Instead...

Instead of buying NEW cds, I tried to listen to some old ones that are awesome! It's a stretch, I know, but I wanted to try to tie this (somehow) to being green. I think I did pretty well, in that regards.

Basically, all I really wanted to say was go beg, borrow or steal this album:

None are worthy of it's greatness.

Not only did it spawn some massive hits here in the U.S., it endures as the lasting impression of The Smashing Pumpkins. You say Smashing Pumpkins, nobody says "Oh, the guys that did Ava Adore" or "Man, Pissant is a killer tune." No no, quite the opposite; "There the guys with that song about the world being a vampire" or "Yeah, that Tonight, Tonight song, right?"

Guess what, folks! Those killer tracks are from Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, released in 1995. The best part of the whole thing is that those are the mediocre songs on the album. People talk about albums that "bend genres". This album has no genre. It goes from the lilting synth-pop of "We Only Come Out at Night" and "Lily (My One And Only) to the balls-to-the-wall straightforward rock of "Zero" and "An Ode To No-One".

Cleverly divided into a double disc ("Dawn To Dusk" and "Twilight to Starlight") the album delivers on the divisive premise. "Dawn To Dusk", the first cd, features some of the harder rockers and several of the more popular songs such as Zero and Bullet With Butterfly Wings. That disc closes with a mellow number penned by guitarist James Iha. Which seems to set the tone for the second disc.

"Twilight To Starlight" opens with a rocker, "Where Boys Fear To Tread" to carry over the themes from the first disc. But by the third track, "Thirty-Three", it's clear that this disc is more emotive and lyrical than the brash and angry rock of the first disc. It's on this disc where I heard my first "acoustic" song, "Stumbleine". Which is still, by far, my favorite song on the album and high in the ranking of my favorite songs of all time.

The entire CD, when I listened to it as a brooding teenager, was raging, depressing and raucous. Looking back on it, now, as a young man, I find it more expressive of feelings of loss and change while still being expressive of the anger and sadness of teenage-dom.

Plus, Billy Corgan is the man.
His solo album, The Future Embrace was a masterpiece. Billy Corgan = Badass

The necessity and the compost bin!

I am fine and thanks for asking;

Recently, I have found myself addicted to all things green. I have my canvas bags and my DVR is absolutely chock full of programs on Planet Green. Fantastic.

Unrelated, my parents have a garden where they grow some tomatoes, peppers, etc. etc. This year (after we moved) we transplanted them to the rich North Carolina soil and have not seen a single plant produce a single fruit. Turns out "soil" in North Carolina is more like sand and little bits of rocks and is rather free of nutrients. So, we were faced with a dilemma.

How can we bring nutrients to this miserable soil? Composting is a cheap and environmentally friendly method of fertilizing. So, we would have a compost bin! I did my research (my father has a collection of sustainable living books from the 70's and 80's) and found out there were a plethora of composting options. In lieu of buying a bin, however, I determined I would build one!

One sunny day, as I was walking around the backyard trying to find a suitable location for said compost bin, I looked up into the branches of a dead tree and saw an old tree house, or at least the start of an old treehouse. It was a project obviously abandoned in the early stages. It was then I had the idea for a completely recycled material compost bin! I would use as little new material as possible! I climbed the tree and stripped it of the tree house lumber. And it sat in the yard for two days before I did another thing with it.

This is the tree stripped of it's lumber.

This is the wood I managed to salvage.

These are the nails I took out of the wood. I will reuse these (except the small trim nails).

So, thusfar, I had wood, nails and a spot picked out. I did a rough sketch of the compost bin, and realized I was missing a board! Kind of crucial, as it held two posts in place. I was walking back into the house, defeated. I would have to buy lumber, I thought. I paused to examine the damage our daschunds had done to mom's flowerbed that I saw this:

Stacks of lumber under the back porch!

It wasn't in great shape, by any means. Most of the wood had dry rotted and some was infested with what I can only describe as maggots. However, I managed to find a piece that was only damaged on one end, and cutting it to match the other pieces of lumber I had would cut that end off! So to the carport (which is currently a makeshift workshop).

The workshop a.k.a. this dumb brick planter that is on the carport and dad's Skilsaw.

I cut the wood I found under the porch to size and then started cutting 45 degree angles into the wood I would drive into the ground as posts. The first two were ugly, but I hit my stride on the third and all in all I think I did alright.

The wood, finally cut to size and ready to be built into a compost bin.

It was right after I got done cutting that I was called into work early, so that put a damper on the construction project. Having got this far, though, I figure another hour of work and things will be done. I will need, however, to purchase a roll of chicken wire. That (it seems) will be the only new material I will need. Will keep you posted.

-kyle