How much do I not give a damn about the Super Bowl? So much that after pausing to watch the Rolling Stones cash their paycheck and fluff their catalogue for the umpteenth time — "Start Me Up" still sounds as good as it did the day Bill Gates rented it for Windows 95 — I went back to the kitchen and finished loading the dishwasher.
I know there were two teams playing against each other, and one of those teams was from Detroit, but otherwise I know about as much about the Super Bowl as I do the complete recorded works of Liberace.
You want to know my fondest Super Bowl memory? Watching Kenneth Branagh's Henry V at the Montgomery Twin Cinemas just outside of Princeton, N.J., with a packed shoulder-to-shoulder audience of fellow artsy snobs. Joyce Carol Oates even took time off from the day's schedule of writing — one novel, three short stories and eleven poems — to join the crowd. We were all delivering an unstated, decorous Fuck You to corporate sports. (It helped that Henry V is also a damn good movie, though the lack of budget definitely hurt the battle of Agincourt. It didn't have to be that way: Orson Welles didn't have two nickels to rub together when he made Chimes at Midnight, but the battle of Shrewsbury looked a lot better. Ah well . . .)
Far more interesting, to me, has been visiting the excellent Detroitblog and watching it chronicle the bizarre situation of living in a city that has suddenly been made the center of the known universe after decades of obscurity and decay, and which will promptly be consigned to the outer dark once again as soon as the last sportswriter snaps shut his laptop. This is the blog that introduced me to the rather macabre subculture of urban infiltration, and he brings exactly the right perspective to a situation in which a long abandoned bank is briefly converted into a nightclub with a $500 cover charge, and a city that's home to dozens of Motown Records alumni opts to airlift in a bunch of bored British gazillionaires to play the halftime show.
*****
Originally published at The Opinion Mill.
Article comments
1 - Shark
YOU MEAN I'M NOT ALONE?!
Thank god I'm not alone!!!
(good stuff. rage on.)
xxoo
S
2 - Eric Olsen
you're both alone, and Detroit was not in the game
3 - Nidhogg
It looks like we have a third member, me.
It's true. Detroit will have its far-too-few 15 minutes of fame and then fade into obscurity. But just you watch, it'll become the grand prize winning question on a game show, and the contestant will choke.
I stopped watching these so-called 'professional' sports when the athletes started getting multi-million dollar paychecks. I became disgusted when they tried to make political statements with their heads that have been hit just one-to-many times. I became apathetic when I moved to football country (the bible-belt), only to observe that such rivalries created a schism even greater than those of political venues.
Life is about playing, not watching someone play.
4 - no
loved detroit super bowl best ever
5 - Chelsea Snyder
Somewhere in a cubicle in Michigan, Matt Sussman just felt a sharp pain in his abdomen.
Waiting to incur Suss's rage in 3....2....1.....
6 - Nidhogg
Should I duck and cover or wield a Rage-resistant sheild?
7 - Mat Brewster
Somewhere in the middle of my third episode of the Simpsons I remembered there was a game on. Clicked over to see the last couple of minutes of the first half. Two songs into the Rolling Stones set I flipped back over to watch the rest of the Simpsons.
Watching all the commercials today on ifilm.com
8 - Susan R-G
I had friends ask yesterday morning if it was okay if they all came last night for a Super Bowl party at my house. I had plans to watch the rest of the first season of the Sopranos (again) on DVD, but ... oh, well ... that's what happens when friends know you have the big screen high-def television!
Laid a nice spread of sandwich stuff, assorted snacks, etc., then found a nice corner and curled up with my laptop. I did catch all of the commercials this morning - same as Mat - but on MSN. I caught snippets of the Stones, but not enough to say I watched them.
Everyone seemed to have a good time - and I got some work done.
9 - chantal stone
let me join the club too....i watched the "What Not To Wear" marathon on TLC.
i can say this....i've got a killer outfit picked out for today. :)
10 - Nidhogg
I am opening myself up to criticism and shunning, but I watched the Factor-a-thon on Fox News yesterday.
11 - Chelsea Snyder
For what it's worth, I'm the sports editor's commonlaw wife and I spent the Super Bowl working on a proposal for work and getting high off permanent markers (one word: WHEEE!). I only mildly cared about the game because A., I like Roethlisberger, his hometown is roughly an hour away from mine and because it is within a 500 mile radius, I can claim he is from my hometown, and B., occasionally when I actually listen to Suss, I hear him talk about sports -- osmosis, I guess.
12 - Dave Nalle
Oh wow, the Super Bowl was this weekend? Who was playing?
Dave
13 - Guppusmaximus
The worse part of the Superbowl was The Rolling Bones...ooops, I meant The Rolling Stools,ah sh!t
14 - Chelsea Snyder
You know, I was really disappointed by the Stones' performance. Seeing them in concert is still on my list of things I must do before I die (or they die, whatever), but their halftime show definitely left me disappointed.
15 - DJRadiohead
So you cared so little about the Super Bowl you felt compelled to write a column about how little you cared about it? =P
I thought the Stones were all right. Not great. Just all right. These Super Bowl halftime shows are rarely worth shooting at regardless of who plays.
16 - Chelsea Snyder
I won't lie, I was still rocking out like a fool when they played "Satisfaction." Always a great song.
17 - DJRadiohead
I liked Jagger's joke about how they could have played that one for Super Bowl I.
18 - Chelsea Snyder
And Keith Richards then laughed and mumbled something incomprehensible. (Mike Myers' SNL bit comes to mind.)
19 - Bliffle
Nice day, so I went hiking in the mountains, along with many others. Roads choked with bicyclists. Apparently, many people are not interested in the bowl. Got home in time to watch a few plays in glorious widescreen HDTV, which almost makes it worthwhile to watch TV sports, but not quite, since I switched off at the first commercial.
20 - Nidhogg
What do you expect? It's pittsburgh vs. seattle. Not many people but home-team type people rooting for them
21 - El Bicho
"I stopped watching these so-called 'professional' sports when the athletes started getting multi-million dollar paychecks."
Do you not watch movies with actors that make multi-millions? Do you not listen to music made by musicians that make multi-millions?
22 - Nidhogg
I don't actually, thank you for making my point. I haven't seen a movie in about 4 years.
23 - Susan R-G
I did take a peek or two when I heard Shawn Alexander's name - He played for the Alabama Crimson Tide before going to Seattle. We've been Bama fans for years, season ticket holders, blah,blah,blah ... S.Alexander would be the ONLY reason to look up from working on my laptop.
24 - Nidhogg
El bicho- Thanks for the personal attack. As mentioned by that glaring read band of text, they aren't allowed. Thanks for reading it.
25 - chantal stone
when I was in the Army, stationed in Germany, our unit got the day off to watch the superbowl. can you imagine? our army actually shuts down for this???
although that was about 12 years ago, let's hope they have more important things to do now.