Month: February 2021

holding on to this thought like my life depends on it

I’m trying to figure out how to test my home and garden for heavy metals and other elements without sending samples to a lab. Outside labs are costly and time consuming and I like to see the result myself with my own two eyes. There are very few devices on the market affordable for the average person. The device used by the Ville de Montreal to test our tap water was the Paltintest SA1100 which can be found used for about $800 CAD on eBay or somewhere between $1500 CAD and $2500 CAD brand new.

Our tap water measured 27 ppm lead (pb). Which is high enough to cause health complications in children and people with compromised immune systems. In other words, half the population. Let’s be real. How many Montrealers are in peak physical health?

Now I’m reading that cadmium and copper also pose a health risk. So do mercury, arsenic, aluminum, thallium, and uranium. We are only just starting to understand this now that we have instruments that can measure the mass of small particles, so all of this is relatively new to us. Nothing to freak out about, necessarily, so much as learn as much as I can and put measures in place to address the problem.

And so I’m curious how mass spectrometers work, and whether I can build one myself. There are a lot of things I’d like to build and experiment with, but growth and creativity will continue to be stunted so long as I’m living in a toxic home, with a toxic slumlord to boot. Which brings me back to finding a new home to live in.

The next step in my life hinges on me moving out of this nasty ass apartment. Weather will be nice soon, within the next 3-4 months. Just have to endure the next few months, find a nice clean place to live, and then get started building, and creating and singing again (can’t even sing in this place, don’t get me started… there’s no point complaining anymore, now is the time of action).

Going to build me a nice modern laboratory-cum-artist-studio.

Gonna buy me a cabin on the beach with a few acres of land to hide, in a town with likeminded folk.

Warmer winters. Kinder people. Better health care. The pursuit of art and love and knowledge.

ça s’en vient

had a dream last night that i grabbed a last minute flight to Los Angeles and as friends were giving me a tour of the city we crossed a long arched Medieval looking bridge made of glittering silver marred with pockets of black tarnish. a heavy metal bridge like something out of the mind of Antoni Gaudi. surrounded by egg blue pools and fountains. palm trees and topiary. an amusement park. roller coasters. a public transit subway system through water. crowds upon crowds of people.

i can still see it clear in my mind, two hours after waking.

i’ve got heavy metal and ocean coast on my mind.

vivid! i love it

***

(the IRONy, Los Angeles also has issues with lead soil/water poisoning)

True, This! —
Beneath the rule of men entirely great
The pen is mightier than the sword. Behold
The arch-enchanters wand! — itself is nothing! —
But taking sorcery from the master-hand
To paralyse the Cæsars, and to strike
The loud earth breathless! — Take away the sword —

States can be saved without it!