a dissertation on obscurity (fahey establishes rapport with the tasmanians)

'in prison chekhov's letters depressed me and a.k. tolstoy's gave me real pleasure.' 

- abram tertz, a voice from the chorus.

'I now loath writing and don't know what to do. I would gladly take up medicine or get a job of some kind, but I no longer have the physical adaptability. nowadays when I write or even just think about it, I have the same feeling of disgust as if I were eating soup out of which a cockroach had just been taken...'  - chekhov's letters, 25th july 1898, as quoted by tertz. 

this letter does not make it into lillian hellman's the selected letters of anton chekhov. 

at the start of the year (1898) chekhov was much concerned by the dreyfus affair and zola. at the end of the year he sends a letter of appreciation and advice to a young(ish) maxim gorky (30). by this point chekhov was 38,  he had lost touch with theatre (he claims). towards the end of the year his father died. he is planning on buying land in yalta so as to have somewhere warm to spend the winter on account of the TB in the upper part of his lungs. 

and yet soon this will be the time when he writes three sisters and the cherry orchard. chekhov and gorky will meet in yalta. 

horsemouth's copy is a picador from 1984. the glue is going in the spine and pages are starting to fall out. he's read the entries for 1898 and lillian hellman's introduction. 

it is the anniversary of the recording of live in tasmania by john fahey. it was recorded october 15th, 1980 at the university of tasmania in hobart. horsemouth has chosen the track fahey establishes rapport with the tasmanians, a dissertation on "obscurity".

'a legendary character in concert, fahey was apparently in one of his unpredictable good moods...' -  1981 review for rolling stone by charles m. young.

it is an album where fate and the gods seem to be in alignment. there is some inspired substitution of poor live takes with already recorded tracks and added crowd noise, various older songs are revisited and retitled to suit local conditions. 

horsemouth likes some obscure shit (indeed he does).

obscurity is important to horsemouth. he likes the stuff that is resistant to being made stadium sized.

today another rainy grey day.