Actionauseam

Noise (from the Latin nausea) is, essentially, undesired sound, and it‘s among the most popular pollutants in the greater Los Angeles quasi-metropolitan basin. People tell me there are laws against noise, but apparently Mark, my upstairs neighbor, is exempt, as are all teenagers, Joel Silver, Jerry Bruckheimer, 209 car-dealership public-address systems bellowing the same exact announcement up and down Van Nuys Boulevard all fuggin day -- ”JACK CUNNINGHAM!!! RETURN TO SHOWROOM 16!!!!! JACK CUNNINGHAM!!!!!!“ -- the endlessly boom-boxing Hollywood Boulevard tourist shops, anything within two blocks of a Home Depot, and, of course, car alarms, not one of which has ever done a damn thing but irritate. Noise Pollution Clearinghouse (www.nonoise.org) is a Montpelier, Vermont--based nonprofit organization on a mission to protect public sonic space, to publicize and resolve noise-pollution issues of all textures. Its comprehensive site (”one of the largest online environmental libraries in existence“) is divided into six serious sections: NPC Online Library (www.nonoise.orglibrary.htm, noise-related articles from journals and books, links to more resources); Noise News (www.nonoise.orgnewsnoisenew.htm, summaries and excerpts from periodicals, updated weekly); NPC Law Library (www.nonoise.orglawlib.htm, noise statutes, existing and proposed, from federal, state and municipal sources); NPC Resources (www.nonoise.orgresource.htm, online tools for activists, education resources, JetSkis); Quietnet (www.nonoise.orgquietnet.htm, non-NPC noise-related Web sites, some of them kind, some evil -- leaf blowers bad, Mercedes diesel good?!); and if you know precisely what it is you’re looking to bitch about, NPC Keyword Search (www.nonoise.orgcgi-binquery.cgi) will probably serve you well. (Incidentally, L.A.‘s Chapter XI noise-regulation policy, articles 1 through 6, can be found at www.nonoise.orglawlibcitieslosangel.htm.)