Poisson d'Avril!

With a $2.95 binder from Staples, paper from the Archbishop Alter Library's printers, and two hundred ninety-six hours of hard labor, I have laid my research paper to rest. (I'm exaggerating a bit. Two hundred ninety-six is the number of hours I worried about the research paper, not the hours I actually toiled.) Thus my academic activities are drawing to a close--not done with 'em yet! There's still a capstone presentation to go!--and so it seemed a good time to pick up my cap and gown for graduation.
I'm looking at them now, all bundled in their happy cellophane wrapper with a label proclaiming the contents in clipped cadence. The package includes, for example, "1 TASSEL: REGULAR. BANDED. BLACK." Graduation accoutrements don't mess around.
I just got back from Spring Break, aka Research Paper Last Chance Gulch (if I didn't do it then, there'd be no way to concentrate on it before its due date, Thursday of this week). Our school--and here I'm talking about where I'm student teaching--had its last pre-Spring Break day April 1st. In other classrooms and out on the playground there were parties and Easter egg hunts; in Miss Pancella's class there was a math test. "How the Teacher Stole Easter" is what they'll title my life story. I did, however, seek to expand the second graders' cultural horizons with trivia I'd learned in high school French class. "Do you know what they do on April Fools Day in France?" I asked them. "People go around sticking paper cut-outs of fish on other people's backs, and then they run away shouting 'Poisson d'Avril!' 'April Fish!'" Oh, my kids were mighty intrigued by this. They worked hard on the pronunciation of "poisson"; they asked me to write the words on the board so they could spell them correctly; they wrote them on Post-Its and slapped them on my back. In retaliation, I stuck construction-paper April Fish in every one of their backpacks for them to discover discover on their arrival home.
In other news--yes, the reason I have not been writing about school for a while (besides the fact that I've been writing for school; see the topic "research paper" above) is that I have spent forty days listening to, and writing about, forty versions of the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar. And yes, in case you were wondering--the most common reaction, when I tell people this, is "I can't believe you spent forty days listening to Jesus Christ Superstar. Yeah--I can't either, but the blog posts are testimony, and I'm the only one with access to the jeremiahsaunt.blogspot.com account, so I must have done it.
Back to teaching. And graduation. And this year of apprenticeship approaching its end. I figure it doesn't hurt to ask--do you know of schools that are hiring? There are about twenty-five of us entering the labor pool at once, and I'll vouch for one and all.

The Easter Vigil

Listening to my last two Jesus Christ Superstars today (two because I had a duplicate, and I wanted to make sure I did indeed listen to 40 different versions, as advertised). The first: Karaoke JCS--all the backing tracks. I love this because I love singing along! The second is the 20th anniversary London revival from 1992 starring Paul Nicholas. I haven't any comment on that one yet because I've just put it on now.
Tonight is the Easter Vigil. I doubt I'll be online after that, and besides, even if I was, by the time I get home it will be Easter Sunday. So I had best write now.
The great JCS Lent is drawing to a close. Tonight at Mass we will light a fire and light the Easter Candle from it to show the light of the risen Christ breaking into the world after crucifixion and entombment. This is the part of the story not told in Jesus Christ Superstar--which isn't a strike against it. We don't tell that part of the story when we proclaim the Passion of Christ on Palm Sunday and Good Friday. We leave Jesus in the tomb.
Today I had the unprecedented experience of being offered condolences on Jesus' death. I was in conversation with a boy who didn't quite know what was being commemorated these few days; when I told him someone had died, he said, "I am sorry for your loss."
These last forty days have been about that loss. I've listened to it sung, and screamed, in English, French, Spanish, Japanese, Hungarian, Czech, Swedish and Russian. I've heard three decades' worth of re-envisioning the source material, which was itself a re-envisioning of source material nearly 2000 years old. But I was caught off guard by his expression of sympathy.
I'll leave you with that. My sympathies are with you on the death of Jesus. What a devastating loss.
And then tomorrow--a new song.

Good Friday

Jesus Christ Superstar awards, Part II...
Best Pilate--Oh, Barry Dennen, hands down. Just the way he hisses "You hypocrites! You hate us more than him!" when the crowd is declaring its allegiance to Caesar would let him win it. Or when he whispers the last words of his lines after he has Jesus flogged: "You've got to be...careful. You could be dead...soon." His Pilate has pathos and tragic hero potential--which is all the more impressive given that he's a middle manager/bureaucrat. I love how Dennen takes us through Pilate's sneering dismissal of Christ to grudging respect to fear for his safety and final anger mixed with sadness.
Best Mary Magdalene--Again, there's no contest. Yvonne Elliman owns this role. Like Dennen, she packs everything into her performances. The "brown album" version of "Everything's Alright," for instance, has self-assurance to the point of swagger, but also a kind of gentleness and vulnerability.
Best Jesus--This is tough, but I think I have to give this to the Jesus of the original Japanese cast recording, whoever he may be. He always makes the right choices for how to deliver his lines. He doesn't belt out the high notes on "Gethsemane," for instance, which would seem to be an instant disqualification, but everything he says is invested with believable emotion. He also brings a dignity, a gravitas to the part which is too often lacking.
Best Judas--I'll be honest--it's tempting to just say Carl Anderson here. But I cannot get over Roger Daltrey in the BBC2 rendition. Wow. Carl Anderson may own the role, but Roger Daltrey is schooling everyone on how you put on a rock opera. (Just listen to the music on the video I've linked.)

Maundy Thursday

Tonight, the Part I of the Jesus Christ Superstar awards. I think I can speak with some authority now on whose interpretation of various characters was the best. So let's get to it, shall we?
Best Herod--Oh, let's give this one to Alice Cooper from the '96 London "cast recording" (in quotes since Alice Cooper wasn't actually in the cast of the show--he was just recruited for the recording). He plays it more circus sideshow than campy lounge lizard and so stands out from the crowd.
Best Simon Zealotes--Kelly Hogan, from Jesus Christ Superstar: A Resurrection. Again, part of the appeal is the casting against expectation--hey, look, a chick is singing this song!--but you can't win a prestigious award like this on shock value alone. Her take on an often over-the-top number is restrained, soulful, bombast-free.
Best Caiaphas--I don't remember a particular Caiaphas sticking out, so let's just give this one to a representative from the former Communist bloc on general principle.
Part II coming soon...