better luck with next week ('of the holy cities that had become a wilderness, and the desolation of jerusalem…’)

so horsemouth remarked to an exhausted howard. (well the first part at least). 

howard was exhausted after some terrible week of shit and their zoom beers session had to be delayed.

horsemouth himself is coming back from the cough and cold, or rather he's had the cold and now he's stuck with a cough. 

in paris in 1871 edmond de goncourt is having a terrible time of it.

'the shells are coming closer. new batteries seem to be opening fire. shells are exploding every few minutes along the railway line... you can see everyone performing the painful mental operation of accustoming the mind to the shameful idea of capitulation...' 

diaries today. tarot and I ching next week. 

horsemouth’s favourite pieces of pandemic art (parts I, II and III)

‘headphones on, laptops open, we sang together, apart, of the holy cities that had become a wilderness, and the desolation of jerusalem…’

so finishes (nearly) rachel beale's piece on singing during the pandemic. horsemouth finds it gorgeously poetic and sad.  the references here to byrd and the 16th century. 

he also liked  john berger's ways of seeing paraphrased in olivia laing’s lockdown set documentary on it.

it's the set up that intrigues horsemouth.

it is the end of the third lockdown, olivia gets the 55 bus into the centre of town to go to the national gallery to see a giovanni di paolo.  she goes past corners in the city that she used to know.

(but all is changed, utterly)

her intro is reminiscent of la jetée the1962 french science fiction feature directed by chris marker. (horsemouth has berger and marker confused in his head too, this helps).

 'the relation between what we see and what we know is never settled... the way we see things is affected by what we know or what we believe... every image embodies a way of seeing. even a photograph... our perception or appreciation of an image depends also upon our own way of seeing...' says berger (via olivia). 

in their new (pandemic) forms what the action means  (looking, singing, listening,) changes - it is prised out of the everyday habit and becomes (as if) illuminated from within. it assumes something of its proper stature. 

meanwhile horsemouth’s friend (the photographer max reeves) was trapped in his spitalfields flat during lockdown with only his collection of amazing things from around the world for company. photographing it became the work. there's a book. 

it’s all gorgeous max’s stuff and that flat gets all the light. 

upcoming a few more weeks in the countryside and then a visit to town.