books, films, gigs, events august 2022

books

 - three critics of the enlightenment: vico, herder, hamman (introductions and biographical materials) isaiah berlin.

- the day of forever (j.g. ballard) and various introduction to ballard books

- the ethics of life writing (ed. paul john eakin in particular claudia mills' 'friendship, fiction, memoir')

- the trial of socrates (i.f.stone) started

- seeing  jose saramago

- guardian article on the mass retirement of older workers

- nlr sidecar and lrb blogposts

- the romantic, herman broch (with milan kundera introduction excerpted in 'the art of the novel')

-  guy julier's '20th century design and designers' in the world of art series (introduction and part)

films

- revolution in sound (on tangerine dream)

- documentary on the moody blues

- shetland (two episodes)

- thrift a life/ book pilled / outlaw bookseller / the cottage fairy

- FT podcasts (on matters economical and political)

- R4 series on 'the spanish flu', stand alone drama h.p.lovecraft's 'the tomb' 

- lrb film on the war in ukraine (james meek)

- wall matthews of entourage being interviewed by NTS radio

- gweniver raymond interviewed on six strings of tension podcast

- witch story (streghe 2) 

gigs 

john hannon tribute - feaaturing james blackshaw, tim goldie.  the wave debb show (online)

events

anniversaries of the releases of volume four. volume two and covers. holiday with family (extended), visit to stourhead. hand in 'work' laptop and revert to using the netbook. hiding out up in the cloud forest. receive 'under the spell of the calima' from the robert lawson trio

horsemouth is back from the gig (rock for light)

horsemouth is back from the gig - he'd have to check with TG who actually played. 

the gig was a tribute to the late john hannon. a film (ravioli me away) he had done  the music for was shown (and very good it was too.- well made with excellent songs throughout). 

james blackshaw played for sure (amazing set dude - ending in a detuning (the 12 string provides more opportunities for detuning than a 6 string clearly)).

tim goldie recited two pieces by sean bonney and the lyrics to rock for light  by bad brains (a favourite of  john hannon's apparently). 

the others horsemouth would have to check with TG, there was one no show or cancellation, and these he mostly (sad to say) reviewed from the bar - so he cannot comment. cafe OTO apparently waived their usual fees (well done OTO). 

sadly, as horsemouth said, by the end senhor alcohol was in charge and he found himself calling for another bar and more beer. the others (john, sarah, TG) were more sensible and pointed out that they were either not drinking or it was a school night. howard had already gone home, he'd hung around for james blackshaw's show and then off. soon enough off to work.

 earlier horsemouth and howard had nipped out for a pre-gig pint.  

should you ever publish a physical book this should be your author photo (dare we say the word autumn)

so advises a friend. (it would be good in black and white too).

horsemouth leans in. thoughtful, concentrated, distinguished. and reasonably stylish in a working man's shirt.(you can't see the stains on the t-shirt which is a mercy). his head is tilted slightly as if listening carefully (and as if he were a little deaf).

and definitely not two sheets to the wind after an afternoon's drinking (as he actually was). 

seeing goes well. the voters of the blank vote have been given an opportunity to redeem themselves (they have not taken it) but  instead have thrown it back in the faces of the political class. the government is preparing to decamp to another city. it's written in those great long saramago paragraphs where everyone gets to speak.

tonight a gig. 

last night witch story (streghe 2).  an american set italo-horror of the 'lots of kids rent a haunted house (what could possibly go wrong)' type. it's well on its way to being the evil dead. in the morning a wander out. 

coming soon horsemouth's encounter with the consortium. the beginning of the rock rolling for that. 

today. horsemouth is unsure. it is a grey morning (and not looking like the kind of grey that will burn off), dare we say the word autumn. 

pigeons and pears - reading - (spoiler alert)

horsemouth is currently reading seeing the novel set four years after the events in saramago's novel blindness.

the people are no longer blind (and seem to have mostly forgotten about those events). it is the day of the election. in the capital city of the un-named country. after a slow start in the (admittedly rainy) morning at 4pm the people suddenly rediscover their enthusiasm for the practice of democracy and show up at the polls on mass. voting has to be extended by two hours.

'it was gone midnight when the counting finished. the number of valid votes did not quite reach twenty-five percent... there were very few soiled ballots and very few abstentions. all the others, more than seventy percent of the votes cast, were blank.' 

the first chapter has gone very quickly. 

the other musician of bremen  was round to visit. he arrived with a 4 pack of estrellas - so they had two of those and then set off on a walk up to (and round) the waterworks (yes there was a coffee and a tea and photos were taken). on the way back en plein soleil they had a pint at the princess of wales before returning home and polishing off horsemouth's last beer and the final two estrellas. howard then proposed a beer in the pub on the way to the tube (er. which they did - and liking the experiment, they repeated it). there were some photos there also.

the photos of horsemouth continue to be good (horsemouth's photos of the other musician of bremen less so).  

the other musician of bremen likes to claim all these beers are signs of horsemouth's incipient alcoholism (and true horsemouth's relationship with the drink are not ideal). nonetheless he feels that the other musician of bremen is (if not an equal) then at least a mostly willing participant in this activity. 

they also replaced the bridge on the hohner acoustic in the correct (original) angle (but sadly, by sods law, did not return it to its earlier jangling sound). 'the other' sang through a few things. horsemouth sang through a few things. they got the 12 string out of its case and contemplated it.  

under normal circumstances horsemouth would have cooked and fed his guest but sten was engaged in 'processing'  vast amounts of pigeons and pears.  yesterday horsemouth cleared an area of the living room floor to permit it to be mopped and walked upon (today it is once again covered in random shit). this ladies and gentlemen is progress (sten style). 

oh the comedy. 

other than that horsemouth's room (at least) continues to look good. 

today is a monday. horsemouth is unclear about how best to serve it. 

'it is a dead bore, to write about yourself all the time' (domestic interiors)

so said dirk bogarde (actor and author of 8 volumes of autobiography)

horsemouth hadn't realised that bogarde had attempted  knausgaard style feats of biography. apparently he was very into houses and furniture and crockery. (domestic interiors). 

horsemouth is up early (the sun has not yet cleared the rooftops at the end of the street). last night he was to bed early. little interests him on the tv these days and he's too tight to spring for subscriptions to tv channels with dragons etc. his reading is a little desultory these days - instead he watches clips on youtube - the cottage fairy paints a wall, assembles some (temporary) bookshelves, and populates them with books. she puts some potted plants round then and lights some candles. horsemouth hangs on to see what books she puts on the shelves - he is always interested in other people's bookshelves. 

he is even interested in his own (annotating photos he's put up online to tell you what books you can barely see in them).

he did the august read, watched, listened to list - there's a chance he'll get in a gig before the end of the month. 

in the morning he played and sang through something's on your mind  and sometimes our dreams (float lie anchors) - with sometimes he's experimenting with singing a barbershop-style answer vocal (as well as the main vocal), if he can manage it that will be a neat trick (and may even be funny). 

yesterday horsemouth made some donations at the powesrcroft road bookbox (he's got to thin down his collection if he is going to get mobile). in the morning and in the afternoon he went for a walk with TG. 

horsemouth has already toysed out of the pram this morning. minor infractions - he could hear somebody clumping around late last night (or early this morning) and wouldn't you now it it turned out to be more shit randomly dumped by the nameless housemate of doom. horsemouth has reasonably put his case (and even done some mopping round). now he feels better. (see the 'l' is a bit sticky too).

later a meet up with the other musician of bremen. 

what times we are having ladies and gentlemen! surely there should be a show about these times?

musicians of bremen · Jai Guru

horsemouth is indebted to mr. last for pointing this one out to him - nashville high strung tuning.

it is broadly what happens if you have a spare 12 string sitting around and remove the strings in 6 string pitch only leaving the 'octave' strings.(or alternatively if you don't have a 12 string and restring your 6 string with the octave strings from a 12 string.  it gives an intriguing seet of jangly possibilities (and indeed apparently it has been used by johnny marr). . 

what horsemouth has been calling nashville tuning is daddad - he'd read that players would put lighter guage strings on instead of the bass strings. 

now horsemouth, as you perceive has recently acquired a 12 string. he has even attempted some recording on it (jai guru and no name resonate from recent recording sessions). 

what times we are having ladies and gentlemen! surely there should be a show about these times? a show we can all go and see!

and indeed we have it for the tiger lillies  will shortly be performing karl krauss's literally apocalyptic the last days of mankind - a message to our times from the similarly doomed austro-hungarian empire. 

it is almost ten years since horsemouth last saw hawwind (and almost ten years since the ast hawkbinge podcast horsemouth adds with only slight exaggeration). 

stay away from sticky k

recommended a friend. what, not as in georges perec's novel? replied horsemouth. translated as a void the letter 'e' has been thoughtfully omitted (and indeed all words using the letter 'e'). the novel was written in french using this procedure and then translated into english (again using this procedure). god or perhaps the translator only fully understands what changes this required.

regretably on the return journey horsemouth's copy of a history of reading has become sullied with tomato juice (which is a pity because it was an exceptionally beautiful volume in good condition

here in the seaside towns it is a beautiful morning.with that great 'magic hour' sunshine. the other musician of bremen's plane should have landed and he should be continuing on his way by the rail and tube system to his home in the far off east of the towns. later there is a plan to meet up (but it may fall foul of the dreaded jetlag).

the trial of socrates continues to go well (well except for socrates - for him personally it's a bit of a disaster but it does clearly show the limits of democratic toleration).

horsemouth types this not on his laptop but with an arcane device he has been storing iin a dusty corner for just such an emergency, it is very much smaller A5 to his former laptop's A4. horsemouth abandoned it when it became too temperamental for employment. he has re-instated it in the hope that it will discourage him from faffing about online and instead move him into the meat world.

failing that horsemouth should bite the bullet, engage with the necessary expense, and go and get a new laptop.  

with horsemouth we should contemplate his something similar to 15 years of  internet/ blogging activity everyday. the notion of not doing it causes some psychological discomfort.