-- By Tom Phillips
Can you imagine New Year’s Eve without “Imagine?” Once again this December 31st, at five minutes to midnight, a hush will fall over Times Square and a solo voice -- this time, indie pop star Chelsea Cutler --- will intone John Lennon’s limpid lyric:
Imagine there’s no
Heaven –
It's easy if you try.
No Hell below us,
Above us only sky…
This dreamy meditation has been the prelude
since 2005 to the midnight Ball Drop, a kind of invocation of Nothing
before a big Something hits your eye. It works. Thousands of young people
in the square, and millions more watching on TV or online will sing along with
an anthem that negates everything their ancestors lived and died for – religion
and country, progress and possessions – and replaces them with, well,
nothing.
And what would that look like? Well,
imagine a show about Nothing...
