'when they didn't take pictures'

'I wonder how people used to remember when they didn't take pictures...' - chris marker (as quoted at the start of robert kramer's point of departure). 

howard has been to visit the moki cherry exhibit at the ICA. (myk also horsemouth believes). yes there are pictures (certainly from howard's visit). horsemouth is vicariously living off them.  

when they didn't take pictures? that is not so long ago. mobile phones it is only with their arrival that everything being filmed and recorded begins to happen. 

“before, you had people gentrifying neighbourhoods, now, with remote working, you can gentrify countries.” -  digital nomad working remotely in portugal

that said, look at the photo the observer chooses to illustrate the article with, it is beer o'clock at sunset on a terrace  in lisbon. it is the golden hour again. the world looks perfect.

someone has broken up the years since 2010 into nostalgia (for which horsemouth reads 'fallout of the 2008 financial crisis and austerity'), , 2016 (aka brexit) and plague (for which horsemouth reads 'plague').  'are we traumatised or what?' asks justagirl on twitter.

(p.s. covid is on the rise in the west country as people jam themselves down there, it is not 'over')

anyway horsemouth therefore goes to read the history of the last 15 years (and makes prognostication of the next 15 years) as,

austerity - brexit - plague - (climate crisis)

on this day in 1914 kafka is writing fragments.  

in 1870 kilvert is still on holiday in cornwall 'this morning we met two girls smartly dressed and driving cows to market with parasols up.' 

in 1763 boswell and johnson 'took a boat and sailed down the silver thames... we landed at the old swan and walked to billingsgate, where we took oars and moved smoothly along the river. we were entertained with the immense number and variety of ships that were lying at anchor. it was a pleasant day and when we got clear out into the country, we were charmed with the beautiful fields on each side of the river... when we got to greenwich... we walked about and had a good dinner.' 

this is how people remembered things when they didn't take pictures.

the coetzee (summertime) is going well. 'john coetzee' (our fictional character) has entered the university system - he will eventually become an academic and poet sufficiently noted to have researchers investigating his life after his death.  he (john coetzee) has achieved some of the immortality he was looking for (sadly the women in his life are not going to have much positive to say about him). 

we move towards lammas day. it's a bright sunshine-y morning, after yesterday's debacle of off/on rain he's unprepared to take a bet on the weather (it predicts rain this afternoon and over tonight).