A video found from a friend...oddly appropriate given the Gospel reading yesterday:

Bella?

So in my websurfings, I found a link to a blog post about the movie, "Bella." Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I don't like chick flicks. If there's any hint of romance or hurt/comfort (if I may use parlance from the fic world) as central plot issue, it'll make me snooze. I'd watched the trailer to "Bella," and, honestly, it didn't look like anything I'd be interested in, even if it's being hyped as the next great Catholic movie. And, yes, I realize I will be labeled a Bad Catholic for not wanting to see "Bella."

So when I found that blog post, I started feeling better--here was someone who knew something about film (and I'm sure she'll be dismissed as part of the librul academic atheists), and wasn't impressed with the movie. The fact that others associated with the film's production cast aspersions on her faith is enough for me to not see it. Nothing in her critique of it is the least bit ad hominem, yet people associated with the film are quick to sling it.

Any good filmmaker would be able to respond intelligently to criticism. Lord knows the ability to take criticism gracefully is something you have to quickly learn in any kind of art program. Plus, being able to respond to criticism clarifies your own point that much further. Responding by saying a critic has deep spiritual problems? Doesn't say much for one's film making abilities, there.

I think her post and the reactions to her thoughts illustrate two things about Catholicism these days:

1.) Our political climate is fostering extremism. If you disagree, you're BAD, when in reality it means nothing more than one disagrees.

2.) Why do we, as Catholics, accept trite pablum for art? Look at the liturgical music produced lately. When's the last time we had a Flannery O'Connor or a Graham Greene? How about the visual arts? Why is it that everyone sings "On Eagle's Wings," but clams up at "Pange lingua" or "Salve regina?" (Personally I think chant is way easier to sing than anything that OCP publishes.) From Palestrina to Pärt, we've had a tradition of good liturgical music that can stand on its own as art. Why is it that parishes won't (or can't) support a choir and music program so that they can encourage and commission new music?

I have a theory that the decline of music education and role of western art music in society has more to do with the decline of liturgical music than anything Vatican II did. If people aren't ever exposed to anything which challenges or stretches them, then it's difficult for them to understand it. There are plenty of composers out there, and not everyone sounds like the modernist composers of the 1950's. And even if they do, don't they deserve a chance to bring glory to God?

Radio Fork: "Hurt"

I'm being Posty McPost Pants today, but this is also a poll on my LJ, so ignore, if you've seen it twice.

Johnny Cash vs. NIN on "Hurt." Who's better? I can't decide because they're both very different songs.

Hello, wayward blog readers. I'm still here.

1. Been busy. Like Liam, I'm stuck in work hell.
2. Haven't had much interesting to write about lately.
3. If you haven't seen season 3/29 of Doctor Who, you'll note that the spoiler tags went away. I figured since it had aired both in the UK and in the US that they were no longer necessary. If you're going back through my archives, don't complain to me if I spoil the ending of "Last of the Time Lords."
   
4. There have been a few issues lately that have made blogging decidedly unfun. To some extent, we all create a persona when we're online. But the internet is also a harbor for mentally fragile people, who find support for their own distorted view. I've been online since 1993, when I started college, back in the days of DOC and Citadel BBSes. I assume people are putting forth that which they want me to see when they post here (everyone engages in some form of subterfuge online), but when I'm confronted with it (namely in the form of sockpuppets), that's clearly a cry for help. While I have sympathy for such people, I don't want to engage them here. I am not a therapist, and I can't provide the help they need.

First, there was a lack of due-process with a bunch of RIAA letters forwarded to UW students last year. (Because obviously IP's are never spoofed, proxied, or otherwise manipulated.) I'm sure there were students guilty of filesharing, if file sharing is something to be guilty of. (I'm not convinced. I think it's more of a gray area.)

Next, we have my university forcing people out of their neighborhood. Said area is not owned by UW, although a large percentage of the people living there are students. Did I mention the people being forced out are sex offenders? Yes, they are. And, it should be noted, were placed there because their crimes involved children, not adults. Also note the line in the article about how UW is interested in purchasing the five properties their landlord owns. It even made the Chronicle of Higher Ed.

Okay, sex offenders are creepy, scary people, I'll admit. The thought of what those men did makes my skin crawl. But if they were legal tenants, does UW and the governor have a right to force them out? What's to keep some other group lobbying and forcing out another group of people they deem undesirable?

Either they paid their debt to society, or they didn't. If they didn't, they shouldn't be free. If they did, then they've got a reasonable expectation of privacy and freedom from harassment, like the rest of us. I think it says a lot about how a given society, given the way the lowest members of that society are treated.

And, by the way, before someone accuses me of being academic (pardon the pun) about this, I lived across the street from those guys for the better part of a year and a half. By far, the worse neighbors were the fraternities, sororities, and other college students. That article and the actions by UW make me wonder whose legacy, big-donor mommy or daddy called to complain. The sex offenders were known when I lived there. I can't believe UW just learned about them.