new york new york

once again the G-MEN break frankenbradys heart. and I fucking love it.

Steve, that comment was very hurtful to us up here in Boston. Havent we suffered enough since 2004 ?

I had no real interest in the game whatsoever since my Saints didn't make it, but I did make a $20 bet with a buddy to give me a reason to watch it. I would have been rooting against Gorgeous Tommy et al. anyway, but the bet gave me even more reason to urge on the G-Men. Well done, boys. And sorry, Nose and Erik.

It was extremely painful. At least I get a portion of my life back now.

Now, I'll turn my attention to another disappointing sports obsession, Chelsea FC (Jimmy the Mod's favorite too), until the Red Sox emerge from Florida to cause more pleasure and heartache.

you know i love ya nose and i am also quite fond of the Bruins. but that footy team of yours is a total drag. plus i'm a dolphin fan. suffer...? in your jock.

I didn't have any stake in this Super Bowl, emotional or monetary. But I sure enjoyed the half-time show, and the second half of the game was really exciting. Great party at my friends' house too.

Here is what I scrawled in my notebook during the game:

As the Patriots, wouldn't you rather have suffered a few sacks and NOT given up that safety on your FIRST POSSESSION? That gaffe changed the entire complexion of the game.

- Did Madonna come out of retirement to play this gig? As far as it matters to me, she might as well have. The last time I was paying any attention, she was doing something related to an Austin Powers flick.

- Traditionally, the fat lady sings at the END of the opera.

- Roman/Greek theme? WHY?

- What do you suppose Tom Brady's spouse though about when Madonna led off her medley with "Vogue?" Mrs. Brady has been on the cover of that magazine a few times.

- Wasn't there an honest-to-goodness, authentic "Nigel Tufnel Moment" when one of the stage folk (was it a dancer, or one of the LMFAO dudes - I forget) had to help Madonna with her moves?

The Medley:

"Vogue"
***unknown tune***
***another unknown tune***
***still another unknown tune***
"Like a Prayer"

If there were any more offerings, I skipped them to go fold laundry, thinking: "Super Bowl halftimes shows are where art goes to lay down and die."

I distinctly heard a lyric that ran something like:

"Every record sounds the same - you got to step into my world."

Was that a promise or a threat?

…

The Giants did it AGAIN. Hats off to 'em. They've had the Patriot's number twice now.

…

I heard "The Killing Moon" during one commercial, and "She Sells Sanctuary" during another. Madonna, The Cult, Echo & The Bunnymen. It was a veritable smorgasbord of Trouser Press references.

That budweiser commercial using "She Sells Sanctuary" really bugged me. Not so much the commercial but the song version. It was the original minus the vocals with some guy speed-rapping over it. It made no sense. Too bad I don't drink beer so I could make a big show about how budweiser is now banned in my house.

I liked hearig the Echo and the Bunnyment commercial. Somthing about vampires. Dont remember what the ad was for.

M.I.A. = no class

A big f-you to everyone watching the game.

I know nothing about this woman. Should I be surprised by her antics?

You would think a 21-17 game that was decided in the closing minute would be an enjoyable contest to watch, but that game was not one for the ages. I was surprised to learn Manning had gone 30-40 for 295 yards, because it there were only a couple of memorable completions.

Would the refs call intentional grounding had Brady thrown the ill-fated pass in week 10, in the middle of the 3rd quarter, while leading the KC Chiefs 21-10 on the road? Discuss.

Let it be noted that I actually enjoy much of Madonna's catalog. I've never purchased her product, but I believe she's much more talented than most give her credit for. However:

Lip synching is cheating. I don't care if you're 53 and you're doing a bunch of goofy dance moves with Cirque de Soleil going on around you. Are you a singer or not? Logic dictates that if you do not sing, you are not a singer. So, nice interpretive dance act, Madonna and friends.

After 5 years off, the best tune she could come up with was a mash-up of better efforts from Toni Basil, Gwen Stefani and The Go(!) Team...plus throwing in Nicki Minaj and M.I.A. for the kids. Seriously?



Post Edited (02-06-12 10:24)

I think gay men all over the world were having aneurysms with all that erotic Roman gladiator imagery. Madonna's music does NOTHING for me. Vogue is a flat, essentially tuneless song. My girlfriend tried to explain how that song opened a window into drag queen culture, or something like. Too me, its just tuneless. That new song "L-U-V Madonna" was truly pap.

I think she still looks unbelievably hot. I was craning my neck to get a good under-the-skirt short. (though neck craning wasnt really required). What a hot Cleopatra.

To this day, the only Madonna songs I think are really good are Borderline and Lucky Star. Material Girl is fun in a Cyndi Lauper kind of way. Everthing else is absolutely bland to me.

Somehow the halftime show was spectacular but alienating. When U2 belted out Beautiful Day with the fans right up against the stage, it was transcendent. When Prince wailed away on Purple Rain it was amazing. The crowd wasnt even in the picture for this show. There were those giant bleachers which kept any concept of an audience at an enormous distance. The gladiators and cheerleaders were bad ernough. But when the drum chore came out, it entered the realm of ridiculous.

"Lip synching is cheating."

I'm pretty sure the halftime show is always lip-synched. You wouldn't be able to hear the vocals if they were sung live. Springsteen lip-synced his show, and I'm positive the Who did as well. It's the technical limitations of the production that necessitate it, not the performer's.

And let's not forget: the music is not the point of this particular exercise. Spectacle and clicking off a professional signpost are.

I'm reasonably certain Prince, U2, Tom Petty and The Black Eyed Peas sang at least some if not all of their sets live. There's no way on God's green earth The Black Eyed Peas could have been that disastrous without it being live, is there?

Yeah, the halftime show was more spectacle than music, but anyone who's surprised by that just hasn't paid attention. Madonna didn't top U2 or Prince, but she buried The Black Eyed Peas.

It was kinda interesting when she wasn't able to make the step up onto the bleachers, and needed a quick hand from one of her dancers. A lot of people at the party picked up on that, and kinda laughed at her for it. As if any of us could wear those boots and keep their dance moves spot-on for 15 minutes. (Of course, none of us would rake in the money that Madonna did for that show.)

Agree with Nosepail: Madonna still is totally smokin' hot. She rocked that Queen-of-Egypt look.

> I'm pretty sure the halftime show is always lip-synched. You wouldn't be able to hear the
> vocals if they were sung live.

Then either Madonna did sing live (highly implausible) or someone was asleep at the soundboard, because her vocals barely were audible half the time.

Halftime was an abomination. Even the Boss lip synched when he did the halftime show.
Killing Moon was used in an Audi advert. It was nice to hear good music even in advertising.

And that intentional grounding call...well the refs might not call that in KC in the middle of the regular season but that makes it wrong to not call it THEN not wrong to call it NOW.

The point, totalj, as our local radio color man, as our former Iowa State Cyclone, Atlanta Falcon and Sacramento Gold Miner (CFL) QB (among others), Dave Archer pointed out on Atlanta sports talk this afternoon, is that practically any time a QB waits for a play to develop and throws deep, the officials give him the benefit of the doubt if the ball lands well away from an eligible receiver.

So, why? Because it's much more likely the WR broke off or quit on his route than the QB just lofted the ball deep in order to get rid of it. And why is that? Because from pee-wee leagues to the NFL, quarterbacks are trained and conditioned not to just throw the ball deep without a receiver in the vicinity. Now why would that be? Because many cornerbacks and safeties have made a career out of freelancing downfield and picking these erratic throws off, with Ronde Barber and Ed Reed being a couple of obvious examples.

Blindly chucking the ball from one's own end zone is not the type of play one expects from a Brady. It's more Jay Cutler, Tim Tebow or Brett Favre-type play. Conclude what you like.

I'll admit to rooting for New England in this game, but I wasn't that invested in it–I'm not a Patriots fan. What has puzzled me the most is how #1 overall draft pick Eli Manning (who either demanded a trade from San Diego to a more favorable media market or had his daddy do it for him, depending on which version of the story one believes) has developed a rep as a scrappy, gutty kid who's managed to grit it out and overcome long odds. Tom Brady, on the other hand, is considered a pretty boy who's been in the right place at the right time, with an arsenal of offensive firepower at his disposal for his entire blessed career.