yeah. i wanted some swanky psych guitar, but i don't think there's room for it or the choir. i was going to put a temp mix up, but i found myself nodding off when mixing the levels on the last synth, so i'm going to leave it for when i wake up. i'll be working on the bass over the weekend...
i was going to hit detroit tonight to see zorch, but it's a long ride to pontiac and i'm not really up for it. this is worth checking out though, in absence of my rough mix:
https://zorch.bandcamp.com/album/demo
Friday, August 29, 2014
Thursday, August 28, 2014
contemplating travelling into michigan to see zorch
hrmmn. gotta give this a good listen, as they're hitting detroit tomorrow. well, a suburb of detroit. i really liked their demo back when it was doing the rounds, like a lot a lot, but i haven't heard this yet. if i could walk across the street, it wouldn't be a decision, but it's a two hour bus ride through detroit and it's going to mean i won't be able to get back across the border until the morning....
i'm a little concerned it's less psych and more pop. when i'm done mixing this string section...few hours...
yeah. it's a shame they decided to sound indistinguishable from the animal collective (i'm not a fan, too sappy/kitschy). that demo was really good, though. too far from downtown...
actually, it seems to have picked up starting about ten minutes in....
i guess it's sort of expected that they'd put that townshend-goes-kraut lizard song on here.
they should have cut the first ten minutes off, it's really just giving people the wrong idea.
this is a step down from the demos (two of the four substantial tracks were already released before the record was, and i really prefer the more experimental material they discarded on their demos to the trendy pop songs they tossed on to here), but there's just so much potential that i'd feel like i'm missing something if i don't go.
and i guess the band they're touring with is worth staying for.
i've actually never been that deep into michigan, the ride has it's up sides.
and, actually, it seems like those extra tracks are included in this file.
i'm a little concerned it's less psych and more pop. when i'm done mixing this string section...few hours...
yeah. it's a shame they decided to sound indistinguishable from the animal collective (i'm not a fan, too sappy/kitschy). that demo was really good, though. too far from downtown...
actually, it seems to have picked up starting about ten minutes in....
i guess it's sort of expected that they'd put that townshend-goes-kraut lizard song on here.
they should have cut the first ten minutes off, it's really just giving people the wrong idea.
this is a step down from the demos (two of the four substantial tracks were already released before the record was, and i really prefer the more experimental material they discarded on their demos to the trendy pop songs they tossed on to here), but there's just so much potential that i'd feel like i'm missing something if i don't go.
and i guess the band they're touring with is worth staying for.
i've actually never been that deep into michigan, the ride has it's up sides.
and, actually, it seems like those extra tracks are included in this file.
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Jessica;
I would like to clear up a few points in your email.
While your landlord may be correct in that the house may be serviced
by separate storm and sanitary connections (I can't confirm that),
both these connections would outlet to the same combined sewer in the
road. There is only one sewer Cataraqui and one on Marion, and they
are both combined sewers meaning that they accept both rain water and
sewage.
With respect to the Wyandotte project, there is no sewer work being
undertaken as part of that project. Windsor Utilities is replacing
the watermain and services and the City will reconstruct the pavement
following that work. This project would have no impact on the sewers
servicing your property.
You are most likely correct in that there is a correlation between
rainfall and the slow running plumbing in your house. This is due to
the combined nature of the sewer that services your property. During
rain events, combined sewers fill with rainwater and therefore have
limited capacity to accept flows from buildings.
With respect to the apartment building across the street from you, all
rainfall runoff from this property would have entered the sewer system
via foundation drains prior to the fire, so the fact that the basement
may have flooded and the water is now entering the floor drain would
change the drainage pattern very little. In fact, rainwater entering
the sewers from this property would be very small in proportion to
that coming from the catchbasins draining the roads in the area.
With respect to abandonment of the connections servicing the apartment
building, that would be addressed when the building is demolished by
the Building Department. If you have concerns regarding the state of
the building, please contact the Building Department via 311.
Hopefully, this answers some of your questions. Please contact me if
you want to discuss this matter further.
Sincerely;
Name Withheld, P.Eng.
A/Contracts Co-ordinator
the plug was like 50 feet deep in the drain, almost certainly in the city pipes. if i understand correctly, that means the city should have paid to remove it...
i've seen people throw everything you can think of down the drains. it was probably garbage from the street that washed through after the storm.
i want to be clear: i can't complain about my landlord in terms of responsiveness, interest, etc. i mean, he just paid to clear a city drain. on the other hand, it's because he wouldn't listen to what i was saying....
I would like to clear up a few points in your email.
While your landlord may be correct in that the house may be serviced
by separate storm and sanitary connections (I can't confirm that),
both these connections would outlet to the same combined sewer in the
road. There is only one sewer Cataraqui and one on Marion, and they
are both combined sewers meaning that they accept both rain water and
sewage.
With respect to the Wyandotte project, there is no sewer work being
undertaken as part of that project. Windsor Utilities is replacing
the watermain and services and the City will reconstruct the pavement
following that work. This project would have no impact on the sewers
servicing your property.
You are most likely correct in that there is a correlation between
rainfall and the slow running plumbing in your house. This is due to
the combined nature of the sewer that services your property. During
rain events, combined sewers fill with rainwater and therefore have
limited capacity to accept flows from buildings.
With respect to the apartment building across the street from you, all
rainfall runoff from this property would have entered the sewer system
via foundation drains prior to the fire, so the fact that the basement
may have flooded and the water is now entering the floor drain would
change the drainage pattern very little. In fact, rainwater entering
the sewers from this property would be very small in proportion to
that coming from the catchbasins draining the roads in the area.
With respect to abandonment of the connections servicing the apartment
building, that would be addressed when the building is demolished by
the Building Department. If you have concerns regarding the state of
the building, please contact the Building Department via 311.
Hopefully, this answers some of your questions. Please contact me if
you want to discuss this matter further.
Sincerely;
Name Withheld, P.Eng.
A/Contracts Co-ordinator
the plug was like 50 feet deep in the drain, almost certainly in the city pipes. if i understand correctly, that means the city should have paid to remove it...
i've seen people throw everything you can think of down the drains. it was probably garbage from the street that washed through after the storm.
i want to be clear: i can't complain about my landlord in terms of responsiveness, interest, etc. i mean, he just paid to clear a city drain. on the other hand, it's because he wouldn't listen to what i was saying....
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
ugh. thugs.
pro-tip: if you don't want somebody to run you over with their car, don't smash their window in while they're in the car. if you do smash their window in, you don't really have a strong argument for generating sympathy.
i continue to find it hard to understand why people develop these absurd tactics to deal with disputes. i can generally at least get my head around it. like, if you're hungry and you can't get food, you might steal food. or if you're addicted to something and you're freaking out, you might go to extreme lengths to find it. certain rules about personal autonomy might be broken in the process, but there's a logic to it.
it's this violence-in-response-to-undesired-social-behaviour thing i don't get, not even as a dominant monkey thing. we're generally more successful when we co-operate and it's well documented in our own species as well as in other species. why do so many people have such a hard time getting their head around this while others grasp it as toddlers?
i guess i get that there's some variation, here. but i don't think that kind of behaviour has a genetic basis, it's an individualistic behavioural response. i often like to explain things in terms of conditioning or reacting to experiences, but i just can't generate a path where this behaviour is understood as rational.
i'm just left arguing that we're quite irrational creatures that often seem to lack an ability to really think through what we're doing.
pro-tip: if you don't want somebody to run you over with their car, don't smash their window in while they're in the car. if you do smash their window in, you don't really have a strong argument for generating sympathy.
i continue to find it hard to understand why people develop these absurd tactics to deal with disputes. i can generally at least get my head around it. like, if you're hungry and you can't get food, you might steal food. or if you're addicted to something and you're freaking out, you might go to extreme lengths to find it. certain rules about personal autonomy might be broken in the process, but there's a logic to it.
it's this violence-in-response-to-undesired-social-behaviour thing i don't get, not even as a dominant monkey thing. we're generally more successful when we co-operate and it's well documented in our own species as well as in other species. why do so many people have such a hard time getting their head around this while others grasp it as toddlers?
i guess i get that there's some variation, here. but i don't think that kind of behaviour has a genetic basis, it's an individualistic behavioural response. i often like to explain things in terms of conditioning or reacting to experiences, but i just can't generate a path where this behaviour is understood as rational.
i'm just left arguing that we're quite irrational creatures that often seem to lack an ability to really think through what we're doing.
Friday, August 22, 2014
so, i've actually spent most of the last two days doing dental work on my headphones....
some time back in the mid 80s when they were made (by dad bought these phones for himself when i was a young child. they're very old sennheisers, constructed at a level of quality that simply does not exist anymore. made in ireland. yeah, ireland. i think it's the only thing i've ever seen that was made in ireland.), they came with dust protectors on the side. but, over the years the dust protectors have faded to the point that they are now dust themselves. so, i'm trying to clean it all out with a set of tweezers. it's time consuming...
but the good news is that i've finally got the guitars mixed the way i want. i had to split it into three separate combinations over three different types of fuzz and then tweak the eq on each separately. it's a total of 8 different parts, sent and morphed differently. i wanted it to be dirty and crunchy and bassy and trebly and harmonic all at the same time, which is a lot to ask out of a couple of power chords. but....finally...
tonight, i should hopefully get done what i wanted to get done yesterday. i've decided i want a piano-sounding guitar in the middle of the track. i've always wanted one of those little stompboxes. but i'll have to see what i can pull together into terms of plugins...
i also finally found that one stupid hair i knew was in there but couldn't get out...
the sturdy design is a tragic flaw, really. i can swap out the cords, but i can't get to the drivers - which is great, except when you've got a hair in there.
i admit defeat, with tweezers. i need to find a vacuum...
some time back in the mid 80s when they were made (by dad bought these phones for himself when i was a young child. they're very old sennheisers, constructed at a level of quality that simply does not exist anymore. made in ireland. yeah, ireland. i think it's the only thing i've ever seen that was made in ireland.), they came with dust protectors on the side. but, over the years the dust protectors have faded to the point that they are now dust themselves. so, i'm trying to clean it all out with a set of tweezers. it's time consuming...
but the good news is that i've finally got the guitars mixed the way i want. i had to split it into three separate combinations over three different types of fuzz and then tweak the eq on each separately. it's a total of 8 different parts, sent and morphed differently. i wanted it to be dirty and crunchy and bassy and trebly and harmonic all at the same time, which is a lot to ask out of a couple of power chords. but....finally...
tonight, i should hopefully get done what i wanted to get done yesterday. i've decided i want a piano-sounding guitar in the middle of the track. i've always wanted one of those little stompboxes. but i'll have to see what i can pull together into terms of plugins...
i also finally found that one stupid hair i knew was in there but couldn't get out...
the sturdy design is a tragic flaw, really. i can swap out the cords, but i can't get to the drivers - which is great, except when you've got a hair in there.
i admit defeat, with tweezers. i need to find a vacuum...
so, the fire chief tells me there's no sump pump in the building.
to begin with, how would the fire chief know if there's a sump pump in the building? is there a master list of sump pumps in city records?
well, maybe there is. who knows. but, there was a tenant in the basement - the lights were often on late into the night - and there's a spout on the side of the building. clearly, there was a sump pump.
it may have been an illegal sump pump. an illegal sump pump? well, maybe there was an illegal unit in the basement. it's not uncommon, actually. but, like i'm supposed to get sad about accidentally reporting it. i need the drain fixed, bob the bourgie across the street that fucked off on his property rights responsibilities can fuck off if he doesn't like it...
i mean, if you're just going to sit there and let the drain back up into the neighbourhood's toilets, you deserve what you get.
to begin with, how would the fire chief know if there's a sump pump in the building? is there a master list of sump pumps in city records?
well, maybe there is. who knows. but, there was a tenant in the basement - the lights were often on late into the night - and there's a spout on the side of the building. clearly, there was a sump pump.
it may have been an illegal sump pump. an illegal sump pump? well, maybe there was an illegal unit in the basement. it's not uncommon, actually. but, like i'm supposed to get sad about accidentally reporting it. i need the drain fixed, bob the bourgie across the street that fucked off on his property rights responsibilities can fuck off if he doesn't like it...
i mean, if you're just going to sit there and let the drain back up into the neighbourhood's toilets, you deserve what you get.
i just realized the fire chief (yes, i cced it to the fire chief. i'll call the fucking mayor if i have to.) is going to read this and go "what is she, some kind of anarchist or something?".
ordered solutions are preferable. but if nothing happens, i WILL smash through the windows and fix it myself...
cced to pretty much the entire management of the windsor fire department:
hi.
sorry to be aggressive about this, but i know that the response rate on email communication with public employees can be a little slow due to high volume, so i'm hoping you can advise on what is actually a fairly unfortunate situation.
i'm renting an apartment at marion & cataraqui. about a month ago, there was a fire in a large property across the street (also marion & cataraqui, but technically on cataraqui). since then, the rain has been overwhelming the sanitary on the street (several houses are getting slow toilets and backups) and i'm fairly convinced the cause has to be the rainwater draining through the floor drain. the property is abandoned, and the electricity is off, so the sump pump is not working. additionally, this seems to be causing additional stress on neighbouring sump pumps.
it's unfortunate that there was a fire on the street, but there needs to be a drainage solution developed before the spring. this is a large property and it simply can't be left to drain into the sanitary like this.
i've been informed that the fire department probably turned the power off, and i certainly understand the reasons why. but, there needs to be a pump in the property, or the drain needs to be plugged, or something else - otherwise the toilets on the street are going to back up badly in the spring.
so, i really ultimately need to know who deals with this. the city? the fire department? the property owner? neighbours smashing through the windows and doing it themselves?
j
i'll smash the place up with a baseball bat, and then cram the bat right down the floor drain.
yeah? just watch me...
it'll have to overflow through the windows, out to the storm sewer.
ordered solutions are preferable. but if nothing happens, i WILL smash through the windows and fix it myself...
cced to pretty much the entire management of the windsor fire department:
hi.
sorry to be aggressive about this, but i know that the response rate on email communication with public employees can be a little slow due to high volume, so i'm hoping you can advise on what is actually a fairly unfortunate situation.
i'm renting an apartment at marion & cataraqui. about a month ago, there was a fire in a large property across the street (also marion & cataraqui, but technically on cataraqui). since then, the rain has been overwhelming the sanitary on the street (several houses are getting slow toilets and backups) and i'm fairly convinced the cause has to be the rainwater draining through the floor drain. the property is abandoned, and the electricity is off, so the sump pump is not working. additionally, this seems to be causing additional stress on neighbouring sump pumps.
it's unfortunate that there was a fire on the street, but there needs to be a drainage solution developed before the spring. this is a large property and it simply can't be left to drain into the sanitary like this.
i've been informed that the fire department probably turned the power off, and i certainly understand the reasons why. but, there needs to be a pump in the property, or the drain needs to be plugged, or something else - otherwise the toilets on the street are going to back up badly in the spring.
so, i really ultimately need to know who deals with this. the city? the fire department? the property owner? neighbours smashing through the windows and doing it themselves?
j
i'll smash the place up with a baseball bat, and then cram the bat right down the floor drain.
yeah? just watch me...
it'll have to overflow through the windows, out to the storm sewer.
Thursday, August 21, 2014
gah...
so, a few weeks ago, a heavy rainstorm came through here and the toilet started flushing slowly. at the time, i had no idea what that meant - i didn't even know if i was on city or a septic (i'm on city). but, some back and forth with the landlord and a lot of googling have led me to believe that something is broken with the piping.
the upside is i've learned a bit about how this works. it's something i've never had to think about before. but the way it's supposed to work is that the rain water goes into the storm drain and down a separate pipe to the river, where it dumps in untreated. the toilet water goes into a separate sanitary line and out to the treatment plant. so, rainfall should never back up the toilet.
and, yet it was clear from the beginning that rainwater is in fact slowing down the toilet's drainage. it's not quite backing up. yet.
but, of course the response i'm getting is "that's impossible, it's not how the system works".
there's since been two rainfalls that have caused the toilet to slow down at levels that are proportional to the amount of rain that fell. small rainfalls mean small issue. big rainfalls mean big issue. so, we've got correlation and proportionality. the scientific method tells me we have a causal relationship, here. but science has been less powerful than faith. my scientific reasoning was met with an offer to use the landlord's plunger.
but, what the causal relationship i developed demonstrates is that there's either a break in the local line (which would be expensive for the property owner to fix) or a break on the city line. so, i asked the guy next door...
yup. he's getting backups from the rain, too.
now, i need to convince them that they need to get the city in here to fix something before the snow melts in the spring. as the relationship is proportional, things could get messy down here if nothing happens before then.
there's some construction on the main street a few blocks away to replace old sewer lines.
i'm *hoping* that what's going on is that they have the rainwater temporarily routed to the sanitary, and it will be corrected within a few weeks. but, i have no evidence of this.
my other suspicion is connected to the house across the street. there was a fire there about a month ago, which is about when things started backing up. the property's been completely shut down. if they shut the sump pump off, the rainwater could be pooling in the basement and heading down the floor drain - which is usually connected to the sanitary. that would explain it. the problem is that it's hard to understand how that could be generating *enough* water to back shit up without there being significant blockage somewhere. but, then you need to ask the question: what else has been flowing through the floor drain since then?
i've done all i can do, though. i've proven to them that something is crossed, and it's probably a city issue. now i just have to hope they do something about it...
i'm honestly expecting a more positive response from the main property owner than the guy upstairs. i THINK i've got enough evidence to convince him. he mentioned calling the city a few emails ago, so i think he'll get it.
but i can't risk this backing up in the spring and am going to have to call the city myself if i don't get a good response.
i mean, it's crystal clear that rainwater is flooding the sanitary somewhere, even if it's not supposed to.
what was weird about the rain today, though, is that the sump pump didn't come on until like an hour after it stopped raining, indicating it's draining from somewhere - like the house across the street, maybe.
i've convinced myself it's the abandoned property next door.
so, i've sent an email off to the windsor engineering department, asking them about the sewer replacement (is the storm going through the sanitary?) and what the procedure is for dealing with an abandoned property that's not draining properly...
so, a few weeks ago, a heavy rainstorm came through here and the toilet started flushing slowly. at the time, i had no idea what that meant - i didn't even know if i was on city or a septic (i'm on city). but, some back and forth with the landlord and a lot of googling have led me to believe that something is broken with the piping.
the upside is i've learned a bit about how this works. it's something i've never had to think about before. but the way it's supposed to work is that the rain water goes into the storm drain and down a separate pipe to the river, where it dumps in untreated. the toilet water goes into a separate sanitary line and out to the treatment plant. so, rainfall should never back up the toilet.
and, yet it was clear from the beginning that rainwater is in fact slowing down the toilet's drainage. it's not quite backing up. yet.
but, of course the response i'm getting is "that's impossible, it's not how the system works".
there's since been two rainfalls that have caused the toilet to slow down at levels that are proportional to the amount of rain that fell. small rainfalls mean small issue. big rainfalls mean big issue. so, we've got correlation and proportionality. the scientific method tells me we have a causal relationship, here. but science has been less powerful than faith. my scientific reasoning was met with an offer to use the landlord's plunger.
but, what the causal relationship i developed demonstrates is that there's either a break in the local line (which would be expensive for the property owner to fix) or a break on the city line. so, i asked the guy next door...
yup. he's getting backups from the rain, too.
now, i need to convince them that they need to get the city in here to fix something before the snow melts in the spring. as the relationship is proportional, things could get messy down here if nothing happens before then.
there's some construction on the main street a few blocks away to replace old sewer lines.
i'm *hoping* that what's going on is that they have the rainwater temporarily routed to the sanitary, and it will be corrected within a few weeks. but, i have no evidence of this.
my other suspicion is connected to the house across the street. there was a fire there about a month ago, which is about when things started backing up. the property's been completely shut down. if they shut the sump pump off, the rainwater could be pooling in the basement and heading down the floor drain - which is usually connected to the sanitary. that would explain it. the problem is that it's hard to understand how that could be generating *enough* water to back shit up without there being significant blockage somewhere. but, then you need to ask the question: what else has been flowing through the floor drain since then?
i've done all i can do, though. i've proven to them that something is crossed, and it's probably a city issue. now i just have to hope they do something about it...
i'm honestly expecting a more positive response from the main property owner than the guy upstairs. i THINK i've got enough evidence to convince him. he mentioned calling the city a few emails ago, so i think he'll get it.
but i can't risk this backing up in the spring and am going to have to call the city myself if i don't get a good response.
i mean, it's crystal clear that rainwater is flooding the sanitary somewhere, even if it's not supposed to.
what was weird about the rain today, though, is that the sump pump didn't come on until like an hour after it stopped raining, indicating it's draining from somewhere - like the house across the street, maybe.
i've convinced myself it's the abandoned property next door.
so, i've sent an email off to the windsor engineering department, asking them about the sewer replacement (is the storm going through the sanitary?) and what the procedure is for dealing with an abandoned property that's not draining properly...
slow toilet drains from the rain, questions about an unmaintained property
To: engineeringdept@city.windsor.on.ca
jessica
hi....
i'm hoping this is a good email address, but maybe you could forward this somewhere more appropriate if it isn't?
i'm renting a basement apartment at cataraqui and marion and am getting a few problems and am just trying to determine the cause. my landlord claims there are separate storm and sanitary lines, and i have no reason to doubt him. his logic is that rainfall should not cause the toilet to drain slowly, and he's consequently not taking me seriously. i understand his argument and why it shouldn't happen.
however, i'm a scientifically minded person and i've been able to demonstrate the following:
1) the slow down is correlated with the rain. that is, the toilet drains slowly after a rain and drains normally once the rain has dried up. so, while a block might exist, it's not the primary cause of the slow down.
2) the amount of slow down is proportional to the amount of rain. that is, when it rains a little, it slows down a little. when it rains a lot, it slows down a lot.
despite understanding that these systems ought to be separated, my brief and aborted training as a physicist tells me that when you have things that are correlated in a proportional manner, it is very likely that there is a causal relationship between them. that is, i have a high degree of certainty that the rain is causing the toilet to drain slowly in a manner that is proportional to how much rain is falling.
while it's august right now, the proportionality has me concerned about spring runoff, which is of course substantial in canada. i have every reason to think that that a lot of snow melting could back up the toilet and cause a horrible mess.
now, i've talked to the neighbour next door and he's confirmed that he's actual dealing with back ups through the pipes, which is a worse problem than i have. he's convinced that the problem is related to sewer replacement on wyandotte down the road. this only makes sense to me if they might have put the storm through the sanitary as a temporary measure. is that something the construction team has done in the short run?
i'm leaning towards a different cause. at roughly the same time that the problem started, the house across the street experienced a significant fire. the property has been completely shut down. i suspect the sump pump is not running, the basement is flooding and it's draining into the floor, which is connected to the sanitary and this is causing the backup. the issue i'm running into in having this make sense is related to the volume of water running through the floor drain. it's a pretty big property - it was an apartment before the fire, but it would have been a five or six bedroom house some time in the middle of the last century, and it has a very big backyard. so, there's a potential for a large volume of water to be coming into the floor drain. how likely do you think it is that this could be the root of the problem? how big a problem do you think this is going to cause in the spring, if it's not addressed now? and what is the better solution for this - running a sump pump on an abandoned property, or closing the drains off? how does the city deal with something like this, if it's determined to be the cause?
city of windsor, engineering department
I would like to clear up a few points in your email.
While your landlord may be correct in that the house may be serviced by separate storm and sanitary connections (I can't confirm that), both these connections would outlet to the same combined sewer in the road. There is only one sewer Cataraqui and one on Marion, and they are both combined sewers meaning that they accept both rain water and sewage.
With respect to the Wyandotte project, there is no sewer work being undertaken as part of that project. Windsor Utilities is replacing the watermain and services and the City will reconstruct the pavement following that work. This project would have no impact on the sewers servicing your property.
You are most likely correct in that there is a correlation between rainfall and the slow running plumbing in your house. This is due to the combined nature of the sewer that services your property. During rain events, combined sewers fill with rainwater and therefore have limited capacity to accept flows from buildings.
With respect to the apartment building across the street from you, all rainfall runoff from this property would have entered the sewer system via foundation drains prior to the fire, so the fact that the basement may have flooded and the water is now entering the floor drain would change the drainage pattern very little. In fact, rainwater entering the sewers from this property would be very small in proportion to that coming from the catchbasins draining the roads in the area.
With respect to abandonment of the connections servicing the apartment building, that would be addressed when the building is demolished by the Building Department. If you have concerns regarding the state of
the building, please contact the Building Department via 311.
Hopefully, this answers some of your questions. Please contact me if you want to discuss this matter further.
Sincerely;
----------------, P.Eng.
A/Contracts Co-ordinator
jessica
hi....
i'm hoping this is a good email address, but maybe you could forward this somewhere more appropriate if it isn't?
i'm renting a basement apartment at cataraqui and marion and am getting a few problems and am just trying to determine the cause. my landlord claims there are separate storm and sanitary lines, and i have no reason to doubt him. his logic is that rainfall should not cause the toilet to drain slowly, and he's consequently not taking me seriously. i understand his argument and why it shouldn't happen.
however, i'm a scientifically minded person and i've been able to demonstrate the following:
1) the slow down is correlated with the rain. that is, the toilet drains slowly after a rain and drains normally once the rain has dried up. so, while a block might exist, it's not the primary cause of the slow down.
2) the amount of slow down is proportional to the amount of rain. that is, when it rains a little, it slows down a little. when it rains a lot, it slows down a lot.
despite understanding that these systems ought to be separated, my brief and aborted training as a physicist tells me that when you have things that are correlated in a proportional manner, it is very likely that there is a causal relationship between them. that is, i have a high degree of certainty that the rain is causing the toilet to drain slowly in a manner that is proportional to how much rain is falling.
while it's august right now, the proportionality has me concerned about spring runoff, which is of course substantial in canada. i have every reason to think that that a lot of snow melting could back up the toilet and cause a horrible mess.
now, i've talked to the neighbour next door and he's confirmed that he's actual dealing with back ups through the pipes, which is a worse problem than i have. he's convinced that the problem is related to sewer replacement on wyandotte down the road. this only makes sense to me if they might have put the storm through the sanitary as a temporary measure. is that something the construction team has done in the short run?
i'm leaning towards a different cause. at roughly the same time that the problem started, the house across the street experienced a significant fire. the property has been completely shut down. i suspect the sump pump is not running, the basement is flooding and it's draining into the floor, which is connected to the sanitary and this is causing the backup. the issue i'm running into in having this make sense is related to the volume of water running through the floor drain. it's a pretty big property - it was an apartment before the fire, but it would have been a five or six bedroom house some time in the middle of the last century, and it has a very big backyard. so, there's a potential for a large volume of water to be coming into the floor drain. how likely do you think it is that this could be the root of the problem? how big a problem do you think this is going to cause in the spring, if it's not addressed now? and what is the better solution for this - running a sump pump on an abandoned property, or closing the drains off? how does the city deal with something like this, if it's determined to be the cause?
city of windsor, engineering department
I would like to clear up a few points in your email.
While your landlord may be correct in that the house may be serviced by separate storm and sanitary connections (I can't confirm that), both these connections would outlet to the same combined sewer in the road. There is only one sewer Cataraqui and one on Marion, and they are both combined sewers meaning that they accept both rain water and sewage.
With respect to the Wyandotte project, there is no sewer work being undertaken as part of that project. Windsor Utilities is replacing the watermain and services and the City will reconstruct the pavement following that work. This project would have no impact on the sewers servicing your property.
You are most likely correct in that there is a correlation between rainfall and the slow running plumbing in your house. This is due to the combined nature of the sewer that services your property. During rain events, combined sewers fill with rainwater and therefore have limited capacity to accept flows from buildings.
With respect to the apartment building across the street from you, all rainfall runoff from this property would have entered the sewer system via foundation drains prior to the fire, so the fact that the basement may have flooded and the water is now entering the floor drain would change the drainage pattern very little. In fact, rainwater entering the sewers from this property would be very small in proportion to that coming from the catchbasins draining the roads in the area.
With respect to abandonment of the connections servicing the apartment building, that would be addressed when the building is demolished by the Building Department. If you have concerns regarding the state of
the building, please contact the Building Department via 311.
Hopefully, this answers some of your questions. Please contact me if you want to discuss this matter further.
Sincerely;
----------------, P.Eng.
A/Contracts Co-ordinator
further update...
jessica
we got very little rain today, and the effect was consequently much less, but still noticeable. what that demonstrates is two-fold:
1) that the slow down is proportional to the amount of rain. we now have correlation and proportionality, demonstrating causality.
2) if a very small amount has a noticeable effect, a very large amount would have a very large effect.
i don't think it's likely we're ever going to get enough rain for a big problem, and i can deal with a slow toilet, but i'm worried about run-off in the spring. the proportionality that is now demonstrated indicates that the run-off could be a gigantic problem.
none of this was happening before, so something has changed in the last month, something that needs to be determined is if other people in the neighbourhood are having the same problem or not. a back-up like this should only affect the lowest lying fixtures, so i need to find somebody else with fixtures in the basement to ask. i've identified the basement tenant next door, i'm now waiting for him to come outside for a smoke to ask him. if he's dealing with the same thing, well know it's a city problem. if he's not, i'm not sure what to say other than that something is probably busted...
(pause)
alright...
so, i talked to the tenant next door and he IS getting back-ups from the rain, meaning it's a city thing. he thinks the pipes in the area are bad and it's the construction.
at this point, i've reached what i can do: i've identified there's a problem with the city piping and reported it to the property owner.
it's now in your hands as to what to do...
(pause)
i've thought about this a bit and i think it's worth being careful about. apparently, the neighbour next door is actually getting backups, not just slow drains. i may have a block of some sort, but i'd hazard a guess that most plumbing is at least mildly blocked. what if the reason i'm NOT backing up is because there IS a block?
i think there's enough evidence at this point to conclude that rainwater is somehow getting into the city's sanitary. i think it's better to focus on that.
the landlord
THE City WILL BE HERE MONDAY DURING THE DAY TO RUN THE EEL THROUGH THE LINE:
jessica
ok.
i still don't feel that i'm getting across what the problem is.
the problem is not that the line is blocked all the time. it is not. the problem is that the line is ONLY blocked when it RAINS.
in general, i'm an advocate of ruling out possibilities. the only way to find out is to try. but i've developed what is a pretty strong causal relationship between the drain and the rain. it seems to be that it will continue to drain slowly until the sump pump turns off, then get back to normal. the sump pump continues to run 12 hours after a mild rain storm, and i need to reiterate that this seems unusual. but considering the separation, i think what the connection between your sump pump and the toilet down here is is that the water drainage in the basement across the street is going to level at about the same time the sump pump stops. that is, i think that the reason they seem connected is because the floor drain across the street should stop draining at roughly the same time that the sump pump down here stops.
i'd just request that the three of us spend a few minutes over the weekend brainstorming other ways that the rainwater might be overwhelming the sanitary on the street.
that abandoned house is the only thing i can think of that really makes sense...and it would probably be better if one of you can get a hold of him to turn the pump back on and/or plug the drain somehow, if you know him, because if i do it it's going to be through city bylaw.
we got very little rain today, and the effect was consequently much less, but still noticeable. what that demonstrates is two-fold:
1) that the slow down is proportional to the amount of rain. we now have correlation and proportionality, demonstrating causality.
2) if a very small amount has a noticeable effect, a very large amount would have a very large effect.
i don't think it's likely we're ever going to get enough rain for a big problem, and i can deal with a slow toilet, but i'm worried about run-off in the spring. the proportionality that is now demonstrated indicates that the run-off could be a gigantic problem.
none of this was happening before, so something has changed in the last month, something that needs to be determined is if other people in the neighbourhood are having the same problem or not. a back-up like this should only affect the lowest lying fixtures, so i need to find somebody else with fixtures in the basement to ask. i've identified the basement tenant next door, i'm now waiting for him to come outside for a smoke to ask him. if he's dealing with the same thing, well know it's a city problem. if he's not, i'm not sure what to say other than that something is probably busted...
(pause)
alright...
so, i talked to the tenant next door and he IS getting back-ups from the rain, meaning it's a city thing. he thinks the pipes in the area are bad and it's the construction.
at this point, i've reached what i can do: i've identified there's a problem with the city piping and reported it to the property owner.
it's now in your hands as to what to do...
(pause)
i've thought about this a bit and i think it's worth being careful about. apparently, the neighbour next door is actually getting backups, not just slow drains. i may have a block of some sort, but i'd hazard a guess that most plumbing is at least mildly blocked. what if the reason i'm NOT backing up is because there IS a block?
i think there's enough evidence at this point to conclude that rainwater is somehow getting into the city's sanitary. i think it's better to focus on that.
the landlord
THE City WILL BE HERE MONDAY DURING THE DAY TO RUN THE EEL THROUGH THE LINE:
jessica
ok.
i still don't feel that i'm getting across what the problem is.
the problem is not that the line is blocked all the time. it is not. the problem is that the line is ONLY blocked when it RAINS.
in general, i'm an advocate of ruling out possibilities. the only way to find out is to try. but i've developed what is a pretty strong causal relationship between the drain and the rain. it seems to be that it will continue to drain slowly until the sump pump turns off, then get back to normal. the sump pump continues to run 12 hours after a mild rain storm, and i need to reiterate that this seems unusual. but considering the separation, i think what the connection between your sump pump and the toilet down here is is that the water drainage in the basement across the street is going to level at about the same time the sump pump stops. that is, i think that the reason they seem connected is because the floor drain across the street should stop draining at roughly the same time that the sump pump down here stops.
i'd just request that the three of us spend a few minutes over the weekend brainstorming other ways that the rainwater might be overwhelming the sanitary on the street.
that abandoned house is the only thing i can think of that really makes sense...and it would probably be better if one of you can get a hold of him to turn the pump back on and/or plug the drain somehow, if you know him, because if i do it it's going to be through city bylaw.
Tuesday, August 19, 2014
update...
jessica
hi again.
the toilet did the same thing after the storm today, so it's really obvious, now.
further, i checked the back room and it seems to be flooding out of the storage area beside the laundry room, which my ears tell me is where the sump pump is.
i noticed when i went out for a smoke that it was dumping water on the front lawn at a startling rate. like, it looks like somebody left a faucet running, sort of thing.
again: i have no idea what this means, only that something is flooding and it seems to be connected to the sump pump.
(pause)
actually, the water in the basement seemed to be coming from a little hole in the foundation. but if i were to guess, i'd think the cause of it seeping through would be the massive amount of water coming out of the sump pump directly above it. i might be concerned that it's producing some water damage, but it's sort of secondary to the plumbing issue itself.
it's hard to believe it 's coming from the rain because the puddles on the rest of the street have already dried up. why is this unit getting a thousand times more water than the one next door? so, it has to be feeding back from somewhere.
i just want to be clear about the flow rate. you know the "outdoor taps" that units used to have? i haven't seen once since i was a kid, but you'd attach a hose or a sprinkler to it out of your backyard. it looks like that faucet is on FULL BLAST. and it's been running like that for an hour. there's absolutely no way it's just the rain, it didn't even rain that much, that water has a different source...
with that much water, i thought maybe it was coming from a pipe that could be turned off, but it was suggested to me that that doesn't make sense. see, maybe it doesn't. but the toilet thing doesn't seem to make sense either.
i don't know what the options on the sanitary line are, or how they could get mixed up with the storm drain, but something seems to be crossed.
so i need to ask: did the furnace guys connect any pipes together? might it have crossed something up, through back pressure?
(pause)
sorry for the long email, but, just to finish the thought, it seems like the water was coming out of the sump pump and back into the basement. so it was recycling itself, creating the impression that it was coming out at a steady flow. he put a device in that acts as an inclined plane, to get the water out from the house and each pump is consequently decreasing in volume. so, it seems like it's not backed up, after all, it's just that the ground is really saturated. it might be a good idea to try and make that permanent to prevent further water damage...
it doesn't explain the toilets, but i do think the logic extrapolates. if the water is too saturated in the front of the house, it stands to reason that the city system is possibly backed up.
i'm still a little skeptical about possible flow issues somewhere, but that's an easy line of thinking to stick with for now.
(or it could have been a coincidence that the pump started slowing when the device was installed)
the landlord
Again the pump, pumps storm water, it does not pump sewage. If the sewer, sewage line is backing up we will call the city and report this. Speak to Paul and explain what you are experiencing so that he can look for himself when it rains again. This will give him first hand knowledge of the problem when he speaks to the City. I will speak to Paul and have him call this to the Public works. This is not are doing this will be a city correction. If you notice around our building that they have had us divert the water from the eves draughs out of the storm pipes at the side of the building. This is so the storms are not overloading, delaying the run off into the storm sewers from the road surfaces. Paul you are seeing this e-mail, call me when you get this.
jessica
i guess that explains where the extra water is coming from. ok. i just couldn't understand why there was so much on this property, and so little elsewhere without the water backing up from somewhere. i was thinking that if a stormwater pipe had broken, it could be flooding both the sump pit and the sanitary at the same time. but if you're doing it on purpose, that explains that.
i did a bunch of googling and i'm still working with a weak understanding of toilet plumbing but i think it has to be the case that water is pooling somewhere. it might be a blockage, but if it's a blockage it would have to be somewhere that water can pool where it rains - through a manhole or something. this is then killing the air pressure on the flush. otherwise, it would be slow to drain all the time.
the other thing i was thinking was about the air vent coming up from the toilet. if something had been rerouted with the furnace, could it not possibly have a different reaction to rainwater, and conceivably produce a lack of flush pressure? but, i did an experiment early in the morning and i think i've ruled it out. what i did was let the water in the sink run and then flush. the water was flowing right out through the sink before i flushed, but as it was flushing it started to fill up a little. if i understand correctly, this rules out a vent issue by demonstrating a restriction of the flow rate.
i have to admit that i'm not entirely convinced it isn't construction. if they're temporarily down to one pipe somewhere instead of two, that could be where the water is pooling. i know everybody else in the neighbourhood would have to experience this, but how many have toilets that are low enough for it to be an issue?
i'll bring paul down here next time we get a lot of rain...
(pause)
the only other thing i can think of is that maybe one of the neighbours recently installed a sump pump to the sanitary and it's exaggerating an existing block...you're not supposed to that, but people do that...
whether it's via leak, construction, bad install or whatever else i think the flow restriction happening only when it rains, and stopping when it's dried out, demonstrates that there just has to be rainwater blocking the sanitary at some point, somewhere, somehow - even though that's not supposed to happen.
but, like i say, i'll get paul down here to see it next time it happens.
(pause)
actually, there's one more hypothesis i have. i know this is a little bit of a long shot, but the culmination of what you're telling me and what i'm reading and what i'm seeing indicates that something very strange is happening.
the house across the street had a fire last month. it seems like it's been completely shut down since. if they shut the sump pump off, the basement could be flooding in the rain, and the flooding could be finding it's way into the sanitary, slowing the drain down.
it's just a guess, but something weird like that MUST be happening. i don't known if you know those guys or could call them and ask, but i think the sump pump in that basement ought to be working, regardless, for the benefit of the rest of the neighbourhood....
hi again.
the toilet did the same thing after the storm today, so it's really obvious, now.
further, i checked the back room and it seems to be flooding out of the storage area beside the laundry room, which my ears tell me is where the sump pump is.
i noticed when i went out for a smoke that it was dumping water on the front lawn at a startling rate. like, it looks like somebody left a faucet running, sort of thing.
again: i have no idea what this means, only that something is flooding and it seems to be connected to the sump pump.
(pause)
actually, the water in the basement seemed to be coming from a little hole in the foundation. but if i were to guess, i'd think the cause of it seeping through would be the massive amount of water coming out of the sump pump directly above it. i might be concerned that it's producing some water damage, but it's sort of secondary to the plumbing issue itself.
it's hard to believe it 's coming from the rain because the puddles on the rest of the street have already dried up. why is this unit getting a thousand times more water than the one next door? so, it has to be feeding back from somewhere.
i just want to be clear about the flow rate. you know the "outdoor taps" that units used to have? i haven't seen once since i was a kid, but you'd attach a hose or a sprinkler to it out of your backyard. it looks like that faucet is on FULL BLAST. and it's been running like that for an hour. there's absolutely no way it's just the rain, it didn't even rain that much, that water has a different source...
with that much water, i thought maybe it was coming from a pipe that could be turned off, but it was suggested to me that that doesn't make sense. see, maybe it doesn't. but the toilet thing doesn't seem to make sense either.
i don't know what the options on the sanitary line are, or how they could get mixed up with the storm drain, but something seems to be crossed.
so i need to ask: did the furnace guys connect any pipes together? might it have crossed something up, through back pressure?
(pause)
sorry for the long email, but, just to finish the thought, it seems like the water was coming out of the sump pump and back into the basement. so it was recycling itself, creating the impression that it was coming out at a steady flow. he put a device in that acts as an inclined plane, to get the water out from the house and each pump is consequently decreasing in volume. so, it seems like it's not backed up, after all, it's just that the ground is really saturated. it might be a good idea to try and make that permanent to prevent further water damage...
it doesn't explain the toilets, but i do think the logic extrapolates. if the water is too saturated in the front of the house, it stands to reason that the city system is possibly backed up.
i'm still a little skeptical about possible flow issues somewhere, but that's an easy line of thinking to stick with for now.
(or it could have been a coincidence that the pump started slowing when the device was installed)
the landlord
Again the pump, pumps storm water, it does not pump sewage. If the sewer, sewage line is backing up we will call the city and report this. Speak to Paul and explain what you are experiencing so that he can look for himself when it rains again. This will give him first hand knowledge of the problem when he speaks to the City. I will speak to Paul and have him call this to the Public works. This is not are doing this will be a city correction. If you notice around our building that they have had us divert the water from the eves draughs out of the storm pipes at the side of the building. This is so the storms are not overloading, delaying the run off into the storm sewers from the road surfaces. Paul you are seeing this e-mail, call me when you get this.
jessica
i guess that explains where the extra water is coming from. ok. i just couldn't understand why there was so much on this property, and so little elsewhere without the water backing up from somewhere. i was thinking that if a stormwater pipe had broken, it could be flooding both the sump pit and the sanitary at the same time. but if you're doing it on purpose, that explains that.
i did a bunch of googling and i'm still working with a weak understanding of toilet plumbing but i think it has to be the case that water is pooling somewhere. it might be a blockage, but if it's a blockage it would have to be somewhere that water can pool where it rains - through a manhole or something. this is then killing the air pressure on the flush. otherwise, it would be slow to drain all the time.
the other thing i was thinking was about the air vent coming up from the toilet. if something had been rerouted with the furnace, could it not possibly have a different reaction to rainwater, and conceivably produce a lack of flush pressure? but, i did an experiment early in the morning and i think i've ruled it out. what i did was let the water in the sink run and then flush. the water was flowing right out through the sink before i flushed, but as it was flushing it started to fill up a little. if i understand correctly, this rules out a vent issue by demonstrating a restriction of the flow rate.
i have to admit that i'm not entirely convinced it isn't construction. if they're temporarily down to one pipe somewhere instead of two, that could be where the water is pooling. i know everybody else in the neighbourhood would have to experience this, but how many have toilets that are low enough for it to be an issue?
i'll bring paul down here next time we get a lot of rain...
(pause)
the only other thing i can think of is that maybe one of the neighbours recently installed a sump pump to the sanitary and it's exaggerating an existing block...you're not supposed to that, but people do that...
whether it's via leak, construction, bad install or whatever else i think the flow restriction happening only when it rains, and stopping when it's dried out, demonstrates that there just has to be rainwater blocking the sanitary at some point, somewhere, somehow - even though that's not supposed to happen.
but, like i say, i'll get paul down here to see it next time it happens.
(pause)
actually, there's one more hypothesis i have. i know this is a little bit of a long shot, but the culmination of what you're telling me and what i'm reading and what i'm seeing indicates that something very strange is happening.
the house across the street had a fire last month. it seems like it's been completely shut down since. if they shut the sump pump off, the basement could be flooding in the rain, and the flooding could be finding it's way into the sanitary, slowing the drain down.
it's just a guess, but something weird like that MUST be happening. i don't known if you know those guys or could call them and ask, but i think the sump pump in that basement ought to be working, regardless, for the benefit of the rest of the neighbourhood....
so, maybe not.
i left my broom to dry in the back room a few weeks ago and forgot about it. i was going to clean today, but not without a broom...
if it doesn't show up by tomorrow, i'll go buy a new broom, i guess. i mean, it's the landlord's broom. but that gives me a few hours to listen to mixes.
i left my broom to dry in the back room a few weeks ago and forgot about it. i was going to clean today, but not without a broom...
if it doesn't show up by tomorrow, i'll go buy a new broom, i guess. i mean, it's the landlord's broom. but that gives me a few hours to listen to mixes.
Friday, August 15, 2014
townies. ugh.
i expected those, though. it's a miracle it took this long, really. best to avoid them....
"you know, you should open up the advertising a little bit so people know the shows are going on."
"but it's a tight knit scene."
"that's why you should open up the advertising, so people outside the scene know what's going on."
"if you want to join the scene, you should come down. it's very tight knit."
"but, that's why you should open it up and make it less exclusive."
"but, it's a very tight-knit scene."
ugh...
fuck tight knit scenes, i want radical inclusion.
somebody shows up and offers suggestions on ways to open it, and all they get is a lot of attitude and an almost violent desire to maintain a small, incestual clique-y group. that's not something i want anything to do with. it's radical inclusion, or fuck off.
i mean, the bottom line is i haven't seen much of anything that's interesting in terms of local music over the year i've been here. it's all very generic and boring takes on different styles of punk, or equally boring folk music. my conclusion is that there's really not very much interesting music happening in the area at all.
but there's a specific bar that doesn't have a show calendar online. now, i really have little reason to think the bar is booking anything that's worth going to. i think the reverse logic is pretty applicable - if anybody worth watching was playing the bar, the bar would be updating it's listings. but, i'm the type of person that wants to know what's going on at all the bars i can get to, anyways, just in case there's that one rare act that seems interesting....
having idiosyncratic tastes requires this kind of meticulousness.
you wouldn't think a suggestion for a bar owner to update a web page would set off such a defensive reaction, but that it did says a lot about the area and the people that inhabit it. it demonstrates a very clique-y mentality that is suspicious of outsiders and wants to "vet" people before they're allowed to integrate.
going to a bar to watch a show doesn't imply a desire to join a club. and i definitely have zero desire to join a club....
this is why i prefer big cities to small towns. when i go out somewhere, i don't want to meet up with a group of people that i know, i want to fade into the crowd. i don't want everybody to know my name; i don't want *anybody* to know my name! i cherish that level of anonymity.
so, detroit's a good fit for me. windsor, less so...
in the end, if the local bands in the area just want to play to the same group of friends every show then that's their choice. i'll go hang out in detroit and watch some more interesting acts in the process...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoCfiZnOplY
i expected those, though. it's a miracle it took this long, really. best to avoid them....
"you know, you should open up the advertising a little bit so people know the shows are going on."
"but it's a tight knit scene."
"that's why you should open up the advertising, so people outside the scene know what's going on."
"if you want to join the scene, you should come down. it's very tight knit."
"but, that's why you should open it up and make it less exclusive."
"but, it's a very tight-knit scene."
ugh...
fuck tight knit scenes, i want radical inclusion.
somebody shows up and offers suggestions on ways to open it, and all they get is a lot of attitude and an almost violent desire to maintain a small, incestual clique-y group. that's not something i want anything to do with. it's radical inclusion, or fuck off.
i mean, the bottom line is i haven't seen much of anything that's interesting in terms of local music over the year i've been here. it's all very generic and boring takes on different styles of punk, or equally boring folk music. my conclusion is that there's really not very much interesting music happening in the area at all.
but there's a specific bar that doesn't have a show calendar online. now, i really have little reason to think the bar is booking anything that's worth going to. i think the reverse logic is pretty applicable - if anybody worth watching was playing the bar, the bar would be updating it's listings. but, i'm the type of person that wants to know what's going on at all the bars i can get to, anyways, just in case there's that one rare act that seems interesting....
having idiosyncratic tastes requires this kind of meticulousness.
you wouldn't think a suggestion for a bar owner to update a web page would set off such a defensive reaction, but that it did says a lot about the area and the people that inhabit it. it demonstrates a very clique-y mentality that is suspicious of outsiders and wants to "vet" people before they're allowed to integrate.
going to a bar to watch a show doesn't imply a desire to join a club. and i definitely have zero desire to join a club....
this is why i prefer big cities to small towns. when i go out somewhere, i don't want to meet up with a group of people that i know, i want to fade into the crowd. i don't want everybody to know my name; i don't want *anybody* to know my name! i cherish that level of anonymity.
so, detroit's a good fit for me. windsor, less so...
in the end, if the local bands in the area just want to play to the same group of friends every show then that's their choice. i'll go hang out in detroit and watch some more interesting acts in the process...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoCfiZnOplY
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
i don't understand the tricks my ears are playing on me regarding this treble knob.
either the volume out seems to be very sensitive (you'd expect that on a tube amp in real time, but not on a digital amp playing a recording of a guitar recorded through an amp emulator.....?), or maybe the pot is dirty or.....?
?
whatever. i've got the sweet spot back, and it's flat like it should be.
i'm getting a pizza, because i've been very good about not getting pizza for a long time, but i should seriously be back at it by sunrise at the latest.
either the volume out seems to be very sensitive (you'd expect that on a tube amp in real time, but not on a digital amp playing a recording of a guitar recorded through an amp emulator.....?), or maybe the pot is dirty or.....?
?
whatever. i've got the sweet spot back, and it's flat like it should be.
i'm getting a pizza, because i've been very good about not getting pizza for a long time, but i should seriously be back at it by sunrise at the latest.
Sunday, August 10, 2014
predictably, boris was a good show. i didn't catch the fatty acids tonight, but i slept most of the afternoon, so i didn't get anything done, either. back at it for the night...
i've decided i want to get the song done before i start working on the shelves, as it creates a more natural separation. i just don't want to stop for a week and then get back to it.
i've decided i want to get the song done before i start working on the shelves, as it creates a more natural separation. i just don't want to stop for a week and then get back to it.
second concert in detroit: boris w/ subrosa
i survived my second night in detroit just fine, including my first night at the legendary magic stick, and familiarity is actually producing a level of calmness. i realize that i've only explored a small part of the city, but the part i have explored is really not very scary. what i saw walking up woodward at 8:30 on a saturday night was actually a very vibrant, cosmopolitan and relatively clean city.
it's good to know that my health card is acceptable as id, but i haven't been able to test if my bank card works yet. the magic stick itself is a lot smaller than i thought it would be - smaller than the upstairs gym at the sala in montreal, and not much bigger than babylon in ottawa. the design actually reminded me more of a bar in ottawa called cafe dekcuf, although it's certainly bigger (but not substantially so). i was worried about the bus, so i didn't get a slice of pizza on the way out. next time...
so, i got there just as subrosa was starting, got stamped with an inverted crucifix (that's not cliched.), asked to be surprised by a beer (and received a somewhat uncreative pbr) and stumbled off to the middle of the floor.
subrosa is an act of some importance in underground rock circles and that i've intersected with multiple times over the last ten years, but have never really been able to get into much. they've just always existed in this kind of middle point of ideas without really taking any of them anywhere. it's maybe a proof of concept, and it's influence has been and will continue to be felt, but they've continually missed the mark in actually producing substantial work themselves. so, i was expecting some overly pretentious and mildly goth doom/sludge pop for mopey young people to get their gloom on to and that ultimately lacked any real depth.
what i got was actually pretty surprising: they've finally taken it to the next level in extrapolating their ideas by giving the songs a bit more space to breath. some listening this morning has informed me that this is something that began with their 2011 disc and reached it's first real application with their most recent one. that is, subrosa's new record is a real pivot for them and may represent an entirely new phase in their career. ten years from now, they may have a fan base that starts their career with their new disc.
while still being fundamentally a pastiche of ideas, i have to say it was enjoyable. what i got out of it wasn't very comparable to anything in the genres they're usually associated with, but an extrapolation on the sound a perfect circle put together in the early 00s. now, i always had some problems with apc - the production always struck me as very cold, the drumming very clinical, the musicianship very hired. their records have a "made by session musicians" feel to them that negates a lot of what maynard was trying to do with the band. i don't think he ever figured that out. but that's a criticism that doesn't apply to subrosa, who came off as a much more organic, living, breathing entity with a very forceful drummer. i was actually a little concerned about the structural integrity of the building at a few points; their drummer thumps exceedingly hard, like a good rock drummer ought to. the extrapolation was filled out by drawing substantially on swans and gybe!. if they can get the right exposure with their new sound, they could go very far with it....
as for the show i saw last night, all i can say is that it was a nice surprise and that while it's not likely to turn me around on their older work it's going to get me to listen to their new disc a lot more closely than i would have otherwise. further, i think there's a lot of potential for the next one.
if you can get a chance to see them on this tour, don't skip it.
i kind of have to point out, though, that the above track has a riff that was lifted directly from this song:
here is a full set:
i didn't want a second pbr between sets, so i asked the bartender what else there was.
"blue or canadian."
"what?"
"blue or canadian."
"you sell canadian beer here?"
"ok, one canadian."
"that's not what i...."
*bottle opens*
"well, ok, i guess."
the canadian did indeed taste like a canadian. but the blue turned out to be more deceptive.
the atlas moth were, in a word, "bad". it's not the first time i've seen a second band with a smaller audience than an opening band, but it was one of the more dramatic drops in attendance i've witnessed.
again, it wasn't quite what i was expecting, though. i had them mentally categorized along with wolves in the throne room, liturgy and the like in toning down "black metal" to something less racist, satanic and nihilist (and stupid) due to the bit of recorded material i'd heard. that's not something that really appeals to me, so i was expecting to cringe my way through the set. live, they were more of a generic post-grunge act that existed somewhere between kyuss and early deftones. it's more like i ended up yawning my way through it...
the singer was very critical of the audience's lack of response, but maybe he should have looked at his own band's lack of torque. the riffs could have been worse, but they just kind of spun around in circles on the stage without projecting any kind of force outwards. then, he complains that nobody's reacting. if you want to get people dancing around and throwing their underwear at each other, you start an ac/dc cover band and riff out "thunderstruck". if you're going to do a lot of mopey (and mostly boring) post-grunge, you're going to get a lot of mopey (and mostly bored) people.
there's no harm in skipping these guys.
now, the next thing you need to do is watch this. he's right in deducing that blue is a "party beer" and that it is "watered down", although his tastes are a little gauche if he's happy with a canadian. give the man a keith's.
the takeaway is that blue is a lighter beer than canadian.
....but that's exactly why i'd rather get blue at the bar when i'm seeing a show. the beer is half for fluid retention in a sweaty pit (it wasn't too tight last night), and i'm not there to get smashed, just a little loose. neither option is very good, but i'll pick the blue every time.
so, this is what i asked for.
"just a blue, please."
"ok, one bud blue."
"excuse me?"
"you asked for a blue?"
"did you say bud blue?"
"are you asking for a blue?"
*awkward silence*
"yeah, just a blue please."
"ok. so, one bud blue."
"you keep saying that."
"listen, what do you want?"
"since when did budweiser start making blue?"
"forever? who else would make blue?"
"well, in canada, blue is manufactured by labatt."
"but it's all made by budweiser."
"so, i'm buying a bud is what you're saying."
"all labatt beers are made by bud. it's just a different label."
"in canada, blue is not manufactured by budweiser."
"riiiiiiiiight."
"ok, now i HAVE to try it."
sure enough, it did not taste like blue. as stated in the above video, blue is a light and watery beer. the "blue" i purchased was almost as strong as the pbr, and actually a little syrupy. i've done some research today and can report that when you buy a blue in the states you're actually getting something brewed by genesee, which is a medium sized brewery in the state of new york. when labatt's parent compant and annheiser merged in 2009, anti-trust legislation forced them to spin off blue because it was popular in new york. it follows that none of the labatt products in the usa are bottled by budweiser, and the bartender was flat out wrong in her suggestion of a "bud blue". it's a "genesee blue".
the american blue was pretty gross, really. i'll be avoiding those in the future....
boris is a known entity, and very good at what they do in a live setting, if their recorded output is a little less consistent. they started off with some more upbeat material, and let it flow into some of their bigger, epic tracks, including some new stuff.
something i found really interesting watching them is that they've managed to master a technique of waving along with the music in a way that feels like time has slowed down. anybody that's ever done psychedelic drugs knows that feeling - the music slows down by around 20-50 bpm in a way that you're consciously aware of.
but it's very rare to get that kind of trip when you're entirely sober, or even after three beers (which is pretty sober). it's a combination of the drone on some of the heavier tracks (vomitself, for example, which is just surreal to see live) with some physical performance art. the wave is just off the beat. i guess it's sort of hilarious on some level, but it's a powerful experience.
i'm going to post some newer material, because you couldn't possibly get the effect of experiencing boris live by watching a youtube video, anyways.
the walk home was actually very nice - a little breeze was coming through. but i was stuck waiting for the bus for almost an hour.
detroit was in the midst of a "ribfest", which backed up traffic under the tunnel.
it'd have been really, really nice if i could've just walked across a bridge.
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2014/08/09.html
it's good to know that my health card is acceptable as id, but i haven't been able to test if my bank card works yet. the magic stick itself is a lot smaller than i thought it would be - smaller than the upstairs gym at the sala in montreal, and not much bigger than babylon in ottawa. the design actually reminded me more of a bar in ottawa called cafe dekcuf, although it's certainly bigger (but not substantially so). i was worried about the bus, so i didn't get a slice of pizza on the way out. next time...
so, i got there just as subrosa was starting, got stamped with an inverted crucifix (that's not cliched.), asked to be surprised by a beer (and received a somewhat uncreative pbr) and stumbled off to the middle of the floor.
subrosa is an act of some importance in underground rock circles and that i've intersected with multiple times over the last ten years, but have never really been able to get into much. they've just always existed in this kind of middle point of ideas without really taking any of them anywhere. it's maybe a proof of concept, and it's influence has been and will continue to be felt, but they've continually missed the mark in actually producing substantial work themselves. so, i was expecting some overly pretentious and mildly goth doom/sludge pop for mopey young people to get their gloom on to and that ultimately lacked any real depth.
what i got was actually pretty surprising: they've finally taken it to the next level in extrapolating their ideas by giving the songs a bit more space to breath. some listening this morning has informed me that this is something that began with their 2011 disc and reached it's first real application with their most recent one. that is, subrosa's new record is a real pivot for them and may represent an entirely new phase in their career. ten years from now, they may have a fan base that starts their career with their new disc.
while still being fundamentally a pastiche of ideas, i have to say it was enjoyable. what i got out of it wasn't very comparable to anything in the genres they're usually associated with, but an extrapolation on the sound a perfect circle put together in the early 00s. now, i always had some problems with apc - the production always struck me as very cold, the drumming very clinical, the musicianship very hired. their records have a "made by session musicians" feel to them that negates a lot of what maynard was trying to do with the band. i don't think he ever figured that out. but that's a criticism that doesn't apply to subrosa, who came off as a much more organic, living, breathing entity with a very forceful drummer. i was actually a little concerned about the structural integrity of the building at a few points; their drummer thumps exceedingly hard, like a good rock drummer ought to. the extrapolation was filled out by drawing substantially on swans and gybe!. if they can get the right exposure with their new sound, they could go very far with it....
as for the show i saw last night, all i can say is that it was a nice surprise and that while it's not likely to turn me around on their older work it's going to get me to listen to their new disc a lot more closely than i would have otherwise. further, i think there's a lot of potential for the next one.
if you can get a chance to see them on this tour, don't skip it.
i kind of have to point out, though, that the above track has a riff that was lifted directly from this song:
here is a full set:
i didn't want a second pbr between sets, so i asked the bartender what else there was.
"blue or canadian."
"what?"
"blue or canadian."
"you sell canadian beer here?"
"ok, one canadian."
"that's not what i...."
*bottle opens*
"well, ok, i guess."
the canadian did indeed taste like a canadian. but the blue turned out to be more deceptive.
the atlas moth were, in a word, "bad". it's not the first time i've seen a second band with a smaller audience than an opening band, but it was one of the more dramatic drops in attendance i've witnessed.
again, it wasn't quite what i was expecting, though. i had them mentally categorized along with wolves in the throne room, liturgy and the like in toning down "black metal" to something less racist, satanic and nihilist (and stupid) due to the bit of recorded material i'd heard. that's not something that really appeals to me, so i was expecting to cringe my way through the set. live, they were more of a generic post-grunge act that existed somewhere between kyuss and early deftones. it's more like i ended up yawning my way through it...
the singer was very critical of the audience's lack of response, but maybe he should have looked at his own band's lack of torque. the riffs could have been worse, but they just kind of spun around in circles on the stage without projecting any kind of force outwards. then, he complains that nobody's reacting. if you want to get people dancing around and throwing their underwear at each other, you start an ac/dc cover band and riff out "thunderstruck". if you're going to do a lot of mopey (and mostly boring) post-grunge, you're going to get a lot of mopey (and mostly bored) people.
there's no harm in skipping these guys.
now, the next thing you need to do is watch this. he's right in deducing that blue is a "party beer" and that it is "watered down", although his tastes are a little gauche if he's happy with a canadian. give the man a keith's.
the takeaway is that blue is a lighter beer than canadian.
....but that's exactly why i'd rather get blue at the bar when i'm seeing a show. the beer is half for fluid retention in a sweaty pit (it wasn't too tight last night), and i'm not there to get smashed, just a little loose. neither option is very good, but i'll pick the blue every time.
so, this is what i asked for.
"just a blue, please."
"ok, one bud blue."
"excuse me?"
"you asked for a blue?"
"did you say bud blue?"
"are you asking for a blue?"
*awkward silence*
"yeah, just a blue please."
"ok. so, one bud blue."
"you keep saying that."
"listen, what do you want?"
"since when did budweiser start making blue?"
"forever? who else would make blue?"
"well, in canada, blue is manufactured by labatt."
"but it's all made by budweiser."
"so, i'm buying a bud is what you're saying."
"all labatt beers are made by bud. it's just a different label."
"in canada, blue is not manufactured by budweiser."
"riiiiiiiiight."
"ok, now i HAVE to try it."
sure enough, it did not taste like blue. as stated in the above video, blue is a light and watery beer. the "blue" i purchased was almost as strong as the pbr, and actually a little syrupy. i've done some research today and can report that when you buy a blue in the states you're actually getting something brewed by genesee, which is a medium sized brewery in the state of new york. when labatt's parent compant and annheiser merged in 2009, anti-trust legislation forced them to spin off blue because it was popular in new york. it follows that none of the labatt products in the usa are bottled by budweiser, and the bartender was flat out wrong in her suggestion of a "bud blue". it's a "genesee blue".
the american blue was pretty gross, really. i'll be avoiding those in the future....
boris is a known entity, and very good at what they do in a live setting, if their recorded output is a little less consistent. they started off with some more upbeat material, and let it flow into some of their bigger, epic tracks, including some new stuff.
something i found really interesting watching them is that they've managed to master a technique of waving along with the music in a way that feels like time has slowed down. anybody that's ever done psychedelic drugs knows that feeling - the music slows down by around 20-50 bpm in a way that you're consciously aware of.
but it's very rare to get that kind of trip when you're entirely sober, or even after three beers (which is pretty sober). it's a combination of the drone on some of the heavier tracks (vomitself, for example, which is just surreal to see live) with some physical performance art. the wave is just off the beat. i guess it's sort of hilarious on some level, but it's a powerful experience.
i'm going to post some newer material, because you couldn't possibly get the effect of experiencing boris live by watching a youtube video, anyways.
the walk home was actually very nice - a little breeze was coming through. but i was stuck waiting for the bus for almost an hour.
detroit was in the midst of a "ribfest", which backed up traffic under the tunnel.
it'd have been really, really nice if i could've just walked across a bridge.
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2014/08/09.html
Saturday, August 9, 2014
this was before splendor solis.
https://www.discogs.com/The-Tea-Party-The-Tea-Party/release/2855948
Want: 45
Last Sold:
Lowest: CA$64.74
Median: CA$81.67
Highest: CA$135.08
==========
i paid $0.50.
AND, it's the copy they sent the cbc.
i'm going to send jeff martin an email and ask him if he wants it. maybe he can replace it with one he's got lying around or something. like, it has the cbc sticker on it. it's a piece of canadian rock history. i'd have to imagine it means something to him.
https://www.discogs.com/The-Tea-Party-The-Tea-Party/release/2855948
Want: 45
Last Sold:
Lowest: CA$64.74
Median: CA$81.67
Highest: CA$135.08
==========
i paid $0.50.
AND, it's the copy they sent the cbc.
i'm going to send jeff martin an email and ask him if he wants it. maybe he can replace it with one he's got lying around or something. like, it has the cbc sticker on it. it's a piece of canadian rock history. i'd have to imagine it means something to him.
so, the deal at the cd firesale today was 100 discs for $50, or 50 for $35 and decreasing levels of firesaleiness. i pulled out 81 to start, so i felt i had to pull it up to 100 to get the deal.
there wasn't any obscure 80s rock music. it was largely canadian overflow due to our crtc requirements to play a certain amount of canadian music - it's stuff that was never that good to begin with and has been replaced by equally weak but more current stuff.
however, they had a large amount of jazz and classical from the cbc libraries. the cbc digitized everything and dumped it at the university, and they put it up for sale. fine with me. none of it is stuff i had on high priority, but it's all stuff i'd _eventually_ get, so might as well grab it when it's $0.50 a piece.
the one rarity i found was the first tea party demo, which was self-released on a limited edition. this is a real find.
for the rest of it, i'm not going to write it all out, i'm going to go by genre and disc number. it won't add up to exactly one hundred because some of the players and composers are on multiple discs.
prog/post-punk:
cocteau twins (1)
david bowie (1)
indie/post rock:
the hylozoists (1)
pavlov's dog orchestra (1)
hot hot heat (1)
jazz:
metheny (5)
ritenour (5)
medeski, martin, wood (3)
thelonius monk (2)
coltrane (3)
knopfler (1)
atkins (1)
scofield (2)
reinhardt (3)
grapelli (5)
brubeck (2)
basie (4)
charlie parker (1)
larry carlton (2)
jean-luc ponty (7)
ron carter (1)
ellington (1)
louis armstrong (2)
chester thompson (1)
davis (1)
sun ra (1)
benny goodman (3)
dimeola (1)
blind boys of alabama (1)
classical:
tchaikovsky (4)
dvorak (2)
mozart (1)
satie (2)
barber (1)
bristow (1)
ravel (1)
rachmaninoff (8). including 5 volume complete piano works.
shostakovich (1)
bach (1)
stravinski (1)
bartok (1)
chopin (3)
moskowski (1)
koprowski (1)
delibes (1)
mancini (1)
steve hackett (1)
paul mccartney (2) <----for reals. look it up.
symphonic yes (1)
evelyn glennie (1)
pasero (1)
world:
peter gabriel mix tapes (3)
afro-celt soundsystem (3)
electronic/ambient:
delerium (1)
david sylvian (1)
rock i listened to when i was a kid:
bryan adams (1)
duran duran (1)
tom cochrane (1)
rock i listened to when i was a teenager:
james iha (1)
tea party (1)
my old blues guitar teacher:
robert farrell band (1)
there wasn't any obscure 80s rock music. it was largely canadian overflow due to our crtc requirements to play a certain amount of canadian music - it's stuff that was never that good to begin with and has been replaced by equally weak but more current stuff.
however, they had a large amount of jazz and classical from the cbc libraries. the cbc digitized everything and dumped it at the university, and they put it up for sale. fine with me. none of it is stuff i had on high priority, but it's all stuff i'd _eventually_ get, so might as well grab it when it's $0.50 a piece.
the one rarity i found was the first tea party demo, which was self-released on a limited edition. this is a real find.
for the rest of it, i'm not going to write it all out, i'm going to go by genre and disc number. it won't add up to exactly one hundred because some of the players and composers are on multiple discs.
prog/post-punk:
cocteau twins (1)
david bowie (1)
indie/post rock:
the hylozoists (1)
pavlov's dog orchestra (1)
hot hot heat (1)
jazz:
metheny (5)
ritenour (5)
medeski, martin, wood (3)
thelonius monk (2)
coltrane (3)
knopfler (1)
atkins (1)
scofield (2)
reinhardt (3)
grapelli (5)
brubeck (2)
basie (4)
charlie parker (1)
larry carlton (2)
jean-luc ponty (7)
ron carter (1)
ellington (1)
louis armstrong (2)
chester thompson (1)
davis (1)
sun ra (1)
benny goodman (3)
dimeola (1)
blind boys of alabama (1)
classical:
tchaikovsky (4)
dvorak (2)
mozart (1)
satie (2)
barber (1)
bristow (1)
ravel (1)
rachmaninoff (8). including 5 volume complete piano works.
shostakovich (1)
bach (1)
stravinski (1)
bartok (1)
chopin (3)
moskowski (1)
koprowski (1)
delibes (1)
mancini (1)
steve hackett (1)
paul mccartney (2) <----for reals. look it up.
symphonic yes (1)
evelyn glennie (1)
pasero (1)
world:
peter gabriel mix tapes (3)
afro-celt soundsystem (3)
electronic/ambient:
delerium (1)
david sylvian (1)
rock i listened to when i was a kid:
bryan adams (1)
duran duran (1)
tom cochrane (1)
rock i listened to when i was a teenager:
james iha (1)
tea party (1)
my old blues guitar teacher:
robert farrell band (1)
i get to sort through a university radio station's thousands of "rejections" today, at prices of $0.50 a disc.
that's a dangerous thing for me to do.
i'm getting all kinds of fantasies about it, regarding out of print material, especially from the 80s: discs from bands i've connected with over mp3 and have long expected i'll *never* find. cardiacs. swans. coil. excited...
it's going to depend on how clueless the "rejection commitee" is. a certain level of cluelessness is inherent. ever shopped at a disc-go-round? but, whether it's weak or dramatic is going to define what i can come back with.
some of the stuff i've picked up in $2.00 bins over the years defies reason. two really jump out: an sst copy of sonic youth's "sister" and an original copy of swans' omniscience.
the sonic youth disc was actually at a garage sale. it was an older lady, i have to think it was probably left by a child.
the swans disc was at the house of guitars in rochester, new york and i have to think it was put in the discount bin because they couldn't sell it. this particular swans disc has been out of print since the first pressing.
most of it was sold off under assumptions it'd be easy to find, but some of it went out of print for a while. like, i wish i didn't sell my tvt copy of pretty hate machine. or my dead kennedy's records.
at the very least, i'm hoping it's a way to reclaim some of the discs i've sold over the years.
that's a dangerous thing for me to do.
i'm getting all kinds of fantasies about it, regarding out of print material, especially from the 80s: discs from bands i've connected with over mp3 and have long expected i'll *never* find. cardiacs. swans. coil. excited...
it's going to depend on how clueless the "rejection commitee" is. a certain level of cluelessness is inherent. ever shopped at a disc-go-round? but, whether it's weak or dramatic is going to define what i can come back with.
some of the stuff i've picked up in $2.00 bins over the years defies reason. two really jump out: an sst copy of sonic youth's "sister" and an original copy of swans' omniscience.
the sonic youth disc was actually at a garage sale. it was an older lady, i have to think it was probably left by a child.
the swans disc was at the house of guitars in rochester, new york and i have to think it was put in the discount bin because they couldn't sell it. this particular swans disc has been out of print since the first pressing.
most of it was sold off under assumptions it'd be easy to find, but some of it went out of print for a while. like, i wish i didn't sell my tvt copy of pretty hate machine. or my dead kennedy's records.
at the very least, i'm hoping it's a way to reclaim some of the discs i've sold over the years.
thankfully, that seems to have been a relatively simple fix - i just had to copy the vst folder somewhere else, open the file, delete the vstis, save the file under a new name, put the vst folder back and rebuild the vstis. if that holds it reduces to a minor annoyance.
i'm not going to get much else done this morning. i have a cd sale to head to for around noon, and i need to back here by around 6 at the latest so i can head to boris for 8.
well, boris won't be on at 8...
there's some trendy opening acts that i won't cry about missing, but i kind of want to check out, anyways.
i'm not going to get much else done this morning. i have a cd sale to head to for around noon, and i need to back here by around 6 at the latest so i can head to boris for 8.
well, boris won't be on at 8...
there's some trendy opening acts that i won't cry about missing, but i kind of want to check out, anyways.
Sunday, August 3, 2014
i was very tired yesterday and didn't do much of anything.
and while i have the measurements worked out, i'm going to wait until after monday to head down to get some wood. ironically, i suspect the civic holiday may be the busiest day of the year at home depot - it's when all the bourgeois couples decide to renovate to try and fix their broken marriages. i'd rather avoid that. and, i have to wait until i get a crystal clear day to haul that much wood around, so it could be a few days.
i picked up some strings on friday because i was out that way to get some tomatoes, but i didn't get a new nut for the red guitar. they didn't really have the right part. i should probably have some spare heads around anyways, so i'm going to see if i can order the part from epiphone.
so, i'm going to try and get some work done today, but if the red guitar is still unplayable for this tune then it's going to mostly be about experimenting in trying to get the right tone out of the black guitar.
and while i have the measurements worked out, i'm going to wait until after monday to head down to get some wood. ironically, i suspect the civic holiday may be the busiest day of the year at home depot - it's when all the bourgeois couples decide to renovate to try and fix their broken marriages. i'd rather avoid that. and, i have to wait until i get a crystal clear day to haul that much wood around, so it could be a few days.
i picked up some strings on friday because i was out that way to get some tomatoes, but i didn't get a new nut for the red guitar. they didn't really have the right part. i should probably have some spare heads around anyways, so i'm going to see if i can order the part from epiphone.
so, i'm going to try and get some work done today, but if the red guitar is still unplayable for this tune then it's going to mostly be about experimenting in trying to get the right tone out of the black guitar.
Saturday, August 2, 2014
first concert in detroit: oneida w/ brothels
so, my first show over in detroit was a success over all. you can imagine that i was a little apprehensive about walking through downtown detroit. but, i had to balance the apprehension between two extremes - the reality that the united states is a deeply racist society that will nearly reflexively criminalize the negro and the reality that i'm a naive, friendly canadian that locks my doors at night out of convention rather than fear. the truth is somewhere between these extremes. i had to realize i needed to be careful, while not allowing the deep racism underlying the media portrayal of the region to blind me to what i was able to actually observe. this is going to be a struggle that is not going to go away soon and that i'm going to have to work out empirically; i'm going to have to find the sweet spot in balancing my naivete with actual observable reality, and learn what the best way to behave in a city like detroit is through trial and error.
there was a short part of the walk to trinosophes that was a bit unsettling, but it was because it was an unfamiliar area in a large city and not because there was any rational reason to deduce it as unsafe. that will evaporate as i become more familiar with the area. i have every reason to think this is a safe walk.
so, this is what i did on thursday...
i went down a little early because i wanted to get tickets for boris. that meant walking up to the magic stick which was about a half hour detour up woodward. i think a part of me wanted to walk the street during the day to get a grasp of the safety of it...
there's some construction up woodward, but it's otherwise an affluent downtown street full of banks and other things of the sort. that holds until you get to a highway, on the other side of which is a short walk past a field into an area called "midtown". midtown is apparently the hipster area of detroit, and is considered to be safe for affluent looking white people to walk around in. but, what actually struck me is how many affluent looking black people i saw. it's really the first time i ever walked through a middle class area that is also predominantly black.
now, if you look across the field that separates downtown from midtown you get a good eyeful of "scarytown". i don't want to gloss over the reality: it seems to be that woodward is a sort of a sheltered walkway through some rough areas. i wouldn't want to wander too far from that street, at least not for the time being. but i think i'll be comfortable walking back from a show at the magic stick, as i will be next saturday.
the soundtrack for the walk was pinkish black, and it fit the atmosphere fairly well:
walking back, i went back through downtown (including a walk through a total doppelganger of confederation park in ottawa), before crossing another huge highway on my way out of the downtown core, which is actually quite small. i don't think this little area has a name. it's kind of really just a strip of highway between two interchanges. but what defines it is the contrast between very old structures (the GENERAL HARDWARE sign on the ancient store looked to me to be at least a hundred years old, plausibly mid nineteenth century) and encroaching gentrification. directly over the highway, there was something that looked like a gated castle on one side of the street and a string of boarded up, long closed factories on the other. the venue (trinosophes, which is an unlicensed coffee shop) was locked from the front, so i walked a few openings up and stumbled into an overly bourgeois jazz-themed lunch restaurant with all the fancy dinnerware that was closing for the day. can't sit and have a beer, they're closing....
i was about an hour early, and there wasn't an open bar i could see in either direction, so i just sat outside the front of the venue and watched people walk by. there was another interesting contrast: designed landscaping contrasting with strips of grass that haven't been mowed all year. private v. city property. and, there was actually a smokestack in the middle of the road. this really tripped me out. a literal smokestack, pumping out nonstop pollution from somewhere, parked right in the island on the road, at a level of about four feet from the ground.
pedestrian traffic up the street was very light; there's nothing but highways in either direction, making the area very isolated. the little bit i saw was not intimidating: kids in their twenties doubling each other on their bikes, people walking their dogs without a leash, hippies with a bit of a swagger in their step due to obvious reasons, etc.
eventually, somebody came and knocked on the front of the door and got waved around to the back, at which point i realized the entry point is in the back. so, i made it into the venue....
it's a nice little hippie haven, full of potted plants and nice little benches. no alcohol; just coffee, and you know what that *really* means. i wish they'd just fix the legislation, already. i have to be very careful about that, actually, until i get a better feel for customs. i guess it's technically a loft and was probably initially built for an industrial purpose. this opens up into a second room with a small stage and a standing room capacity of roughly 500 people, although the slightly scary cracks in the floor suggest it wouldn't be smart to test that capacity.
so, first up was a band called brothels, which i can't find any information on online other than that it's a side project of another band. the style was psychedelic punk, and it was nothing particular original, but it was pretty solid at a few points. the second track they played is actually very structurally similar to the song i'm recording right now. i feel it's hard to make an overall assessment, though, because it seemed like the bulk of what they played (in the middle of the set) was unfinished. if they can work the middle of the set into the same level of detail as the first few and last few songs, they'll have a pretty solid set of psychedelic punk tunes. but that is something that remains to be seen. i'll keep an eye on them and update further as they develop.
oneida, on the other hand, is a well understood entity and they basically did exactly what they were expected to do. the crux of the band is their rhythm section, and especially their drummer. the two guitarists mostly drone out, while the two keyboard players are mostly for percussive and mild harmonic effect. the style traces back to late 70s attempts to merge noise, punk and jazz together; much has been written about this, so i will not bother repeating it.
there was a bit of an awkward moment in the set where they played a song about a "cat fight" and half the place got up and left. i can't say i had such a visceral reaction to it, but it's mostly because i can't take things of the sort that seriously. if i could take it that seriously, i may have. it certainly made me cringe. i mean, there's always been a bit of a sausage rock character to this style of music, not just this band. what other kind of reaction did they expect? they may want to think that through a bit more.
but, it was otherwise a solid noise set from a solid noise act. and it was nice to get a blast of sheets of easter in real time.
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2014/07/31.html
there was a short part of the walk to trinosophes that was a bit unsettling, but it was because it was an unfamiliar area in a large city and not because there was any rational reason to deduce it as unsafe. that will evaporate as i become more familiar with the area. i have every reason to think this is a safe walk.
so, this is what i did on thursday...
i went down a little early because i wanted to get tickets for boris. that meant walking up to the magic stick which was about a half hour detour up woodward. i think a part of me wanted to walk the street during the day to get a grasp of the safety of it...
there's some construction up woodward, but it's otherwise an affluent downtown street full of banks and other things of the sort. that holds until you get to a highway, on the other side of which is a short walk past a field into an area called "midtown". midtown is apparently the hipster area of detroit, and is considered to be safe for affluent looking white people to walk around in. but, what actually struck me is how many affluent looking black people i saw. it's really the first time i ever walked through a middle class area that is also predominantly black.
now, if you look across the field that separates downtown from midtown you get a good eyeful of "scarytown". i don't want to gloss over the reality: it seems to be that woodward is a sort of a sheltered walkway through some rough areas. i wouldn't want to wander too far from that street, at least not for the time being. but i think i'll be comfortable walking back from a show at the magic stick, as i will be next saturday.
the soundtrack for the walk was pinkish black, and it fit the atmosphere fairly well:
walking back, i went back through downtown (including a walk through a total doppelganger of confederation park in ottawa), before crossing another huge highway on my way out of the downtown core, which is actually quite small. i don't think this little area has a name. it's kind of really just a strip of highway between two interchanges. but what defines it is the contrast between very old structures (the GENERAL HARDWARE sign on the ancient store looked to me to be at least a hundred years old, plausibly mid nineteenth century) and encroaching gentrification. directly over the highway, there was something that looked like a gated castle on one side of the street and a string of boarded up, long closed factories on the other. the venue (trinosophes, which is an unlicensed coffee shop) was locked from the front, so i walked a few openings up and stumbled into an overly bourgeois jazz-themed lunch restaurant with all the fancy dinnerware that was closing for the day. can't sit and have a beer, they're closing....
i was about an hour early, and there wasn't an open bar i could see in either direction, so i just sat outside the front of the venue and watched people walk by. there was another interesting contrast: designed landscaping contrasting with strips of grass that haven't been mowed all year. private v. city property. and, there was actually a smokestack in the middle of the road. this really tripped me out. a literal smokestack, pumping out nonstop pollution from somewhere, parked right in the island on the road, at a level of about four feet from the ground.
pedestrian traffic up the street was very light; there's nothing but highways in either direction, making the area very isolated. the little bit i saw was not intimidating: kids in their twenties doubling each other on their bikes, people walking their dogs without a leash, hippies with a bit of a swagger in their step due to obvious reasons, etc.
eventually, somebody came and knocked on the front of the door and got waved around to the back, at which point i realized the entry point is in the back. so, i made it into the venue....
it's a nice little hippie haven, full of potted plants and nice little benches. no alcohol; just coffee, and you know what that *really* means. i wish they'd just fix the legislation, already. i have to be very careful about that, actually, until i get a better feel for customs. i guess it's technically a loft and was probably initially built for an industrial purpose. this opens up into a second room with a small stage and a standing room capacity of roughly 500 people, although the slightly scary cracks in the floor suggest it wouldn't be smart to test that capacity.
so, first up was a band called brothels, which i can't find any information on online other than that it's a side project of another band. the style was psychedelic punk, and it was nothing particular original, but it was pretty solid at a few points. the second track they played is actually very structurally similar to the song i'm recording right now. i feel it's hard to make an overall assessment, though, because it seemed like the bulk of what they played (in the middle of the set) was unfinished. if they can work the middle of the set into the same level of detail as the first few and last few songs, they'll have a pretty solid set of psychedelic punk tunes. but that is something that remains to be seen. i'll keep an eye on them and update further as they develop.
oneida, on the other hand, is a well understood entity and they basically did exactly what they were expected to do. the crux of the band is their rhythm section, and especially their drummer. the two guitarists mostly drone out, while the two keyboard players are mostly for percussive and mild harmonic effect. the style traces back to late 70s attempts to merge noise, punk and jazz together; much has been written about this, so i will not bother repeating it.
there was a bit of an awkward moment in the set where they played a song about a "cat fight" and half the place got up and left. i can't say i had such a visceral reaction to it, but it's mostly because i can't take things of the sort that seriously. if i could take it that seriously, i may have. it certainly made me cringe. i mean, there's always been a bit of a sausage rock character to this style of music, not just this band. what other kind of reaction did they expect? they may want to think that through a bit more.
but, it was otherwise a solid noise set from a solid noise act. and it was nice to get a blast of sheets of easter in real time.
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2014/07/31.html
Friday, August 1, 2014
i need to invent a transporter system for groceries, connected to an automated online ordering system. it's easy to imagine how this would work.
you go to the factory's website and you checkmark off what you want. that order will get downloaded into a robot, which will collect the order and bring it to the transporter. the robot pushes a button and the food then appears in your kitchen.
i mean, walking is healthy and blahblahblah but all this wonderful choice we get in our capitalist economy can be hard on the feet, especially if you're looking for tomatoes. it's really bizarre that i can live 50 miles from one of the biggest tomato producing regions on the continent and have to go to four stores to exercise my freedom to choose tomatoes that aren't bruised and moldy. i was on my feet for five hours today...
you go to the factory's website and you checkmark off what you want. that order will get downloaded into a robot, which will collect the order and bring it to the transporter. the robot pushes a button and the food then appears in your kitchen.
i mean, walking is healthy and blahblahblah but all this wonderful choice we get in our capitalist economy can be hard on the feet, especially if you're looking for tomatoes. it's really bizarre that i can live 50 miles from one of the biggest tomato producing regions on the continent and have to go to four stores to exercise my freedom to choose tomatoes that aren't bruised and moldy. i was on my feet for five hours today...
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