he has enough books several times over

so it's 8 years since horsemouth and howard released this. the photo is by john clarkson and was taken over at no.1 the thames. there's another golden glow mix by howard alone from 2019 on the same date. it's all good.

judee sill, alice coltrane, RZA, robert schumann, more judee (on backing vocals this time), art ensemble of chicago, willie nelson, gene clark, nico, william harris (bullfrog blues), milton nascimento, robbie basho, delphine,  the reverend gary davis, john fahey, stella chiweshe, santana...  

horsemouth will probably attempt to get back onto facebook  (having been caught up in the great facebook lockout yesterday). later he's got to go to a meeting. (two miles there and two miles back). he is back with you. 

yesterday horsemouth walked up to walthamstow (five or six miles all told - up through the valley of the agapemonians back along the black road). he didn't buy any books. later he went out for a tour round the local book boxes - again nothing. in truth he has enough books several times over (just not the right ones). his reading of ice continues. 

the facebook lockout briefly opened up the possibility of horsemouth making better use of his time (but also of more boredom). 

facebook lockout

horsemouth seems to have been either hacked or 'facebooked' by some annoying not working facebook feature. either that or they are under attack from some denial of service  attack. either way he's locked out. he will go for a walk around the block and then try again. 

and again...

and again...

they seem to have stopped at least attempting to deal with it. perhaps waiting for it all to cool down. he will try to get a friend to leave a message on his page. 

ok there's a report about it. 

he will (of course) continue to post regularly on here (until that too is removed from him). 

he supposes there is still email. 

but the question goes - what would he do if there were no facebook? 

he basically uses facebook for all his communication - either leaving meaningless drivel so that people may like it or messaging people to arrange meetings. he only uses other video-conferencing tools (than facebook's) because everyone else did. 

if you see this please take a look at his page to make sure there is nothing untoward on it. horsemouth tries to keep his financials and his online existence far apart so he feels reasonably safe. 

'we have improved the page with a more modern design'

 claims google. 

good morning! good morning! 

yesterday the insulation people came. they were smart and pleasant. the woman (alice?) had some software on her phone that rendered photos as 3D plans (awesome). liam and alex wandered round with tape measures and little lazer distance meters getting the dimensions of the rooms, the size of the radiators, the boiler spec etc. later a chat about how the house was heated/ used. (horsemouth emailed off to them such stats about energy usage as he has from the bills). 

so far pretty much a repeat of the EPC (energy performance certificate) process but here the intention is to have it lead on to a design for the retrofitting of insulation measures  

an interesting fact that horsemouth took away was that while it might be less disruptive to fit external insulation (despite the scaffolding etc.) it was also more expensive than fitting internal insulation (horsemouth doesn't know if this is true when you take into account redecoration costs but we shall see). indeed it looks as if one member has already has (naughty naughty). further it seems like people who horsemouth expected would be having conniptions about the disruption internal insulation would cause have in fact become sanguine about it.  

half the homes have been surveyed (another two more will be done thursday). there'll be another campaign in two weekends time to pick up the remainders. and then a meeting of the householders. 

earlier horsemouth had been out for a walk with TG. later he farted about on the internet and watched the last episode of martin sheen's port talbot set thing and lost hearts (one of the bbc ghost stories for christmas). the martin sheen is a folly, but a generous folly. its take home message is the need to free oneself up from the ghosts of the past to let the new thing be born (but horsemouth doesn't see it that way). in lost hearts the ghosts show up to ensure justice. 

tomorrow morning he has stuff to do. at the weekend there's something over minty's. 

guess who's back

the sun is shining and horsemouth has his coffee (he's just been to get a refill). in theory his brother is up in the wilds of herefordshire. horsemouth is not high on a mountain top he is down in the swamps (but it's ok). later today a visit from the insulation people. this morning perhaps a walk (the bench 10am). 

of course where he lives is on a slight hill falling down to the canals and rivers of the the lea valley or accelerating up into the hills of stamford hill and tottenham. (you can witness this process from springfield park). where horsemouth is the incline is less dramatic. 

horsemouth's thought processes were greatly concentrated when the downstairs flat two doors up from him was flooded (rainwater run-off rather than rising sea levels). there's going to be lots more of this going forward (at least until AMOC - the atlantic meridional overturning circulation - collapses and at that point the country will become colder and drier). this may work well with global warming by working against it. 

the drainage system is the sewerage system (so horsemouth is very glad his flat hasn't flooded). the real issue is converting the acres of concrete and tarmac to grassy fields that can soak up rainwater (rather than roll it off downhill) and planting lots of trees (to catch rainwater and pump it out of the ground). 

already much of spain is in drought and this will doubtless intensify over the years. the south of france, italy, greece. 

horsemouth has been reading ice by anna kavan. the world is freezing up, our hero is on a fool's quest. 

horsemouth will have to get out and about and tell people that he is back. 

jackson c. frank dies ('he basically lives in a hotel and just wanders the streets and reads newspapers...')

'me and room service...' - jackson c. frank, blues run the game. 

'the year of the death of ricardo reis... this follows ricardo reis, who has returned to lisbon after several years living in brazil, he was a doctor but he gave up practicing medicine when he moved back to portugal and he basically lives in a hotel and just wanders the streets and reads newspapers...' 

moments of comedy. a documentary on saramago that seems only to be able to describe the plot mechanics of his books. horsemouth then followed this with a review of his books that attempts to discuss his books without access to the plots of them. 

'all my novels are based on something impossible' - jose saramago. (here we have a review with 'the impossible'  amputated. but strangely the reviewer gets the plot mechanics of the history of the siege of lisbon into the review - sort of). 

in a similar way to the continued survival of ricardo reis (a fictional homonym of the poet fernando pessoa) we have jackson c. frank born yesterday (2nd march) and dying today (3rd march). in between frank packs in a life full of joys and miseries. he leaves us songs to remember him by. 

yesterday horsemouth was supposed to be going out for a wander round charlton (but the assembled multitude cried off due to bad weather and health and safety). fair play - horsemouth can't be dealing with an industrial accident this late in his career. instead he lazed round the house and read a little (ice by anna kavan). 

in spain (well catalonia and andalucia for sure) a drought. drowned churches, whole sacrificed  towns, rise up as the reservoir waters sink. 

today? probably a visit to the supermarket.  

'in a 2008 press conference for the filming of blindness he (saramago) asked, in reference to the great recession, "where was all that money poured on markets? very tight and well kept; then suddenly it appears to save what? lives? no, banks." he added, "marx was never so right as now", and predicted "the worst is still to come.' - jose saramago wikipedia entry. 

jackson c. frank born

a meeting (over zoom). he got on a train. he went to a gig. he goes home. sleeps. gets up.

and here he is. 

people are talking about cancelling today's walk (we will see - and fair play the weather does look rubbish - especially in the morning).

the gig laura cannell and stick in the wheel at cafe OTO was good. the highpoint (for horsemouth) was the both of them singing lyke walk dirge - it is on pentangle's basket of light album, was recorded by the new tradition and features in glyn hughes' milstone grit book.  they ended up with bedlam  and london riots. 

before the gig horsemouth and howard snuck off for a quick pint in a local hostelry and then (to be fair to the venue) they bought another in cafe OTO. lou, mike, myk and friends were there, luke losey arrived (horsemouth apologised for failing to recognise him on a previous occasion). lou has an album coming out (well done homegirl). 

on his way back horsemouth failed to find any food (he was looking for a chip shop). 

horsemouth is up. he's had his coffee. he's been for a wander down to the local shop. at some point he'll have to make a run to aldi. 

today is the anniversary of jackson c. frank's birth. tomorrow will be the anniversary of his death. 

. 

lessons from the funeral of a raven

'autobiography is only to be trusted when it reveals something disgraceful. a man who gives a good account of himself is probably lying, since any life when viewed from the inside is simply a series of defeats.' -  george orwell, benefit of clergy: some notes on salvador dali. 

today horsemouth does a meeting (over zoom). then he gets on a train. he goes to a gig. he goes home. sleeps. gets up. goes for a wander round charlton. sunday he doesn't know. monday (afternoon) a discussion about insulation. thereafter he does not know. 

hmm looks like horsemouth is getting blackballed over at american primitive guitar - his two posts from last year - 27th september and 23rd march are still 'pending' (hell soon they'll be fossilised). matter of fact he hasn't had anything published there since 27th october 2022. looks like he has pissed one of the admins off (or something). it was probably his excessive enthusiasm for suni mcgrath. 

the games people play. why bother. 

er. it's not like he noticed. he can still like (and maybe even comment). he'll  give it a go - that's more participation than representative democracy gives him. 

today horsemouth finds out how the by-election in rochdale has gone. (and it's a bandcamp friday as well).  

george galloway wins by more than 5000 votes. horsemouth once saw him walking down cheshire street in bethnal green during his time there. just as the brexit party, ukip and reform have dragged the tory party rightwards (enabling them to connect with disgruntled voters) so horsemouth expects parties to form to the left of labour (which hopefully will drag labour leftward ditto ditto). galloway has brand recognition but in a way horsemouth puts more hope in movements arising out of local councils (such as lutfur rahman's in tower hamlets). 

the advantage of an MP is that it is more difficult to suspend one (powers to remove recalcitrant local authority administrations are well developed). but it is not impossible to suspend MPs, develop recall petitions etc. (horsemouth has been making a study of this of late). galloway's challenge is to keep rochdale later this year given labour relaunching with a safer candidate and to build a movement to take it all forward. 

of course one MP does not a summer make.