It was already a reasonably stressful day.  It was the typical “my job is stressing me so bad that my body has developed an auto-immune skin eating disorder” kind of day. So when I had heard that a potential tornado wiped through a number of boroughs in New York City I was [...]]]>

It was already a reasonably stressful day.  It was the typical “my job is stressing me so bad that my body has developed an auto-immune skin eating disorder” kind of day. So when I had heard that a potential tornado wiped through a number of boroughs in New York City I was in a reasonably foul mood and really didn’t care. Then while sitting at my desk at work I began thinking about the numerous people I know that could have been adversely affected by the storm and started making calls. Fortunately everyone was fine… all was hunky dory and I could proceed whining about how awful my day was.

Later that evening while leaving work I asked my brother and his girlfriend if they could poke their heads around the corner and check on my truck which was parked next to the Maria Hernandez Park. I figured I’d be better off knowing if, on the off chance, a rogue storm took a personal interest in destroying what was left of my day. He said he would and I hopped cheerfully onto the subway. Previous to the storm entering the day’s equation I was planning on seeing what was sure to be an amazing concert by the great NYC band BILE but after exiting the subway I received a sinister IM from my brother that simply said “CALL ME”. “CALL ME” wasn’t “EVERYTHING IS FINE”. That may be stating the obvious but that’s exactly what went through my head when I read it. So… being the ever obedient older brother (I’ll repeat that: ever obedient OLDER brother.) I called and this is what I was told, “Your truck is under a tree and next to a house that is going to collapse.” So I skipped the BILE show to go save what was left of my truck.

What I found when I finally got to my truck was exactly what had been described. My truck under a tree and next to a house that was going to collapse. All of this of course was only a MINOR mess compared to the obliterated vehicles around me and a totally devastated Maria Hernandez Park which was littered with husks of trees that I’m sure, only moments ago, were having a perfectly fine day. THE GOOD news, if any could be had…. the truck and car surrounding my truck had both been obliterated. Crushed (that, by the way, is BAD news). The house next to my truck had its roof ripped off and the front was crumbling (also BAD news, for those wondering). Horrible things for sure but when the trees were cleared… unbelievably enough, there was not even a scratch on my truck (the umm.. the GOOD news). The End. How was your day?

This initially looked like a good sign.

The story begins very simply. It begins with… it begins with the… it umm… well… sigh. That’s a lie. The story doesn’t begin simply at [...]]]>
207 Johnson Ave. Brooklyn, NY.
My new home for 3 1/2 weeks.

This initially looked like a good sign.

The story begins very simply. It begins with… it begins with the… it umm… well… sigh. That’s a lie. The story doesn’t begin simply at all. The need to simplify all of this is so overwhelmingly powerful the situation has forced me into a fantasy like frame of mind as a defense mechanism to spare my last shreds of sanity. However, for you the reader, I will skip past everything and start with something easy enough to digest, a building. 207 Johnson Ave. Brooklyn, NY.

I was looking for a new home in February 2010 when I came upon this apartment in Bushwick on Craigslist. The building seemed well kept enough when I looked at it and the landlords seemed eager to make the minor repairs I had asked for. When looking at the place I noticed a sign on the hallway wall indicating that an exterminator had been there in December 2009 and at the time I took this as proof that the building owners seemed to regularly maintain their property. Always needing a second opinion for big steps, a friend of mine went back to the apartment later that day with me to see the place. We both agreed it seemed like a good step up from my previous apartment with a vastly superior neighborhood. I had called the person who showed me the place and told him that I was interested in signing the lease. Later that night, while surfing the web, I thought I’d look up the neighborhood to see what amenities I was going to have. By accident, I typed the address of the building into a standard Google search instead of the intended Google Maps.

The results of the search were a little unsettling. The VERY FIRST link to some up from the search was from a website I had previously not heard of before… www.bedbugregistry.com. Obviously, this was really upsetting. I had already made than mental commitment to go ahead with this property and this was really affecting my “new home buzz.” I clicked on the link and came across, what was at the time, the only entry on the page.

The entry read, “Submitted by “Anonymous” on 12/22/2009 Bedbugs became an issue in the building in September 2009. Started in one apartment and spread throughout the building. Landlord initially refused to treat and insisted that tenants remedy the problem. He eventually agreed to send an exterminator. Exterminator did not have experience with bedbugs and was using store-bought, not professional, insecticide and the problem did not improve. Landlord sent a different exterminator who appeared to be more qualified, but would report that he had treated the entire building when he had only treated a portion of it. Landlord refuses to hire a qualified professional to treat the problem, which has spread through all units in the building. Problem has not improved in 3 months of inadequate treatment.“

The next morning I went into the landlord’s office and asked a very direct question about the post on BedBugReport.com. I was told that the problem had been addressed and that the bed bug issue had completely been taken care of. The landlord went on to explain that the previous tenant in my unit refused to cooperate and didn’t follow procedures correctly when they were originally trying to exterminate the building. At this point I had two opposing arguments with two entities I didn’t know and I had no reason to believe one over the other. The day before, I spoke with some of the tenants and asked if they had any issues with the landlords. They told me they were happy in the building and that the landlord seemed attentive to problems. Positive tenant response, a seemingly responsive landlord, and posted signage led me to think maybe the person posting on BedBugRegistry.com was in fact unreasonable. Based on that I made my decision to sign the lease. Little did I know that the landlord was a profoundly good liar and the two tenants I spoke with were completely insane.

I had made a horrible mistake.

So. There have been some set backs. Where is the new album? Where are the old albums? What the hell is going on with this band that up until the past couple years had been very VERY active? Well… those are all great questions and eventually they’re gonna be answered. Just rest assured [...]]]>

So. There have been some set backs. Where is the new album? Where are the old albums? What the hell is going on with this band that up until the past couple years had been very VERY active? Well… those are all great questions and eventually they’re gonna be answered. Just rest assured that there IS material there and if I’m lucky it will survive this current ordeal. So aside from the fact that I can’t go into THAT right now…. what I will do is tell you about what is happening NOW… and right now, those are BED BUGS and LANDLORDS.

About four weeks ago I (Chvad SB) took apart the t.o.t.s. studio and packed up all my shit and moved into a new apartment in Bushwick (Brooklyn, NY). Happy to have small things like heat and a roof that doesn’t leak all seemed well. The End.

Ok… not the end and definitely not the start either. Let’s rewind a bit. I’m going to start telling this story from the beginning and hope that it becomes a cautionary tale for tenants everywhere… especially those tenants who happen to be musicians. Musicians have gear. Gear has lots of tiny little holes for bugs to crawl into and lay eggs. Welcome to “THINGS OUTSIDE THE SKIN vs. BED BUGS”.

ニューヨークのエレクトロポップバンドThe Qualia。どうやら彼らはThe Diogenes Clubのリミックスをつくったようで、私達がポスト後に連絡を頂きました。The [...]]]>
The Qualia is an electro-pop band from New York. They got in contact with us after we posted some stuff from The Diogenes Club, because they have a remix from them. As we are already gathering, The Diogenes Club only do ‘very good’ and this remix is exactly that.

ニューヨークのエレクトロポップバンドThe Qualia。どうやら彼らはThe Diogenes Clubのリミックスをつくったようで、私達がポスト後に連絡を頂きました。The Diogenes Clubは素敵なトラックを作ると信頼していますが、このリミックスだって負けてません。

♫ The Qualia – Volcanoe (The Diogenes Club remix) [M]

We also checked out some of The Qualia’s original material, which also happens to also be very good. They have single called ‘Station Wagons’, it’s definitely worth checking out on their website or buying it on iTunes.

せっかくなのでThe Qualiaのオリジナルもチェックしてみたんですが、こっちもナイスだったり。’Station Wagons’というシングルはチェックする価値大アリですよ。彼らのウェブサイトまたはiTunesでゲットしてみては。

Check out the original post HERE: