books, films, gigs, events february 2025

books 

- ubik, PKD

- the book of disquiet, fernando pessoa (dips)

- the worm forgives the plough, john stewart collis (about half)

- colonel chabert, balzac, a.n. wilson introduction

- researched film-maker and poet  margaret tait 

-  sections from abram tertz 'a voice from the chorus' on the peacemakers (or ilyinists), kenko 'in praise of idleness'  etc. 

- article in the NYT on the alice coltrane show at the hammer museum (and other articles on this)

- GDN announcement of demolition of grenfell tower, six ways to solve britain's housing crisis, uk carbon budget, mike amesbury sentence, average energy bill to rise, britain's net zero economy is booming. 

- LRB jeremy harding on the NLR

films

- LRB 'have we surrendered to climate breakdown' brett christophers 

- 'he stands in the desert counting the seconds of his life' an excerpt from a jonas mekas film (footage of the funeral of hollis frampton)

- fellini's amarcord

- alice coltrane (her influences and her influencees) over on NTS radio, a day of shows. 

- outlaw bookseller's appreciation of the lesser novels of philip k. dick and two clickbait videos on the five best novels of PKD

- NPR strata-east artist led label special

- sam peckinpah's pat garrett and billy the kid. 

- dystopian dialogue (adam roberts)

- noah howard/ lonnie liston smith video

- FT.com 'america is now an adversary'  

- the lovecraft investigations 'the case of charles dexter ward' 

- harry smith american magus (part)

- the cicerones (robert aickman) 

- tompkins square robbie basho listening party (probably)

gigs none

events

groundhog day, let's kill captian cook day, john fahey week (ending in robbie basho day), robert lawson and friends CD arrived, horsemouth's visit to the wen,  omnichord brought back to life,the house meeting about the decarbonisation and a meeting with colin about overall strategy, an exploration round shepherdess walk, the 177th anniversary of the publication of 'the communist manifesto'.

you have memories to look back on today

oh dear horsemouth has lost his temper. he has just been for a stomp about the common in an attempt to recover his equanimity. he struggled to avoid a couple out for a walk but (by sods law) seemed to encounter them every hundred yards or so. he managed not to fall over in the mud (that's another achievement). 

black storm clouds hovered about him. the wind wailed and gnashed its teeth. 

it seems a pity to be in a bad mood when the weather is glorious (if cold). in a bit the 12:00 news. at some point the new vacuum cleaner is being delivered (as far as he could work out from the delivery man's brummie accent and poor phone signal). 

excellent his mum has shifted her attention onto the vacuum cleaner delivery. 

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horsemouth and the EPCs

horsemouth thinks there is broad support within the communal endeavour to get the houses to an EPC C standard by 2030 (in line with government policy). this is good.

horsemouth wasn't in the other house meetings but he guesses  a lot of people aren't using their gas central heating to heat the property because it is too expensive but are using electric heaters to heat themselves individually instead. this is almost certainly even more expensive again but until the insulation has been improved in the houses horsemouth suspects the communal endeavour  will have little success in persuading people otherwise.

it is probably also worth while having the chat about which types of properties are best for heat pumps and if any of the ones the endeavour has match this. horsemouth's understanding is ideally you want a terraced house (so you only get major heat losses out of the front and back of the building not to the sides) to make it easier for the heat pump to do its work. 

let us take two houses D and C

neither D nor C are particularly suited because they are not terraced houses and so insulated on either side by their neighbours - both have an exposed sidewall (and in D's case two). 

a heat pump for D? - horsemouth's  feeling (from his reading) is that heat pumps don't save you money (but solar panels and batteries do). D strikes him as a better bet for boiler replacement  rather than a heat pump - but there again it will make no difference if people aren't rich enough to use it to heat the property (and similarly for the other houses). 

heat pumps are a different kind of heat from gas combi boilers and they need people who will turn them on and leave them on at a low level all the time and wait (days) for the property to warm up to the required level - it needs a calm character type to operate them best.  the people in C are eco-enthusiasts, maybe they are the right people for it. or maybe there is an unsuspected terraced house that would be right for it. 

anyway soon this will not be horsemouth's problem. he plans to mourn this at the same time that he recognises that it was fucking annoying and he may even be happier without it.

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

later on (before he goes out) horsemouth is feeling anxious and blah. 

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

he's back from the bell-ringing and the pub and he's happy and drunk. 

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he's up he has his coffee. it's a bright frosty morning. he has seen to the chickens and taken the milk over to the garage. he has a slight headache (but nothing fatal). 

for a brief period it seemed like a door had opened. but then it shut again.

what does horsemouth think is going on with the world? 

with ukraine horsemouth thinks there will be a partition and a division of the spoils between the US and russia. it is a mineral rich country horsemouth expects it to become like iraq, a country that is fundamentally unsafe at the same time as it is being pillaged for its natural resources.

but on the other hand 'the deal' could all fall apart (and then people could go on dying). 

the US ruling class has interests, the russian ruling class has interests, those interests will be satisfied at the expense of the people of the ukraine and its mineral resources. 

everyone who has died so far will have died in vain.  

horsemouth thinks europe lacks the unity of purpose (not to mention the military resources) to do anything different from what the US proposes and that any attempts to do so will just leave the EU exposed.

europe claims it wants peacekeeping troops in ukraine - would they not be better deployed in lithuania, latvia, estonia etc.? rather than be hostages to fortune of some US extractive project. 

the proposal will then be for european countries to increase their defence expenditure.

there are two reasons for doing this - one is to keep the trump administration happy, to keep them interested in doing something to defend europe. this may be a forlorn hope already. the second would be that if the US is not providing the security guarantees for europe then europe will have to provide them for itself so that neither the US nor russia can push them about.

the major effect of this will be to impoverish still further the working population of europe (through raised taxes or lower provision of social services). at the moment the story is being told that this can all be funded by robbing overseas aid budgets etc. (this is bullshit). the other major effect will be to reduce demand in the european economy, and growth is essentially stagnant and has been for a long time. the EU will become further economically hobbled.

the problem for the UK is even more difficult - it is neither in the EU camp fully nor in the US camp - and for domestic or external political conditions it can move closer to neither. 

the belief in europe may be that trump will soon be gone and that US foreign policy will return to its earlier default setting  - neither of these may turn out to be the case.  

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

and then there's the realm of the micropolitical and the personal - horsemouth has just attended an online meeting of the communal endeavour. as usual it was a blood boiling experience. it was nice to see the people he likes, the people he doesn't like less so (jesus the entitlement of these people). 

horsemouth is adjusting mentally to the notion that he will not be around in the communal endeavour much longer and that everything is ceasing to be his problem. he just hasn't told anyone yet. and he has failed to detach from the work. one last heave to get it over the brow of the hill and to get it started and then he is out. 

for a brief period it seemed like a door had opened. but then it shut again. now the situation is a different one. it will go on its own path. 

horsemouth is no longer around to fix these things. they are not his to fix. in as far as anything can be fixed. 

it's a beautiful day. sun shines in the window (and it has the beginnings of strength in it). in a little while a walk. horsemouth has brought the recycling bin back up the drive. 

how ubik should have ended (the writer of instructions, labels and notes)

'we are served by organic ghosts...  who, speaking and writing, pass through this our new environment. watching, wise, physical ghosts from the full-life world... in particular. the writer of instructions, labels and notes...'

this is how ubik should have ended (at chapter 16 with joe chip in a des moines of the after-life). instead PKD must give us a final mcguffin of a chapter (chapter 17). 

in the instructions, labels, notes on the side of medicine boxes, in pre-recorded videos that seem to be live and can answer questions and with which one can carry on conversations, the messages from the other world  leak through.

in the novel everything is reverting to its earlier form. and out here too, capitalism is reverting out of its globalism and multiculturalism phase and back into tyranny and ethno-nationalism. fuck it all. 

horsemouth writes this tuesday evening. the ground is still too muddy to garden effectively. he slipped and fell while trying to tow something heavy. he's merely bruised (that and his ego). thereafter he gave up and sat and read in the sun (he read ubik sf masterworks edition) until he felt sleepy. 

in any event it is probably too early to be gardening. horsemouth knows very little about it. he did well with the runner beans last year (but apparently that's not too hard). we are in that period where it is still too cold (and too muddy) to make real progress. 

when his mum returned from town he took the sacks of corn and layers pellets over to the feed shed and deposited them in the bins. it is growing dark - in a bit he will wander over and lock up and  feed the chickens for the last time today. 

horsemouth has devoted some thought as to whether mike amesbury (the downpuncher) can survive as an MP

as you know horsemouth has an interest in the removal of badly-behaved MPs. 

well amesbury admitted the charge which makes it difficult to appeal. he might appeal the sentence (as unduly harsh - er. which it is)  and if he can get his sentence down under 10 weeks jailtime then it would not automatically trigger a recall petition but he might still be suspended by the parliamentary standards committee.

'a byelection would be triggered if amesbury resigns as MP. as amesbury’s sentence is less than a year, he is allowed to continue as an independent MP during any appeals he might make, but if those appeals are unsuccessful he would then be subject to a recall petition.'

he must appeal the sentence within 21 days of the date he was sentenced. if he appealed after 21 days he have to ask the crown court for permission to do so.

it is only fair to warn people that appeals can take a long time to be heard. and, of course, for the whole time this is going on amesbury is getting his parliamentary salary, his office costs, and his generous MPs pension is getting paid into. 

'the recall petition would be open for six weeks and 10% of voters in his constituency would need to sign it to remove amesbury as MP. if the threshold is met, it would trigger a byelection.'

if the threshold was not met he would be staying on. should it go to a by-election (or should he last out to the next general election) whether he can get re-elected as an independent (and continue his parliamentary career) seems very unlikely but he might be tempted to run just to split the labour vote out of sheer cussedness. (stranger things have been known).

it's a rainy and grey morning. tonight a meeting of the communal endeavour. 

that good shit (the heron's image)

'the willow sees 

the heron's image 

upside down!' 

- from a haiku by matsuo bashō which appeared in chris  marker’s film sans soleil (1983). 

so far so good but so far horsemouth can't actually find this haiku in bashō's work. 

not that that has stopped horsemouth from using it before.

that good shit

a friend claims to be off (cursing out smart phones, facebook and chat gpt as he goes), horsemouth does hope he means just off temporarily. he was surprised to see him on it (tbh). he always thought he was much too cool for  it. (unlike horsemouth who is just a shallow confirmation monkey). that said it has been a great joy of good quality shit - photographs, poetry, music - putting all the smart people horsemouth knows to shame. 

(he also cursed out giorgio agamben's stanzas but horsemouth knows nothing about that). 

now if his friend is genuinely going off-line then horsemouth will (probably) escape charges of plagiarism for this. (and if not his friend will probably keep posting that good shit). 

horsemouth is relieved to see that someone else has joined him in the necessary work of appreciation. 

so much trouble in the world

it will take horsemouth a while to think this through (by which time we will be on to the next bit of craziness). the return of big power politics (as if they ever really went away). the end of rules based orders (or at least their pious invocation). europe cut adrift and staggering to its feet. the partition of ukraine (by russia and the US). 

witness  jD vance at a recent european security conference indulging in a little light bullying and asking the important question 'does donald  j. trump look like a bitch to you?' 'no. of course not. zut alors.' 'then why did you try to fuck him?'

in some ways it is like the collapse of the soviet union. something that was literally unthinkable until it happened (but had also been the end point of the west's strategy the entire time). europe has talked about american isolationism and exceptionalism (but now it is here). 

horsemouth has been overthinking the retrofit in anticipation of the mancom on wednesday.

once written down (acceptance and surrender)

'sometimes I think that I will never leave rua dos douradores. 

once written down, 

that seems to me like an eternity'  

- fernando pessoa, the book of disquiet, 1 [90] no date given. 

horsemouth is out in the wilds waiting for it to rain (the skies are darkening). he writes this on a sunday but by the time you read it it will be monday. 

it's later. now it is raining properly. 

he imagines the pre-cogs and anti-precogs of runciter limited (from PKD's ubik) meeting in the rua dos douradores in lisbon, going to the a brasileira cafe for discussions with the writers and publishers of orfeu,  he imagines them taking the trams and the funicular railways and the elevador do carmo. 

more branches have come down from the fallen over silver birch bordering the top field. currently it is held up by another tree but horsemouth expects it to come down some windy day. whether it smashes the fence or not is pure luck. it's rainy at the moment but not particularly windy. 

of course as climate change progresses it all becomes warmer and wetter and windier and rainier.

'in 2015, a vigorous response to climate change seemed possible... but exploration and exploitation of oil and gas reserves have continued unabated... brett christophers describes the global shift from active policymaking to acceptance and surrender.'

no-one has told the UK bureaucrats who are still working on the carbon budget. (adding an extra-runway at heathrow won't have helped. the slowing down of sales of electric cars won't have helped.) 

yesterday (which is today through the technology of writing)

nothing on fahey week today 

(except leo kottke's wise words). 

last night horsemouth watched two clickbait youtube vids on the five philip k. dick books to read.

you can probably guess the first three (they are the same in both):

do androids dream of electric sheep, the man in the high castle, and er. ubik.

horsemouth has started reading ubik after he bought a new copy. his previous copy vanished (as they tend to do). 

he finds chapters one and two (runciter associates - a prudence organisation of anti-telepath specialists) like the modern day computer security people and the moratoriums where dead people are available for consultations like similar scenes in john carpenter's dark star. chapter 3 joe chip assailed by the intelligent devices in his flat for the non-payment of bills a perfect comedy on where the internet of things and where service charges are taking us. 

yesterday (which is today through the technology of writing) a visit to the village to pick up a tv guide - probably in the form of a physical copy of the hereford times. there is much enthusiasm on substack for getting away from platforms and producing physical things (as if this were the entire solution to the problem of alienation) but hey at least it is an attempt. 

the sun is beginning to shine. the heating has done its work. you see he's sitting here next to an open window. remind horsemouth to put some more peanuts in the bird feeder (he has done it). he has made some attempt at potting out some nasturtiums (if that's what they are). it's old seed he'll see if any come up. he has tons of runner bean beans to plant of various ages (last year he did well with the runner beans). 

he's going to listen to the radio news. probably get soup when he's mum wants to eat and then wander up the hill to deliver some eggs. 

today as it will be sunrise 07:11 sunset17:40 but rainy all day. by the time you read this the weather will be rubbish. but it is otherwise decent monday/ tuesday/ wednesday. 

horsemouth is going out to adjust the timer in the hen shed that turns on the lights - probably the light doesn't need to come on until 6pm. he's watching now to see when it goes out (7pm - we are only at slightly over 10 hours of daylight). 

ok but he'd missed a slider so a little while later the light came on again (much to the chagrin of the chickens) and horsemouth just had to go out and fix it. 

horsemouth was up at 7.30 after a while he realised it was not tuesday but sunday. he's not sure how this makes him feel. 

'I sometimes write because I have nothing to say...' (horsemouth is back in the wilds)

'just as some people work because they are bored, I sometimes write because I have nothing to say...' - fernando pessoa, the book of disquiet, entry dated and made 10th march 1931.

it is the first day of fahey week but horsemouth is postponing his celebrations to give the details of his journey out of the wen.

he woke up at about sevenish. (early to bed early to rise). that it was a bin day helped. hail the binmen. 

he went for the coffee. he published a blog he had written earlier (you may have read it). 

his plan was to get out of the door before nine and up to clapton railway station towing his wheelie-bin and carrying a guitar (the laramie - in its case) and his small north face backpack. he succeeded in this. thence to liverpool street (on the newly named weaver line) and thence to paddington (on the celebrated lizard line). 

he arrived with about a half an hour to spare before the train departed which he spent in the space between the lizard line station and the station proper. he'd brought a snack - rice, red kidney beans, chopped tomatoes, onions and some humous to finish off his cooking before he left (so much for breakfast). 

soon enough he was making his escape through ladbroke grove, the suburbs and later the british countryside. for once the train actually stopped at didcot parkway. there was a brief and efficient transfer in newport. 

his brother picked him up from abergavenny (thanks dave) and soon enough they were home. his bother got straight back to work while horsemouth unpacked and installed the box of books he had brought (various balzac's in various editions, a collection of flaubert's letters, and a trio of stendhal's - fiction and non-fiction). it goes well with the zola box horsemouth had brought on a previous visit. 

it turns out he owns balzac's colonel chabert in a french edition also le colonel chabert (in a 1972 harrap hardback edition together with gobseck and an introduction (in english) by a.g.lehmann). 

he now has three of his pictures with him in the wilds - a black and white kate bush dancing (in the style of muybridge), malian dudes and speaker set-up (afel boucom promo poster for alkibar originally), and the colour of pomegranates (woman with chicken on her arm). 

he also has the hohner guitar with him in the wilds, together with the laramie, the banjolele and a melodica. getting any of the keyboards back presents a greater challenge. the other guitars he will bring back as an when. (of course what he really should do is hire a van). 

while he was away the robert lawson and friends CD arrived (together with a fetching compliments slip and letter from rob). horsemouth will give it a listen in a little while. he's particularly enjoying the drumming on the first track citidel at the minute. 

he thinks he has enough new books to read to hold him for a while (balzac's chabert, PKD's ubik, john stewart collis's the worm forgives the plough,  pessoa's the book of disquiet let itself be found while he was at home). at that point maybe he will develop an interest in the books that he has here already (many as yet unread) or perhaps he will have to get on the bus and go to hereford or abergavenny in search of further books. 

horsemouth is sorry he won't be around peoples (there was stuff going on) but he will think of you. 

saturday is due to be sunny. horsemouth will wander over to the village to pick up a newspaper with a tv guide in it. tomorrow more rain. of the next two weeks it is better not to ask. 

horsemouth up with the lark and away (he's gone already so he is)

horsemouth's visit to the town rolls to an end 

he would have been up two days earlier but his brother's eldest was busy with interviews etc. 

shame he'd have liked to hang around for longer and seen more people but poor planning has put paid to all of that. (he's gone already so he is).

schedule/ cast list 

wednesday - lift from joe, travel, the house (ian, sten, daryl) plus liam and colin (online meeting)

thursday - bank, shepherdess walk excursion, back along the canal (6 miles or so)

friday - TG (welcome to the velodrome), anthony and minty (stepney massive)

saturday - howard (net zero inspection, pizza, beers)

sunday - brewdog canary wharf (last time horsemouth promises) friend and her friends (so 4 in all)

monday - walk over to supermarket, charity shop trawl (3.6 miles)

tuesday - colin visits, over to east ham for a curry (howard again)

wednesday - walk up to walthamstow (charity shop trawl - 6 miles), mike T and lou and kids and back (4 miles)

thursday - TG in the morning, diner in the evening

friday - he will be up with the lark and away (probably a lift back from the station with his brother, see his sister-in-law)

so that will be 16 or so people. sorry if horsemouth didn't see you this time. 

his visit enabled 

- the adding of autoharp to howard's next lot of recordings

- three more books to be added  to his collection (and one more to howard's)

- the house meeting about the decarbonisation and a meeting with colin about overall strategy

- an exploration round shepherdess walk  

plus he got to drink rather a lot of beer (particularly in the first weekend) and ate probably too much curry (midweek). he ate a falafel wrap, had pasta and pesto and beans etc. 

he will be taking back another box of books, his three new books, the stuff he brought and maybe another guitar (if he's feeling keen). 

soon (22nd to the 28th) it is fahey week (featuring basho day). 

horsemouth's plans 

- to get on with more guitar stuff (he was a bit ashamed when lou asked him what he was working on and he didn't have any new tunes to offer)

- to make visits into hereford (or abergavenny) in search of second hand books and the like

- to get on with the garden and the growing of food

- to keep on with the bell- ringing. 

back from diner round enza's. up with the lark and away. 

'a series of reversions' (omnichord is go)

'the film itself appearing to undergo a series of reversions: to black-and-white, then to the awkward jerkiness of very early movies, then to a crookedly jammed frame which proceeds to blacken, bubble and melt away, leaving only the white glare of the projection bulb, which in turn deteriorates to leave the theatre in darkness, and might almost leave the moviegoer wondering what sort of dilapidated, antique jalopy he'll find his car-keys fitting when he goes outside' - tim powers on PKD's ubik: the screenplay. 

book haul/ accessions diary - 19th february - walthamstow oxfam

- ubik, philip k. dick, to replace horsemouth's earlier copy (which went walkies - as they do) £1.99. 

- colonel chabert, balzac, hesperus edition, forward by a.n. wilson, £1.99. 

horsemouth is reasonably sure he no longer has them both. to purchase them a walk up to walthamstow (along the valley of the agapemonites and then back along the northern part of the black path) a little above 6 miles all told. 

the collis (the worm forgives the plough) goes well. p.70 so far. 

he fantasised about going out to see gweniver raymond play in bognor regis (but the days don't match up).

later (for he writes this in the day) he plans a trip out to see mike T and lou (2 miles each way, a 45 minute walk each way google maps contends).  horsemouth got a little lost on the way over there (but no worries). when he got there lou was learning willie o'winsbury. he had a quick chat with mike about the man in the high castle book and tv series (it seems apposite now that nazi usa is coming true). in the tv series version they receive short clips of film from the alternate universe (horsemouth thought this was smart). 

meanwhile horsemouth has lent howard john clarkson's omnichord. howard has purchased the correct power transformer. it works perfectly.  now to find a track to use it on. howard has pronounced it 'a great little toy'. he has thrown  it in as a texture on quite a few tracks. horsemouth has heard one (it sounds brilliant).

when asked by lou what he was up to horsemouth could only stutter something about doc watson's waiting for the times to get better and his anne briggs by way of joy division version of go your way (my love)  which lou has heard already. 

this morning a walk around with TG. tomorrow the journey back to the wilds. but first coffee. 

a visit to east ham for curry

it's the day before (as it often is in blogland). 

horsemouth was up for 7.20am. the coffee. a blog. a walk up to the shop to get a loaf of bread and some margarine. more reading of the book sitting upstairs in the sunny chair.

‘we glorify the present only when it has become the past…

we imagine the creation took place in the remote past. no doubt it did. but the same thing takes place today. the third day of creation as fabled in the book of genesis, happens every year no less certainly…' 

he awaits a communication from howard 

there's a plan to meet up near his for food and (maybe) beer. he's been for a wander around in that edge up towards the clapton roundabout (no front wall potlatch).  he'll have another look on his way down to the train. (and failing that he may wander up into walthamstow tomorrow to try the oxfam there). 

ok so here's a photo of horsemouth up in east ham  in the process of eating more curry than was good for him. he was literally groaning with pain and had to abandon his post-curry pint.

 (it was good though) (ah well live and learn)

howard was fine (he hadn't eaten much since breakfast). he went for the paneer while horsemouth went for the vegetable kofte.  

horsemouth has a thing about not leaving food or indeed drink (but there are times when it is necessary). 

this was a pity because it meant horsemouth didn't pay much attention to howard's tale that he was finishing mixing an album's worth of material and was going to get it mastered and released. this will be very good in horsemouth's opinion. this puts the release date the other side of the summer holiday. 

he did succeed in passing the alan bennett book on to howard (untold stories). 

horsemouth returned home early. the walking did him good and sorted him out  and he slept like a king. he was up at his usual time. 

just because he wanted to hear it last night

yesterday someone beeped horsemouth from a car and yelled out his name - was it you? 

were you heading down towards ASDA?  

will horsemouth ever find out? (could have been adam? could have been dave?)

horsemouth was off shopping; 2 tins of chopped tomatoes, 2 tins of baked beans, 1kg of brown onions, 200g of soft cheese, 200g of greek-style cheese, 1.1kgs museli, a small jar of pesto. broadly enough to hold him for his visit and leave a stockpile for the next one (damn he forgot the margarine). 

(about 3.6 miles all told)

he has a 5kg bag of red lentils he should probably take back to the wilds. 

bread he usually gets from local shops - turkish skateboard bread usually either with humous (or with cheese slices if he's feeling rich). 

book haul (accessions diary): 17th february

- the worm forgives the plough: john stewart collis - £1 RSPCA. the kind of book that has a robert macfarland intro (yup). ah. one of collis' acquaintances was rolf gardiner (who was a bit dodge as we used to say). horsemouth is now reading the collis (who is an engaging cove). he has (of late) had a problem reading - in that he had little desire to read - but look a new book seems to have ensnared him. intro read and up to p.14 so far. 

- untold stories: alan bennett (garden wall potlatch free) probably a gift for howard (if they can indeed manage to meet up).

horsemouth did a walk around - up to the powerscroft road book-box, then to the RSPCA, then down via the park to the charity shop on the top of mare street (shut), then down to the CRISIS (a j.m. coetzee dusklands  but too expensive) and finally the one on the top of morning lane (seems to be gone).  

today (the tues of days) horsemouth is due a visit from colin and perhaps he will get out to see howard in the late afternoon (say 4.30pmish). 

wednesday (the weds of days) he is free 'to do what he wants to do' etc. 

the thursday (the thurs of days) he probably sees TG in the morning and then claudia and then he is away to diner in the evening. 

friday (the fri of days) horsemouth travels back (starting early). his brother has offered to pick him up from the station (in the wilds). this saves him a dash, a bus, a wait, another bus home (alternatively the last part could be replaced by a muddy clump across the common). 

ok horsemouth is awake and he has his coffee. he posted this last night because he had a sudden desire to hear pagodas (and by the vagaries of stuff that was the only way he could do it - ok ok he could have played one of the CDs). today (like he says) the visit from colin and an attempt to meet up with howard. 

ten days in feb ('he stands in the desert counting the seconds of his life')

'he stands in the desert counting the seconds of his life' an excerpt from a film by jonas mekas 

here featuring some footage of the funeral of hollis frampton (artist)

so horsemouth is up from the wilds to the wen for 10 days (including the days of travel)

yesterday he doesn't know yet (because most of it hasn't happened yet). 

horsemouth has repurposed a 2013 appointments book for 2025 (really he should have waited until 2030). it is one day out but has the correct number of days for the year etc. it's a page a day and A5ish.

... and he's back from docklands having gone out to enza's friend's brithday (with her brother and another friend) and very friendly they all were. he cracked and got a falafel wrap on the way back (£6 and delicious). 

in with the beer it will not have been a cheap day but it's ok because horsemouth was out banking cheques on the thursday. 

he thinks he will have a quiet day monday to make up for all the expense, alcohol and excitement.

horsemouth dreamed many strange dreams - he dreamed that he saw huw lloyd-langton play acoustically for example, he rationalised that it must be some time ago. matt was there they said hello (and the dream popped). 

he also dreamed he was in a classroom. a test had been set but horsemouth had not paid attention and did not know what to do with the files with squiggles on them, nor could he work it out from what his fellow students were doing (it was the classic horsemouth academic failure dream). eventually he went to find the teacher to ask. the teacher seemed to a small muppet type dog thing (rainbow coloured and with very long fur). horsemouth confessed his problem and nervously patted its head (in case this was the wrong thing to do). 

'you seem to have been administered a substance...' began the dog thing and horsemouth realised, with a sinking heart, that he would never be able to understand because his brain was fucked. 

very PKD don't you think. 

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

it's a bright sunny clearskies kind of day - horsemouth will try some wanders and to avoid drinking any beer. 

 

horsemouth is back from the sunny east

horsemouth is back from sunny east ham 

don't let the photo deceive you 

howard was on good form 

he's about to have a well-earned week off for half term).

he will do some music and such like. he's very keen on a song by broadcast at the minute. 

but first they explored howard's house with an eye to all the possible future net zero doing

  

horsemouth had to admit (sadly) that while howard's roof is south facing it has a hat over the front bay window making it less suitable for solar panels - so liam's suggestion (as retro-fit designer) about putting them on the garden shed now make's sense.  (howard and the house have their meeting with liam soon). 

like horsemouth's house the kitchen and bathroom extension is cursed with having a solid concrete floor with tiles on it that will just suck in the heat. similarly the sidewall of the house (as shown, for it is semi-detached) is much colder than the double glazing of the windows. 

horsemouth noticed for the first time the silver metal chimney up the sidewall  (he had never noticed this previously). the chimney breast had been excised from howard's room upstairs but was still present in the living room. by dint of unscrewing a vent (more heat loss) and with howard's phone camera they got a shot of the start of it. 

as far as horsemouth understands it is useless as wood-burning stoves are basically banned in the city on air quality grounds and the whole point of this net-zero thing is to stop people burning things and sticking CO2 up chimneys anyway.

they then adjourned to the pub with pizza. 

er. and had a pizza each (sorry no photos because they were too hungry to think of it at the time).

 they managed to stop drinking at three pints (which was only one too many really). they very nearly got out at two (which would have been better). 

after they thought about going for a final pint in the denmark arms (aka. the big empty pub) but then remembered that it had closed

over at the hammer museum in LA they are getting in some gigs for alice coltrane on sundays at 5pm PST. this is about 1am the next morning GMT. horsemouth doesn't know if they will be streamed or put up on youtube or whatever.  

sunday horsemouth doesn't have anything planned yet. he's wrapped up in bed with his coffee. later he thinks a visit to a supermarket. he couldn't find a good cheap diary in w.h.smiths. enza is out meeting friends horsemouth will have to check the story. 

come on down (welcome to the velodrome)

ok in the morning a wander over to the velodrome with TG (and back again)

in the evening a wander down to stepney to meet up with minty and anthony.  there's a plan to meet up with howard out in east ham on saturday. he's trying to arrange a meeting with colin (monday, tuesday). he's got something arranged for thursday evening. 

the rest of it is free for him to fill as he sees fit.

so far no joy on the book-boxes (he may have to resort to some charity shops). the city is just very good for books (just look a the collection horsemouth has amassed - what's this? a parisian affair guy de maupassant, ah horsemouth may have started on it once). 

the walk down to stepney took about an hour. he walked back too as he was feeling suitably enthused. (saturday with howard he doesn't expect to do much walking - maybe a mile each way). 

he has packed another box of books in his wheelie-bin but would he not in fact be better off taking his CD player instead (the better to play the CDs he already has at his mum's). 

recorded this day in 1967 but the tapes not found again until 1995 - stellar regions is john coltrane with alice coltrane on piano, with jimmy garrison on bass and rashied ali on drums but without pharaoah sanders. this makes it a more lyrical proposition - some of the themes appear on the later interstellar space (a duo recording with rashied ali). the songs were titled by alice coltrane.

'to those of us who remain, the last words of one no longer among us are special... haunted by our foreknowledge that what will follow them is silence...' - david wild, album notes.  

 

'a poem that started in words (and continued in images)...' (happy let's kill captain cook day)

yesterday 

horsemouth had gotten the overground over to highbury and islington (first a walk to homerton railway station 0.8 mile), he then walked down to angel (1 mile) before walking back along the canal (and via broadway market 2.2 miles plus 1.8 miles) with a detour to investigate shepherdess walk. 

this time his visit to the bank was not made difficult by grumpy old (and possibly homeless) men. 

a detour to investigate shepherdess walk

in 1948 the doctor, poet, film-maker and orcadian margaret tait lived at  93 shepherdess walk  (while working in shoreditch). there's a blue-ish plaque. 

she is best known for her film blue black permanent. the line 'a poem that started in words and continued in images' that's pretty good.

similarly there are the shepherdess walk mosaics (now just as accessible from a large park) but horsemouth walked down the narrow passageway under one of the houses to them. 

that may be him for the day (now that he's got home)

(wait let him work out how far that is) 

so (all told) something edging up around 6 miles.

he also did a quick tour of the neighbourhood in the morning (up to the powerscroft road book-box (no joy)  and back via colenso road) and later on he wandered out to two other neighbouring book boxes (nothing nothing nothing).

in the evening he watched fellini's amarcord and then went to bed early.  

ok horsemouth may have just booked a walk with TG for this friday morning. he's booked beers with minty the evening. he's booked dinner thursday the 20th.  

it's let's kill captain cook day which horsemouth tends to prefer to celebrate rather than st.valentine's day. 

but first the journey back

while horsemouth found work annoying (sometimes) he would have gladly carried on doing it. but that was not to be. they made him redundant and he lacked sufficient enthusiasm 'to get back up on the horse'.  in this he was helped by the fact that he probably has enough money to survive out until state pension age (he also lacks a convincing project upon which to spend it). 

similarly with the communal endeavour. things may have changed. horsemouth looks at the project he has helped initiate (EPC C by 2030, net zero by 2050) and wonders whether he has the time and enthusiasm to complete them.  in fact he knows he does not. 

tonight a meeting about 'horsemouth's' house (the one he lives in whilst in the wen) 

now horsemouth's house has the typical hoarder's house problem - clearing enough space to do anything to fit internal insulation (if internal insulation is required), for this reason horsemouth would prefer external insulation to be fitted. but this may not be an issue. one housemate may be off to the coast (and if they are that's kind of half of it). horsemouth thinks he could just about clear his room sufficiently for internal insulation to be applied. 

the current plan (as far as horsemouth understands it) is to externally insulate the back wall of the property and internally insulate the front. 

anyway horsemouth will do a little more 

but first the journey back. there are trains 14.05, 14.35 that would seem to do it, and one that may be slightly too late - the 1501. let's look at the journey the other end also. horsemouth successfully got the 1405 (thanks joe for the lift) and is currently on the train from newport to paddington (currently sneaking up on bristol parkway). he made a note of when the trains got in (but he's not sure he brought the notebook). ok they've just announced it 1641.  

he picked the abergavenny train because it is a more reliable service (ok ok they made him wait half an hour at newport). twenty minutes to swindon (swine duhn: pig hill). he's just passed wichelstone near swindon, the tower of swine-duhn is appearing over the forests. 

ok it's later on. he's gotten back home and done the meeting. the house is as he imagined it would be (it has been ruined by hoarding). some building works were done in his absence - the building waste is in the front garden. a plug needs screwing back into the wall (this sort of thing). 

'the revelation of the twelve mysteries...'

'the revelation of the twelve mysteries from jehovah's last battle with satan' 

from a manuscript book written by the peacemakers (or ilyinists).

'religion thus assumes the guise of science fiction or an adventure yarn: satan rules over the earth and the whole solar system (his rightful domain), and jehovah is fighting against him...'  - peacemaker beliefs as described by andrei sinyavsky. 

all this is very c.s. lewis that hideous strength. 

they're an interesting bunch, the doctrine is spread by only in writing, preaching is not allowed. 

horsemouth is trying to get back to the city on the wednesday 

horsemouth has remarked before from his mum's the buses are straightforward monday, thursday, and friday.  on saturday there's a decent service into hereford in the morning but no service pontrilas to abbeydore in the afternoon (so you are walking so you are). 

tuesday there's a direct (but round-all-the-villages) service abbeydore to abergavenny (which horsemouth has yet to try). 

wednesday it is not clear wtf is going on with the buses. 

his brother's eldest joe is due to arrive in a car sometime wednesday afternoon. if joe arrives much after 2pm it is not possible for horsemouth to get back to his house in the wen in time for the zoom meeting at 6.30pm (even with a lift from joe to abergavenny). if this is the case he will stay in the wilds that evening, do his meeting, and return on the thursday when bus services are more predictable (or perhaps cadge a lift). 

this is his current thinking on the matter. 

thursday he will either be travelling or recovering. he could do with getting to the bank at some point. 

friday evening with minty looks possible. saturday horsemouth is probably off to east ham to meet up with howard. 

he guesses monday a wander round with TG. he's got to get in a chat with colin at some point. and enza and whomsoever is about really. he'll take one of the wheelie bins to see if he can get more stuff back (in an ideal world he'd get some shelves back - how's he going to do that?). 

in between he'll try and find some more books. (book-boxes, second hand bookshops - that sort of thing). he's not been reading much and he thinks it's the lack of new material that is doing him in. of course not any book will do (horsemouth is very picky) but random discovery books are uniquely appealing to him. 

horsemouth should also try shedding some books while he's there also. potlatching them away. he has to have a think about re-ordering his room to permit works to be done. 

remind him to pick up a diary while he is there. he's been living without a diary and with no fixed notebook (it's been a bit strange). 

he has cleared one of his dad's bookshelves out of the bedroom where he stays at his mum's (his brother's old bedroom) down into the conservatory. this has created space for, yes you guessed it, more bookshelves, bookshelves for horsemouth's books.

ultimately what horsemouth needs is a removals lorry and/ or storage.  

the black cat and the communal endeavour

it's the monday afternoon. it is rainy and cold out. horsemouth has two meetings this evening (in a bit he will tell his mum), he's dreading one of them. the other he thinks will be a walk in the park. he doesn't think he really needs to be present at either (it may be useful if he is but he can't see how). 

just before the meetings he'll go and lock up the chickens and feed them. 

tuesday evening they have off. 

wednesday his own house in the wen is the topic of discussion (and for that horsemouth may even be in his own house in the wen). 

howard's house is up next monday. 

hopefully by the end of next week they should have all the meetings completed.  towards the end of february they can take the necessary next votes in the management committee. 

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

horsemouth has just done the two meetings (he's had his restorative bottle of beer). they were in reverse order - the awkward bastards were well behaved (for now) and the walk in the park turned out to be the house where everyone was in their separate rooms and no one could bear to let anyone else speak. 

horsemouth has come round to the opinion that he doesn't need to be there for the other meetings. he doesn't think him being there adds anything (in fact he thinks it dilutes the necessary transference). he's seen how it works and thinks it works well enough. better to let the people who are being paid to do it get on with it. 

-----------

above fulci's the black cat (recordings of the dead). the black cat was around this morning. horsemouth is never sure what it is up to. 

'suppose I had been forbidden to write...' (in annihilation's waste)

'suppose I had been forbidden to write in an absolutely literal sense - not a word, not a single letter of the alphabet - I wonder what I would have done?...' - andrei sinyavsky, near the end of his six year sentence (if you'll pardon the pun). 

'I dreamed of the paper I am now writing on as an open field or a forest: oh to be able to lose myself in it, to take-off and run breathlessly and, without reaching the end or even the middle, put down somewhere at the edge or in a corner just a few rapid lines.'

a friend is thinking of doing an actual zine. another friend does poetry chap books. various friends still release music on vinyl and on CD (maybe even cassette) in addition to their live gigs. howard had taken, for a while, to actually writing and posting letters. horsemouth is thinking about the production of material items as opposed to the kind of digital froth you see here. 

horsemouth had forgotten to mention howard's experiments with actual (film) cameras. 

of course merely because something is made does not mean it has any better chance of survival than the 1s and zeroes residing on servers somewhere that you are currently looking at. 

archeology is a handful of items rescued from annihilations waste. 

yesterday afternoon and evening (and unexpectedly) great music from alice coltrane (her influences and her influencees) over on NTS radio (thank you NTS radio) in honour of her new exhibit at the hammer museum in los angeles.  horsemouth listened and snoozed and got up again, watched other things and listened again. wow it ran through til 2am horsemouth has just discovered. soon it should be in the archive (horsemouth will post a link then). 

we are in a strange moment of digital scarcity when it is not available between its performance and its archiving, a gap in the digital abundance of modern times. 

here's another alice themed show of theirs while we wait. 

as a break from proceedings he watched outlaw bookseller's appreciation of the lesser novels of philip k. dick; 'I have never ever  felt I've wasted my time reading anything that philip k. dick ever wrote...'. 

it looks initially like he's going to badmouth and neg the god-like PKD, but no such thing occurs instead there's an appreciation of his weaker work and of the work that is less him (and weaker for it). 

in the morning horsemouth went for his usual walk on the common.  

'the change of the seasons' (lonnie dubs it out)

major article in the NYT on the alice coltrane show opening today at the hammer museum in los angeles. (hey doja cat grew up in alice coltrane's ashram).  and the good things keep coming - today at 2pm NTS radio have an alice coltrane  special. 

horsemouth was just listening to  sais (egypt) by lonnie liston smith which is properly cosmic (like it promises). the band vamps away in a cuban style while lonnie dubs it out. 

now he's listening to in search of truth from astral traveling (the lonnie liston smith album version) which seems to have sitars on it. ok no it's geeta vashi on tamboura (and there's badal roy on tabla too). 

'he who has no ties to this world is attached only by the change of the seasons' - yoshida kenko, essays in idleness (as quoted in andrei sinyavsky's  a voice from the chorus). this must have been quite the book in the 70ies soviet union because tarkovsky mentions it also in his diary. sinyavsky also mentions finding a copy of robert louis stephenson's the strange case of dr. jeckyll and mr. hyde. 

it's a greyish morning. horsemouth's mum had a bump last night (but there was plenty of sport on the tv to console her). zoom beers with howard last night too (mostly discussing the house). 

(h)angxiety and a visit to the village of the pharoahs

ok so horsemouth is back from an outbreak of hangxiety friday morning. 

instead he went with his mum into ewyas harold (to pick up prescriptions and do a little shopping). the wind was bitter. horsemouth proposed that he do it on his own but his mum's mind was made up. 

horsemouth has just put more peanuts in the bird-feeder (his dad was most anxious about feeding the birds before his death and horsemouth has kept on with it).

there was just a flurry of sleet - horsemouth thinks more overnight and maybe snow. 

strata-east the artist led label (charles tolliver and stanley cowell) released pharoah sanders' izipho zam (my gifts), had a hit with gil scott heron's winter in america (and paid him), and is having a series of re-releases soon for record store day. (balance from izipho zam cor bloody hell that's just plain noizy). horsemouth has mentioned this on his substack together with rose simpson's launch video for her autobiography. 

it's a greyish morning. horsemouth has unleashed the chickens already and has his coffee. (in a bit more coffee). his headache from last night seems to have gone. 

'let's just hide the evidence and make believe it never happened' (stagflation)

a beautiful sunny day. one of the chickens is in protective custody until a wound on its leg heals (the other hens were pecking at it). 

'even slower growth and inflation still going up' 

what exactly is the definition of stagflation? energy prices are going up (that's not good). 

horsemouth and his mum have dig our some compost from the compost heap and deposited it in the garden. all that remains to do now is to dig it in. (he's done something similar already with the raised beds). his mum has been out in the greenhouse repotting things (horsemouth thinks it is too early). the world news is so bad that horsemouth is tempted to go dig the garden.  

ok he's just had a quick dig of the garden (preparatory to putting the compost in). 

'let's just hide the evidence  and make believe it never happened'

so grenfell tower is going to be demolished. hopefully some of the people responsible for the grenfell fire will be charged before that happens but it's by no means a certainty;

'in may 2024, prosecutors and police said investigators would need until the end of 2025 to complete their inquiry, with final decisions on potential criminal charges by the end of 2026...'

even if they are charged it is by no means certain that they will come to trial quickly or that the prosecutions will be successful or that the punishment will be proportionate to their crimes. 

and that is not the most depressing bit of news today. 

horsemouth is back from the bell-ringing (he's making some progress). 

a beautiful sunrise over a frosty landscape

 'I looked out at dawn.' kilvert is back at clyro. 

so horsemouth's coming back to the wen is looking more like the 12th feb. 

returning to the wilds on the 21st. 

the limiting factor is the buses - in an ideal world there would be a bus from and to the door in the wilds. for this to be the case  this requires travelling on a monday, thursday or friday. now horsemouth has no problem walking back from pontrilas to abbeydore if needs be (e.g. if he travels on a saturday) but ideally not. 

horsemouth would like to get out and about and get some more books 

but they have to be random browsed books and there's not much point getting a bus to hereford (or abergavenny) and back just to go book-shopping there  (the selection just isn't as magically good as it will be in the wen). particularly if he will soon be visiting the wen. 

plus if he returns via hereford or abergavenny he will have time to kill while waiting for the bus that he can use to go book-buying (or he could just hide out in the pub). 

the only situation he really doesn't want to be in is the 'there's no buses (at all) because it's a bank-holiday' situation (he has faced that particular horror and paid the cab-fare, he never wants to face it again). 

last night horsemouth watched sam peckinpah's pat garrett and billy the kid. 

he's feeling a bit down. the retrofit reports are in but what they mean doesn't feel any clearer. quite how much it will all cost is not that much clearer. ah well fuck it. 

so how does this look in the morning.

well it's a beautiful sunrise over a frosty landscape. 

tonight (hopefully) the bell-ringing. 

500 years of utopia (egypt)

an entirely written in the morning blogpost 

(so let's see of it's any good)

first off sais (egypt) by mtume from lonnie liston smith's band. (nice echo).

for substack horsemouth was hunting around for old material from the blogspot. first  the musicians of bremen version of keith hudson's turn your heater on (2020). then some memories of visiting the utopia projects pavillion in the basement of the courtauld gallery (way back in 2016). 

the exhibition was in honour of the publication 500 years before of thomas more's utopia but our modern utopia is a debased thing - dystopias, on the other hand, are huge (despite the term being coined much later). 

horsemouth's problem with the substack is not to fall for panacea of fine writing (and its concomitant fandom going 'oh my isn't your writing fine' - that's not going to happen). but, busy bower bird that he is. horsemouth can doubtless find some appealing arrangement of his kipple. 

horsemouth has material (even if he's not, particularly, writing it at the minute). 

he's thinking about getting back to the wen and raiding some book-boxes (and sitting drinking in darkened pubs and being photographed in black and white). 

the retrofit designs for the decarbonisation are here (there are a few minor typos but nothing fatal) indeed they've been sent out (which means the annoying typos will be left in - sigh). 

any sign of new thought

a grauniad writer has written a new chapter on how to solve the housing crisis 

can you detect any sign of new thought in it?

1. an annual property tax, replacing stamp duty and council tax.
2. transform empty buildings 
3. build public housing. 'the homes that are built should be the ones that most directly and quickly address need – those built for rent rather than for sale, especially affordable public housing'. 
4. use land well.
5. build sustainably
6. build beautifully.

the problem with proposal 3 is that it is not a bribe to the voters. it has the advantage of not lowering house prices for sale (the feelgood factor for much of middle england and the thing that would really make a difference to the housing shortage). 

it is important to be clear that the government (and the housebuilders) are not going to build one and a half million houses by the end of this parliament - that would have the effect of lowering house prices and thus the profits of the housebuilders. that just leaves the social housing sector who are knackered after years of central government attacks on their rental income and risk averse after the bad publicity of criticism of the poor maintenance of their housing stock (both old and newly built). 

horsemouth would take a side order of 2 also (dealing with empty homes). since the outlawing of squatting in residential property (and given persistent oversupply in the office building sector) there is vastly more empty property than there used to be. 

six more weeks of winter says punxsutawny phil

'this evening we had our fourth penny reading.'  says kilvert. this was a great success with people crammed into the room and even trying to listen in at the windows. 

six more weeks of winter  says punxsutawny phil (the famous groundhog). winter in america to quote gil-scott heron. here in the wilds and the norths we are up to a 9 hour and 10 minute days. 

robert lawson has just released a new album recorded live in  la polivalente malaga in january 2025 (saturday the 18th horsemouth believes) with antonio dobon on double bass and jerome tagher on percussion. 

today a journey to the forge (and back). 

yesterday dystopian dialogue (adam roberts). horsemouth still professes an interest in utopias (but not their ugly and badly behaved cousin). on substack horsemouth shared afro-blue impressions by the classic john coltrane quartet on pablo live records.

this was an album horsemouth got out of hereford record library (and he's sorry to say taped) when he first lived in the wilds of herefordshire back in the early 80ies (his parents had moved there). it's the classic quartet blazing their way through the material, opening with a tough version of ‘lonnie's lament’ and later, in particular, a stonking version of ‘afro-blue’ (mongo santamaria).

this caused horsemouth to look out mongo santamaria’s original version and later to try a guitar version of it (to no great success).

groundhog day ('citizens of the world... it's time for world peace')

groundhog day is celebrated annually on february 2nd, with punxsutawney phil. 

horsemouth will let you know how it goes. 

horsemouth has come across some footage of the lonnie liston smith sextet with reggie workman on double bass performing mysteries of blue, on the rooftops of new york, 1973. (there's also footage of noah howard and the sam rivers trio)

george barron on soprano (a lonnie liston smith regular), lawrence killian on percussion (a pharoah sanders regular also), alan nelson, drums, and an unnamed percussionist.

free jazz alto saxophonist noah howard looks on. (noah howard is an sun ra and archie shepp connection, lived in paris for a while, on esp etc.). 

george barron plays sax on lonnie liston smith's version of astral travelling and the album cosmic funk.

'citizens of the world... it's time for world peace'

in groundhog day (the movie) andi mcdowell's preferred toast when drinking is 'world peace'. 

there's some good quality screaming on this record. but on the whole it's a bit too soul jazz  for horsemouth. (ok fairplay sais (egypt) is rocking).  every second track is great. 

what does february have to offer?

- groundhog day

- let's kill captian cook day

- john fahey week (ending in robbie basho day) february 22nd to february 28th. 

monday 3rd february horsemouth will be heading up to the forge filling station (he suspects). 

 

imbolc (we are half way there)

half way between the winter solstice and the spring equinox (we are half way there). 

horsemouth has his coffee (wait he's going to get some more). 

last night zoom beers (early) with howard. horsemouth had a bottle and a half. (remind him to take the bottles back downstairs in a minute). they discussed the man in the high castle and brexit (in particular the way it fucks retiring to a european country - howard has friends in spain he could have done it).  

horsemouth is running out of pages in his diary (in his little black book). he has shifted his EPC planning to another (larger) notebook.

anyway he's back up and wandering around mid-february. (ah-ha he's just realised he can do the thing with the calendars).

horsemouth is now onto the tea.