I love football. Go Ponies!
Actually, that's a lie. I absolutely hate football and I despise the Super Bowl. No, I don't even want to watch it for the commercials -- an argument that always sounded specious to me; people are trying to sell me things enough in my life, I don't need to seek out extra advertising.
But other people seem to be really into it. Everyone's been talking about it for the past two weeks. And before the event completely passes me by, I guess I should try to join the conversation.
So, didja see that halftime show last night? Tom Petty. Wow.
In case you missed it ...
Actually, not terrible. Tom Petty is not my favorite, but he's a solid rocker. Sticking to the crowd favorite, arena rockers he did a bang-up job. He wasn't Prince, but he wasn't Janet and JTim either.
But, like, what's the deal with the halftime show? Back when I actually used to watch the game, I didn't remember it being such a big deal. A rock star performance surely would have held my 12-year-old attention. So I did some research.
Or, rather, I looked on Wikipedia. Which had some interesting stats. Since the beginning, the halftime show was generally performed by a university marching band, and only started booking marquee acts each year since the '90s (when I was 12, Gloria Estefan performed, although that also was the year that FOX aired that special episode of "In Living Color," and we may have watched that instead). Michael Jackson in 1993 was recruited for his star power, in response to flagging interest in the halftime show in the years prior. Before that, there were occasional big names, interspersed with marching bands and other smaller acts; Carol Channing was the first in 1970. She would appear again two years later with Ella Fitzgerald in a "Salute to Louis Armstrong." That actually sounds kind of cool — and an odd choice to go with a football game.
Anyway, more discussion of halftimes past here and here.
eh.www.amNY.com
Comments (1)
The one that sticks in my mind as being pretty good was Rolling Stones 2 or 3 years ago. For some reason I dont remember the U2 one at all, must have skipped it or something. I remember one back in the 80s when they did the thing with flashlights and did "All You Need is Love"(or was it "Imagine"?) and made big peace sign on the field, I think that was the SB after John Lennon was killed, or the one after.
I don't like TP at all though, so we changed the channel and missed all of it.