'my syntax when I speak is not to my liking...' (a reminder to himself)

'my syntax when I speak is not to my liking.

I don't finish sentences or I interrupt them.' 

- yvonne rainer, interview with yvonne rainer,

the white review no.12. 

above - howard's golden glow from 30th april 2017 (with more beats than usual). 

it's a rainy, grey morning and horsemouth has missed the dawn. he has put a reminder to himself to take the milk over to the garage and put it in the fridge out there (releasing the chickens he will probably leave to his mum). 

last night the john hurt (2010) version of whistle and I'll come to you, a ghost story about dementia. that the body can outlast the soul, now there's a terrifying thought. and after that a police drama set in belfast and then the news (humza yusaf goes down to defeat).

'I love a good ponzi scheme...' remarks an FTer. they then attempt to distinguish between markets in their bubble phase and ponzi schemes - what differentiates the early years of apple (suck in the money, pay those leaving the scheme early out of the new deposits (rather than out of real profits)? fake it until you make it. 

their argument is that its not a ponzi scheme if the accounts are honest (not that undue pressure can be brought to bear on auditing firms or that accounting practices can't be declared to have been dodgy at a later date). 

bubbles form because investors with money are looking for a return (higher than inflation). the bubble means that they capture more of the value produced by society than is strictly their 'fair' share (and at the same time other sectors of production are denied access to the finance that would have enabled them to achieve their 'just' return).

bubbles - incorrect valuation - are the way by which wealth is manufactured. far from being an error in the process they are its heart, a heart that beats bubbles and crashes and pumps the value generated in society to the already wealthy.

we are at the last day of april. it is may eve (as celebrated in the devil rides out). beltane to those of a more pagan disposition. we enter into summer (or do we enter into it on june 21st at the summer solstice?).  

books, films, gigs, events april 2024

books 

- joan didion where I was from 

- the white review no.12, foreword by george szirtes 

- ltc rolt landscape with machines

- m. john harrison viriconium

- maxwell fraser welsh border country (dips) 

- franz kafka diaries, 1915 as and when.

- antonia white, diaries 1926-1957

-  t.s. eliot the waste land.

- isabella tromboli resonances on carla lonzi in nlr sidecar and in feminism and art in  post-war italy: the legacy of carla lonzi  ed. francesco ventrella and giovanna zapperi

- mario tronti a message from the emperor, nlr sidecar (reread)

- art forum review of annie ernaux and david ernaux-briot's the super 8 years, 2022 by kit duckworth

films

-  captain sensible being serenaded by a table full of portuguese ladies on his 70ieth birthday

- billy connolly telling rishi sunak to fuck off

- outlaw bookseller, bookpilled/ thrift-a-life, spain speaks, novara media, gary's economics

- 3 youtube video of an architect restoring a house in a french fishing town and his film on françois breton outsider artist in brittany

- steve albini on record company deals (and why not to take them)

-  ken sanders, rare book dealer, tells the story of rough play in the book trade. mark william hofmann american counterfeiter, forger, bomber, murderer.

- jon snow on portugal's 1974 revolution, radio 4. 

- solar panels: are they really worth it? C5 alexis conran

- syd barrett documentary (sky arts)

-  the john hurt (2010) version of 'whistle and I'll come to you' (talking pictures). 

gigs none

events 

met mike and becky at gordon's wine bar on st. george's day, AGM of the communal endeavour, abbey locking and unlocking rota duty, bell-ringing, visit the abbeydore work houses, planting out of six of the broad bean plants (he will do more when they come up) and the potting up of more seeds (basil, coriander). anniversary of lenin at the finland station, RIP loren goldner, RIP drummer albert "tootie" heath of the heath brothers. RIP john sinclair,  anniversary of musicians of bremen recording sessions 2022, horsemouth's 2000th blogpost.

written in the evening/ written in the morning

howard's golden glow mix from this day in 2018 (opening with a tune by howard and then proceeding off into the ambience). the meal is a typical howard meal from the time, pitta bread, posh cheese, humous, dhal, spinach as a salad (delicious).  

we enter the the devil rides out timeline once again in the run up to beltane. this afternoon rex will fly in. himself and the duc will drive to their protege simon's house and discover him preparing for a black mass. 

yesterday a bright but cold day (light rain in the morning and in the evening). horsemouth did two trips down to the abbey, on his own in the morning and then again with his mum in the afternoon (same as yesterday). in the morning, while he was doing some remarkably shoddy fencing, he heard the bells ringing. (remind him to finish it off). that's him and his mum for the abbey duty for the next 11 weeks.

he dug out a little more of the garden to get some more broad bean plants in (the slugs have been waging war on the ones he put in earlier). the leeks seem to be coming up well (but he will wait a while before he puts these out). nothing else seems to be on the go yet - perhaps the peas. 

horsemouth watched some clips and read about sculptor françois breton. in a way his son's remodelling  of farm buildings strikes horsemouth as more interesting. he owes finding out about it to an architect who had moved to a breton fishing town to refurbish a house in an ecologically satisfying way. the architect mainly does sailing videos. 

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

and so we progress onto the written in the morning material.  

it is always more hopeful at the sunrise - but then the sun ascends into the heavens and behind the clouds (the day assumes its proper demeanour, though that may of course change). the sheep seem unbothered. the garden is mainly growing buttercups. 

(ok the sheep are gone. richard (the neighbour) has just come to move them. maybe

'there is no real way to deal with everything we lose'  remarks joan didion as a pay off line to a chapter. 

having dealt with her ancestors and the founding myths of the family she is forced to deal with her father and mother's deaths. one day in the false 'old' part of town with her mother and (adopted) daughter she realises that her daughter isn't part of this (the family history/ the family myth) and she finds herself growing free of it. 

'the tenacious (and, as I see it now, pernicious) mood of nostalgia.' 

her life is already filling up with memorabilia that she wants to discard and move on from, not to take them across the mountains and make of them a family keepsake. more tragedy will strike (as it does), her husband and her daughter will die, she will live on in new york alone. 

tomorrow more golden glow. horsemouth's books, films, gigs, events list for april. 1st may, 2nd may, 3rd may important days in the spanish uprising against napoleonic rule, may 2nd the local elections (horsemouth is out of town and so will not be voting).  

autoritratto/ autocoscienza (self-portrait)

'and it may be that our present life, which we accept so readily, will in time seem strange, inconvenient, stupid, not clean enough, perhaps even sinful...' - anton chekhov

‘the work of art felt to me, at a certain point, like a possibility for meeting, like an invitation to participate, addressed by the artists to each of us. it seemed to be a gesture to which I could not respond in a professional manner.’ - carla lonzi

horsemouth read two articles yesterday - one a review of  the super 8 years (2022) an assembly of home movies by french autobiography queen annie ernaux and her son david ernaux-briot, the other a review of the work of feminist and art critic carla lonzi (though her main aim was to escape such categorisations). 

there was a recent book collecting lonzi's writings. horsemouth can't show you any of that book but he can show you some of this one. 

ernaux (but first her husband) with the super 8 movie camera (and later her son who directs the movie).

lonzi with her tape recorder. recording and cutting up the great and the good of art (autoritratto - self portrait) and then splitting from art in its entirety in a world of politics (autocoscienza - consciousness raising).  

horsemouth is up slightly later than usual (it's about 8am). it's another rainy grey day here in the shires (but it may clear up later). remind horsemouth to go and open up the abbey in a bit. he has his cup of coffee.

last night a documentary on syd barrett - poor syd, patron saint and poster boy for the crack up. such extraordinary beauty and talent. there's a bit, near the end, where like john clare, he walks back to oxford from london. 

memories of the visit (abbey rota morning reminder)

RIP mike pinder (keyboard player with the moody blues)

horsemouth is going to write down here some memories of the visit that did not make it into the first cut because of the pressure of events.

april 23rd (st. george's day) embankment 3.30pm

on the circle line on the way over a woman wearing a flag of st. george seemed intent on getting some cheering going for st. george's day. the tube carriage were a little nonplussed, or just pain unresponsive, she muttered darkly about so many others being over here. 

out of embankment tube horsemouth recognised the rendezvous from last time (gordon's wine bar) and walked up the road trying to find a place to get a snack (the better to line his stomach in preparation for the carnage to come) - ah a pret a manger next to a pub (the princess of wales), horsemouth ducked in but could find nothing non-meaty or non-fishy (strange that). he headed out the door past the brace of english flag wearing types by the door of the pub, one gave him the security eye once over (horsemouth affected not to notice. horsemouth is a civilian now.) 

he wandered down to gordon's, down the steps and saw mike almost immediately. 

as you know horsemouth is not a fan of nationalistic bollocks.

april 24th a neighbour's recycling

horsemouth has brought many of these books back to herefordshire with him (excepting  a smile in the mind: witty thinking in graphic design) which was too large to transport easily. 

april 24th museum gardens 6pm or so

having walked down (54 mins claimed google maps, or was it TFL) horsemouth arrived 20-30 mins early for the meeting so he sat down on a bench in museum gardens. a girl paced around talking animatedly into her phone, another sat out on the grass with a book, a homeless dude patrolled the benches for dropped coins or fag butts. 

the meeting itself went well (despite horsemouth's fears). it's an important lesson for him about keeping things in perspective. 

after the meeting horsemouth followed the masses round the corner to the approach. there he tried to drink sensibly but failed (the others seemed quite intent on enjoying the night and horsemouth was happy to see everybody). thereafter there was the long march through hackney (if he'd have thought about it clearly he would have got the bus). 

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

horsemouth is back out in the wilderness. it is a grey rainy morning (but he doesn't feel too bad on it). he's just had his coffee. in a bit he will go and open up the abbey. after closing up the abbey last night his mum and himself sat down in the conservatory and had a beer. today it looks like rainy all day.  (there may be some sun sunday).

 

sweet global warming and climate change

'according to the met office, 1,695.9mm of rain fell from october 2022 to march 2024, the highest amount recorded for any 18-month period in england.'

yesterday (goes the temporal fiction) horsemouth had a lazy day in recovering from the post-AGM beers. the walk back will have helped but really he should have got in more food. the wonder drug paracetamol was of use to him again.  if he had arranged to do anything he would (of course) have gone and done it (but he didn't). 

horsemouth was charmed by a clip of captain sensible being serenaded by a table full of portuguese ladies on his 70ieth birthday (apparently the day after his birthday is quite big in portugal). 

this is  what horsemouth should have been doing yesterday- celebrating the portuguese revolution.

'everyone was in the streets. I just felt happiness.'

'if interest rates stay high, energy costs will rise rather than fall in the years ahead. so now is the time for planning on how we deliver the energy investment surge while protecting lower income households.' - jonathan marshall, senior economist at the resolution foundation.

after a quick visit horsemouth is due to travel back to the wilds of herefordshire. in a bit he will start packing and try not to leave anything important behind this time. he read a little of the white review no.12 - george szirtes foreward, more reading for the train perhaps. 

bookbox patrol

back to the wen

horsemouth went out on a bookbox patrol. 

from powerscroft road he found  impressions; faure, satie, debussy, ravel arranged for solo guitar by carlos barbarosa-lima (la fille au cheveux de lin, gymnopedie no.1 etc.). on his way back round (or on his way back from the shop) he noticed his neighbours had put some books out in the recycling, 

- a smile in the mind: witty thinking in graphic design (phaidon)

- the white review (nos. 12 and 17, 2014) joanna drucker, owen hatherley (these sorts of people - or at least, these are the only two names he recognised)

- versuch no.1 notes and projects

- very casual: some stories by michael deforge, janus by lala albert 2014 (comic books)

- justified, issue two.

- the happy reader, dan stevens, winter 2014, issue no.1.

- artificial music ed. detlef diederichsen and the new alphabet ed. bernd sherer 

most of these he will roll up the hill to the powerscroft road bookbox when he has had a chance to read/ look at them.

on the bookbox mission he bumped into pat coming out of colenso road and so he called in there for a cup of tea and a chat. 

in the afternoon/ evening horsemouth was off to a full meeting of the communal endeavour (he says 'was' but he is typing this midday 24th april). he has had breakfast (baked beans on toast and orange juice) and is airing out his room. initially he has horrified to discover there was no  coffee in the house but then he remembered there were some nespresso pods so he used the coffee from those (hope that's ok). 

the AGM went well (horsemouth thinks) and afterwards the pub. horsemouth doesn't feel too bad from it (but then there was along walk back afterwards).

today dawned bright and beautiful in the beautiful city of troy...

wow! sudden explosion of temper just before horsemouth left. at the railway station cancelled trains. but all smooth from newport.

horsemouth met mikefromtexas and beckyfromcalgary at gordon's wine bar and they drank and chatted. there was some (drunken) approval of t.s.eliot. they all went their separate ways. horsemouth returned home, checked his post, went out and got a bag of chips, and went to bed early. 

the trouble with the inexperienced is that they want to have the great philosophical debates around housing. they want to express fashionable incredulity at the notion of affordable housing being set at 80% of market rent (horsemouth is just so over that). 

when horsemouth publishes this he will be back in the wen preparing for a meeting of the entire communal endeavour (or, as many as will turn up). really he doesn't want to have the philosophical debates anymore, he doesn't want to have the wild speculation on what things might be, rents might be, bed sizes might be. 

mexfield-beresford changed how horsemouth thought about housing co-ops. 

mexfield-beresford gave the people living in a particular house much greater rights over the future of that particular house than they had had previously. 

instead of housing co-ops being democratic organisations (one person one vote where all the members were equal and had an equal say in the future of the co-op) they became for him a co-operative of houses (the co-op owned) with an underclass of people living in the 'short-life' housing (who had less rights). in the terms of his opponents (when they claimed they were hard done by) it had become a two-tier co-op.  

to be clear horsemouth thought this was a bad thing. 

nonetheless he has accepted the logic of it and learned to work with the new dispensation. 

horsemouth (as usual) is knackered from the stress he holds regarding conflict.  

today dawned bright and beautiful in the beautiful city of troy...

city of troy (abbey rota morning two reminder)

 interesting. a meeting that went well.

horsemouth had been stamping around the hills with steam coming out of his ears after the last one but this one was safe as houses (remind him to be on his guard for wednesday).  to achieve this horsemouth had to ignore a lot of self-serving bullshit about how wonderful communal living is (yes it is so wonderful you are trying to escape it for a single flat). 

the timing of the big bold proposal seems to have distracted people. horsemouth does not have any great faith in it working but he has to admit it would be beautiful if it did (which is why it probably won't). 

'according to the met office, 1,695.9mm of rain fell from october 2022 to march 2024, the highest amount recorded for any 18-month period in england.' 

(they are going to have to change the system of measurement  - that's 1.69 meters of rainfall!)

ah sweet global warming and climate change, warmer temperatures means more water evaporates means more rain and heavier rain. means more flash flooding. means longer floods. how will you grow food when your farmland is under water? 

city of troy

down at the abbey when horsemouth went to lock up, there was a canadian?/ american? tourist couple who arrived late. horsemouth let them wander round. while he was waiting out back in the cloisters there seemed to be a troy town maze cut into the grass (horsemouth wonders who did it and when). 

horsemouth is off back to the wen for a few days so his mum will be on abbey duty after this morning. he will try and meet up with mikefromtexas and attend a meeting of the communal endeavour while he is there, perhaps go for a walkaround with TG (and that's probably his lot).

the city of troy (whose walls were designed to confuse and trap an attacker) are probably not the best mental image for horsemouth to hold in his head while he goes to the city. 

horsemouth on abbey rota duty (like the somme without the generals)

 there. horsemouth just put that there to remind himself last night. 

in a bit he will go and unlock the abbey (but first a blog). 

it's 7am horsemouth has his coffee. this will be an almost entirely written in the morning blogpost. it's a greyish day (horsemouth is due some rain). on first sight (on bbc weather) the week looks rubbish but on closer inspection it looks like there may be dry moments and even sun. 

horsemouth is now having a look at the GWARdian -there's an article on self-storage  as a symptom of the housing crisis.  ‘like the somme without the generals’  the local elections are looming and the tories are worried.  looks like the number of  MPs leaving parliament of their own hand at this election is up to 101 with mark menzies (most fun public figure since the crystal methodist) deciding to call it a day. 

horsemouth's reading of joan didion's where I was from proceeds apace - we are into the bohemian club, a drinking club started by satirists (ambrose bierce, samuel clemens) becomes a hang out for the powerful. out in the wilderness mark twain dies committed to improving the soil.

'in the solution of the great economic problems of the present age, I see a return to the soil.' 

oh dear the price of coffee beans is up (climate change) this is bad news for horsemouth. he has been and unlocked the abbey. his mum is up and around. in a bit he will go out and unlock the chickens (if his mum doesn't beat him to it). 

this evening a meeting of the communal endeavour (on zoom). horsemouth suspects it will be a difficult meeting and he suspects that the subsequent annual general meeting of the communal endeavour will be difficult also.  the way to think about it most productively is not as an arena of conflict but as a bureaucratic process, we are in the process of discovering what the members want. at the end of it horsemouth will probably have survived again. 

a big and bold proposal has been made but once again horsemouth thinks people will be unable to take it. he can't work out whether the timing will distract people or infuriate them (or, most likely,  a mixture of the two). 

derbyshire prayer flags (the abbeydore workhouses)

horsemouth went for a walk. down to the abbey then across the fields behind the abbey to the dore river and along beside the fence for the base to the road. at the road he headed off further up the valley following the footpath by the side of the river. at the top he kept going (instead of turning back as he usually does). he crossed an orchard and then through a small wooded section before emerging in the abbey dore work houses. there's a two-bed flat for sale in the complex - £190k 

these a pretty much north of bacton. (horsemouth wandered past the bacton stud on his way back). there were lots of ramsons in the hedgerow.  it was a bright sunny day with a cool breeze and horsemouth felt good. (something like 6 miles all round - so his 10,000 steps etc.).

horsemouth is having a think about his mum's recovery, the abbey rota (starts monday morning), the getting back to the wen to see people and the meeting of the communal endeavour. monday night there's a zoom meeting of the communal endeavour (it will be good to get that out of the way) and then wednesday night a fill in-person meeting. now horsemouth thinks this could get tricky - there's a lot of news, there's a lot to deal with (and not all of it is good). anyway like he says focus on the bureaucracy. 

last night horsemouth watched a youtube video of an architect restoring a house in a french fishing town. instead of the sunny southern bit of france he had picked the cold windy breton coast. and damp - the houses have a problem with damp, particularly damp in the walls, the problem is to add insulation without trapping damp in the walls (to make the walls breathable) so that the energy efficiency of the house can be raised without giving rise to damp problems.  

now this retrofit problem is very similar to the one horsemouth faces with the houses of the communal endeavour (it is indeed the problem we all face with the predominantly aged housing stock of europe). to this problem someone has proposed a novel solution. horsemouth does not know what to make of it yet. it is big. it is bold. it is probably too big and bold. 

'little is done' ('change returns success')

'polls show 23% of voters now rank housing as the most important issue facing the country, up from 14% at the december 2019 general election. more people now rate it as the priority than crime or the environment, according to yougov. yet little is done...' - the guardian, 19th april 2024. 

the clock is ticking down on it all. horsemouth is not out bell-ringing again tonight (shame he found it very distracting. and of course now that he has not gone he feels guilty). the chickens are in their shed. the sheep and lambs are out in the field. the birds are in the trees. he can't see any of the rabbits. it's all good. 

horsemouth spent yesterday (by the time you read this) mostly being hung over. he stopped having a headache and feeling physically sick early on (after the first two paracetamol and a quick snooze) but he never quite escaped the jaded feeling. he had some orange juice (that seemed to do something for his blood sugar levels). he did a walk on the common (drying up nicely). 

his mum had bought some fakemeat sausages (so that was good). 

horsemouth is impressed with the hadley caliman album he found online. previously horsemouth had only heard him play on one santana track before now (eternal caravan of reincarnation on caravanserai). it  is great (never heard of any of the other players either).   apparently there's a bobby hutchinson live video on youtube from bologna, italy with hadley on sax (1977), both hadley and the trumpet player luis gasca were mainstays in the bay area jazz scene in the 7Os, playing together in mongo santamaria's band and in malo.

the black cat has approached the field where the ewes and lambs are stealthily by means of the hedge. it has been regarded with disfavour and beaten a hasty retreat. 

it looks like a beautiful day out (though the night was cold). 

chapter 24  an early syd barrett pink floyd song has lyrics lifted from the i ching apparently. horsemouth is shifting to a fatalistic acceptance that what will be will be.

'change returns success

going and coming without error

action brings good fortune

sunset, sunrise...'

horsemouth back from the ringing of the bells

as you may have guessed (by the lateness of this post) he is a little hung over. 

there's a lot to think about. horsemouth was going to go out again tonight (but like he said, he's still feeling a bit hungover). he got a lift there and back, there were after pull beers in the temple bar in ewyas harold. horsemouth has promised to return at a later date. 

fortunately for him it is a cool, grey day. 

the sheep are back. 

'there is no philosophy in california'

'there is no philosophy in california' - josiah royce

after the planting out of six of the broad bean plants horsemouth has realised that it is going to be a cold night (down to 1C) tonight and the next few nights. he has therefore scattered some straw over them in an effort to keep them warm. hopefully they will survive. (he had forgotten that april is the cruellest month)

today horsemouth has been feeling a bit anxious (about the same thing he was feeling anxious about yesterday). now he has some figures (though they may not be exactly the right figures) he can start preparing a story that explains them and their significance. 

as usual when he is anxious he starts writing in the hope that it will enable him to get things in perspective (and mostly it does). he's done some reading in an effort to ease his worried mind (the joan didion - the wheat barons versus the railroads, the railroads owned the land, the peculiarly corporate nature of agriculture in california).  he has walked around.

it is, as his mum notes, a beautiful day. 

the way to deal with communal endeavour anxiety is to think of it as a bureaucratic task - the members have a perfect right to refuse the rent rise and if they do the finances of the communal endeavour are fucked (technical term) for about the next six years, there should be just about enough money to do what needs to be done (if we stretch out all the tasks to 2030), but there's unlikely to be enough money for luxuries (so that's that problem solved - no luxuries).  

last thing yesterday the ten o'clock news (more carnage and lies). 

this evening horsemouth is having an adventure - he is going bellringing (allegedly). let's see how that goes. (let's see if it takes his mind off things). 

lakewood exists (basil, coriander)

horsemouth is up. it's about half seven. he just went for a quick wander outside while the coffee was brewing (in the golden hour before the sun ascends into the clouds and we get what we get). he has just sneezed.  he has gulped down the coffee to get it while it is still hot and fresh. in a minute he will head downstairs to get a second cup. 

yesterday, because he writes this in the morning, it is a 100% in the morning blogpost, he is here in the present moment (and you will read it later), he went to bed early. the news was just going to be carnage.  see, almost immediately he is not here in the present moment but somewhere else. 

before he slept he read joan didion's where I was from - the ancestors who get the urge for going. didion is keen to contrast people's images of themselves as self-made and the reality of government subsidy - alfalfa, cotton, the flood defences ('I learned to swim... before the dams'), the railroad. as a child she gives a talk in school assembly on how the californians are self-made people before realising that most of the children are the descendants of okies, recent immigrants, refugees from the dust bowl.  

the spine on horsemouth's copy is broken (he paid eight pounds for it and the spine is broken). it breaks clear through to the text at the start of a chapter 3 ('lakewood exists...'), the chapter 3 of part 2.  

there is clearly more to read on LTC rolt's landscape... book, more to read of agricultural machinery and steam power. 

yesterday also the planting out of six of the broad bean plants (he will do more when they come up) and the potting up of more seeds (basil, coriander). 

there he's just added one of howard's golden glows from yesterday. there is one for today also but horsemouth posted that last year. he's wearing a jumper and his clean (non-muddy) pair of trousers. 

today, perhaps, a journey to the t-junction to deliver the eggs, and the bin (rubbish this time) must be walked down the drive.  his  mum got a lift up the garage yesterday so there's a copy of the saturday torygraph to read also. almost certainly a walk on the common. 

ok there's more coffee downstairs. he's going to go and get it. 

'is it sunny or cloudy in the land where you live.' (april theses)

after raining in the morning all of a sudden it has dried up and the sun has come out. the black cat has come to visit. 

it is the anniversary of lenin's arrival at the finland station (now before you all start horsemouth knows this didn't work out so well). horsemouth's particular school of social justice warriors tends to take against the party-building variety of communism in favour, horsemouth would argue, of varieties of thought where these problems (how to have a successful revolution for starters) are magically solved by economics or by the people.

in this regard horsemouth thinks himself a tad naive. 

ok horsemouth spoke too soon - the skies have opened, the cat has retreated to the cover of the trees (or made a run for home). 

aaargh! horsemouth's brain keeps running catastrophist scenarios. his next encounter with the communal endeavour is a week off, in a way it is the waiting he can't stand.  ok he's had a phone conversation and now feels much calmer. 

the counter-factualists are broadly divided between those who think the problem lies in the idea of a party separate from the working class (and that if you pretend this separation doesn't exist then everything will be ok sarcastically adds horsemouth) and those who think it is the force of circumstances alone drove the russian revolution off course and into tyranny. 

or some muddle of the two.

'the people need peace; the people need bread; the people need land...' (april theses)

at the time lenin's speeches were not universally well received (even among the bolsheviks).

'lenin’s speech was attacked from all sides, only kollontai speaking in support of it...' - carr, as reported in mario tronti's a message from the emperor. 

so where are we now (over 100 years later)? let's just take one shall we...

the people need peace

as horsemouth writes this the world's attention has slipped from palestine (34,000 people dead almost all civilians) to the sabre-rattling between israel and iran (with the US, britain and france leaning in and intervening on israel's side). the world's attention has also slipped from the conflict in ukraine (180-220,000 estimated dead) and the conflicts in myanmar, yemen etc. 

the syrian civil war (613,000 dead) is last years thing. similarly afghanistan, iraq etc. 

you would think the world would get sick of the bloodletting. 

RIP loren goldner

horsemouth saw him speak twice and was impressed by his ability and willingness to engage with the arguments of his critics  fairly and clearly - both with his marxist critics and with the stepney youth who wanted to know what all the people gathered in that meeting room were doing there. 

crisis! that's over. said fukuyama. said gordon brown. said everybody. (it seems like a distant galaxy far far away)

but guess what happened? the 2008 financial crisis. 

so you are wrong about the instability of capitalism until you are right about the instability of capitalism, and then (soon enough) they will tell you that you are wrong again. 

capitalism understands itself in its own terms not in ours. 

all this and melville too.

 

anniversary of the third half day of recording musicians of bremen stuff 2022

musicians of bremen · No Name Resonate

 the day's new recordings 

the only non cover of the day a guitar solo recorded on the resonator and then with the hohner12 string added on top. horsemouth is thinking of naming it guitar piece (for pier marton) and because he's reasonably confident no-one is going to get that joke he'll explain it here. 

'with roots in the performance art and body art of the 1970s, marton's early works are visceral, psychological confrontations with the viewer. guitar piece is a darkly comical, angry work, in which marton hits a guitar against his head in a rhythmic (fashon), yelling "music!" in an accelerating fury until the guitar splinters into pieces.' - electronic arts intermix performance for video  on vimeo. 

horsemouth thinks he saw this with a student. he basically takes it to be about rage and frustration with art. nonetheless horsemouth thinks this could work as a track (with a few nips and tucks), he's pleased with how it turned out (perhaps apply some distortion to the resonator).  

you and your sister (recorded with howard's valencia nylon strung guitar) this came together really quickly. probably another result and ending up on high rise strutters' ball. (guitar resonator, banjolin, vocals, trumpet-impersonation). rhythm still a little baggy. ah well fuck it. 

yesterday the goldfinches were out in the garden and there was a rainbow. horsemouth planted some beans but held off on planting out the first of the broad beans. this means he will have to clear space for them and work out how much space they will need. soon a phonecall from his brother. 

and now it is the morning. it is grim and rainy (so much for yesterday's sunshine). ok it's just today (according to the weather forecast). 

horsemouth's 2000th blogpost ('the homer class for the galician girls')

yes it's horsemouth's 2000th blogpost. (what a long strange groovy trip it has been.) 

'the homer class for the galician girls. the one in the green blouse, sharp severe face; when she raised her hand she held it straight out in front of her; quick movements when she put on her coat; if she raised her hand and was not called on, she felt ashamed and turned her face aside...' -franz kafka, diaries, 15th april 1915. 

it all began as a response to the great 2013 myspace blog dieback with horsemouth's first post on blogger on saturday 22nd june 2013. (there's a whole pre-history as well of horsemouth blogging away on the now defunct myspace, starting 24th november 2006). 

for much of this time horsemouth was also using the facebook notes tool to blog daily - at least as far back as 12 years ago until that ceased in october 2020 and horsemouth transferred his daily blogging habit to blogger. 

here you see a south-facing photo from his flat in pop(u)lar of the time of the great myspace blog dieback. the laramie guitar, a bookshelf (horsemouth recognises some of the books), the sun dust 2 or maybe it's sunny savannah 3 paintjob (fashionable but expensive). through the door you can see the wreck that is the kitchen (painted all white like something from pasolini but with black floors and counter tops -  a legacy from the previous inhabitant). 

really horsemouth should have used the sun dust in the kitchen also (but he did not). 

in the kitchen if you squint you can see the card-meter for the gas (the key meter for the electric was in the hall). horsemouth hated these mean spirited (and expensive) machines. 

yesterday horsemouth went off out to deliver some eggs (not to his usual delivery at the crossroads, ok more of a t- junction, but further up the hill, and curiously at another t- junction). . he crossed the field behind the abbey, across the river, down the lane and up the hill. he has been invited out bell-ringing (which he will go and give a go next thursday).  

the beans continue to throw up little bean plants in the greenhouse (no sign of anything from the leek seeds yet). he watered the peas he had planted and planted some carrot seeds. 

it's the morning. horsemouth has finished viriconium. the characters are trapped in huddersfield dreaming of escape to this wondrous city.

'the thousand incarnations of the rose'

horsemouth has finished fucking with the drains (for now). 

the puddle that generates by the kitchen drain horsemouth thinks is mostly down to drainage from the banking above it rather than overflow from the drain itself. horsemouth's parents had the outside brick-paved round   and the corner is a little lower where the kitchen drain is and so the water collects there and doesn't drain off. 

puddle explained and we move on.  

horsemouth is going to have a go at drying it off. (if he fails that's proof positive it's coming down from the banking not up from the drains).

the drain itself has some kind of u bend thing before the waste pipe heads of to the inspection cover where horsemouth can get the rods in. there's nothing much to do but try and rod out as much of the congealed fat and rotted food waste from one end and pump it out through the other.  by 'nothing much' horsemouth means putting your hand down there and attempting to scoop out the blockage, dump drain unblocking shit down there (both of which he did also). 

he seems to have got it so that the sink will now drain again (woop de fucken' do). 

ultimately the only real cure is to dig it all out and replace it (otherwise it's just going to continue to be chronically shit). 

fortunately there is (effectively) a whole other kitchen with a kitchen sink just round the corner in the kitchen with a straighter run of pipe to the septic tank. (the septic tank another reason horsemouth doesn't want to put anything too toxic down the pipes). 

anyway horsemouth has stuck his clothes in the washing machine and had a shower  and washed his hands numerous times and hopefully in about 36 hours he will stop smelling the drains on them.  with a bit of luck nothing will get infected and he won't get sick. 

this is (sadly) not the first time horsemouth has wrestled this particular drain (but with a bit of luck it will be his last)

up above steve albini makes perfectly sensible arguments about the record industry as was. horsemouth supposes we should really have a discussion about how it has changed in the last 13 years since the interview. not much, horsemouth thinks it is into its new stable pattern.

'the thousand incarnations of the rose'  was a 2018 american primitive guitar festival played in takoma park (john fahey's birthplace and hometown but named after a robbie basho tune). all the key figures in the scene played. in a way what john fahey did - start an independent record company, have a career outside the record label system, refuse to have his song used in a movie (by punching out the director antonioni (allegedly)) - is very steve albini, is very in that DIY punk way. 

it is the anniversary of a 2019  musicians of bremen duo gig down at sunny waterintobeer (the one with martin and nick doyne-ditmus). no doubt horsemouth will repost some of the photos in a few days.

counterfeiter, forger, murderer

'you have to wait for the book to manifest in the marketplace.' - ken sanders, rare book dealer. 

rough play in the book trade (as told by ken sanders). 

mark william hofmann american counterfeiter, forger, bomber, murderer. horsemouth remembers another forger, this time a british one, the tale told in the pages of the literary review but he can't find it at the minute. it didn't end with bombs, murders and a life sentence. 

lots of rabbit chasing behaviour. crow has just done a raid on the food in the hen coop. 

yesterday horsemouth wandered over to the village on a shopping mission. (he only fell over in the mud once - the result of an unwise shortcut decision). he sowed some peas. and planted some leeks in the potting shed.  

ah great! backing up kitchen drain. (let's just leave the bollocking thing alone until the morning shall we). 

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

‘no matter how you feel, get up, dress up, and show up.’ - sonny rollins, the notebooks of sonny rollins.

interest piqued. philly joe jones on drums slaying it (rim shot on 4 (at the start mostly)). G dorian and A aeolian apparently. 

it is the morning. horsemouth is up and has his coffee. he sitting up in bed wearing the daniel johnson t-shirt, a shirt, the black pair of jeans, socks, underwear. his reading of viriconium goes well. he has the anniversary of the last day of recording for horsemouth in 2022 coming up. no kafka until the 14th. the coffee is beginning to do its evil work. 

the coffee has done its evil work (time for more coffee). a beautiful morning (a dew not a frost). when he was asleep horsemouth was dreaming about exploring a deserted house but he became stuck ascending a rickety collection of boxes (and then he woke up). 

notes on the second session (but substantially edited and rewritten)

today the anniversary of the second afternoon from the musicians of bremen recording campaign 2022. 

notes on the second session (written at the time but here  substantially edited and rewritten) 

murder ballad  - the first new song horsemouth had written in a long time.  horsemouth wanted to record a murder ballad but an up-to-date one, instead of a murderer and a murderee and a location and punishment (black jack davy, omie wise, where the wild roses grow etc.) horsemouth wanted to write a murder ballad where the investigation is botched and there's little  point in catching the criminal anyway. horsemouth played it through on the nylon string guitar. he recorded four minutes 20 seconds of the main riff over and over to click.  various percussion-y things added. various backing vocals sung (highs and lows). instrumental break guitar parts laid down (based on satie's gnossienne no.1) but because horsemouth has miscalculated the bar lengths it seldom plays in full. 

musicians of bremen · Murder Ballad

horsemouth still thinks it sounds more like stereotype  than ghost town (oh well). 

he also took a crack at something's on your mind (made famous by karen dalton but actually written by dino valenti). 

recorded with howard's hohner 6 string and with the telecaster copy played DI. howard added a nice reverb to it. horsemouth then doubled up the main vocal. result! horsemouth thought it was the keeper from the session  at the time (but now he thinks it's murder ballad). 

he also played if you have ghosts (roky erickson) and sometimes our dreams (they float like anchors) (william eliot whitmore). 

yesterday horsemouth walked down to the crossroads to deliver some eggs, he also posted off two letters in the post box by the village hall and took the recycling bin down the drive (remind him to bring it back up  - next week the rubbish). round the place he went out in the morning to let the chickens out and to bring in the eggs, he watered the bean plants in the greenhouse (about 4 of them have come up), some of either the onions or the garlic seeds have come up (or it's grass and horsemouth is an idiot). 

the trips (triple negative) are back at cafe OTO on 25th may (saturday, it's a saturday). 

meanwhile in the meat world it is the morning of the 11th - horsemouth has just brought the recycling bin back up the drive (so no need to remind him).  it is supposed to be quite a good day. horsemouth will attempt to get some seeds planted in pots. 

landscape with books (a visit to hereford, a raid on oxfam)

'astonishing the relief of going back to translation...' - antonia white.

deathday (1980) of antonia white (born eirene adeline botting; 31st march 1899) author, diarist and translator of some of colette's books (claudines mainly, a collection of short stories), a maupassant (a woman's life) and an early marguerite duras (a sea of troubles aka. un barrage contre le pacifique). 

the problem with antonia white's diaries 1926-1957 may be  that the major events are already over when we start them because she burned the two earliest volumes of them. or the problem may be that editing of the diaries  it was entrusted to her disaffected daughter susan chitty.  

horsemouth accessions diary tuesday 9th april 2024

- where I was from, joan didion - eight squid(!). horsemouth has read a little of this online already. 

- landscape with machines, l.t.c. rolt. an engineer remembers his childhood in and around chester, hay, and gloucestershire. a prolific writer and the biographer of major civil engineering figures, he is also regarded as one of the pioneers of the canal boat cruising on britain's inland waterways (he knew robert aickman), and as an enthusiast for vintage cars and heritage railways. two squid 49p.

the ltc rolt has stuff for horsemouth already because he lived as a child in cusop near hay-on-wye and was interested in trains (in part because of the amount of railway activity round hay - which now does not have a railway station, in particular the honeybourne- cheltenham line). so the golden valley railway gets a mention (spades in the ground at peterchurch) and the line between hereford and hay also. 

rolt was later a major fan of local diarist the reverend kilvert of clyro (near hay). he walked the same hills as kilvert but didn't know it at the time, the kilvert diaries had not been rescued when he was a child. he was also a fan of welsh borders authors arthur machen, traherne and henry vaughan. 

both books were from oxfam hereford which also had a copy of landscape with figures (volume 3 of his autobiography).  this horsemouth may pick up next.

horsemouth had a little delve into maxwell fraser's welsh border country to see if rolt was mentioned there (he was not - but father rolfe (baron corvo) was,more on that in an upcoming blogpost). 

after much trepidation yesterday a visit to hereford. this horsemouth pronounces a success. (there was even time at the end for the raid on oxfam). 

if horsemouth were in the wen tonight he would probably be going out drinking with his friends (a friend is over visiting from texas) but no he's anchored down in anchorage. there's still quite of bit of the m.john harrison viriconium to read, kafka continues to struggle with writing, etc. 

horsemouth is getting a little far ahead of himself with the blog writing. he has too much time to write.

let them live in their cars

'torments of my apartment. boundless. worked well a few evenings. if I had been able to work at night. today kept from sleep, from work, from everything by the noise.' -  franz kafka, diaries, 9th april 1915. 

no homes for the workers?

let them live in their cars.

(no we won't even do that)

meanwhile in the UK rents are predicted to rise more than wage growth for the next 3 years. pfft! wage growth says horsemouth, horsemouth hasn't seen any wage growth in the last decade and a half (only wage reduction in real terms). 

and in fact this goes back earlier - real wages have been on the slide since horsemouth entered the workforce back in about 1985. 

what's horsemouth's bet? collapse forever. (the forever collapse).

horsemouth had planned to be back in the wen for a flying visit this week but it looks like he's trapped in the wilderness. today he's due to make a visit to hereford (but he doesn't know if it will be possible yet). 

a friend has posted the first three digits of the barcode tells you where a product is from meme (with 729 being israel, but now it has been changed to 871 because er... illuminati conspiracy). according to this the barcode only tells you where the company is headquartered (not where it has been manufactured). and er. p.s.  871 is one of the possible barcodes for holland. 

so first three digits of the barcode 729 it would still be  if you wanted to boycott companies with their headquarters in israel (this wouldn't enable you to identify products that had merely been manufactured in israel). 

horsemouth is very tense and very angry and very fucked off. he just had a bottle of beer to try and self-medicate.  nothing is ever easy. nothing is ever properly organised. hopefully it will all work out and horsemouth will be able to fake being calm for the duration. 

last night roughly at sunset a partial eclipse - between 7.52pm and 8.51pm in the west probably a few percent at the edge - sunset 7:58 where horsemouth is (so right then if at all). total solar eclipse visible in montreal,  texas etc. . partial eclipse perhaps visible in ireland (44% on the north west coast). where horsemouth was it was cloudy (and he didn't fancy wallowing around in the mud whilst blinded by the remaining 99% of the sun. 

it's the morning. it's greyish, it's a bit rubbish. forward the day. 

'30 days hath september...'/ '30 days hath april...'

musicians of bremen · Jai Guru

after some universe establishing harmonics...

it's a grey morning. horsemouth wrote most of this last night.

horsemouth wanted to demo up some songs for the next album (and so they did - two years ago). the next album has been slow in coming but until it comes we at least have the demos. 

on the first day (two years ago today) the only track they recorded was jai guru (go guru!). it started off with horsemouth and howard busking their way through across the universe by the beatles (well ok no it starts with some universe establishing open strings on the 12 string). there's a sort of tyrannosaurus rex influence to it.

horsemouth thinks it is saveable. 

broadly horsemouth tells a story where musicians of bremen volume one  is a joint album (even though the songs are mostly howard's songs with a few originals but mostly covers brought by horsemouth). horsemouth plays a lot on that record (and sings a bit) and is (mostly) pleased by what he gets done.

musicians of bremen volume two is a howard solo album with a few parts played by horsemouth (guitar parts on noah and blackwall tunnel, he sings the main vocal on noah and that's his lot).

volume three was effectively a horsemouthfolk  solo album (though with a higher proportion of howard's contributions - two of the tracks are improvs, two are guitar instrumentals from a previous recording session (though howard added sound effects to one and edited the second), howard recorded and produced it all. 

volume four was an attempt to do another joint album - once again there are more howard songs on it (howard tends to write more material) but horsemouth is proud of his contributions.  

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

'30 days hath september...'

interestingly there is a monday 1st of july (like there was a  monday 1st of january and monday 1st of april). 

jan 31 + feb 29 (leap year)  + march 31 = 91 days perfectly divisible by 7 into 13 weeks

april 30 + may 31 + june 30 = 91 days perfectly divisible by 7 into 13 weeks

thereafter it is fucked

july 31 + august 31 + september 30 = 92 and

october 31 + november 30 + december 31 = 92 and so the first day of 2025 is a wednesday (because a leap year advances the day of the week by 2 days wheras an ordinary year only advances it by 1. 

horsemouth has made use of the 30 days hath september rhyme to do this (and his dore abbey calendar). he has seen a way of counting 30 and 31 day months on the knuckles (but he can't remember it). the how to do the 9 times table on your fingers he knows. 

these fragments (not to be found in our obituaries )

horsemouth was enjoying the wizard of oz elements in the video. (it's not their best song, it's produced too clean. the video is a bit too MTV friendly). 

'these fragments I have shored against my ruins’ - t.s. eliot, the waste land. .

on this day in 2020, taking gottfried benn's dictum as gospel, horsemouth launched a poetry competition. 

'in the hands of a proper poet, you can lift one stanza out of a railway timetable, the second from a hymn book, and the third one a joke, and the result will still be a poem' - gottfried benn

horsemouth had invited himself and his friends to try their hands at such poetry.

his first effort was;

'stay home. don't travel. the whole realm of nature mine. why don't ants get sick?'

(as ian objected he had misunderstood what a stanza was). nevertheless horsemouth persisted in folly amd answered himself with;

'tfl. isaak watts. they have little anty bodies.'

john clarkson was the first to rise to the challenge with his;

'From Sheltered Seas to Golden Heart,

Through many dangers, toils and snares,

To get to the other side…'

ermes amin the only person to attempt an extended form;

'See it. Say it. Sort it.

But give that which is within as charity, and then all things are clean for you.

Wash your hands like you're Nigel Farage and they're covered in the consequences of Brexit.

Stay at home. Don't Travel. Save lives.

How blessed is he who considers the helpless

The guy who invented hand sanitizer must be rubbing his hands together right now.'

as he noted elsewhere horsemouth had survived the apocalypse long enough to be bored. he is reading more poetry (he doesn't have the focus for prose). 

saturday horsemouth got nothing done. (ok ok he went for a walk on the common and talked to himself for a bit). 

sunday he doesn't know what he will get up to. it's a rainy and grey day so far

monday and we are back to the conventional formulation of the (working) week. 

on monday horsemouth will tell you a story about him and howard recording demos 2 years ago for the next horsemouthfolk album.  

on tuesday there's a kafka quote from 1915

on wednesday antonia white dies (1980)

on thursday the anniversary of another day of work on the demos. 

on friday horsemouth does not know

on saturday the anniversary of a duo gig and probably the 2000th published blogpost (of this series). 

mixing memory and desire ('here is the man with three staves, and here the wheel')

this is another 'completely written in the morning blogpost'. as usual it was a beautiful dawn but now the sun has ascended up into the clouds it becomes another greyish day. interesting, changeable weather this afternoon possibly heavy rain tonight. 

horsemouth posted the opening of the wasteland  

'april is the cruellest month' etc. - 

previously he has used only the london bridge scene (he would take people to london bridge and intone 'I could not believe death had undone so many'  and then take them up king william street to st.mary woolnoth (a hawksmoor no less). 

'here is the man with three staves, and here the wheel'

is it wrong of horsemouth to hear the motto of the sirius cybernetics corporation in his head everytime  he comes to share and embed a youtube video in one of his pages? everytime now he hears share and enjoy, share and enjoy... 

RIP drummer albert "tootie" heath of the heath brothers. he died at 88 a few days ago. he played on this (as sampled by q-tip for a push-button mixtape and used as a backing track by nas for one love).

elsewhere hawkwind are off on tour, releasing a new album.  the chemistry is never where you think it is, it's a funny thing with bands. 

robin greenfield - who once walked around in a suit made of all the rubbish he generated in his existence - is making a film on school dinners in the US. this is a great idea (horsemouth knows food, and in particular institutional food, is a big bugbear for his friend seven sisters spices). he has been enjoying reading her substacks, sometimes about food, sometimes about the mechanics of social media marketing, sometimes about the struggles of surviving and thriving in this deeply unjust world. 

hmmn. horsemouth  once saw ian saville (was it?) the marxist magician who explained the labour theory of value with some kind of black box rabbit out of a hat trick ((the rabbit is not a worker - but he is a factor of production horsemouth believes) but horsemouth is not sure even this was a complete enough description of the process). 

in many ways horsemouth thinks the days of productive capital and even production are coming to an end (at least in the west) and we are (re)turning to an era of 'do as you're told peasant (and kick up the rent)!' capitalism may be over and is being replaced by rapacious rent seeking.

example: your kids have to go to school by law and there the only food available is  eat  cheap to produce but strangely expensive to provide lunches from a global logistics company (blackwater for example).  it is (as yannis varoufakis argues) something worse than capitalism we are moving from being workers to being merely farmed. 

what is it that horsemouth will remember most from 15 years (nearly) of tory rule? he thinks he will remember the most recent thing (recency effect) - so probably the dick pics, yes dick pics and blackmail. now there's a legacy for you. 

who killed cock pheasant? (wait for the foolishness to run its course)

yesterday horsemouth has had another grumpy day where he couldn't get very much done.

but he did walk into the neighbouring village. (which was vey pretty). 

but he had to walk over the muddy common to get there. (which he cursed)

he's 3 weeks away from a key vote - until he's got it done he won't be happy. 

and once he's got it done it will be back to the same old shit. (unless he goes down to defeat).

all political careers end in failure. 

last night dave webb's excellent radio show a link to which horsemouth will post up as soon as it is available. 

who killed cock pheasant? wednesday horsemouth found him dead upon the road. (there's an end to your rattling). there he lay in all his golden glory dead as a doornail. horsemouth debates writing a comedy song about cooking and eating roadkill. 

today is bandcamp friday. horsemouth promised to recommend the most recent release from jacken elswyth's excellent  betwixt and between and so he will. as usual it was a beautiful dawn but now (as usual) it is rainy and grey (should clear in the afternoon).

'stockpile a few bags of rice, grow some more vegetables on the allotment (and some flowers), walk the dog, wait for the foolishness to run its course. at the end of it all we emerge sadder and wiser...'

so horsemouth remarked about brexit many years ago (back in 2019 he believes). there's more foolishness yet to come horsemouth believes, at the end of the month new import duties come in on food imported from the EU (wave goodbye to the cheese). er. won't that drive up inflation. won't people just view it as the final fucking straw when they can't afford their camembert?

milk taken over to the fridge in the garage. hens let out. 

good life good life good life good life good life

yesterday horsemouth spent some time dealing with a chimney sweep. the guy got  up on the roof to clear the vine from off and out of the chimney (which, to be fair, is what it has needed for a while but neither horsemouth nor his brother had fancied doing).  there was an airgap between the back of the stove and the chimney - this probably explains how smoky it got in the living room when a fire is lit. he moved the CO detector closer to the fireplace. 

later horsemouth went for a wander on the even more exceptionally muddy than usual common and stomped around in high dudgeon for a while. then he took the eggs down to the house by the crossroads and then took the rubbish bin down to the bottom of the drive so it can be emptied by the council in the  morning. (remind him to bring the bins back up)

his mum is still ill with a cough and cold. they are off into town early next week maybe  (assuming she makes some recovery so she can sign some paperwork (week 2 of april)  - horsemouth may avail himself of this to nip down to the wen (a friend is visiting). 

he may then nip back sharpish for week 3 of april (strangely like january a month with a monday the 1st) before returning midweek week 4 for the annual general meeting of the communal endeavour - in an ideal world horsemouth would then hang around long enough to vote in the london mayoral election (slightly over a week)  before returning to the green and pleasant land of weirdshire via one of its four railway stations (or possibly a nearby welsh one). 

we will then be into freshe mai.  

horsemouth's strategy is to pretend that he likes things (even when he doesn't) in the hope that there is an easier way through other than conflict. he is sad to say that a lot of the time that works. 

it is the good life day - a show which ran from 4th april 1975 until 10th june 1978.  it is a dream of escape from the rat race, it was this and survivors really.  and like all the apocalypses it seemed to point to a way out. and the good life  wasn't an apocalypse, it was a comedy, it was hopeful and charming. 

today a rainy horrible morning. 

'today was a sad end for our horsemouth' (rent rises debated)

'more cryptic even than usual...' remarked a friend. 'are you giving up the blogosphere?'

there's a series of AI ads featuring celebrities where they seem to endorse some cryptocurrency/ foreign exchange trading scheme and so lose their jobs in tv. horsemouth is just parking this here to use it for a blog title. 

so yes the blogs will continue.

john sinclair former manager of the mc5, poet and revolutionary has died. a doer and a thinker, a mover and a shaker. 

'tenants and residents in social housing are suffering just as those in the private rented sector. last year, the vast majority of housing associations utilised the maximum scope allowed by government and increased their rents by 7%. these inflated rents will rise again this year by 7.7%...'

- suzanne muna, secretary, the social housing action campaign, letters guardian, 31st march 2024. 

horsemouth would take exception to the characterisation of these rents as 'inflated' - the rent rises are where they need to be given the current structures of the housing associations etc. and the tasks they face, it is just, in that classical brechtian reverse, that the poor cannot afford to pay them.   

'four million children living in poverty, mostly in private rental properties, does not move MPs.' - that's exactly right (though horsemouth is not suggesting there is any secret reason for this) and; 

'even the labour party, which once would have been seen as the renters’ party, is largely indifferent to their plight, as demonstrated by (sir) keir starmer’s opposition to sadiq khan’s proposed rent controls.' - that's exactly right too. (both derrick joad, leeds, guardian letters, same day). 

horsemouth is a little nonplussed as to why some fucker in leeds is studying sadiq khan's policies - there are few examples of movements to the left of labour, but maybe more are coming. 

the management committee of the communal endeavour are recommending a 6% rent rise to the members - the members are free to vote to refuse it if they wish (however should for each 1% of the rent rise they refuse that's £6k off the surplus, off the co-op's ability to do what needs to be done for the members). 

yet another 'wholly written in the morning' blogpost

 it's yet another 'wholly written in the morning' blogpost. 

and what a beautiful morning it is - bright sunshine, cold crisp air, dew/ frost/ mist. bbc weather says good until mid-afternoon (thereafter it goes to shit). sunday looks pretty decent. tuesday it can't make its mind up. 

yesterday a wander up on the common (dog walkers assemble), a wander down to the abbey (the cows and calves are let out into the fields - much noise, much running about).  

horsemouth has no specific tasks today. yesterday he planted two trees, planted two fruit bushes, moved two benches (with a wheelbarrow and with much swearing). 

- you know that train factory of yours?

- yes

- couldn't you just sort of mothball it for a bit while we try and decide when to have an election? (because after the election it will be the other lot's problem).

the HS2 debacle continues to give. now the government wants to delay purchasing the high speed trains (almost like they believe they won't be in office anymore after the next election). meanwhile the inflammable cladding thing drags on. 

horsemouth guesses we have to wait for another fire. 

what will he do today? he doesn't know. he will go get another cup of coffee and think about it. 

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great! horsemouth has lost his temper and had to go off for a stomp around the  very muddy common. the phonecall is booked and from here on it's not horsemouth's problem. 

the british summer time paradox

yesterday horsemouth was greeted upon awakening by the british summer time paradox (what time is it really?). sometime around 1pm he started gingerly wandering round the house pressing the reset button on the radio controlled clocks and merely resetting the others by hand.

in the morning horsemouth will turn the page on two countryfile calendars, a calendar with lots of photos of his brother's family and the dore abbey calendar. ok he's done one of the countryfile calendars and the dore abbey one already (april is already looking like a busy month but it will in fact be comparatively empty really). 

april is a 30 day month. 

week one begins with horsemouth reminding two of his housemates that there's the electricity and gas to pay for the month. (tbh everybody is pretty good about paying up - but not always so good at telling horsemouth that they have paid up). 

ofgem have announced that the new price cap (which limits what you pay for gas or electricity on a variable rate plan) will be £1,690 for a year, dual fuel, for  a typical household, for the 3 month period april, may, june 2024. a decrease of £238 on the year. the price cap is likely to be lower again for july to september but then rise again in october (in time for winter and higher usage says horsemouth cynically). 

this should enable horsemouth to leave the payments at the existing level (if not perhaps the lower level he was hoping for). the rate per kwh has gone down but the standing charges per day for both of the fuels have gone up. 

a friend is visiting (in week two) ideally horsemouth would get back into town to see him. 

the carbuncle towards the end of the month (week four)  is the annual general meeting  of the communal endeavour (the one where horsemouth gets to present the rent rise). already he's beginning to regret turning over the page on the calendar as his head fills up with the usual communal endeavour paranoia.  

the trick is not to catastrophise and worry over it. (not that horsemouth can help himself really). 

this is also the week of  the abbey rota. 

ok horsemouth will leave it now until the morning to see if he has any better thoughts then. 

it is the morning. it looks as if it rained overnight. the bbc weather says probably rain in the afternoon. it's a bank holiday monday horsemouth believes. there's some sun.