‘the croak of the raven was not heard’

so paradise was described in the epic of gilgamesh. horsemouth thinks is will be a pretty poor paradise without ravens. he picked this up from the introduction to utopia where various sources for utopia are discussed - travelers’s tales, descriptions of paradise etc.

on sundays horsemouth goes to practice johnny remember me, painbirds, dance me (to the end of love), he’s not sure what else. horsemouth’s temptation is to keep it short and sweet.

last saturday he watched two episodes of spirals 7. he did a walk over to the supermarket in the fields, he ate a cheap pizza covered in mushrooms, peppers and onions, and later he ate a vegetarian paella thoughtfully made by sten ok no sten says it was a risotto). they drank a bottle of beer. they watched a documentary about amy winehouse. the news is fucking terrible. the fucking of syria continues. the kurds are fleeing or being slaughtered because the US president is fuckwit child. at least it shows the utter futility of being ‘progressive’ and cosying up to the west (as does the position of turkey interestingly enough). brexit rolls towards god knows what.
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last sunday johnny remember me went well, painbirds went well, dance me (to the end of love) went well, fairytale of new york was a bit of a car crash but they have established a key and the broad outlines of it and it should all sort out next time. the get carter theme was not practiced.

horsemouth is back home with a cup of tea - he likes the peace. elsewhere the drama of the world continues (mental patients fighting cuckoos etc.). people like to repeat their patterns. there are no accidents just the elaboration of the deep plan of the subconscious using the cast available at that point in time.

the unicorn has fallen.

the unicorn has fallen off the gate at buckingham palace.

now this is as interesting as the heron visiting no.10 downing street (escaping a gang of ruffian crows and heralding the fall of david cameron) and as portentous.

in the lion and unicorn equation (heraldic supporters of the british crown) the unicorn stands for scotland, the lion for england 


notably a free unicorn is considered a very dangerous beast (that is why it is shown chained). the welsh and the irish don't get a heraldic beast supporting the crown because

• a) people don't like to think much above two 
• b) that would be silly and spoil the composition 
• c) they are subject peoples and so can't be relied upon to support the crown (the loyalists excepted - look at the sterling paid work the DUP put in) 
• d) the scots could object they are subject people's too seeing as the royal family are no longer stuarts (james Vi of scotland becomes james I of england, scotland and wales - the three crowns) but sax-colbergs or whatever. and they would be right. 

ok the irish do make it in because there is a shamrock (together with the rose and thistle) in the greenery at the beasts’ feet (but no leeks).

the queen has been lied to by the utterly implausible boris johnson and done as asked closing down parliament. the queen has been dobbed in for interfering in the scottish independence vote when asked to do so by david cameron (by that blabbermouth david cameron). ladies and gentlemen, the queen.

horsemouth and his amazing performing tables

horsemouth is a big fan of performance tables (truly that boy has the soul of an accountant). but he is also reminded of the preforming table in capital, the one that like a medium’s table dances a jig made to dance by the invisible hand of the market rather than the feet and hands of the medium. he was reminded of this by the tailors of northern ireland opposing brexit based not on the work that goes into the jacket (marx’s point in his parable of the dress) but by the multiple places that the cloth, the interlining, the buttons come from, all of which will require certificates to get there.

the dairymen of both sides of the border have joined in also - under a no deal brexit a vet will be required to certify that the milk is fit for export before it has even left the cow. currently it is reckoned that they only have a tenth of the vets they need to write the certificates.

 tick-tock tick-tock...

horsemouth has worked and now he is resting (reproducing his labour value). next week he will do it all again (slightly less of it sadly) - ideally horsemouth would like to make as much money as the tax threshold as this would support him comfortably for the year without any need to dip his savings to support his extravagant lifestyle. sadly his savings will be being dipped already by the falls in the market as a result of brexit and by the fact that they will buy considerably less in europe, the states, papua new guinnea etc.

this weekend - another trip down to pop(u)lar to work on johnny remember me with enza and pete, (that reminds him - he should really get on with learning it) and possibly not much more (the necessary work of reproducing horsemouth’s labour value is the absence of work or even play).

horsemouth the utterly knackered

horsemouth is utterly knackered having been to see triple negative and pious faults on a weeknight (bad horsemouth). he didn’t drink very much (so he says) because it was a weeknight (plus it was expensive beer at the venue - so that would have been doubly foolish).

horsemouth as you know is a very sensible mule (apart from the bit where he pretends to be a human being).
and here he is. in a library in the middle of the afternoon having traveled and worked early ( that ate most of his gumption - hail coffee, hail paracetamol). in a bit he works again. then he will crawl home (utterly, utterly knackered) and repeat the work and travel part of the equation thursday and friday. thereafter he will rest and reproduce his labour value until called upon to labour again. why do only fools and horses work.

ok - review the gig horsemouth.

triple negative - apparently if they added another member it would be quadruple negative (so it's not based on some complicated adorno thing like horsemouth assumed). contact mics - hmmm they can be tricky. despite the biblical floods and train derailments matthew seemed in almost cheerful mood. they soundchecked without anya - then anya came and soundchecked (straight from work) and then they played. at the end of his set matthew stomped off into the distance (for some reason) but then returned (by some magical means). various things happened and the gig seemed to go well.

pious faults were youngsters (and aussies allegedly). try to imagine indie re-imagined by black metal followers (but still dressed in indie clothes). at the soundcheck they’d done a bit of howling, a bit of droning, and then did a number that firehose could have done. so horsemouth was a little surprised. the drummer - mr.silk transparent shirt - horsemouth thought was particularly good, the singer went for it (and he bears a slight resemblence to the banjo playing kid in deliverance). it was sheer unredemed emotional excess - romanticism gone mad.

in comparison the the negative excess of triple negative is because the world (as is) is terrible - only its utter destruction could possibly produce a positive moment (and then only possibly) - the horror is justified (horsemouth argues the closest thing to it is in fact crass).

books/ films/ gigs/ events september 2019

books

• - concrete island - j.g. ballard  
• books and characters - lytton strachey 
•  how the music got free -stephen witt 
• the torygraph/ the times 
•  brandenburg concerto - julian rathbone 
•  italian writing today - in particular italo calvino 'a preface' 
•  lrb various articles (wolfgang streeck’s review of martin sandhu’s europe’s orphan: the future of the euro and the politics of debt and owen hatherley's one click at a time. 
•  the minuet (short story - guy de maupassant) 

 films

• league of extraordinary gentlemen 
• mark cousins' 50 years of the troubles 
• wolfs blood (early silent werewolf movie) 
• jalsaghar (the music room, start) - satyajit ray
•  50 years of monty python 
• rise of hitler doc. 
•  darkness: those who kill 
• the detectorists 
• the harder they come (perry henzell) 
•  two fleetwood mac docs 
•  red lights 
•  the wicker man (start)
• the keeper (alan garner) 

 gigs - charlie parr and j.d. wilkes

 events visit parents, back to work (get soaked)

horsemouth back to work (leisure starts to make sense again)

ok soaked through and grumpy (not as grumpy as he was at a quarter to nine though when he was getting soaked through - fuck you kingston, your rain and your absence of signage).


hmmm hmmmm hmmm yeah! an hour off to piss around (suddenly leisure makes sense to horsemouth). the mighty toots and the maytals - horsemouth once saw him wandering up the road near the barbican (horsemouth was with mark pugh and luzette at the time - they had tickets to his show) if memory serves.


 ‘this is a show tune. but the show hasn’t been written for it yet.’ (nina simone)

once again horsemouth loves that thing with reggae that it’s tough and joyful at the same time.

yes horsemouth really is that grumpy. time tough. ok no it looks like lots of work, lots of work means more money. soon horsemouth will have a plot for the year (through til june anyway).

yesterday he did all the things he said he’d do and even had time for pint (thanks enza). on the walk home he found a ficelle outside a bakery near ayesha's (he snacked on it).


 

‘this remorse, I should start my preface from here’

as it turns out produced by Ric Ocasek RIP (and one of the best records ever)


a few nights ago horsemouth failed to go out (bad boy) but he did watch perry henzell’s the harder they come - one of the the three seminal reggae movies (the others being babylon and rockers -in horsemouth’s humble opinion).

in italy post war italo calvino finds the people changed, emboldened by his (brief) time as a partisan he writes ‘a book born anonymously of the general atmosphere of the period’. he notes that people had ‘a mania for narrating their experiences’, a re-birth in story-telling, even shading into folklore, even the uncommitted he finds changed. .

years later he writes a preface for it - one full of remorse for its distortions (‘this remorse, I should start my preface from here’). in the preface the partisan tales of another writer (beppe fenoglio’s a private question) is substituted in to stand for his story. 

but this neo-realism that is really a neo-expressionism is not where calvino’s genius lies - pavese speaks of the fairy-tale quality in his writing and calvino becomes the author we know.

horsemouth is often afflicted with remorse (his sins are small but numerous) - it creeps up on him when he is insufficiently active. in the harder they come ivan the gunman is seemingly not affected by remorse - at every stage he wants to be paid the full value of his work and that is what all the interlocking rackets (religion, law, property, the music industry, the ganja trade) are designed to prevent.

in the day horsemouth went for a walk round the marshes at one point - he saw a tree that had been cut down and then been lifted up by new grown branches from its roots (like some kind of art installation). he read a little (italian writing today, penguin 1967) in the back garden in the sun and (of course) farted about on line.

back to the wen (again)

horsemouth is back with you. back to the pyramids and the transmitters.
weather better friday, saturday, sunday, thereafter sunny in the morning 21-22.

by better horsemouth means warmer and sunnier (even though he has fled the hottest days of the year in the seaside towns for several years now).

he returns from the summer holidays with a decentish tan, having recorded some music and having read some books and watched some movies (he has also taken the time to keep this blog (and horsemouth archive) going though he has done no other writing that he can recall). the music he is proud of - the best yet he modestly opines (next key date - howard’s half term in about 6 weeks time). 

he’s been conducting a survey of how his friends listen to their music in this the modern digital age (and having read how the music got free on the rise of mp3). he suspects CD again (a physical thing that people can hold onto) and various other digital means (to be decided). it’s a way away though - a 2020 release.

while he has been at his parents he has listened to the new tracks through only once or twice (it is good to get one’s ears out of the project once in a while), instead he has listened to whatever came along. he’s already missed the opportunity to work by being out of town (this is a good sign - he could do with making more money this year than last year).

horsemouth’s wages have effectively been stagnant (and insufficient) for a number of years now - they are however paying into a pension for him (which is jolly nice of them, or will be, should he ever get there, should ‘there’ not move ever further away like a dangling carrot).

in his time at his parents - many wanders on the common, more reading of the torygraph, tv in the evening bbc4 - archeology, hill-walking etc.

while he was away gavin barwell (the butcher of grenfell) was made the right honourable gavin barwell, the governments suspension of parliament was ruled unlawful (in a a scottish court). the clock ticked down on brexit - the clock ticked towards a brexit election - the clock ticked down on global warming.