'... and may begins'

in the morning horsemouth will turn the page on his countryfile calendar (the usual christmas gift from his parents). he will go from the 3 of fox cubs (april) to the 2 of ducks (may). june looks like the 9 of flowers.

harry taussig (now 82 years old and a famed american primitive guitarist) was (at one point) a tarot card designer. 

horsemouth types this in the evening of may eve. it is almost the dusk - horsemouth watched the bit of the devil rides out (from about 35 minutes in to 45 minutes in) covering the events at the witches sabbat. from then on in most of the events take place on mayday and over the night of mayday (horsemouth had not paid enough attention to the chronology of the movie to realize this). events are completed on the day of may 2nd. horsemouth will attempt to watch the film on the days on which the events happen and at the correct times of day. 

on mayday itself horsemouth will begin his written investigations into aleksandr blok's time in italy (he begins his visit in venice). this will cover all of may and extend out into june (similarly for the 1871 paris commune timeline) 

blok will be in venice until monday next week (may 8th) on may 7th (sunday) he will send a letter to his mum. horsemouth hasn't done the necessary reading yet so he will have to delay telling you about his time there. he needs more sources than just pirog's book. at a minimum he needs to find a translation of the poems (and of the epigraph that opens it and the epitaph that ends it). 

it is a grey morning. yesterday horsemouth sat out in the sunshine. watching the girls go by dressed in their summer clothes. he also went for a wander up through the marshes to the cafe in springfield park with ayesha (as usual they discussed the state of the world). all is well with the world but horsemouth is struggling with it a little. as howard remarked he seemed much more relaxed on the saturday (rent rise and meeting done) but it doesn't take long for horsemouth's brain to find something else to worry about.

'as april ends and may begins (a change in the season)'

joan didion, blue nights (repunctuated). the blue nights seem like they will never end. but they do.

we have reached the weekend and in the chronology of the devil rides out.we have reached sunday with the witches sabbat on may eve (the goat of mendes in attendance). yesterday the duc de richleau and rex van ryn went to simon's house only to discover a coven of 13 gathering there to perform a black magic ritual - they knock simon out and take him away but he escapes. they return to simon's house but an 'infernal creature' has been left to trap them. they escape.

in the morning they will  decide to follow tanith  (nike arrighi) hoping she will lead them to simon (or lead them to the sabbat). 

we face the dark passage over may eve but on may day itself further obstacles must be overcome. 

nike arrighi subsequently went on to have a career as an artist - the painter of somewhat worrying paintings . 

yesterday horsemouth read (further researches into blok's italian poems, the  timing of blok's visit compared to the dates when the poems were written, some background reading on how blok fits into the pattern of russian literature). tomorrow horsemouth begins his account of blok (and his wife)'s italian journey when they arrive in venice. horsemouth has brodsky's waterline round here somewhere (which would prove useful) but he hasn't found it. 

later howard showed up. they retreated to horsemouth's room and drank (a couple of small bottles of peroni each, two bottles of supermarket beer) and played or listened to music. there was some discussion of the superiority of the vinyl album (the record) as an artefact over the CD or teh digital download. howard is exhausted (but he sang well). horsemouth sang enthusiastically (but not well). he walked howard down to the tube and on his way back found a copy of arianna huffington's book on picasso.

horsemouth has no real plans for the sunday or the bank holiday monday. hail may day! hail the workers' movement! but he will probably be staying in. 

it is cold but bright out and the birds sing.

ah shit he's just remembered he's going for a walk with ayesha AM. good job he's up early.  

such is the nonsense inside his head

horsemouth dreamed he was computer programming (he dreamed he was back at college). computer programming is just about his least favourite thing.  then he dreamt he was in a meeting  (he tried a bit of bibliomancy to get him out of a tight corner - one book worked, another didn't). later he was on a train reversing through some kind of london docklands. at some point in the dream he was in an apartment block that was under attack - he had run upstairs to hide. 

such is the nonsense inside his head. 

'I saw a wretch executed who had murdered his master for which he had his head chopped off by an axe that slid down from a timber, between the two tall columns in st. mark's piazza at seabrink.' - john evelyn, 17th C. account, in venice. 

yesterday horsemouth went for a walk with TG. he read more of the aleksandr blok in italy book - soon (may 1st) his journeys will begin. barbarian hordes will threaten the cities - blok reorders them from the order in which he and his wife visited them into the order of their historical power and ascendency. 

we begin in venice. (the city in the sea and thus, like holland, a disproof of malthus). brodsky has written about venice (horsemouth should check him out for blok references)

horsemouth has published his books read and films watched list for april. as usual he did better than he remembered (but not as well as he had hoped).  

we have reached the weekend and reached the chronology of the devil rides out - this afternoon rex van ryn arrives by plane, he meets the duc de richleau  and they set off to find their friend simon aron. when they get to his house there is a party in progress with 13 people in attendance...it all ends up in a witches sabbat on sunday (may eve) with the goat of mendes in attendance. 

and then it is may day and we are through into a different season. 

'as april ends and may begins (a change in the season)' - joan didion, blue nights (repunctuated). .

 

'life in its fleeting trivialities' (time, young, old, art, artist, colours, cities - venice, ravenna, florence and siena)

horsemouth was having assassin dreams. the people were smart (a quality horsemouth values) so this presented him with something of a moral dilemma. the dreams have all gone now horsemouth can remember that he had them but not what they were. 

book pilled has given us a moment of mourning and closure with the sci-fireplace. he loves his jack vance but could not get on with the robert sheckley. 

above a takoma park compilation beginning with fahey himself and featuring the great max ochs' raga II. 

'yes we are scythians!... russia is a sphinx, triumphant and mournful.' 

having quoted blok horsemouth should read more about him - he has a book about blok's italian journey  by gerald pirog (1983 slavica - second hand one squid). it is completed with the academic apparatus of  a frequency dictionary of the words and the principal semantic fields (time, young, old, art, artist, colours, cities, regions, sounds, music, songs, singing...) but its concern is mainly with the sequencing of the poems and their arrangement into books and cycles (so a concern transferable to the world of music). 

blok's trip to itay began may 1st 1909 or may day in the cyclical calendar (that's definitely a sign horsemouth should read it) and ended june 21st (so basically the solstice). he and his wife visited 13 towns in umbria and tuscany, they didn't make it to rome like they intended. the poems mainly focus on venice, ravenna, florence and siena. 

'life in its fleeting trivialities may be a cherished gift to the poet but it as much a burden as the art which carries him away from it'  - pirog. 

horsemouth's memory of having read a life of blok was correct. he has  avril pyman's the life of aleksandr blok:volume 1 - the distant thunder (1880-1908). so sadly this does not cover blok's italian trip. as a child blok acted in a nursery  play with his cousins of a journey to italy,  

we approach may day (beltane) one of the celtic quarter days. 'april is the cruelest month' because the weather cannot be relied upon. but from may we are into the fruitfulness of the year. 'cormac describes how cattle were driven between two bonfires on beltane as a magical means of protecting them from disease before they were led into summer pastures.'

the poems and passages in cyrillic he has no chance with. likewise the passage in what he takes to be transliterated russian, the quotations in latin he has very little chance with. (horsemouth was a bad latin student). 

today some reading and some waling about. the binmen have been (hail the bin men). 

 

horsemouth 'triumphant and mournful'

'yes we are scythians!... russia is a sphinx, triumphant and mournful.' (aleksandr blok). 

yesterday horsemouth was reading philip marsden's the spirit-wrestlers in which he goes in search of the old believers, the jumpers and the cossacks. 

yesterday horsemouth was mostly being run down and hung over. 

last night horsemouth went in search of his youtube talking heads but they were proving elusive. book pilled was sorting through his books prior to moving (keep/ sell) and dismantling the Sci-Fireplace. no action on his thrift a life clothing reselling channel. outlaw bookseller was keen to guide us round alternate histories. some guy was walking (well cycling really) the brecon to monmouth canal.

he found the emahoy video (which is great).  there was a little on true detective series 1 (drunk cops battle elder gods). 

so horsemouth has got the vote through for the rent rise now there's just the small matter of actually paying it himself (but it doesn't come in until june). he's waiting to see a revised schedule for the decarbonisation stuff. 

today horsemouth was up early. he undid the curtains and saw that the sun was shining. then he noticed it was too early and went back to bed. by the time he got up it had clouded over and the day assumed a pale grey aspect. 

in the paris comune 1871 timeline prime ministers thiers is on his feet in the national assembly making the following conciliatory speech.

'let those impious arms fall from the hands which hold them and chastisement will be arrested at once by an act of peace excluding only the small number of criminals.' 

thiers does not have enough of an army yet to retake paris, he will need the reinforcements shortly to be released from POW camps by bismark (and then the slaughter can commence). 

today horsemouth will go and jam. he will try and do some decarbonisation reading, put the recycling out, go for a walk. that sort of stuff. probably finish off reading spirit-wrestlers  and return to reading hardt and negri's commonwealth. 

horsemouth has survived again (the youtube talking heads)

instead of his usual diet of youtube talking heads horsemouth went to a meeting of the communal endeavour and presented. he didn't do that well (he dried up at one point) but the rent rise got passed (people saw the need for it) and people saw the benefit of insulating the houses. 

after that he went up the pub (the approach - kevin, lethal, peter, adam, lianne). he thinks he had 3. it was good to chat to kevin (he hasn't seen him in an age). he then walked back (as he had walked down  earlier). he got a falafel wrap on the way back. 

sadly the cold got onto his tooth and this (and the beer) gave him a slightly disturbed sleep. he got up in the night and paracetamoled. he's up now with coffee but he feels a bit off colour and under the weather. (he'll probably go back to bed).  

contra mortem et tempus ('from this video I will never be the same again')

'what is the purpose of my incarnation? what is my gift to the world?'  - verdant vanille in from this video I will never be the same again.

at the more angsty end of the cottage fairy genre (girl in nice frock, living in small home, wanders round forest picking flowers and talking about mindfulness, slow living, and loving oneself) is verdant vanille. she is an ex masseuse used to the high life but now she struggles with self-employment and living up in the mountains in winter. a typical verdant vanille video involves her going for a camping trip in the forest (she has all the best kit and a giant battery/ power pack to keep her devices charged) but there's a storm and she ends up sleeping in her car. it's just not as smooth as all the other productions. 

of an evening horsemouth will typically watch a few of these or politics podcasts - rory stewart and alistair campbell, a novara media thing, this replaces the LRB sponsored talking politics david runciman that carried horsemouth throughout the pandemic.  

the other major go to genre is the SF book blogs - book pilled and outlaw bookseller. outlaw is a new wave of SF fan, matt at book pilled  is more a younger hard/ classic SF fan. from book pilled horsemouth moved on to his thrift a life  clothing reseller channel - the main pleasure here is less the guide to what clothing brands are worth buying in charity shops to resell (and how much to pay) it is  in vicariously enjoying matt's struggle for survival. he's a smart cookie (but he's beset with health problems).  he's a former stand up comic, he has worked in a writing mill generating spurious 'content', he has a nicely dry line on everything. he's getting out of the reseller game and setting off to live somewhere cheaper and become a youtuber.

horsemouth's original plan (if you remember) was to retire and go live somewhere cheaper (at least for part of the year) but life got in the way. 

the specific bit of life that got in the way was the communal endeavour and in particular the social housing decarbonisation fund. now horsemouth likes the notion of him doing his bit (smart boy that he was) to prevent global warming by encouraging the housing co-op he is in to decarbonise. 15% of UK greenhouse gas emissions come from housing in its normal operation (mostly from heating the properties with gas boilers)   - the target is for the UK as a whole to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050. horsemouth already knows two things about this target - the government will not meet it and it is too late anyhow. 

he would at least like to put the co-op in a position to hit this target earlier.

before this he had other hopes for the endeavour.  these mostly revolved around increasing the number of people housed in co-op owned property (as opposed to short-life property leased from other housing providers). with a bit of luck horsemouth will achieve this (but alas too little too late to make as much difference as he had hoped). 

this evening horsemouth goes to present at the AGM of the communal endeavour. he's got to sell them a rent rise (happy happy joy joy)

on sending an ill-advised letter to the press (and being ill-advised enough to comment on this)

it's a beautiful morning. if horsemouth sticks his head right up by the window he can just about see the sun at the end of the street rising over the marshes. horsemouth is up at a decent time. he has a (mild) headache. he has his coffee and he's about to take some paracetamol. the night was clear and cold. today will be warm in the sun. 

the sun will progress down the street over his house and sink into the badlands of upper clapton (or lower clapton depending on the season). 

horsemouth thinks he will do a run to the supermarket (probably check out the aldi bookbox on the way over).

diane abbott (the neighbouring  MP) is in trouble. 

horsemouth hesitates to discuss this (he just thinks it is trouble - it is the kind of topic he usually avoids). 

she has sent a letter to the press (one she now claims was a draft not intended for publication). it has caused offence. she has made an apology 'for the anguish caused'. she has had the labour whip removed from her (she is no longer one of their MPs and must sit as an independent) while she  is being investigated for racism. 

there can be little doubt given the text of the letter that they will find her guilty of racism.

her essential crime is one of mistiming (the labour party has accepted criticism of itself as anti-semitic, has apologised and has attempted to move on but diane's statements risk undermining that apology)

but it is also one of honesty - it would not surprise horsemouth if many black people did feel that they are more discriminated against in british social life than jews, irish people, and travelers. (horsemouth has not had the conversations so he can't tell you if this is a well founded view or not and, to be honest, he would probably not raise this in conversation). and yet horsemouth thinks that is what many black people think and frankly that's the way it looks to him (when was the last time you heard about jewish youth being beaten to death by police? or stabbed to death by racists? or deported despite in fact being a british citizen).

(somebody will no doubt now give him an example for each)

it's not that there isn't anti-semitism (there is) and anti-irish and anti-traveler racism (there is). but if horsemouth's we (other white people - where horsemouth would classify himself) are honest about it, it does not limit the life chances of people half as much as being black. the racism against black people, their negative media construction  is pervasive. it is a long bad dream of empire and scientific racism which people struggle to free themselves from.

(here horsemouth is speaking for himself. his brother's kids (raised in the london suburbs) seem excellently free of these bullshit prejudices).

and then there is the history - the holocaust or the atlantic slave trade  or black 47 or the lives lived under the colonial regimes and frankly racist policies in the UK itself.

diane is accused of trying to construct a hierarchy of racism but do people actually believe that all racisms are equal in their institutional and psychological depth and actual historical effects? this is clearly a nonsense. people clearly think one history is more horrific than another, the only real question is which. 

except this is a question that mustn't be asked - but diane (being ill-advised) has asked it. (did no one in her office think to tell her not to send the letter?). 

of all the unproductive fault-lines in politics this is surely the least productive, the most divisive.

and yet the unity that results from this is hollow and tactical

 horsemouth thinks there is no way back from this for her. he was never a fan (ok ok his heart did warm to her when she was caught brown-paper bagging a can of gin and tonic on the train back to dalston after work because this is what tens of thousands of people from hackney do every day). 

that said he is not a fan of the starmerite labour party either - (elect labour? elect labour for what?). for horsemouth it will be a 'hold your nose and vote labour' election (and repent at leisure of their neo-liberal, sub-tory shit after). 

horsemouth sees little chance of creating a fresh party to the left of labour, or even some independents, with appreciable support (the barriers to entry are just too great). neither does he see much hope for a parties founded round ex-labour MPs (like galloway's respect, or a putative corbyn split), nor lutfur rahman style labour breakaways

horsemouth (live from his bedroom) emergency broadcast network

media diary: yesterday two documentaries on radio 4 (well on i-player) and some clips on youtube, some reading of hardt and negri commonwealth.

of the radio 4 documentaries the first is a visitor to the golden valley (up at the dorstone end). in the second the director of the movie about king crimson talks about record collecting, beat-mining and DJing. keb darge has tales to tell (as do malcolm mclaren, mr.scruff, DJ mark 45 king etc.). 

of course things have moved on since even evan eisenberg's the recording angel - the ability to copy records onto another medium at home (the reel-to-reel, the cassette tape, to digitally record it into the computer) make the record something  other. 

indeed the change in habits of listening to music created a demand for vinyl at a time when the CD was supposed to be replacing it, a demand for rare grooves etc. (horsemouth lived through the dancing madness of the late 80ies and early 90ies)

how horsemouth learned to DJ

horsemouth DJed (of course he did) - he DJed drum and bass with alex (dj apparition). he'd done a lot of practicing round graham's (when people did such things) and eventually he got himself a set of record decks and a mixer. he DJed at some of laura oldfield-ford's things (once an accelerating set of 80ies dance music upping the BPMs as he went along), a party at ayesha's, and (probably in a peak  moment) he DJed disco to a room full of italian women. 

how horsemouth learned to write

as a result of not being able to get willie mays autograph as a child (no one has a pencil) paul auster resolves always to have a pencil with him -  thus he becomes a writer (and true his manuscripts are actually hand written). with horsemouth it was when he was volunteering at the anti-nuclear group (in the late 80ies). they had a PC (john's PC) as a result he learned to type (word process) to write reports on how the world should follow the lead of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and de-nuclearise. (and he emailed and such like, used bulletin boards). 

thus horsemouth learned to type (and thus to write). he would read. he would type (badly). he would read what he had written. he would re-write it and drag paragraphs about so that the piece as a whole made better sense.

and this is what he is doing now.  

often he would get too close in his quotation of his sources and be accused of plagiarism or at least excessive reliance on them. for horsemouth there is a magic moment when, having done a lot of reading and making notes, strong sure independent sentences begin to crystallise out of the mixture. as auster notes it is very involving work (and horsemouth is happiest when he is doing it). 

horsemouth is not particularly good on his feet (as they say) - he has had to train himself to get better at presenting - but he does like to write about things, to try and present arguments clearly. he has tried to move more of his tasks in this direction. 

today at 4.30 the mobile phones will detonate.(as the government  tests an emergency broadcast system - presumably in preparation for a nuclear exchange with russia). 

actually horsemouth lies - your mobile phone ringing will trigger within you a post-hypnotic suggestion that you should purchase musicians of bremen recordings. 

'on an apocalyptic tone recently adopted in politics'

'a kind of apocalypticism reigns among the contemporary conceptions of power, with warnings of new imperialisms and new fascisms.  everything is explained by sovereign power and the state of exception...'  hardt and negri, commonwealth.

'I shall speak then of/ in an apocalyptic tone in philosophy.' - jacques derrida, of an apocalyptic tone recently adopted in philosophy.

here hardt and negri write against the then popular conceptions of agamben, hobbes, schmitt (but the section title is taken (and modified) from an essay by derrida - now to find it and read it). horsemouth was very interested in this stuff 3 years ago - he had discovered a university library with literally tons (no that's not literally true, but a lot) of this sch(m)itt.

schmitt was (eventually) a nazi - but more he provided a juridical means by which issues of legality and democracy could be evaded to permit the refounding of the german state (or for the german state to take action in its own defence). 

but then the contemporary apocalypse (the  pandemic) hit and horsemouth watched the entire university close down and then migrate online (it has presumably migrated back to permit it to better attack its workers).

for hardt and negri the state of exception is not of interest - it is a fantasy of fascism  ignoring the way in which capitalism and democracy structure almost all of life on earth and allowing radicals an escape from actual politics into terrorism.  

similarly with the popular accusations of fascism - note that they weaken it into plurals fascisms. for hardt and negri capitalism is producing its own succession and replacement from within itself thank you very much there is no need to revisit its originary foundational moments in sovereignty - that is not where the main story is. 

by accident horsemouth came across this documentary on bbc about the popularity of the term fascism - horsemouth's opinion is that by the time something turns up that is indisputably fascism it will already be too late. 

horsemouth's copy of commonwealth (powerscroft road book-box free) has clearly been up on the shelves a long time - the sun has burned the mustard of the title lettering on the spine  to a pale yellow - but the book has also been rested in a pile face up - the c  and the h of the title on the front cover are similarly burned, the atomic shadow of the smaller book placed on top of it can be seen.  

horsemouth was encouraged to think about this stuff again when he bumped into his editor at mute josie at max's booklaunch. it becomes harder to write about these kinds of topics without access to university libraries and their studious atmosphere. but this was not why horsemouth stopped writing - he stopped writing much earlier. he stopped writing because, while what he had written read well (he thought), he was not satisfied with it. (and tbh they also stopped paying - small sums of money were necessary for horsemouth's psychic economy to render things 'work').

hardt and negri are also tendentious about the position of the poor -'the poor is defined not by lack but by possibility'.

the apocalyptic tone has faded back down (as abu ghraib becomes a footnote of history) but so has the easy boosterism of a globalising capitalism that is lifting us all up towards a new condition together. we have participated in or watched with horror the wild ride of anti-globalisation populist leaders and we are now into a filthy era of claims to boring competence and a retour a normal. 

it is, of course, not over. 

 

'the human condition (using king crimson as a medium)'

last night horsemouth watched a little of this above (from whence the quote above but repunctuated in a horsemouth style). toby amies (the director) also did a number of interesting other projects - a radio 4 documentary on the urge to archive ourselves, a documentary on rare records. 

it's not that horsemouth is a mad keen king crimson fan but he does respect focus, determination and sheer bloody minded modernism. discipline was a big one with him. mark kermode discovered he was good at lip-syncing because a friend did a fan video of thela hun gingeet.from discipline (sadly not shown). 

today a zoom meeting. tuesday (next week) a meeting of the communal endeavour. today it has clouded over. the recycling men have been (hail the bin men). horsemouth is up half an hour earlier than usual - he will try to use this to get in some extra reading on the topics under discussion. 

of course practically anything (if examined) will yield insights into the human condition - except a lecture on the human condition (or a film directly on it). writing something that can yield insights into the human condition is really quite a task. 

horsemouth (vain old mule that he is) is still enjoying the photos of himself playing max's book launch. here he is getting all expressive while playing satan your kingdom must come down. (photo once again by enza but cropped and filtered by horsemouth). 

horsemouth should take the opportunity provided by having played a gig to play more gigs. he's rapidly coming to the conclusion that instead of playing audience participation numbers he should have played some instrumentals instead (but that's not how he felt it in the moment). last night he had a re-listen to the demo tracks up on soundcloud for the next musicians of bremen/ horsemouthfolk outing and (surprise surprise) they sound fairly decent. it's a year since horsemouth and howard recorded these - it would be good to get back up on the horse (as it were). 

 

us dwellers of the earth

well it is a beautiful morning here in the southland. 

a few more photos have emerged from 'the gig'. here we see horsemouth trying to encourage audience participation. (horsemouth now believes that max's audience is unsuited to it and he should have played some instrumentals instead).  anyway look how well colour co-ordinated he is!

photos by max 'crow' reeves.

later we can see the reverse shot of the audience.  horsemouth is back from the world of excitement and activity and into his ordinary everyday. the sunshine is pretty but the house is cold. it looks ie the recycling has made it out of the front door (a housemate has a distressing habit of leaving the recycling by the front door in the mistaken belief that someone will take it outside for him). 

here we see horsemouth holding forth (and perhaps sustaining a fifth). 

-------------------------------

tomorrow a zoom meeting. tuesday (next week) a meeting of the communal endeavour. 

today some walking about (clouding over in afternoon, rain in the evening says the bbc weather).

the one in which horsemouth plays a gig (anxious landscape)

how did horsemouth get to the gig yesterday evening?  he got a train. 

how did he get back? he got the bus (a 26). 

so how was the gig? 

it went well horsemouth thinks. he didn't play very well (but people didn't seem to notice). he sang well enough he thinks. and people said nice things about it all (which is the main thing). 

as you can judge from the photo he was remarkably well colour coordinated with his surroundings. the red pinstripe suit with a red lining (the iron shirt - proof against all state plots to jail your humble mule and in this photo you can't see the moth holes either), the red and orange collared shirt (a garibaldi collar his source informs him), a pair of black leather shoes - the shirt and shoes horsemouth used as a disguise during his visit to the natlib (as a filthy leftist he wasn't sure they'd let him in as a guest but a club member vouched for him). 

horsemouth was feeling nervous (he hasn't played out in at least a year) but apparently it didn't show. 

he didn't play the devil song but he did open with satan your kingdom must come down (and tried to get people to sing along), he didn't play when the faun met alice (to be retitled where the faun met alice) but he did play worldes blisse, he played broadbury down (to go with max's theme of anxious landscape), he played katie cruel (with its woods, mires and briars) and ended up with something's on your mind made famous by  karen dalton (but actually written by dino valenti - horsemouth had a senior moment and couldn't remember his name at the crucial moment, but no harm done). he played the werewolf (and got the audience to howl along). 

he thanks the dude who sang along. (later they had an impromptu beat boxing session outside).

enza took the photo (horsemouth has clipped it to remove extraneous detail). in a comedy moment about 5 seconds later he remembered it was a slide guitar tune.  

horsemouth saw micalef but by a dreadful accident of timing he failed to see elspeth anne or ben edge  (oops sorry people). enza saw them and said elspeth in particular was great (enza loved the shruti box). meanwhile horsemouth was outside chatting with josie, john cunningman, darsavini, anthony, the guy who sang along. he did see adam sherry from a dead forest index (most excellent). 

horsemouth is up a copy of max's diary of a plague time (photos taken during lockdown 2020 inside max's stunningly beautiful flat). 

horsemouth did want to drink more (as usual) but sensible heads prevailed. 

bus. falafel wrap. home to bed. 

george lansbury and the report on the state of the pestilence in naples in the year 1656

good morning! good morning!

it is the day of the gig. horsemouth has already had a little practice. as the afternoon shades into evening he will go to play. 

it is also the anniversary of horsemouth's impersonating george lansbury the leader of the poplar rates rebellion (or at least the publication of the photos of him doing this in costume).. 

when horsemouth was a child (in the valleys of south wales) the local estate was called lansbury park and even the local school was named after him. horsemouth was several times told the tale of the rates rebellion, of how brave and honest people united and stood up against the government scheme to further impoverish the poor. 

this was an example of good solidarity and unity argues horsemouth.  

'I live shut up in my house, yet I know everything, and that is cause for some happiness in our adversity.' - anonymous priest, report on the state of the pestilence in naples in the year 1656, report dated 20th june 1656. 

the argument made is that the spanish authorities deliberately let the plague spread through naples to break the unity and solidarity of the peoples. the kind of unity that had led to the near successful rebellion by masaniello in 1647. (horsemouth's source on all this is gustaw herling account of it written in january 1990)

the argument made more recently by the anti-vaxers is that the plague (covid) wasn't real (or that it wasn't as dangerous as people said) and that it was being exaggerated to break the unity and solidarity of the people and to deliberately impose controls on the people's movement.  

there is a lot of unity and solidarity slooshing around in the uk at the moment (post brexit). but it is probably bad unity and solidarity. horsemouth was interested to watch the panoroma documentary on resistance in oxford to the 15 minute city/ traffic control measures. 

interestingly hackney (one of the seaside towns) has several of the earliest examples of such measures round the de beauvoir estate. these now pass unnoticed. of course on one level these (ULEZes etc.)  are just local taxation schemes, on another level they are a sensible response to the levels of pollutants in the air in cities as a result of our over-reliance on the car (that has come to dominate city streets). 

finally there is the notion that to mitigate the effects of global warming (a separate issue from air pollution) we are all going to have to travel less (which broadly horsemouth supports). of course really and truthfully the best way to deal with global warming is to get rid of the rich and capitalism and to instigate the transition to full communism (but this is just horsemouth's opinion and he sees little chance of it actually happening).

to reiterate this, once again the notion that ULEZes and 15 minute cities are a deliberate attempt to break the unity and solidarity of the people horsemouth doubts.  this is because he doesn't see the unity and solidarity of the people being expressed in a good way he just sees cars and reaction. 

how will horsemouth get to the gig this evening? 

he may get a train. he may get a bus. he may even walk over (this would take him just a bit over an hour). 

 

lost connectives (true copies) / sour grapes

horsemouth (as you know) is very fond of quoting people.

but he's not above improving the quote either through the use of ellipsis (...) to remove clauses, sentences, whole paragraphs that are off-topic or through the use of brackets  (to indicate a modifying thought or an object or an outcome).

horsemouth hopes you will forgive him. his excuse is that these are not reference documents (but tendentious arguments). take herling's criticism of brodsky and his over valuation of readers and reading as if it were a sufficient political program  - 'replacing the state with a library' -  would it not be better rendered as;

    'replacing the state (with a library)'

as his friend enza points out he does this sort of thing rather a lot. 

horsemouth has been reading lost connections  by johann hari (why you're depressed and how to find hope - powerscroft road book-box). johann did have a brilliant career (and now he has regained it). when he was young he won a young journalist competition (and shone brightly) but then he fell foul of the textual fidelity police, he was caught improving quotations from his interviews of the great and the good.  he was then sent for re-education to a derridean close-reading institution. 

his particular sin was the contraction (with or without ellipsis)... to reveal the argument being made better. 

but now he is back and attempting to cure us all of our loss of connection with our fellow humans and thus our depressions and anxieties. powerful friends cluster round on the cover to lend support - elton john and hillary clinton on the front cover, zoe ball, davina mccall, russell brand on the back (ok ok horsemouth is being a bit snobby here - there's also naomi klein and the guardian). he has left matt haig and dr. max pemberton off these lists because he doesn't know who they are. 

this is all sour grapes from horsemouth. mere jealousy. though of course hari's actual experiences of depression, anxiety and medication horsemouth is not envious of.  

today a wander about. maybe a bout of shopping. 

the paragraph where he talked about the songs he was going to play at max's gig (in support of his new book gorst)  has vanished into the ether (popped connection).

ok on with the day.  

'replacing the state with a library' (selected asininities)

it's 1988 and gustaw herling is in a snit. joseph brodsky has got the nobel and is uttering asininities about replacing the state with a library  and how people who read are wonderful. 

'reading is a misleading critereon of man's wisdom, noble-mindedness and honesty'  grumps herling. (he has seen the 20th century. he knows how it all ends). 

horsemouth is watching a fan-video on that hawkwind/ michael moorcock/ new wave SF into cyberpunk thing. there's a nice appreciation of pamela zoline's heat death of the universe. there's a new edition of hawkbinge out to (but it is on an album horsemouth never got around to buying having parted company with hawkwind at the time of chronicle of the black sword). 

yesterday horsemouth finished up at the cloud forest and returned to the main abode. there (tired) he rested until howard came round (with a pizza). they then proceeded to eat pizza and drink beer for the afternoon. they got the guitars out and tried out a few things. it was a bright sunny day and they had the window open. later horsemouth walked howard down to the tube. 

horsemouth has lent howard his copy of from the daguerrotype to the selfie. he seemed pleased by it.

horsemouth found it on a garden wall. it had been rained on and needed to dry out.

the debate is whether they need gigs to encourage them to rehearse or if they need to rehearse (and get good) so they can go and play gigs.  

horsemouth (in truth) feels little enthusiasm for the new material. it is good. he likes it. he thinks it is better represented by howard in singer-songwriter mode, he sees no room in it for himself. the material from volume four has already been and gone and musicians  lost the opportunity to work out a way to play it live because of the pandemic. 

there's a gig tuesday evening. max is having a book launch for his new book gorst. the publicity is already out there and has been shared by various people (thank you). 

horsemouth is unsure what he will play, howard is unsure if he will even be able to turn up. there are (in any event) other (most excellent) acts so horsemouth urges you to come on down. 

today horsemouth probably goes to rehearse with pete. it's a greyish morning so far and a bit murky (ok no the sun is beginning to cut through). other than that he doesn't know. 

 

empty headed

horsemouth is back with you (from a zoom meeting in the day and from his brother's for dinner last night). he's feeling a bit empty headed. he's hoping this will clear he has a rehearsal with howard later this afternoon probably. 

in a bit he will have the final wash and brush up of the cloud forest (and head back through the rain). 

the zoom meeting went better than the last time (people were more focused and more positive, less inclined to catastrophise and imagine the government was out to get them). that said the lead bods are keen on a delay to permit them to get all the documentation in place. 

round at his brothers - the youngest is up in leeds, the eldest is back for a bit to revise for his exams (and after that a job in an energy consultancy). there was news (news horsemouth had missed because of his crap phone). horsemouth will get the news sunday he guesses. the working from home/ going into the office thing is still a thing. they started with some jazz then some 80ies electro-pop and finally some psych

like he says he's a bit empty headed (can and a half of beer). 

'if there were no darkness man would not sense his own corruption...'

this is a quote from pascal (at least according to gustaw herling). it continues with a counter-balancing  'if there was no light...' .

horsemouth has truncated it, liking the blake-ish proverbs of hell feel about it.

also from herling there's an elias canetti quote horsemouth lifted, an appreciation of filippo maria the duke of milan and last of the viscontis. 

'he acted as if he had to safeguard his secrets even from himself.' 

horsemouth has been in this state a number of times (while trying to balance diverging expectations upon himself). it has nearly got him into a lot of trouble. 

yesterday in the morning horsemouth wandered down to oxfam books (st.james' street) - someone there has clearly been on the internet and priced their selection of michel foucault books accordingly (online they would sell for that price, hidden in walthamstow they will not) , there's a tanglewood discovery acoustic-electric for 50 squid (needs restringing). it's in the window so horsemouth can't get closer to tell you anything more about it - it kind of looks like this. 

horsemouth had one good musical idea yesterday - it was to work up an as if 'simultaneous translation' of un valse melodie (a song about the difficulty of writing lyrics and pity the poor poet) perhaps horsemouth could write some lyrics along the lines of pity the poor translator.. 

later he went walking in the woods wandered back out along the ring road to south woodford and tried a few more charity shops - the only thing that tempted him  was a book on the history of washington dc (maybe another time). 

finally his anxiety drove him out of doors and down to the hollow ponds. horsemouth tends to walk to assuage his anxiety (and to help gather his thoughts). he is a pacer (this upsets the cats because they think he's going into the kitchen to get them more food. beset by importuning cats horsemouth gets more anxious.).  

----------------------------------------

what was horsemouth feeling anxious about? well communal endeavour stuff really.

horsemouth has been loudly asserting that the government's insulation deadline for social housing (get your social housing up to EPC C deadline is 'in law'). someone has 'is it?'ed him causing him some doubt and perplexity.

here goes (the state of horsemouth's researches so far)

at COP 22 alok sharma gets on the mic and busts some stirring lyrics about net zero by 2050 (net zero carbon emissions from the UK economy by 2050). this is (the climate scientists tell us) too late anyway. and no-one believes him really anyway. 

this net zero target is made legally binding by the climate change act of 2008 and in particular by the 2050 target amendment order of 2019.

to meet this target the government set out the clean growth strategy with a plan to consult both private rented sectors and the social housing sector. for the private rented sector the aim is to pass a law in 2025 requiring all new lets to have an EPC certificate of C at least by 2028. for the social housing sector no new legislation is required because the sector is already regulated by the government (examples of this regulation include limits on maximum permitted rent rises, requirements to submit audited accounts to the regulators and to fill in various other returns). 

it all comes down to your sources of law - very little law actually derives from acts of parliament, much is case law and much is government orders. 

so it all comes down (ultimately) to the government announcement of this in december 2022. 

horsemouth curses himself for a fool for worrying about this stuff. he has a meeting to prepare for on social housing decarbonisation and stuff he should be reading for that. 

------------------------------

(meanwhile) private landlords and tory MPs (that set of sets) made anxious by the likely costs of improving their properties up to EPC C standard have remembered that the requirement to get EPC certificates (housing act 2004) derives from EU law. they are now arguing there should be a british certificate for this (with a union jack on it and a blue cover) in an attempt to force all these dates back. (climate crisis be damned). 

gove has said it's not a hill he fancies dying on so the EPC certificate (the basis of all of this) is probably toast. 

as are we all if this goes on.

e' una domenica sera di novembre

'late one evening early last december, soon after the earthquake...'  - gustaw herling, may 1981 

gustaw has been invited by one of his military friends to witness the relief operation by the italian military.  in lucarna and irpinia  - the epicentre was eboli (he says) at the gateway to the region - this was relatively untouched, but the village of tora alta has been entirely destroyed. the few standing structures were to be demolished and the ground sown with lime to dissolve the corpses that can not be safely dug out for fear of further collapses.

'handwritten leaflets appeared here and there discussing un evento escatologico... the precise details were to be found in the bible, and it had to be 'prepared for with unceasing prayer'. the area was swarming with magicians, palmists, fortune-tellers, and preachers...the shepherds of sottomonte fled with their sheep to the snow-covered heights, straight into a trap they took for a promise of salvation. 'the whole world won't perish... god would not allow it'.'

after experiencing the earthquake in naples gustaw had taken to staying up all night, he was not sleeping, spending his nights sitting up reading crime and punishment. the opportunity to go and see instead was a relief. they drive up into the mountains largely in silence 'people do not realize how insidiously, in certain circumstances, they can be infected by the rhetorical.' 

and yet he is a writer. this is (often) precisely his job. 

when he gets there he promptly comes down with a fever. he is soon sent home. he is no longer a young man. he sees the ruins. the sees the villagers return to stare at the ruins of their town.

his military friend finds himself attempting to teach the dead-eyed village children to keep them from going back to look - he reads them fables and fairy stories, in a corner they reconstruct a nativity scene with the damaged and dusty materials that come to hand. 

it is the notion that 'the whole world won't perish... god would not allow it'  that gustaw criticizes.

'sometimes the paranoid really do have enemies' ( reconstructing the lives of people not seen as valuable)

bitching on the blues (scholar) scene. the younger generation versus 'the blues mafia'. 

america eats its young (but it also eats its scholars and musicians too). 

mack mccormick's 'lost' robert johnson biography (biography of a phantom) just got published after a delay of 50 years. the author and researcher of this book lived a lot of his life in poverty and with bipolar disease. 

'john jeremiah sullivan and caitlin love wormed their way into the home of an elderly invalid under the guise of ‘helping him', then proceeded to rifle through his files and help themselves to his research, his photographs and his personal possessions. there is no disputing these facts because sullivan admitted as much in his own article.' - mack mccormick's daughter.

the problem is one of reconstructing the lives of people who were not seen as valuable from a time when people were pretty much undocumented anyway.  one day the jobs just dry up, even recently henry grimes, the  jazz bassist, pawns his bass, vanishes for 30 years and is assumed to be dead. robert johnson, geeshie wiley (see this is already a nickname), elvie thomas they are recorded, they take their payment, they have live  'careers', eventually their careers are over and they drop back into the work available to black people in the economy of 40s, 50s america. son house was a preacher for a while, and then he became a chef.

it is a battle to ensure anything survives from this wreck of poverty, marginalisation and racism. 

mack's archive has been acquired by smithsonian folkways (that at least is good). 

the sullivan of itself article is a marvelous piece of work.

the older blues scholars are seen as being in the way and selfishly holding on to vital material - they stand accused of loving the music for the wrong reasons, of not understanding modern times. and yet the material is still here because they held on to it. something of that ambivalent attitude to the earlier blues scholars makes its way into sullivan's account of john fahey in his article.

the guardian is (bravely) attempting to dig its way out of the fact that it was founded on the profits of the  cotton mills (that required the commodity grown in the united states by enslaved people - cotton). it has run a piece on the georgia islanders - where geeshie wiley's nickname comes from (probably). 

now the georgia islands are threatened by gentrification and climate change.

yesterday horsemouth went to a zoom meeting - to ensure a good connection he traveled. he may have to do the same this evening (and arrange something for friday). he got the train to the homestead and then walked to the office from there. after the meeting he bravely set off to walk back to the cloud forest (but about half way there he gave up and got the bus). 

today a bright beautiful morning horsemouth will wander down the hill in search of second hand books. 

horsemouth marooned on bear island

yesterday so here we have horsemouth up at the hollow ponds (where he adjourned with howard during howard's visit). shortly after this the skies opened and it chucked it down. geese hissed at each other and indulged in various territorial behaviours.

horsemouth fed howard. then they adjourned for a walk (but it chucked it down so they returned home sharpish). then  they polished off 3 bottles of beer between them. then when howard had nearly escaped at the train station horsemouth proposed an additional pint (which they then agreed could be two). 

the pub was noisy (but pleasant enough). they tried hiding out in the garden but it was still too cold to get comfortable out there.

in the evening horsemouth watched bear isand by alistair maclean - richard widmark, donald sutherland, vanessa redgrave battle evil nazi gold-diggers on a frozen island (the ostensible reason for their visit, to investigate climate change, is soon forgotten. perhaps the world could have been saved earlier if they had been left to continue their researches in peace).

this morning  (horsemouth can't tell what sort of day it is yet - but it looks very hopeful) and (importantly) he has his coffee. er. which he has finished already (ok no he has managed some extension with it). . 

today a meeting on zoom (horsemouth will probably try and go into the office to do it.(first the lawyers and then the consortium as a whole). 

 

'the conflict is over...'

horsemouth didn't know. RIP the mighty emahoy tsegué-maryam guèbrou  (24th march)

horsemouth has a limited range of piano references - once again it is debussy that he turns to, or perhaps a less angular alice coltrane. 

this morning is rainy and grey (horsemouth has the lights on) and (importantly) he has his coffee. (there he's just topped it up with some hot water). howard had a plan involving brick lane but horsemouth is doubtful. 

he has fed the cats.

yesterday he spent most of the day in the sunshine  in the garden reading (the guardian weekly). magpies raided the birdfeeder (a robin is dong so now). it was so warm he had his top off at one point. it was good to catch up with politics (and with culture), he reads much more omnivorously from an actual physical newspaper than he does from a screen. in the morning he wandered down the hill into 'town' and then back again. 

later in the afternoon he went for a wander up to the allotment (as far as he can see nothing is in yet so nothing needs doing).  horsemouth likes being there. he likes seeing humans doing things (clever little monkeys). there is a grid structure to the allotments and this enables everybody to do their own thing. 

in the evening he lay down and watched his usual mix of prepper, slow living, and thrifting vids on youtube. he finished off with a tour round the homeless encampments of california 'what is this? art?' remarks the cameraman as he wanders round a deserted but customised derelict house. the dome tent is the thing that makes it all possible. dome tents. camper vans. with the camper vans people are often working - it is just that even this means they can't afford a home. 

he then went up to bed and read a little of the gustaw herling. horsemouth is up to 1979 - there are some thoughts on british and polish anti-semitism (following on from orwell), on nietzsche in turin (he liked it there, but it could not save him). herling is in naples. he waits for the russian intelligensia to die and he waits for earthquakes. 

oop little pied woodpecker at the bird feeder. 

ok on with the day. 

the hollow ponds (clockwise in the golden light)

horsemouth is up in the cloud forest. he has read the instructions about feeding the cats.  he messaged the neighbour who wanted to borrow the table and somehow they got it over there (now they only face the problem of getting it back). 

... and the cats have been fed (primary duty).

yesterday horsemouth went for a wander over to the hollow ponds (the result of some municipal swimming pond building program now used for floating ducks on). the sun shone and horsemouth walked round the lake clockwise in the golden light. 

later he wandered over the jacqueline and minty's in honour of jacqueline's birthday - he took a guitar, there was lisa and morven, two spanish people, jacqueline's brother from meath, maybe others at other times. there may be film of them playing. horsemouth was not in particularly good voice. he thinks they did power in the blood, moondance, er. an attempt at superstition. he thinks they ended with rat trap..

horsemouth had a good time. he hopes everyone enjoyed themselves. 

and then back via the nighttime railway and so to bed. 

he has found a clip of gwennifer raymond discussing guitar playing (and very good it is too). she gives a good description of what you are trying to achieve when you write an instrumental piece and how they are composed. 

today horsemouth will need to get out and wander about (otherwise the cats will importune him to death). 

that 'it is because things are boring that horsemouth can keep a diary'

'if you are seeing this it it because yourself in the future is trying to get in touch with you.' - optical hallucination of a youtube post (probably retirement and pensions clickbait).

'the skeleton of an unintended novel about himself' - herling on stendahl's egotism.(further discussion of the honesty of diaries and journals)

it is because things are boring that horsemouth can keep a diary

for horsemouth to be sure that this were not true horsemouth would need things not to be boring (which would make him anxious). he could also try not keeping a diary (and see if that made things less boring). to be fair he did keep the diary through a period of pestilence. (and meanwhile various wars and famines have occurred (but not locally)).

and if anything were to occur horsemouth probably wouldn't tell you.

today horsemouth goes cat sitting. later he also goes to a friend's birthday party (and then he has to get back to where he is cat-sitting. oh the busy social whirl). it looks to horsemouth that one of his wisdom teeth is on the move and this may be the source of his problems rather than his existing teeth.

the cat-sitting will enable him to do various visits (his brother, rust maybe) and trawl some second hand bookshops for books (the sally army etc.)   

we have made it to saturday. tuesday a lawyers meeting by zoom. wednesday a meeting of the communal endeavour by zoom. tuesday the week after a gig at max's booklaunch. interspersed, various events of the paris commune 1871 (lasting out to may/ early june). 

yesterday horsemouth went to play with pete - it is all coming together nicely. and then they went for a walk round the neighbourhood in the sunshine. pete fed him (baked potato) and later he cooked some pasta for himself. 

the leaves are out on the tree in the front garden. 

on 'the sterility of diaries and memoirs...' (the long good friday)

'the sterility of diaries and memoirs comes from a mania for bookkeeping.' 

- gustaw herling, 7th may 1973, maisons-lafitte.  

horsemouth can't tell you how delighted he was to find this quote (it shows that he has the soul of a bookkeeper). he could hardly sleep such was his excitement to get up this morning and type it in for you. 

horsemouth is now up early enough for the sun to have that gorgeous golden glow. 

gustaw discusses diaries (and collections of franz kafka's letters to felice bauer(or to milena jesenka). he tries to explain why he does not like cesare pavese's diary il mestiere di vivere (the business of life) 

'in general I do not like diaries that are too personal. they almost always force the author to play the game in such a way that the future reader gradually, step by step, gets the upper hand. does this make me look all right? and this?... there is a part of man, as it should be, which no one, except for god, has the right to enter. paradoxically a good diary, or in any case one that is worth reading, is one in which the author only rarely pokes his antennae out of the shell- and then draws back at once...' 

in august 1950 pavese had committed suicide. herling finds this gesture stronger and better composed even than his diary. 

'... I assign diaries special status on the periphery of literature... this is not the case with pavese. his diary is literary in the most dangerous sense of the word: in the sense that he is bound to his 'persona', which is put on public view, and his life is dominated by literature...' 

horsemouth (the pseudonym) tries not to tell you too much about himself in his diary. his is a super-hero identity, a fake 'persona', half animal half human (and therefore magical).  diana athill wants 'honesty' from diaries and journals 'or what's the point'.  horsemouth is not very honest. he tries to let you now what is going on with him (while only providing ephemeral detail). 

he hopes that his very dishonesty is entertaining and instructive. 

--------------------------------

it is the long good friday - both the british gangster film featuring the IRA and the long peace of the good friday agreement now a moveable feast worked into the fabric of the year, delayed to a weekend, bookended (in england) by bank holidays.

the good friday agreement is (of course) a diplomatic bodge, a deferring  of all the important foundational questions. some tories and some unionists (indeed some republicans) would like to rip it up on that basis but the peace beats the war. this abrogation of sovereignty is already agreed to, it is baked in, it cannot be rescinded it can only be frustrated. 

anyway none of it is strictly horsemouth's business (so he will now shut up). 

the herling goes well. horsemouth also did a little background reading on marxist attitudes to the 1871 commune (er. they're for it). later today some more music.  

the journal written in the morning

'the corpse was placed in a zinc casket tagged "fresh oysters"'

so gustaw herling reports of the death and funeral of chekhov in his the journal written at night (excerpts of which are translated and  published as volcano and miracle in honour of gustaw's new home in naples). chekhov was a  doctor he was used to base materiality. the body of a general arrived at the moscow station at the same time - some of chekhov's mourners followed it to the cemetery by mistake. 

horsemouth is telling you this because he read it first thing while he was waiting for his netbook to boot up

horsemouth's is a journal written in the morning (as he is doing now). sometimes (in the evening) he will get bored and type a little into a text file called blackscreen, but mostly you get him as he is now, when the day has possibilities, when he has stuff to do. 

alternatively horsemouth will consult his physical diary (now where is that pesky book? 2023 diary: a day a page. ah. it was there, on the chair.) when the diary is done it will join the others in a box up on the shelves (assuming there is enough room left in it which thinking about it now horsemouth tends to doubtt). 

'at that time he had no literary ambition, but just an instinctive delight in noting everything down, in recording everything, even his dreams. it was the war... which had changed him, by awaking in him the idea that he might die without having achieved anything... only then had he set to work.' 

horsemouth has noted down alphonse daudet's confession to edmond de goncourt (25/01/1885). his motivation is similar to the de goncourt brothers, jules and edmond, to dig himself out of anonymity. 

horsemouth has finished his coffee. the herling (book) is small enough to go in a pocket or a bag. it has been sitting around unread for a long time up on the shelves with the other poles and russians. it is the kind of book that calls for other books - some dostoyevsky, that chekhov etc.  

it's a greyish and dark day at some point horsemouth will go for a wander (to stretch his legs and blow away the cobwebs). he will check the weather forecast (it does look like rain). he will check his emails to see if there is anything urgent. this evening a david webb/ webb david broadcast from new river studios. 

soon enough the weekend/ easter/ a holiday in the cloud forest and a visit to the second hand bookshops of walthamstow. 

yesterday afternoon (in the absence of a plan)

yesterday  afternoon horsemouth went to meet howard down by the bike shop. it is half term. howard was initially  proposing an art gallery, horsemouth was (as usual) proposing alcohol.  

it is now the day after. horsemouth is feeling depressed, slightly anxious and a little paranoid. and the sun has gone in.

now yesterday wasn't warm but it was sunny. spring had sprung and people were up and out and wandering about. horsemouth and howard were meeting fairly late on in the day so it had had a bit of a chance to warm up.

while horsemouth killed time waiting for howard in london fields. little jo walked passed and they wandered for a bit to the top of broadway market. horsemouth then got the text(S) from howard and dashed back to opposite the bike shop. thence they made it rapidly to pub on the park. initially they were outside (soon they were inside). 

in the absence of a plan (in particular an amount of beer at which horsemouth would feel he had had enough) they drank. eventually horsemouth was persuaded of the need to finish and he wandered off in the direction of home. when his bank statement for the month comes he will be able to assess the damage. 

by and large horsemouth is a happy drunk and no trouble. he must however remember that just because he (temporarily) loves the world it is not obliged to love him back. horsemouth thinks that he has always had a slight problem with alcohol - it frees him from his shyness and anxiety but he doesn't really know when to stop and tends to overdo it when the opportunity presents itself. 

ok horsemouth is starting to feel better as he converts it into text. he is starting to see that if he plans it then social activities are less inclined to spiral out of control.

today he doesn't know what he is up to. he has been for a walk (dandelions, a blue tit). he will carry on reading. 

arguably better sequencing - 'fucking birds'

'

'I find that I am obsessed with the idea of continuing after my death, of outliving myself, of leaving behind pictures of my house and my person. but what is the use.' (edmond de gocourt, 7th july 1883)

howard has been busy (over at musicians of bremen dot bandcamp dot thingy) rejigging and refreshing musicians of bremen's offer to you.

sandstorm has been moved from off the album volume four and onto the confiding in the evening star ep. the humming has been moved in in its place. am I born to die? has been moved further down the batting order to place amarach and wonky side by side - arguably better sequencing - 'fucking birds'). 

please let us know what you think of the changes. 

the humming ep remains as it is.

horsemouth is very proud of the humming - horsemouth and howard are indebted to the commons project people at the tate gallery, especially anna and hannah catherine jones for the session they put together, a group of people humming in unison. the trumpet leaked in from a . nearby exhibit (fortunately it was in time). horsemouth is pleased that it has made it onto the album. 

this afternoon 

horsemouth goes to meet howard down by the bike shop. it is half term. howard is proposing an art gallery, horsemouth is proposing alcohol. 

the pages from the goncourt journals goes well. in the early years jules relishes the hidden miseries of the lives of the authors (and writes amusingly about it all) but edmond is made of kinder stuff, he attempts to repeat his brother's witty malice but fails, coming over as either death obsessed or merely malicious. 

horsemouth has been watching a lot of the diana athill on youtube (she really is a very sensible old stick). she is a fan of boswell and chekhov, of personalities that leak through the page. she is less bothered by stories. she discovers that she can write herself. at first she thinks she can write only for therapeutic reasons, later she has a phase where she discovers she can write for fun. horsemouth is keeping an eye out for her other works. 

elsewhere on youtube horsemouth has been keeping an eye on retirement advisors, slow living advocates, resellers, people documenting their lives as they are pushed to the margins of production. 

helpful reseller  thrift a life (horsemouth's go to vlogger, despite the unfortunate incident with the DIJ t-shirt) is selling up his stock and going on the road to live more cheaply  and get well. cottage fairy seems to have it all well sorted - she will continue to wander round the farm dressed in period frocks, 

'a scrupulous study of reality (in prose that speaks the language of poetry)'

so edmond described the work of the goncourt brothers. (25/01/1876 - repunctuated in a horsemouth style)

good morning! (greyish morning). oops no. there's a strong ray of golden sunshine. 

live from monday morning (again) in the seaside towns. spring is springing. horsemouth is looking at leaves on his lime tree (the catkins are long gone). 

it is electricity and gas money day. everybody in the house has their 100.pounds (from the government so far) banked. no one has yet thought to use it to skip a payment (which is good). as far as horsemouth understands it the government support scheme has not been extended for a couple of months (and hereafter it becomes more 'targeted' support through the  benefits system). 

yesterday went somewhat unremarked in the uk 

it was 25 years since the end of 'the troubles' in northern ireland by the good friday agreement. the troubles was ended in an extraordinary derridian move where the notion of sovereignty was stretched by cross border bodies and political programmes (on both sides) were effectively deferred to open up the possibility of peace. promises were made that were never expected to be fulfilled and everything was affirmed and then placed in suspension. 

and bingo peace arrived and democracy returned to the land (currently democracy is stalled once again but that may not be the major problem that people claim it is).  

ultimately this satisfies no-one . there must be a stage beyond it (and yet there cannot be). northern ireland cannot be fully re-integrated back into the uk (which it has never left) nor can it be fully re-integrated into the south (without seriously pissing off a large minority of the population). a center ground has grown, people who just want the 'benefits' of capitalism and democracy (as far as that can be allowed to occur without de-stabilising the whole magic spell). 

there's a lot to be said for just fucking off politics and letting the 'sting' come out of things.

from the side of the british estabishment there is an dislike of the  agreement (seeing it as a legacy from the EU and the blair years) and and a historical amnesia. the history of attempts to obtain 'home rule' a parliament for the whole of ireland (the island of ireland) is most instructive -  at one point (prior to world war I) the british were offering it. 

on this day in the paris commune the national guard march on versailles (it happens about 1hr 30 mins into peter watkins la commune). they are too late. that moment is gone. they will be defeated and the paris commune will fall. .

'I first met franz stragl on the morning of friday, april 2nd, 1971...' gitta sereny interviews nazi extermination camp commander franz stragel in jail. she wants to go deep. to find out who he was. who he is. how he could have done what he had done.

the sound of gunfire , hari krishna in new york, and that the years are not created equal

hari krishna in new york - jonas mekas, allen ginsberg, barbara rubin

from C4's midnight underground (1993 -1996) a late-night program devoted to avant garde film that horsemouth wasn't previously aware of. there are a number of clips collected here.. horsemouth actually owned a telly at some point in this era (he even had a VHS recorder).

on this day in 1871 in paris 'the sound of gunfire, abut ten o'clock, in the direction of courbevoie thank god civil war has broken out' - the situation of dual-power ends, the defeat of the communards begins, goncourt rejoices. 

' I am filled with a jubilation which I savour at length.' 

courbevoie is just out passed where la defence is now in the north west of the city, it is where the road curves away to the north (as the name suggests - nothing to do with crows as horsemouth first thought)  to get over the hills that surround paris. 

yesterday was cost of living day when the cost of living usually increases because the institutions increase their charges for the new financial year (oops. horsemouth has forgotten to turn over the calendar). it is best compared to fat cat day (usually round about the 4th or 5th of january) when your average member of the 1% has earned what the average worker (bottom 50%) will earn in a year. (it is worthwhile pointing out that the 1% is ot homogenous but very widely distributed - sir keir is a one percenter as is rishi sunak. 

ok horsemouth has just swapped over the page on the countryfile calendar - 3 fox cubs (horsemouth's parents will not be best pleased, the local fox has just slaughtered most of their chickens (they will probably regard it as the evil work of chris packham). 

there are plenty of foxes local to horsemouth. hardly a day goes by with out him seeing at least one (if he were up earlier or about later he would see more). they have become urban scavengers (and thus their survival is ensured).  

last night he watched two youtube videos on retirement. 

the first one 5 reasons to do retirement now (time and health really, the years are not created equal, when you are old old you will be able to do less, best to get the things you want to do in early). the second one retirement is dead - the way government is changing healthcare and pension rights, plus economic turbulence has undermined the ability of a retiree to plan ahead.

horsemouth is safe (or so he thinks ladies and gentlemen) because horsemouth does not mind being poor. he will not know until he sees how his (limited) savings are doing for the year how much the market volatility will have affected him. if he has to go and get a job then (fucksake) that's what it is. 

next week a zoom meeting (that will have to be re-arranged from good friday). howard is on half-term. the week after horsemouth is on holiday in the cloud forest (more zoom meetings). thereafter max's booklaunch (musicians of bremen will play) and the AGM for the communal endeavour. thereafter we will be in may (and thence june and the solstice).

meanwhile the tory MPs and landlords have been out attempting to move the EPC (energy performance certificate) goalposts   fearing that landlords will sell up if they have to insulate their homes to a decent standard. 

books, films, gigs, events march 2023 (slightly late this time)

books (+blogs + webpages)

- quarantine (whitehouse and farquarson)

- in the days of rain (exclusive brethren memoir - rebecca stott)

- blue nights (joan didion)

- somewhere near the end (diana athill)

- on connection (kae tempest)

- pages from the goncourt journal (edmond and jules de goncourt)

- book on hokusai (edmond de goncourt)

- the hundred years old man (jonas jonasson)

- ada or ardor a family chronicle (vladimir nabokov) started

-  'from the daguerreotype to 'the selfie' a catalogue from a show at the ICPNA in lima (miraflores) from 2016

- if the revolution had been televised (roxanne panchasi)

films 

(+ tv programmes + youtube clips + radio shows + podcasts etc.)

- the prisoner

- strike (career of evil)

- the case of charles dexter ward/ the shadow over innsmouth/ the whisperer in the dark. (lovecraft themed podcast)

- autopsy (giallo - armando crispino 1974)

- a television history of ireland (david kee) and something similar (but more modern) by feargal keane

- detectorists

- la commune (peter wilkins 2000)

- the universal clock - the resistance of peter watkins, (geoff bowie)

-  ian christie documentary on the new babylon (1929 russian silent film about the 1871 paris commune directed by grigori kozintsev and leonid trauberg. 

- interviews with hannah arendt and people who knew her

- some clips from the work of jonas mekas and hollis frampton

- dr. alexandra stein podcast on cults

- 'rapture' video (with debbie harry and blondie)

- hawkbinge on live chronicles

gigs

none

events

howard visits, horsemouth visits howard, visit to enza. SHDF decision announced. spring equinox (we enter the bright half of the year). death of MC fats. anniversary of the death of hollis frampton. begin celebration of the 72 days of the paris commune.

'civil war with starvation and bombardment, is that what tomorrow holds in store for us?'

good morning (a grey morning but nonetheless).

horsemouth types this sat up in bed with a trusty cup of coffee by his side. 

last nigth horsemouth watched a little of two documentaries about jimi hendrix and read the goncourt journals. we are up to 1870, jules has just died and edmond is going on alone (initially just to catalogue his brother's death) but then the franco-prussian war happens, the first rising of the workers in paris and the siege.

'civil war with starvation and bombardment, is that what tomorrow holds in store for us?' (31/10/1870)

on new years eve  edmond visits the butchers (he is rich he can still afford meat), he looks at the butchered bits of the animals from the zoo on offer.(trunk of elephant etc.). he comes away with two larks. 

horsemouth has read his way back to the commune - from may 21st there are daily reports as it falls and bloody week opens. de goncourt (being a noble and a reactionary) is delighted by this

the coffee is nearly gone and is growing tepid. 

it is gas and electric time again in homestead

prices have essentially doubled (per kwh of energy, per day for the standing charge) and while they have started to come down again (and the power company have started to offer fixed rate deals again) they have a long way to go. horsemouth and co are using a lot less (and paying quite a bit more). on the plus side they still have the government money in reserve. 

yesterday a meeting of the decarbonisation consortium 

(the first one in a while. the first one since the bid was actually won).

there's a wide range of confidences and preparedness-es in the group. the government delay (plus the break in the meetings) has spooked the horses. a lot more hand holding  may need to be done to keep everybody onboard (to mix metaphors).

'delays are possibly not the end of the world.'

horsemouth expects there to be delays, horsemouth expects not to get all the money out of the government, he expects that we won't get all the works we want done (and then again the members in particular houses may not want all the works done).