Palm Sunday

Today is Palm Sunday, and the weather is raining and gray.   I was shocked to find that there were no parking spaces left at church when I got there - I think there is something about Holy Week that makes even the non believer think about God.   At our church, the Passion is recreated by the youth of the parish a la Godspell, complete with the clown makeup.  Even though the more famous Jesus Christ Superstar is based on the Gospel of John is all around a better musical (it made Andrew Lloyd Webber a star, long before Phantom of the Opera) there's something a little more earthy about Godspell, which was some guy's master's thesis project based on the Gospel of Matthew.  It came out a year after JCS on Broadway.  I have always loved the song "By My Side" from the original show, after Stephen Schwartz was called in to fix the score of the original - it was the the one piece of music he kept.    Smart man!  Ah, the 1970s....the only time when there could be a couple rock operas about Jesus on Broadway.

So tonight, I'll do the DVR search and try to find Jesus Christ Superstar and record it for future watching before Easter.  I can never find Godspell - no one watches that one anymore, but JCS is always on during Holy Week, complete with Ted Neeley, the actor forever typecast as Jesus after that movie.   I think I'd rather be Ted Neeley than Henry Winkler, forever typecast as Fonzie.  There is something about Ted Neeley that makes Jesus seem like a rock star.  Evidently even a young John Travolta auditioned for Jesus, but he is now typecast forever as Vinny Barbarino instead.   Even Mickey Dolenz and David Cassidy were considered, and I am glad they weren't picked, because that would have caused me all sorts of Oedipal confusion.  At the time, I was in love with David Cassidy - but Jesus is God, and God is the Father!  How could I have a poster of David Cassidy on my door if he was Jesus?   But I did have a sticker that looked like the Coca Cola logo that said "Jesus Christ - He's the Real Thing", so maybe it would be okay.  Hard to say....

I did loveYvonne Elliman playing Mary Magdalene, and she's she is so much better singing that song, rather than Helen Reddy singing it.  Give them both a listen and you'll see what I mean.   Even though Helen Reddy's version is more popular, I think she should stick to singing "I Am Woman" complete with the macrame halter top. I love Yvonne Elliman singing this song in a scene from JCS which looks like she and Jesus might be on a camping trip somewhere.   When I was in musical theatre, I always sang that song as my audition song.  And the location is beautful, filmed in Israel.    The movie would be totally perfect if they didn't get so anti Vietnam that they had to have the tanks come over the crest searching for Judas  My husband isn't an avid church goer, and we were watching JCS one Easter and I can still remember him saying, "You mean Jesus got screwed over by the government? Why didn't I know that?"  And when you are a kid sitting through church, it's hard to catch on to that notion, when you are bored and braiding your palms and waiting for the Gospel to finish while you got to say the congregations part, which is always "Cruicify Him!" .  I can remember being bummed out that we had to be the bad guys.   The people got too worried that Jesus was getting too popular.   It's a common theme in our lives even today - any time a politician or a movie star or anyone gets too popular, we have a way of bringing them down.    Why is that?

So, this Holy Week I'll DVR a little JCS, and I'll be thinking ahead to my Easter menu.   For sure there will the kapusta - the traditional Polish Easter dish.   We'll make some dyed Easter eggs, and if we have too many we'll recycle them into pickled eggs.  I love ham on Easter, so I ordered a half ham from our Boy Scout Troop's Dearborn Ham sale.    I haven't figured out what to make for dessert - I have some stewed rhubarb I canned that I would like to make into a pie, and maybe something chocolate and coconutty.   The wather is supposed to be springlike - hitting the 70s by the end of the week.  I've had some snowdrops bloom in the front garder, and I am hoping for some hyacinths and daffodils later in April.   Happy Easter!