a friend.
yes. this is their defect (replied horsemouth). they won't allow themselves access to the live albums. the singles. the bootlegs. they are forced to pretend that the good stuff wasn't usually recorded live and then overdubbed (in the case of PXR 5 this would be robot and uncle sam's on mars). though frankly it does mean clunkers like back on the streets can be avoided. matt (the youngster) does at least lead one to the important questions such as - why on earth you would follow up high rise with a clunker like PXR 5? why on earth you would ever commit flying doctor to tape?
once you let yourself listen to sonic assassins you can hear that harvey bainbridge and martin griffin (of devon band ARK) had heard stratus by billy cobham. this horsemouth had never suspected because he didn't hear stratus until much later (as a result of massive attack robbing it for safe from harm), you can hear calvert attempting to busk or freestyle the lyrics (and why the through composed version on hawklords is so much better).
later the C4 news. the ex-PM is having a nice rest and refusing to do anything (to be fair this was the condition of being allowed to keep the keys to no.10). meanwhile the future PM is engaged in hand to hand combat for the delectation of the tory party faithful. the plan seems to be to sacrifice the people to greater profits for mammon in october (and have some tax cuts for the rich). horsemouth suggests they sort that one out in a hurry.
after the C4 news horsemouth could find nothing he fancied watching. he fiddled about on the computer and then he went to sleep early.
it is 7 years since the release of musicians of bremen volume two an album with which horsemouth had surprisingly little to do. it is essentially a solo album for the other musician of bremen - horsemouth contributes a lyric and some guitars to blackwall tunnel and he sings and plays vast quantities of guitars on noah (a song he co-wrote), other than that it is all yer man.
and very good it is too. yer man is mostly playing the hohner 6 string guitar (but also the ukulele for sure on noah and blackwall tunnel), all keyboards, and he recruited a singer (ruth chiat) for two tracks who does a great job. horsemouth thinks it is the neglected jewel in the collection.
based on yer man having recorded a solo album (in all but name) horsemouth was able to argue that he should have his own solo album in all but name (and that would be volume three with horsemouth singing the main vocals and yer man singing the back ups).
they then re-united (to a certain extent) for volume four, covers, the humming, and all of that. if horsemouth has a criticism of volume four it would be that he's not convinced they reformed the band nor that they picked the right tracks for the album - amarach he is convinced by, am I born to die he is not, wonky he is convinced by (but it's entirely yer man's), blindspot so nearly makes it, he could go on.
a friend has purchased the collection - horsemouth should wander the CDs down to him.
remarks the disturbed young man in h.p. lovecraft'sthe tomb.
here horsemouth is stuck for relatable events. (he may have to revert to analysing causes).
yesterday a failure to launch kind of day. horsemouth went out and snoozed in the shade in the park. he patrolled the neighbourhood several times, checking first the book bins and later the dustbins for discarded quality newspapers. (there were some people on the high road in the habit of chucking out the FT weekend section). some progress was made with the reading of the master and margarita.
horsemouth's room is very cool and quiet, it makes it difficult to want to get out onto the sun-fried streets.
in the islamic calendar (a lunar one and thus roughly 10 days shorter than the solar calendar that we may be more familiar with) the new year has begun and we are just exiting the first 10 days of the year (these have especial significance).
the depopulation of the east continues;
'most of the five million people who emigrated during the first two decades of putin’s rule were under forty; almost all had university degrees (92 per cent) and a significant proportion had PhDs (14 per cent). since february, hundreds of thousands more have bolted.'
the greatest lack a country can have is a lack of people to do the work. it means the work will have to be done elsewhere, other countries will get the benefit of it, and some other government will get the taxes on it.
horsemouth was due a wander round with TG but he is late back. horsemouth will try and get out for a wander round early.
horsemouth's washing is on the line since yesterday evening (he wants to get the shorts dried before the heat comes on this afternoon). yesterday evening (after he'd watched a documentary on the moody blues)he went for a wander round. thereafter he sat and drank a bottle of beer and watched quatermass 2 (british government aids and abets alien invasion by giant slime moulds).
he spent some time critiquing an illustration by bob moran (the good reset he calls it).
bob is where horsemouth once was in a paroxysm of rage against the system except his proximate causes are different, his utopia is one of naturally controlled CO2 levels (good luck with that), functioning immune systems (well who could argue with that) and buried lockdown advice (stay home), no wind turbines, lots of children but shrinking cities. bob wants us to be ok with risk and all this is built on the buried corpses of globalists. .
a lot of people (and not just giorgio agamben) see the extension of government power over people during the pandemic as a bad thing. their liberties were curtailed and the simplest argument against it was not to deny the efficacy of the measures but to deny that they were necessary at all ('it's just a cold. it only kills old people. what's all the fuss about? the state is only doing it because it wants to extend its power.').
in this they have been helped by confused and inconsistent government explanations and the government's rapid rowing back from these restrictions as soon as they could.
horsemouth views the british state as only accidentally fighting covid - it could so easily have ended up adopting the herd immunity/ laissez faire/ let rip US strategy producing even higher death tolls than the ones we achieved. without cummings (curiously enough) they didn't have the bottle to persist in unpopular measures and were soon driving us (coughing and spluttering) back onto the tube trains and back to work.
all of this anti-vaxing and anti-lockdown rhetoric dovetails neatly into an idea that the real enemy are globalists - people who argue for global solutions to global problems - people who now argue for decarbonisation and wind turbines. it is them who are driving up heating bills as part of their green agenda when what we really need are more nuclear power stations, more coal fired power stations, more oil etc. (but carefully out of shot).
the globalists are viewed as planning a great reset to surveillance capitalism. of course they may as well be venusian slime moulds or V style reptiles. the point of these themes in 60ies science fiction is not to imply that the rich are no longer human (really) but that they are badly behaved, it is a kind of satire. the modern variety it is a bit less clear that it is satire.
now horsemouth is himself guilty of similar thinking - he hates capitalists and neo-liberals people who seem to argue for free markets but are in fact engaged in scurfing up as much state subsidy as can possibly be achieved. horsemouth blames the rich but beyond them the whole capitalist system.
like the jehovah's witness pictures of the peaceful kingdom the picture of the good reset is initially appealing - it is only on closer examination that the problems with it appear. there is this appeal to the natural as if it were an uncomplicated good (plague is natural counters horsemouth).
horsemouth types this in his torn b-boy t-shirt (that's got to go - horsemouth has enough clothing that he can get rid of the torn stuff) and jeans. horsemouth is no longer a boy (mind you he has also never worked for portuguese social security as one of his other t-shirts claims). on the washing line are his shorts, several t-shirts and a few pairs of socks.
horsemouth is an anti-social son of a bitch. he could have been off camping. he should have gone down to a gig in south london. he should have gone out to a friend's birthday earlier in the week. he could even have gone out to ronnie scott's and listened to jazz (but no).
in the master and margarita margarita is about to ask for the favour from the devil (thus tidying up the loose ends of the plot). horsemouth only opened it before deciding he wanted to sleep more than he wanted to read.
with the broch he has hit p.32 - pasenow has met ruzena.
three years ago horsemouth was recording guitar parts for musicians of bremen volume four (tracks that became broadbury down, a demo for pagodas, painbirds). 6 years ago horsemouth was moving into his current abode. 8 years ago the musicians of bremen were playing only their second duo gig for TG, the headliner was a.j. holmes of the hackney empire who played a palm wine guitar set (he had been taught by folo graff of orchestre jazira - horsemouth was briefly taught by him at jenako arts back in the 80ies). thanks TG much appreciated. 9 years ago he was recording guitar parts for musicians of bremen volume one.
this year horsemouth is not being recorded (howard, who usually does the recording, is off frolicking in the rivers of maine - he has sent a photo). howard also sent a recording of a new song of his and complained that he was having problems making the lyrics fit, horsemouth replied that it was good, howard replied that horsemouth was a man of few words, horsemouth replied yes he was a man of few words (but at least they fit).
typical actions of the evening
horsemouth often tells you what he is up to in the morning (when he writes these blogs). it is less often that he tells you what he is up to in the evenings.
the days are consecrated to work (even though horsemouth is now a mule of leisure - he has been put out to pasture - he still feels this).
only after 6pm does horsemouth relax ('his time is now his own' how ridiculous is that?). he had watched a little of the bbc news earlier (freeview 231), he watched the C4 news (7-8pm) sat in the living room, he watched some camping videos and then some thrift a life/ bookpilled videos lying in his bed. the guy's a comic genius, he does a review of his picking choices as a reaction video 'didn't sell', 'hasn't sold yet', 'in fact, none of these sold', the sadder, wiser him interacts with the younger more enthusiastic him (there is some eye-rolling).
around about 9.30pm horsemouth is replying to howard (as detailed above) -he can tell this because he's researching the lyrics to cagey cretins by the blue oyster cult (the only reference to the state ofmaine he thinks he's found in a rock and roll song at about 1.05).
yesterday (day) horsemouth walked over to the supermarket in the fields to buy coffee(four miles there and back). this compares with the 3 miles and back over to aldi (but horsemouth was carrying a rucksack with about 10kgs of food on the return portion of the journey). after that he researched the PAS2035 standard for housing retrofit. after that he listened to the world at one and then alternated between the back garden and his bedroom to do the reading.
it looks like horsemouth's redundancy money and work's pension taken in advance will stretch out until roughly the winter solstice. thereafter he will be digging into his savings to support his louche and lazy lifestyle. last time he tried unemployment it was the boredom that got him.
the rattling old sash windows of horsemouth's room make a very particular sound as he opens them up in the morning. it is because they are old and poorly fitting. for this reason (and because winter is approaching) horsemouth would like them replaced by double glazing. there was a plan to do it two years ago (but then the pandemic intervened).
horsemouth would like to get some extra insulation up in the attic too (this is probably the cheapest and most cost effective insulation you can do his researches have revealed.
these are the characteristic gestures of the morning.
horsemouth's bed is in the bay of the window. he will stand up on it to unhook the curious arrangement that passes for curtains (leaving only a burgundy-ish net curtain. he will then open up the sash window more fully (it being summer). horsemouth still has an hour or two before the sun makes it into the room - his house being broadly south facing and him living in the basement. the steps down from the front hall and the tree that grows in the narrow front garden afford a fair bit of shade.
there goes sten.
by dint of a strategically placed basket liner horsemouth can hide from his view the bit of the front garden that is devoted to the waste dump. he took some time yesterday to compose it in a more compact fashion (prior to its inevitable departure - here he jokes).
by placing a compost bin centre to the garden horsemouth has managed to save it from being turned into a waste dump (mostly). the compost bin is simply too stinky to move and thus provides a most effective 'fact on the ground'.
horsemouth will then clamber off the bed (which is slightly raised to permit better storage underneath it) and walk to the kitchen. he will empty the coffee pot, charge it and put it on the stove. he will then go pee or come back into the bedroom and turn on the computer. he will then remember that he needs a cup for his coffee and go and get it from the bedroom (by this point the coffee pot will have boiled).
when he has his coffee he will go on facebook and deal with the various likes, comments and messages, then he will open up blogger and start blog-ing. this is where you now find him (engaged in turning his humble existence into prose). he now blogs everyday and posts a once-a-month books read, films watched, gigs attended aide memoire.
yesterday he chatted with john in far off porto. john is back in touch with ze and nuno (which is good) having bumped into nuno on the street. horsemouth and john exchanged book recommendations. john has an e-book copy of a history of reading. they had a discussion about the ethics of life writing - john found the improbably good recall of conversations from childhood off putting in woody guthrie's bound for glory. (horsemouth has it somewhere but has only actually seen the movie).
last night horsemouth made a start on broch's the romantic. in the day he made progress on the master and margarita - the witches sabbat is done (horsemouth detects more of the flavour of gogol in it this time around but it is both gogol's, the gogol of the city and the gogol of the countryside).
in the morning horsemouth did the run to the supermarket (aldi) and returned home across the fields with something like 10kgs of food (for someone who lives in a city horsemouth does live in a most rural fashion). horsemouth leans heavily into the carbs (starch). he believes you need bulk (to convince your body it has been fed), sauce for flavour (to encourage your appetite) and protein (and some fat and vitamins) for health.
remind horsemouth he's got to phone the doctor's - they want to take his blood pressure readings etc.
horsemouth has finished the coffee (sad to say) he will now get a bowl of museli (or perhaps some toast). later he will have the first of several cups of tea during the day.
last night he found the guitar tuner again and got the 12 string out and put it in tune and had a quick play round jai guru and such like - on single notes it sounds most like the byrds (perhaps horsemouth will dig out a plectrum and become a flatpicker).
today is the anniversary of the birth of maupassant (1850). it looks like a bright sunshine-y day out. horsemouth will go for a wander - perhaps to the other supermarket to get some more coffee (horsemouth lives in mortal fear of the price of coffee increasing and mitigates this by keeping a stockpile well in advance).
and it's a bright sunshine-y morning all over the salt marshes.
last night horsemouth was derelict of his duty and failed to get out to a friend's birthday (bad mule). he'll message and apologise in a bit. he's got some kind of blockage/ ear infection that is fucking up his hearing and he's still less than fully comfortable in indoor spaces. at 7pm he realised he should be there (or at least on his way) and bottled. other than agreements to go walking, and visit pubs/ pub gardens,
these days horsemouth tends not to wander out.
yesterday some reading of the ethics of life writing (introductory and concluding essays) while sitting in the garden and later horsemouth rewatched some of bookpilled/ thrift a life recounting his experiences with employers and with social media. his is the poor scholar's problem.
now horsemouth has made an effort before to write his own life or rather his own life in music. it's about ten years old (and things have moved on since then a bit) but still it is a good place to start.
still there are a number of things horsemouth doesn't tend to talk about.
his childhood in south wales and herefordshire
his struggles at university
his involvement with the squatter/ anarchist scene (and all the trouble that entailed)
his hopes for is first band (huge)
his anti-nuclear activism and volunteering
his work in the web design sector
his time in gainful employment
now frankly most of these (excepting the last one) were a disaster. it seems to horsemouth that he has spent a lot of his life blundering from one disaster to another underachieving uptown and downtown. it took horsemouth a long time to find a position in life lowly enough for him to shine (even dimly) and, even there, eventually capitalism decided to dispense with his services.
horsemouth is not especially bothered. he has become very comfortable on very little. however what is that dark cloud on the horizon this winter
a campaign already exists with the aim to have 1 million people pledging not to pay when the energy prices increase in october (DON'T PAY UK horsemouth believes).
the new PM (probably liz trust) lands in the job 5th september and doesn't have much time in which to defend price rises on the backs of record profits at the energy companies (that these profits aren't being made in the bits of the business that deal directly with the customers is neither here nor there).
now that's a bit of a sticky wicket anyway the real issue is in any event CAN'T PAY. after 10 years of austerity topped up by 2 years of pandemic the great british public can no longer afford to be able to heat their homes and eat. they will chose to eat and invite the power companies to piss off (horsemouth guesses).
horsemouth doubt the political wisdom of siding with the baliffs against the great british public (it's not a good look). the sensible thing to do is to side with the public against the power companies and windfall tax them.
horsemouth (as you know) is a stone chicken. he will wait and see where things go.
it is interesting that the metaphor being used here is sleepwalking (sleepwalking into disaster) as broch used that metaphor (the title of his trilogy which includes the romantic is the sleepwalkers).
