more good news (plumbing)

jessica
i'm just the messenger. i don't want all this shit to be happening, either.

the toilet is swirling slowly again. the pump is also hyperactive. it's the same as before: the drains need to be cleared, and the basement is probably going to eventually flood if they're not. i first noticed the pump yesterday when i was doing laundry and the slow toilet swirl this morning, meaning something backed up over night but it's been building up for a while.

i'll just remind you that the last clog was deep enough in the line that it was probably on city property. so, i don't know if there's a process to get the city to clear the lines, or if they'll pay for it that way.

(pause)

i just want to update that "slow flush" is more like "no flush". the toilet is really not operable. it's taking something like ten minutes to drain - it' stuck.

i'm going to see what information i can find about the city clearing the lines, and then see if i can get paul to call the line cleaners. this is really kind of a must-clear-asap type blockage. nothing is actually flushing at all.

(pause)

i have contacted the city and they will send an eel through for $95.00 - although they claim they won't charge you if it's from tree branches.

what i actually think is causing the blockage is a combination of trash that flowed in from the street - coffee cups, tree branches, french fry containers, etc. if you look at the sewers on this side of the street, they're a foot from the top; if you look at the sewers on the other side of the street, you can't even see the water. it's pretty clear that the block is on the street...

so, i'm pushing back a little and trying to figure out if there's a way to get the city to clear the sewers. i don't think it's fair to force the bill on you, when you're clearing a public line that benefits the entire neighbourhood, for the simple reason that i'm pro-active enough to push for an answer and the neighbour next door isn't.

if i don't get a response, or the response is negative, i suppose i'm waiting on permission from you or paul to call 311 back to get the eel in. the toilet does not work, and i can't be sitting with a bowl full of crap for an extended period.

(pause)

ok.

i've got the city coming to clear the sewers from the outside. i don't know when, yet.

they said up to ten business days, but that it's been flagged as emergency.

i'm comfortable waiting until tomorrow, but i don't think i can wait the weekend out.

(pause)

paul came down and plunged it and it seems like it cleared the immediate obstruction, but that doesn't make any sense, and i'm remaining skeptical. it almost seems like it was already cleared, somehow. i mean, i was gone all night last night - it was fine before i left, and it was fine when i came home and went to bed. it was even fine immediately when i woke up. but, the drain then got progressively worse over the day. that doesn't strike me as consistent with a local issue. it's almost more like something migrated into the pipes. an air bubble, even? but, whatever the cause, it is cleared - for now.

i'll say that i noticed something this morning in the bowl that was red and sort of bloody and seemed to be gurgling up. i made note of it because it was very bright red, and i wasn't sure what it was - it caught my eye. like it shouldn't have been there kind of thing. i had made some nachos when i got home last night, and thought it was probably just some salsa from a kleenex or something. but, i'm starting to wonder. the next flush is when it started to flush slowly - seemingly randomly.

there's other signs that there's still something funny. gurgling sounds. i'm glad the toilet works, but the service order for the cleaning in the outside sewer is still in progress and i'm not going to cancel it.

(pause)

lastly - and curiously - i went to throw something away a little after 17:00 and there was actually an enwin vehicle doing something to the manhole in the laneway next door. if they were clearing, that adds up.

i think it's all good.

the landlord
Jessica, I spoke to Paul and he said no other toilets (4 toilets) where backed up and the sewer, sinks etc have no sign of drainage problems. The conclusion was that your toilet was clogged with toilet paper. Please make aware to Paul as soon as possible when an issue arises so it can be handled quickly. Please do not rely on me reading my e-mails and please make sure it is not just you plugging up the toilet. I do not know why you would call the city since it is only when all toilets and sewer are backed up and then we would call a plumber with a snake to unplug to the city sewer. After taking that measure; and if that did not solve an issue with drainage, the next action would be, call the city. We would have to determine that it would be necessary to call the city after a thorough investigation.  Please do not jump the gun and please do not put excessive amounts of toilet paper down the toilet sewer drain. Please deposit other uses of toilet paper to the garbage, such as blowing your nose etc , Please only flush paper that you wipe your butt with down the toilet. This is the wise way to make sure that a toilet does not plug up the system.

jessica
i really don't think that's what happened. and, as i've mentioned, there is no known cause - i had not defecated in the toilet before it began to slow.

in fact, the sinks remain very slow and it's a matter of time before you'll need to come clear the line. i repeat: there remains evidence of a clog in the main line.

there was a truck outside clearing the sewers a little before he came down. the truth is that the toilet was already unclogged before he plunged it - and you could see that if you looked. i nearly asked him to flush first, but it would have been risky because there was the normal amount of water (which was actually clear) in the bowl.

you wouldn't expect the toilets on the first floor to slow down until the one in the basement has already overflowed. it backs up through the lowest point - that's me, and only me.

again: it's impossible that i clogged the toilet. it worked when i left. it was clogged when i came back. the only way that the toilet could have clogged is if somebody came in and used it when i was gone.

but, as mentioned, it wasn't clogged - a truck cleared the sewers from outside.

(pause)

but, to answer your question: why would i call the city?

because i do not think the clog is on your property; i think it's on city property. it's not your responsibility, as a property owner, to clear out the sewers on the street.

you should keep that link handy. the city clears for free. and, i do believe that that was and remains the solution.

you really should *not* call the plumber and waste $100 on a snake until you've called the city to clear the street sewers, which are the actual problem, for free.

(pause)

i've been running a vlog for the last few months. it's not really popular or anything, it's more just something to do. and, this was kind of a boring day because all i did was freak out about the toilet.

it was set to publish tonight at 12:30, but i've published it a few hours early to make the point.

if you watch the whole thing (15 minutes), you'll get a better handle of what happened (and there is actually footage of the truck at the end).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOSGGEm_9Kw

the landlord
Jessica, I see the toilet is draining slow. I have seen this before and sometimes something large may have fallen in the toilet and is jammed in the toilet trap. Some times things fall in that are too large and get jammed. We may have to pull the toilet and turn it upside down. In the video when your where outside on the street, you where looking at the storm sewer. That is where all the evesdroughs and surface water are collected. The pipe from the toilets is connected to the Sanitary sewer much deeper under the streets. This is a closed sewer that you can not see. Google storm sewer vs sanitary sewer so you understand the difference. I will get around asap to check your problem.

jessica
remember when we had this discussion last year or the year before and i contacted the city's engineering department and they explained that there's a combined sewer system in windsor, rather than separate sanitary lines?

the systems in this house are such that if we get a hurricane or something, it could very well backup. and, if the storm drains get blocked, it *is* going to affect the plumbing.

i do still think that's what actually happened and the truck outside was pushing through leaves and other debris. and, that kind of spring cleaning of the storm drains should probably be done on at least a yearly basis.

there's an interesting article here about sewage run-offs from storm drain overflows:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/brown-stuff-in-windsor-waterways-could-be-human-feces-city-says-1.2782594

the landlord
To the best of my knowledge that is not possible for any city sewer system to be connected into a storm sewer or vice versa by city engineering. In fact if anyone connects storm to a sanitary sewer and are caught they would be fined. Our storm sewer is not connected to the Sanitary and we are in compliance. If illegal hookups are affecting our property from back pressure or over taxed sanitary sewer, your toilet would be overflowing with black shit all over the floor. Paul has cleared your toilet and it is flowing good right now. Please contact Paul ASAP to see the problem visually first hand if you think it is happening when there is a heavy rain or just after. This way we can determine your toilets condition and call the city to the condition if in fact city sanitary is a backup condition. Please call Paul to deal with this condition and do not send me e-mails, I cannot respond quickly.

jessica
this was the email i got from the city last year.

i really think that it's important that you understand the way the plumbing down here works, both for my own benefit and your own benefit.

the sewers in this area are over 100 years old. they were built before it became common to separate drain and sanitary sewers. as such, THERE IS A COMBINED SEWER SYSTEM ATTACHED TO THIS PROPERTY.

and, what that means is that the plumbing system is subject to effects from external conditions like blocked storm drains and heavy rains.

i have explained this in multiple ways. i mean, you can lead a horse to water, right? but, let's get this clear, please, for future concerns. because i will not behave as though the plumbing exists in a way that it doesn't simply because you refuse to listen to good evidence. and, if you refuse to accept the reality, i will have no choice but to take matters into my own hands when it is necessary and bypass you to get the work done.

this is the email from the city: 

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 

the landlord
Jessica, what does this have to do with our building and the fact that your toilet does not overflow from the city backing up or a back due to overtaxed sewer system from rain water. Is it your belief that your toilet was plugged from a overtaxed or old city sewer? Please specify clearly?  Paul cleared your toilet with all the paper in it which could not have come from anyone else but you as he tells me. Your toilet has been cleared and ever since Paul has cleared it you have not reported to Paul any other circumstance since he cleared it. No one can enter your place except you and Paul. Feel free to call the City to keep the city sewers cleared if this helps you. As far as your toilet getting plugged, you have to look at the circumstance of one plugged situation and not multiple problems as Paul or I understand. If you had multiple situations please update Paul so he understands your concern with dates, times, frequencies, etc. and any heavy rainfall occurring. Once we document these situations we will have evidence that we can report to the city. Heavy Rain falls must be the root cause to overtax the Illegal over flows to the city sewer. You must first report to Paul ASAP so we can assess the circumstance to have evidence of ongoing problems which so far is not evident to us. So far there is no evidence that we have documented of the city system backing up or causing your toilet to be plugged or any of our toilets in the building to be affected. We have no evidence of this so far. We will have to pay close attention and document details from now on to build a case. You cannot wait for me to look at e-mails to respond promptly to a situation when I do not read my e-mails every day. Paul and you are the Key to the documentation.

Paul can call and request the city to clear their system if that helps you with peace of mind. So if that is what you are requesting then please ask Paul to call the city to request a sewer servicing. Paul will read this e-mail. You have the power to ask him to call and he can call the city once he has an understanding of your concern. I will speak to Paul also. 

jessica
well, like i say, we don't really agree about what happened. you can see in the video that there wasn't initially anything substantial in the toilet (some urine, and a couple of pieces of toilet paper - that's not going to create a clog). i suppose we'll have to agree to disagree.

i apologize if i'm coming off as standoffish, it's just that a blocked mainline isn't something i want to play with, and if i think it's the city's lines then i'm going to call them as soon as i identify a problem in order to try and get them cleared outside. it's not just the rain. it's also the fact that people throw all kinds of garbage in the sewers. i don't want to sit around and argue about what the problem is. it's known that the lines in this area are very old and should really be replaced - it's just that it would cost a substantial sum for the city to do it.

as i mentioned, it wasn't just the toilet - the sinks were also draining slowly and sending through air bubbles when they drained. that's the classic sign of a blocked main. which, you wouldn't expect to back up upstairs because it's not the lowest point. you'd have to have a huge mess down here before it becomes an issue upstairs. on that level, i guess i'm the canary, right? i'm going to notice issues before anybody else does.

after the toilet cleared, the sinks were still draining slowly. so, it seemed like it was better but that more work was going to be necessary.

BUT, since then the issue has largely resolved itself. and, consistently, the sewers in the front have also come down about a meter. so, i'm left to conclude that the lines outside have drained and the issue went away with it.

so, i *don't* think anything requires any immediate attention.

but, i *do* think that it's going to remain a constant concern due to the infrastructure in the neighbourhood. and, rather than contact you and have a talk about this or that, i'm going to just jump to calling the city. because if the thing blows up while we're arguing about it....

when i was talking to the city, the impression i got was that they understand that the issue is structural and that periodic calls to get the lines cleared are actually expected. i mean, we can document it and send them a report, but you wouldn't be telling them anything they don't know. they know the lines need to be replaced. it's just, where do you get billions of dollars to do it? it's more cost effective to send out a truck to clear the lines when they get full of trash.

but, like i say - they've come down about a meter since then. we should expect that they'll clog again, eventually. but, they seem to be ok for now.

27-04-2016: finally finishing spring cleaning & catching a weird band (ada) in detroit

concert footage:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnBe0WIxVY8

review:
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2016/04/27.html

previous vlog:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGiA6m5fIBw

tracks worked on in this vlog:
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/period-1

the furnace is leaking again...

while i think it needs to be caulked down here, i do suspect that something is loose upstairs.

i've found myself very sleepy this week due to a variety of things, including going cold turkey on coffee for a bit. i want to get my fluids up before i go back on it. it's working, too. see, i have a problem with not drinking enough water. i think it will resolve itself once i can turn the heat off in here (this has been a slow spring, here).

so, it took me a week to do a day's worth of spring cleaning. but it is now actually done. finally. i'll have to do laundry this afternoon, and then some filing tomorrow.

so, will i have anything up by the end of the month? no. but, i should be back on track by the start of may.

i've managed to just lose a whole year. it sucks. but, it's the way it had to be.

stumbling back and forth, zombie-like, to the imperial death march

4/20 is always a special day, and it's always nice to have a good show to get to when it rolls around. i was a little tired on this 4/20 due to my schedule cycling me around to an evening sleep. i nearly missed the show...

--

it was doors at 8:00 pm and i was in line no later than 8:15. but, somehow, the first band started playing at 8:30. you can imagine that this upset quite a few people, many of whom were there explicitly to see melt banana, who are not your average opening act...

i'll acknowledge that i could have been there earlier if i hadn't been trying to sneak a few hours of sleep in. but, the venue really put itself in an incredibly stupid position by refusing to post set times and then starting the show early. if it's doors at 8:00, one expects the show to start after 9:00. how late after 9:00 is anybody's guess, but after 9:00 is taken for granted. if you're going to start the show early, you should post set times. otherwise, how is anybody supposed to know it's an early show? and, of course, people did ask - they always do. the general refusal by bars to post set times is a well understood, if somewhat recent, nefarious ploy to sell a handful of extra beers. but, even in that context, it makes no sense to start the band a half hour after doors. if you were trying to sell beer, and you'd thought it through, you'd have opened the doors at 6:00 and let people listen to sound check. so, if you were to level accusations of incompetence at the new owners of the majestic theatre complex, as many did, you'd be absolutely right. people were understandably livid.

personally? i wouldn't quite go so far as to suggest that i was there solely to see melt banana. i will say that if it was only melt banana & napalm death, i probably wouldn't have went - or at least not for the door price. and, i was in fact expecting a short set from melt banana, because they were opening. to me, the deciding factor was the melvins. i was there explicitly to see melt banana, but it was the chance to see the melvins play a lengthy set in a nice theatre that allowed me to rationalize the door price. i don't care at all about napalm death.

i didn't get in until around 8:40, and nearly turned around and walked out when i realized it wasn't sound check. see, i hadn't paid yet. but, it was 4/20 and the melvins were going to be on in less than an hour...

if you do the math, it means i missed a little less than half the set. they seem to have focused mostly on their new record, which is fine with me - that's really the extent of my interest in them. i mean, it's a quantum leap forwards from their previous work. you can imagine that i wish i got to see them play longer, but the truth is that i missed the first two songs. unfortunately, there were only five songs. but, it's nonetheless hard to get a good feel for what was played, besides noting that they performed as a two piece with a drum machine.

here is a full set:

--

i was able to take a walk between sets and find the thing everybody seeks on this calendar date. i don't have any exciting stories, though. the areas around the venue were overcrowded and full of metalheads, which is a group i tend to have little in common with. frankly, i'm always awkward at metal shows. i mean, this wasn't really a "metal show" in any strict sense - all three of these bands are really punk bands. it's just that the audience felt like a metal audience. it's actually kind of weird, really. overheard conversations had to do with things like black sabbath, wrestling, cars - there's just not any common ground, there, or much that i could knowledgeably butt into, if i'd even really want to, in between accusatory "fag" glances. i don't want to exaggerate; i wouldn't have gone to a pantera show or something, and it wasn't at all like that. napalm death are known for their left of center politics, and i'm sure at least part of the audience realized it. i'm just saying that these weren't people i'd hang out with, or that would want to hang out with me, either. they were quiet, uneventful smokes.

--

the melvins are a band that one would probably expect me to be more familiar with than i am. standing in 2016 and looking back, they've inarguably become one of the most important bands of their generation. it may have been hard to predict it at the time, but it is pretty obvious today that they are really the pre-eminent seattle band, if for no other reason than their continuity and longevity. they didn't just create the sound, they hung to it when nobody else did and kept evolving it when everybody else had moved on.

that said, in my own life, the melvins are a band that is more important as a proof of concept than as something to be actually listened to. for all their worth as seminal icons over what is now three generations of musicians, they've always struck me as sort of boneheaded. it's fun for an hour, here and there, sure. but, it's just never been the kind of thing i'm going to listen to by myself on repeat in much of any context - and trust me when i say i've given it more than a few chances, over what is now more than 20 years.

yet, they were my justification for going. and, when i realized i'd already missed half of melt banana, i still paid to get in to see them. what's going on here?

well, the truth is that they're almost universal, in a certain way. i said this already - they may be a little too boneheaded for my tastes, and so they're never going to work their way into my mp3 player, but you can't get much better than the melvins if you're looking to get your head caved in on 4/20!

in truth, i actually think i experienced the show in it's optimal context, for the following precise reasons:

1) i was not at all familiar with any of the material in any really meaningful sense, meaning it was coming at me totally fresh.
2) i have the musical knowledge to completely understand the music - including the syncopation - as it is coming at me in real time.
3) i was baked.

now, i know that (2) does not apply to everybody. but, i have to say that i was impressed by dale crover - and really wasn't expecting to be. it wasn't just raw talent, it was more about creative flow. he was just flying. i'm not sure if that's something that's developed over time or not, but i have to say that i don't remember hearing the melvins in quite that context at any time in the past. i may even have to check out some new material. maybe i'll finally get over it on the 37th try?

i also have to say that i was impressed by the flow of the set on the guitar side, which ran through about a half an hour of slow grind before opening up to the high end of the neck for most of the second half of the set. when you structure the set like that, it gives your ears an ability to adjust to the bottom, which exaggerates the effects of the highs opening up. i remember thinking that it almost seemed studious. almost.

there were a few points where i considered taking footage, but the reality is that i just didn't know where the songs were starting and stopping. and, i was kind of enjoying the cave.

so, the melvins remain the melvins. and, they picked the best day of the year to play detroit.

--

now, speaking of that, i need to react a little to buzz' claim that we're all a bunch of fascists for toking on 4/20, as though it's all about celebrating the life of hitler. as jesting as it may have been, i took napalm death's subsequent cover of nazi punks fuck off a little more seriously. is 4/20 really about hitler?

that's ridiculous, frankly. i don't really have any strong understanding of the origins of the day, but it's one of those things that doesn't really matter anymore, anyways. now, we can have this argument, right. people will say the original meaning is more important. then, they'll start dancing in the forest on christmas and sacrificing goats on easter, right?

4/20 is marijuana legalization day. that is, it's the day that people smoke in public in order to challenge the prohibition against it. where i grew up, in ottawa, this takes the form of a yearly ritual on parliament hill, where thousands of people smoke up outside the parliament. similar things happen all over the continent. and, nobody seig heils anybody or gasses any jews (well, maybe the odd hot box...) or invades poland or anything like that at all. it's just about pot legalization.

and, frankly buzz? i don't really appreciate being called a nazi. i dug the cover and everything, but i didn't really need the insinuation.

--

the melvins were done around 10:30, so i decided i'd might as well stay for napalm death. i was absolutely prepared to leave before they came on, though, if it came to it.

i have to admit that i found the band amusing - i will not deny being entertained. it's the genre. there's not much you can do within it that's going to strike me as less than absurd - the best you can do is be ironic about it: take the absurdity on, and revel in it sort of thing. that way, when i break out laughing - and i will - i don't have to be self-conscious about feeling smug about it. i mean, i don't take pleasure in laughing at headliners. but, my lol on this night was genuine. given that these guys are middle aged now, it was even more cartoonish than expected.

i tend to get the impression that they take themselves more seriously than a white zombie, or a butthole surfers or even a ministry - bands that are not as extreme as napalm death but that i think present the right attitude to approach grindcore with (or how about melt banana, for that matter?). or even the dks. as it is, the lack of irony quickly gets oppressive. now, i happen to know that napalm death are not saying anything that's going to piss me off, but i'd have a hard time figuring that out in real time. even so, i'm still the type to be more amused than anything else - so long as i'm feeling comfortable enough in my own safety to maintain that ironic distance. i'd rather laugh with you than at you. it's too claustrophobic to actually get lost in.

i'll admit that it was a little tiring by the end of it. i mean, there's a reason bands of this type play half hour sets. you just can't drag this out the way a more methodical act like the melvins can. their fans are free to disagree, but i think they'd be more effective with a half-hour set. melvins, on the other hand, could sludge it out for three hours and maintain engagement.

but, don't take what i say seriously. this may not be a great distance from my sphere of interest, but it is definitely not within it. and, as constructive as my criticism may be, it remains of little actual value. the violinist knows little of football.

and, here is the vlog for the day:

http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2016/04/20.html

20-04-2016: 4/20 in detroit (imperial death march: melt banana, melvins, napalm death)

concert footage:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rYXwTfmJiI

review:
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2016/04/20.html

previous vlog:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZhDGD6OoJI

tracks worked on in this vlog:
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/period-1

05. distracted by the democratic primary (trying to finish archiving) (dvd 5)

spring bug update

i've caught two in the last twelve hours (one around midnight, the other around 8:00 am) near the front door, which is a little different. essentially every roach i've ever seen in here has been near the plumbing on the far side - in the kitchen usually, or maybe in the bathroom or sometimes in the closet in the bedroom. but always clearly near the plumbing as a water source. so, to see two of them come in from the other side like this is a little different.

so, i did some liberal spraying along each of the four doorways around the two entrances. i suppose we'll find out how many get trapped in it over the next few days. but, it seems to suggest there's been a population increase in the back area. it's generally stated that seeing roaches in the day is a bad sign.

i haven't seen any on the plumbing side yet this year, but i will be doing spring cleaning over the weekend - which means spraying behind the appliances and replacing the steel wool.

the headaches have subsided. and i want to be clear that i wasn't trying to be accusatory. i was just trying to figure out if the unit was sprayed when i wasn't here, as that struck me as a likely explanation for what was happening. pure intuition. and, obviously, i would like to be informed when the unit is going to be sprayed, if the unit is going to be sprayed. but i wouldn't have raised the issue if i wasn't getting dramatic symptoms coming from the air - not just headaches, actually, but visual hallucinations (tracers) and at one point an inability to speak. i mean, i spent a day in the hospital. they told me i had a migraine, and maybe that was it, but it kind of seems like i was poisoned. again: i'm not making accusations, exactly, i'm more just contemplating possibilities. however, because i've sprayed down here this morning, i've now contaminated myself regarding any testing. i wouldn't have sprayed if i didn't think it was gone, anyways. at the very least, realize this: if there was spraying down here this month, i got some pretty nasty side effects from it. so, that shouldn't happen again without telling me what's happening so i can adjust...

i am now moving this laptop back into the bedroom, and getting ready to turn the pc back on. the last thing i have to do on the laptop is clean this page up, but it won't make sense to do that right away - i'll have to do it as i'm rebuilding the alter-reality (and the period disc) from 1996 on. and, in order to get there, i still have to sort through some things, to make sure i've found everything i can.

i don't know if there are still usenet or mailing list archives for me to access online, but it's secondary to finding what i can in squirelled away pst files first, anyways. iirc, it was about mid-1997 that i started rambling on the internet. the alter-reality starts in the summer of 1996, and will consequently kick back in around july. but, then i've got a year before i need to worry about it. and, i consequently may put it off for a little while, depending on how fast i find things.

i'm hitting a strange show tonight (melt banana / melvins...and i'll probably stay for napalm death, too, depending on set times), because it's 4/20. but, i think i should get through most of this scavenging by the end of the day, too. and, then i can get back to finishing what i started doing back in december.

almost there. seriously.

and what do i have to show for it? well, i've pulled down over a gb of text from the internet. 1.2 gb. of text. stored in word documents. i jest you not, this is the truth. message boards. youtube. email. facebook. it's 1.2 gb of text. since 2011. and understand this: i have many times more than this from before 2011. so, when i claim that i'm building an alter-reality with a lot of writing....

it'll be really obvious what i'm doing as soon as i start doing it. and i'm just about there.

and, did i mention that i quit smoking, too? that was really important. and, frankly, this was a pretty productive way to do that. time is a strange intangible and everything. i'd prefer it if we weren't stuck running out of it. and, i may be lucky enough to catch the cut-off point after all. i'm beginning to think i was too pessimistic. but, i don't regret this. and, if i can catch immortality after all, then i'm just setting myself up for it. hey, that cut-off point is coming soon, whether i catch it or not.

fw: from the past

this is basically a fake email address. i'm still using the death.to.koalas address.

i'm clearing out some old email. communications with my dad. school stuff. losing my mind on hormones...

this is a direct forward, catch me after the jump.

======

i'm going to fade away now for a bit...

Jason Parent <death.to.koalas@gmail.com>        11 August 2010 at 04:57
To: Sarah
Reply | Reply to all | Forward | Print | Delete | Show original

....i still want that add and you know not getting it is weirding me out..

...but i'm getting the point, silent and clear.

it's a shame, really. ten years. multiple shared apartments. jams. discussions. arguments. trips. concerts. love. hate. just about everything in between.

i think there's a fundamental disconnect going on right now between the way that we see each other. i would introduce you to a room as follows: "this is my friend, sarah.". you would introduce me to a room as follows: "this is my crazy ex-boyfriend, j.".

friend.

ex-lover.

i've had a persistent fear over the last five years that i was going to eventually lose you forever, and when i say that i mean lose *you*, a friend, a person that's very important to me. in a fit of insanity, i think i may have actually managed to accomplish this...

.....and that my only hope of not losing you forever is to back off and wait until you decide to call, if you ever decide to call ever again.

i'll get over it, i just wish i didn't have to.

you're probably actually relieved to hear me say this, and that actually makes me a little bit sad.

======

that was right before i started to lose it - a little after i told you i was going back on hormones. and i think it's clear that i realized what was about to happen, right? that i knew you were going to react poorly. and that i knew i was going to break apart into little pieces.

but, even at this point i think the fundamental disconnect is clear:

i would introduce you to a room as follows: "this is my friend, sarah.". you would introduce me to a room as follows: "this is my crazy ex-boyfriend, j.".

is that not spot on accurate? but, see this is the crux of the situation that i was never able to give up hope on: if you would have been able to merely see me as a friend, as i was able to see you, then there wouldn't have been a crisis. i did not think this should be so difficult. and, frankly, i did not initially realize that you retained latent feelings. you have two children, after all. i thought you were completely over me.

i'm not going to pretend that i can make sense of everything that i typed or did over the next few years. it's not that there wasn't logic to it; to the contrary, the logic was often very complex. it's that i was having difficulty determining what was real and what wasn't. so, trying to decipher what i had typed or did (in hindsight) relies on understanding some paranoid projection of something, which is not always obvious at this distant a date. i was convinced that there was some kind of a conspiracy to keep you away from me. but, see, all i wanted to get across was that my intentions were benign. i was convinced everything would right itself, if you would just know in your heart that all i truly wanted was to hang out twice a year. that is in itself as neurotic as anything else. but, perhaps, if you were completely over me...

i need you to understand that i was dealing with some advanced psychosis. maybe i still am. there were many complex factors. and, while it wasn't your responsibility to deal with it, and i do not fault you for my crazy behaviour, your perception was self-fulfilling. that is, in time, i *became* your crazy ex-boyfriend. it is true that what i wanted was to be your friend. but, the harder i tried, the more of a crazy ex i became. and there was no solution to this.

i can't deal with unsolvability...

today, i live on odsp in windsor, ontario. i moved here because the cost of living is a lot lower. i will likely remain on odsp for the rest of my life. but, i need to be clear: this is not rhetoric. i'm not just saying that i lost my mind, or that i had a mental breakdown, or that i was dealing with psychosis. i have been diagnosed with a mental illness. i live on disability as a consequence of it. i am not dangerous, but i am unpredictable. and, my behaviour over those years was a consequence of it - even if it's not entirely obvious to you when or how i was schizing out.

it is very unlikely that i will ever go back to ottawa.

i am a very patient person, as you know, but i do have limits. and, the empathy that i had for your distress over my transition has faded. i've actually developed a level of bitterness. i am probably holding you in higher regard than is fair to you, and reacting poorly to unrealized expectations that i have no actual business holding you to. but, it is what it is.

but, i never got the closure i wanted, either. we were friends for ten years; you just decided to ignore me one day. i thought i deserved some kind of explanation. i actually think i still do. i don't think that anything that happened after this day negates this.

i'm giving you the courtesy of providing an explanation for my own behaviour. this is of course very general, but i don't think either of us really want particularly granular details. but, i'm good at 'splaining. and i think i'm getting my points across clearly. if you'd like to reciprocate, i'd still appreciate that. otherwise, i wouldn't expect to hear from me again - these emails are in the process of being destroyed.

bandcamp:
http://jasonparent.bandcamp.com

youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCinQSeEtF0vSN1XVhQGfwKA

j

season 5

need to know about spraying down here

jessica
hi.

i've been dealing with some pretty severe headaches for the last few weeks, and i'm kind of putting together a hypothesis. now, i think it goes without saying that the most important thing is everybody's health....

i went to a concert on the evening of monday the 4th. the first headache hit me on the afternoon of wednesday the 6th. i became aware of the bed bug concern on thursday the 7th. i was nursing one when you came down on the evening of the 8th. what i've noticed since then is that the headaches have something to do with the air quality in the basement, and that i'm going to need to air the basement out (probably tomorrow and monday). in the mean time, i have the fan running nonstop. i've tried to turn it off a few times, and the headache always comes on very strong. so, i'm pretty sure about cause and effect with something in the air in the basement.

now, who knows, right. it could be anything at all, really. but, i'm just having a hard time shaking the possibility that there may have been some spraying done in the basement when i was gone. i mean, it all adds up. while it's true that the basement is overdue for an airing out, and i could just be reacting to stale air. why did it just start to affect me a few weeks ago?

if there is something to the hypothesis, and i'm *still* reacting to the pesticide, there must have been an awful lot of pesticide sprayed down here. and, i think i ought to be concerned about long term effects, at this point, due to continued exposure.

either way, the reality is that i've had almost two weeks worth of migraines, now. i'm going to need to seek medical attention one way or the other. that's going to involve taking blood tests and other things - if i'm dealing with chemical exposure, i'm going to figure that out. so, if you can help me figure out of there was spraying down here, it's just saving me some time, really.

i've been thinking about it a long while and trying to get my head around it. how could anybody spray a unit and not tell the person?

that seems insane. so, i've been putting this email off, maybe to the detriment of my own health. but, i've clued in that there's a kind of child-like concept of punitive effects at play. i could imagine that he might have been afraid that he'd be "caught" with bed bugs, and so wanted to spray to make sure nobody found out.
and, then he couldn't tell me, of course. it sounds inconceivable. but, to a child, the possibility of not getting caught with bed bugs would outweigh everything else. or, at least that's the best i can make sense of it.

it's all horribly negligent and everything, but i'm really more concerned about my health, right now. if there was something sprayed down here, figuring out what it was will help me in determining what kind of exposure i've had, how much i've got in me, how to clear it out, etc. and, i'm going to get to the point through testing, eventually, anyways.

i trust you'd tell me, if you knew, because you're a responsible adult and everything. i'm more presenting arguments for you to throw at paul to get an honest response out of him. i really don't think i'd get one out of him, myself.

even if i can air the place out tomorrow and it works in eliminating the headaches, i think i need to know if i'm possibly reacting to something or not.

i need to be clear that i'm not exactly making any accusations. as mentioned, it could be anything. but, i can't shake the suspicion - and i'm consequently going to end up testing for it. if i can get some confirmation, it's just going to allow me to reduce exposure faster and reduce risk factors quicker.

the landlord
Jessica, I have asked repeatedly that My brother and niece catch one bug or bugs so that I could verify there are bed bugs. my niece started this scare originally with what she thought were bites on the back of her hand. That turned out to be Xema. She had recently visited her Doctor and was told she had XEMA on her hand and not bites. Up to this point they have not caught one bug to show me that Bed bugs are identified as a problem. At this point I am convinced there are no bed bugs at all. If there were bed bugs they would have multiplied and there would be evidence of many bugs and actual bites. I have not seen one bed bug to this day.  I know you research things quite well and I have done my share of reading and researching!        bed bugs spread and multiple quickly. I have not seen any evidence that there are bed bugs in my niece's place or any other place. ..... I was told that my niece's boyfriend, killed a bug crawling up the wall and which they determined it to be a bed bug. Still they did not keep it to identify it as a bed bug.. The other point I want to make is that the thought of bed bugs does make people panic and do not want to be associated with this problem. SO, people to panic and react without verifying. So please be empathetic to this reality.

SPRAYING. I do know that they did spray in my niece's place about a week ago which was about 1/4 to less of a spray can; my brother did the spraying, one time along the bed boards and baseboard in one room. This was isolated to their apartment only. I do not believe this product could have migrated to your apartment, since they followed the instructions to keep all their doors closed while this product settled.  Please keep in mind each units ventilation system does not mix their air to the rest of the air in the building. All exhaust fans purge air outside the building. Please, also keep in mind anything is possible when door s open and close, but I would say that any migration of the product would have been minimal to the existing hallway and they did keep doors shut for the appropriate time. The other point that I must make is that I cannot stop any tenant from spraying in their apartment. I cannot even stop you from buying a can of spray and you spraying your apartment.  All I can do is educate everyone to be mindful of any bug situations, think clearly of what they should or should not do and that they must contact me before they act.    Additionally, I have been specific with my niece and my brother, there will be no further spraying in the building for bed bugs, since we have no proof of bed bugs. They must have my permission to spray anywhere in the common hallways and basement!!!!!.   ....

jessica
yeah. and, i've done a little more research and it does turn out that the symptoms i was experiencing - aphasia (difficulty speaking) and auras - are actually common symptoms of severe migraines. the thing is they're *also* symptoms of pesticide poisoning. i mean, i initially thought i was having a stroke. there was a point where i couldn't speak. so....it's more like i wanted to rule it out.

consider this: i suppose you could imagine how a fumigation in here might have also created those symptoms. that's what i wanted to be sure hadn't happened.

i really don't have a history of migraines either, so it's not like i could say i was expecting something from a trigger. but lots of things cause migraines. it turns out the number one trigger is in fact environmental conditions. so maybe i just had a bad reaction to the stale air, after all.

i know it's a crazy thing, but thank you for determining whether there was spraying down here or not, just so i know what had happened.

in case you're curious, this describes the attack:
https://migraine.com/blog/migraine-symptoms-transient-aphasia/

it's maybe easier to see why poisoning is something that's in the distinct realm of possibility. and, so, given the circumstances...

i should be back on track by monday at the latest.

but i need to answer a question: am i going to be doing anything new?

i've been clear for years that the answer is no. & absolutely not.

i'm 35 years old, now. when i started this phase of archival and completion, i was 33. i'm past my creative period. ask yourself this question: can you think of a single interesting record made by a 30 year-old?

but i've also grown up. and i'm past the age where i want to be making music, too. my contemporary interests are in politics and political philosophy. i will be spending the rest of my life writing.

but, i do not want to leave these ideas unfinished, either. so, i am focusing on completing unfinished works. and, then i am going to be doing something else with the rest of my life.

i don't actually know what i swallowed, but i was wide awake all night after son lux

generally, the shorter the review, the better the show was. son lux are probably the most important band in existence right now, so to say they are a known entity is an understatement. and, they are absolutely essential to experience at every opportunity.

the venue was a block from the tunnel, so it wasn't much of an adventure. but i ended up swallowing something at the show that caused me some grief, and i need to blame myself for being haphazard with my safety. that shouldn't have happened at all. it's best to follow my vlogs for the next couple of days to get the follow up on that.

the opening band (dawn of midi) was very tight minimalism that would have been far more effective if it was about 30% shorter. it was very much built on top of the work of steve reich, but was very reminiscent of a record released in the 90s called "reich remixed". but, because it was centered so squarely on the drums/bass combo, there were also strong references to minimalist strains of prog (like king crimson). as mentioned, it was just a little too long,  but i think that had a lot to do with the standing-room-and-watching setting, too. it would have been better suited for something like a lounge atmosphere, or perhaps as background music for math homework.

==

here is a full set:

and, of course, the day's vlog:

http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2016/04/04.html

"yeah, i have a very strong crossover appeal: cia/fbi/nsa."

"the only audience i'm building is in the secret service."

"when i say my audience is listening...."

"i think i'm bigger than allen dulles."

i have not bought a pack of cigarettes in three months.

1) as a former smoker, i am now officially old.
2) i think i got this.

but i spent the last week dealing with migraines, so i'm going to give myself a few more days. friday is a hard stop.

of unwanted dogs and media-fueled paranoia

jessica
it seems as though i've been able to avoid the dogs in the apartment for the night. to be clear: my opposition is that i don't want strange animals parading through here. i would not oppose a human inspector.

that said, i understand that i cannot stall forever. so, i will have to allow the inspection, should cooler heads not prevail. just allow me to quickly make the following points, both to attempt to persuade you to halt and to make clear where i stand should the dog track anything in.

1. there are no bed bugs in the unit.
2. bed bugs are not like roaches or air-borne pathogens. they must be carried from place to place.
3. a detector dog is a perfect transmission vehicle. it actively seeks them out, thereby volunteering itself as a ship from them to sail on.
4. it is consequently dangerous and irrational to allow a detector dog to move through the unit. there are no bugs in the unit now. there may be by the time it's done.

so, if you insist, i cannot stop you - i can only stall the process, in hopes that whatever media-fueled hysteria behind this comes to pass. but, should the dog "find" anything, i will legally argue to the maximum extent of my ability that it was the dog, itself, that brought them in.

there are no bed bugs in this unit.

the landlord
Jessica, I have become aware of the situation and I know my brother does not have good judgment or thinks things through. I will be around as soon as I can. Please wait till I get there. I have told my brother to find a bug for proof and not be so stupid to believe a bug smelling dog! I believe there are no bed bugs at this point.

03/04-04-2016: before and after son lux

concert footage:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JovyZbjJIlI

review:
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2016/04/04.html

tracks worked on in this vlog:
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/period-1

i've set the 10th for my shut down deadline. that's three months since i quit smoking - and i've held to this. so, again: every other annoyance aside, that's something that i'm happy that i got done. just about anything is worth that. i can talk about wishing i had prioritized it earlier, but i just got tired of putting it off.

it will take a few days after the tenth to get rolling again. but, there will be some more completions before the end of april.

again: i quit smoking. for real. i had to turn my brain off for a few months to do that. it's led to low productivity while i normalized myself, but you should really congratulate me for it.

in the meantime,this is what i've been doing....

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCinQSeEtF0vSN1XVhQGfwKA

31-03-2016: out dancing all night...

review:
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2016/03/31.html

tracks worked on in this vlog:
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/period-1

furnace is leaking... (update)

the drip seems to be around the seal, rather than in the plastic - it was just accumulating on the plastic.

i have taped over the area. i know that this defeats the purpose of the drainage, but my prerogative is in keeping the water off of the floor. and, i suspect that the issue is upstairs, anyways.

i'm going to guess that the seal probably needs to be recaulked. but that the issue is probably really in the furnace.

j

j reacts to (specious) accusations of nihilism

and, i want to be clear about something: i am not a nihilist. i am an atheist and a secular humanist. i believe i've actually argued very strenuously against moral relativism and very strenuously against subjectivity in art. i believe in the objective reality of a world determined via scientific inquiry. there is no god in this world, but there are plenty of things that are true. in fact, i would argue that the truth value of the statement there is no god is true. that is, itself, a truth. i am a positivist. i believe truth is obtainable - and that one of those truths is that there is no guiding force in the universe.

but, i haven't been through this here. not exactly. bits and pieces.

the problem is the way the discussion is framed, to assume various things for granted. i am an anarchist; i reject hobbes. i do not believe that people need the threat of god, or the threat of some sovereign, to fall in line and behave. rather, i think that religion and authoritarianism are corrupting forces. we are not evil in despite of the state but because of it. the collapse of the state would bring us back to a "natural condition" of mutual aid and reciprocal altruism. this is not because we have a selfless nature, it is because altruism and rational self-interest are equivalent, when fully understood.

watch this, it's in the name of general education:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kWuR9Rzzlo

what that actually means is that i think that nietzsche is just a tempest in a teapot, because i reject the assumptions he was working under in the first place. understanding the obvious truth that there is no god will not collapse society, but allow it to reach it's next stage of development. nihilists should consequently be seen as reactionaries that seek to uphold the status quo - at best. at worst, they end up as straussian neocons like hillary clinton and want to take us back into the dark ages.

there is a certain line of thinking that ends with nietzsche, but it was a stupid line of reasoning that was in opposition to the real movements of enlightened thinking, anyways. his supposed crisis was resolved by aquinas, who was himself just quoting aristotle. what you see in his writings is a fool coming to terms with the idiocy of his systems of thought. but, only fools would have ever walked down that path in the first place. this is centuries after galileo!

so, i don't think that nihilism presents us with any sort of a real problem. but, if we want to be stuck in this foolish historical narrative? a very obvious and completely satisfactory solution immediately presents itself in secular humanism. and, there is consequently really no reason to take note of the man or his writings at all. he should be forgotten. instead, we should remember the line of thinking that takes us from aristotle, through aquinas and ends with comte.

dodging the pungent emissions of sewer gas in the detroit spring, on the way to stargaze at lillies in detroit

a cold and warm front were colliding over detroit on this evening, and it was that time of the year where the ten degree drop can mark the difference between spring and winter. while it was the proper background for this type of music, trying to figure out the timing of the collision and how to navigate it caused me havoc all day. the shifting weather forecasts did not help much; i was trying to plan within the margin of error.

--

the warm front seemed to linger a little longer than was forecast, which led me to overheat on the way to the show. i had planned to walk in single digit temperatures through a north wind and low humidity; i got double digit temperatures through a south wind and high humidity. had i worn any makeup, it would have melted off by the time i got there - so i at least made that choice correctly.

--

dark red are a two piece drums/bass combo, but i want to stress that they weren't really what you'd expect with a drums/bass combo in 2016. the bass functioned as a guitar, but it was actually a very slow-moving kind of almost doom rock sound. and, he was able to get enough harmonic complexity out of the combination of things to give it a gazey feel. the culmination was a kind of grassroots grunge sound, in the way the term was initially constructed. this is going to be quite the acquired taste - at the end of the day, it really reduces largely to a very fuzzy bass throwing layered walls of distortion at you. so, i have to caveat it by saying that the idea is a little bit stale. but, if this is something you have a taste for, it was done fairly well. it's all in the tone, really, right - it doesn't really matter what else is happening, so long as you get a thick enough tone.

the stargazer lilies seem to be touring their new record, but they haven't released it yet. i'm only familiar with the first record, so i may have been tricked - they may have played older material i don't know. but, i think that around half the set was new material. the newer material seemed to be a little grittier, and a little less focused on melody - which is a shame, because that's what drew my attention to this disc. see, it's not much of a feat nowadays to string a rack of effects together and staccato out to nowhere; rather, the abundance of acts doing this since the early 90s has kind of blurred it all together into a stale cliche. time has just made the situation worse. it's become very formulaic and really rather boring. what's been lost in the rush to total atmosphere over musical content is that the genre was initially built on overlapping harmonies. whether you want to cite the cocteau twins or mbv or the cure or whatever else, this genre shines when it is music with counterpoint and harmonization and 13th chords and other fun things of the sort - and falls apart when it's just some more boring I-IV-V folk tones, run through a flanger or not.  what pulled me into the record was the greater level of musical literacy. it's not just a wall of sound, it's a very musical wall of sound. the newer material seemed to take a step back from that in favour of generic shoegazer contrivances, but i'll withhold judgement until the record comes out.

that may come off harsher than intended. see, i wouldn't go out of my way to see sounds-like-every-other-sheogaze-band on a blicky march night. but, if i happened to find myself in front of one, i wouldn't complain about it either. i recognized about half the set, and enjoyed what i recognized more than what i didn't, but the truth is that the last record set a high bar. it was an enjoyable head cave, either way.

here is a full set:

the trip home was horrific. it initially seemed like i was making excellent time (the show was done before 11:00), but i ended up getting stuck at the bus stop with a horde of drunken frat boys on their way home from a hockey game. worse, the bus missed it's route (the driver claimed it got stuck in the tunnel, and i'm suspecting it had to do with increased security from the attacks in belgium). so, it turned into having to listen to these idiots throw homophobic slurs at each other for almost two hours.

they kept calling cabs down, and the cabs kept refusing to take them because they just wouldn't shut up. it's probably a lot of repressed homosexual desires, and i get that, but it's just really annoying to listen to. one minute, they're yelling at somebody to suck their cock; the next, they're calling each other faggots.

it's not as though i'm offended by the language - i don't care, really. it's more that i'm offended by the stupidity. when i find myself in these situations, i just want to snap my finger and have them cease to exist - or perhaps click my heels and transport home.

even worse is when they want to talk to you. everything is a competition, right, so they're constantly trying to start a debate and win it. it's never about the discussion. it's always about winning and losing. this one buffoon was unable to differentiate nihilism from atheism. if i didn't believe in god, i therefore couldn't believe in anything else. and, he just wouldn't drop the strawman. he had to win. so, you have to let him, to avoid losing brain cells in the resulting discussion - and then hope he goes away. thankfully, there was a beer waiting for him down the road.

then, they expected me to get into a cab with them. right. like i'm going to risk going through customs with these idiots. you can't just explain to the border guards that you took the cab with them but don't know them; that's not how that works. when they did finally leave, though, the serenity that followed was almost overwhelming.

here is the vlog for the day:

http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2016/03/24.html

furnace is leaking...

hi.

the drip was forming at the corner. i've just taped it over. hopefully that's good enough. i don't know if the drip was coming out of the corner or just rolling down towards it. my concern is just keeping the water off the floor, so if that doesn't work then i'll tape the connector over. but i think i have the responsibility to inform you.

i still don't have a phone. i've lived long enough without one that i've learned how to exist without one, and decided it's more of a luxury than a necessity. and given that it is essentially a government spying device, i've actually decided that i even actively don't want one.

so, i know you're transferring ownership. let me know if there's a better email address to use.

but, yeah. it's dripping. slowly. it seems like the plastic cracked. but it may be the seal, too.

j

24-03-2016: fighting the weather, obnoxious jocks & the police state to catch the stargazer lilies in detroit

concert footage:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ihjxbf0htWo

review:
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2016/03/24.html

tracks worked on in this vlog:
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/period-1

uploading the symphony of psilocybin induced madness (abridged) to youtube

hitchhiking to ann arbor and back to see tortoise

getting from windsor to ann arbor and back to see tortoise was somewhat of an adventure, and the vlog really only tells a part of the story. so, i'm going to go ahead and start from the beginning.

===

i had decided before i went to bed that the racist bus system was going to stop me from seeing the show, but i dreamt of the suspension bridge at iguazu falls and woke up invigorated by the prospect. i decided that i would go if i could find a truck stop close to the drop off point - which i did find. so, i dirtied myself up a little, grabbed my knapsack and hit the road....

they had the dogs out at customs to sniff some greyhound passengers. the ridiculousness of the drug war was really apparent, at that point. just the absurdity of it, you know. it's one thing to get kids to watch some infomercials in grade school, it's another to send the canine unit out under threat of a term in a cage. that's a game i don't play. it's a fool's game; your opponent is not rational, not swayed by discourse. it's another layer of the hyperreal, but to poke at the surreal and hope it vanishes is better left to thought experiment than real life....

i caught the bus outside a federal building (overheard statement by a passing bureaucrat: "we control the department of health"); it was an hour and a half before it dropped me a mile from the I-275, which is the highway that i've identified to be the segregation line between detroit and the surrounding suburbs. it did not take long for a three-piece family to pick me up, and drop me at the bus station.

the car was full of bernie supporters, who were intrigued and a little unsettled by the canadian health care system. you can imagine it's a big thing, right. see, but that's exactly what i picked up: that it *is* a big thing. and, that's exactly what i tried to get across. see, in canada we just take our coverage for granted. we don't ever have to worry about losing our insurance. it's never up for debate: it's universal. and, universal means universal. it took a few tries, but i think that eventually got across - and when it did, a very comfortable pause set in.

but, what about the taxes? don't i get tired of taxes for everything? i was in the middle of explaining that i've never made enough money to pay health care taxes when the car pulled in, i thanked them kindly and i headed for the bus stop.

the bus from ypsilanti to ann arbor was another hour up washtenaw road, pulling into a detour through the university of michigan campus and eventually stopping at the city's central bus station. the good news was that i beat the sunset; the bad news was that i had three hours to blow before the show started.

===

after poking around the area, and determining that almost everywhere i could go within the range of my mental compass would require a reservation, i stopped at a restaurant that's fancier than anywhere i'd normally go to to get a beer and something to eat. i wanted a burger, but had to settle for some kind of salsa poutine and a greek salad.

"would you like bread while you're waiting?"
"listen. i hitchhiked here. i don't want to spend a lot of.."
"...it's free."
"ok. great."

i'm not ashamed of my lower class upbringing, or afraid to put it on display. but, i was afraid that i'd get one of those famous tiny plates that you get at fancy restaurants. twenty dollars for a leaf of lettuce, right? and that'll be ten dollars for a side of dressing, please. but, in fact, the two plates, together, were a relatively large meal. and, it came to no more than the price of an expensive sub - or perhaps the price of a burger.

two beers later, and i was out to see the show. but, i'll make sure to do a little more research on places to wait, pre-show, if i ever go back to ann arbor.

===

i was there right at doors, so the line-up was fairly short. but, the door guy was very reluctant to accept my id.

"you're 35?"
"yeah."

a skeptical glance.

"you look good for 35."
"it runs in the family..."

i'm actually used to this. in fact, i've been told more than once that my id is fake and i'm not getting in - past the age of 30. but, this would have been a distance to travel to get bounced. he motions to his buddy...

"is this real id? nexus card?"
"is it from canada?"
"yeah."
"it's good."

i saw the guy repeatedly over the night, as i came in and out. the skepticism on his face was palpable: no way this kid is 35. i'm only 32! if this kid is 35....

but, this kid *is* 35. sorry, dude. it's true.

===

i take a look at the beer menu. $1.75? score.

"what is this rolling rock?"
"it's just a watery beer."
"well, i'm from canada. it'll feel like home. i'll go with that."

i need to carry a pocket drum machine with me.

the beer went down quick, so i was out into the smoking section within a few minutes, where i bumped into somebody willing to share - which was useful for the first act.

====

mind over mirrors were a synthesizer act with an unusual light show. they played on the floor, surrounded by this bright, glowing orb. this gave it the feel of some kind of ritual. on the one hand. it was a lot of overdone tropes, right - the spiritual indigenous european thing, trying to bring out your inner druid by ripping on the froese brothers. on the other hand, this was exceptionally well put together in terms of the space it covered in the spectrum, if not in terms of melodic complexity. i happened to be stuck in front of somebody that wasn't enjoying it, and the argument was apparent - there were no melodies, and minimal percussion. it was just sound. but, when you get enough bass out of the speakers to make it feel like the walls are going to cave in? you're accomplishing something. but, it's something that you utterly have to *feel* in order to understand. so, footage of the show would be entirely pointless. this is experiential, and recommended if you get the chance, but i will reiterate that my detour into the smoking section was pretty fundamental in my enjoyment of the set.

this set is similar to what i saw:

tortoise did not need to clear the stage, so they started almost immediately; i barely had time to get a beer. how was the show? really?

i have to admit that the last tortoise record that i really sunk into was standards. i found that the 2004 record was very much following in the footsteps of do make say think, but without the tension - it lacked a concept of grit, and kind of floated by. i did listen to the 2009 disc for a few weeks when it came out, but got bored with it almost immediately and never went back to it - the truth is that it just couldn't compete for space in my mp3 player. and, i was walking into the show without having heard much of their new record at all. but, i am very much familiar with their three classic records - and was hoping to see a lot more material from them.

the truth is that i should have known better. it's largely a question of who the guitarist was. the magic on millions and tnt was all pajo; at this stage, the differences in style between pajo and parker are really absolutely apparent and it's obvious who did what. so, it's not really fair to anybody to show up to a tortoise show in 2016 with jeff parker on guitar and expect them to run through twenty year-old material that somebody else wrote. i should have thought that through a little more closely.

i can't claim the same familiarity with their newer material, but it's....it's not written at the same level. see, that's the thing: if it was, i'd have the same familiarity. it's not due to lack of exposure. some of the stuff on beacons came back to me when they played it, but even so it was kind of fuzzy.

which is not to say it wasn't enjoyable. the display of drum wizardry, itself, was worth the price of admission! and, they played a handful of older tunes, too. it's just that it's not the same thing - because it's not the same band. and, one should have reasonable and realistic expectations when going to see tortoise with their current lineup in 2016. i need to point the finger at myself in walking in with unrealistic expectations.

so, it's still tortoise. it's still a good show. but, be reasonable about what you're expecting.

i'm disappointed in the lack of footage online from the show, but this is a decent representation:

i found myself in an overnight diner until 8:00 am, due to the late night saturday morning bus service. diners are always entertaining if you have the right approach to them: you get drunks & cokeheads battling it out with saucy waitresses that expect to be tipped in inverse proportion to their attitudes, and usually are. there's always some narrative to follow. they were good about coffee, there, which is about all i ask for. although i managed a free breakfast from somebody, too.

he walked over towards me..

"i'm going to buy you breakfast."
"no, i'm ok. i know i'm sorting through change, but my bank card doesn't work here so i only have what i brought with me."
"no, i'm buying you breakfast."
"but, it's not..."
"i'm buying you breakast."

*pause*

the waitress asks me what i want. i get a special. he's gone before i can pay for it...

"he didn't actually buy me breakfast did he?"
"yup."
"i don't look that bad do i?"
"no. you actually look pretty good. i think that's *why* he bought you breakfast, if you see what i mean."
"but i told him over and over. if that's true, it's kind of invasive. i mean, it's non-consensual. i...i should just be quiet, right. say thank you and forget about it."
"yup. just be like: thanks weird dude..."
"i think it's gotta be more about him. after i tell him, like, five times - that's not about me. that's salvation through works, or something. it's just that there are people who actually can't get breakfast. people that would actually benefit. i'm just stuck here overnight. i just spent money on food and concert tickets and beer...you know..."
"you should just say thank you."
"yeah. i should."

the sun was shining brightly when i left, although the temperature was a little chilly.

===

the ride back was a struggle to keep my eyes open, and i *did* nod off a few times before i got to the end of the aata route, and started walking up michigan.

it was literally the moment that i put my thumb out that somebody slowed down and picked me up - as though he'd been waiting for me. or perhaps waiting for somebody to be waiting to get picked up, anyways.

it was an older guy, in what i guess was his fifties. he claimed he'd been up all night, and he was definitely a little bit drunk - but he was also obviously harmless. he had stories about wild nights in his youth at the bar i'd been to, and seemed a little surprised when i told him the band sounded a little like king crimson - as though he wished he was there. it was a short ride up to the mcdonalds on the other side of the freeway, a quick thank you and a brisk walk away. if i set off any flashbacks, i hope they were positive memories, on the whole.

the bus ride back was non-eventful. and, i did eventually make it home safely - and then slept for a full 24 hours.

this is the vlog for the day:

http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2016/03/11.html

catching the bus up woodward to see guerilla toss at the old marble bar

the backstory for this evening was mostly related to the question of whether getting to this bar and back, through a part of detroit i'd yet to enter, could be done safely. in the end, i believe i was overly cautious: the bar is perhaps on the edge of scary-town, but it's also a block from campus. it may take a few trips for my nerves to calm, but i do not believe that i am putting myself in any danger by going to this venue, so long as i do not stray too far in the other direction. that said, i would obviously prefer to go to other bars to see shows...

===

the first act consisted of a woman playing guitar. it wasn't very interesting. if it was trying to be atmospheric or ambient, it wasn't; if it was trying to be technical, it wasn't, either (at all). it was actually to the point where a little bit more proficiency could have helped it succeed in being better, as ambient music. bluntly: it was some generic country/roots riffs played through a reverb pedal, masqueraded as some kind of art. i don't mean like morricone. i mean like garth brooks. again: i don't know how this kind of thing gets booked.

i tried to suggest to the guitarist that she needs to add more to what she's doing in order for it to not be boring, but the suggestion was received poorly. so, i moved on.

===

guerrilla toss came on considerably earlier than i expected, which allowed me to make the choice of whether to stay for the headliner or not. when i got home, i realized that they had done their "normal set" at third man records, down the street, a little earlier in the day (i didn't know that was taking place; if i did, i would have went). it seems as though they refrained from recycling their set. i had been listening to their most recent record for a few days up to the show, but the choice to not recycle the set meant i didn't know much of the material. they may have actually played some new material - i don't know; i've bumped into them a handful of times over the last couple of years, and i've had a mixed reaction, but i wouldn't exactly consider myself a fan. my decision to go to the show was more experiential: it just struck me as something that would be good live.

in fact, my immediate impression was that they sound a lot better on record than they do live. i've checked out a few live recordings (including footage of the early set...) and the issue is actually persistent and obvious: it's the open room. this is a band that has a very tight, compressed sound. it has a lot of complexity all over the spectrum, but it's rooted in a very busy and very squished bass/drum combo. so, you basically want to see them in a closet. a basement would be ideal! any kind of space with any kind of reverb at all is going to hollow them out, and make them sound blurry. you don't want to give them any space at all.

there's some mixing decisions you can make to balance it out, of course - and they seem to refrain from making them. but, more than anything else, it's the open ceiling. and, that's actually something more general to keep in mind about the bar - it would be good for anything ambient, but bad for any kind of punk.

i'm not knocking the show. don't misunderstand. it's just that the acoustics were very unfriendly. and, they seem to be making that error repeatedly. see them in an enclosed space, if possible. and recommend it, too - if you get the chance.

here's a full set:

they were done a little after 11:00, so i figured i'd get time to at least sample the headliner. but, rangda took a good while longer to set up; i'm guessing that they probably came on around 12:00. i didn't have to catch the bus until 12:23, but i didn't know how long it was going to take to walk back to the stop or how safe it was going to be, so i took the safe choice and left about 11:45....

frankly, i wasn't really impressed by the samples. nor am i at all a fan of ben chasny or richard bishop [i'm a little more familiar with chris corsano]. if it was ten degrees warmer out, or an hour earlier (or an hour later) or i was more comfortable in my surroundings or ... then i would have stayed and sauntered down to a coffee shop and hung out for the night. but, as things were, i was experimenting with the feasibility of getting to this bar and back before the last bus, and setting those parameters was more important.

maybe i missed a great show. but, i suspect that i just missed some aimless jamming by some guitarists that have never previously impressed me very much.

here's the vlog for the day:

http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2016/03/09.html

some kind of pilgrimage in the snow to julia holter in ferndale, and back

i nearly missed this show by passing out early in the afternoon, but i was able to get there right before the set started. apologies to the opening act, whom i will probably catch with psychic tv in a few months. this was not an intentional snub.

the issue was made worse by the fact that it was a messy night in detroit, and the venue is a forty minute bus ride away from the downtown core. that likely slowed me down an extra half hour, both from having to walk a little more slowly and from the bus moving at a slower pace.

but, it's not as though i arrived at the venue late, either. this was an early start to an early night.

=====

i bumped into somebody in the smoking section that was on his way out, and he decided to share a little - which was much appreciated. he was voting for trump, based on the logic that the country is in debt and a good businessman would help fix the debt problem.

"first of all, the country is not in real debt, it's just an accounting identity..."

this produced a puzzled glance.

"...and, second of all, this is a guy that's declared bankruptcy repeatedly. so..."

he knew how to answer the second part, even if he didn't know how to answer the first.

"bankruptcy is something that rich people do to help them out of taxes and stuff. it doesn't mean he was actually broke. it's all a scam."

"that's true. but, the same argument leads to the conclusion that the country isn't broke - that it's really just a big tax scam. and do you really want to make a tax cheat president?"

somebody else butts in, before he can respond.

"i'm afraid trump will start a war because somebody will look at him funny, or something. he's unstable. it's scary."

"really? i think he might argue that the military budget is a waste of money. i think the most pro-war candidate is actually clinton. and if you really want to vote for an anti-war candidate..."

"....but sanders is saying he's going to take on the banks and stuff. how's he going to do that? he can't actually do anything he says he's going to..."

"actually, i agree with you. i think if sanders was really serious, he would have started a third party and tried to take congress. it's the congress that has all the real power."

"but, nobody will vote for a third party!"

"then, you're right - nothing can change. not if you can't see beyond the status quo. not if you insist it cannot."

i escaped the conversation at that point, and went in for a beer. and, they do have good beer at the loving touch - those raspberry blondes. mmmm.

====

her set was very good; her material is very strong, and she's just simply very talented. i'm only familiar with two of her records (tragedy, and the newest one), and i think all of the material came from one of those two discs. her band was composed of what were obviously studied jazz pros (drums, bass, violin), which gave the set a bit of a loose feel; this was actually a net positive over top of some of her more structured material, although a big aspect of the opening up of those tracks had to do with her keyboard shutting off mid set and needing to be rebooted. those old nord leads sound great, but they're getting to the end of their life cycles. hey, i can empathize with being a little bit skeptical about just buying a new keyboard. but, her synth actually really kept dying during the set.

so, when the synth crashed, the band would need to take over until it came back in, and then she'd need to bring them back in. this is of course perilous for any performing artist and could have been an absolute disaster. but, through luck or talent it actually worked out very well on this night by inserting these jazzy instrumental improv sessions into what are very high-end pop songs.

i can't predict when her synth will die; certainly not any better than she can. but, i would suggest seeing her if you get the chance.

here is a full set:

here is the day's vlog:

http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2016/03/03.html

fighting with nicotine at pop 1280

this is a late review, which i initially intended not to do at all, but i do think that i need to, after all.

the reason i decided to not do the review was that i intuited that the band realized i was there, and tried a few antics with the intent that i would take notice of them. that's pretty shitty, and i felt that the proper response was to pretend i never went.

but, that would leave a gaping hole in the show review list, which is just punishing myself. but, i will not take note of any of the things that were meant for me to take note of. and, i would prefer it (moving forwards) if bands and venues would continue to allow me to be the unimportant fly on the wall that i want to be. this is a waste of time, otherwise. it's being written solely for historical purposes; i will stop publishing these writings altogether if i start to think that i'm developing any kind of an audience.

----

this was actually a really screwed up night (see the vlog, below), with all kinds of broken plans as a consequence of some bad advertising. i was actually hoping to take advantage of the scheduling to hit two shows, but the scheduling for both shows changed at the last minute, and i ended up only seeing most of one of the shows that i wanted to see, rather than both of them. it's life. things have worked out the other way more than once and will again more than twice.

---

the first opening act for the show that i did get to see was entirely pointless, and at the end of the set it just left me wondering why the bar owner decided to waste anybody's time with it. it was all muzak covers. just a total waste of time. i don't know how a band like that manages to even get booked...

---

this was the second time that i saw brothels. the first time, the show seemed really loose and haphazard - as though the songs were still being written. but, there was some potential if they could polish it a little. on this night, the songs seemed really compressed and a little too generic-punk-rock for my tastes (although the guitar tone was quite nice). the last song of the set, though, hit the middle point that i think they want to be aiming towards, hitting upon this incesticide-era sweet spot (think something like hairspray queen). abstract and noisy, but catchy and fun, too. the bassist claimed it's a side project for everybody, and they just don't spend much time with it. that's a shame, as that last track was hitting on something.

as far as i know, there is no media for brothels anywhere on the internet. so, i do wish i had caught that last track. alas...

====

the topic in between sets was trump and how to stop him, but the patrons didn’t seem to be particularly left-leaning, either. they seemed to realize that there was something unsettling about trump, but they didn’t really seem to be able to articulate it. the impression i got from them was more along the lines of the perception that the policies are already decided upon, so while trump may seem like an outrageous idiot, it wouldn’t really matter if he won – because the same legislation would get passed, either way. see, this is not an uninformed view, relative to the last thirty years of american politics. clinton and obama (and to a lesser extent, carter) have all carried on with the same basic republican game plan. so, why would anybody think it would matter if trump wins? this is a dangerous mindset, but it’s also a rational one – blame the people that brought us here, not the kids reacting to the situation!

so, quotes were thrown around, but as little more than frat-house shock value: “he actually said that!?”. the consequences of the words neither rung true nor false, but simply hollow. it was just another reality show, to be viewed from a distance with a gaped jaw rather than participated in. 

but, something that got a bit more of a response was a discussion of the economic consequences of the proposed wall, and the idea that it will lead to massive inflation. a sampling of the response:

“i was hoping to get off ramen noodles after i graduate. shit. i guess i’ll need to put it off until i get promoted?”

that generated a laugh, and it was reflective of the general disconnected approach to the political process, the relegation of reality to fiction – the hyperreality that sets in when a guy that plays a joke on tv runs for president, and it looks like he might win. but, it also reflected the level of resignation that people seem to have to their place in the class hierarchy – even as they acknowledged the absurdity of the situation. if this is all you’ve ever known…

====

pop 1280 played a set with a split personality. when they were on, they were on. but, for whatever reason (no sound check? well, who do you blame for that?), half the set was out of time or out of tune. the singer was having a particularly bad night; he was having a really hard time staying in time. so, the takeaway was pretty lacklustre. the track i caught was probably the high point of the show, so take that as you may. for a variety of reasons, they didn't come on until after midnight; i left after about a half hour (i probably only a missed a song or two), because catching the bus was just more important than staying for a band that was having a bad night.

here is a full set:

and, here is the vlog for the day, too:

http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2016/02/26.html

i finished the wipedown of deathtokoalas - as much as i can - from youtube on the 9th. i went on some adventures at the end of last week. i've been editing all week (i admit i was distracted by the democratic party primaries on the 15th). i'll be pushing through with editing until i've got everything i have uploaded, but i'm at least back on schedule.

when i get that done, it's going to be another week or so of clearing off rants from canadian online newspapers over the 2015 election cycle. this will be a faster run, i think, because it should be totally cross-linked.

i do believe that this is the last deletion operation, and that i should be able to get back to what i was doing by the beginning of april.

this has been lengthy. it will be about three months, in the end. but, the takeaway is that i really actually seriously have quit smoking cigarettes. and, that's worth a few months of low productivity in the long run.

it's something i had to do, eventually. and it's almost done.

if you're curious as to what i've been up to over the last two months, the place to catch up is over here. i should be back to the music pretty soon, though.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCinQSeEtF0vSN1XVhQGfwKA

season 4

this is actually fairly urgent...

the power went out this morning, and it seems to have fried the heater in the living room. this happened some time last summer, and it wasn't a big deal because it was summer. but it's still winter. so, that really can't be allowed to sit.

the last time it happened, you just changed out the electronics. but, i need to ask - is there something about the wiring that could be modified? i mean, that's twice that it knocked out in an electrical storm.

04. death to deathtokoalas (dvd 4)

11/12-03-2016: all-nighter in ann arbor, to see tortoise

concert footage:


review:
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2016/03/11.html

tracks worked on in this vlog:
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/period-1

09-03-2016: all deathtokoalas reply threads are now redacted (and guerilla toss in detroit)

concert footage:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nG0g-SWrs_I

review:
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2016/03/09.html

music in picture segue:
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/i-did-your-mom

tracks worked on in this vlog:
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/period-1

j reacts to the query of why she isn't in a band (and if she wants to be in one)

things are continuing to move a lot more slowly than i'd like, but i ran into a conversation at the bar the other night that i'd kind of like to address.

if i'm such a shit hot musician, why don't i start a band?

and, it's really hard to explain to people that i just haven't met anybody i could work with. i've tried a few people. and, they all suck.

like, i don't want to just put together a band to be cool or make money or some other pointless thing. if it's not the way i want to do it, i don't want to do it at all. and, that probably means it will never happen, but i'm not particularly upset by that.

i'm somebody that actually values recorded music as of much greater value than live music. i know that's some kind of heresy, but i don't really give a fuck. it's really not of any great sadness to me that i can't get a band together; i'd really rather you listen to this music over headphones, in a quiet space, anyways.

recorded music has a sense of permanence to it. there's a sanctity to it. the cool kids don't understand that, but that's ok - it's not meant for them. i'm not loudly broadcasting myself as a nerd by some kind of accident. the accident was that people misinterpreted me as some kind of hipster. no. i'm a nerd. and, this music is designed entirely for nerds. if you're not a nerd, you won't appreciate it.

i mean, it would be fun, don't get me wrong, if i could find the right drummer, mostly. but, everybody i've found that has the right training wants to do metal, and everybody that i've found that's interested lacks the talent. my needs are just very specialized - i need a jazz/fusion drummer that wants to start a leftield progressive punk band.

but, like i say....it's not what i *do*. it's something i might like to do one day, circumstances permitting. but what i actually do is make recorded music to listen to over headphones. the reality is that essentially none of it was ever written with the intent of being performed, and most of it probably never will be.

and, that's not something to shy away from or be ashamed of.

water pressure - pipe frozen somewhere in the basement?

hi.

there appears to be an issue with the water pressure. it comes in and out, which is not the end of the world - so long as it comes back, and it always does. but, it seems to be dependent on the weather. it seems to slow down a lot when the temperature comes down. that relationship has held this morning. so, i'm left to conclude that maybe something is freezing over....?

i'll let you know if the pressure comes back when it warms up over the next few days.

(pause)

yeah, i think that what's happened is that the heat upstairs was turned off, and the pipes somewhere in the basement have frozen as a consequence of that. i'm leaving the water running (cold) to try and de-ice the pipes.

it was very nice last weekend. but, it's been below zero for the last several days. and, there's no source of heat in the basement. so, if you don't have the heat upstairs on, it gets very cold in the basement (causing me to turn my heat up to buffer).

what i'm getting across is that i understand that i have a lease responsibility to prevent the pipes from freezing. i've had the heat on in the unit. but, it seems like the heat is not on on the main floor. so, i need to deflect responsibility for any burst, frozen or broken pipes.

(pause)

i let it run for a few hours and turned it off because it wasn't making any difference. also, the pressure is the same for both the cold and the hot; one would think that a frozen pipe would affect one more than the other, unless the frozen pipe is on the way into the building. i still think the dominant factor is like the heat coming off upstairs.

i'm just pulling out a correlation with temperature and making a guess. it should warm up on monday. i'll let you know if the pressure comes back before then.

03-03-2016: trudging through the snow on little sleep to catch julia holter in ferndale

concert footage:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7Hj5_bT2yY

review:
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2016/03/03.html

tracks worked on in this vlog:
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/period-1

26-02-2016: grouchy from not smoking, or just a shoddy night all around? (pop 1280 in detroit)

concert footage:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIdRom9QCiU

review:
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2016/02/26.html

music in picture segue:
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/fuck-the-dead

tracks worked on in this vlog:
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/period-1