in deepest mirk (from bethlehem to bedlam)

last night horsemouth made it out with martin and andrew minty to max’s launch night for his exhibition at st. leonard’s church. those two bailed early (unused to being out of hackney) and after walking them to the bus horsemouth returned to discover john cunningman and antknee had arrived.

when everyone had had a chance to drink a beer or a glass of wine and look at max’s excellent photos (the ones without people this time), or perhaps purchase a book or booklet, the live entertainment began.

to start in reverse order;

• adam sherry played with gemma thompson (the guitarist from the savages) - a set of loopstationed guitar and vocal fragments (most excellent), 
• micalef recited (another great gig) - the sniffing glue lot were phoning him up about a sex pistols gig in the centre of town (but of course he couldn’t get there in time so he went back to bed), 
• a couple (when horsemouth finds out their names he’ll let know) did a double bass and dub poetry set (more mutabaruka than lkj or benjamin zephaniah), 
• niall mcdevitt took us to jerusalem. 

the show is on until the 13th of october so you have plenty of time to visit.

josie appeared for a while, questioned horsemouth about his facebook use and was then spirited away on family business (ensuring that they will now talk on facebook). horsemouth chatted to a nice young austrian dude about the slade and austrian writers. he chatted to micalef about blake/ tom paine and mary wollstonecraft in the french revolution. he drank beer and at one point he accidentally turned the lights out (he swears this wasn’t some puckish health and safety challenging prank).

antknee and cunningman noted his dangerous enthusiasm for the beer and dissolved the evening. horsemouth returned home (getting a bag of chips on the way).

earlier in the day horsemouth had practiced with pete (leaving him practicing the moon over bourbon street - er. rather a lot according to subsequent reports from howard, to horsemouth it is the quid pro quo of playing the gig). they forgot to practice painbirds, horsemouth’s faux-cuban version of don’t fear the reaper was starting to sound decent, the get carter style intro was working well.

forward to horsemouth’s electric set.

books, gigs, films,events august 2017

 books

• the man in the high castle, do androids dream of electric sheep?- philip k. dick, 
• the condition of the working class in england - engels, 
• freefall - william golding, 
• the main currents of marxism (vol.3) - lesek kolakowski, 
• the art of the novel, ignorance, immortaity - milan kundera, 
• lonesome traveller - jack kerouac, 
• recent writing from italy, 

gigs   none

films/tv

• the magic box, 
•  at the earths core, warlords of atlantis, 
• the lone ranger, 
• pressure - horace ove, 
• child 44, 
• utopia / eden / arcadia, 

events

iona leaving drinks, 93 feet east gig, art board peckham visit, be magnificent exhibition, vestry house visit, claire and paul depart for frome, recording with howard (and pete), max's birthday, whitechappel art gallery / bermondsey white cube visit, enza's unbirthday atop a car park in stratford, death of brian aldiss, e15 mum's march.

'lazy as a toad and thick as mince'

so the leader of the leave campaign described david davis chief negotiator of brexit and a man from a family so lazy they couldn’t be bothered to give him a first name at any distance from his surname.

horsemouth is back from the sarf and east of the seaside towns where he went with howard to view art (it being a holiday and that). at the whitechapel art gallery - emanuel almborg’s talking hands (using footage from the zagorsk deaf-blind school in the 60ies) and a piece on a.s. neil and the summerhill school the majority never has the right on its side. pawel althamer’s self-portrait as the billy goat, ben drew and emma heart’s installations.



at the white cube bermondsey dreamers awake - a group show themed around women and surrealism - they bumped into martin and juliette. horsemouth (somewhat) missed the point arguing that sexuality in the surrealism in its first incarnation was dangerous, compulsive, intended to shock. (the correct response to a surrealist exhibition would not be contemplation but to form a lynch mob). this exhibition has good manners (which is a problem).

horsemouth liked the leonora carrington (decently mad), paloma varga weiss, the eva kot’atkova, mona hatoum. the rest of it moved him not a millimeter (ok there were other things he liked but he can't remember them right now).

thereafter horsemouth and howard adjourned to the pub - then, deciding to go out and help max celebrate his birthday, they went and got a pizza (and for horsemouth an espresso to enable him to keep going) in franca manca, and thence to the george. (that about wipes horsemouth out financially for the weekend)

horsemouth made it home by bus. he has developed an interest in tim buckley (many years too late).

 
 

july books/ gigs/ events/ films list

books

• the double - jose saramago
• the foundation pit - andrei platonov
• on the shores of politics (continued) - jacques ranciere
• austerity - kerry anne mendoza
• the gamekeeper at home - richard jefferies (bought, dipped)
• styles of radical will - susan sontag (first few essays)
• marxism and form - frederic jameson (adorno and benjamin essays so far)

events

• dolmen hunting
• walthamstow garden party
• lgbt pride in porto
• the duke (wood street)
• visit serralves gallery
• moved house

gigs

• tinariwen
• chipsy and EEK
• stick in the wheel (plus two guitarists)
• walthamstow acoustic massive
• nick doyne-ditmus at café bohemia

films

Pour la suite du monde (English Version), Michel Brault & Pierre Perrault, National Film Board of Canada

end of month round up for march (a little late)/ british sumertime begins

gigs

 12/03 rantipoles, infernal machine, motown fire department

books

the survey of london (everyman hardback edition) - john stow (1598),
the portable twentieth-century russian reader - ed. clarence brown,
the feeling of things- adam caruso,
the acquisitive society - r.h. tawney,
a precocious autobiography - yevgeny yevtushenko,
instituta benjamenta - robert walser,
mill on the floss - george eliot (begun),
three critical pieces (from the penal colony) - franz kafka (translated clement greenberg),
introduction to idiom of the people - james reeves

films

a girl walks home in the night, penny dreadful (series 1), homeland (series 1), the man who knew too much, nana - jean renoir (silent), therese raquin (bbc 1979), dogtown and the z-boys.

events

visit utopia exhibition, howard puts up 2nd mix, DVD player dies, beers with marike, housing march, investigate the ailsa street development, second visit to the new london, feast of the annunciation (lady day), british summertime begins.

'a little (art) can go a long way'

horsemouth was having cosy domestic dreams just a short hour ago. now he has the cup of coffee and the plan for the week.


yesterday afternoon he went out with john clarkson to a sharron kraus gig (with added synthesizer and drum) - the synthesizer was a moog rogue (which as moog is not in fact said ‘moo-g(uh)’ as horsemouth has thought all these years but ‘mogue’ - so as to rhyme with ‘rogue’ is not so strange as it first appears). it took horsemouth a while to realise that sharron was singing without the aid of a microphone (only the synthesizer being amplified). she played a few songs from her new mabinogen mid-wales themed album, women of flowers turning into owls (most owl service) - it was most excellent (it reminded horsemouth of those hawkwind acoustic guitar with synthesizer songs - er. but more musical)..

clay pipe recordings are having another shindig at the betsy trotwood pub every 2 sundays (that’s oct 25th and nov 8th), music from 3pm -ish I assume.

before sharron directorsound played a soundtracky accordeon and harmonium and flute and bells in a slightly east european style set to rapt attention. not entirely horsemouth’s thing (but well done).

the title for today’s blog comes from robert hewson’s cultural capital - the rise and fall of creative britain an account of arts policy under new labour - it’s adapted from francois matarasso’s use or ornament (francois was shocked, shocked ladies and gentlemen was viewed by many people as alibi-ing the whole thing, saying he never realised that politicians viewed culture instrumentally). horsemouth read this opposite the dome (cultural plague-pit that it was), as he read it a paddlesteamer went downriver.

like the four evangelists there were four sons of horus and like them also three were animals. (c.g. jung - man and his symbols - one squid - emmaus).

'this is the way we used to do it' / the tedious do-gooding of the beautiful

grey morning. horsemouth supposes it is good for the plants.

horsemouth is back from seeing charlemagne palestine play at the barbican as part of the station to station 30 day 'happening' (together with a dude with a HUGE vintage moog to make drones on).

 'this is the way we used to do it' says charlemagne of the happening (this is what the audience want to hear) and of the avant garde 'happenings' (with edwin pouncey 'savage pencil' illustrating away next door) in his pre-concert talks. but it isn't, it's much slicker, with a much higher budget, and a purpose. when he isn't playing multiple HD projectors present and immersive film of the station-to-station happening and its imaginary train journey across the world (not just across america). there is gig footage of the inspired and inspiring and interviews with near permaculture-ists and smart people thinking deeply. beck (and gospel choir) ladies and gentlemen, patti smith, the dude from sonic youth... it is the tedious do-gooding of the beautiful (in HD).

that said horsemouth has to admit he really enjoyed the charlemagne palestine bits (and will probably go back for some other things).

there were 3 sets 1-2, 3-4 and 5-6.

set1 (1-2pm) - with len lye's tusaluva animated film.

it always begins small and gets bigger (and sometimes comes back down again) a young man with downs syndrome or some kind of autism appeared to get it best shaking his head vigrously and circularly at the great moment and huge subs coming from the moog. at maximum intensity charlemagne begins to play child's glockenspeils generating something between a snowstorm and a horror movie seemingly accelerating up into the heavens.

set2 (3-4pm) - requiem for the pets.

charlemagne shows some slowed down film of himself at a pet graveyard in france as he cavorts with two cuddly toys - he jumps, he rages, he howls with grief. initially it isn't clear what kind of graveyard it is - certainly not from the inscriptions - it is only when one looks closely at the photos on the headstones that one realises.

set3 (5-6pm) - coney island puppet show. slipping fading footage of a rollercoaster ride at coney island but first a canon and fugue sung by two cuddly toys. horsemouth thinks that it may work like this either the toys sing a set tune in which case if one is one note ahead the various effects result from that - similarly if the toys 'step' through a tune as pressed then those harmonisation effects can be achieved. and then back to the familiar organ drone to moog drone sturm und drang. it ends with the cuddly toys again, the canon and fugue and a 'goodbye'.

of the other art on display horsemouth took in olafur elaisson's 2013 connecting cross country with a line and a showing in a red gazebo of kenneth anger's invocation of my demon brother and lucifer rising (with the bobby beausoleil soundtrack). he liked the red pentagram seating and the fact that there's still something disreputable about kenneth anger's work. (mostly the satanism - horsemouth is a little sensitive to such stuff at the moment having watched both the devil rides out and to the devil a daughter recently). like much art the event appears to be favoured not just by the young and the beautiful but also by middle class parents (various degrees of beauty and well-dressedness) as somewhere safe to take their toddlers on a sunday - the anger had the advantage that the young would wander in and their parents would drag them out in terror.