music: Simon and Garfunkel- Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, & Thyme
I’m enjoying a quiet moment at the 1-2 right now. Just got home from another fabulous Wednesday night dinner at Chelsea’s and am nursing the end of a nasty head cold. The house, usually a beehive of this and that, is fairly quiet right now and it’s pleasant. Tmo is tapping away on something involving linux in the next room over, Peet is out of town on a business trip (sidnote: is this a sign of the apocalypse??), Claire still at work. There is some motion afoot downstairs but people are lying low, preparing their dens for the oncoming snow and rain due to hit in a couple hours.
The 1-2 has been a great place to live this fall. I’m finding myself spending a lot of time around the house, partly because I’m a homebody by nature, partly because I’m often too tired to get up and out and do something after a day of work, but partly because it’s a good place to hang out. There’s almost always something going on, some new cooking or bike building or carpentry or music project, but there’s also enough room to find a corner and read quietly or take a nap. Eight people stretched over two floors and the basement works well. What’s more, the cooperation and interaction between housemates works surprisingly well. Last snowfall five of us shoveled the driveway on five different occasions without asking each other about it. The dishes, usually a contentious point in the domestic scene, have been cleaned and put away pretty well. Tmo put up a shelf with hanging hooks for pots and pans which is an excellent functional addition to the kitchen. We have the potential to be loud, especially the musicians in the house, but all things considered are pretty respectful of the racket. Or not…i’m not sure as I’m ususally the one making the most noise. I’d like to think it’s good noise though.
The thing I’m most excited about is Matt’s project in the basement: the music room. We cleared the basement out of 30 years worth of scrap metal, old doors, and broken appliances this fall and Matt’s been busy singlehandedly building a full-fledged room in that space. Laying palletes for the floor, framing the walls, hanging huge double doors, and eventually soundproofing and drywalling. He’s been working like a madman and I feel bad that I haven’t had the time or wherewithall to jump downstairs and help out, because I will surely benefit from the work in the coming months. He’s turning the basement, once unusable and functionless, into music space. The room is the future 12 Curtis Recording Studio and Rehearsal Space. That completion will open up some more space down there for a bike repair center (Peet and Marla are building a fleet of bikes, or building bikes and taking them apart again-I can’t tell which) and workshop (for whatever Ron and tmo dream up). The music room is what I’m most excited about. The room will also lend a sense of legitimacy to the whole music thing; when the space is finished and available I’ll probably throw up a musicians wanted ad on craigslist to see if I can’t really get things going.
Thank the Maker for the 1-2. Besides countering my seemingly natural tendency towards solitude, it’s a social outlet. This is the year of not really having much of a life of my own, so it’s nice to come home to such a sociable place. I couldn’t imagine living in my horrorshow apartment from last year, full of door-closers, alcoholics, shady black curtains, completely unused common space, and $2000 phone bills. It’s nice to share food. It’s nice to set up a house computer network. It’s nice to turn the basement into usable space. It’s nice to add and tweak this and that, throw a plastic “carpet” in the bathroom, turn an old mushroom crate into a sponge-holder, put up a poster or picture, make this place a home.
Posted by davidtaus at January 5, 2005 11:02 PM