stupid phone (and then it stopped working)

'I have never owned a smartphone...' 

horsemouth has never owned a smartphone. (ok ok there's probably one in a cupboard somewhere but he has never bothered getting it going). when he was child minding it was often a point of discussion with his charge that all he owned was a stupid phone (and then it stopped working). 

'sitting undistracted on the bus, I sometimes feel bored, or sad, or plagued by existential doubt; and though that’s uncomfortable, I like to think it’s good for me...'

horsemouth has bought a cheap burner with buttons - to replace his mobile phone that died. he will stick some credit on it and distribute round the number sometime soon. 

there was an article that horsemouth read online detailing all the old pre-phone survival strategies (horsemouth still has a couple of copies of the AtoZ somewhere).

but of course horsemouth can't escape his laptop. it is only a partial escape for some time. 

today is unusual for recent blog postings in that he hasn't written any of this the day before. he has taken to writing the blogpost over the course of the day and then posting it up at just after midnight, he doesn't know if this affects the quality.   this material is in many ways less of a gift than an imposition. you probably don't need to know what horsemouth is up to every day of the week  (but he needs to tell you). 

yesterday a zoom call with howard (who will be on half term soon). (oops just saw the black cat).  howard has put up a new mixcloud mix (which horsemouth is enjoying and which features some anne briggs (the snows they melt the soonest)  interestingly enough she has some old tracks released for the first time soon). howard will be off to the hands off rafah march today (probably). 

the bus/ train/ tube was the third space. horsemouth often managed to get his reading and doodling done there. there would sometimes be time and opportunity to read at work and over lunchtimes etc. as a result of the end of work horsemouth finds himself spending even more time online - youtube review content has replaced getting DVDs out of the library (or even buying them). he would blog quickly before he went off to work or blog on his return. 

horsemouth has brought a wedge of CDs with him but he hasn't listened to them. it would mean getting the hifi set up again. he has a little bluetooth speaker for the laptop, he mostly listens to stuff of youtube.

webb dave played a one hour show of his technodub  live over the internet and archived a recording on mixcloud (horsemouth enjoyed it). horsemouth often listens to his new river studio shows.

the post by-election euphoria (if that's what it was) has subsided. we await the rochdale by election result at the end of the month. on the new statesman podcast the pollster fucks up -he laughs despairingly at voting through cuts on his borough council and then realises he shouldn't have laughed and back tracks furiously. 

horsemouth identifies with this because in a few short months horsemouth will have the joy of presenting the rent rise to the communal endeavour. this is a similar situation - the communal endeavour's costs increase by inflation every year (in some cases by more than inflation) and so to defend the continued operation of the communal endeavour horsemouth must ask for a rent rise. the rent rise they can ask for is limited by government so should the rent rise fail to be voted through it would take years of the maximum rent rise possible to rebuild the co-ops finances. 

like horsemouth says joy.