'I am very strongly affected by diaries and archives and 'laboratories' of every kind. they're a wonderful catalyst.' - andrey tarkovsky, time within time: the diaries, 18th february 1971.
tarkovsky has been reading dostoyevsky's notebooks (there's a plan to make a movie). they were sold him by a bookdealer called the hippopotamus. he begins his own notebook (on 30th april 1970) with the following quote (beneath his name, the title of the book in its russian edition 'martytology' and the date. a facsimile of the title page can be found in time within time, there is something in seeing the manuscript, something hand-written);
'when you are bored, sitting all day long in front of your ink bottle, aimlessly jotting down the odds and ends that come into your head - you can find that what you have written is enough to drive you mad.' - kenko-khosi, notes to relieve tedium, 14thC.
steffen basho-junghans left the world on this day in 2022. steffen was east german. he makes the point in an interview video that there was much less 'culture' from the west available and people had to go out and find it. similarly people had to know how to fix their own cars and make their own entertainment (the service could not just be purchased). horsemouth has had friends make similar statements.
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horsemouth will now re-post and re-edit his blogpost from 31st december 2022.
(where he has changed the text he has underlined it).
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horsemouth has had an even more moderate year than last year in terms of cultural production.
he played only one gig last year, at max's book launch way back in april. thanks to max for putting him on and enza for taking photographs.
horsemouth did no filming or recording in 2023 (some recordings from 2022 languish unfinished on soundcloud). horsemouth played some guitar with pete and with catastro/FILLE (but no gigs were played or sessions recorded). he bought no new musical instruments. he did pick up a few spare guitar cases though.
horsemouth was involved in no golden glow mixes in 2023 (they may not all be vanishing due to a change in mixcloud policy as howard and horsemouth at first thought but there will be no new ones).
he thanks howard, enza, catastro/FILLE for joining him in his creative endeavours and all who have read, watched, listened to him, or liked or commented on the things he has produced (thank you people, horsemouth is very grateful).
2023 was his second full year of retirement. (following on from his redundancy nearly two and a half years ago).
for yet another year he didn’t manage a foreign holiday (in 2022 he hoped to manage one in 2023, but no such luck). since the diagnosis and subsequent death of his father he has spent a lot of time at his folks (which has been good mostly, though not without its frustrations).
his mum almost entirely does the cooking. he continues to be a lazy, morally compromised, lacto-vegetarian.
he kept on writing this blog (and scribbling in his physical diary).
he read a fair bit (though not with the concentrated effort that he has managed in previous years). he watched a lot of clips on youtube. he didn't listen to much music (he did not get around to replacing his amplifier). he listened to webb david's techno-dub show on new river radio, and the music of robert lawson. he gave up waiting for the hawkbinge podcasts to come out. he watched a lot of thrift a life (even though he was wearing a DIJ t-shirt one time), outlaw bookseller, spain speaks and novara media.
he did a fair amount of walking (sometimes with enza, TG, ayesha, or minty, more recently on his own).
in 2023 the decarbonisation of social housing has become quite a thing. his efforts have not been crowned with glory (so it is back to the grind with it next year).
horsemouth is still one of those economically inactive over 50 retirees destroying the economy you have been warned about.
he has spent his way through the redundancy cheque and the tax-free cash sum bit of his pension. he is living (just) on his savings and on his small works pension. he is spending hardly any money at all (except for rent). he will have to check exactly how much he has left.
he bought far fewer second hand books and fewer CDs than he would have in a normal year, in the first half of the year book boxes replaced second-hand bookshops in his affections. in the second half he made a trip up to hay-on-wye for his birthday but other than that he's just been reading less.
his homestead (the gaff) will probably have taken a further dive while he's been away. the living room will once again be fucked. there will be some stuff in the corridors. the back garden will remain fucked. horsemouth no longer gives a shit.
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