horsemouth will not be 'digitally detoxing'

so by the time horsemouth posts this up he will have survived this evening's meeting of the communal endeavour.

as he writes this/ as he types this, he is killing time before he goes to the meeting. he is trying to get his head right/ get into a sunny positive disposition. 

he's just been looking at moving his electricity and gas accounts - max. 28 days notice. 

ok he's been packing bags. he's been shifting book boxes about. he's been emptying drawers. he's been getting clearer on what it would mean to move. 

as to furniture things can be emptied (and then they can leave his room) is one theory. 

huzzah! horsemouth will not be 'digitally detoxing' as he thought. he will in fact still be with you having made a deal with the devil to permit him to do this.

take home message:  this still works

sidechain speculation: horsemouth had a glimpse of what it would mean if it didn't.

he has survived the meeting. he is drunk and happy, 

london was very beautiful in the sunshine

ok horsemouth was on the train for paddington (having got his brother to drive him in to hereford). he had a womble round the very pretty center of worcester (ok down to the river and back up). then he was up  at worcester shrub hill railway station (near the very pretty victorian waiting rooms - but he doesn't have time to get off and make a visit). 

horsemouth returns to the wen intent on doing his political duty (and then packing it in). 

his brother has agreed in principle to pick him up from hereford  on the sunday (when there are no buses but there are trains). the guy in the railway station was chuntering on about ticket validity and weekends and such like (horsemouth had forgotten to utter the magic phrases 'via evesham' and 'super-saver' (having forgotten what it was like to travel by train). after much oblique haggling horsemouth was offered a ticket at a price and on a route he recognised and accepted with alacrity. 

the swedish guy ahead of him in the queue was getting a similar level of service. he was going down to london for the day - an option that had the clerk absolutely baffled. 

on the train they passed through oxford - that would make more sense to horsemouth as a place for a daytrip. 

the elec and gas website was pissing him off. 

ok he's got it done. 

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

london was very beautiful in the sunshine. as he walked back across the park his headache cleared. he met up with the housemates. he walked to the shops through kids playing and reggae music. he did the (online) communal endeavour meeting. he had a glass of beer with sten. 

he's made two arrangements to meet - one is with TG this morning  at their usual park bench rendezvous. there's the communal endeavour annual general meeting wednesday evening (after which horsemouth thinks he will have earned another beer). 

looks like it's a no with minty (shocker of a cough and cold). 

whilst he was on the commuter train to his suburb ('the weaver line') the women opposite discussed something going off in spain - it turns out spain (and portugal) had a huge electricity outage. of course as more things become electrically powered (trains for example) this makes the result of outages worse. 

the buying up of bills (and thus of debts)

in balzac's  eugénie grandet we have just moved into the heart of the matter - the buying up of bills and of debts.

the lawyer is namechecking bentham;

'a bill of exchange is a commodity that is subject to rises and falls in value.  that's a deduction from jeremy bentham's theory of interest... seeing that in principle money is a commodity, according to bentham. and whatever represents money becomes a commodity too...' 

old man grandet has a scheme - what it is ain't exactly clear yet. clearing his brother's name won't be it, this you know already. 

horsemouth is starting to feel more like himself. he has a cough (granted) but his headache and fever seem to have abated. he's still wiped out though. 

it's a beautiful morning. it looks like it will be a glorious day. it looks like his mum was out ahead of him to unleash the chickens. he has watered a few things he could water. he will be away for a week (hopefully everything currently growing will survive and things that have not yet surfaced will surface). 

of course owning debt is where it is at 'passive income' stay home put your feet up and have the money roll in, post a few videos on youtube about your trading courses. 

timing (horsemouth is still sick)

horsemouth has spent the morning in bed and is beginning to feel less feverish and fluey. 

however  now he does have a cough. 

he has been out to water the garden (4 microscopic pea plants, 6 runner bean plants and 2 potato plants that he recognises) - the rest of it he is just watering in the hope that whatever he planted there (and he has largely forgot) is coming up. 

ok he's just remembered there is a row of potatoes and broad beans he's put in (he'll go and water those).  these were planted on an 'if they come then they come' basis. 

looks like the black cat has caught and killed a baby rabbit. 

later on today (the sunday and round about 6pm) his brother arrives - horsemouth will head off to the wen on monday (he thinks). 

for his video for the day he did have  fred kitchen's a brother to the ox - from a novel about farm labour by an actual farm labourer but instead he's swapped it for one of roger barnes's doing up a house in a fishing town in brittany. 

horsemouth really enjoys these videos - the materials? wood (of various sorts), screws, fittings from IKEA. he shows us the thing that will replace tiling (horsemouth is sad about that - he enjoys tiling) big sheets of waterproof material that you just silicone mastic round (and job done). 

roger's  simple delight at the arrival of hot water out of a tap. 

and then roger goes for a beer and a sandwich on the harbourfront.  

horsemouth cough and cold

here's horsemouth. he's laid up with a filthy cough and cold (the one that was doing the rounds and got his mum). he's a bit feverish (hence the lateness of this post). 

last time his brother came to visit the cough meant that horsemouth couldn't leave - this time he is determined to get away. mind you there's bullshit via newport and bullshit down or up from newport looks like. bullshit up from hereford to shrewsbury. 

with a bit of luck he will manage 5 days minimum. (as he has pointed out already getting back bank holiday monday could be a bit of a pig). 

how are things going otherwise? 

let's see what's on the news

moscow/ ukraine (land for peace), funeral of the pope, saving wordsworth's home. 

britain/ US trade, supported housing sector in difficulty. 

somewhere back in the wen horsemouth has a copy of delius: as I knew him by eric fenby (a while ago horsemouth showed you ken russell's delius - a song of summer. horsemouth will try out a few other ken russell composer films (he's just watched the bruckner - which was great).

 

early spring bank holidays

the early spring bank holiday

that would be monday may 5th - this would be a bad day for horsemouth to attempt to return home from the wen because there would be no buses out of hereford (result - cab £40 plus). 

similarly monday may 26th. similarly monday august 25th. (do you see the pattern here). 

horsemouth never wants to be caught like that again. 

(he also knows there are no buses on sundays)

horsemouth is considering transport 

he's also considering the cheapest possible rail fares back to the wen. there seems to be some super cheap one via rugby(!) - hereford to birmingham new street to rugby to london euston (like wtaf!).  it makes sense to horsemouth that there would be a cheap route via birmingham (because there are cheap trains to and from birmingham)

there are supposed to be problems with the trains out of cardiff - i.e. the ones horsemouth would pick up at newport (if he were to go that way) but that's supposed to be over monday (if you believe that...).

there's a route via worcester parkway (but is it actually cheaper?). it looks like some birmingham new street services are cheaper (but only by £2 or so) and some more expensive. 

perhaps the thing to do (when he actually gets to the railway station) is to ask. 

the dream

he was sharing a house with ____. the situation was good but not perfect. there seemed to be lots of rooms but it was peasant light and airy. she was worried about keeping it warm. later they were in a restaurant. horsemouth's dad appeared. he was wearing his light blue denim jeans and workshirt. he seemed cheerful. he accused horsemouth of acting as if he didn't know he was coming.  then horsemouth saw his mum (who looked well). 'this is a dream' said horsemouth (and the dream popped). 

here in the wilds (an off and on kind of day)

'on the east side of ponkawtasset I hear a robin singing cheerily from some perch in the wood, in the midst of the rain, where the scenery is now wild and dreary. his song a singular antagonism and offset to the storm. as if nature said 'have faith. these two things I can do'...' - thoreau's journal, 21st april 1852.

here in the wilds it's an off and on kind of day. (helicopters, blackbirds, that sort of a day). 

horsemouth has planted out 6 of the runner bean plants. four of the peas planted outside have come up (horsemouth has put some twigs round them to give them something to catch on to. other plants that he planted out directly may have come up but he can't tell because he doesn't know what they look like. 

back in the greenhouse only one of the broad bean plants has come up but quite a few of the peas and the runner beans have come up, marrows too, perhaps some cucumbers. horsemouth has planted out the hellebore and about half the nasturtiums. 

horsemouth is more confident this year that all of this will have time to grow. 

it looks like he will be back in the wen for next week. which means he can do his various meetings and catch up with people and socialise. maybe he will even be about for the weekend (in which case he can catch up with even more people). 

here a greyish morning. 

'a fascination with the obsolete and the analog' (eagle sails the blue diamond waters)

'... an inverse relationship to new technology, a rejection of digital media, and a fascination with the obsolete and the analog: 35-mm slides, celluloid film, record players, and the like.'

- claire bishop, information overload: the superabundance of research based art in art forum april 2023.  

'dear diaries (published as books)... please come and save me from having nothing to write.' - horsemouth, 23rd april 2025, unpublished.

nothing in the kilvert on this day and horsemouth has forgotten what year he is on with the kafka. if it's 1916 there's no post until 11th may. if it's 1915 he's on holiday on the 27th. in early may (1915) he's back to his usual whining (but consoled by strindberg - 'read strindberg, who sustains me.' )

everybody seems to go on holiday in april. 

elsewhere in horsemouth's reading eugénie grandet is going well. the miser is in his house and the cousin has just arrived. it's november 1819 (p.70).

superabundance

what horsemouth forgot to say was that this was the real thing about the modern world (with its manufacturing and distribution).  digital has driven this on still further and we seek to return to physical things, the merely printed and collected.

to follow up on the claire bishop, people are interested in the old media - it is seen as being more authentic less mediated than the social media stuff. 

this week on radio 4 like and subscribe a show on youtube (and all that jazz). 

and over on youtube 

bookpilled is back reviewing a pile of books, 

and outlaw bookseller is reviewing the great english catastrophe novel. 

later on horsemouth will watch nightfall again (a jacques tourneur noir with anne bancroft as the girl mixed up in it).  

rainy morning. 

'it's like in the godfather'

kilvert has a boil upon his thigh that he has been suffering with since 13th april 1871 today they finally get the doctor out to him. (he will still be suffering with it on the 27th). 

may day kilvert is in hereford high town for the jack in the green (he is travelling on to chippenham and his father's rectory at langley burrell). 

this mayday there are lots of elections. horsemouth expects a big reform protest vote (even though it is currently experiencing staffing difficulties). he expects big loses for the tories (failing to cut through with the electorate or indeed even get back up on their feet). he expects losses for labour on a low turnout of about 1/3rd of the electorate in the places actually being contested (again about 1/3rd of the electorate) - 23 councils and six mayors in england, and sennedd and local elections in wales - may 7th and may 6th).

a lot happens in the godfather 

horsemouth is therefore uncertain what was meant if someone were to say 'it's like in the godfather'.

well bad news something has got one of the chickens - it looks like it was attacked and then crawled into one of the nesting boxes to die. cats? rats? crows? another chicken? 

horsemouth found it's body. it is now buried up by the water trough. horsemouth will go and check that the rock he placed over it is enough to deter carrion creatures.

the white cat (with orange bits) just visited. horsemouth went out to run it off. (though to be fair it did seem more interested in the rats/ mice under the shed). he likes the cats visiting (though he thinks their chances of killing an actual rat are minimal).  

horsemouth has added a photo of himself up the pub with pizza eating chips (a photo taken by howard after one of their rehearsals for their august 24th gig last year). 

horsemouth was just having a think about bookshelves for his room. his dad once made a series of bookshelves (some of which still survive intact). the largest of them he cut up into sections when they moved to herefordshire and used it to store his tools, paint etc. in the garage - horsemouth is thinking about giving some of them a clean and  bringing them back into use as bookshelves.     

as has been observed he has rather a lot of books and rather a lot of records. furniture not so much (or at least not so much that he can be bothered to bring it with him. 

'celestial forces... terrestrial interests' (humanity)

'some feelings are like dreams that pervade every corner of one's spirit like a mist, and do not let one think or act or even be.' - fernando pessoa, the book of disquiet, 35 (159), 21st april 1930. 

it has all gone quiet (and it is a beautiful day). horsemouth's brother, his brother's wife, his brother's two kids and his brother's son's girlfriend have all departed. 

he has pressed man in a high castle, high rise and christ stopped at eboli on his brother's eldest. 

as horsemouth says it has all gone quiet. the cooking and washing up all reassume manageable proportions. 

in a bit horsemouth will sit out and read. he is reading balzac's eugénie grandet from whence;

'between celestial forces and terrestrial interests' 

dostoyevsky apparently began his career by translating the novel into russian, in 1843. apparently it is based on the real life of balzac's mistress marie du fresnay. 

jacques camatte has popped his clogs. horsemouth really only knows the name. here's a book he could read. 

'one can only speak of the victory of the proletarians to the extent that one simultaneously affirms that they will not realize it as proletarians, but in negating themselves...."

-jacques camatte, capital and community (remarks), 1972. 

horsemouth has edited this remark to remove camatte's 'in posing man'.

horsemouth supposes this is why the dust up with the ICC (and perhaps why their shift to and 'humanity' rather than just the working class. 

his name and jean barrot (pen name of gilles dauvé) were the key names in circulation when horsemouth was first introduced to this stuff by his friends. (not that he ever really understands it you understand). 

horsemouth begins in bourgeois liberalism, revolts into anarchism (animal rights, ecology etc.), becomes interested in this stuff (left communism). later he has an apolitical break before becoming interested in western marxism (largely through the aesthetics of adorno). meanwhile people who began in academia with western marxism seem (by the early 2010s) to have become very interested in the work of camatte or gilles dauvé. 

this week  horsemouth hoped to be away (or at least away for some of it) but instead he is preparing for the week after when there are annual general meetings of the communal endeavour and such-like. 

outside it is a rainy and grey day. 

pre-breakfast stirrings

a rare written-entirely-in-the-morning blogpost. 

horsemouth is back from his brother's daughter's 21st birthday celebration meal in ross-on-wye. 

there they were up in the restaurant looking back towards the black mountains and the wilds of herefordshire. it was great to meet sally's side of the family again (such a great bunch). horsemouth chatted amiably and ate well - double desert (katie didn't fancy her sticky toffee pudding). 

afterwards they paid a visit to TESCOs and his brother cooked. he had a brief chat with his brother's son joe about science fiction. what was horsemouth's favourite science fiction novel? hmmn. horsemouth eventually answered christopher priest's a dream of wessex - but is that in fact true? to be honest horsemouth doesn't really read SF anymore. joe has been reading a lot of horror fiction (stephen king etc.)

he walked across the common over to ewyas harold with his brother and wife (in search of a bottle of white wine). they just made it to the shop in time. 

elsewhere outlaw bookseller has been buying (and being given) some new books, the alice coltrane season at the hammer museum in LA is coming to an end. 

horsemouth can hear the pre-breakfast stirrings.

it is eight years since a significant meeting in horsemouth's life (though come to think of it he had met them before). 

circle of danger (katy cruel)

'jacques tourneur's circle of danger - american comes to the uk searching for news about his dead brother  (killed on a commando raid before d-day), only a few of the 12 men on that raid are left alive. but there was a thirteenth man...' 

well it's very like tourneur's  night of the demon - american in britain (only in this case he goes to wales, scotland and birmingham as well), british love interest, a whistled tune (white heather the film claims but horsemouth hasn't been able to verify that, or indeed find a scottish tune of that name that's not a foxtrot or a jig). IMDB reminds him that a whistled theme is used in fritz lang's M  but horsemouth remembers also in night of the demon. mr. meek the medium (from that film) pops up in a supporting role as a ballet afficionado. 

'it's almost as if everything is waiting' remarks the american by a silent lake (it is a classy tourneurish moment but it goes nowhere). 

the problem is not with the cast (who give it a good punt) or with tourneur (who does his best with the material) - it's with the script, everybody is just too likeable and fundamentally decent, the guns don't come out until right at the end. there was an opportunity for tragedy (but that route was not taken). 

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

horsemouth's version of katy cruel has just re-appeared after a long absence. recorded four (or maybe even five) years ago the slide guitar (it was recorded on the resonator horsemouth thinks) could do with thinning down but really it could do with something else (violin or something or someone elses voice as lead). 

horsemouths sing the mains and howard sings the harmonies on the chorus.  

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

it's the saturday morning. horsemouth's brother's family are here (snoozing away in their various locations). horsemouth is up early because this is the time at which he usually feeds the chickens. later (not so much later) a restaurant meal. 

a letter to his (not so) younger self (it has all turned out well)

'it's almost as if everything is waiting' - jacques tourneur, circle of danger (1951)

round about this time four years ago horsemouth's then employer was moving to make horsemouth (and his work colleagues) redundant.

there was a long (if already decided) consultation.

as horsemouth has remarked before the argument they made for closing down horsemouth's department was not convincing but maybe they had more convincing arguments elsewhere they didn't feel the need to use relying on the redundancy payment to do their arguing for them. 

horsemouth was not tempted to try some other role within the organisation. 

redundo beats no redundo every time. 

despite the fact that horsemouth's wages were (by the end of it) really quite low he had been there for a long time and was thus eligible for a fair old chunk of it. as he was over 55 at the time he was also eligible to start his works' pension early. while this was only about £60 a month  it was very welcome.

these, together with his savings (made when the job was comparatively well paid and horsemouth was a hard-working young mule) are what has carried him through the succeeding years. that said  the redundo and the portion of his pension taken as a lump sum only carried him for about a year and a half. 

and (as he says) that was about four years ago. 

now horsemouth would gladly have continued with the employment (despite the fact that he was sunk below the poverty line) because he had cheap(ish) rent and low costs (his only real expenses were rent, food, and beer). he liked the work and having a paycheque coming in reassured him. 

some money beat no money in his humble opinion.  

at one point horsemouth was considering retiring to portugal (where rent was roughly half what it was in london at that point and where his money would have gone further), later (post his redundancy) he was pretty much reconciled to remaining in london (there were interesting things to do with the communal endeavour) but following on from the death of his father he suspects his life is not destined to be in either of these places. 

the pandemic convinced him that life without work was a possibility by showing him it was possible to live on very little (even less than he had been living on).

with this as his motto horsemouth knows he can stretch it out to his old age pension. 

and so it has proved. soon enough horsemouth will be half way there. 

he hasn't missed work. (he has missed the people). it has all turned out well. 

his brother and family arrive later on. they will be disgorged by the car. before that the re-arrangement of the rooms to permit everyone to have a place to sleep. horsemouth suspects he will have to shift. he's not sure if his mum won't have to shift. 

in the evening he watched most of jacques tourneur's circle of danger - american comes to the uk searching for news about his dead brother, killed on a commando raid before d-day, only a few of the 12 men on that raid are left alive. but there was a thirteenth man...

how is horsemouth doing and what does he think is going on in the world?

well it's a beautiful morning out here in the wilds. in a bit horsemouth will go out and retrieve the bin from the bottom of the drive. the chickens have been fed. 

so how low are wages in the UK?

over the next 3 years 11 million people will be pulled into paying tax by the freezing of existing tax brackets, 5 million of them will be pensioners. 

so 6 million won't - they'll be low paid workers, because that's what's endemic in the UK - low pay. 

so more than 6 million people are currently earning less than £12,570 a year  while working. 

and of course this is just for the part of the economy they have figures for. 

so how is horsemouth doing?

well he has checked his finances once again. he was concerned he was spending too much money but on closer inspection he thinks he's safe out until the end of the year which means he's pretty close to his £10k a year lifestyle.

of course the proportion that is in a stocks and shares ISA takes a hit as the global carnage unfolds (but not a fatal one).  horsemouth had a table somewhere where he'd put in all the inputs (while he'd been working and saving)  and the outputs (from when he started to supplement his meagre income with it). 

one key change was when he started paying in to the works pension - they enrolled him into this at the last possible date and he never earned very much so it never amounted to very much (about £60/ month) -  but it meant his take-home pay went down below social reproduction levels (he was sunk beneath taxation) and so he had to start dipping his savings. 

the pension age is going up to 67. horsemouth thinks he has enough (variously sited) to make it (and then be safe in the embrace of the old aged pension - assuming it is still there).  

so how is horsemouth's adopted hometown of london doing?

well 250% is the increase in average house prices between 2010 and 2023 (compared to a 200% increase across the rest of london) in 53 of the fastest gentrifying neighbourhoods. along with a  2 percentage points drop in black populations there (equivalent to 10,000 people) and with a 4ppts drop in the population aged 15 or under in these areas (so 20,000 less children in those areas). 

london's ageing (does that remind you of the clash?)

london's getting posh... 

so what does horsemouth think is going on in the world? 

world trade will restructure to route around the US if there are tariffs - and even if they don't the bond markets will skin the US alive using the debt for daring to fuck with the programme of predictable profits (think of network). 

lots of short term pain for no economic gain (except for the super-rich who will broadly prosper in any economic situation). 

the effect of all this will be to bring US hegemonic power to an end earlier than it need have done. 

well it should help to remove the illusion that there's a way out by going back (brexit, sovereignty, immigration controls, right populism etc.) but actually horsemouth thinks people will just double down. 

'the fully darkenlightened earth radiates disaster triumphant' (sic.)

'... some are insane, 

and they're in charge

to hell with poverty...' 

- gang of four, 

once upon a time 

there was a philosopher behaving badly. he thought he was smart enough to attempt the alchemical operation of the transvaluation of all values and the ruse of reason.  he started a cult. the young flocked to him and many left to spread the good word. some did good work. some fell foul.  

he fell foul.  he promulgated a darkenlightenment (TM) of accelerating whatsits and doo-dads. he acquired proteges who were fanboys of tyranny and the tech-bros and the super-rich.

they gave themselves silly names. (horsemouth shouldn't moan about this but hey)

oh how deliciously wicked we are being. they snickered. 

noticing how shit it was getting for them (despite the record stock evaluations and the beeping smartphones) the people began to rise up against the globalised world order in populist nationalist movements demanding the adulation of business and the expulsion of immigrant labour. elections were held. assassinations attempted. inaugurations happened. 

and then the trade wars were begun, tariffs imposed and reversed, allies were threatened, enemies encouraged. coins were tossed and policies sourced from AI. 

of course things weren't going entirely to plan (least of all for the darkenlightened philosophers who'd imagined something smoother) but we are all  schmittians now and the state of exception is generalised.. 

through it all the tech-bros stood immovable. they knew they were rich enough to ride it out. a few billions more, a few billions less, what did it matter? they all had secret underground lairs and their own space programmes. 

8 clones of lana del ray went up into space on a penis shaped rocket. they kissed daisies, they linked hands and floated in zero-G, they sang harmonies. when they returned to earth they talked (polyphonically) of love. 

horsemouth's musings on this started with a post by ben where adorno's impreciations against the enlightenment are admixed with nick land's provocation of the dark enlightenment.

ben's point (if horsemouth has understood it correctly) was that things aren't turning out as  neatly as the avatars of the dark enlightenment envisaged (let us give them silly names also - because they are fundamentally silly). and yet things are turning out. horsemouth should go back and read land's tosh (and he should renew his acquaintance with adorno). 

it's a greyish morning

in a bit horsemouth will take the eggs to  the crossroads. he will take the waste bin down the drive. he will go for a walk on the commons. there are sheep on the common as well as ponies. he's put up a small trellis (is that the right word?) for the runner beans (if only to mark space). he's put loads of beetroot seeds into pots (looking like little golden crunchies) he's trying to drive defensively against the prospect of frosts.  

today 'gusty winds and rain'.

a blogpost about creative endeavour (being a musician) and how to think about it when it is over

 'he hasn’t created a character just to sell records, he has created his own world for the sake of enjoying making it come to life.' 

- devandra banhart on michael hurley.

a blogpost about creative endeavour (being a musician) and how to think about it when it is over

andy edward's political views horsemouth thinks are nonsense but he's very good on why people make music (or so horsemouth thinks). 

andy has seen the top of the rock industry (he spent four years playing with robert plant) and having been chewed by it he was spat out and had to make his own recovery. 

horsemouth enjoyed his time making music and was sad when it was over. frankly he much prefers the hobbyist way he goes about it now.  he gets all the pleasures of musical creation without the nagging need to 'make it'. and be successful. just writing, playing and recording is already a success. 

and this is where andy is right. to 'make it' is a dead end, because the fall starts from there, but 'making it' - doing something more or doing something better each time - that's the fun bit. 

horsemouth should really get back up on the horse. he is, however, feeling a little uninspired of late. 

howard's new stuff is good. horsemouth will give it a punt when it comes out. 

‘squeezing out sparks transcends the medium. I don't think there's anything as good as that by anybody anywhere. and I don't even take credit for it. I don't know what happened. I blacked out.'

– graham parker

like a lot of singers at that time  parker took the bob dylan playbook (be mean, be sneering ‘how does it feel?’) and kept pushing. think elvis costello - that was the comparison a lot of people made at the time, but costello was ultimately the better lyricist and songwriter (or maybe he just got the breaks).

compare accidents will happen and you can't be too strong.

ultimately there wasn’t room for both of them.

it came out in 1979 horsemouth probably got it then (certainly before august 1980).

horsemouth probably wouldn’t go with passion is no ordinary word’ as the track.

protection is probably the vital track,

‘so all of you be damned (we can’t have heaven crammed)…’

it’s an album that is all rage and disgust and contempt. (probably perfect for the teenage horsemouth).

and it is probably his best album (though not his best song - that’s probably hey lord (don’t ask me questions). up escalator the album after it is good too. stick to me (the one before) is good also.

but it's probably his best. so where do you go from there?

not his actual memory (the super-villains are plotting their EXIT)

an entirely written in the morning blogpost

which (when horsemouth was working) was pretty much the way they used to be. 

but now - less so? 

yesterday a wander up the hill to martin and sylvia's (martin's gardening goes well). he picked up some leeks (promising vaguely to trade them for rhubarb). 

here the weather is on the change (allegedly). 

horsemouth was just off down the wormholes of memory. not his actual memory you understand (his is kind of like a goldfishes) but what facebook chooses to remember for him.

capitalism (much to horsemouth's chagrin) shows many signs of falling, but these are just profitable fluctuations for the super-rich, opportunities for looting of value on a massive scale (stocks go down BUY stocks go up again SELL retreat to secret island base with SWAG). 

because at some point the super-rich (having looted society to the brink of collapse) must find a defensible position to hide out with their ill-got gains. 

the super-villains are plotting their EXIT.  their retreat to their secret island bases.

meanwhile the rest of the world will carry on going to hell in a handcart. 

it is april 14th the day on which a unicorn manifested at a seance in the tale playing with fire by sir arthur conan doyle. 

each returning day (like old photographs)

as we roll towards may eve

so horsemouth is back from seeing alula down at carnival records in great malvern.  songs about summer, songs from the pilgrimage ways. a chat after (about musical kit and about bellringing)

but now his journey there.

by shanks's pony to pontrilas (across the common) - this took less time than horsemouth thought it would and he had more time than he thought he had (because the but doesn't go until 7.39am). thence by bus to hereford and (after a quick visit to the supermarket in search of provisions) by railway from hereford to great malvern, then a wander up the hill (horsemouth went the right way this time) to check the venue was where he remembered it being. 

then horsemouth pushed on further up the hill, 

past malvern books 

and past malvinha 

and up towards the hills, 

passing st. anne's well (drinking not recommended on account of bacterial contamination) and the hexagonal bar. 

on his way back down he met lots of younger fitter people clamouring for the heights. 

and back again with a stop off in hereford to try and buy books

accessions diary 

- les paradis artificiels baudleaire (50p amnesty malvern). discussion of the assassins, hashish, opium etc. so far horsemouth has only glanced at claude pichoise' introduction because it's in french a language horsemouth only reads imperfectly. but it is in a rather funky livre de poche 1965 edition. sadly horsemouth's copy in english is not here with him so he may have to proceed on with his bad french. 

- the stories of ronald blythe ronald blythe (£1 chazza hereford). thus he discovered every returning day: the pleasure of diaries (edited by ronald). 'these things are riveting... like old photographs.'

and then back to the bus station, bus to pontrilas, a walk, and then home.

then zoom beers with howard

so howard played horsemouth three tracks he has been working on (since wednesday when they last spoke). all three are good. john fromporto's omnichord gets an outing (at last), a drunken horsemouth reciting the lyrics to nuclear war by sun ra gets played (and reversed raw raelcun).  

howard has been reading about tony wilson. apparently one of his tutors at oxford was raymond culture is ordinary williams. 

the week after next or the week after that

ok so horsemouth's current plan is to be up early in the morning and out the door to malvern to see alula down. 

if he fails he will have to write more. 

he will walk to pontrilas (1 hr 6 mins) to get the bus into hereford and then the train to great malvern (and he will repeat this in reverse on the way back because there are no buses back from pontrilas to abbeydore on a saturday afternoon)

horsemouth is a bit short on funds until he gets back to the wen

his return to the wen is either happening the week after next (monday-ish to wednesday-ish). perhaps horsemouth can scrape it out to thursday-ish. there's a slight chance he'll be able to get a lift back (which would be handy) or start it slightly earlier. 

or he'll be back the week after that. 

in any event he has to be back in the wen for the night of wednesday the 30th april (may eve for those who know). 

the 16th 1857 for thoreau, no kilvert until the 14th. no kafka til the 19th. 

he's going to go and check his bank account and see if he's been paid all the gas and electric money he is owed. no he hasn't (email despatched). (ok now it's paid). 

ah-ha he's just spotted the black cat heading down the meadow. 

ok he thinks he's set the alarm on the phone (but he can't tell).  he's listening to webb dave's ambient dub show (and very nice and clanky it is too). 

ok he's up and has his coffee - wish him luck!

a day after (hail the material world)

this being an entirely written in the morning blogpost.

horsemouth is live from the bed at the edge of the world. it's a beautiful morning, a bit misty at ground level but otherwise a clear blue sky, not as cold as it has been. 

he's had one 'like' on the substack 'do you expect to ‘arrive’ by publishing? that is not easy’  article which (because it's a new toy) he's delighted by. 

a friend has published an actual physical fanzine, horsemouth thinks this a genius move, a collectable. other friends publish poetry chap books, have print-on-demand photobooks, release physical CDs and records etc. etc. 

hail the material world.   

yesterday a meeting on zoom of the cosa nostra followed up by a visit of his aunt and uncle. now horsemouth's uncle is an interesting man - he was a steel worker at llanwern and then he was in aluminium fabrication (here you see horsemouth posing with an authentic member of the industrial working class) but he has a lot to say and almost none of it is to horsemouth's political taste. after the visit a knackered horsemouth called off the bell-ringing and went for a restorative walk on the common (which is truly beautiful at the moment and not very muddy).

in the evening he watched  episode two of science fiction in the atomic age  on sky arts - the golden age  turns into the new wave, the exploration of outer space  becomes the exploration of inner space, the utopias fall into dystopia. (and most enjoyable it was). he wonders what outlaw bookseller would make of it (or bookpilled for that matter). 

because horsemouth watches very little  tv and watches it the old-fashioned way (when it's on) he will miss subsequent episodes. 

it looks like some members of the cosa nostra will be attending the annual meeting of the communal endeavour (it may even be filmed).

'I bought me a spy-glass some weeks since...'

 'I bought me a spy-glass some weeks since...

 I buy but few things, and those not till long after I begin to want them, so that when I do get them I am prepared to make a perfect use of them and extract their whole sweet.' 

- h.d. thoreau, journals, 10th april 1854. 

horsemouth admires thoreau's abstemious purchasing habits. they are kind of like his own (try and survive without it - and eventually give in). 

howard isn't off to alula down. he is off to loraine james instead. it's his easter break. 

horsemouth and howard had a zoom beer (1 bottle) yesterday. he's off this week and next week and the monday (and then it's back to the grind for him). 

howard has been fixing the potholes in his lawn (where the rain gets out). see his work in the garden is beginning to pay off.

he has not yet tried the alan bennett horsemouth gave him. they discussed some of the music howard has downloaded on bandcamp (as musicians of bremen). 

as a bonus horsemouth just spotted that someone from warsaw has downloaded musicians of bremen volume four. cheers. (wow. looks like they've bought the lot.) horsemouth is trying to work out what the connection is. they've also bought loads of in gowan ring. 

anyway so here are musicians of bremen's recordings in his (or her) collection.  ok rafal is a polish man's name (the polish version of raphael). 

horsemouth has placed the image on the other side of the page from his usual habit because of a poor match up with the image above (don't say he's not design conscious). 

fairplay mike amesbury (the downpuncher) did actually resign as MP. horsemouth is shocked - they normally cling on after every last penny of that MP's salary and allowances. and so there's going to be a by-election on may 1st in his old constituency of runcorn and helsby. 

but it looks like  it's going to go to reform. their candidate is former tory (and former independent also) sarah pochin. (to lose one party is a misfortune...)

it's the morning of the thursday. horsemouth is expecting his aunt and uncle to come and take his mum off to keep the ancestors' graves clean. horsemouth will be staying he's got a meeting for the cosa nostra at 1pm (he thinks). 

'the tiniest incident' (allied to life)

horsemouth is heartened by the response to his substack post the sunny uplands of the now. (a whole two likes on substack and a like for the graphic substack generated for it). 

the sunny uplands of the now was an account of a typical saturday for horsemouth out in the wilds. (he has to admit that the chickens have great comic potential). 

it is closer to his usual style of recording  juxtaposed events, quotations, readings. in  involving life and argument as thoreau puts it somewhere (and better) but that horsemouth cannot find at the minute.

ok no. he's found it;

'I do not know but thoughts written down thus in a journal might be printed in the same form with greater advantage than if the related ones were brought together into separate essays. they are now allied to life, and are seen by the reader not to be far-fetched. it is more simple, less artful.'  - henry david thoreau, journals, 27th january 1852. 

so additionally (rather than instead) he repeats a quote by fernando pessoa; 

'the wise man makes his life monotonous for then even the tiniest incident becomes imbued with great significance.' - fernando pessoa. the book of disquiet, fragment 20[56], undated. 

howard has expressed an interest in the alula down gig. this would mean a train out of london at the latest by 8.10am (if the stage times stay the same at 11am).  he's also talking about zoom beers tomorrow (which would be welcome). 

tomorrow. delivering the eggs. posting a letter. taking the recycling bin down the drive.  (plus the usual chicken and garden stuff).

horsemouth has just been up for a walk on the common. he's probably going to head back outside to sit in the sun and read. 

he's found a note to himself to check the existence of the 0920 bus on a wednesday. 

the thing with substack is that it does attempt to 'instantly associate all literary labour with pecuniary award' (or at least with the play money of likes on the internet). it does tap into that have typewriter must hustle variety of hucksterism. it is not that writing and capitalism (or indeed anything and capitalism) can be mutually indifferent in our society, a society where everything is judged by the great yardstick of financial success. 

but still horsemouth prefers the play money of the internet to the real thing. but would he if he genuinely thought there was a risk of getting paid?  

improved public transport would mean a lot to horsemouth

'I find i can criticise my composition best when I stand at a little distance from it, - when I do not see it, for instance, I make a little chapter of contents which enables me to recall it page by page to my mind, and judge it more impartially when my manuscript is out of the way. the distraction of surveying enables me rapidly to take new points of view. a day or two surveying is equal to a journey.' - thoreau, diary, 8th april 1854.

soon thoreau will discourse on the aeolian harp of the telegraph wires (april 12th) but for the moment he is with writing and composition again, as befits laurence stapleton's selections from it as a writer's journal. 

horsemouth was thinking about this. remember when you used to hand write essays and you would plan out the essay first  (and then write them according to that plan because you couldn't drag chunks of text about when a better way of making the argument occurred to you). 

diaries

well nothing marked by date from the book of disquiet. kafka back in april 16th (horsemouth believes). 7th april was the date of the 1861 census - the reverend william poole filled it in listing himself and three servants in his house. 

8th april was easter day in 1860. poole described it thus;

'again I have been allowed to keep our easter festival, to meet my brethren in god's house, and share with them the bread and the wine, in sure proof of the resurrection.'

no kilvert until the 10th. 

yesterday horsemouth wandered over into ewyas harold to pick up his mum's prescription (and wandered back again). 

it was another glorious day. things proceed well in the greenhouse. in addition to the 13 nasturtiums, 5 runner bean plants are now up, and 5 pea plants too. so far no sign of anything else (not that horsemouth would recognise it). out in the garden some sprouting signs of hope (but again horsemouth can't tell what they are yet). it is cold at night horsemouth does hope that won't kill anything off.

in the other greenhouse (in addition to the wounded chicken) there are a number of strawberry plants in pots - if these do well horsemouth will add some more. plenty grew in the old garden but they were inevitably eaten by the squirrels. horsemouth thinks that if he moves them into the greenhouse they may stand a chance.

currently no sign from the potatoes himself and his mother planted last week at the bottom of the old garden (but then it is early). 

horsemouth is looking at the prospects for getting to the alula down gig in malvern for record store day 

this year the gig is at about 11am. 

getting there

it being a saturday there is no 7.20am bus from abbeydore and the 9.20 will not get him there on time. to get himself there he thinks he will have to be up 6 am-ish, walk to pontrilas, get the 0725 but to hereford and then get the 0840 or 0940 train from hereford, the 0940 will get him in at 1012 enough time to walk up the hill for the gig.

the 0920 from abbeydore would mean he would not get him into hereford until 1012 and so he would not get him into malvern until 1112. 

horsemouth would probably get in a visit to the malvinha spring while he was there. 

coming back 

the buses back from hereford are at 1420, 1620 and 1820 (given the great malvern train times he is looking at about an hour layover in hereford before he can get the bus out)  but there are no buses pontrilas to abbeydore when he gets back local (so he would be walking so he would). 

as you can see improved public transport would mean a lot to horsemouth. 

'the great khan's atlas contains also the maps of the promised lands visited in thought but not yet discovered or founded: new atlantis, utopia, the city of the sun, oceana, tamoe, new harmony, new lanark, icaria...'

- italo calvino, invisible cities.

hid within the first the secret commentary on the other

'though I walked amongst them as a stranger, no-one noticed.' 

- fernando pessoa, the book of disquiet, 132 (198) 7th april 1933.

ok so horsemouth has sent his brother's eldest all the bus-timetable information that there is to enable him to make an escape from the wilds of herefordshire on a tuesday or wednesday. now all that remains to be see is if he will bite.  

if he bites your boy horsemouth will be able to make an escape to the wen - perhaps on the saturday 19th, perhaps the sunday, perhaps the monday and probably back to the wilds the wednesday or the thursday.

really similar kinds of days the week after would be better for him (but hey). 

horsemouth types this (he was about to say writes this) on a sunday - it's another beautiful day outside - in a bit he will go out and listen to the 1pm news (or as much of it as he can bear).  

he was just watching a film from leeds beckett university about deep home retrofits and the accuracy of EPCs (energy performance certificates). the daily torygraph (it seems to horsemouth) has mis-represented their research. they point out that many houses actually perform better than the EPC would claim, thus the savings having done the improvements would be less, and thus the payback time would be longer. 

this the torygraph reports as if the measures don't work and thus payback times will be greater. 

eden (aidan of montreal) soundtracks jonas mekas's he stands in the desert... it's nice.

'the second riddle is hid within the first;

that the one riddle is the secret commentary on the other;

and that the earliest is the hieroglyphic of the last'

- thomas de quincey, the theban sphinx. 

horsemouth was reading this in the sun (even though the air was cold). 

he followed a link to a book copsford by walter j.c. murray.  first published in 1948, it is the story of murray's year long stay in a derelict cottage. the cottage is pictured on the front cover but has since been demolished. there's an essay on him by tom wareham over on a wordpress site devoted to richard jefferies. 

well it's a beautiful morning but it looks like there's been a frost. the chickens are happy bunnies (if that makes sense). 

saturday alula down are playing in malvern for record store day - horsemouth may try and see if he can get over. 

orwell on jura

 'atmosphere constitutes the soul of things...' 

- fernando pessoa, the book of disquiet, 246 (477), 6th april 1930

it is currently saturday (when horsemouth types this). today a walk on the common.  

it will be sunday when it is read (if it is read at all). 

the weather for the next week or so looks absolutely gorgeous. not until wednesday 16th does it look like there's bad weather. 

diaries

no kilvert til the 10th (1871). no thoreau til the 7th (1856). 

this saturday afternoon  perhaps zoom beers with howard (nope doesn't look like so). 

thursday a zoom meeting with the people engaged with the hush-you-know-what. it looks like it is all still going on and that horsemouth's paranoia about it crashing and burning was all just paranoia. 

following on from the zoom meeting horsemouth will probably write something explaining the situation as is and the presence in the annual meeting of the communal endeavour of the people from the thing that can't be named (if indeed they are coming down to visit). horsemouth will try and use the presence of the people from the thing to entice out members of the communal endeavour who are also interested in the thing to physically attend the meeting of the communal endeavour on the last day of april. 

saturday 12th record store day and gwenifer raymond will be playing a gig at 8am in brighton (horsemouth won't be there).  

the week after possibly a gig and then his brother's youngest's birthday meal - thereafter (as he has remarked) horsemouth might be able to escape to the wen (if only for a few days). he's now considering if he could escape on the saturday and come back on the thursday/ friday.

the week after that the wednesday horsemouth needs to be back in the wen for the meeting of the communal endeavour. 

thereafter we run out of month and are onto the joys of may. (may 24th soft white underbelly gig). 

last night horsemouth watched alan plater's crystal spirit: george orwell on jura - death is closing in on him, all that remains to do is write (and then laboriously type up) his manuscript for 1984. while he is still well there is a foolhardy attempt to shoot a tidal current in a small boat with a poorly lashed on outboard  motor.  

memoirs of a sleepreader (sneaking off into town)

diaries 

nothing from kilvert from 1871. thoreau similarly. 

'don’t worry about fame. me, I’m trying to be less famous...'  - michael hurley

outlaw bookseller is in caerleon  and he's talking about an unknown horror writer. but it's not arthur machen - it's  charles bockden brown. horsemouth has one of his somewhere, he thinks it's edgar huntly, (aka. memoirs of a sleepwalker), but you know - he can't remember if he's read it.

oh bollocks. amadou bagayoko has died. amadou of amadou and mariam. to be honest horsemouth hadn't realised he was the amadou in les ambassadeurs (despite knowing the tune amadou) until he saw them play a gig (RFH? QEH? with john and richard).

there was a good extended piece on michael hurley including a photo of the inside of his car (which was good and messy). the car looked like a clunker. it gave horsemouth a warm feeling. 

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

and now a written-in-the-morning component to this blogpost. 

yesterday a visit to TESCOs. by the time they'd paid for the local dial-a-ride scheme they made no saving (remarked his mum). difficult to say (thought horsemouth to himself).  the trick would be to buy more in bulk. to try to buy a month's food at one sitting. 

ah good the heating has just come on. it is cold in the mornings.

horsemouth's brother's eldest is thinking of spending a few days at his grandma's after horsemouth's brother's youngest's birthday do. he's a little concerned about about transportation out at the end so horsemouth is trying to reassure him that it is (in fact) possible on 6 buses a day (on a good day). 

should it happen this will give horsemouth the opportunity to be sneaking off into town. 

of course the timing isn't that good. (the week after would really suit horsemouth better).  but hey it will give him a chance to shift a few more books and guitars/ consider various disposals etc. 

'instantly associate all literary labour with pecuniary reward'

'a letter from my mother brings the astonishing news that mr. ashe wishes to have a stove in langley burrell church and will offer no opposition to the gallery being taken down to admit of the stove...'  - kilvert, diaries, 4th april 1871. 

'men's minds run so much on work and money that the mass instantly associate all literary labour with pecuniary reward' - thoreau, diaries, 3rd april 1859. 

if this was true in thoreau's day it is so much more true now. or at least with the dream of it (look at substack). 

there is (of course) a similar dream for music.

the action that attracts the attention with thoreau is physically writing in a notebook. it was similar with claude levi-strauss, the locals could see something was going on but they couldn't tell what. with levi-strauss the locals assumed it was magic and power, with mid-19th C. americans money. 

similarly, as an experiment, try showing up anywhere with a clipboard. 

nowadays everything is typed on a computer or a phone (of sorts) or filmed with a  phone. 

horsemouth would settle for being read (or listened to). and then with being read (or listened to) a little more. 

horsemouth has partially destroyed his own reading by diarising 

he is not reading the thoreau like he should because he scan reads the book looking for material from the correct day of the month so he can quote it here.  nothing from the fernando pessoa today (for example). and similarly with that.

there is a temptation to involve things with time, to repeat them at a meaningful date. 

today he read recollections of the lakes and the lake poets: coleridge, wordsworth and southey by thomas de quincey.

(funnily enough in 1871 kilvert has just been to visit someone who was the niece of wordsworth's wife).

de quincey is an egregiously sentimental writer (even by victorian standards) and about as accurate with his dates as carlos castaneda. 

horsemouth also has de quincey's the ceasars in a similar edition. by then de quincey was 'denied the use of books'  in composing it. 'I was obliged to depend upon my memory for materials..' 

horsemouth has them in a green hardback edition (mdccclxii) from blacks of edinburgh - he thinks he bought them in a library sale at goldsmith's university.  the spines are off but (at least in the ceasars) some of the pages are still uncut. he thinks they were probably rebound by the library. 

horsemouth has been thinking of re-launching

that dream of music-making again.

what he would need to do is get one of those digital recorders (probably a multitrack because he loves multitracking things).  really he should get a CD burner again (because he liked that means of distribution). he should get into streaming (and recording) gigs. become a digital cottage industry. 

hmmm. that's a pretty good post. horsemouth thought he had nothing to say. 

michael hurley has died

michael hurley has died. he was the king (the originating don) of freak folk. just listen to the genius of that. 'I'm with you til the morning baby, til the break of day,,'. horsemouth thought it could never happen. horsemouth thought he was invincible. 'I remember that old scumbag coffee shop we used to hang out at..' it's heartbreak, it's the velvet underground. 

against reality (defend yourself)

'there are times when you have to defend yourself against reality' - andrei sinyavsky 

'to lee's cliff via railroad, andromeda ponds and well meadow. I go early while the crust is hard... cross fair haven pond to lee's cliff. the crowfoot and saxifrage seem remarkably backward...'  - thoreau, diary, 2nd april 1856.

thereafter, like rousseau, he is botanising. he does not want sympathy but beauty. once again horsemouth notes that thoreau is making a railway excursion (and that this ease of movement around the country requires railways). lee's cliff is a place he visits fairly often. 

he read a little of to the success of our hopeless struggle: the many lives of the soviet dissident movement  online. he struggled to get his mum's phone back up and working (having at some point turned it off). he watered various pots and plots and attempted to clear cut foliage of the banking. he read the forty things about living in poland  by ben sixsmith. 

outside the sun is up (it has rolled up over the hill on the the other side of the valley (it is precessing north) and a cat has visited (horsemouth thinks the black cat). horsemouth thinks 3 of runner bean plants are sprouting (yay). 

his mum is off to town. tomorrow they are doing a run on TESCO. 

'the end is nigh' 'it's worse than that' (objectionable sentences)

 'the end is nigh' 

'it's worse than that'  

- morecambe and wise

(not really)

'to the success of our hopeless cause' - old soviet dissident toast (horsemouth can't tell you how much this speaks to him)

the clocks have gone forward (and now so have the calendars)

horsemouth is going to look in the various diaries for apposite quotes. 

'when I have sent of my manuscripts to the printer, certain objectionable sentences or expressions are sure to obtrude themselves on my attention with force, though I had not consciously suspected them before...' - thoreau, diaries, 31st march 1854.

the next two weeks - sunny in the day (cold at night). 

of course as soon as he had published this blogpost horsemouth realised the thoreau quote needed trimming and that in discussing this he could reveal the process of excising objectionable sentences by doing, by showing, (er. and by telling). 

horsemouth is sad to see his blogposts go off into the day. if it is a written-the-day-before blogpost he will almost certainly start writing the next days immediately. 

above. one of howard's mixclouds from 2020 (starting with some of that there indian stuff and then going all clannad and breathy chiffer). horsemouth should really have put it up tomorrow. horsemouth likes the cover (like a lot). 

now it has gone all big guitars and slow tempos (wtaf!). 

ok it looks like one of horsemouth's peas has come up already (one of the one's he planted in the garden unsoaked). but it also looks like the mice have been at the ones he was soaking in the greenhouse. so horsemouth is at 13 nasturtiums and 3 pea shoots. nothing else has come up yet. 

yesterday he missed the bus into abergavenny (the 442 tuesday only- there and back again). he has, at least, researched it now. abergavenny seems a much more likely prospect for charity shops and second hand book-shops (the kind of thing he likes) than hereford. at the very least he's hardly ever there so it will be new for him.  plus there are the villages on the bus route. 

horsemouth seems to have retired at the optimum age. well actually he went a bit earlier and it was more like he was pushed rather than he jumped but he didn't require much persuading.  their business case for closing down the unit was a bit pawky but as soon as they told him the redundancy amount (about a year's rent) and told him he could get his (works) pension early - even when he realised it was tiny - he was convinced. 

and so here he is. living the life of leisure. (hopefully the peas will survive the cold nights). 

he had a go at planting some potatoes earlier with his mum - hopefully he'll get some response from them. 

'utopia...

for all its charms, the island is uninhabited...' 

-  wisława szymborska

(to be honest horsemouth prefers her the end and the beginning.)

middle name antoinette. hmmm

'jane scott, the shadow housing minister, recently hosted a roundtable meeting with several of the country’s largest landlords and estate agents, at which they discussed a number of ways to delay or stop the (renter's rights) bill... scott... told the meeting she would do everything she could to force debate on multiple amendments as a way of delaying the bill, telling those who attended she thought she could hold it up until the autumn at least.'

well fucking bravo. at last a politician who knows which side their bread is buttered. step forward the evil party. take a bow baroness scott of bybrook OBE(vil).  thank you. 

middle name antoinette. hmmm.

andy edwards is offering advice on making money as a musician 

horsemouth just posted on substack an advert for musicians of bremen (in their finery) but shouldn't he really be doing patreon? 

it's all gone a bit scarfolk he thinks. 

the point, says andy, is to be an entertainer so people subscribe and pay regularly. to allow people with no money access but to allow people with money to support you (and your art) more. 

horsemouth is thinking about a relaunch. 

but before that he is thinkiing that it is the first of april and he should change over the calendars.