later today a meeting on zoom

hyperion goes well (p.172 and about to get into the third tale. he's done the priest's tale and the soldier's tale. he suspects that bookpilled has reviewed it). 

later today a meeting on zoom. the government social housing decarbonisation fund is open for business. horsemouth spent a little time looking at what the government regard as value for money in this sector and so would be willing to pay for/ match fund (and the answer is not a lot). horsemouth has borrowed ian's laptop from upstairs for the purpose. he's here with his coffee (as he often tells you). when he's done blogging etc. he will have a look. 

retrofitting britain's old, leaky social housing stock, insulating it to make it easier to heat (to the 90kwh/ m2 year standard) is a tough job. hitting the government's decarbonisation targets for social housing will be hard too, but there is at least plenty of time. 

horsemouth published his books, films, gigs, events list for september 2022 yesterday and we could probably look at that as a reading diary. he has left the events part blank for reasons that aren't entirely clear to him. 

hyperion (dan simmons in the SF masterworks series) goes well (as he has said). some combined reading/ watching of paul bowles/ marguerite duras which he supposes fits into a life writing kind of framework (he supposes even hyperion does as a collection of people's tales). the paul auster was a side project of this. the films are probably divisible into the horrors of s hammerish persuasion (dr. phibes rises again, the uncanny,the raven), two japanese tales (woman of the dunes,  ghost story of the snow woman) and two (more straight ahead) thrillers (the driver, assault on precinct 13). 

some photos have emerged of horsemouth playing with robert lee at ayesha and hannah's party (thanks ayesha) - horsemouth wishes that he had put more effort (or indeed any effort)  into preparing for the gig (but it went ok). later rob did an amazing karaoke  piano set which got people up and dancing. 

the binmen have been (or are being). horsemouth has finished the coffee - it's probably time to start getting on with the business of the day. 

books, films, gigs, events september 2022

films

- LRB growth/degrowth and hoarding pieces

- hp lovecraft documentary

- the incredibles

- the humanity  bureau (nicholas cage dystopia etc.)

- duras (south bank show)

- bowles (biography)

- the driver (walter hill)

- jlg/ anna karina doc.

- the raven (edgar allen poe - peter lorre)

- assault on precinct 13 (john carpenter)

- the woman in the dunes

- outlaw bookseller, thrift a life/ book pilled (including bookpilled's review of 'the woman in the dunes')

- dr. phibes rises again (1972)

- the uncanny (montreal set portmanteau horror movie)

- hawkbinge (on choose your masques) and radio interview with hawkbinge founder.

- ghost story of the snow woman 

books

- seeing (jose saramago)

- ethics of life writing 

- two years beside the strait (paul bowles)

- practicalities and the lover by marguerite duras plus an attempt to read black hair, blue eyes by her

- outside the gate: st.botolph's and adgate 950-1994, malcolm johnson (eclesiastical history of the aldgate area)

- hyperion (dan simmons) in the SF masterworks series

- various LRB/ NLR blogs

- adam roberts introduction to cryptozoic! by brian aldiss

- some paul auster autobiography stuff online 

- here (1989) richard mcguire, voyage book 2 (valetine amreux)

gigs

alistair roberts and jacken elswyth

the deerheads have vanished

well the deerheads have vanished (were they just a bad dream?). there's some deer hair stuck to the counter top (so horsemouth didn't imagine it).

horsemouth is back from a rare visit to the centre of town (soho in fact - which was buzzing).  he did get quite drunk but he thinks he managed to hold it together with a fair amount of decorum.  he's feeling a bit slow this morning so he suspects this will be a short post. there's beautiful sunlight (but the air feels quite cold). 

he's waiting to see if his brain will come back. fortunately there doesn't seem to have been much of a hangover. he remembers having a great falafel wrap (as he walked back from bethnal green). 

he may do his books read, films watched list for the month a day early. 

a leaf twitched (pound hits 37 year low against the dollar)

'ah capitalism it was all doing so well after 2008 - barely a ripple of discontent - but then a leaf twitched and the tide went such a very long way out...'

horsemouth is up and he has had a smidgeon of coffee. 

the sun has made it up over the houses opposite. in a little while it will make it over the front steps to the house above and shine down into  horsemouth's basement room. horsemouth has a cup of coffee. today horsemouth goes to visit an old friend (and will probably meetup with some more old friends in the evening). 

he's started reading dan simmons's hyperion whch goes well so far (front of house book potlatch - free). he also picked up an unread copy of the FT weekend (presumably unread because the news is so depressing pound hits 37 year low against the dollar). 

yesterday blood pressure test (practically perfect said the nurse, horsemouth wishes he could actually remember the figures) and some blood taken (horsemouth gets the results in about a week  - they'll contact him if there's anything serious), height/ weight - body mass index (within acceptable limits). there was this and the poo horsemouth sent off to the medical labs (no cause for concern). horsemouth moves into an increasingly medicalised old age.

the re-arranged health check meant cutting short the walk with TG (hopefully they can re-arrange it for later in the week). 

the labour party repositions itself as new labour reborn and sings god save our gracious king. is it just horsemouth or do wes streeting and keir starmer actually resemble beavis and butthead? 

yesterday horsemouth failed to get on with any reading or insulating work. he'll check his email in a bit to see if things are back on. 

the hunter is back from the hills. sten is back from scotland (maybe) and the bath contains three deer heads. there's the odd bloodsplatter on the floor and some deer hair on the worktops. 

on the short ministerial career of kwasi kwarteng (an object lesson in the infallibility of markets)

a friend is flying in from the states (it will be good to see them after so long). 

now unless they changed their money very early (horsemouth hates to mention this) they will be 10% richer during their time here because of the 10% fall in the value of the  pound against the dollar. and because various things essential to the running of the economy are priced in dollars (oil for example, necessary for cars to move about, for lorries to move about and for the delivery of just about anything to everywhere( this itself is an inflationary pressure hardbaking that inflation into the economy and leading to interest rates staying higher for longer making it more expensive for actual capitalists to raise capital to invest in things (businesses that might make things for example).

so far so capitalism 101. 

on the other hand if you've made your money elsewhere and are merely spending it here everything will be cheap as chips.

inflation, as a character in a hans falada novel says, is the way they rob you of the value of the money in your pocket without touching the money or the pocket. for people with savings or with fixed incomes it is bad news. 

on the other hand if you are a worker you can strike for a wage rise in the teeth of the repressive legislation coming in..

what then goes on is a battle between the workers and the rich for who gets to keep the benefits of such production as still occurs. for the rest of the populace (excluding the rich) it is bad news - their money is taken off them in energy price rises, inflation in the cost of food and (later) tax rises for them to pay down government debt (and cuts in services disproportionately used by the poor. however at a certain point you get into CAN'T PAY - the people just can't pay, you get a collapse of demand. 

workers power had a slogan about the anarchy of the capitalist markets (and they weren't wrong). 

horsemouth cannot help but feel a little sorry for truss and kwarteng - they thought they were doing what the infallible markets wanted (but it has turned out not so). in their eagerness to please they have stumbled upon their entrance. the infallible markets have ruled them bad ponies and demanded to see the adult in charge. .

horsemouth does not totally believe the markets either, he just thinks they have seen the opportunity for a little light looting and taken it. 

for truss and kwarteng it is a difficult situation to come back from (and in any event the damage, if not all of the damage, has been done). the party has been had (now all that remains is to tidy up (and pay for it)).

horsemouth apologises  - he had james cleverley (foreign minister) and kwasi kwarteng (chancellor of the exchequer) confused (presumably on the basis they're black dudes and tories. he apologises, they're new(ish) in their jobs, but still he should know better. how can you trust his judgement on these matters when he can't keep the facts straight?

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

today a grey cold morning (after the beauties of yesterday). probably a walk with TG later. maybe a medical appointment later on. 

yesterday horsemouth got to read various documents about various decarbonisation and  energy saving schemes and to attempt to write about them (he got to feel useful ad smart). in the evening assault on precinct 13 ('nobody said anything about a cholo'). horsemouth will now check his emails and see where he is. 

 

the future always happens now ('from the beginnings of autumn to the end of winter')

'the future always happens now... the future always happens in our imaginations, and our imaginations run on now-time.' - adam roberts in the introduction to cryptozoic!  by brian aldiss.

yesterday horsemouth was feeling surprisingly jaded (after having so much fun) but he cheered up in the evening after a phonecall with his mum (battling the usual difficulties with getting doctor's appointments etc. and cheering on plucky liz truss). he also was messaged by enza (on  some co-op stuff) and read some co-op related documents. being allowed to demonstrate competence cheered him up. 

it's a monday morning horsemouth faces a relaunched week. later possibly a wander with TG. 

'from the beginnings of autumn to the end of winter'

it is time to admit the changes of gearing in the seasons and to watch the old mechanical clock of the heavens creak into action. 

the autumn equinox is past and we move on towards halloween (and the celtic quarter day of samhain) and the winter solstice. the general trend is that things will be colder and wetter. 

horsemouth has a health check tuesday. a friend is visiting wednesday, there''s a possible party saturday. two weekends time he's away to a housing conference to find out about using government money (from the social housing decarbonisation fund) to insulating houses and reduce the fuel bills of the members (or more likely just to enable them to be able to afford to heat their homes over winter). 

some sun shines in  horsemouth's window. (the sun has made it over the houses at the end of horsemouth's street). increasingly the sun will spend less time in the back garden. the decking will become damp and slippery. the growth of the plants (weeds mostly but not without their charm) will halt and roll back. 

he has stuff to be getting on with (but does he have enough stuff). the music has become a bit slow - he underprepared for saturday (he now realises) - he should get back and active.  

what a difference a day makes

horsemouth is back with you (but in more cheerful mood) having been out to a birthday party at hannah and ayesha's.  he's slightly hung over but at least he had a good time to justify it. 

it was a day of many joys.

first a coffee and a chance to meet the kittens with enza followed by a walk through victoria park. 

second a gig (alistair roberts and jacken elswyth) with myk.

and finally a party with hannah and ayesha (and rob and emma and rose, and zoe and nick DD and dawn and lots of people who could sing). horsemouth attempted a number of his things (with rob on piano leading proceedings) but only really the werewolf landed. thereafter other people sang (south african stuff, the beatles, 80ies, disco) and horsemouth tried to sneak in some backing vocals and some clapping and stomping (as is his wont). 

eventually it all wound down.

skeuomorph (skeuomorphism)  was the lesson of the party -  the design concept of making items resemble their real-world counterparts - e.g. the trash can icon on your computer, or the save icon (of a floppy disc with now no longer exists as a real world item) and in this way our world becomes littered with remnants of dead technologies. 

so excepting the (mild) headache horsemouth is a happy bunny (doubtless it won't take long for him to become anxious again).