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).
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.
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.
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
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
last night a friend played (online in a safe and socially distanced way) but first there was a panel discussion over zoom (which horsemouth attended in the role of ’audience’). he was left slightly non- plused when everyone departed for youtube and arrived slightly late to the performance by marta zapparoli who works with sounds from the electromagnetic spectrum. it was great and grindy and layering up - the kind of noises from horsemouth’s childhood where you would go scanning round all the bands on the radio.
next up dorit chrysler thereminist (from graz but living in new york in beautifully colourful tiled room with flowers and a grand piano). her theremin lines were played over tasteful and beautiful chill out type sounds.
finally eleonora orregia (xname) who is in a very elite club as the inventor of a new musical instrument - the rebus - which is not a theremin (it works with microwaves being used like radar) but shares some of the gestural features of its use.
in the lrb a singer bemoans the fact that singing (and singing in choirs) may in fact be a particularly good way of spreading the coronavirus (it generates a particularly good aerosol of spit and virus and the singers lungs pump it out round the room). normally she would be singing the somewhat apocalyptic works of william byrd in churches altogether in a big choir but for now she must be content with the modern safe and socially distanced variety of performance.
'we sang together, apart, of the holy cities that had become a wilderness'
from the world of recorded sound horsemouth is continuing to enjoy the music of lena platonos, eighties greek electronic music pioneer, as the technology improves it gets less interesting, but until then there are voices and interpretive dancings. she used some footage from george franju’s judex for one of her videos - a b&w magician with a sinister chicken-head mask releases doves.
today the birth of jean-jacques rousseau in geneva. yesterday the gig and a quick chat to darsavini.
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
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
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 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. .
part of the reason why he is coughing so much this morning is that he drank too much beer last night (once again horsemouth was king of the let’s have another one party - though to be fair myk did start it off). he went to see gwenifer raymond and doctor turtle play,
thanks to john clarkson for steering him in the direction of a free ticket courtesy of analog planet (website of the discerning hi-fi buff), he would have taken a +1 of you but it was short notice.
it was good to see mike, lou, and myk there.
to repay the universe for his free ticket horsemouth bought a gwenifer raymond t-shirt. which he is now wearing (horsemouth buying clothing?)
horsemouth arrived during doctor turtle’s set (which was nice - well played dude). gwenifer did a good long set and seems to have stopped being monosyllabic (horsemouth was a little shocked), we were treated to two new numbers played live for the first time, some great banjo pieces. if horsemouth has a criticism it is that the material veered towards the night train to valhalla end of things rather than the on the sunny side of the ocean side of things.
still thanks john/ analog planet/ everybody - a good night out.
on the way back horsemouth got a bag of chips.
a friend of horsemouth was asking for recommendations in the folk music field. horsemouth recommended jacken elswyth (who he knew from the weirdshire connection - and he knew them from the wild hare club connection ans so on). and then it turns out his friend already knows jacken. (phew cor-bloody hell, small world, seven degrees of separation and less in the radical world). here's another split cassette tape and digital download from jacken. once again it is most excellent.
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).
once, as a child, at his grandparents in herefordshire he thinks it was, horsemouth saw a tom sawyer annual (he can’t remember if it was a cartoon strip or if they were illustrations to a story) but the conflation of it is that while tom and huck were on the raft in the mississippi the and on either side turned into ancient egypt (complete with pyramids and ancient egyptians and pharoahs and tombs closed for all eternity by draining sand like egg timers(lifted from the hollywood ten commandments).
maybe it was just a dream. beyond this memory there is nothing more so horsemouth cannot say more.
horsemouth is off to his folks in the countryside. last night he watched charlie parr play - charlie has recently had an accident and lost the use of all except his thumb and his forefinger on his picking hand - still that’s the treble and the bass covered, the occasional chord for punctuation, slide on the little finger of his fretting hand sometimes, a choice of not one but two glorious resonator guitars. a good solid foot stomp and a decent singing voice.
horsemouth liked charlie’s minutemen t-shirt. he manages real depth sometimes, he manages to take you right back, was that a lift from last kind favour?...
his warm up man and harmonica player jd wilkes plays great banjo (swapping between the styles within one song) and does an excellent distorted harmonica sonny boy williamson routine (hey, what about little walter?). then there are songs where he plays banjo with one hand and harmonica with the other (which is a neat trick) - perhaps this trick was overdeployed ( three songs JD - really?).
horsemouth liked his songwriting - dark moralistic tales of feral hillbilly youth and he does the classic murder ballads also (pretty polly). he’s a hardworker clearly, aiming for huckster rather than wise old man, plus he has a rockabilly band the shack shakers.
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)
filmseverybody 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
horsemouth is coming to the end of his week in the forest.
this was his last charity shop find - 50p
day six in the forest - the charity shops of leytonstone a big MEH
yesterday horsemouth awoke in the forest and walked down past the hollow ponds to leytonstone (but there was no joy to be had in the charity shops there). later he wandered off to lou and martin’s do down at water into beer. that went well.
martin played (opening with ornithologist’s arms) with his daughter singing harmony, horsemouth traded him for one of his CDs, then his son played violin (a variety of jigs and reels), two young dudes played - very singer-songwritery, nice jazzy chords and runs, kind of aztec camera etc.
then lou played, no banjo this time just guitar and voice, a gillian welch one, the one about her dad, milly, and a new song about deaths in custody (horsemouth thinks clinton mccurbin one was the last song he remembers being written about deaths in police custody, but they never go away.
horsemouth will do you a review of martin’s CD soon.
an after gig pint in a weatherspoons and then back to horsemouth’s main gaff by train and foot (pausing for a bag of chips to soak up the alcohol).
now he’s back up in the forest (he has just fed the forest cats). the bird feeder is full. he’s ‘zombied’ some illustrations of contributors to city am. a quiet day today (then off to max’s birthday) a final tidy round and clear up tomorrow (the last day in the forest).
emile zola (the flood, blood, three wars is done), horsemouth has returned his attention to mary wollstonecraft’s the wrongs of woman. in the madhouse the two communicate by notes left in books and by reading each other’s marginalia.
day five in the forest - horsemouth finds the magic money tree (turning on the taps of love)
ladies and gentlemen, horsemouth has found the magic money tree - it was in walthamstow all the time!
that dominic cummings hits the ground running, testing multiple similar ads online, the message - deliver brexit/ promising increased spending on public services.
the key problem with promising increased spending on public services is that people don’t believe it - they have been told that it couldn’t be afforded for years and have internalised this belief and repeated it, there is no magic money tree.
but now horsemouth has found it (project fear advisory) the pains of brexit can be avoided.
the peril of turning on the taps of debt funded spending is that it reveals austerity and deficit reduction as the ideological project it always was and all the suffering it caused as avoidable. how do you like them lemons?
horsemouth was surprised to see lemons growing on the magic money tree but there you go...
there is a complicating factor - brexit - which (project fear advisory) will fuck the economy (at least in its current form) and thus adversely affect uk plc’s ability to repay. international finance (those bastards) will of course have to charge more interest on their loans (purchases of government bonds and the like) to cover the risk that we will default (or more likely inflate away our debts). what may help or may hinder uk plc with this project is that trade war and economic slowdown is hitting china. the US and the EU - government debt begins to look like a good bet for the money slooshing round the world finance system in search of some kind of return somewhere. but will post brexit uk government debt have such a rosy glow to it?
what does a graph of economic output and brexit look like (project fear advisory)? - like a swoosh apparently (how very modern, how very reassuring).
the nhs is of course the litmus test of how much uk plc’s owners love their citizens - turn on the taps of love - but not unconditional love, no, there will have to be changes...
but the main problem (as with any course of treatment) is that it takes a while for the patient to actually feel better...
and in fact feel better may never come - once we are working away to pay the interest on this new debt we are the slaves of globalised finance (once again) and certain phrases will return - there is no alternative (for example).
of course we will all be in this together (one nation tory) once again but of course some will suffer more than others - how about er... the working class? I mean after the sterling job they did of defending their pay and conditions during austerity who can doubt that they will fight off any attempt to make them pay for brexit as well (after all it’s not like it’s self-inflicted, and it’s not like the middle-classes won’t be queuing up to tell them this).
horsemouth is back online from the forest - he has had a day off from the world wide communion (though that’s not from want of trying). it is good to know such an existence is in theory possible. he, of course, had to make his own entertainment, to amuse his own boredom (hence his discovery of the magic money tree).
he read zola’s juvenalia the flood and three wars (after reading gustave flaubert’s juvenalia - in the same hesperus edition) - zola thinks war is inevitable, he castigates hugo for being a dreamer who wants to found a united states of europe (pfft - like that could even ever happen), for believing in international community and a new golden age.
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
horsemouth has acquired a copy of flaubert’s juvenalia memoirs of a madman from outside a charity shop in a remarkably efficient kidnapping operation. (‘may I?’ ‘thank you.’ gone)
he was on his way to see stick in the wheel at the union chapel (together on two tracks with the britten sinfonia)
the britten sinfonia first - young people playing classical music respect, in this case classical music inspired by folk themes- first off milhaud (pronounced me-O not mill-hoed as horsemouth would have imagined) and an excerpt from le bœuf sur le toit, a brazillian flavoured thing (nice and lively - horsemouth’s favourite) originally intended for a jean genet cabaret , next two movements from pelléas et mélisande (fauré) which perfectly made the argument of why romantic impressionistic french music had to die.
there were other things but horsemouth forgets them - a piece based on a sea shanty which people sang when they weren’t playing. a piece by percy grainger (mock morris? no relation) and later a newly comissioned piece from josephine stephenson (horsemouth and howard, philistines that they are, bailed before this).
and the two tracks of stick in the wheel with orchestral arrangements - counted off (perhaps a little approximately) by ian from stick in the wheel - (for it was just an ian and nicola gig) these (roving blade and over again -or is horsemouth’s memory failing him) were nice enough but didn’t add that much to what was there.
horsemuth has listened to roving blade through - someone has put up a clip on facebook - and it improves on subsequent listenings.
the problem with folk songs as sources for classical pieces (opines horsemouth) is that they are strophic (if horsemouth has got the term correctly), they have a tune which is repeated with only small variations to accommodate the words, they tend to be modal rather than fitted with all the gears and gubbins of keys and key changes and the like. consequently they do not develop well, it is a real challenge to find an arrangement that does not drown the tune in soup nor simply repeat what is there indiscriminately. this, unless they are ballads with tons of lyrics, makes folk songs short - so a couple of these all in a row can become much of a muchness very quickly.
between these two tracks a stick in the wheel set (with just nicola and ian) - it ended with a piece with an electronic backing track (to no great avail sad to say), witch bottle was great (the best thing in H+H’s opinion, being that strange thing, a folk song about a material item), weaving song, the cruel ship’s captain, me n becky, the blind beggar of bethnal green. ian was making some use of violin bow on guitar (jimmy page style) which was good. horsemouth regrets not liking the electronic piece more but in truth he likes the band set up (though he does admire their attempts to find new things, new ways of doing it).
-----------------
thereafter horsemouth and howard adjourned to a nearby pub for two pints of expensive modern beer and then home. horsemouth walked there and back (so the exercise was good), later sean came round to visit, sean thinks theresa may should not be counted out yet - that she’s the narasimha rao of british politics (this is just a wonderfully contrarian opinion).
after much effort (well none at all actually) horsemouth and howard made it through the looking glass and into the new london (down at the tides festival in north greenwich).
horsemouth arrived first (by tube) - there was a woman djing an african music selection at the first stage and some house music at the second stage. there were friendly helpful security people everywhere and pale ale vans with 50 uses and then recycleable plastic cups (one pound deposit - 5.50 a pint). there were crafts and food stalls (horsemouth assumed he was too poor for these and so had had breakfast and lunch before he came out).
the sun shone and people milled about wondering where the entertainment was.
the festival was in honour of a new elevated walkway - horsemouth walked it - it was elevated.
by the time howard had arrived (by bus through a tunnel) it had all gone quiet again - they had a beer and wandered back and forth a bit. they sat in some deckchairs and watched some art videos and then a guy djing.
humanity you were beautiful but, judging by the noise you made with the mass of djembes left out, you have no sense of rhythm.
eventually they decided to go for a walk down the river towards the thames barrier and kill time until the main acts - they wandered through the last remaining bit of industry and then found the anchor and hope pub and had a pint of bitter and a packet of crisps there.
then they wandered back and saw a little of sudan archives (violin and backing tracks decent) and then a pause and then mulatu astatke - a venerable old ethiopian jazz musician (with lots of young dudes).
horsemouth dug it (and the crowd dug it), those horn chants are really memorable and there were some great 3 rhythms. the sound was quite spiky - horsemouth had to retreat from the speakers.
in the end howard needed food - so they went and got some humous and bread at the tescos and then off to their various homes.
horsemouth’s friend jenna’s band (bad wives) were playing that night (but horsemouth was too knackered to go).
will horsemouth go back next week for oumou sangare? howard was saying no - horsemouth he’s not sure (the alternative is walthamstow garden party but the queues there are always horrendous).
saturday morning stick in the wheel are playing (that’l be good).
howard had mentioned a film called the l-shaped room when horsemouth was in it was on telly so he watched it.
today is cold and grey and rainy - there’s supposed to be a picnic (but horsemouth can’t see it really).
