'things... have suddenly become precious' ('optimism in the face of the void')

'speaking of daniel defoe, I was met with major illness last year and robinson crusoe was the only novel I wanted to read. I found myself on a most unexpected island, aged 45, and in recovery after surgery I needed to hear that beguiling voice again, that make-do and optimism in the face of the void.' 

- paul lynch: author and film critic. the guardian, 6th october 2023.

abram tertz says something similar of robinson crusoe, but in his case he was in a prison camp. (a voice from the chorus - interesting tertz (sinyavsky) was born tomorrow 8th october but in 1925). 

'such things as planting vegetables, sewing clothes or making a table can be remarkably demanding and crucial jobs, fraught with hazards and pitfalls, and calling for the employment of all kinds of cunning stratagems.... it is no longer a question of satisfying the flesh (or the spirit), but of responding to things which from being commonplace and insignificant have suddenly become precious. robinson crusoe's law ..' 

horsemouth spent the day yesterday pulling the ivy off the outside of the house. no scything or digging, but he did do some watering. ok no. he tells a lie. he dug up some potatoes for dinner. it was bandcamp friday so he recommended a cassette put out by jacken elswyth on betwixt and between.  horsemouth even managed a quick walk on the common (lots of dog walkers). 

he was impressed by the luxuriousness of the ivy's growth. the size of its leaves and their fleshiness. 

horsemouth thinks he may have gone about getting the ivy off the wrong way. the fact that he got the ivy off considerably above the height he was working at encourages him to believe it might still work (or perhaps he could get into fishing for it with a long pole the way window cleaners do it nowadays). 

he's hoping the remaining spring onions grow (so that he can have a tomato salad). and it should be nice and warm over the weekend. 

it's a bright morning (with a slight haze). later on today a warm day (and a warm tomorrow).  worldwide it has been the warmest july, august and september on record. 

'goodbye' said the automated message (and then the call ended)

 

 the phone rang.  (at 8.30am). horsemouth picked up. 

'goodbye' said the automated message. (a woman's voice).

and then the call ended.

it's all a bit PKD isn't it? 

or a ghost story.

(or is it a scammer). 

good morning! good morning! good morning!

it's a slightly grey morning (what was horsemouth expecting?) there are birds and squirrels outside. he's up slightly later than his usual. he has been out already to water the plants in the greenhouse and those in the pots round the house. he has taken the milk over to the fridge in the garage. yesterday a discussion about putting a curtain over the front door to the conservatory. 

yesterday he did a little scything, digging and watering. he removed some of the ivy and creeper from the front on the house - the challenge is to get it off the chimney and to stop it blocking the chimney vent  increasing the amount of CO2 in the living room when the fire is lit. he wants to get out of the situation where every year someone has to get up on the roof to do this by keeping the ivy and creeper well away from the chimney to cut it down to a more easily maintained height.

it's a pity the ivy and creeper looked beautiful on the front of the house. 

yesterday success! the heating oil got delivered (1000L of it). with the third of the tank there already horsemouth hopes this will hold the house out until spring/ summer (when prices are cheaper). 

yesterday a radio show about CO2 concentrations in houses and the need for ventilation. 

'if your home is drafty, filling in holes and cracks can help tackle rising energy bills, and lower your carbon footprint. but is there a limit to how airtight we should make our homes?'

initially horsemouth groaned when he saw this but it is actually a useful documentary that takes you through the process of measuring air exchanges per hour. howard posted it over. hopefully zoom beers on saturday. 

builders have saved billions because of tory delays to improving the energy performance standards of new houses (now these will need to be retrofitted with improved measures later at cost to the new owners). in this way the government 'lightening green burdens on ordinary people' can be seen for what it is - a way of pushing these costs out on ordinary people. 

the TV show the long chase horsemouth probably saw in 1972 (apparently it was shown in a dubbed version  in france under the title john l'intrepide in 1976).  horsemouth (sort of) remembers watching this. 

the pesky blogger tool has not rendered this with paragraphs but with divs (now there's annoying). 

today (horsemouth guesses). we roll towards two weeks in the wilderness (and very pleasant it is too). 

in which horsemouth talks about the weather

it's a grey morning (what was horsemouth expecting?) and yet bbc weather shows a long weekend of sun and 22C (woo-hoo!). thereafter it returns to 'seasonal averages' (yuck!).still that's good news, horsemouth's tomatoes could do with a helping hand. 

and so from weather onto climate change. 

'large landmasses in the north are warming fastest - europe is the fastest warming continent'

horsemouth's main concern is with the atlantic meridional overturning circulation should this collapse, this would be one of the tipping points in global warming, then the effects of global warming on the UK would be undone and the weather may actually get colder. 

however we, my fellow britons, would not entirely dodge the bullet,  this would not be all gravy.

'in 2020, a study had assessed the impact of an AMOC collapse on farming and food production in great britain. it estimated that AMOC collapse would reverse the impact of global warming in great britain and cause an average temperature drop of 3.4 °C. moreover, it would lower rainfall during the growing season by around <123mm, which would in turn reduce the land area suitable for arable farming from the 32% to 7%...' 

of course the AMOC might not collapse, it may just weaken. 

ok let's leave the AMOC to one side and assume that we do as a planet reach net zero (but by the longest possible route giving everybody a chance to pump as much oil as they can, drive on their motorways as much as they can  and stick as much CO2 in the atmosphere as they can). what are the effects upon the microcosm that horsemouth knows, the communal endeavour for housing. 

well the endeavour still has to hit the various government targets for insulating social housing. the first one is coming up in 2030. now the good news is that the endeavour, having failed to stick a bid together for wave2 of the social housing decarbonisation fund,  has found out that  the government has just launched wave 3.

this is good news in that if another successful bid to insulate properties can be stuck together then once again the government will pay half (or something like that). the bad news is that instead of routing around the bid and moving directly on to taking the measures to insulate our homes we are now back in the problematic of putting in another bid and dependent on the other bid partners doing their bit (with all the outcomes delayed one year). 

of course it is not just insulation to reduce carbon emissions that the homes of the communal endeavour will require. they will require measures to stop heat ingress in summer (blinds, shades etc.) though the insulation will help with this. 

beyond this there will be solar panels and heat pumps and alike. and the way it looks is that these will entirely have to be self-funded by the communal endeavour out of people's rent cheques. now horsemouth is of the opinion that electricity prices will rise as the cost of expanding the electricity grid to enable all these heat pumps to be run (instead of gas boilers) crystallises. thus solar panels will become a better deal, the batteries for them will become a better deal, the benefits of insulating the property will become a better deal. 

also hopefully winters will be warmer.

unless the AMOC switches off (or significantly weakens) in which case the country will stay cold (or get colder). 

yesterday an off and on kind of day. there was a phonecall from horsemouth's brother. horsemouth's mum went up the garage to buy a few things and to drop off some eggs at a neighbours. horsemouth got off for a wander round the common later on (that eased his worried mind). he did some scything, he did some watering, he did some digging. horsemouth's mum was complaining of tiredness so horsemouth tried to help out with the cooking. horsemouth discovered that the classic soviet horror film viy was available on youtube (so he watched that). he then watched the news.

rishi rich (PM) gave a speech at the tory party conference. 

'at the next election the choice that people face is bigger than party politics. do we want a government committed to making long-term decisions, prepared to be radical in the face of challenges and to take on vested interests, or do we want to stand still and quietly accept more of the same?'

this is the same  rishi 'no high speed trains north of birmingham (unless they are going slow)' sunak. and the tory party are the same in office for 13 years and are only now starting to sort things out (allegedly). in fact sunak puts the 'go slow' in british politics back 30 years (to the end of thatcher). 

horsemouth thinks this is true (but it is hardly a selling point).

 

the versatile harry everett smith (the two of rabbits)

 - that harry (everett) smith

- yes?

- he has an art show.

- oh wow! where?

- fragments of a faith forgotten: the art of harry smith will be on view october 4 (today!) through january 28, 2024 at the whitney museum of american art, new york. it  the travels to the carpenter center for the visual arts at harvard university, cambridge, MA, for november 2024. there's a sasha frere-jones article in the current edition of artforum. 

delving back into their archive there's an appreciation of the anthology, and an excerpt from the visionary film-makers on him. there's a john f. szwed book as well.

one of the difficulties with harry (and he was a difficult man)  is that he worked in a  wide range of fields and consistently refused the label of artist. if he's done the anthology alone that would be enough, if he'd done the films alone that would be enough, if he'd done the early anthropological field recordings alone that would be enough. 

(even if he'd only made his collection of paper airplanes).

horsemouth hopes some institution over here will pick it up (hint hint).  

we are moving into the anniversaries for horsemouth's bout of film-making (with suke and enza). yesterday three years ago  they did the actual filming (in the teeth of the pandemic), horsemouth stepped back from the editing (other people had strong ideas).

the great british public have been complaining about shit in the rivers and shit in the seas - their water bills are about to double to teach them not to care about anything ecological. horsemouth has his coffee what does he care.

yesterday horsemouth mostly read (torygraph) and snoozed. he was not feeling tip-top. hopefully the heating oil business will work ok (hopefully he has ordered a visit from an oil tanker and it will arrive). there's supposed to be a minor heatwave and then horsemouth guesses that will be it and we will be in to autumn proper. last night he slept with a sweat shirt on, today he is wearing a jumper also. 

horsemouth can see two rabbits from where he is. mind you he has also seen a number of myxie rabbits over the summer. he does hope that a population can re-establish itself. he views it as an auspicious beast. it is currently the chinese year of the rabbit. next year is the year of the dragon (beginning 10th february 2024). 

today the sunak speech at tory party conference (the condemned man gave a hearty speech). 

 

notice the sunflower (8 bears)

'the basic texture for this piece was taken from ravi shankar's "dhun in musra mund"... the guitar is tuned in the color blue, which is standard open G tuning with the 2nd and 4th strings dropped to a minor(!).'

so robbie basho describes his seal of the blue lotus (indicating that he has synaesthesia (he either naturally hears Gm as the colour 'blue' or perhaps he has consciously and deliberately trained himself to hear it in that fashion).  

horsemouth could initially  make no sense of these tuning instructions and he will have to try it with a guitar - to tune a guitar in open G to the minor (open G minor) would just require the tuning of the b or 2nd string down to a b flat (one step). you could take the 4th string (normally tuned d) down to a b flat also. perhaps this is what basho means, horsemouth will try it later on at a more decent hour.  

so anyway here is dhun in musra mund by ravi shankar so that you can compare it. 

HS2 (has it been cancelled yet?)

will the tories seriously attempt to sneak out of town leaving it uncancelled? (and then cancel it later?). and horsemouth thought he was avoidant. 

there probably are better things to spend the money on. it is difficult to see the economic benefits of having a high speed train running between birmingham and oak common (that well known business destination and transport hub).

meanwhile in the hereford microcosm the dreaded bypass has re-emerged. the beautiful schemes of national parks and relaunched railway stations have been quietly dropped. 

meanwhile at  the tory party conference itself  john crace writes of vultures circling rishi (while the living dead look on). true it looks like they will have had the conference and rishi will have derived no benefit from it, instead his opponents will be launched and be jockeying for position. (that cruella braverman - going to the states to 'think the unthinkable' and propose winding up the UN charter on the rights of refugees, smart move). 

yesterday horsemouth researched the buses (it looked (briefly) like they might have to get a bus back from ewyas harold while the car was being serviced (but in the end it turned out not to be necessary). 

the day before he had gone up onto the common and attempted to sit on as many of the benches on the south side of the common as he could find. the fussell, the john and joy stephens, the john gwynn, the sir peter venables (and his wife dr. ethel venables), and the ewyas harold summer fair committee bench (for the benches are dedicated). he had picked some damsons. 

we are into horsemouth's second week back in herefordshire. we are into octo-ber or 8 bears (one of the -embers even if it doesn't literally say so). horsemouth has injuncted himself to notice the sunflower - he brought it and its sibling back from the plant and produce sale at the village hall (lamentably unsold) and planted it in one of the flower pots. it has come up and even flowered (its sibling was uprooted by a storm). 

the sun itself is up. the day begins. 

at the grand re-opening of pontrilas railway station

sad news.

it's a NO.

there will be no grand re-opening of pontrilas railway station

this is a pity because it would certainly be very useful to horsemouth (instead of getting out at abergavenny or at hereford and having to get the bus, or get someone to come and collect him in the car, he could get out at pontrilas (and probably walk, or get someone to come a short distance to collect him). and it would certainly have a big impact on the area (though as horsemouth tends to argue with these sorts of projects it would not improve things for everybody)

'coun(cillor) price replied he had concluded that the project “offers poor value for money as, should it be built, it is likely that the scheme will not create additional capacity but will simply transfer journeys from other stations or the bus network”.' 

yes. but surely that applies to any new stop on an existing line. it's not exactly 'build it and they will come' is it?

it's ok. horsemouth had no great faith in them making it happen. he doesn't see the scale of the economic benefit (sticking hay on a railway line on the other hand...). 

instead there seem to be plans afoot to open a hereford parkway out by the hereford skylon park enterprise zone and to have a service to and  from birmingham there. but even there they can't make the sums add up. 

once again the money seems to have run out for infrastructure outside london. 

so why the sudden change of heart? 

even down here in herefordshire people are capable of learning the lessons of rishi sunak's dallying over HS2. everything was fine at the fat controller's meeting until the cheque came (with a fortune cookie) and now the tension, apprehension and dissension have begun. this seems to be a hill sunak is prepared to die upon (that and potholes in your roads to misquote de la soul).

sunak's mandate has become a bone of contention once again. his mandate (by historical accident) does not  derive from being elected by the electorate at an election. but, in any event, prime ministers are not elected by the electorate as a whole, the MPs of their parties are elected). nor does it derive  from adherence to the manifesto that whichever PM last elected was elected on (as if it were some kind of enforceable contract). rather his mandate derives  directly from the unwillingness of tory MPs to call a leadership election or vote against their own party in a vote of confidence. 

where is sunak now? 

he looks strong if he stops HS2 and weak if he doesn't.  (maybe he is only doing this so he can look sensible). the way it's going they'll probably depose him and re-instate liz truss. they have thrown so many u-turns they don't know which way is up anymore. they've become overtired. time for bed says zebidee. 

-----------------------------------------

and so to horsemouth's readings.

norman douglas's old calabria continues to go well. he certainly knows his calabrian historians. here we find, that successor to barrius, the historian, humanist and priest girolamo marafioti. unfortunately the critic soria (at least according to norman douglas) is not impressed by his referencing (or at least not for the right reasons).

'to make his shop appear more rich in foreign merchandise, he did not scruple to adorn it with books and authors apocryphal, imaginary, and unknown to the whole human race.'

here horsemouth shows you one of the last d n'b tunes horsemouth was really keen on, together by logistics. grooverider would often open with it at grace.

today horsemouth is involved in some bollocks with the car. there doesn't seem to be a proper plan. who knows maybe they will end up getting the bus.

'new york drowns while we hold hands'

sang jimi hendrix (on voodoo child). horsemouth does hope his remaining friends in new york are ok. (as far as he can remember nobody has a basement flat -  jacques did for while but he's no longer there).

a state of emergency has been declared. 

it seems to be rainwater  run off to horsemouth - not storm surge or high tides, that's the next phase.  the answer to rainwater runoff problems is to make the area greener (the soil will soak up more water wheras the concrete and asphalt will encourage it to run off and flood further downhill), to introduce more trees and to improve the drainage system). 

improving drainage systems is an expensive business. making places flood resistant less so. basement flats may have had their day. 

of course the flooding is all up through long island and new jersey also. 

horsemouth supposes red hook was the warning. it's on the floodplain. but then again most cities have grown up by rivers and lakes and the sea (for ease of trade) and spread out onto the floodplains. land values encourage increases in density (horsemouth is usually in favour of increasing density in cities so that transport costs can be lower, so that public transport can work more effectively). 

the neighbours basement flat two doors up from horsemouth's flooded out a few years ago but then again it is about 5ft lower than his (and 5ft further downhill).  

elsewhere horsemouth was reading some statistics on the UK (from the ONS - the office of national statistics/ the office of north and south) - he is now staying  in the place with the  second lowest productivity in the UK - herefordshire, the place where he mainly stays in london (hackney) is the 19th most income-deprived in the country (and this is despite all the rich people wandering round). 

so how will the 'levelling up' of south and north go? is it dead already? was it only ever snake oil? 

of course the problem with productivity improving (and income statistics improving) is that it doesn't necessarily put money in the pockets of the people who are there already, in fact it can make things more expensive and drive them out to be replaced by the people who get the benefit of the government investment. there is a construction boom in manchester but that doesn't mean people in oldham and rochdale are doing any better - in fact they may be doing worse as the increased money circulating locally  drives up prices. 

outside a grey morning. horsemouth contemplates a wander at some stage. he has already been out to water the tomato plants in the green house (last crop he thinks). his mum has just been out to feed and let out the chickens. horsemouth's mum's place is distinctly on a hill (so  while there is plenty of rain it is pretty safe from flooding). in recent years the roads have sometimes flooded for a day or so. there have been floods in hereford itself.