Another year, another Super Bowl.<\/p>\n
The Super Bowl is the only NFL game I\u2019ll really watch, because it mostly isn\u2019t about the NFL. It\u2019s about everything besides. <\/p>\n
Even so, I considered skipping it this year anyways because\u2026 in most cases I don\u2019t really like pro football or pro football players. In my mind, the NFL is everything that\u2019s wrong with\u2026 everything<\/i> today. I\u2019m sure that the one person who reads this already knows my reasons why, but it can\u2019t hurt to explain them again.<\/p>\n
Football shouldn\u2019t be as important as it is. It is only a game, and it looks inappropriate to see anyone over the age of 25 playing it, much less making a livelihood out of it. American football was a tool invented to teach very young men physical toughness, teamwork skills, and leadership abilities, and it is best played with that in mind. On the ground level, the game is still played correctly. I can support and respect local football teams. <\/p>\n
The NFL is just a circus, though. It\u2019s all a big ludicrous, money-grabbing spectacle without substance or merit. At times I question whether or not it is even a game. I have seen many plays, calls and situations in the years that have struck me as being just too convenient for one side or the other to be believable. <\/p>\n
Most people don\u2019t notice such things, I think, because they don\u2019t look, or don\u2019t know what to look for. Am I being too conspiracy-minded? Perhaps, but I think it\u2019s important to remember that NFL players on opposing teams are co-workers. Unlike high school football players from different schools who have no reason to like each other, the NFL players on one team will absolutely benefit from the antics and successes of their competitors. Drama creates viewers. Drama sells merchandise. EVERYONE benefits when the Patriots have a scandal before the Super Bowl- especially the Seahawks! Scandal means ratings, and both teams, both owners, both cities, profit from that!<\/p>\n
But in the end I did watch the game. It\u2019s a good way to bond with my dad, who hasn\u2019t once missed a Super Bowl, including the first one, and, I guess, it\u2019s a good entertainment when both teams co-operate and create the right kind of spectacle. <\/p>\n
It had a good last quarter. The last five minutes were fun. This time I\u2019m glad I stayed to the end. The performances were well done all around and as far as I could tell, there were no serial killers or dog mutilators on the field, so I could watch the game without feeling ill afterward. Which was nice.<\/p>\n
But back to the topic of this post. The Super Bowl isn\u2019t really about football. It\u2019s more of a cultural barometer than anything else. It\u2019s the real State of the Union.<\/p>\n
The commercials this year were of two kinds, primarily, and those two kinds both drew from two different moods. The first kind were the regime\/government commercials from \u201cbig business\u201d, which didn\u2019t advertise products so much as a mindset. I\u2019m thinking of the Jeep, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, McDonald\u2019s, etc. commercials, none of which were about specific products. Really, they were ads for diversity and \u201cgood feelings\u201d with a corporate logo tacked onto the end. <\/p>\n
The other dominant kind of commercial was of the anti-diversity type. I noted that many commercials this year explicitly rejected multiculturalism and grabbed with zeal the symbols of implicit and even explicit whiteness. <\/p>\n
It was kind of odd seeing both mindsets elbowing each other around for screen time. It was almost as if advertisers were fighting a tense political battle as well as a commercial one. Which I think says many obvious things about the America of 2015.<\/p>\n
This year the advertisers drew on two different moods: the jovial and the somber. This is usual, except for the fact that this time there seemed to be a more even split between the two than there has been in the past. Specifically, there were more somber, darker commercials this year than I think I\u2019ve ever seen in years past, which is another reflection on the USA of 2015. <\/p>\n
As the relentless Obama Depression drags on and on and on everyone is turning dark and sour. There is a very powerful, eerie sense of hopelessness and alienation out there that isn\u2019t being relieved by anything. The current disquieting peace that reigns today only masks the awful troubles the country is facing today on so many fronts.<\/p>\n
This sense of hopelessness is so penetrating these days that even some of the happy, funny commercials, like the McDonald\u2019s \u201cLove\u201d one and Lohan\u2019s Esurance ad, seemed like attempts to paper over disturbing things with a thin film of lightness.<\/p>\n
Speaking of Lohan, it seemed like the people who were happiest and most triumphant during this year\u2019s Super Bowl were the Hollywood celebs. Natch. They were the real stars this year, like they are every year. I don\u2019t even remember the name of the Seahawk\u2019s QB, but I do remember Liam Neesen, Matt Damon, Sarah Silverman, Pierce Brosnan, and the rest of the Important People. Even Lohan looked confident and cool in her spot. This is their world, people. We\u2019re just living in it.<\/p>\n
The unending parade of too-cool-for-football stars this year single handedly proves my point that the Super Bowl isn\u2019t actually about sports at all. It\u2019s really a showcase for everything else, including a Katy Perry concert, with some sports that frankly get in the way sometimes.<\/p>\n
And seeping into all of this is my own long shadow, of course. I was nowhere yet everywhere this year. My thumbprint was in Katy\u2019s half-time show, obviously, and also in at least a third of the commercials I saw. The references to me were quite prominent in the big business commercials, and were very subtle, though not less powerful, in the white-centric ones.<\/p>\n
TBH I think it very possible that the white-centric commercials wouldn\u2019t have been so plentiful without my influence. My towering anger and frustration with Obama\u2019s constant bumbling has shaken up many things, even beyond Hollywood.<\/p>\n
I do wonder sometimes what it\u2019s like for others to live under\/around me. Do I scare them? Inspire them? Both? And what will happen if my power and influence continues to grow- as it looks it will?<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know. Eventually, I\u2019m going to need to ask somebody, I guess. But we\u2019ll wait on that.<\/p>\n
Katy\u2019s performance was fun. She commanded her audience well, the visuals were definitely on point, and I think that the vocals were live with a backing track. I think that even my dad liked it. Good for her. As far as guest stars go, she should have had a bit more Lenny and a bit less Missy, but that\u2019s just my personal taste. <\/p>\n
Usually, the Super Bowl is a family affair. That it wasn\u2019t this year doesn\u2019t mean that good stuff wasn\u2019t available for snacks, thank goodness. After Katy\u2019s performance, I took some time out to indulge in The Greatest Thing Ever, otherwise known as frosting on crackers. That, coupled with a small homemade pizza and some carbonated, blackberry flavored water, was my own, personal highlight of the night. <\/p>\n
Hmmm\u2026 I keep flip-flopping over the whole \u201csix pack abs\u201d thing. I can get them\u2026 at a fit 6\u20193\u201d, 175 pounds, I\u2019m quite close to them right now\u2026 but do I really want to give up things like frosting on crackers? Or pizza?<\/p>\n
\u2026 Nah. Not at this moment, at least.<\/p>\n
Maybe I will when Taylor\u2019s tour starts. I\u2019ll want to dance with her\u2026 maybe I\u2019ll make it memorable. IDK. I\u2019ll think about it.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m getting very off track here. Oh yeah, the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n
It was fun, mostly. Maybe I\u2019ll watch it next year. <\/p>\n
We\u2019ll see.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Another year, another Super Bowl. The Super Bowl is the only NFL game I\u2019ll really watch, because it mostly isn\u2019t about the NFL. It\u2019s about everything besides. Even so, I considered skipping it this year anyways because\u2026 in most cases I don\u2019t really like pro football or pro football players. In my mind, the NFL […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sighinide.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1089"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sighinide.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sighinide.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sighinide.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sighinide.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1089"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/sighinide.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1089\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1118,"href":"https:\/\/sighinide.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1089\/revisions\/1118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sighinide.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sighinide.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sighinide.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}