PACKERS OWN STEELERS

caterpillar

Yesterday, Sunday, I watched the complete SuperBowl game between Pittsburgh and Green Bay, commercials and all. I was one of 6 redneck boys sitting around 2 pizzas, some beer and so forth. It worked out that 3 pulled for one team and 3 pulled for the other. I went into it thinking the Steelers would probably win, but pulled for Green Bay. Why? I liked the colors, green and yellow, Alleghany Trojan colors. I really didn't care which of them won the game, but a good game is an enjoyment to watch, whatever it is. Sports is the perfect activity for television. Sports are about nothing but winning, like politics. Only difference, politics pretends to be about something. Television goes so fast, it doesn't have a span of attention that allows thought, but in reaction. Sports is all fast-moving eye candy devoid of meaning but for what you see.

I only knew 2 of the guys there, had never even seen the other 3 that I can recall. Comments hopping around the place. Near the end when Green Bay intercepted a pass, the 2 other guys pulling for Green Bay jumped to their feet, YEAH. I've an idea they'd have been a lot louder had it not been for somebody there old enough to be grandparent to any of them, me. Sometimes I'd look at the picture of a grandparent sitting among these guys in their mid 20s. They didn't quite know what to make of me, and I had the same problem knowing what to make of them. The only thing I knew about where they were coming from was several generation gaps I've paid little attention to. Yet we all got along reasonably. Focused on the game, we had it in common, so generation gaps didn't have any affect on our communication, only made for minor discomfort not knowing that that you don't have to watch your language in front of this old turd. I felt like they were a bit inhibited, getting together so they can jump and holler and let the inner little boy have a chance to play. Bud Lite.

It was a tense game. Green Bay established the lead and held onto it. Pittsburgh came on in the 2nd half, but not quite enough. I've never been used to anyone listening to anything I have to say all through my life. I talk too slow for minds without attention spans to follow. You just about have to remember from one word to the next consciously. There was a moment when I said something and everybody in the room listened. Blew my mind. It was the end of the first half and everybody talking about Green Bay so far ahead Pittsburgh didn't have much of a chance. I said, "Like Steven Seagal says, Things have a way of changing real fast." It was saying "Steven Seagal" that got their attention. We've all seen games where the team behind drives ahead and wins in the second half. Every play was tight. The Green Bay quarterback got MVP. All of us thought that a little odd. My reason for thinking it odd was they said it was for 3 touchdown passes. About every play, he threw a pass. At least a hundred passes and 3 connected for td. I was surprised to see his arm hold up like it did. It was a throwing game on both sides. Consistently good plays, even the ones that failed.

Part of the thrill of the game is the long anticipated SuperBowl commercials, the unveiling of the most expensive commercials debuting that day. I used to wonder why commercials didn't use more humor, when the comic ones always received the most attention, like the Budweiser frogs and the old gal who said, Where's the beef? These commercials last night were just about all humorous. And about all of them were done in YouTube spontaneous moments, some of them the FAIL moments so popular on YouTube, like the kid on a skateboard, like the kid who tried to jump a skateboard from the roof of one building to another and missed. Those are called fails. The ads had a kind of dark edge about their humor that made them all the funnier, like the newborn baby that accidentally gets tossed face-first onto a pane of glass, sticks a moment and slides down the glass on its face. It was a rubber doll, but it still represented a baby, and very well. There was a car ad that was the equivalent of a half minute acid trip. The commercials had all of us laughing out loud.

It was like looking at YouTube every time they showed a run of commercials. Some of them didn't even seem like commercials. Mad Ave has learned that YouTube is everybody's favorite activity on a computer, besides pornography, the public television no-no. When television frees up to pornography, the SuperBowl ads will be the most popular ever. Like last night everybody in the room was waiting for the woman singing at half time to expose a boob like Janet Jackson. All agreed that was no accident. The ads also featured large numbers of people in them. The one that struck my Art button was the little boy of maybe 3 in a Darth Vader outfit going around the house opening his hands at objects attempting to do something magic. He was in the driveway in front of dad's new VW. He opened his hands at the front of the car and dad inside the house looking through a window clicked the clicker starting the car. Couldn't see the boy's face for the mask, but his surprise was visible.

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