Who #14.5: Beatle Interlude: Episode IV: A New Pope

Or, empathy for our future selves

Wow that title was chaotic af. But if there were ever a time to embrace chaos, I’d say it’s upon us.

The loss of Pope Francis is an event from which, geopolitically if not emotionally, we may never recover. So I’ve been only too happy to mitigate the grief by sharing around this scene from Ken Russell’s Lisztomania (1975), released approximately ninety seconds after Ken Russell’s Tommy (1975) and starring at least two of the same people, plus some surprise guests:

My friend the brilliant operatic comedian Steph DePrez recently named me among the Catholics she reads on Substack, an endorsement I’ll now squarely undermine by nominating Sir Richard Starkey to the papacy. I would have no qualms putting the Church in his hands. Hardly four years Frankie’s junior, and he could take us where we need to go. I’m sure of it. Scott Fitzgerald, that Irish Catholic hedonist, famously said there were no second acts in American life; but there are third acts in rock life, and we ought to make the most of this one.

I mean, look at that costume. The credentials write themselves.

Song rec of the weekend: our Pope may have left, but our Lorde and Savior has indeed risen, filling the void with her first new music since late 2021!!!