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. 

books, films, gigs, events october 2021

books

• reading capital (louis althusser, etienne balibar) - forward to the italian edition, the object of capital (introduction). 
• goldberg: variations (gabriel josipovici) - read last essay to first. 
• the art of the novel (milan kundera) - including 63 words
• aesthetic theory (theodor adorno) - hullot-kentor's translator's introduction, gretel adorno and rolf tiedermann's editors afterward. 
• fishing in utopia: sweden and the future that dissappeared (andrew brown) 
• new edition of nlr - free articles, sidecar, lrb blogposts
• immortality (milan kundera) 

films

• hawkbinge podcast (quark, strangeness and charm) 
• the rivals of sherlock holmes (dorrington, carnacki the ghost detective, klimo)
• zappa documentary
• the corpse vanishes  (bela lugosi)
• a history of horror (mark gatiss - one of the league of gentlemen)
• hammer vampires (documentary)
• the werewolf versus the vampire woman (1971)  paul naschy 
• the crimson bat (3 movies)
• halloween 4 - the return of michael myers (donald pleasance earns his money)
• halloween (the recent sequel - sucked)
• ken burns' country music documentary on PBS
• slaughter of the vampires (italo-horror 1962)
• the quatermass experiment (1955)
• frankenstein meets the wolfman (bela lugosi and bela lugosi jr.1943)

gigs

triple negative, harrga

events

walks to the velodrome/ international city  with TG, the reformation of PPE (peter, paul and enza), horsemouth is now a pensioner, walk up to walthamstow with john clarkson, beers with steve and with howard.

horsemouth just had his first bath in five years (he has been showering instead for the squeamish among you).

 

a light dusting of snow and a heavy frost (films, books, gigs, events december 2020)

this is what horsemouth sees when he looks out of his window. (and very pretty it is too in the sunshine - but cold). 

he was up late and has just had breakfast. 

we are nearly at the end of the year. horsemouth has compiled his end of the year list and here's his end of the month list.

books, films, gigs, events december 2020

books

the origins of totalitarianism - hannah arendt

the country doctor - honore de balzac

franz kafka's diary

letters to a young poet - rainer maria rilke

the eve of fluxus - billie maciunas

disgrace - j.m. coetzee

an article on brexit quoting 'the origins of totalitarianism' - zoe williams in the guardian

films

kolchak - the night stalker (practically the entire series)

thriller, shadows (70irs tv series)

career of evil - j.k.rowling's blue oyster cult themed detective serial

classic album sundays - raj choudhuri and kae tempest talking about roots manuva's uk hip-hop album brand new second hand, barbie ___ from new york talking about alice coltrane's journey in satchidananda, greg crosby talking about charles mingus's black saint and the sinner lady.

the masque of the red death - belgrade animations (1969)

in the presence of a clown - ingmar bergman

valerie and her week of wonders (jaromil jires)

something different - vera chytilova

trauma - dario argento

usual there is a preponderance of cheap schlock horror, the hannah arendt and the balzac are ongoing.  

books, films, gigs october 2020

books 

•  invisible empire (greil marcus) 
•  journey in the alcarria 
•  edvard munch (hodin)
•  the second walk from jean-jacques rousseau's 'the reveries of a solitary walker' 
•  reread marco d’eramo, the philosopher’s epidemic, nlr, 122, march/april2020, a few articles from new left review (sept/oct 2020) and a few lrb blogs. 
•  the magic lantern and images: my life in film by ingmar bergman

 films

• jacques tourneur mini-season: night of the demon, nightfall, I walked with a zombie. 
•  ingmar bergman mini-season: the seventh seal, shame, persona (part), strindberg's dream story (part)
•  lift to the scaffold, les diaboliques (part) (abortive french noir season) 
•  documentaries on the making of halloweens 3,4 and 5. 
•  scanners (following on from last month's david cronenberg season) 
•  james lee byars world question forum
•  ‘this mad riddle that no-one knows what it is’ danny dyer's strange moment of access to shakespearean genius 

gigs (online) tripe negative 

events night of the demon night (28th october 10pm), fall of the house of fitzgerald completed (seems horsemouth spoke too soon), the end of the facebook notes tool, pharoah sanders birthday and jewels of thought day, samhain.

a very belated september 2020 books, films, gigs list

books 

• the furies - janet hobhouse 
• sergio leone biography (christopher frayling) 
• practicalities (marguerite duras)/ dreams (c.g.jung) 
• travels with a donkey in the cevennes (robert louis stevenson) 
• the dynamics of conflict in northern ireland 
• the first few pages of walter benjamin’s essay on kafka. 

 films inferno, the three mothers - dario argento 'suspiria' trilogy, various giallos (the bird with the crystal plumage, all the colours of the dark, the case of the scorpion’s tail) dr.zhivago (david lean original), all the money in the world, psychomania 

gigs (online) none 

events dancing about architecture death of juliette greco

books, gigs, films,events - july 2020

books 

• - 1984 (george orwell)
•  a philosophy of walking (frederic gros) 
•  kilvert's diary 
•  selected works (gerard de nerval) 
•  the poem at the start of alice in wonderland 
• this is not the end of the book (umberto eco and jean-claude carriere) 
•  women (bukowski)
•  the essential frankfurt school reader (introductory essays horkheimer, kircheheimer, pollock) 

films, tv etc. 

 finish off sons of anarchy, alice coltrane at home, the torture garden (hammer/ amicus horror), judex (georges franju), nuits rouges (film, franju), l'homme sans visage (4 episodes - french tv series franju), les compagnons de baal (french tv series), belphigor (1st episode), la bete de gevaudan (old and new versions), hell and high water (texas brothers banke heist movie), la derniere vague (first 2 episodes), l'ardoise, zootopia.

when the time comes to act - act!

the night before his gig at sinclair auditorium in 1978 (the anniversary of which is tomorrow) robbie basho played four songs at the deli natural restaurant, cedar rapids, iowa (july 21, 1978). here he is singing "omar khayamm country" a song that was never featured on any of his publicly released albums.

horsemouth has been out sunbathing and this has cheered him up. he has been waiting for problems to solve themselves and reading umberto eco and jean-claude carriere’s this is not the end of the book. he was a little uncertain about reading it so he started reading the chapters in reverse order (it seems to be working).

it’s an amiable book where two old duffers (known for their interest in books) talk about books.

in the sun, on the decking in the back garden, with the odd seagull cry, it is like the seaside.

eco and carriere answer questions such as ‘what will happen to your book collections when you die?’ (this is the last chapter in fact). but this is a bigger problem for your average book-loving schmo rather than your published author. your published author can give his carefully curated collection to a university or a museum or a library, your average schmo is threatened with his life’s collection (all those good friends) going in a skip (or at best off to the charity shop to be distributed to the four winds a purchase at a time).

of course a similar question would arise should horsemouth decide to (re)move from the seaside towns (not that his library is carefully curated you understand). there are the gothics, shading into the decadents and such like; there are the russians (the poles etc.) - but what about russian decadents?; there is all that theory (the frankfurt schoolers versus the normaliens), there are the french 19th century novelists and their relay race across the century - balzac handing off to flaubert, balzac and hugo at the start, zola and maupassant at the end; then there are the books on music (as pointless an activity as could be wished for).

his music collection is much reduced. except for his own music (that he has kept close). the CDs get played (some of them). the vinyl stays in its sleeves and in its boxes. the cassettes are long gone (most of them). when the time comes act. meanwhile...

books/ films/ gigs june 2020

books

•  homo sacer - giorgio agamben 
•  agamben epidemic posts online 
•  new left review: marco d'eramo - the philosopher's epidemic 
•  london review of books blog: 25 june 2020 'singing together, apart' rachael beale 
•  reveries of a solitary walker - jean-jacques rousseau 
•  microcosms - claudio magris (and a trieste set renzo rosso short story in italian writing today) 
•  the last world - christoph ransmayr 
•  a secret history - procopius 
• black mass - john gray 
•  from exodus to species being - howard slater 

 films, tv etc. virus, sons of anarchy, catweazle, quatermass(79), the square (art world satire), medea (pasolini), I am not your negro (james baldwin), 3 documentaries on black people in the film industry in a row, judex (george franju), the storyville black panthers documentary, quakers documentary 

gigs (online) xname, lisa o'neill

events: launch of musicians of bremen 'the humming', the solstice, st.joao

books, gigs, films, events may 2020

books

•  illness as metaphor/ AIDS as metaphor - susan sontag 
•  the suitcase - sergei dovlatov 
•  christ stopped at eboli - carlo levi 
•  the plague and exile and the kingdom - albert camus 
•  the island - chekhov (part) 
•  the revenant magazine (folk horror edition) 
•  balzac anniversary (various short stories) 
•  nlr (andrei platonov - man and nature, benno teschke - reply to balakrishnan, peter osborne - philosophy a deux (deleuze and guattari), fredric jameson - dresden's clocks (on time again), steve lukes - gadfly from prague (on ernest gellner), perry anderson - a mage in the mato grosso on claude levi-strauss) 
• homo sacer - giorgio agamben 

films, tv etc.

• the crazies (george romero)
•  can you see what I'm trying to say (marion brown)
•  the blood on satan's claw
• zombie flesh eaters (lucio fulci)
•  the man with the movie camera (part)
•  christ stopped at eboli (4 hour italian tv version er. in italian)
•  pasolini season (accatone, moma roma, documentary)
•  the dead pool (dirty harry)
•  snow piercer
• sons of anarchy (series 1) 

gigs (online of course) gwenifer raymond, SPeW video release, acoustic anarchy folk club

books/gigs/films/events april 2020

books

• salammbo (flaubert) 
•  flaubert letters 1830-57 (ed. francis steegmuller) 
•  pages from the goncourt journals and germinie lacerteux (edmond and jules de goncourt) 
•  the big blind (louise wener) 
•  false dawn (john gray) 
•  lots of articles from the london review of books (dated around july 2016) 
•  introduction and afterward to 'we the cosmopolitans' (ed. lisette josephides and alexandra hall) 

 films
kenny rogers and david cassidy documentaries, elementary (most week nights), star trek (the remake with the youngsters), ritual, messiah of evil, pyewackett, age of stupid, midnight run (some), edipo rei and documentary (pasolini), blood on satan's claw, carnival of souls.

gigs nothing nothing nothing

events continued movement towards musicians of bremen volume four

gigs, books, films, events march 2020

gigs (streamed)

zali krishna (various), gwenifer raymond, jacken elswyth (drat missed the brighde chambeiul)

books

• pages from the goncourt journal -edmond and jules de goncourt.
•  illness as a metaphor - susan sontag 
• pan - knut hamsun (part) 
• theory of film - s.kracaeur (start) 
• the leviathan in the state theory of thomas hobbes: meaning and failure of a political symbol - carl schmitt (finished) 
• carl schmitt's critique of liberalism: against poitics as technology - john p. mccormick 
• the songlines - bruce chatwin (finished) 
• the girl with the golden eyes, gambara, the unknown masterpiece - balzac 
• the temptation to exist -e.m.cioran (plus introduction by susan sontag) 

 films the killings of tony blair (george galloway) captain chronos (vampire killer)

 events visit serpentine sackler gallery, jackson c.frank day(S). coronovirus lockdown, the ides of march, equinox, british summer time starts,, hollis frampton fortnight

gigs, books, films, events february 2020

gigs   gwenifer raymond, doctor turtle, various people at siobhan's party.

films

• loaded, 
• seven thunders, 
• the vampire lovers, 
• sea ranch interview, 
• a cat in a bag (1964 - john coltrane soundtrack as blue world), 
• hawkwind documentary, 
• ronald blythe interviews, 
• elementary... very patchy, not much on horror channel lately. 

 books 

• the accident -ismael kadare (the first one of his horsemouth hasn't enjoyed) 
•  reading folk archive: on the utopian dimension of the artist's book - dan smith 
•  the pedagogy of the oppressed - paolo friere (introduction and early chapters) 
•  notes and drafts for 'the dialectic of the enlightenment' (adorno and horkheimer) 
•  politics, metaphysics, death: essays of giorgio agamben's homo sacer (some articles) 
•  the leviathan in the state theory of thomas hobbes: meaning and failure of a political symbol -carl schmitt (introduction) 

 events sean visits, visit tate, siobhan's birthday, visit jeremy bentham in his old location for the last time, visit the grant museum, uk leaves the EU, groundhog day, fahey week 2020. .

gigs, books, films, events january 2020

once again slightly late

gigs - lou crisfield, martin howard, cunning folk (80ies set) at waterintobeer

books

• apollinaire - francis steegmuller, 
• american overdose - chris macgreal, 
• introduction to 'from honey to ashes' - claude levi-strauss, 
• adorno-benjamin correspondance (first and last letters), 
• andrew norris - politics, metaphysics and death: essays on giorgio agamben's homo sacer - intro, dips,
• artforum, the economist (december 2019), 
• october 170 (hal foster piece, charisma and catastrophe), 
• raymond williams - people of the black mountains (started), 
• 92 acharnon street - john lucas. 

 films, tv etc.

• true detective series 3, 
• the essay (radio3) on bladerunner and weimar germany, 
• the great ecstasy of woodcarver steiner (werner herzog), 
• get out, 
• elementary, 
• the reptile, 
• simon king of the witches, 
• necromancy (first half), 
• evilspeak (first five minutes), 
• november, 
• la jetee, nostalgia, the fisher king
• juventude em marcha 

 events mixing round howard's, bahauas exhibit at teh william morris gallery, lou at wib, see red ladies of the apocalypse, see the mari lwyd, shocking hangover, next weekend pub with howard. the UK leaves the EU (to be followed by groundhog day).

gigs, books, films, events December 2019

even earlier than usual

gigs -

• kartel winter solstice at rough trade east. (stick in the wheel, fran & flora, lisa knapp that horsemouth saw) 

films, tv, radio - 

• the guns of the magnificent 7
•  italo-horrors (the psychic (sete note nero), aenigma (part), the city of the living dead, the bird with crystal plumage)
• dolly parton documentary
• losing dorie
• laura kuenssberg's remake of 'triumph of the will' staring boris johnson, 
• bronco bullfrog, 
• dirty harry, magnum force, 
• robbie basho on resonance fm, 
• the essay on radio 3 about the weimar republic (series). 

books 

• arabia deserta (c.m. doughty) (part)
• the trumpet major (thomas hardy) (part) 
• from the diary of a snail (gunter grass) (most)
•  surely you're joking mr.feynman! (richard p. feynman as told to ralph leighton) (all)
•  a report for an academy (franz kafka in 'a country doctor')
•  the instant of my death (maurice blanchot) (v.short story) 
• spinoza and politics (start) (etienne balibar) 

events the fucking election, the deaths of anna karina and ram dass

gigs/ books/ films/ events november 2019

 gigs - gig as peter, paul and enza (also played jaime (and his brother), kevin g. davy, lisa, suke driver, dj sets from andy coram and adam c)


 books

•  practicalities -marguerite duras (as told to jerome beaujour) (translated barbara bray) all (again) 
•  the space of literature - maurice blanchot (translated by ann smock) introduction, orpheus secton. -
• without alibi - jacques derrida (translated peggy kamuf) - introduction (again)
• the rebirth of history: times of riots and uprisings - alain badiou (introduction and dips) 
•  tales from bow street - joan lock 
• the farm (biography/ short story) - mark twain 
•  ravel remembered - roger nichols (all) 
•  liberalism a counter history - domenico losurdo (p.140 so far) 
•  the follies of globalisation theory - justin rosenberg (start)

 films, tv etc.

• the end of the ******* world (series 2 - awesome!) 
•  country - bbc4 documentary 
•  boris in a basement (conservative election advert) 
•  gene clark the byrd who flew alone (bbc4 doc) 
•  viy (the first soviet horror film) 
•  odd man out (carol read) 
•  past, present, future (labour election advert) 
•  dora the explorer (movie) and pinocchio (did I spell that right?) 

 events
 john visits, sean visits, pub with howard, pleasant night out drinking and discussing slavic literature

‘this remorse, I should start my preface from here’

as it turns out produced by Ric Ocasek RIP (and one of the best records ever)


a few nights ago horsemouth failed to go out (bad boy) but he did watch perry henzell’s the harder they come - one of the the three seminal reggae movies (the others being babylon and rockers -in horsemouth’s humble opinion).

in italy post war italo calvino finds the people changed, emboldened by his (brief) time as a partisan he writes ‘a book born anonymously of the general atmosphere of the period’. he notes that people had ‘a mania for narrating their experiences’, a re-birth in story-telling, even shading into folklore, even the uncommitted he finds changed. .

years later he writes a preface for it - one full of remorse for its distortions (‘this remorse, I should start my preface from here’). in the preface the partisan tales of another writer (beppe fenoglio’s a private question) is substituted in to stand for his story. 

but this neo-realism that is really a neo-expressionism is not where calvino’s genius lies - pavese speaks of the fairy-tale quality in his writing and calvino becomes the author we know.

horsemouth is often afflicted with remorse (his sins are small but numerous) - it creeps up on him when he is insufficiently active. in the harder they come ivan the gunman is seemingly not affected by remorse - at every stage he wants to be paid the full value of his work and that is what all the interlocking rackets (religion, law, property, the music industry, the ganja trade) are designed to prevent.

in the day horsemouth went for a walk round the marshes at one point - he saw a tree that had been cut down and then been lifted up by new grown branches from its roots (like some kind of art installation). he read a little (italian writing today, penguin 1967) in the back garden in the sun and (of course) farted about on line.

books, gigs, films, events august 2019 (a little late)

books -

• the wrongs of women (mary wollstonecraft) 
• appalachian dulcimer traditions (mike lee smith)
•  harringey's hidden streams revealed (albert pinching and david dell) 
• sicily (guy de maupassant) 
• flood, blood, 3 wars (emile zola)
• various (old) editions of the new left review and the london review of books
•  investigations of a dog (franz kafka) 
• native stones: a book about climbing (david craig) 

 gigs - acoustic anarchy (lou and martin)

 films everybody in the place (jeremy deller), the dlatlov incident, the trouble with the tories (michael portillo), kill bill 1, eddie the eagle, the angel with the trumpet, seance on a rainy afternoon, solace, george clark on council housing, easy rider, no country for old men, creep, hard times (walter hill, charles bronson).

 events sojourn in the forest, much recording, becoming symmetric, bother's eldest's a-level results, visiting eugenie in the suburbs

the humming of the summer galleries

two years ago musicians of bremen were playing a gig just off brick lane (many of you came). recording is more or less complete for musicans of bremen volume four.

a few days ago horsemouth wandered over to the supermarket in the fields - he bought dishwasher tablets and more coffee (two for five on lavazza red label, unheard of these days but only intermittently appearing). horsemouth is stockpiling coffee (and when they had the offer on tins of kidney beans/ chick peas).

other than that he either hid from the sun or sat in the back garden and read - he’s reading guy de maupassant’s account of his time in sicily (with illustrations of many of the sites and some notes on them by jean-pierre houël). last time he read it he was fascinated by the detail of the human hand that swinburne had given maupassant as a present (in the introductory essay by gesualdo bufalino). this time he was fascinated by the self-administered asylum for criminals at monte aperto and the static quality to the people in houël’s illustrations against the life of the ruins.

in the following days it was even warmer, even less activity, even more reading. horsemouth was listening to musicians of bremen demo CD for volume four but now on shuffle currently the humming of the summer galleries, ah we have reached the giant cumbia version of turn your heater on.

books, gigs, films, events - july 2019

today's charity shop gold (one squid).

books

•  lady macbeth of mtsensk (nikolai leskov) 
•  the social animal (david brooks) 
•  the furies (janet hobhouse) 
•  memoirs of a madman and bibliomania (gustave flaubert) 
•  like people you see in a dream (edward l. schieffelin and robert crittenden 
•  anthropology and anthropologists: the modern british school (3rd edition - adam kuper)
• investigations of a dog (franz kafka) 
•  on reading crowds and power (a poem by geoffrey hill) 

 gigs 

• mulatu astatke, sudan archves 
•  britten sinfonia, stick in the wheel 

 films 

 the l-shaped room, werner herzog's nosferatu, two films featuring global warming as a plot device, the woman in black, montauk documentary, the scream of fear, night of the demon, casting of the runes, frightnight, frightnight 2, catch 22 (series), dad's army (film), ashram, rivals of sherlock holmes, our man flint and invasion. 

events visit parents (visit cwmbran), cat-sitting in walthamstralia commences

books, gigs, films, events june 2019

books

•  ministry of pain - dubravka ugresic
• birth of our power - victor serge
• nova swing - m.john harrison 
•  illuminations - walter benjamin, (introduction (hannah arendt), task of the translator, the storyteller, franz kafka, brod on kafka) 
• bringing it all back home - ian clayton
•  a voice in the chorus - abram tertz 
•  londinium - cameron bain/ max 'crow' reeves
•  road to wigan pier - george orwell (not finished) 
•  kierkegaard (introductions and dips) 
• masquerade (dips) and institute banjamenta (started)- robert walser
• my imprisonments -silvio pellico (started) 

 films catch22 (series), the rivals of sherlock holmes, fahrenheit 451 (recent remake as equilibrium), inland empire (david lynch), blood from the mummy's tomb, fear in the night (hammer horrors), two documentaries on orford ness (one radio, one tv), snatch, day of the dead (terrible remake), a fistful of dynamite (aka. duck you sucker)

 gigs

• 5th anniversary of the death of cameron bain poetry recital 
• leigh folk festival saturday: leigh orpheus mae voice choir, the jones boys, mains'l haul, daisy bowlers, umbrella factory, masal, belinda kempster and fran foote, broomdasher, hoy shanty crew, sharron kraus and band. 

 events

record, visit parents, work training, jam with minty, much walking (leyton, stratford, walthamstow etc.)