Author: whodeanny

Super Bowl Blogging-1st Quarter

Super Bowl Blogging-1st Quarter

 

Why defer possession? Is that about gamesmanship or attempting to stave off nervousness?

 

Ah, momentum swings quickly.  The Steelers fans got so excited at the muffed punt then 2 minutes later, the Pack is at midfield and feeling great.

 

I don’t really care that much about Aaron Rodgers’ family history and how hard it was to be a late first round draft pick. Such tales of misery should wait for the second half.

 

I can already imagine the squawking from Packers fans about the near miss catch by Nelson on the first drive, followed by the near miss at pinning the Steelers near the goal line. So close, yet so far away…

 

The best advertising minds in the country came up with this tripe? I am glad to see that Kenny G still looks like, uh, Kenny G…

 

How many different ways will announcers obliquely refer to Ben Roethlisberger’s ‘troubles’ or ‘year’ or ‘difficulties’? I hope folks are using this as a drinking game…

 

Dwayne Johnson and Vin Diesel in the same movie? Wow, what a great chance to see the baddest ambiguously ethnic action stars in the same movie!

 

A Rod and Cameron Diaz? Are they the least Latin Latino stars in the US? Hey, I’m just asking? (Even the Anthem Killer did a Spanish language album a few years ago.)

 

If Aaron Rodgers is wearing a different helmet because he’s been concussed a couple times, shouldn’t everyone wear that different (presumably better) helmet?

 

Great pass to Nelson. It would have been hard for Nelson to drop that one.

 

When will people start calling Aaron Rodgers ‘A-Rod’? Andy Roddick was never gonna get it but perhaps…

I love that play callers get lots of credit in the NFL. On the touchdown play, the receiver WAS NOT OPEN! The play worked because AROD (see, no hyphen) threw a PERFECT pass. Not because of any schematic genius.

 

Cowboys vs. Aliens followed by Roman Gods vs. Indians? WTF? (No, not ‘win the future’.)

 

So, has Big Ben been 'unredeemed' now?

 

15 yard celebration penalty. Nope, you’re not allowed to celebrate the biggest play of your life in the No Fun League.

 

Boz Scaggs? Who knew?

 

Wow, Eminem sells tea? Wait a sec, did I write that? Yep. Eminem sells tea. Isn’t that the 4th sign of the Apocalypse?

 

Emmanuel Sanders? What a fun name.

 

It’s still hard for me to hear the words “good protection” associated with Big Ben.

 

Within 10 seconds, Joe Buck says something about Big Ben like…

~ ’He looks like he can hardly move.

Now, he can move!’

C’mon Joe Buck, you’re better than that!

  

 

 

 

Super Bowl Blogging 2011- Part 1

Pre-Game

 

I didn't hate Christina Aguilera until tonight. Now, I never want to hear her again. She butchered the Star Spangled Banner in a phenomenally painful way. Marvin Gaye made the anthem soar, swoon and shine during the NBA All-Star game in LA (I think in 1983). It made me want to hear the song over and over. This performance makes me want to hit X-tina. Hard.

 

So far, this pre-game (only since 6) has been atrocious. The Walter Payton Award was great but super quick. The rest has sucked. I also couldn't help thinking: "I wonder how many years it will be before Big Ben wins this award?"

 

Is Michael Douglas dying? Did I get that right? <sigh> Sad, I know.

 

Deion Sanders' tie looks like a candy cane. He's probably still fast enough to have run 20 yards while the coin was in the air.

 

Rachel doesn't like football but she thinks it's absurd that the networks force players and coaches to chat just before kickoff. She's right.

 

 

 

Christmas Crossing

Here's a re-print that feels appropriate. Merry Christmas.

 

Christmas Crossing

 

It’s Christmas Eve and my wife is napping

At the other end of the couch

Dreaming in a Santa hat

 

Tonight when she wakes

And after tomorrow’s presents

I’ll try my best to remind her

That my life is more complete

Better and more real

Than I could have imagined for myself

 

Her presence animates my life

Not in a slavish sense of duty

But through the constant commitment of love

Densely defined and elaborate

Telling as the Rubicon, broad as the Nile

I have fully crossed over

 

 

© Gayle Force Press 2006

 

 

Bears+ Vikings+ Frozen Field= Trouble

 

I’m very interested in watching the Bears-Vikings game tonight outside in Minneapolis. I’m a fan of the Vikes and there’s a rivalry involved but more interestingly, the field is frozen and reportedly concrete hard. This game is happening outdoors at the same time that the NFL is trumpeting its efforts to maintain player safety. What an odd contradiction.

 

The Vikings have lots of reasons for wanting this game to happen in Minnesota (Favre’s last home game, ticket sales, 50th anniversary events…) but this is another illustration of short term desires overriding common sense. I want to know what happens if someone gets badly hurt. How much will this game ultimately cost the league?

 

 

FDO

 

Unpierced

 

…the words here deployed are equivalent to blanks in a loaded gun: they make the same sound but do not pierce us in any way.

 

–Alyssa Pelish

 

 

I have begun feeling this way about my poetry. The only folks who seem pierced by my poems are the ones who hear them from my lips or, lacking proximity, in the voice their minds’ ears have labeled as mine. Either way, it’s about connection. Connection with me, not the words themselves. Knowing me and believing they understand the genesis of those poems allows the words to matter.

 

Maybe this just means my words are not the right ones. Perhaps it means that most of us only allow people to pierce us; we don’t allow ideas to do the same.

 

 

FDO

 

Don’t Ask Don’t Tell- A Turning Point?

 

It seems almost impossible in this political climate but yes, in just a couple hours, Don't Ask, Don't Tell, will no longer be official government policy. This historic acknowledgment of the right of gay men and women to serve openly in the American military feels like a dramatic shift leftward. That this policy change can happen at the same moment that the GOP has just made substantial gains in Congress and President Obama seems to have become convinced that he must govern in as centrist a manner as possible is particularly extraordinary.

 

Maybe it will be revealed later that DADT repeal is part of a broader quid pro quo. Perhaps it just means the Republican leadership in Congress has decided they don't need the social/religious conservatives as much as they have in the recent past. Otherwise, why would the GOP allow the final vote to happen so quickly? Forcing the DADT vote to happen on a Sunday, after the morning talk shows, seems the play to make if you want to rally the religious right. Simply ceding ground here is puzzling.

 

Unless, that is, the GOP has come to realize that most Americans have finally come around to legitimately accepting that all of us have certain fundamental rights. Even the military brass seems to generally recognize this and, as a friend at a service academy told me recently, "Even though it's [DADT repeal] uncomfortable for us to think about, we know they're [gays] people too". Yes, gays are people too.

 

Ultimately, I believe the broader implication is that we are continually moving toward a country that has full(er) social inclusion for gays and lesbians. I have argued previously that I believe half the states will have a marriage/civil union option within the next decade. This is another overdue step in that direction. 

 

Congratulations, Congress. Thanks for doing the right thing.

 

 

FDO

 

Faux News

 

This article confirming that Fox News specifically and deliberately mimics the talking points of the Republican Party is not at all surprising. Neither is this requirement that global warming be treated as some kind of subversive theory. Yet, I feel as though this additional clarity should force an end to the charade that still exists that Fox News intends to report news in an independent fashion.

 

Having an editorial perspective makes a great deal of sense and I have no trouble with that at all as long as it’s not publicly lied about.  There should be no remaining doubt that Fox News is virtually an organ of the GOP, not particularly different than the Republican National Committee at base. Continuing to give Fox News the credibility associated with mainstream journalistic institutions is unwarranted.

 

 

FDO

 

Update- Here's a study suggesting that Fox News viewers are the most misinformed. Raise your hand if you feel a sense of surprise!

 

Obama as a Bridge- Always.

 

It seems interesting and sad that President Obama has so few ardent supporters left. The reality of his eroding support does not seem congruent with his level of accomplishment in the White House. Things have been tough for him during the first couple years of his Presidency, but he has made some pretty remarkable things happen. I suggested six weeks ago that the principal problem may be that his administration fails to tell its story well. There are not enough efforts to get his message out. I also believe the country has developed a sense of collective amnesia as we have run away from remembering that George W. Bush was our President for 8 years. Even the Republican Party has thoroughly distanced itself from him. Obama suffers from the lack of comparison now, as he benefitted from the constant comparisons in 2007 and 2008.

 

One thing I’ve begun to recognize about the prospect of creating new kinds of messages about the President is that there is no single message to trumpet. This is Barack Obama does not exist on a fixed point. There’s nothing immutable about him. He moves as he needs to move. Always.

 

I’m sure a psychologist could have a field day with this interpretation. Just consider the rough outline of Obama’s story. Half White, half Black. Born in the part of America that feels least like the rest of America. Living as an outsider in virtually every moment of his childhood. Being broke while in the Ivy League. And now, being young, inexperienced and Black in the Oval Office. He moves as he needs to move because he has always needed to do so.

 

That strength may be part of the reason President Obama seems such a natural mediator. In most contexts, that’s a tremendously valuable skill! I believe that he always wants to manage situations so that everyone feels a sense of victory. Just consider who his Secretary of State is!

 

Unfortunately, all those compromises and efforts at conciliation make it hard for him to lead. And, personally, Obama’s approach makes it hard for me to understand what matters most to the President. I don’t remember the last time he resolved to do (or not do) something because he cared about it enough NOT to compromise about it. Even though I think he’s made some fantastic successes, I imagine there’s not much he has done in office to inspire continuing faith in many people. There’s nothing to be counted on just because it exists at his core. There doesn’t seem to be a core.

 

 

FDO