‘it is safe to say that it is no longer a comedy’

so ingmar bergman remarks in his workbook as he writes the hour of the wolf. (one that initially resisted being found). 

max von sydow and liv ullman (a couple) move to a remote island but the island has ghosts (or he has brought the ghosts with him), evil biting children, persecuting ghosts, ghosts of petty officialdom, ghosts of past loves and madness. 

it doesn’t help that max von sydow cannot sleep. he waits for the dawn but before that is the hour of the wolf. it is the darkest hour and one that is strangely silent. horsemouth sleeps like a log (by and large). his dreams are not untroubled (but they don’t keep him up at night). if he is bored he will watch a movie and go to bed early. if his dreams trouble him at all they trouble him just before he wakes. 

this morning is a grey morning (darn horsemouth had planned to go for a walk). but it is the morning. there is coffee and he gets to write, he gets to make sense and to perform. it is the rest of the day that poses a problem (yesterday horsemouth was even forced to clean the kitchen to assuage his boredom). 

yesterday was a bright day of winter sunshine, couples out exercising, or mobilising their children in pushchairs or walking the dog. he sat in the sunshine and read gregor von rezzori’s memoirs of an anti-semite, it is set deep back in the rumanian countryside, bearing the marks of german colonisation but post the collapse of the austro-hungarian empire. our hero is an idiot and soon he will be an anti-semite. he will survive the second world war and end up not in argentina but in the italian film industry. 

despite the pandemic (and perhaps because of it) 70 odd million americans voted for trump. the ‘left wing’ of the establishment has been deployed again and won. it is tempting to party and enjoy the sense of relief but nothing has been fixed. populism is not dead it has just been relocated out of office. it will sit in the hills and suburbs and stoke its resentments. in any event the christian right/ republican paleoconservative nexus is not defeated by this. 

and now a shower. the other joy of horsemouth’s mornings. 

friday was bandcamp friday. horsemouth was reminded too late to do any effective publicity for it. (he advertised musicians of bremen and howard’s release of his electronica (howard and yuri grange). 

but then he did something unprecedented ladies and gentlemen. he bought some music online. that’s right he parted with his (digital admittedly) hard gotten. he did this for robert lawson’s downstream from utopia which follows in the handprints of michael o’shea in that it is a recording of dulcimer-like instruments (so that’s his listening for the morning). 

review to follow shortly.

UBIK! ‘the world is now gripped by the most widespread and severe capitalist recession to be witnessed since the thirties...’

on his way home horsemouth found a 1992 september/october copy of new left review. and once again,

 ‘the world is now gripped by the most widespread and severe capitalist recession to be witnessed since the thirties...’ 

now horsemouth was thinking about this era just a week or so ago when looking at one of his old physical diaries. 

he remembers this time as the great prosperity - the carnage of the thatcher years is over, rave has happened, a psychological corner has been turned. while horsemouth hasn’t (properly) re-entered the labour market yet (if indeed he ever does) he does have enough money to get on a plane and go to a foreign country once a year for a couple of weeks. it is possible that horsemouth remembers it this way because he was sufficiently far from the economy and his needs are so meager that he was not to be bothered by what it did (much). in any event it is all part of an upward trajectory in the conditions of people’s lives beginning (again) in 1945 probably ending some time in the 1970ies but that ending disguised by cheap credit and consumer goods. 

prosperity eventually came to horsemouth, he began to engage with the economy more, rent property, take foreign holidays and such. indeed with the collapse of the soviet union we entered that era of capitalist triumphalism called the end of history that will last (off and on and despite evidences to the contrary) all the way to 2008. 

what is the nlr’s solution to the 1992 capitalist recession? 

‘the world needs international coordination and planning as never before’ 

but this is blocked by danish refusal of the maastricht treaty, a treaty which also ‘not only prescribes austerity measures but also seeks to impose a secretive and unaccountable intergovernmental structure and european central bank in place of the democratic institutions of a federal europe.’ 

and here we are 30 years later, much of which horsemouth has worked (after his fashion). horsemouth gladly contemplates (if not actually plans) his exit from the economy. the european project trundles on (by stealth) despite being relentlessly torpedoed by various european electorates. the bubbles of credit and financialisation collapse and then reform again and again. time will tell if the airline/ holiday industry has collapsed (or is merely taking a holiday). 

and of course the scale of the crisis to come is very much greater than 1992 or 2008 (or any of the other crises of accumulation or political crises that have happened in horsemouth’s lifetime). horsemouth has less faith in these crises to drive positive change than he had before.

yesterday horsemouth traveled and worked and traveled back. which was knackering (so afterwards he slept). he enjoyed it, the sun was shining. it is however not safe (horsemouth will continue to keep his head down until such point as he has been vaccinated). over on facebook (boo & hiss) the ‘Write a note’ button is still there (under its new name ‘UBIK’). 

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.

the last post), the last last post and beyond (hardcore will never die)

‘and now... the end is near... and so we reach... the final curtain...’ 

it is november 1 st the end of the facebook ‘notes’ tool (and horsemouth’s misuse of it to provide you with a running commentary on his life). this (the 31st of october) was therefore be ‘the last post’. except it wasn't. horsemouth got in a sneaky last last post late at night and then a last last last post early in the morning of the 1st 

horsemouth can (probably) recover his historic notes with a data download (he does hope so). they will do with his downloaded myspace posts from the death of myspace. 

before the days of web 2.0 (ahem) horsemouth often kept a physical diary as a kind of appointments book (he didn’t often write anything extended in it). the earliest one he can find is a houseman’s peace diary from 1992. he’s working/ volunteering at the anti-nuclear group. his band (bush house) are playing (support slots for the rhythmites, senser, 25th of may, dub the earth, easter and the totem, back to the planet, fat dinosaur, aroma of rage, peakadelic, disco assassins. they are doing about 18 gigs a year. they are recording. he’s trying to get his mate dave social in. but broadly he’s feeling frustrated and wants to leave. the band are about to go all ravey-davey-gravey and horsemouth is pushing for that (and it’s a mistake). 

it looks like he’s still doing squatter/ anarcho-political things (er. yes. he’s having meetings with lawyers so presumably he’s under the cosh for some malfeasance or other). he goes to some huge illegal rave (castlemorton) after playing a gig supporting test department (who had a ravey davey gravey type set - those were the ravey davey gravey times). horsemouth (on the other hand) goes to see youssou n’dour, olodum and the drummers of burundi. 

ah the sirens of memory. how sweetly you sing. 

it’s samhain (when the ghosts come close). horsemouth will have to be careful. 

last night howard visited. horsemouth showed him the movie (the fall of the house of fitzgerald). howard said he liked it (overall). various bits met with his approval. they drank beer (2 bottles/ 3 bottles respectively) and ate half a cheap pizza each. they then listened to the 24th oct 2016 golden glow (tracks selected by horsemouth). howard, who is always ending things, has a plan to record the last golden glow. horsemouth might make a final guest appearance to round out the numbers (he should run up a track list).

are we so bored by the coronavirus pandemic (as a measure of ruling class incompetence) that we can switch back to brexit again?

or will starving kids over the holidays have to take its place? 

‘this mad riddle that no-one knows what it is’ - so danny dyer (in a strange moment of access to shakespearean genius) described brexit. and indeed no one can know what brexit is (in its full horror and mad glory) until it has happened, and is happening day-by-day. but that dread hour is coming. (and now we find out that the software will not be ready in time). 

in the early stages of the coronavirus epidemic the government was indecisive and locked down too late resulting in tens of thousands of extra deaths (march, april, may). but later on the government had clearly learned its lesson because it was indecisive and locked down too late resulting in tens of thousands of extra deaths (november, december, january, february...). oh well no one can blame them for not learning the lesson of the earlier part of the pandemic on the need to lock down early. 

to horsemouth’s recollection what actually happened is that people stopped going into work before the government called a lockdown. people could see what had happened in italy (and to a lesser extent china) and took the appropriate action. people started wearing masks before it was required by the government. he’s not sure there’s anything the people can do to forestall brexit in the same fashion except to refuse to be sundered from europe in word and deed. 

‘horsemouth, creating and editing notes will be unavailable after 31 october. we know that your posts are important, so any published notes will remain published on your profile. however, any unpublished drafts will be deleted.’ - facebook 

over samhain (when the witches are out and the dead come close) something strange will change with facebook and, come the morning, horsemouth will no longer be able to leave his thoughts with you in this fashion. he migrates the best of it over to his blogspot account (ah you're already here).

but it is not a diary, a daily ritual. horsemouth is unsure how he will handle this side of it.

horsemouth missed the anniversary of this his mixcloud mix of influences. thanks to Ze for introducing him to the john surman piece that starts it off, thereafter we are off into more familiar horsemouth territory for nearly two hours. Skip James, Washington Phillips, Obray Ramsey, witchi tai to and more.

the cover photo is from the bbc m.r. james ghost story lost hearts. (which horsemouth also recommends). 

the fall of the house of fitzgerald (not quite the final cut)

strangemouth came up to visit and deposited the rough cut of the fall of the house of fitzgerald onto horsemouth’s devices. horsemouth has watched it through probably about 20 times now. he pronounces himself delighted. in a little while he will watch it again. he thanks his co-directors en za and strangemouth. 

this is the dancing about architecture project (interpretative dance against gentrification). 

even the magic of the cinema is unable to stop the forces of capital. horsemouth cannot work out how to show you any of it (even if he were allowed to). 

horsemouth made sten watch it. (he said he liked it). 

now horsemouth (and his co-directors) have to work out how to distribute it round the globe (or at least make it available to people who might be interested). 

it features music by a number of musicians - including an improv with horsemouth using the zither thing, a track by musicians of bremen (malkin tower from the humming EP) and a track by horsemouth himself (ok strangemouth’s musical alterego whose name temporarily escapes horsemouth as he re-types this) is in there on drums somewhere) highrise strutters ball (this being a version of darktown strutters ball cleaned up for modern sensibiities). sten said the music worked particularly well. 

horsemouth’s ways of working have been shifting for a while. in former decades horsemouth would have battled for a particular vision of the piece, for particular shots and edits, in this decade (and in particular in this year) he is content to genuinely collaborate and allow other people’s visions through instead. 

as soon as they stopped actually filming horsemouth’s work was done (well ok he did help out a little with tidying up after). he does have one request - that they use the above photo of en za that horsemouth took during the dress rehearsals. it’s very strong. plus it shows the medusa crown straight on. the colours and the geometrical shapes are good. 

horsemouth is also up a film poster (A4 ish) and a be-glittered postcard of himself in a sun ra type pose. at the end of the month they will reconvene. horsemouth hears that en za has the launch event planned already. 

in recent nights horsemouth watched night of the demon, nightfall and I walked with a zombie by the director jacques tourneur. all great noir movies with great use of light and shadow. 

we are in the chronology of night of the demon - holden (the disbelieving scientist) has been cursed by the black magician karswell. he is due to die at 10pm on the night of the 28th of october. tonight (in the chronology). to time it exactly right start watching at 8.33pm. 

some thoughts on education on a monday morning

James Lee Byars - World Question Center from Michael Werner Gallery on Vimeo.

yesterday a friend posted a link to james lee byars world question center - an art happening transmitted on belgian tv in the late 60ies which involved contacting various figures round the world (often by telephone) arthur c.clarke, cedric price - ok possibly mostly the anglophone world - and getting them to say which questions they thought were most important for humanity. it looks great (kind of like an outtake from logan’s run). there is a sort of link here to cedric price’s proposed funpalace.

it’s 10.30 on a monday morning and horsemouth is just coming down from a burst of bad temper. he likes the work to be easy. he likes things to work. don’t stick him in a situation that doesn’t work (and especially not first thing), he’ll only get grumpy. 

one difference between IT and so-called ‘real life’ is that IT does not respond to bursts of temper. horsemouth’s experience is that IT requires calm and hopeful optimism to be got working, and time. now he is superficially calm again but in fact he’s till grumpy and would happily smash, rage and break a few things until he feels better. in a bit he will go for a walk. 

the main driver of horsemouth’s rages is insecurity (he is not someone who can adopt a cheery ‘oh well it doesn’t work. never mind’). horsemouth likes to be helpful, he doesn’t like to let people down. it doesn’t help that work has somewhat flexible boundaries and that over the years (and especially in recent times) additional unpaid pseudo-tasks have been added to the original task. horsemouth is happy, up to a point, to muck-in and just get on with it, but that point is that it work. 

horsemouth is very goal oriented. he’s not very process oriented. this is why horsemouth is not actually good at science (despite having studied it). he is not good at sitting there not understanding, trying to work things out, it just makes him anxious. things need to be very calm and peaceful for him before he can successfully do this. 

he supposes he has been harmed by education which, while supposedly being process oriented and about teaching skills is actually very goal oriented. students are trained to experience a release from anxiety and an endorphin rush whenever they get a tick. the focus becomes not understanding the thing in a nuanced way but getting the tick. accumulating lots of ticks. passing exams (there’s a revealing phrase). receiving a certificate (horsemouth is a big fan of the tin man). and becoming a member of the middle class who need never have to worry about these things again. 

much of the purpose of education is not to render people smarter and more able to learn (an emancipatory education) but rather to fractionate society out into different social classes. he’s kind of with ranciere and jacotot on this one. 

there are, given a skills focus, attempts to counteract this with discovery based learning. in this the students are not given the answer but are expected to work out themselves how to find out the answer (often with groupwork). the usual result of this is to set the students whining that they haven’t been given the answer (and pretty soon the teacher comes along and gives them the answer). it is kind of like a virus of emancipatory education that has lodged within the whole to the annoyance of everyone. 

horsemouth normally works out a way of doing things. then stops. once he has one way of doing something that is sufficient. 

the correct response to situations that don’t work is thus. horsemouth tried. it didn’t work. no blame. what’s the way forward? (the problem with horsemouth is that it takes him a long while to become this philosophical).