"One thing I'll say for him--Jesus is cool."

"Did your friend Greg really find forty different versions of Jesus Christ Superstar?" I was asked.
"I'll answer that by telling a story," I said. "Today I'm listening to a Hungarian version. And it's the first of two."
That's right--today I heard a cast recording from 1986. And tomorrow I'm to listen to Jézus Krisztus Szupersztár from 2000. "I thought it would be fun to compare," Greg said.
...But I'm not going to talk about that yet, because in addition to listening to my first-of-two Hungarian versions, I listened to the Japanese recording again, this time with a young'un who is not quite so familiar with all things JCS. (Let the record show she'd specifically requested hearing the Japanese version, once she learned such a thing exists. I think it's because she's a Miyazaki fan.) I'd previously played "the brown album" for her, so she had some familiarity with the music and some interesting lyric interpretations. "What's a 'cheated mandarin'?" (And, during "Gethsemane," "Did he just say, 'I want to know Micah?'")
This evening I kept singing the English version over the Japanese to help her keep track of the plot, and I'm sure this was what prompted her to ask, "Just how many times have you listened to Jesus Christ Superstar, anyway?"
When I wasn't providing a play-by-play, we discussed the concept of non-violent resistance and why it is powerful; Peter's threefold denial of Christ and then the post-resurrection threefold question from Jesus: "Simon, do you love Me?"; and what's wrong with the lyric
If you'd come today, you would have reached a whole nation.
Israel in 4 BC had no mass communication.
"I mean, really!" I said. "Are they implying Jesus' ministry would have been more effective if He'd been on American Idol?"