February 6, 2006 [LINK]
The Roman numeral label for this year's Super Bowl -- XL -- was appropriate for our "super-sized" couch-potato society. You can find a wide assortment of "XXL" T-shirts in the stores these days, but good luck finding an "S" or even an "M." We can't help it, "we're addicted to cheese!" The game fell somewhat short in terms of excitement, aside from a few big plays, including two dramatic interceptions. I had no strong feelings on the matter, but was kind of hoping the Seahawks would bring home the Vince Lombardi trophy since they -- unlike the Steelers -- have yet to do so. Ford Field, which opened just three and a half years ago, was a pretty good venue for the Big Event. It is next door to Comerica Park (see the new photo!), where I saw the Tigers play in 2004. To my surprise, however, none of the camera angles allowed viewers to see its most distinctive feature: the fact that there is only one main deck on the south side of the field, topped with several tiers of luxury suites. It is interesting that the new home of the Lions was sigificantly "downsized" relative to their old home, the Pontiac Silverdome: the seating capacity dropped from 80,000 to 65,000. I plan to create a new page comparing the recently-built baseball stadiums and football stadiums in the near future.
The Rolling Stones gave a solid performance at half time, but I thought the tempo on "Start Me Up" was too rushed. Those power chords (C to F) need time to resonate fully. "Rough Justice" was a good choice of songs to promote their very good new CD, A Bigger Bang, and Mick Jagger was smart to refrain from finishing the explicit line, "Once upon a time I was your little rooster, but am I just one of your ****s?" (Or perhaps it was censored via the five-second time delay instituted thanks to Janet Jackson?) Some people complained that local Motown stars should have been given top billing, not just a pre-game appearance. I was glad, at least, that the Super Bowl half-time show was not yet another absurdly glitzy, incongruous mixture of various styles, straining to appeal to a broad mass audience.
UPDATE: It was censored! See BBC.
