"With a Buzz in Our Ears We Play Endlessly"

With the coming of July it is crazy to think that 2008 is already half way over. July has so far been a great month! The 4th was one of the best 4ths I have had in my life, just because how chill it was. There is nothing like a day off with 15 plus friends, BBQ, some drinks, football, a good walk to 7-11 and fireworks in the streets of Azusa. I think my favorite part of the night was lighting off fireworks behind Alosta place in Azusa. Since in G-town it is illegal to set off fireworks we had to mozy on down to Azusa. When walked onto the street the smell of sulfur quickly let us know we were in the right place. I think everyone who lived there on the street was out hanging out with each other and having fun. There were kids, adults, random creepy men lighting off fireworks from the back of their cars, and us. It was so cool just to see people from the community outside of their houses and enjoying one another. For far to long have we let our homes become our personal hideaways from the outside world. A night light this gives me hope for a community of loved ones.
The day after the 4th Tim, Geoff, Jackson, Ryan, Roy, Elliot and I got together and invited a few of our friends to participate in sports day 2008. The idea behind the day was to play sports all day long and then end the day with a sports movie. We all (about 10 us) meet up about 9:30 am at Azusa square and started off the day with 2 and half hours of football; this was a bad choice! After just 3 long games of football we all were already beat, yet the day had to go on and so it did. After football with played an hour of ultimate frisbee. I am happy to say that both of my teams dominated both football and ultimate, in fact the final ultimate source was something like 15 touch downs to 4.
After ultimate we went to the closest area of shade, since it was over 100 degrees outside and BBQed some hotdogs. After the BBQ about nine more people showed up and we played nine innings of softball. My team lost...sad day. During the game Jackson ended up almost breaking his thumb after a throw from Ryan to get a man out on first was way to low for Jackson to get to. The highlight of the softball game was when Tim slid into 3rd, with shorts on, only to get tagged out by the 3rd baseperson who had the ball for about 15 seconds before Tim even got to the base.
I don't know if it was the heat or what but after the softball game all nine newbes took off and left the O.G. ten of us, minus Tim because he went home to because of his bloody leg due to his slide, to finish up the day with two basketball games in the freaking hot as hell courage dome. By the second basketball game, to 15 by 1's and 2's, I was drifting somewhere between thinking I might pass out and feeling like I was going to throw-up. On top of that I had a mad headache from dehydration despite the fact that I had already finished off 5 Nalgenes of water and middle sized gatorade.
To end the day five of the original nine ran a four by four relay, each of us running a 1/4 mile. I was surprised that our team of four (Jackson, myself, Geoff, and Ryan) completed the relay under 7.30 min. That night we meet back up after showers to eat some subway and watched "We Are Marshal." Overall it was a great day! I hurt like hell for the next three days but it was totally worth it!

With half of the year over I also have come up with my top 5 CD's so far in the year 2008. Many of these CD's I have not digested in their fullness but here they are with a couple of honorable mentions:

Top Five of 2008 (as of July 2008)
1. Sigur Rós - Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust ("With a Buzz in Our Ears We Play Endlessly")
2. Vampire Weekend - Self-titled
3. Fleet Foxes - Self-titled
4. Foals - Antidotes
5. Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs

Honorable Mentions (in no order)
Thrice - The Alchemy Index: Vol. 3 & 4: Wind and Earth
Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
Hayden - In Field & Town
The Acorn - Glory Hope Mountain
Wolf Parade - At Mount Zoomer