DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

As previously reported, I’ve taken the first steps toward construction of a rehearsal and recording space for my drum kit. We made a detailed plan, worked up a detailed estimate, and now we’re making a detailed plan. Again. The estimate was too high, about $6000; it’s time to compromise.

The initial design called for a freestanding room to be built within the garage. The walls and ceiling would be built from metal studs, with a layer of sheetrock on the outside, mineral fiber (aka rock wool) insulation in the stud bay, a layer of soundboard on the “inside” surface, then resilient channel over the soundboard, and a layer of sheetrock hung on the RC. If necessary, we could add a second layer of sheetrock inside the room.

The floor would float on a layer of Auralex Sheetblok. All sheetrock joints would be taped and sealed. Silicone caulk and expanding foam would be used throughout. The studio would be airtight, except for an exhaust fan to be built into a soundproofed corner closet (which would also house noisy computer and recording gear).

The surrounding room would have been sealed (more caulk and foam) and treated to a layer of soundboard prior to construction.

But this plan has a problem, even beyond the price tag: the garage has an 8' ceiling, so the studio would have finished out at 7'2'' — too claustrophobic, especially considering the cost, and potentially restrictive of tall boom stands (whether for mics or cymbals).

The only way to cut the budget is to change the architecture. We’ve dropped the room-within-a-room idea, even though that approach offers superior isolation (aka transmission loss). The new plan hasn’t been fully spec’d yet, but in general, we’ll do this:

• seal existing walls and ceiling with caulk, expanding foam, and soundboard
• hang resilient channel, possibly using strips of Sheetblok under the RC for additional isolation
• hang a layer of sheetrock on the RC, forming tight joints and taping all seams

We’d still need to build two freestanding walls (because the studio doesn’t fill the garage, but is stuffed into one corner), and these would be framed with metal studs and insulated with mineral fiber.

This approach should cut some materials and even more labor from the budget. Also it buys us back at least 4.5'' of vertical clearance. But the final estimates aren’t in yet.

The problem with soundproofing is that it requires so many layers of materials, and a lot of time to assemble them all. There’s no cheap way to do it.

What’s the impact of your lifestyle on the health of the planet? What’s going to be left over for your kids?

You’ve probably heard that Americans consume something like 80% of the natural resources of the planet, even though we account for only about 20% of the world’s population. It’s a ridiculous statistic, not because it isn’t true, but because it’s hard to wrap one’s brain around it.

The group Redefining Progress created a quiz that makes the numbers above easier to grasp.

It attempts to measure one’s “ecological footprint.” The name refers to the number of acres needed to maintain one’s lifestyle. As you can imagine, beef eaters require many hundreds of acres of grazing land to keep the cows alive, whereas vegetarians can survive on maybe an acre’s worth of garden. Food choices, transportation choices, housing choices all figure into the total.

The thing is, there are only so many productive acres on the planet. The more you use, the fewer there are for someone else. And even if you live a somewhat green lifestyle — conserving gas and electricity, making earth-friendly purchase decisions, etc. — chances are you’re still burning up two to three times as many acres as Europeans, and eight to ten times as many as people in the Middle East.

Take the Ecological Footprint quiz.

Read more about the Ecological Footprint. See also the Sierra Club’s article about it: Are You Big Foot?

The Sierra Club offers suggestions for reducing individual resource consumption.

The global candlelight peace vigil coordinated by MoveOn.org last night appears to have been a big success. Even in our small town, several hundred people (note: not an official police count!) showed up at the square.

I was happy to be there, but I felt out of place. People were singing songs I’ve never heard. I think some were left over from previous wars and previous protests. I’m sort of new at this. Also I can’t sing very well — tried it at band practice once years ago, and the dog left the room.

And my candle burned out, so I felt like a tourist, standing there with a camera, not singing, no candle. But I was rescued by a generous participant who handed me a great big taper. He correctly diagnosed my entire condition when he said, “You need this.”

We didn’t have room on the motorbike for a tripod, so the pictures are blurry. They at least give an idea of the size of the group. They may also give you an idea of how unfamiliar I still am with my new camera. Anyway:

• Peace Vigil 1 (north/northwest)
• Peace Vigil 2 (southwest)

My first experience with composting was a failure. I tried adding brown; I tried adding green. I tried spiking the pile with manure. I ran the lawnmower back and forth over the weekend newspaper in an effort to produce digestible bits of carbon. I watered, turned, and fretted. And at the end of the summer I paid a guy $30 to scrape it all up and haul it away. (Fortunately, our yard-waste pickup service feeds a countywide, industrial-strength composting program, so ultimately my recalcitrant grass clippings and kitchen scraps did end up getting recycled, for which I am grateful although I can’t be said to be entirely grudge-free; I still have it out for stubborn vegetable matter.)

Here at the new house, we’ve noticed that our nonrecyclable garbage output has dropped to about one bag each week, and about 50% of that is compostable kitchen waste. We’d long intended to try composting again, not only to reduce garbage output (if we could make this final bag/week go away, we could cancel the pickup service altogether) but to save money on gardening — for we currently buy compost every Spring.

Here’s the result: DIY compost piles. I raked out the grade, set down a 15'x2.5' hoop of fencing material, and layered in this week’s yard waste. I didn’t intend to build a second pile, but the first one filled up so quickly I figured I might as well take advantage of momentum.

I’ll check the pile in a few days. If it’s hot, I’ll have succeeded. If not, well, I’ve still got the number of that hauling company.

I don’t watch television, because we have no reception out here in the broadcast-media-wasteland that is western Sonoma county. I’m totally pleased with this arrangement; as far as I can tell I’ve missed nothing of import in the five years I’ve not had access to commercial programming. (We did subscribe to cable for the Olympics once.)

This is not to say that everything broadcast by the various television companies is garbage. It’s just that the signal to noise ratio is really low. And the noise is especially noisome — I’ve seen enough commercials (during occasional hotel-room stays) to know this for sure.

So, I’m grateful for studios’ recent efforts to publish previously broadcast content on DVD. This seems to me to be a great way to see the shows that are worth the investment in time, without having my brain freeze-dried by the endless stream of lifestyle marketing that features people and hobbies that I find offensive.

I just picked up Season Three of M*A*S*H. The first two sets are remarkable; the colors are brilliant, the picture quality is excellent, the sound is crisp and clear. These are old sources, of course, so I’m not talking about anamorphic widescreen and 5.1 surround. Considering the source, the DVD presentation is wonderful.

And we’ve been watching the first season of Sopranos, courtesy of the local video-rental place. I wouldn’t be interested in owning this particular series, but it’s been fun to see the first season knowing how popular it’s become. We’ve gotten as far as episode 10, and I have to say I’m eager to see the final two. On the other hand, I kind of hope they’re no good, because the video-rental place hasn’t bought the second season DVD set yet.