Noise pollution

"I asked the priest if he could start later but he refused, so in the end I brought a complaint of noise pollution against him. I cannot listen to the television or the radio, and reading a book or a newspaper is out of the question." – Flora Leuzzi

Yesterday, in the Washington Times, there was an article on the front page, down at the bottom. It was about how this man, Signore Leuzzi, was fed up with the local practice of the nearby church in quiet Lavagna, Italy. Signore Leuzzi is not talking about some sort of rambunctious rock Mass or some horrible liturgical abuse. He is talking about bells. Church bells to be specific. Leuzzi’s argument is that the constant church bells ringing throughout the day, every 15 minutes to be exact, is disturbing his peace and quiet, his retreat from the noisy world of the city. The bells should not ring.

The Italian Bishops Conference countered, saying that the bells are part of the rhythm of everyday Italian life. They have hired lawyers “to defend their right to ring.”

Fighting against the Conference is the city council of Genoa, the bigger city near Lavagna, who says that the bells are, in fact, breaking noise regulations. Already there have been requests by the council to only chime the bells from 7 am to 10 pm, no earlier or later. The council also asked “that even during religious festivals, chimes last no longer than three minutes. If these guidelines are breached, the churches involved will be fined."

So what does this mean for the Church in Italy? It doesn’t seem the declarations of the council will stop all bell ringing. To quote Monsignor Paolo Urso, of the Bishop’s Conference’s Judicial Office: "The sensibilities of locals must be considered, but at the same time there are also the liturgical practices of the church to bear in mind."

On The Lot

Well, I guess since this is a blog, and blogs normally have deep intellectual meditations, and I’ve been kinda slacking in my meditations, I guess I should provide something. I had something beautiful and brilliant that I thought of last night to write about, but I forgot it. Of course. Maybe it will come to me as I write.

So I finally started watching some TV again. Now that Ed, Edd, and Eddy has fallen into the world of reruns (hoping for a complete series DVD one day), I’ve been forced to turn to other shows to enjoy, maybe something a little more mature or align with my mental capacity.

So you will probably be confused to hear that my new favorite show is on FOX. No, its not House, although I finally saw my first episode of it two weeks ago (it’s a little edgy of a show, but good. Hugh Laurie is incredible. But more on that later). No, my new favorite show tailors to my interests perfectly. It is a reality show, one where you get to vote for your favorite contestant. Yes, it is a shameless take off of American Idol, but there is something different about this one. Very different.

The show is called On The Lot. It is set in Hollywood, land of dreams. There are now 18 (there were 50, soon to be 15) contestants on this show, although they do not need to sing or dance to stay alive. They need to direct movies. And they only have so much time too. The prize: a $1 million deal with Dreamworks to direct a movie for them, executively produced somehow along the line with Steven Spielberg. So they do their thing, hoping, praying. . .

They first had to pitch a movie based on a predetermined logline. Some of them did rather well, others not so well. So that was the first wave of cuts. Then they had to work in groups of 3 to make a 2:30 movie in 24 hours. That cut a bunch of people too.

So that brings me to last night’s show. They had to work on a 1 minute comedy movie; they were all shown last night, and now we America are to vote on which we liked best. Except you only had 2 hours to do it last night, so I missed my window of opportunity. So now I’m worried that my favorite guy won’t make it, etc. He’s a family man, my favorite guy, with two kids and a loving wife. This will probably be his only chance to make it in the movie business. So I like him. His mind for stories is very nice, and it feels like he is a dad at heart. His minute clip was a neat thing about a guy who picks up a lucky penny, and then horrible things happen to him. It was really funny, kinda cute, etc. In other words, it was really well done, funny, and didn’t have to resort to bathroom or sexual humor (although one of the ones with bathroom humor was really funny).

Not all were like that though. Even when there was only a 1 minute runtime, there were still movies with 2 guys kissing, a man and woman feeling each other up in the security check for an airline, nice family friendly stuff like that. But most were not like that. Now I don’t know if that’s because the directors didn’t have enough time to work that in, but I’m hoping its because they’re above all that.

Either way, it looks like an interesting series, and even if my guy gets kicked off, I’m sure I’ll continue watching it.

Fun Times

Summer

Yes, that's right children. Its summer time. You know what that means, its time for Matthew's

RANDOM POINTLESS UPDATES!!!!!!!!!!!

Thats right folks. its time for me to tell you, oh most captivated audience, of my remarkable deeds so far, since myself and my school friends parted. Ok, here goes it:

I've finally put away most of my stuff. In order to do that, i had to go through my closet and get rid of clothes that don't fit me. That opened up a decent amount of room in that doorway to Narnia.

I have decided to have an elaborate dinner reminiscent of of Rome. It will involve sausages cooked with whiskey, green beans, and gelato (the Giant up the street from my house sells it). I'm really excited.

I've been reading The Idiot by Dostoyevsky, but its slow going. I'm only 1/4 of the way through it.

I've started work, which is going fine, thanks for asking. I'm working again at UMD, except this year I should be doing other stuff besides just help desk things. That should work out alright. I'm there right now, actually.

I need to get stuff for my thesis (thesi, thesises, i don't know).

So thats all i can think of right now.

how bout you? what do you have to show for your efforts.

Vacation

Ok, finals are over. I don't think I failed any of them, in other words, I'm now a freaking SENIOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now two thesi, thesises, whatever, left to go. Ok, two of those, and two semesters worth of classes left too.

So now that it is summer, I can blog more, with more stuff too. . .
Doesn't that make you excited?

And that will start as soon as I start working at UMD. . . in a week.

SO be patient.

Finals

Finals time is here. Which means we must take finals.

Finals: From the Latin finalius, meaning for "end"

Used in a sentences: "My Finals are gonna kill me."

I've got three down. The first being the Apologetics presentation mentioned earlier, defending the validity of the Novus Ordo Missae. The next two were today. Early in the morning I had Shakespeare's Histories and Tragedies, which I feel went well. Then there was Modern Philosophy. That hurt. I mean, that felt like I was being punched like no other. It was terrible. I answered everything, but I know I didn't get full credit for a single answer.

Sigh

But that is the past. Now to the future!

I have no exams tomorrow, two on Wednesday, and one on Thursday. That one on Thursday is a Seminar, so that should be fun.

Maybe later I'll post an actual thought provoking post.