‘the secret is to have but few needs and thus time to live your own life’

so remarks wolf(gang) in hans fallada’s wolf among wolves. horsemouth hasn’t read the introduction like he normally does (there isn’t one) but there is an afterward (which he has - until now overlooked). he suspects it is not going to be so simple for wolfgang.

it doesn’t look like horsemouth will get much time away over easter (which is good because he could do with earning money so that he won’t starve) or perhaps they will radically swap the work off him (who knows). he’s only got tomorrow morning to do and then he is free.

horsemouth has his health (that’s the main thing he reckons).

wednesday he walked up into walthamstralia - the most excellently large oxfam is gone (replaced by a lidl - ok that's a lie). he bought a book on philosophers and kings.

saturday (4pm-ish) he’s round howard’s working on denise’s version of sliabh - he’s very hopeful. he also thinks it might be an idea to use part of a recording he made round snatch foster’s house one time - a track that manages to lift two fahey-esque motifs and grieg’s mars - bringer of war (he’ll have to copy it off the CD it’s on though). if anything the major attraction is the harsh reverb on it (it was recorded in snatch foster’s bathroom).

an absolute precariousness (in the mirror of practice)

‘for individuality, considered as an absolute, amounts in practice for the masses to an absolute precariousness or ‘contingency’ of conditions of existence, just as ownership (of oneself, of objects) amounts to a generalised dispossession.’ - etienne balibar, the philosophy of marx., p. 37-8.

the equinox 2018 has just taken place (16:15 on tuesday, 20th march). it is also the anniversary of the visitation of alice coltrane by the spirit of igor stravinsky.

"stravinsky has once again wonderfully inspired me. the infinity sound of the eternity permeates his music. I am truly grateful to stravinsky for his offerings, and for the sharing of his gifts with us: and for the channel through which he communicates to me from the other world."  - alice coltrane. her version of  spring rounds can be heard on the eternity album.

from the equinox onwards  horsemouth will no longer be in the long dark tunnel, he will have emerged into the light. there will be easter, there will be british summer time, there will be may eve, there will be the summer solstice. sometime between may eve and the solstice (roughly equidistant) - horsemouth will be finished work for the year.

phew this will be a lucky escape (though there is of course ‘next year’ looming over the horizon towards the end of september - but it is far enough away that it doesn’t have to be thought about (yet)).

thereafter horsemouth will devote himself to playing music and reading books and going on long pointless walks. yay.

denise has recorded a vocal for sliabh (said sleeve if horsemouth is reliably advised) - himself and howard have it (by the wonders of email) and should be able to add it to the track. just in time.

a helpful soul has put up a copy of fahey's master's thesis

materials for the study of religion and culture in the lower east side

‘harry was down on another floor, engaged in a long recording project called materials for the study of religion and culture in the lower east side, which included murderers babbling on amphetamine in the streets, jump-rope rhymes, bawdy songs, rap, (the) complete canon of gregory corso’s early poetry...’ - allen ginsberg interview with hal willner, introduction to think of the self speaking: harry smith - selected interviews.

another day for horsemouth another celebration of harry everett smith, anthropologist, ethnomusicologist, avant-garde film-maker, recorder of peyote rituals and the fugs first album, and compiler of the 1952 anthology of american folk music (which basically inspired everyone you’ve ever heard of to pick up an acoustic guitar and start singing those songs again).

"we all knew every word of every song on it, including the ones we hated.” - dave van ronk

ED sanders recounts that smith was the key advisor for allen ginsberg and the fugs's effort to levitate the pentagon including recommending having a cow present to represent the goddess hathor.

the police were careful to keep the cow away from the pentagon.

today it really is 7 days to the vernal equinox.

late in his life (towards his death) harry smith would often ask his carer (rani singh) what she’d done today that was creative (here again he was ahead of the curve). eventually he dies and ginsberg goes to sit with his body in the morgue. later his ghost haunts the film-makers co-op of jonas meekas.

werewolves and retirement communities (‘you've got to walk that lonesome valley all by yourself’)

so last night horsemouth watched a film on werewolves and retirement communities (late phase).

our blind (but ex-military) protagonist stomps about like zatoichi with an entrenchment tool - the werewolves kill his guide dog after that it’s only a matter of time before the silver bullets fly.

horsemouth also watched a recent(ish) episode of the simpsons where homer gets mistaken for a grandad while out babysitting (this has happened to horsemouth) and then gets to meet hipsters.

horsemouth is beginning to return to an even keel of work after a period of stress and illness (so at some point they will probably ram and sink him from a submarine). all he has to do is survive out until easter and let things cool down and become boring. there is (in fact) a pattern where he does this stress/ anxiety thing every year (so he should be used to it by now).

february as a german expresionist poem (for micòl finzi-contini)

werewolves and therapeutic communities
(in killafornia)
the anniversary of the death of sheridan le fanu
- author of monkey paw


‘this is presented as a work of fiction 
and dedicated to nobody. 
it began as a mistake...’

sex pest horsemouth to keep anonymity
‘he who makes a beast of himself gets rid 
of the pain of being a man’ 
(werewolves of wall street)

horsemouth invokes the colditz defence

‘we must ask the reader’s forgiveness 
for giving him this book, 
and warn him 
of what he will find in it’ 

a pyramid scheme as a song

horsemouth is sometimes praised for his work (why thank you).
sometimes he is denigrated and criticised for his work (er...).
it is often the same work.

horsemouth must learn to ‘treat those two impostors just the same’. 

stellar regions (countdown to the vernal equinox)
‘profound changes are impending in the ancient craft of the beautiful’ 

serpent(S)

horsemouth has survived another day - he’s leaving his calendar for march blank in the hope that this will make time flow quicker.

sunday horsemouth nipped round howard’s to listen to the first mix of serpent(S) - horsemouth pronounced it most chaotic (it not making use of the ‘stomps’ to bind it together and having the main guitar turned down) - still it sounded pretty good - more adventurous than it would have sounded.

having listened through to a few things they adjourned up to the pizza restaurant for a pizza (a morrissey) and a beer. it was an expensive place to have both but horsemouth pronounced himself well satisfied. 

howard announced that he had been listening to the first record (and pronounced it good) - horsemouth admitted that he felt similarly.

books, gigs, films february 2018

films

• the howling, 
• island of terror,
•  tales from the crypt, 
• the fog, 
• jack the ripper (hammer jtr vs. sherlock holmes), 
• lobster, 
• monkey paw, 
• the lost continent 

books

• anti-memoirs (andre malraux), 
• post office (bukowski), 
• exploring the new river (michael essex-lopresti), 
• colleges in crisis, 
• liar's poker (michael lewis),
•  the suitcase (sergei dovlatov), 
• garden of the finzi-continis (giorgio bassani),
•  work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction essay again (walter benjamin)