It's been an eventful last three weeks, to say the least. On July the 4th, while everyone was firing up their grills to cook large amounts of cowflesh, the rains came back to Maryland. I grabbed the ice cream maker bucket (to my wife's dismay, I grabbed the bucket where the ice cream is made, not the bucket where the rock salt goes) and ran outside to the window well, which I had believed cause the flooding into Dave's room a week earlier. Sho' nuff, it was rapidly filling with water, nigh unto his window. For the next hour, amidst heavy rain and intense lightening, I cut a pathetic figure, scooping water out of the window well and tossing it onto the landlord's lawn. His son came out and helped. By the time it was all over, we had averted a near disaster and managed to turn the lawn into a swamp. I walked back into the house soaked but proud, feeling that I had saved my little family from yet another water intrusion. However, the worst was yet to come...
The next day (the very next day!), a water line broke in the ceiling, flooding the ceiling and causing a huge section of the ceiling to collapse followed by a rush of water that flooded the carpet. The water won. After two weeks of vacuuming, mopping, scooping, dumping, and doing all other things possible to stop the water, the water finally got the upperhand and sent us to the hills (or the Comfort Inn at College Park). It was an out and out disaster. Within 24 hours, the entire apartment smelled like mildew, like a whole company of rats had wandered in and died and were rotting in our apartment. The entire house reeked, such that when you approached the house, you could smell it, yes, even before opening the front door. It was powerfully awful. And the home owner's insurance persons for our landlords did not believe the report and only sent men on Saturday. This was the brick that broke the rat's back. There was no earthly way that I was going to have my wife and little kids stay in a hotel or in that awful hole for an unknown period of time. So we moved. The flood happened on Wednesday, and by Saturday we had found a new place and were in the process of moving. So, I lost a month's rent for cutting and running. I think it was justified. Thus ended this chapter of our lives of living in a basement apartment. So much for living in a place longer than one year. What a mess. Anywho, everything turned out okay as we found a great new place and the mess has been cleaned up and will be ready for renters for next month, meaning that our old financially strapped landlords (who are also member of the ward and are very nice people who have suffered more kicks to the face than we have over the last month) wont miss a month of rent. So, no hard feelings, but when the rains come, I curl into a little ball and curse water until I realize that the water will not get us here...oh no, we are free from the ravages of water in this magic place. Of course, it means we have downstairs neighbors who complain about the pitter patter of little feet. My kingdom for a house. Seriously. You wonder why people want a house in the suburbs...it's just like the VW commercial where the young couple are rocking out and the neighobrs complain so they move to a house to do their thing. I so need a house. Stupid condo living.
So, that's a brief summary of the whirlwind horrible no-good rotten weeks at the beginning of the month. Oh, I don't know if I mentioned that the day Caleb was born, down poured the heavens and Dave's room flooded. And then the AC leaked for the second time in a week, flooding more areas. Oh, and the back door was leaking and creating a bad smell for our bedroom as well. Yes, everywhere eventually flooded in that apartment except the bathroom. Did I mention that the fridge leaked and the pump underneath the house got overloaded and flooded into the kitchen? I thought not. Do you see why I hate water? It's a beast.
So, the Giants picked up Shea Hillebrand. They seriously do not care if someone's got a bad reputation. They have no clubhouse chemistry, so there really isn't any thing to ruin. I'm just glad Hennessey survived the trade. He hasn't been performing that well of late, but once again, Lowry and Cain have been stinkers, both finally winning for the first time in a month the last couple of days. I'm suprised the Giants have stayed around .500 after this sudden meltdown in starting pitching. Kudos to Morris who's pitching great. Good hitting too. I think P. Feliz is finally turning into a great player. Only half a game back of those pesky Pads...
My next feat will be to document the legendary bands I subscribe to. By this, I mean bands with whom I have some familiarity and feel I can judge them. I've decided, if you can't make an eighty minute greatest hits CD for someone of a band and you personally do not absolutely love every track, then that band is not a great band. Sorry, that's how it is. The band must be able to fill a CD with just sparkling gem tracks. When a band can do that with two albums, they achieve rarified air. And finally, if they can pull off a three CD greatest hits then they are legends of all time. I do not know if any band can do that. We shall see. I mean, Billy Joel claims he's got three CDs of greatest hits but... I'm going to go through and cast a critical eye on everything a band has done and I'll be tough.The songs have to be out and out winners, no-brainers on compilation CDs you give to your buddies. Some songs that are decent songs will not make the cut, because they just don't achieve that level. Think of the song Zoo Station by U2. It's a good song, I listen to it, but it would never even compete for a spot on a mix CD if I were to choose a song from Achtung Baby (even though Achtung might be the greatest album of all time and might easily contribute 7 to 8 songs to U2's Best of CD). So, this'll be tough. I probably shouldn't have used Achtung as an example, because I think some bands have made such classic albums that you can't separate out the songs to choose which are the best. Sometimes, an album in it's entirety transcends above the individual tracks. For me, Chutes Too Narrow is an obvious example (although the much ballyhooed Oh, Inverted World does not do it for me, sorry Shins fans). The point of this exercise is to find the great bands and to separate the hype from the substance. For example, you cannot (CANNOT!) claim that the Arcade Fire is a legendary band because they don't have the catalog yet to create a blow-you-away best of. Sorry. I'm very intrigued to see where bands like Travis end up through this process (I have a feeling in the heart of my bottom that Travis will not make it...I say this even though I have all their albums and was bummed when Dougie broke his neck in a swimming pool)
Recap:
1 Cd: Great
2 Cds: Awe-inspiring
3 Cds: Legendary
I might modify that. The 2 CD label seems stupid. So, let the judging begin. I'll keep all two people who read this thing up to date on what bands I've reviewed and where they land
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