Let’s be honest: I love the Super Bowl. We were at Kim and Peter’s place with a bunch of other people and dogs, yukked it up and stuffed ourselves, were happy. And the football game in the background forced itself into the foreground a couple of times, too.
Small Dogs · Peter and Kim have a Papillon and Diane has two Pugs, so the scene featured small hurtling dogs, and our toddler-girl in among the chaos. She won a tug-of-war with the Papillon (twenty-plus pounds to seven, but the dog is way more co-ordinated) to the accompaniment of wild applause.
Food · To eat, there were crackers and crab dip and blue-cheese dip and cheddar and baguettes and chicken-chili-on-a-bun and stuffed jalapeños and buffalo thighs (like wings) and Lauren’s banana/chocolate-chip coffeecake.
There was some spillage, but the dogs took care of that.
Music · Look, I like Tom Petty. But that was pretty lame. I say give Prince a five-year contract for the Super Bowl gig, with full creative control, and see what he makes of it.
Football · I toured the blogs and thought the deepest remark was “The Giants’ defense limited Tom Brady to one touchdown pass.” And that fourth-quarter Manning-to-Tyee scramble is gonna be on best-of reels for decades. I counted at least eleven hands grabbing the back of Eli’s jersey, and the time between him getting loose and throwing that astounding pass had to be under a second.
The game tasted like one of Sophocles’ better tragedies; divine gifts made too much of, then hubris brought low. That’s coming it a bit high... but a few of those football plays managed to wrench the audience’s attention away from good company and doggie antics and really outstanding food. Which is all Sophocles ever asked of his plays, I bet.
Contributions
Comment feed for ongoing:
From: Chris Smith (Feb 04 2008, at 04:00)
I the play more of a Bullwinkle reference:
http://slashdot.org/~smitty_one_each/journal/195160
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From: John Cowan (Feb 04 2008, at 06:42)
What is this bowl of which you people speak, and what do you keep in it?
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From: len (Feb 04 2008, at 06:57)
It was a stellar night for the Manning family. For Tom Petty and the HBs, it is never good entertainment to see a band that looks that old try to play that young.
We buried Ted Arighi, my last lead guitar player partner on Saturday (lung cancer and he didn't smoke). During our last year together, he asked me why when we were playing so well we couldn't get a better press buzz even with a packed dance floor. I told him, "Because we look their fathers even if we sound like the bands their mother's conceived them to..." His regret at the end, or so he told me, was that he kept on covering the classics and was too afraid to write.
There really is a time to retire to the studio and work on the pieces that say it all rather than tour the legacy. It doesn't matter if it is 'of its time'; just that it is of our own.
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From: John (Feb 04 2008, at 09:27)
Petty....lame? Come-on Tim, I thought it was great! Nothing flashy (and no flashing), just some good tunes that sounded great.
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