Another Star Wars parody worth watching.

This is the last one I swear.

All I can say is, Star Wars clips + dubbed James Earl Jones movie quotes = hilarious. Bear with it, it's a little slow getting started but it will soon prove to be the best nine and a half minutes you've ever spent with James Earl Jones.

"Lord, Lordy, what to do when the romance been gone!"

Everyone loves a Star Wars parody.

*warning: some bad language. Perhaps not appropriate for mixed company.*

Benedict XVI Comes To CUA Campus

"My pastoral visit here is an opportunity to strengthen further the bonds of communion that unite us."
-Benedict XVI: 16 April, Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception

The Pope's Apostolic visit to the United States kicked off with a series of events in the Nation's capital this week; many of which brought him to The National Basilica and/or Catholic University's campus. Seeing as how I live on the grounds of the aforementioned University and Basilica, this was pretty much the most awesome thing I could possibly have imagined.

Apparently a majority of the CUA community shared my enthusiasm: and why not? It's the friggin Pope! While I remain a vehement critic of the way American college students (well... actually the way world youth in general) view the Papacy and thus greet the Holy Father, I feel I now have a much better understanding of why it is an important (though not by any means amply respectful or theologically sound) aspect of the faith. The look on Benedict's face when he exited the Pryzbala Center to a chorus of hundreds of students chanting "C! U! A! Loves! The! Pope!" was undoubtedly priceless.

*I know this because I was about twenty feet away from the man... Ha! Ha!*

The Catholic youth are the pulse of our Church, and if they are taken with the Pope then they'll hopefully listen carefully to what he has to say. All of which, in my humble opinion, is awesome.


Aside: May I just say, the popemobile is pretty sweet... I'm a fan.

I'm sorry, this picture still blows my mind. This is the Pope standing in front of the place where I eat lunch everyday. I'd take it for that old photoshop magic if I hadn't taken the damn picture myself. Amazing. The following picture is the only one in the post that isn't mine. The credit goes to my friend Ray Bosche who had a camera of infinitely better quality than my little point and shoot.


The Apostolic Journey to the US couldn't have come at a better time in my opinion. The three years since the death of John Paul II seem to have left the American youth either ignorant or apathetic in terms of the Papacy. The excitement I experienced in the crowd certainly was reminiscent of the video footage of JPII's trip to campus in 1979; a good sign. A sign which I will now proceed to rub in the face of every critic of Benedict's charisma and ability to attract youth. For crying out loud people, he's the Vicar of Christ... he can handle it.

Look for more Pope-themed stuff on this blog coming soon, but give me some time... I'm a full time student and part time blogger.

Ladies And Gentlemen, The Theremin

You might be wondering what on earth this lady is doing. The answer: playing a theremin.

The theremin is one of the most fascinating musical instruments. There are no stings or belts, and you don't blow into anything. You literally play sound waves by moving your hands over two antennae: one which controls pitch (right hand) and one which controls volume (left hand). It is the only instrument which can be played without any mechanical touching (ie: plucking of strings, etc). You may know the theremin best as the UFO sound effect in any sci-fi B movie pre 1970. As you can see from the video, it can be a serious classical instrument as well; bringing with it a novel and distinctive pitch.

The video is Debussy's "Claire De Lune" on theremin as performed by Lydia Kavina. Widely regarded as the world's foremost thereminist, Kavina studied under Leon Theremin (her grand uncle and inventor of the instrument).

If you want a better example of how the theremin works, theres a good video here (bear with it though, it's a little boring).

Hope you all enjoy.

Roommate Breaks Cookie And Blog Slump

Alec - *opens fortune cookie* *reads* "Oh... bull shit... well... actually in bed I might be."

Sorry, I found that hilarious.

As for the Blog slump, theres a (short) story:
Back when I redid my layout, my dear girlfriend pointed out that I was consistently posting exactly four posts a month.
So, thanks to my good buddy and roommate Alec, the four-post slump has been broken.

And there was much rejoicing... "yayyyy"

A Rare Bout Of Ecumenism

Saturday before last I ventured to the National Islamic Center with a group from my world religions class to attend a service at the mosque and learn a little bit more about the faith in general. Now, any of you who know me are probably wondering why on earth I would do something so unbecoming of my dogmatic Catholic persona (especially early on a Saturday morning); but the fact of the matter is, I can be caught up in rare bouts of ecumenism and genuinely show a vested interest in faiths other than my own (particularly when my world religions grade is dependent upon it).

For all my apparent disinterest, I was actually looking forward to this trip and did in fact have a good time; so much so that I've decided to share the entire experience with you, my global internet community... hooray!

As a Church History nerd, Islam has obviously showed up on my academic radar with relative frequency. The religion, however, has always appeared in my studies during tumultuous periods in which the Church generally considered them the physical manifestation of evil and the biggest baddest boogyman ever to crawl out of the mystic east (second, perhaps, only to the Ottoman Turks who eventually converted to Islam, thereby making that point and this entire parenthetical woefully moot). The point I'm laboriously driving at here is that if you want an adequate portrait of the Islamic faith, please do not read 8th century primary sources from the Byzantine Empire and certainly do not watch the news; visit a mosque.

On the whole, I found the people and the environment of the National Islamic Center very friendly and inviting. Now, I didn't convert or anything; nor did I feel pressured to. The Imam who spoke with us before and after the service was quick to welcome questions (no matter how insultingly ignorant) and maintained a purely academic tone in his responses. By this I mean that he did not conclude his responses with "it is this way" but rather "we believe it to be this way." A form of explanation far more conducive for inter-religious dialog.

Alright, enough of my rambling, how about some pictures?

The group was forewarned of the rules (ominously cast in steel near the door) via e-mail. All men were to be dressed in long sleeves and dress pants and all women were to bring scarves to cover their hair. Attire was to be "inconspicuous;" although, once we were all seated in the middle of a mosque with women (who are usually kept separated behind a screen in the back) and a common look of bewilderment, attire seemed trivial.
Go ahead and guess which Qu'ran I read... go ahead. Did you pick the Spanish translation? Good job. What can I say, 4 years of Spanish + 0 years of Arabic = pocos minutos con el coran. A plethora of copies of the holy book were provided, though not in English.
As for the mosque itself, it was absolutely beautiful. As you may or may not know, Islam considers any direct representation of Allah to be idolatry. Therefore, one will never see a "picture" of God in a mosque (as one might see in Christian places of worship or, say, the header of this blog), but rather Allah represented in abstract forms such as calligraphy, ornate patterns, or tapestry. The result is nearly half a millennia spent perfecting these art forms to make the mystery of God feel present to the faithful. And may I say, it's damn effective.

All in all I find Islam a truly beautiful and tragic religion. There is a profound beauty to it in its devotion and reverence for God. Unfortunately, it is a tragic religion in that it has been hijacked by an extremist minority and misconstrued as a religion with a psychopathic and ideological agenda and a "convert or kill" mentality: neither of which I found to be characteristic of the people I met practicing Islam.

I give Islam four stars. Go learn about it; it's interesting.

Punished With A Baby?

Those of you who are "politically aware" more than likely recognize the words in the title of this post. They come from a recent speech Senator Obama gave in Pennsylvania regarding sexual education for children. In the speech, the Senator was quoted as saying that if his daughters made a "mistake," he would not want them to be "punished with a baby" or "punished with an STD at the age of 16." You can hear the statement for yourself here.

When I first watched the clip, I wondered "whats the big deal?" I will admit the man employed some poor word choice but it was hardly worthy of the media frenzy that followed. Honestly, we all know what he was talking about: a pregnant woman who is not financially or emotionally ready for a child is a problem. It is a problem that no father wants for his daughter.

But is the child really the punishment here? Can someone be punished with a baby? Upon further reflection, I realized that the "big deal" with the senator's speech in Pennsylvania is that it shows he believes the answer to these questions is yes.

In Senator Obama's statement, I see an opinion of prenatal children that is common among pro-choicers - namely: that the unborn child is some sort of aggressor on its mother. The unborn fetus, in this opinion, is something unwanted which shows up in the middle of the night and seeks to harm the mother in some way. After all, she didn't intend to have a child; so what the hell is it doing showing up and growing inside her anyway?

When we look at the fetus this way, it is easy to see how a child could be considered punishment. Punishment for not being careful when having sex or for not abstaining from sex. But the fact of the matter is that there is nothing unnatural or aggressive about conception. It is the most natural result of sexual intercourse. Therefore, someone may become pregnant unwillingly but not unwittingly*. Can we really consider the natural and intended end of something punishment? No, we cannot.

A child is not a punishment the way a sexually transmitted disease is. And to equate the two (as the senator's comments implied) is ludicrous. Sexually transmitted diseases are not the natural outcome of sexual intercourse. The two can seem similar, however, insofar as both can be unwanted. It can certainly seem like a child is a punishment when something other than the child was intended by the intercourse. It is quite unnatural, however, for intercourse to be intended for anything that does not include the possibility of reproduction and therefore unnatural to consider a child a punishment.

The problem is that human beings are trying to redefine their own sexuality; trying to poke and prod it until it will do something new and produce novel results. Unfortunately, sex is an old trick, and no matter how many pills you take or condoms you wear, the purpose and ultimate end of sex is going to be children. The sooner we realize and are at peace with this tried and true fact of life, the sooner we will have more strollers full of "people" and less cribs full of "punishment" in need of a morally acceptable trash can.

I will now climb down from my soap box.

*For the purposes of my argument, I excluded the extreme case of rape.