books, films, gigs, events august 2024

books 

- robert holdstock, mythago wood (finished)

- don and moki cherry, organic music society (dips)

- the honourable john byng, tour into sussex 1788

-  sherlock holmes (sir arthur conan doyle), the blue carbuncle, 'the speckled band, the five orange pips, the man with the twisted lip

- a fire in dagenham (GDN, various other news sources)

- vera stanley alder, from the mundane to the magnificent (introduction and start)

- a marina warner review of love's work by gillian rose 

- NLR caitlin doherty on the prospects for starmerism, luke roberts on amelia rosselli's 'sleep' , anton jager on british pogromism

- research on the franklin barnes building in hereford and its sculptor trevor warton

- blackstone the largest provider of newly built affordable housing in the uk story and wage growth has slowed to its slowest in two years, spray foam insulation, nova gorica article, george clarke on washington tyne-and-wear, adrian horton's film review of the documentary war game. all the guardian.

- aeron bergman and alejandra salinas,  telepathy (start)

- max ochs, interviewed by tompkins square, january 2005

- LRB seamus heaney on osip and nadezhda mandelstam 

films

- nick drake documentary

-  gustav holst 'neptune'

- a LRB discussion of 'love's work' by gillian rose 

- dave davies  interviewed by alistair campbell and rory stewart

- book pilled top five books this year, outlaw bookseller taking a break from bibliomania

- IFS on why universities are in financial trouble

- LRB podcast on osip and nadezhda mandelstam

- skills builder 'labour's big housing mistake'

- interview with judee sill film-makers

- radio 4, grenfell: building a disaster podcasts

- bloomberg originals. how private equity ate britain 

- NYRB vids (various book-tubers)

gigs

lou and leo, the water chorus and (of course) musicians of bremen

events

richard and stass and dog visit, visits to london to rehearse and play gig, enza's birthday, various events in the year of alice leading up to the ravi coltrane gig in detroit midnight august 30th. distant sounds mixcloud release.

the further adventures of the musical commodity beyond the walls of death

'now I have to pay to download my own songs...'

a friend has discovered that somebody somewhere has made an album of a live radio session their band did back in 2008 and placed it on the free music archive (FMA). 

'to increase the value of music sharing, FMA visitors can compensate artists directly, when possible, with the different monetization models each FMA artists are able to enable on their artist page...'

so who is getting compensated for the plays? a defunct record company. 

it is (however) still getting played and listened to by someone somewhere, that at least is a good thing (horsemouth supposes). 

elsewhere 'everything is stacked against grass roots bands at this time' remarks a scenester and  a ska singer out on tour soon reposts it. elsewhere a discussion of what 'interpolation' might mean (it means the creator of the tune gets paid but doesn't get a song-writing credit when their tune is used in another musicians song). 

attali's view was the the economy of music was ahead of the rest of the economy (so er. that's bad news for the rest of us coming sometime maybe). once horsemouth had more to say about this sort of thing but then the world caught up and it just seemed churlish to mention it. 

horsemouth failed to stay up late to try and listen to ravi coltrane and brandee younger live from the detroit jazz festival (result! he's found it on youtube! he'll maybe try some other stuff later on today). 

severe weather conditions caused the gig to be a livestreamed only performance.

horsemouth has been up and released and fed the chickens and watered the tomatoes. it's a greyish morning (hopefully it will improve). it looks ok today on bbc weather (and then rubbish for the next two and a half days). it looks not too bad out til friday 13th. 

yesterday horsemouth walked over to the village and he also walked down to the post-box and back with his mum. 

in a tower with bats

horsemouth is back from the bell-ringing, this time  in the bell-tower of dore abbey - there were bats (horseshoe bats he was told, too early for pipistrelles apparently). and after the bell-ringing off to the pub. 

it's a beautiful morning and the valley is full of mist. horsemouth has taken the milk over to the fridge in the garage and made coffee. 

horsemouth must say he enjoyed roger barnes' series on converting and insulating a french townhouse (and will gladly watch more when roger gets round to making them)

in the first one there's a very smart discussion of the problems with insulating old houses. 

'if we are to save the planet no amount of new buildings will do it, not in europe anyway where we have a huge ancient housing stock,  we have to upgrade our old buildings and make their thermal performance better...' 

the seed of it is probably here. he also does lots of these small dinghy sailing videos but, while these are pretty,  horsemouth is less interested in them. horsemouth is still waiting for the improving of the thermal performance of the communal endeavour's property to begin. 

today is friday (just to check). saturday a dilemma. 

'unless we get that full investment amount we are not going to be able to secure economic growth, we are not going to be able to build the 1.5m homes that we desperately need and we are not going to be able to end the sewage flowing into our seas...' - david henderson, the chief executive of water uk. 

the problem is that the water industry was allegedly privatised precisely to get these capital inflows  but they chose to make payments to their shareholders and CEOs instead. and now, having run the system into the ground,  they want to raise water bills by exorbitant amounts (and bounce the costs of doing it all on ordinary working shmoes). 

now horsemouth has (courtesy of a video by skills builder) argued that the 1.5 million homes in 5 years target cannot be fulfilled, it's 1000 homes a working day for five years. nonetheless there is a recognition that housing needs to be built (because again the market has neglected to do it). 

so this evening, or tonight, or (more accurately) tomorrow morning (streamed beginning at 12am - well midnight anyway, uk time) the detroit jazz festival presents translinear light (the music of alice coltrane with ravi coltrane. brandee younger and reggie workman.  

on the difficult choices

one of howard's golden glow mixes from this day in 2018; 

'the first half is pretty much jazz standards all the way. second half is more about the alice coltrane/ pharaoh sanders legacy.'

looks like this is going to be a (mostly) written in the morning blogpost. 

alice coltrane will be having an exhibit in LA in february to may next year. hopefully there will be a catalogue. there's some electric miles (sshh  or however many s's and h's that is) in howard's mix which clearly bears the influence of john mclaughlin. 

what did he get up to in the day yesterday? he took the eggs round to a neighbour. he walked the recycling bin down the drive. he attempted to relay the paving slabs in the garden closer to one of the raised beds and put the wooden edging next to it so that his mum has a path with clearer and more reliable footing (sadly with only a very moderate success it must be admitted).

it is the morning. horsemouth has checked the recycling bin (it has not yet been emptied). he has fed the chickens. there has been a heavy-ish dew but horsemouth doesn't know if that is enough to get him excused watering. yesterday he harvested some peas and some carrots and had them for dinner, they were most tasty but the quantities were not huge. there were quite a few tomatoes. 

on the difficult choices

it is all very well to say you have wracked your brains and can't see another way through but to borrow, tax and cut, your problem is that the population are frankly a bit mutinous (and you are short on prison spaces). the troubles of the past fourteen years (and longer) are in part due to a right wing media stirring the pot, they are in part due to persistent ruling class incompetence, but they are also due to a mutinous  people and the struggles of the populace to achieve political representation. people have been getting poorer in real terms all that time and society has been getting progressively less and less equal. 

the economy requires work to be done and it requires productivity but it also requires that people spend money and consume and as more and more people fall into poverty they cannot do this. 

it's no good having the solutions to these problems ready to go in your second term - the people cannot afford to wait. 

another round of austerity is not the difficult choice it is the easy one (it is the one sanctified by the economists an the already wealthy and the poor do not have the political representation or the class power to defend themselves). the difficult choice would be to tax the wealthy and the powerful and deal with the backlash in the media.

the one can of course provide cover for the other. 

today a shuffle round the garden and in the evening some bell-ringing. 

messianic managerialism. prodigal pragmatists (sent back to oversee decline)

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

the attack upon the house by the brother (mythago wood)

'happy belated' said the girl in clapton ticket office (she asked him if he had done anything nice for it, horsemouth replied that he had played a gig). 

later girls wandered through paddington with angels wings. 

horsemouth, as an oldie and by virtue of a route involving evesham, can now travel back and forth to his mum's for about half cost of what it used to cost him to go via the newport route. this is good news. horsemouth misses the travel announcements in welsh (maybe they will be reinstated on the train worcester foregate street to hereford). 

the train was incredibly crowded on the journey up to oxford (where it emptied out in a giant flood of tourism). at some point horsemouth was joined by a posh beavis and butthead who brayed away behind his head (you can imagine his joy). 

in addition to kingham, morton in the marsh, honeybourne,  evesham, pershore  etc. horsemouth also travelled back through the somewhat generically named worcestershire parkway (soon to be the site of a new town).  at worcester shrub hill he got his chance to examine the victorian waiting rooms.

everything was going swimmingly for horsemouth until he hit hereford - and realised that not only were there no buses on a sunday on his route, there were also no buses on a bank holiday either (and the day was a bank holiday). it took him a while to satisfy himself that that was indeed the case and then he headed off in search of a taxi. 

the taxi brought him to home at greater expense than the journey to london and back by train. the fellow was a cheerful fellow and had lived in solihull  before hereford. horsemouth should probably have haggled him down or stomped off to a different taxi rank but at least now he knows. 

until that point horsemouth was ahead on the day financially - now he's behind and will have to struggle hard to catch back up. 

horsemouth has put up the book-box he brought back. as you can see he has basically gone up another level on where he was before. the box contains a number of books on music of a folky nature; edward lee's music of the people, derek bailey's improvisation, le roi jones (amiri baraka)'s blues people, ronald blythe's akenfield, maud karpeles' an introduction to english folk song. walker's a history of music in england, dearnley's english church music 1650-1750, ralph vaughn-williams and bert lloyd's the penguin book of english folk songs, woods' folk revival, james reeves' the idiom of the people, christina hole's a dictionary of british folk customs, kosser's how to become a successful nashville songwriter, douglas kennedy's england's dances,  step change: new views of traditional dance edited by georgina boyes, 

ghd cole and raymond postgate's the common people, john anthony scott's the ballad of america. phew that's it. 

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'work had been under way to remove non-compliant cladding on the flats, the BBC reported, adding the fire brigade had said the building had a “number of fire safety issues” known to officials. the cause of the fire is not yet known...'

a fire out in dagenham overnight. it is, of course, only a matter of time before there is a rerun of grenfell with a similar death toll because most of that cladding is still out there. there was another flat fire in blackwall as well, but here's the thing, it didn't spread up the entire building. 

in robert holdstock's   mythago wood  august 27th is the date of the attack upon the house by the brother. horsemouth finds that his brother has pressure washed the brickwork round the house and out-dutifulled him. 

organic music societies

how has horsemouth been recovering from the gig?

well he went over to howard's for a debrief. it was carnival time and the people were on the move. (looking good people. looking good.)

at howard's they mostly sat in the back garden and talked. howard fed him (fakemeat sausages, fried egg, toast, baked beans, humous, avocado, salad, finely chopped red onions), it was most tasty. it was exactly what horsemouth needed - though the orange juice, paracetamol, coffee and toast he had had in the morning were most useful also. 

howard has the don and moki cherry book organic music societies. (hey did you realise mu's 1 and 2 were recorded on august 22nd 1969?). this is almost a bill laswellian album title. but with laswell it would be a hollow title (nagual sacred site, ritual beating system etc.). where as don cherry has a philosophy of music making.

"the organic music society period is the beating heart of don cherry’s oeuvre, in that the music recorded does not belong to him, but was communally created – the ecstatic, multisensory, and communal manifestation of his mantra 'this is not my music'. the album organic music society is just one artefact from this crucial period." - jennifer lucy allan, the quietus. 

horsemouth should have borrowed it as proposed.

today horsemouth returns to the wilds. 

he is packing his wheelie bin (is he doing it right?). are these the right books (because it is almost entirely books) to take? 

he would have hung around longer in town (there's fun to be had and people to see no doubt) but events (as they say).  once again he has failed to do all he could do (but ah well). 

it's the morning. horsemouth has his coffee. 

gig done (now to recover)

horsemouth is back from the gig. though it did take him a while to remember quite how he got back on his way back himself and neil had popped out for a sneaky last pint. he thinks he can visualise the route - he was at the kebab place (falafel wrap) and then would have headed up towards lower clapton at that point he would have (inadvisedly) dived off down the first road which turfed him out, to his surprise, near the bottom of chatsworth road (from there his feet would have known the way). 

the gig went well (only one song broadbury down crashed and burned. this was because howard added an unauthorised harmony vocal).  all my dreams got an outing. eyepennies got an outing. amarach got an outing. an all new set with some attempt to sing harmonies. 

this is dangerous for horsemouth because he's not a strong singer and gets easily towed off the ground. 

now the other two acts harmonies were immaculate - the water chorus  and lou and leo. it was waterintobeer's 8th birthday, horsemouth thanks martin for booking them. lou's album launch is soon. the water chorus did a song about living and working on canal boats that had the same tune as champion at keeping them rolling (which itself lifts the tune of the limerick rake - hard working boater sung by david blagrove).

anyway. he's back he's ok. but he's got to be back off to the wilds on monday (so let him know if you want to catch up). 

'but for writing I should have been very melancholy' (gigday)

it's the afternoon of the previous day. a slightly headache-y horsemouth blogs this. he returns to the wen via newport today to play a gig in brockley. see you there peoples! 

(hmmn. looks like the weather will be shit - bring an umbrella)

24th august 1788

'at half past nine o'clock... I left lewes by the upper road. to the village of offham two miles, at the foot of the south downs...' 

byng's holiday is over. he is on his way back. on the first day he makes it as far as godstone (where he is very satisfied with the inn). tomorrow night he will reach croydon. 

'however, but for writing I should have been very melancholy. journalizing, when done alone, is always a solace.' 

the present day

it's a rainy morning (it will be a rainy day). horsemouth's brother and his wife are here (having arrived last night). later horsemouth's brother will be giving him a lift into abergavenny to get the train back. horsemouth will then be going from west to east across the wen and then from east to south east. 

and then it will be gig time ladies and gentlemen. he does look forward to seeing you. 

a wholly written in the morning blogpost and an interesting day

 a wholly written in the morning blogpost.

horsemouth has a slight headache that he is medicating with coffee. 

back on this day in 1788 byng, his wife, her lover windham II and windham's dog  wowski are off to brighton.

'brighton appeared in a fashionably unhappy bustle, with such a harpy set of painted harlots as to appear to me as bad as bond street in the spring...'   

byng will be back in london by the 26th returning through east grinstead and croydon. 

yesterday an interesting day

horsemouth spent it in A&E with his mum. a small slip on the stairs. no major consequences but problematic nonetheless. horsemouth does not drive so the only way to town and the hospital was by ambulance and the only way back was by taxi. 

after that excitement horsemouth sunk a bottle of beer and listened to webb dave's industrial ambient dub type show (it should appear soon in the archive) having posted an album of recordings of his new instrument yesterday. 

today in politics? 

the big news is probably the energy price cap rise. horsemouth thinks his lot are ok - the price rises will be paid for from the old direct debit  figure. of course the not as poor OAPs will lose their winter fuel allowance. 

also to be announced a 10-year formula to calculate social rent rises on homes. rents will increasing every year by CPI plus 1%.

this implicitly removes some of the protections for tenants in high inflation years but it also means the government promises not to  rerun the raid they made on housing association finances by about 5% of rent roll. according to the national housing federation rents are now 15% lower in real terms than they were in 2015. 

given the benefits cap and the continuation of the two child policy how this will actually affect poorer families is above horsemouth's paygrade.

the weather looks good(ish) today. horsemouth will probably travel back to the wen tomorrow and gig in the evening. (there's an argument for him to come back on the monday as well). 

it is the birthday of leroy 'horsemouth' wallace, john lee hooker, claude debussy and czech novelist ladislav klima.

 22nd august 1788

'up at 8 o'clock; a dark rainy morning... so my morning passed until 10 o'clock, when I grew restless to be abroad...'

byng is expecting a visit from his wife and son (ID seems to have headed back to london - 'ID expressed a wish to return instantly to london, I could but instantly assent.')

meanwhile byng wanders round lewes. the ancient church of st.john he disdains (disdaining its modernisation, in any event it was to be entirely rebuilt in 1839, replacing the 11th-century predecessor, only a chancel arch and a doorway survive), the old small church of st.morland he did not disdain (but horsemouth cannot find a reference for it). 

mrs. byng, byng's son henry, and byng's wife's lover william windham II arrive that afternoon and the boy is taken over to the boarding school he may be staying at. the others will all journey over to brighthelmstone the next day. 

but first an alarm in the night;

'when we had been some time in bed our room door was forced open by drunkards, which alarmed mrs. byng exceedingly.' 

the present day

it is the birthday of leroy 'horsemouth' wallace, john lee hooker, claude debussy and czech novelist ladislav klima. what an auspicious day! we miss the birthday of slide guitar king  elmore james by one day.

oh dear tragedy. something has had one of the chickens. horsemouth found its slightly mangled corpse at the top of the field. he buried it in a sack and put the water tank ontop of it (until he can find a suitable stone to stop it from being dug up and nibbled at). 

normally (it is morning) horsemouth would be letting the chickens out but they are keeping them in until his mother is up. they will presumably keep a better eye on them during the day. he thinks the chicken is one of the 'old' chickens i.e. it dates back to the last fox fuelled wipeout. 

such is the price of eggs. 

the struggle to remember

in honour of the blue moon gustav holst's neptune. 

 21st of august 1788

'we have never been in much haste, nor has it been necessary for our intentions or suitable to our equipments. today we have but a very short way in our idea...' 

byng and ID travel the short distance from horsebridge to lewes. at lewes byng thinks they should put up at the bear but they continue on to the white hart inn. despite getting some tasty fish there and good port byng and ID are not satisfied.

they spend their time wandering round lewes, up to the castle,  the priory ruins, the downs and the race course. 

horsemouth types this in the evening. 

he can see the super blue moon (he couldn't see it last night because of the clouds).

horsemouth types this in the morning. 

some photos have emerged from the great photocloud of memory. they are of an afternoon party round at howard and maria's famous roof garden. 

horsemouth, howard, maria, darsavini, mark bell, various others. (the shoulder and feet of tim savage appear horsemouth thinks). 

horsemouth (seen here with darsavini) struggled to remember when this was. he guessed more than 10 years but it is in fact more like 20. howard dates it as  saturday september 24th 2005.  

horsemouth would still have been going out to drum and bass nights - to grooverider's grace  on a sunday. he would often play together by logistics first or second tune of the set. he loses contact with the scene when he moves back up to hackney. 

mark bell and howard (who had made music together as hoof & malbo available here and in improv settings) photographed here stood up. 

horsemouth thinks this is himself chatting to maria (it could be her swiss/ czech mate (mariushka?) but horsemouth thinks not). 

other photos show martin, paul mazon, max, and laura. if mark was there nas would have been there. 

'we have been braying about these four days' (from the mundane to the magnificent)

20th of august 1788 

byng and ID are in the town of battle. 

 'our hour of rising is regularly at seven o'clock. before breakfast I walked up the town, where searching a bookseller's shop I turned over a large collection of pamphlets; but they were all theological. after breakfast we entered the abbey domain...' 

they visit the abbey and then make their way to horsebridge (visiting on their way the ruined manor house of hurstmonceux). 

'our host's name at winchelsea was bray, the same at battle, and so is our host at horsebridge, all relations, we have been braying about these four days.' 

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

a blue super moon last night (behind the clouds). horsemouth has taken to reading vera stanley alder's from the mundane to the magnificent. noted mystic vera is stuck in the countryside during the second world war, she's a land-girl, she digs for victory, the bombers fly overhead. oops. she's just started having a visitation. (p.22)

allegedly her writing inspired jon anderson to write his olais of sunhillow (horsemouth is enjoying the incidental music from this, the tracks where jon doesn't sing). 

horsemouth has to admit that love's work by gillian rose is one  of the best books he's ever read.  a ‘masterpiece of the autobiographer’s art’ (said edward said).  here's a review. it was a recommendation from a youngster at the crisis group. horsemouth needs to pick up another copy, his has gone west. her book is many other books also - it is susan sontag's illness and metaphor. 

here the sun is breaking through the clouds. it has rained in the night (horsemouth is excused watering). he has taken the milk over to the fridge in the garage and taken the scraps over to the chickens. 

'the cut worm forgives the plough'/ 'all that is solid melts into air'

19th of august 1788

'the morning opened heavily and threatened bad weather, but soon cleared up, we prepared for our march...

the descent into hastings is very pleasant, but the hastings town is narrow streeted and ill-paved. at the further end of the main street, and near the sea, is the swan, the principal  inn. here we ordered for our dinner the old fare, for no fish is to be had.'

and so on to the town of battle and uncomfortable lodgings at the half moon alehouse.

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

horsemouth has failed in his getting out and about to such cultural events as exist (an organ recital in the abbey. a cafe in the village hall, two girls playing harps in a distant church in craswall). this has made him grumpy (or more grumpy than he would usually be). he's now going to get a cup of tea and a sandwich before contemplating the afternoon's endeavours. 

'a terraced house in burnley pays more than a mansion in kensington'. now there's a game of monopoly for you! but such is the nature of the council tax and local government funding.  

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

in addition to watching footage of the rioting horsemouth has been watching the usual round of self-justification of the political class. first off dave davies (horsemouth envies the warmth of his self-regard) as interviewed by alistair campbell and rory stewart. rory clearly doesn't like him but having been hailed as a fellow 'wolf' campbell is indulgent. davies is surprisingly persuasive. 

more interesting was dominic cummings. now horsemouth holds that during covid cummings was our saviour, the one who actually persuaded boris to take us into lockdown (you can tell this because he didn't get a gong). when the covid inquiry report is published it will (of course) all be cummings' fault (in the negative sense) because he swore at a few civil servants (if that). 

horsemouth is a great fan of blake's aphorism 'the cut worm forgives the plough'  from the proverbs of hell - he succumbs easily to the romance of development, of watching all that is solid melts into air (a line that is not in the german original). 

here a grey morning (possibly autumnal). horsemouth has posted a further note upon substack.  the fish man is due to come. (the fish man has been).

that howard mix is back after audio correction. it still starts with that genius chiwonisu track. thereafter it's all new to horsemouth, excepting perhaps shabnam majeed singing dil cheez? (before bally sagoo got to it). 

 

'at least no one speaks of a classless society anymore...'

18th august 1788

byng and ID spend the day in winchelsea. the next day he remarks,

'we did right, however, in staying here... as few places can equal winchelsea for its views, situation and antiquities... there are three of the most ancient of gateways of entrance existing; one fine old priory church; a prison, formerly part of the priory; the monastery... and on the sea-marsh the blockhouse castle.' 

now horsemouth used to have a book on the cinque ports (winchelsea was one of the associated two antient towns, the other being rye).

'natural causes such as the silting of harbours and the withdrawal of the sea did much to undermine them...'

at least they didn't go the way of dunwich. 

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

'... messianic managerialism. prodigal pragmatists sent back to oversee decline. at least no one speaks of a classless society anymore...' - caitlin doherty on the prospects for starmerism. 

yesterday a visit from richard and stass (and the dog)

they went for a walk up on the common up via dick's pitch then up to the fussell bench. they then returned to tea and biscuits in the conservatory. horsemouth reported that he was reading less and spending more time farting about on the internet. the discussed the prospects for the incoming labour government (not a lot) and their joy at the green party victory in north herefordshire. (the exiting tory mp had allegedly asked for a recount, the returning officer had remarked that given the scale of the majority there was no chance.)  

mind you the tory mp in the south of hereford didn't get in by that much. 

translinear light (some kind of flower)

 17th august 1788

'a dark day with howling wind unpleasant for tourists, nor were we in haste for departure..'  

byng leaves late and visits sandhurst and the square castle at bodiam. he gets caught by the rain at puts up  the red lion alehouse by the bridge over the rother,

'I journalized for a long time in a clean white-washed parlour, and often conversed with the kitchen company; at every five minutes looking out at the weather which continued a pelting storm...' 

eventually he drives on through the rain to the bells in the village of northiam.

'as the rain continued, I was forced to abide here the reading of two country papers; and from my landlord, on my inquiry, the history of an old mansion house at the village end.'

then on through beckley and peasemarsh to rye. 

ID 'the celebrated pedestrian' was waiting for him at the george in rye but dissatisfied with the inn wanted to move directly to another (which they did) moving on to the new inn at winchelsea. 

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

it is the morning. horsemouth has just been out to open up the chicken shed and feed the scraps to the chickens. it is a cool morning and it looks like it will be a glorious day (bbc weather predicts sunny in the morning and afternoon and dry all day). 

horsemouth always wondered about the sculpture on the franklin barnes building (formerly a farm and garden supplies store) in hereford. apparently it was by trevor warton (about whom horsemouth can find out very little). horsemouth's dad worked in the franklin barnes building while he was with the VAT in hereford (to be honest he tried to be there as little as possible). currently there is proposal to use it as part of the new university. 

the sculpture is of some kind of flower (but in a modern style). 

the detroit jazz festival opens on august 30th with a concert titled translinear light: the music of alice coltrane featuring ravi coltrane with special guests brandee younger, reggie workman, and the detroit jazz festival chamber orchestra. 

7:00 – 8:15 p.m. translinear light – the music of alice coltrane  carhartt amphitheater stage - hart plaza

it is  free and looks like it may even be streamed  sort of midnight uk time.

alice's harp has been restored and will be being played. 

horsemouth's reading of mythago wood goes well (as does his john byng itinerary). today a slight chance some friends will show up. if not there may be a zoom call. etc. etc. 

last night a bell-ringing night

16th august 1788

'at  seven o'clock I awoke my neighbour...' 

byng and his companion (the 'famous pedestrian' ID) have reached tonbridge. after a night in the rose and crown make a visit to summerhill before setting off down the rye road to pembury and the ruined bayham abbey. 

'the ruins, though sadly dilapidated and disfigured from being used as a garden, are yet of great beauty, with many arches, remains of chapels and some fragments of tombs. a proprietor of gothic taste would render it solemn and pleasing, where as at present it is glaring and fantastic.' 

they stop for dinner at the chequers public house in lamberhurst and by evening they have reached the queen's head in highgate (above flimwell). there byng drinks port wine to drive out a cold. 

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

'blackstone has been the largest provider of newly built affordable housing in the country (the uk) for the last three years...'  - james seppala, the head of real estate europe at blackstone. 

should an american private equity firm own so much british housing? 

the key issue is that every stage  money is leaving the cycle and not being reinvested in creating anything like enough new and genuinely affordable housing (aka. social housing) or to maintain what exists. now whatever remaining risks there are have been bounced by blackstone onto the pension funds (presumably at the point of maximum profitability because this is the point of private equity firms).

horsemouth did not get up at 7am. it was more like 9am. last night a bell-ringing night (horsemouth is only learning)  and he  ended up in the dog playing pool. (so once again he is slow out of bed this morning). 

'I date with as much particularity as if my writings were to be read, or quoted hereafter...'

the honourable john byng's  tour into sussex was conducted from the 15th to the 26th of august 1788 - a journey through tonbridge, rye, hastings, brighton, lewes and back through croydon.

his editor, david souden, says this of byng's writing;

'his travel journals are a day to day account of his sightseeing and his feelings, written up from notes made at the time, which he intended for his family and for others who cared to read his opinions. occasionally, one suspects that he hoped that posterity would heed his views.' 

horsemouth will endeavour to follow his itinerary. 

15th august 1788

'at seven o'clock on friday morning, august 15th 1788 (for I date with as much particularity as if my writings were to be read, or quoted hereafter), I mounted this famous poney at westminster bridge...' 

byng sets off from westminster bridge (having walked there with his wife).

'the sky, the wind, were all sweetness and serenity. long, lazy, lewisham, might have been well named formerly, but now it is a smart village and the stream is turned out of the road...'

he travels with a 'famous pedestrian'  known her only as I.D. (he meets him at the bell inn in bromley). their route takes them via madams court hill, pratts bottom, richmore hill, riverhead and the royal oak inn at sevenoaks before they make it to tonbridge. 

on the first day make it as far as the rose and crown inn in tonbridge (probably this one - they were not impressed by the facilities). 

more tomorrow when they are off down the rye road. 

horsemouth's accessions diary 14/08/24 (visit to hereford)

- robert holdstock mythago wood (rspca £1.50). now this is a book he has heard about and seen but never read. it was around at the same time as christopher priest's break out novels (dream of wessex, the affirmation etc.). interesting to see that it is set in herefordshire.  it's very much in that alan garner mode.  

- john clare selected letters (oxfam £4). john clare is another person who does great walks (in his case back from the lunatic asylum in epping forest to his home in  northborough). 

- a. wainright a pictorial guide to the lakeland fells (book 6, un-named charity shop - £3.99). it is all hand-drawn and hand-lettered. this was mentioned in a graphics design course that horsemouth once took notes on. it is indeed a thing of beauty and it is dedicated 'to those unlovely twins my right leg and my left leg staunch supporters that have carried me about  for over half a century, endured much without complaint  and never once let me down.' 

‘I’ve met seven housing ministers (one of them twice)’

‘I’ve met seven housing ministers, one of them twice’ - peter denton, chief executive of homes england.

'yeah, they don't last long do they.' - horsemouth.

how long has been in this job? since 2021. 

ah housing policy - thy name is comedy. 

this may not be an actual quote (and it is almost certainly not what he meant by it) but it has the ring of truth about it. that  the man who leads the government’s housing delivery body typically only gets to meet each housing minister once. 

wage growth has slowed to its slowest for two years (and this in an average skewed by people with high wage rise figures).

adjusting for inflation, wages rose by 1.6%, so after years of below inflation wage rises  workers will experience no real improvement in their standard of living from this. (elsewhere food price inflation remains high). 

more potential workers are becoming economically inactive often due to ill-health, caring responsibilities or (horsemouth would suggest) just because the wage economy is a rigged poker game and anybody who can get out will get out. 

horsemouth is feeling angsty. 

example: he just spent some time trying to figure out a metric for how to divide the money available for the communal endeavour's decarbonisation strategy (stage one - get all the properties to an EPC C) over the properties that need to be got up to an EPC C. the properties contain differing numbers of people and are different EPC scores away from EPC C so dividing it up equally between all the properties is unfair. but how unfair is it really? 

you could work out some kind of metric (number needed to make the EPC score up to a hundred multiplied by the number of people in the house) but then you would have to explain it. 

(really he's just farting about until the reports are in). 

here it is about to rain. horsemouth is tempted to go for a walk. 

ok he's just been out for a 45 minute womble round the common (two women and a dog and some strange farm machinery noise that seemed to vanish as soon as he was actually  up there).

tomorrow (or today as he will soon be calling it) he will be raking off more of the cut vegetation from off the banking. hopefully if it does succeed in raining this will save him having to water the garden. some blackbirds are raiding the last of the berries. 

he has finished installing the book-boxes. 

this is what they look like. when he gets some more book-boxes here he can raise this up some more. he has been thinking about getting his folding shelves here (gaffer tapped to his wheelie trolley) - he thinks it would work. further he has been loading his books into 'bags for life' ready for any move. 

it really was doing an astonishing job of trying not to rain out there ladies and gentlemen. but now it is the morning and the rain and drizzle are here. later today walk some eggs round to some neighbours and later on walk the bins down the drive. the rain replaces the need for horsemouth to water the garden. last night beetroot and peas from the garden for dinner (along with other things). 

this was an almost entirely written yesterday blogpost. 

horsemouth is back in the wilds

an entirely written in the morning blogpost. 

horsemouth dragged his wheelie bin across the baking plains of the park and up the hill to clapton railway station. once he'd wrangled it down the stairs and into the station he got into a flow with it and it all got much easier. he had entered the air conditioned subterranean city (a ticketed region of rapid mass transport). exiting this he found himself at paddington station. 

had he taken his original intended route he would have had to get out of the train at charlbury and get on a rail replacement bus, instead he got his traditional route via newport (this was probably a mistake but it was more convenient). 

at newport there was a sea breeze, at hereford a very efficient dash to the bus stop and then a wait for the bus.

horsemouth is thus back in the wilds. 

once back on the homestead horsemouth brought in the peas (the first lot - he really should have got them in before he went away when they would have been more tender now they will require boiling). he  watered the garden. he dug up some beetroot. the spinach needs sorting out. caterpillars have eaten the cabbage. the runner beans are doing well. he hasn't checked on the damsons yet. 

he has just been out to take the milk to the fridge in the garage. he has realised he should go and let the chickens out. 

he will do this now. get a fresher cup of coffee and return to this blog after he has done that. 

he's back. he's just read an article on the perils of spray foam insulation. 

so what was all this wheelie binning across hackney designed to achieve? the installation you see before you. - horsemouth must install some book storage to enable him to have the books with him that he wants to read. 

he will bring some more next time (of course it is unlikely he can move his whole collection in this manner). 

that said the selection has brought is a bit random including some books he has had for a while but not read - but that might work well

he has brought some notebooks also in case any ideas occur to him. 

his contacts went silent/ the heat descended

'it is no longer enough to lament the populism, or be nostalgic for blair and clinton. it is not enough to campaign on being more serious and diligent than our predecessors. we must change...' - rory stewart, former conservative politician. 

an entirely written in the morning blogpost.

the entirely written in the morning blogpost used to be the unremarked norm but the disappearance of work (and travel to work) has put paid to them. wheras previously horsemouth would make notes towards the morrow's blogpost the day before now he actively types it in the day before and takes great care to maintain the fiction that it is all written on the day on which it is published. 

horsemouth has completed his week in the wen he now returns to the countryside. the train out is not until 1150 but he wants to be on the move early to avoid the heat of the day. 

yesterday he was mostly incapacitated by a) the heat and b) a persistent hangover/ hangxiety. his contacts went silent/ the heat descended. 

last night a slightly disappointing novara media roundtable. the novara media crew aren't from 'the middle of nowhere' as they would put it - they are all from the prosperous south east and from ethnically diverse backgrounds. they think the recent rioting is about the defence of some particularly english history against an encroaching modernity.  but it is not. it is straight out economically determined, people are being driven down into poverty and political marginality (and they don't like it).

peace has been astroturfed. whether it will hold is another matter.  the current ruling class think ' being more serious and diligent than our predecessors' will be enough (horsemouth doesn't think so). 

horsemouth returns to the wilds to watch it all on the ten o'clock news.

in the end he's out on the newport train (it was the idea of getting on and off to do the replacement bus at charlbury that did it). this is about £20 more expensive (so about £10 per journey says horsemouth, getting into psychological bargaining mode). perhaps it gets him into hereford early enough to get an earlier bus out. 

to avoid the heat of the day

it's the morning after and horsemouth's morning walk has cancelled. (maybe they can reschedule for later). in the evening he also has to get in a phonecall to his mum. 

yesterday horsemouth shuffled round the hood and the house before going down to haggerston park to meet myk for a coffee - they discussed the state of the world and absent friends. 

after that it was round to enza's for a birthday party. there was a bit of piano. he was out til about 2am but he doesn't feel too bad on it so far. 

he has his coffee. the sun is shining. he will have to attempt to get in the last of his visitings today (he wants to be away early on the monday to avoid the heat of the day).

horsemouth always gets antsy when it comes time to move. he has discovered he cannot do the railcard (in person) until his actual birthday and may only be able to do a one year railcard (rather than the 3 years for £90 possible online). he's had a shower. he's drinking another can of the free energy drink they were handing out yesterday on the top of broadway market. he will add things as he thinks of them (sorry he's a bit slow today).  

maybe what the world needs is more of his writing

 a 'partially written the day before' blogpost

horsemouth is back from over howard's. they have completed the third and final (in this tranche) of rehearsals for the upcoming musicians of bremen gig on august 24th. 

where is this magical gig you may ask? horsemouth will tell you closer to the date. 

they rehearsed the songs they have been rehearsing of late but in a more efficient 'this is the set... let's play it' fashion. amárach  finally started sounding decent. horsemouth had taken over the resonator guitar and this enabled it to cut through - that and the fact that he was playing it better, and that howard had remembered how to play his bits etc.

of course they still need to do things like copy out and learn the lyrics to all the various songs. horsemouth needs to walk through the guitar part on amárach  again and again and again to try and get it smooth. 

after the practice (and after howard had fed him) horsemouth did not feel like going up the pub so he came home. at stratford the overground was delayed so horsemouth decided to walk back (about two and a half miles across clays lane park and the playing fields). 

it was a bright sunny day. by monday it will be 31C (when horsemouth is struggling back with his book-boxes in a wheely carry-on bag). horsemouth will try and go early. 

==============

so it's the morning. horsemouth has his coffee and it's a bit grey and cool out there (cool if not technically cold). 

there's a music festival in canada water but horsemouth can't find out who's playing. there's on down in greenwich peninsula but the line up looks dull. he's got a birthday party to go to. 

cinemas are funny places. horsemouth no longer goes (he can no longer afford it). mostly  he watches films on youtube/ daily motion (and before that DVDs from the library) this is how he watched the bela tarr movies. a friend was complaining that they are dull it's not eraserhead or stalker or tetsuo iron man granted but they are pleasant enough.  tarr does that black and white and a seedy post-industrial, eastern european vibe very well. horsemouth is not sure there's anything very deep going on but he has enjoyed watching tarr's films.

ok horsemouth will post this, go out to check the powerscroft road book-box (he's going up to drop off the last of his book-haul from the sociology of education stash, excellent it all seems to have gone). he tried to post something up on substack but it seems to have vanished into the stacks - he will try again later. (maybe what the world needs is more of his writing). 

ok he's up some nasturtium fruit (to take back to weirdshire and plant), a book about nina simone's gum, and a small black notebook with some kids scrawls in it. 

between weirdshire and the wen

 another 'written entirely in the morning' blogpost.

horsemouth is struggling with his ears. or rather one ear which is now blocked with wax. he is dumping the drops in it (when he remembers). this hasn't helped with his ostensible reason for being in the seaside towns (which is to rehearse for musicians of bremen's gig on the 24th). yesterday more rehearsing with howard (followed by a pint and a half in the pizza pub).

broadbury down is coming together. the idea of go your way is good. on amarach horsemouth just needs to put the work into relearning all the guitar bits. horsemouth is pessimistic at the minute but he thinks it will all come off well in the end. 

he's off back over there in a bit and he's taking the resonator guitar (the better to take a crack at amarach). 

bookpilled is back at his folks (after some more travel). he reviews his the five best books I've read this year. by pure chance joanna russ's the female man is in there which horsemouth just found in a book-box yesterday. he also found edith piaf: my life (in a rather natty peter owen modern classics golden edition) and a penguin raymond chandler the big sleep. 

as he may have mentioned previously (he can't remember and is not disposed to look) he has a plan to get various of his books back to hereford in a wheeled carry-on bag (from the days when carry-on bags were big) in the wooden wine boxes etc. that he normally stores them in. he has already packed the first one and (furthermore) he has already identified the next (post 24th) load. he also has some folding bookcases that could be gaffer tapped to the trolley to make the journey back another time. of course at some point he has to hire removals persons (because the idea that he is getting even half of this back gaffer tapped to a trolley is a fantasy).

his current plan is to half and half his time in weirdshire and the wen. it has been what he is up to for the past year or so. 

yesterday he called in to see colin at the office of the communal endeavour - things progress - well they will progress after the summer holiday. 

'in nova gorica, the contrasts are immediate'

'in nova gorica, the contrasts are immediate. an airy, green garden city inspired by le corbusier, it was created just 75 years ago as a socialist utopia.'

so horsemouth has seen howard. he has seen ian and sten at the house. he saw his brother last night. he's contacted TG, pete and other hackney bods. there's a plan to see enza. as usual horsemouth is bad at planning ahead. 

yesterday was bright sunshine in the morning but then it clouded over but by this point horsemouth had wasted his morning carting a whole load of books (mostly sociology of education textbooks) from where they had been chucked out near TGs and up to the powerscroft road book box. 

later he went over to aldi (3 miles in total) to stock up on beans and pasta - he doesn't think he will be around long enough to make inroads on potatoes and he still has some rice ready to go. 

he went up to see his brother (his brother fed him). the train up (and the train back) were full of beautiful young SWP types - horsemouth has seen the photos of the crowd (it was big). people horsemouth knows are heartened by the counter demonstrations. there was supposed to be a fascist demonstration at the old fire station leswin road in stoke newington (but horsemouth can't believe that would actually happen and there are photos of the crowd there guarding it). 

today he's seeing howard again (more rehearsals) and will call in to see colin at the office of the communal endeavour. he's short on coffee. he's had a small one from the scrapings of the jar (remind him to get more coffee while he is out). it's another beautiful morning. 

tel-epa-thy

and now an entirely written in the morning blogpost.

so horsemouth went out to howard's to practice. 

what tunes did they practice? 

horsemouth was keen to get on with go your way (my love) a norfolk folk song (but mostly known from the versions of bert jansch and anne briggs), which they did, horsemouth is keen to get howard singing on it. there was a brief point where howard was playing the dulcimer on it and that was sounding good but it was difficult to keep together with the singing so possibly not for this gig but possibly they should do that when they record it. 

seeing as horsemouth had the guitar in dadgad (g modal) it was a near retuning to get it to dgdgbd (open g) to take a crack at am I born to die? and the opening of broadbury down (which they also took a look at).

amarach they took a look at and howard had the ukulele part up and running and now all that remains is for horsemouth to come up with a way for the guitar to flow nicely through it. 

they also got eyepennies (mark linkous/ sparklehorse) played through which they recorded and was sounding good. howard is playing melodica on this. 

these are the ones on which horsemouth plays guitar (and other than go your way) sings. 

pastures of plenty is pretty much up. howard is taking a crack at all my dreams, I am a cinematographer (will oldham), perhaps townes van zandt's  waiting around to die. 

howard fed him (fakemeat pie and mash) and after they headed down the pub with pizza (ostensibly for two but in fact for three beers - howard then, very sensibly called a halt). it took horsemouth a while to get going with the conversation lark (he's out of practice). 

whilst at howard's he showed him his copy of aeron bergman and alejandra salinas's telepathy (their proposal for a new name for art), up the pub horsemouth sung the praises of  zarah sultana as a model for integrity (howard has to give a speech about integrity). howard mentioned he was going to watch some french films - horsemouth recommended some french noir films but couldn't for the life of him remember the names of the directors (he has remedied that today). 

tonight horsemouth goes up to past walthamstow to see his brother (who will feed him). 

today he doesn't know what he will do (wander about perhaps, let people know he is here). 

back in the great wen

ok back in london - anybody about? (don't make me come out to essex to get you garton).

horsemouth must say he's consistently impressed with zarah sultana (the former labour MP who currently has the whip suspended for voting against the two child cap). ed balls on the other hand (someone who he previously had nothing against) he's done with (in the sea with you). 

and that's the debate beyond ending the rioting (as a law and order issue) should not the politicians acknowledge that by banging the drum over immigration and asylum seekers they have made the issue toxic (even when their alleged intention was to de-toxicify the issue as ash sarkar points out). this is particularly the case because nothing they have done to 'reform' the immigration and asylum system over the past 30 years has worked. 

there is a second debate as well about the best way to oppose the rise of the far right for the far left. here the argument is that what people want to see is order rather than disorder and that fighting them on the streets is not the way to go. 

horsemouth likes this argument because it works well with his cowardice. 

horsemouth is back in the great wen having passed through the soon-to-be newtown of worcestershire parkway. 

in a bit horsemouth is off to rehearse with howard but before he goes he must needs get breakfast. (strange - from being glorious it has clouded over - horsemouth now remembers this is what the weather forecast said it would do)

he is already plotting his return to the wilds. as he has mentioned before he has a wheeled suitcase/ trolley kind of thing (from his flying to places on holiday days) - he is currently loading this up with books - but here's the cunning bit of his plan - books in wine boxes as horsemouth stores them. 

back in the wilds horsemouth will have to keep his eye out for bookcases (because soon enough he will have enough books to furnish them). 

last night he had a quick read of bergman and salinas's telepathy that he picked up the last time he was here. he enjoyed it. he may take it with him to read on the tube over. 

'taking a break from bibliomania'

'steve rambles on about how he's taking a break from bibliomania, then of course shows you some books he's just bought...' 

but it takes him 18 minutes to get round to showing you the books. but it's an entertaining ramble. 

horsemouth will not be taking a break from bibliomania but he will be relocating his zone of operation. 

meanwhile bookpilled (in a laibach t-shirt this time) is back home in the states and reviewing some books including isaac asimov's collection of soviet science fiction (which horsemouth thought he had here but seems to have vanished into the stack - he has only one stack of books here). oh wow there's a more of... 

on reflection horsemouth thinks it is in the stack back in the wen so he will be able to read it when he gets home (and tell you about it). 

horsemouthfolk has opened up a substack. quite what he will do with it he doesn't yet know. 

he appends a link to howards mix from this day 2019 (hey 5 years ago). featuring tracks by karen dalton (including her take on pastures of plenty), abba gargando (tuareg guitar), woo (upside down), john fahey (I am the resurrection), doves (M62 song), lomo (horsemouth thinks). michael andrews (a long summer since passed), nick drake. 

today he travels back to the great wen. tomorrow he is off round howard's to practice. 

he's up. it's a grey morning. wait let him get his coffee. the great advantage of being out in the wilds is that horsemouth can observe the current crisis from relative safety. what it needs is bad weather (people seldom riot when it's raining). of course for the sake of his garden horsemouth would prefer good weather. 

the ruling class have fucked up and left an opening in political representation. the have let the right grow (indeed they have encouraged it) and now face a difficult time getting the gremlin back in the box. 

bye bye to the old flat (attack on the block)

8 years ago horsemouth was back from his month in porto. he'd packed his stuff up from the flat in pop(u)lar (with the help of his friends) and had it moved by van to the house in lower clapton. 

bye bye to the old flat. 

now the estate that it was on he doesn't miss. a young bangladeshi lad was murdered shortly after horsemouth moved there (he was a star student, he went to mediate when his friend was getting grief from two dudes from a neighbouring estate, him and his mate got stabbed in the legs but by pure mischance they stabbed him in the femoral artery and he bled out and died).

nonetheless the people who scared him on the estate were the white people not the bangladeshi youth.   

one of the neighbours was a gangster's moll with a whole crew of dodgy reprobates onside. she took against horsemouth's block and the people in it and there was trouble on the back of that. nonetheless horsemouth managed to dance through it all unscathed (more by luck than judgement). his downstairs neighbours, for example, got attacked and iron barred by one of the moll's cronies. 

while the block was being renovated there was an attack on it by copper thieves (who did a considerable amount of damage). now horsemouth can't prove it was this lot (he was on holiday at the time) but that  is indeed what he thinks. 

er. other than these fools horsemouth always felt fairly safe down there. 

horsemouth liked the flat. it was single (so there was no or little conflict). all the immediate neighbours were nice as were many people on the estate. he liked the edgelands feel of it - all the artificial underpopulated spaces of docklands for example. true there were few decent pubs down there though.

the flat itself was up on the second floor and faced westward (so it was shady in the morning, got great sun all afternoon and had great sunsets in the evening). the light there was beautiful. was it as good as the flats he lived in when he was living near columbia road on the nags head estate? well no (but, despite all that he has said, it had a lot to recommend it).  

much as horsemouth enjoys hackney it was (like the previous time he was back up there) no longer the grimey paradise it once was to him. but it was where the housing was (and he was grateful to get it).  

hail the new towns

'the planners saw this new town as a utopia, and to us it was. of course, people are often nostalgic about their childhood and their home town, but I know that for my family, and many others, washington was a vast improvement on the towns they’d come from...

I salute those who made my new town a reality.' - george clarke architect and television presenter. 

it is, of course,  important to build the next generation of new towns with better transport links (so that people are not so reliant on cars). here horsemouth is thinking of schemes  such as worcestershire parkway. 

there is a certain irony to the hailing of a new town just up the river from sunderland (don't rely on horsemouth's knowledge of geography). last night horsemouth watched footage of the youth (and plenty of ageing fatties) riot round sunderland (in all its pedestrianised/ ring roaded glory). today/ tonight more right-wing stirring of the pot (and possibly more tomorrow). horsemouth finds this depressing as sin. 

he supposes that at some point it will crash and burn (or perhaps just run out of steam) but it has rolled the wave of racism and xenophobia in the uk that extra bit up the beach. 

it's the morning. horsemouth is up. he's wearing a jumper (but then he did have the windows open all night). it's a cool grey morning. he missed doing a zoom beers thing with howard yesterday perhaps they'll catch up today. he is in any event back in town from monday so we shall see. 

'by anticipation, by the present enjoyment and by a record of the past' (a journey to the raingardens)

'I am happy (vain perhaps) in thinking that I enjoy the pleasure of touring as much if not more than most men, and each tour three times over. viz: by anticipation, by the present enjoyment and by a record of the past.' 

- the honourable john byng, tour to the north, conducted 26th may to 17th july 1792. 

'... in footage from the congressional january 6 hearings... jason van tatenhove, a former member of the oath keepers, confirmed that the group’s leader, stewart rhodes, urged then president trump to invoke the insurrection act, promising that veterans would support him....' 

- adrian horton, film review of the documentary war game, guardian 2nd august 2024. 

there is a byng tour conducted in august (his tour into sussex was conducted from the 15th to the 26th) - horsemouth will endeavour to day-to-day the itinerary. 

the kafka diaries will not recommence until september 13th when kafka is given a new diary by his father (of all people - kafka's life and diaries are marked by confrontation with his father). 

while the wanderings of byng on his summer holidays give horsemouth pleasure (he's a harmless old stick if a little grumpy about the service provided in the inns) the possibility that trump could be elected to a second term thus putting him in a position to use the insurrection act to seize power tend to cause horsemouth anxiety.  

horsemouth fills this in on the friday afternoon. he's a little jaded (post beer).

so what is a raingarden? well it is a garden designed to trap rainwater and to allow it to soak away through the earth or be evapourated away by the trees.  this is basically done by embanking the garden and sinking it lower than the surroundings. the raingardens exist in the future where they will be everywhere in the cities helping to make them more flood resilient. 

meanwhile over at the vancouver art gallery they are having an exhibition of  manifestos, zines, copyart, chapbooks and such like based on a previous exhibition at the brooklyn museum and a book.

on the thesis that law abiding folk have nothing to fear

oh dear last night horsemouth watched the footage from sunderland (and then he watched the itv news with charlene). well rioting is good dirty fun boys and girls until you get kettled or battered or arrested and charged. horsemouth doesn't support the cause (racism and xenophobia) he's not even keen on border controls. the racists sometimes chant we want our country back flat or sometimes to the tune of a music hall song (ta ra ra boom de ay). they burnt someone's car. they burnt out a police station. 

at first horsemouth was watching the stream of some young fascist (clearly excited by the various possibilities the night would hold and having a whale of a time). later he watched an aggregator out of portland. two girls wandered round in the aftermath trying to find the action in a more disinterested fashion. it beats watching emmerdale remarked an agreeable dude to the imam who had come out to remonstrate with the crowds (but by then they'd all been kettled).  

probably more today (there's various marches in the major cities).

'everything was love song...'

 'everything was political, everything was love song, everything was pleasure....' 

- max ochs, interviewed by tompkins square, january 2005

'for the first time since 1964 GPs in england have voted to take industrial action...' 

- bbc radio 4, the world at one, 1st august 2024. 

horsemouth the hero has found the stopcock for the water trough and thus turned off the leak! (fortunately for horsemouth the leak turned out to be downstream of the tap). he has, however, spent nearly £50 on plumbing parts he turns out not to have needed (which now reside in a bucket in the garage). 

still horsemouth is delighted and is feeling very proud.

really it is that he has been lucky. and not once but twice. 

it was raining but now the sun is shining again. horsemouth had almost forgotten what rain looked like...

he's back from the bell ringing and feeling a little brain dead. ok things should get better, he's just got his coffee.

he's posted the max ochs clip because back in 2015 horsemouth videoed himself arsing about to it. for the house on the common that was up for sale the auction has completed and now it's under offer. 

books, books

so yesterday was a hot day and horsemouth managed to get his hell task done - he managed to put on a tap valve such that it didn't leak (mind you he has left the g-clamp on the pipe because he doesn't really trust it). he left the g-clamp on because he suspects they are going to have to move it anyway for there is another leak in the pipe before it gets to the leak horsemouth has just (semi-successfully) dealt with, and this is the major leak. 

to get to the real leak horsemouth will have to (carefully) dig up the pipe (which is buried underneath the brambly hedge).

he will then repeat the process of clamping off the pipe and putting the valve on it (which does involve getting rather wet). next time he will do it better because he will be more confident and be able to take more time over doing it. (er, hopefully).

anyway so he did that (and ordered the parts for it that seem to be the right parts). 

he then emptied out the trough. and later he took the recycling down to the bottom of the drive. but other than that he mostly hid indoors in the shade tending his insect bites. 

the book that have saved horsemouth's life...

the book horsemouth couldn't put down - in recent years he can think of many more books where he couldn't get on with reading them. 

the book horsemouth couldn't pick up - beyond capital by istvan meszaros.  plus it's a big motherfucker, a breeze block of a book , so it is difficult to find the enthusiasm to take it out on a walk. 

the book you gave me (that I haven't read yet (sorry)) - the origins of totalitarianism by hannah arendt.  to be fair there's a lot of it and it starts with a long discussion of  the position of jews in medieval european society before moving on to anything modern and recognisable (jew hatred/ anti-semitism/ mobs/ conspiracy theories/ populism etc.).  in the end her on violence proved more useful to him (even though it is seriously wrong-headed). 

the book horsemouth brought to the beach - aesthetic theory theodor adorno.  he was writing a review of ben watson's derek bailey and the story of free improvisation which is largely based on adorno (of course what he should have read was negative dialectics by adorno but ho-hum). he sat on valencia town beach in the summer of 2006  and read the first two back to back (and went for rather a lot of swims).  

the book horsemouth tried so hard to like - anything by dostoyevsky

the book horsemouth somehow owns three copies of - silas marner by george eliot 

the book that have saved horsemouth's life -  franz kafka's metamorphosis for helping him realise that other people find this life business difficult too. jacques attali's noise (as translated by brian massumi) gave him an entry point into writing and thinking about music (and thus into writing and thinking).  similarly, and perhaps even earlier,  adorno's philosophy of modern music. 

the book horsemouth lent you (and can he have it back please) - christ stopped at eboli  by carlo levi and practicalities by margueritte duras. 

the book horsemouth falls asleep to every night - whichever one he is reading at the moment. 

the book horsemouth mistook for a hat - er. that has never happened. 

the book horsemouth is desperately trying to write well it's not a novel, it's more like an autobiography but with some theory larded in (christ stopped at eboli  by carlo levi and practicalities by margueritte duras would be good examples of what he is after). 

... and all the books that changed horsemouth's life 

horsemouth doesn't know that it is books that have changed his life. the illuminatus trilogy for giving him a very wrong headed idea about anarchism and anarchy. tadeusz konvicki's  a minor apocalypse for generating his interest in polish literature (ok this is not strictly true, there was bruno shulz's the street of crocodiles before that), jose saramago for generating his interest in portuguese literature. 

something trashy by michael moorcock (probably an elric book) for introducing him to hawkwind, new worlds, the new wave of science fiction, innumerable new wave science fiction writers.

today is actually lammas (and the anniversary of the release of musicians of bremen volume four) but horsemouth prematurely announced it yesterday. (such is the nature of things). . he has been over to let the chickens out. he has brought the  bin back up the drive and done some watering. it has clouded over (later a storm apparently).