Jesus Christ Superstar

Ok, while musicals are in the air, there are two I have to mention, having grown up in the 1960s and 1970s.

The first is Hair, which I'll post on later. The second is Jesus Christ Superstar.

Let's admit, up front, that the musicals of the hippy era blew away the Rodgers and Hammerstein era musicals. First, in energy, second, in music, and third, in revolutionary spirit.

Note, in this film version, we get the great choice of Judas Iscariot as a black man. Talk about in your face:


Now, here is another version of the song, from season 7 of American Idol:


Carly Smithson (nee Hennessy) should have finished much higher than she did that season- poor song choices and an inability to recognize her strengths doomed her.

Andrew Lloyd Webber is one of the great rock composers of the last 40 years.

Doug McClure and the TV show 'Lost'

Last night, I kicked back and was switching between American Idol and Lost- two popular tv shows.

I'd seen only two full episodes of Lost before and this was the season 5 finale. What a bad show! Now the cast is stuck between times- 1977 and 2007, and there is absolutely no depth to the show. It reminded me of many of the 1970s B films of Doug McClure, where random shit is thrown in the script and the actors deal with it; or even of the old Saturday morning 1970s show, Land Of The Lost; which was actually quite superior in its writing and themes.

The thing that annoys me, though, is that this dreck is what passes for deep television. Not something like The Prisoner, but this garbage.

No character development, the dumbest possible action trope to push the plot along....yet this is billed as deep. Jeez!

At least Doug McClure is not around to see his silly B films lauded as real art!