Got the Jimmy Legs

April 13, 2007 – 11:18 am

What is your landmass

Wall3b, originally uploaded by Jimmy Legs.

More boring plywood news: 3 of the walls have been covered in plywood, looks like we'll have just enough to finish the last wall. I would have done this last night but I ran out of screws. Actually, I have tons of screws left but they're all 'fine thread' screws. Somehow I never knew this before beginning this process, you got your fine thread screws to attach things to metal, and coarse thread when drilling into wood. I'm not really sure how much of a difference this makes, but fine thread screws are just plan harder to screw down than coarse threads. So it's off to Home Depot for me in a bit. I'll also get more expanding foam!

The last can of foam I bought turned out to be something of a dud. It didn't expand to the impressive degree of the previous can, so I'm a little bitter about the whole foam issue for now. I guess I still love it, but I'm feeling a little cynical about my future with expanding foam, even though it constantly assures me it is GREAT STUFF.

Buzz and I moved all the drywall to the cellar last night, what a relief it's finally down there! It wasn't as horrible as I thought it would be, but moving drywall down a narrow flight of stairs is not something anybody looks forward to. at least it stopped raining. I'd had this sheetrock in my hallway since the end of February. I wish I could say the hallway looks better without it, but actually it's pretty dingy. Well, when I get done with this project, I suppose I should my attention back to the above-ground portions of this house. This will be a difficult transition, since the work I've been doing for the past couple of months needs only to be aesthetically pleasing to me and Buzz. All the other work the house needs has to look good to Real People, and all I've learned so far is that Sherbet-Orange is not a good paint choice.

By Jimmy Legs | Posted in House, Renovation, Soundproofing, Weather | Comments Off

April 9, 2007 – 2:25 pm

By the tracks in a tarpaper shack

Wall 1, originally uploaded by Jimmy Legs.

At long last, we have begun the walling-in of our band room. We started with the most complex part: the wall with the door in it. Not only did we have to figure out how to put the wall up around the door, but the wall featured several annoyingly-placed columns that are braced under the main support beam of the house. We ended up just paneling over the columns, effectively losing some 40 cubic feet of space between the columns. It sucks to lose the space, but I take some comfort in thinking that the extra air space inside will aid the soundproofing.

Part of this process involves sealing up any gaps, no matter how small, in the room. For the smaller gaps I'm using acoustic caulk, and for the larger gaps … expanding foam! This stuff is so cool! I'm still getting the hang of spraying it, but when you do it right, this foam could basically filly up the grand canyon. Once it dries it turns into super-resilient styrofoam kind of substance. If I had it to do all over again, I'd just build the whole room out of expanding foam.

By Jimmy Legs | Posted in Renovation, Soundproofing | Comments Off

April 9, 2007 – 2:05 pm

All this and more

The Makebelieves, originally uploaded by Jimmy Legs.

Look what you missed out on. Actually, I'm not sure who made more a spectacle of themselves: Johnny, whose job it is to be drunk and obnoxious onstage, or Mark (L), who managed a rare feat, getting cut off at an illegal bar in a semi-legal performance room. He was better-behaved the second night, though there was some hollering observed.

By Jimmy Legs | Posted in Bands, Friends, Funny to Me | Comments Off

April 9, 2007 – 9:44 am

Everybody's heard about the bird

This was quite a weekend, but before I get to any of that, I must mention the most bizarre moment of the past 48 hours. Saturday morning (er, afternoon), I was hanging out with the guys from the Makebelieves (they stayed at our house after their Glasslands show), and Al mentioned "What's with your neighbors and their big bird?" He directed me out to the back yard where, 2 yards over, there sat one ring-necked pheasant. Yeah, that's right. A pheasant. Whaa?

Sadly, my stupid camera's batteries were dead and we had no spares around the house (Incidentally, this makes me want to go on a long rant about how it's pissing me off that bodegas constantly sell mostly-dead batteries to me), but you must believe me that inside the chain-link fenced yard, strewn with garbage and renovation debris, a lovely example of this game bird strode about like he owned the joint. A stray cat was in the next yard, eying said bird with great attention. Reportedly, the cat had been in the yard but was actually chased away by the pheasant, which was somewhat larger than the cat.

According to my research though, this is not all that strange. Pheasants are all over the boro, and because nobody is really hunting them, they get along just fine. Still, there's something just plain odd about seeing such an animal in this environment.

By Jimmy Legs | Posted in Animals, Brooklyn, Bushwick, Neighbors | Comments Off

April 6, 2007 – 12:21 pm

We're comin' to your town, we'll help you party down

I'm finally healthy like a spring harbor seal and ready to rock out with my ladybits out. If you haven't been out to the Glasslands Gallery in Williamsburg, you should check out the show tonight. This is the continuation of the old Glasshouse Gallery. It's a different building ('round the corner) and does NOT have a big fake tree in the middle of the room blocking yoru view of the band. My friend and former bandmate Al is tooling up here as we speak to perform there with his current band, The Makebelieves. Remind me, I gotta tell Al about the dream I had the other night we were hanging out and I mentioned his band, and he said, "I'm not in that band anymore. My new band is called STIR CRAZY." Was there ever a band with that name? Well, there should be.