time is moving forward in the alternate reality...
at
midnight, it will be 17 years and 242 days ago that i finished my first
demo recordings, in the basement of an upper middle class suburb of
ottawa, canada called "sawmill creek".
my dad had built
me a recording studio in the basement, and put a drum kit along with a
bass and a 4-track recorder in there. i think he had plans to use it
himself, and the idea of building it for me was basically a ploy to get
it past the wife. that happened more than once before i turned 20...
...but
i also think he was hoping i'd stop sitting in my room by myself with
my guitar. i'd been playing for around five years at that point, working
on a combination of original songwriting, semi-formal blues training
and informally teaching myself how to play the alternative rock of the
period. people didn't really interest me. it was a bit of a problem, one
that's only gotten worse as i've aged. if he could build a studio with
some gears, maybe i'd meet some friends and start a band...
the
thing is, that isn't how i interpreted it. my favourite artists at the
time were billy corgan and trent reznor, so it just sort of struck me as
natural to lay the parts down myself. bass is very intuitive for a
guitarist, and keyboards are intuitive for everybody, but a big part of
this demo is about me teaching myself how to play drums - and at times
it's quite obvious, although i should temper that with an explanation
that the drum parts are quite purposefully off-kilter in many places.
what
can you say about a 17.5 year old demo written by a 15 year-old?
there's a few interesting moments on the disc, which i've pulled out as
highlights and uploaded to youtube. the bulk of it, however, is exactly
what it is - an exceedingly awkward and mildly ostracized teenager
working out various day-to-day issues that only a teenager can really
understand, while displaying overwhelming influence from overwhelming
influences. hey, at least i wasn't writing "mmmmbop". this isn't as
polished as frogstomp, but it's arguably more interesting and certainly
more original. if i could go back in time, i'd take the influences off
my sleeves just a little.
i've come to understand what i
was doing as a part of the then contemporary emo-punk movement, albeit
on the fringes of it, as it existed in disconnected basements across
north america. i had no understanding of that at the time. i'd guess
most people a part of it didn't either. it's been defined in a
revisionist manner.
i stopped recording for a little
while after this. it's partly because i was naive, and was expecting
some kind of response, but it's mostly because i was grounded for a
substantial period in early 1997. i've cut out a period of 66 days, and
will consequently start pushing tracks from the second tape demo
(recorded in the same place) on the 29th of october. over this period,
i'll be cycling the 11 tracks from the first demo that i have up on
youtube in 6 day periods (with boogeyman consisting of three tracks from
this demo, and teenage jesus consisting of two), but i will not be
posting those updates here.
so, this is the last
youtube switch update for a bit over two months. the song i'm working on
has been slow, but i'd be lying if i'd say i wasn't expecting that. in
two months, though, i should hopefully have plowed through from the
summer of 2001 to sometime in 2003.
http://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/inri-cassette-demo-1
Saturday, August 23, 2014
basement toilet fixed, waiting on upstairs toilet
hi.
i learned a lot about plumbing from this exercise. it's not something i'd looked into before...
the eel fixed the drain. but, for future reference, this is what happened:
- your sump pump is connected to outside
- your floor drain is connected to the sanitary.
- there was a partial blockage deep in the sanitary, meaning the floor drain was emptying the basement water very slowly. this caused the sump pump to be running all the time to compensate.
- so, when it rained the basement got full of water and that water blocked the sanitary completely, causing the slow flush, sink gurgles, etc. given enough of a dry spell, it would have come down on it's own through a combination of slow floor drainage and sump pump action, but it's of course better to clear the plug.
so, the systems are not entirely separate. your pump is pumping excess water to the street, but most of the rain water is in fact flowing through the floor drain and into the sanitary, and if you were to block that off your pump probably wouldn't be able to keep up.
so, in the future, if you see a slow toilet after the rain, it means your basement is slowly flooding due to a blocked sanitary.
j
i learned a lot about plumbing from this exercise. it's not something i'd looked into before...
the eel fixed the drain. but, for future reference, this is what happened:
- your sump pump is connected to outside
- your floor drain is connected to the sanitary.
- there was a partial blockage deep in the sanitary, meaning the floor drain was emptying the basement water very slowly. this caused the sump pump to be running all the time to compensate.
- so, when it rained the basement got full of water and that water blocked the sanitary completely, causing the slow flush, sink gurgles, etc. given enough of a dry spell, it would have come down on it's own through a combination of slow floor drainage and sump pump action, but it's of course better to clear the plug.
so, the systems are not entirely separate. your pump is pumping excess water to the street, but most of the rain water is in fact flowing through the floor drain and into the sanitary, and if you were to block that off your pump probably wouldn't be able to keep up.
so, in the future, if you see a slow toilet after the rain, it means your basement is slowly flooding due to a blocked sanitary.
j
RAW SEWAGE LEAK FROM UPSTAIRS
the toilet from upstairs is leaking brown water from the ceiling in two places.
it's hard to think this is unrelated to recent concerns.
...and the sump pump is still running from thursday's mild rains...
(pause)
i noticed it stopped...
did you get my email and turn a pipe off? if not, it must be flush related because it's not constant.
it's hard to think this is unrelated to recent concerns.
...and the sump pump is still running from thursday's mild rains...
(pause)
i noticed it stopped...
did you get my email and turn a pipe off? if not, it must be flush related because it's not constant.
uploading to spin inside dull aberrations to the scratchpad
so, i've updated the temp file with the final guitar proportions.
excluding the bass, i'm really heading into post-production with this. lots of work to do still, but it's mostly flourishes on the existing track. this is the core of the track, the way it was always meant to sound...
i'll get most of this done today. i keep saying that. but, today i really will.
http://googledrive.com/host/0B5JfVE9XTZikMS1zek9ER0xSU1E/scratchpad/
excluding the bass, i'm really heading into post-production with this. lots of work to do still, but it's mostly flourishes on the existing track. this is the core of the track, the way it was always meant to sound...
i'll get most of this done today. i keep saying that. but, today i really will.
http://googledrive.com/host/0B5JfVE9XTZikMS1zek9ER0xSU1E/scratchpad/
fuck. just gotta laugh.
i'm pretty sure the high pressure from the rainwater backup/clog issue burst or dislodged something in the toilet upstairs, leading to a leaky pipe. by the end of it, an upstairs toilet flush was making the dishes in my sink rattle. there was clearly a substantial force of air feeding back...
now, the fact that the snake fixed the problem isn't going to help my case. "i told you there was a clog". and i agreed there was probably a clog, but i pointed out that it wasn't the clog causing the backup, it was the rain. and, i was right. had we not got all that rain, the clog wouldn't have been a problem.....until spring. it's good it was found. but, that doesn't change the fact that i was right about the rain. had he not convinced me that the sump pump is more powerful than it is and that the systems are completely separate, i wouldn't have emailed the fire department in a desperate attempt to figure out where the rain was getting in. it makes absolute sense now, but (dammit jim!) i'm a nerd with a creative streak and an ability to think outside the box (i think i proved my worth on that basis with this), not a plumber. leave it to an artist to come up with the most ridiculous way possible to explain water seepage into the system, right?
that's not going to get through. what's going to get through is "i told you there was a clog".
so, i'm going to be told it's the seal on the toilet and they're going to replace the seal. in the end, replacing the seal might make the connection tight again, and it might fix it. but could it be a coincidence? is the leak unrelated to the backup? i can't prove it one way or the other, but i think it's at least likely that the air pressure broke something and hoping it's just the seal is pretty risky...
"a camouflaged pelican of immense girth must be transporting water from the river to the sewer."
i'm pretty sure the high pressure from the rainwater backup/clog issue burst or dislodged something in the toilet upstairs, leading to a leaky pipe. by the end of it, an upstairs toilet flush was making the dishes in my sink rattle. there was clearly a substantial force of air feeding back...
now, the fact that the snake fixed the problem isn't going to help my case. "i told you there was a clog". and i agreed there was probably a clog, but i pointed out that it wasn't the clog causing the backup, it was the rain. and, i was right. had we not got all that rain, the clog wouldn't have been a problem.....until spring. it's good it was found. but, that doesn't change the fact that i was right about the rain. had he not convinced me that the sump pump is more powerful than it is and that the systems are completely separate, i wouldn't have emailed the fire department in a desperate attempt to figure out where the rain was getting in. it makes absolute sense now, but (dammit jim!) i'm a nerd with a creative streak and an ability to think outside the box (i think i proved my worth on that basis with this), not a plumber. leave it to an artist to come up with the most ridiculous way possible to explain water seepage into the system, right?
that's not going to get through. what's going to get through is "i told you there was a clog".
so, i'm going to be told it's the seal on the toilet and they're going to replace the seal. in the end, replacing the seal might make the connection tight again, and it might fix it. but could it be a coincidence? is the leak unrelated to the backup? i can't prove it one way or the other, but i think it's at least likely that the air pressure broke something and hoping it's just the seal is pretty risky...
"a camouflaged pelican of immense girth must be transporting water from the river to the sewer."
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