SHORT FEATURE: STAR WARS – AN A CAPELLA TRIBUTE TO JOHN WILLIAMS (BOTH OF THEM)

It’s been next to impossible to go anywhere on the Internet this last month without bumping into this excellent video by Corey Vidal. It’s become so omnipresent and omni-liked that it’s been nominated for a People’s Choice Award this year. Corey is actually lip-synching (by permission) to a 2002 recording by the comedy troupe moosebutter who have decided to release a new live video of themselves performing the song in their studio in hopes you’ll go to their site and buy a song or two. (For obvious reasons, we recommend Psycho: The Musical sung to the tune of Music Of The Night.) Here’s the new moosebutter version.

By moosebutter’s own admission, despite the fact that it’s their song, Corey's video has had literally millions of more views than moosebutter's. “That's because Corey is cuter, and smells better.” the group claims. Maybe. But perhaps there’s another reason. You see, even though moosebutter throws in some good gags in the new video to compliment the lyrics, they also can’t hide the fact that it’s after the fact. The new version is laced with the slightest bit of cynicism because, let’s face it, the new films weren’t quite what we all were hoping for. The original recording, in contrast, is saturated with something the new one can never have; joyful expectation.

I admit that I might not have picked up on the tone of the original version so easily were this not Advent, that time of the year we Christians indulge in an overabundance of joyful expectation. We have so much joyful expectation (at least we’re supposed to) around this season that we actually have holidays inside our holidays. “One of the most inspiring days preceding Christmas” writes Fr. Marian Zalecki, OSPPE, “is the feast of “Our Lady of Expectation,” unknown to many today, but still kept alive in many countries like Spain, Portugal, Italy and Poland as well as in a few religious orders… The feast is celebrated on the 18th of December, a week before Christmas Day… The Gospel message on this feast relates the story of the Annunciation. God asks a woman, his creature for a favor to be Mother of his Son, and at the same time, he respects her freedom. She is free to say “yes” or “no.” There is a moment of waiting in heaven and on earth: God waits for her answer, the heavenly messenger waits for her answer, the first parents Adam and Eve wait for her answer, all confined in hell wait for her answer. With grateful heart, we thank Mary, the Wise and Prudent Virgin, for saying “yes” to God on our behalf.”

I kind of like the idea of that old feast and wouldn’t mind seeing it make a reemergence here in the States. It kind of gives a double meaning to all that “waiting” we do in Advent. Yes, we wait in anticipation for the coming of our Lord, but at the same time He waits on us also, waits on our response to His call.