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The Spectacle Blog
Another tremendous comeback victory by Eli Manning and the New York Giants over the New England Patriots in yesterday’s Superbowl. I didn’t really care about either team, but was going for the Giants (despite being a Redskins and Broncos fan — drifting more toward the Broncos with each year I live in Colorado) just because I was born in NYC.
Mario Manningham’s fourth-quarter catch was one of the greatest in Super Bowl history. Like David Tyree’s catch in Super Bowl 42, it was another incredible passing play by the Giants during yet another late fourth quarter drive to beat Tom Brady and Bill Belichick.
Denver must be a fairly happy place, at least considering the Broncos aren’t in the game, based on what I heard on my show and other radio shows in the past few days: the city (and probably the state) was cheering for the Giants, not because Coloradoans like the G-Men, but because the Patriots seems to be widely despised around here. Callers were tired of Tom Brady, over Bill Belichick whose stand-offish attitude doesn’t play well in the Rocky Mountain west, and still angry with Josh McDaniels who came to the Broncos from the Patriots in 2009, and as head coach engineered a .500 season followed by a disastrous 3-9 start to the 2010 season before being fired — and returning eventually to the Patriots. Congratulations to the Giants and their embattled coach Tom Coughlin who some people thought might be fired mid-season. It’s been a long time since I’ve been happy about a New York team winning anything…
The other “did you see that” moment came during the half-time show. I’ve never been a big Madonna fan but I was really impressed with and enjoyed the show. Her singing was good and the show itself was great. Pretty impressive all around for a woman in her 50s. I wonder how much Vogue magazine paid for that “product placement.”
But during Madonna’s new song, “Give Me All Your Luvin’” (she also played 3 old songs). one of her lead supporting singer-dancers — a Grammy-nominated British singer who goes by the name M.I.A. — had an anatomy malfunction: she flipped the audience the bird. It was brief, but when my wife and I were watching the halftime show (on DVR so I could rewind/replay it) I immediately said to her “Did you see that?” We played it again, and sure enough there was the extended middle finger. It’s getting almost as much attention as the game.
It also sounded like the lyrics M.I.A. sang were “I don’t give a sh*t” though not as many news outlets are mentioning that. So much for “proper” British manners.
NBC apologized, and the NFL attributed the fact that the middle finger gesture escaped through the system to the game’s roughly 115 million viewers around the world to “a failure in NBC’s delay system.” I bet someone’s not looking forward to showing up at the office today.
Meanwhile, M.I.A. is now known to millions of people who never heard of her before. How’s that for product placement?
View all comments (19) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Ross Kaminsky
http://spectator.org/blog/2012/02/06/super-bowl-did-you-see-that
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martin j smith| 2.6.12 @ 9:47AM
If this were the 2012 election I would care. But it is not. So my comment given the dire nature where we are right now: Who the heck Cares ? Oh yeah those who bet big bucks do. But I don't and did not so I say once again; WHO THE HECK CARES ? Not me.
Ross Kaminsky | 2.6.12 @ 9:50AM
Come on, Martin. If you can't have a little enjoyment in life, a little diversion from politics once in a while, what's the point of living?
Bob Grant| 2.6.12 @ 10:01AM
Ross,
Your analysis of the game was ok but you Jumped the Shark when you said Madonna sung well.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news but her vocal performance was conducted in the comfy confines of some music studio.
Come on man!
Ross Kaminsky | 2.6.12 @ 10:15AM
I hear ya, Bob. Was unsure whether it was lip-synced. But it's OK either way, because Madonna is much more about the show than the singing!
Bob Grant| 2.6.12 @ 10:54AM
I must call you out on that as well.
The lighting and movement around her served to make her appear more lively than she was. Filter out everything but her and you will notice very little movement on her part.
It was the equivalent of some production you'd see at Six Flags or Disney Land. An OK break from a few hours on Magic Mountain or a roller coaster but B-rate nonetheless.
I give her no quarter on her performance because she deserves none.
Grzmlyk| 2.6.12 @ 11:19AM
Bob, I agree - it was the old sleight of hand on a massive scale - she was surrounded by so much activity by so many people that her lack of mobility might have gone unnoticed. She seemed to be moving through molasses and, for the first half anyway, seemed oddly timid - she wasn't commanding the stage.
I'm not a Madonna fan (though I have grudging respect for anyone possessed of modest talents who could so dominate pop music for 20 years or so), but, overall, I thought the show in toto was better than I expected it to be.; it showed a certain understanding of showmanship (which, apparently, has always been Madonna's strong suit) and it was visually impressive in a Cecil B. DeMille kind of way.
But Madonna herself - despite looking good for her age - seemed tired, and she was only provided about 5% of the energy output in that show.
Compare that with Mick Jagger a few years back who, despite his superannuated status, knew how to grab the audience focus and hold its attention all by himself. Ditto McCartney.
Bob Grant| 2.6.12 @ 10:44AM
corr. Sang well...
Purple Lips| 2.6.12 @ 10:53AM
I stopped watching the game after 4th or 5th inning. Too many missed 3 pointers.
JohnD| 2.6.12 @ 11:50AM
I think MIAs gesture symbolizes the NFL's lack of integrity and contempt for the real football fans. Having an undeserving team in the game with a serial cheater for a coach was a slap in the face to the legacy of Vince Lombardi.
Grzmlyk| 2.6.12 @ 12:23PM
I agree that the NFL has contempt for real football fans - in their rush to get the young thug demographic, they have brushed aside many middle Americans.
And I think the decision to have Madonna do the halftime show can only speak to the NFL's attempts to get more women to watch, because I don't think they're ever going to get the gay demographic.
Frankly, many things about the NFL annoy the crap out of me anymore - not only the game itself, but the culture: They wink and nod at the gangsta mentality that permeates, they secretly love the loud-mouthed wide receivers and they promote black quarterbacks and coaches but don't seem to care about having teams that "look like America" since 80% of the players are black (where are the Hispanics? The Asians? The - gulp - European Americans)?
But what really sets my teeth on edge is the month of October, when every year they all don pink gloves and have pink highlights on their uniforms and have giant pink ribbons painted on all the stadiums' turf because they play the political correctness game to the hilt.
Vince Lombardi wouldn't recognize the NFL today.
Grzmlyk| 2.6.12 @ 12:25PM
To clarify: the pink is all for Breast Cancer Awareness month - and I HATE all this ribbon crap. As Rush says, when you buy into the ribbons for all of these maladies, what you are really saying is, "look at me! I CARE! I CARE more than you do!"
Ugh.
RJ| 2.6.12 @ 12:59PM
I have often thought that the Super Bowl half-time "entertainment" is alien to the interests of most real football fans. However, professional sports has changed over the last few decades. Football, baseball and basketball are no longer really sports, but entertainment. How else in baseball can we have a play-off system where the team with the 8th best record in baseball is crowned "World Champion." Ever listen to ABC's college football broadcasts? A few years ago, each week, they would ignore most of the 3rd quarter and talk about basketball, cooking, the announcer's touch football game, interviews with Charles Barkley. Sometimes they even took the camera off the game. It is unreal.
Bob Grant| 2.6.12 @ 1:00PM
...If you don't mind, I might add to your post:
Ever notice the collectivist feel to the games that previously wasn't there? Case in point, your comment on the pink ribbons in October; the NFL-mandaded dress of the coaches (no Tom Landry fedoras anymore); the uniformity of the field design; the uniformity of the bleacher walls surrounding the field that used to be beautifully decorated with fans' banners; and the creepy collectivist feel to the commercials...?
I agree, political correctness seems to have infected the NFL in their attempt to attract more and more viewers/ticket buyers.
...much of what I see now watching an NFL game seems staged and choreographed as though produced like a video game. That, coupled with the teeth-gnashing stoppage of action for head injuries, reviews, and challenges makes it tough to watch as far as I'm concerned. If it weren't for it's one saving grace, HD television, NFL viewership could be on it's decline.
** As a side note, notice how some players - when given a chance to wear pink in October - went completely overboard with their attire? Pink shoes, pink towels, pink bands, pink undershirts, pink gloves, etc.? Very curious indeed.
Want to to support the cause? Write a check and encourage others to do so.
Bob Grant| 2.6.12 @ 1:07PM
...Want to to support the cause? Write a check and encourage others to do so. Don't use it as a chance to express your inner feminine side; your inner Rupaul.
Grzmlyk| 2.6.12 @ 3:46PM
I agree - I believe that mass marketing requires the lowest common denominator. Just a few years ago, the profile of your average NFL fan was probably right of center, male, middle-aged, family guy. Today it's broken up among several demographics including metrosexuals, single mothers and punks, thugs and other miscreants, and I have no doubt the pink madness is an attempt to attract skeptical women into the mix. I'm so tired of political correctness.
And what bugs me is that this simple-minded pabulum sells to Americans. Oh, you're soooo sensitive! I'll watch your games now! Since when did an organization's beating its chest about how much compassion it has become the acid test of whether we will buy its products? Every goddamned company out there does that - particularly with the "green" fad - like all fads, this cynical jumping on the ersatz counter-cultural bandwagon appeals merely to pure vanity, and the NFL is nothing more than a marketing organization first, a product second.
They'll water down the product and repackage it just as much as they feel they have to to get more eyeballs. And every company that advertises today bends over backwards to make its customers think that it's this warm and fuzzy benevolent group of altruistic people first and the provider of a good or service second. Ugh.
Like I say, it's not only the craven marketing that bothers me - it's the fact that it works. Same thing with Hollywood - the movies that make big money are, by and large, idiotic, sophomoric and littered with liberal platitudes (a nice exception is The Grey, with Liam Neesan; I saw it by accident and was gratified to see that it's not idiotic at all).
I also agree on the homogeneity that has infested the NFL - all the teams are the same, all the stadiums are the same, all the players are the same, all coaches are the same, all the schemes are the same.
Sadly, though - and I may be mistaken - I believe the NFL just keeps getting more popular. The cynical approach is working. Well, that was true of the NBA in the 90s, but they blew it for many of the same reasons, and I'm thinking the NFL is going to blow it.
Then again, as Mencken said, nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.
All I know is that the NFL isn't nearly as much fun as it once was.
Al Adab| 2.6.12 @ 11:57AM
Mr. K:
With the NFC winning the stock market rises for they year 78% of the time. As an investor I would be interested in your picks for the year. Unless of course the market discounts an Obama election win like it did in '08.
Ross Kaminsky | 2.6.12 @ 6:13PM
Al,
I'm extremely hesitant to make long-term predictions since I'm a very short-term trader. Most of what I trade, I have for somewhere between an hour and a week, occasionally a couple of weeks.
As for investing, I own a couple of small silver mining companies, but they're extremely speculative. If you really want to know what they are, I'll tell you if you e-mail me directly at rossputin(at)rossputin.com but it has to be with the understanding that I'm not recommending them to you, just telling what I'm doing because you asked...
Al Adab| 2.6.12 @ 11:44PM
Thank you for the reply. I hold long term and look for dividends so we are going two different directions. Still, I appreciate your time. Best of luck. I do hold a couple hundred ounces of metals though.
Oldefarte| 2.6.12 @ 5:58PM
I didn't notice it. Fox mentioned it this morning. Hopefully NBC will dock MIA's payment check maybe 20% for violating public indecency standards [which should stop these filty b*&tards; from making public displays of inaffection in the future!!!!!!!!