Edmund

In the Year 2525
(Exordium and Terminus)
by Zager and Evans

In the year 2525
if man is still alive,
if woman can survive
they may find . . .

In the year 3535
ain’t gonna need to tell the truth, tell no lies.
Everything you think, do and say
is in the pill you took today.

In the year 4545
ain’t gonna need your teeth, won’t need your eyes.
You won’t find a thing to chew.
Nobody’s gonna look at you.

In the year 5555
your arms are hanging limp at your sides,
your legs got nothing to do.
Some machine’s doing that for you.

In the year 6565
ain’t gonna need no husband, won’t need no wife.
You’ll pick your son, pick your daughter too
from the bottom of a long glass tube.

In the year 7510
if God’s a-comin’, He ought to make it by then.
Maybe He’ll look around Himself and say
“Guess it’s time for the Judgment Day.”

In the year 8510
God is gonna shake His mighty head.
He’ll either say ‘I’m pleased where man has been”
or tear it down and start again.

In the year 9595
I’m kinda wondering if man’s gonna be alive.
He’s taken everything this old earth can give
and he ain’t put back nothing.

Now it’s been 10,000 years.
Man has cried a billion tears
for what he never knew.
Now man’s reign is through.
But through the eternal night,
the twinkling of starlight,
so very far away,
maybe it’s only yesterday.

Couch potato

I’ve been running several marathons this week. Monday: Hannah Montana. Today: The Golden Girls. Friday: Family Guy.

Grace

“Starlight can be quantified—1954 was ‘this year of Grace,’ according to Life—but its effect on maddened mortals below is all but impossible to gauge.” Read more.

By their headdress ye shall know them . . .

The Nativity Story was on TV last Friday night. You can easily tell that one is an awful Bible movie when the characters wear headgear like these—the kind you can easily find at any costume rental shop:

The morning after

Ain’t going out or talking today.

Christian (Christmas) etiquette

Jesus said to his host: “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” (Luke 14.12-14)

Marimar unplugged

CD of the moment: Thalía’s Primera fila. I think Primera fila would have to be the Mexican counterpart of MTV’s Unplugged series. The CD is Thalía’s first-ever live album. I’m still getting used to all the new songs, so the medley of her old hits would have to be the stand-out track for the meantime. But the ballads are amazing, especially Cuando te beso.

I believe it’s every fan’s wish to see Thalía in a telenovela again—it’s been ten years already since Rosalinda! I was like “WTF?!” when Marimar was remade in the Philippines. The nerve! Marimar is no one but Thalía. No one can duplicate or replace her beauty and charm.

That Good Friday vibe on Christmas week

I received the promotional materials for the Brooklyn Museum’s James Tissot: The Life of Christ exhibit in the mail today—a hardcover catalog of the complete 350 watercolors, a 2010 calendar and a postcard book. After a religious awakening, French painter Tissot (1836-1902) traveled to the e Holy Land to paint the scenes from the story of Jesus with historical accuracy.

The pictures are breathtaking—they always give me that inexplicable feeling every time I see Franco Zeffirelli’s Jesus of Nazareth. I call it my “Holy Week feeling.” (I prefer Holy Week and Passover week over Christmas, by the way.) I wonder if the Tissot watercolors were ever used as references in the making of Jesus of Nazareth.

I’m glad that these watercolors can now be found in a single, good-looking book. Prior to the release of the catalog, the Tissot watercolors can only be found in hard-to-find, expensive and rotting antique editions and old, old Catholic family Bibles.

The exhibit ends 17 January.

Christmas classic?

Titanic was on TV last night. I first got the VHS tape ten years ago, and I think I’ve seen it more than a couple of dozen times. It’s one of my all-time favorites. (I still cry every time I hear this line from the movie: “He saved me . . . in every way that a person can be saved.”) Anyway, I noticed that for the past five years, during this time of the year, it’s being shown on TV. Is it becoming—or has it already become—a traditional Christmas TV staple, like The Sound of Music and the Rankin/Bass specials?

“And what is the use of a book,” thought Alice, “without pictures . . . ?”

Agassi, Andre. Open: An Autobiography. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009.

That’s what I’m reading now. I’ve already posted a link to a nice review here. It’s one of those books that you can’t put down easily. My only gripe: there’s only 15 pictures inside.