Superbo...we interrupt this blog title to bring you...a blackout

Just came back from a superbowl party.

I'll let that sink in.

Actually, I went to the trouble to look up who was playing a few days ago, and when I talked to my dad yesterday, I mentioned the fact. He said "ok, who's playing?"
"Well, it's the San Franciso.... 49ers......"
"And."
"And......the.......Giants?"
"Aaaaaant. Try again."

I gave up. I knew it wasn't the cardinals or the rams since they were both home teams. This goes to show the extents of my knowledge of NFL teams.

Anyway, we went over to a friend's house and watched the game. The halftime show was uninspiring although there was a really funny moment when one member of Destiny's child who was shot up in the air to land perfectly on the stage, actually looked terrified as if she had just been, in fact, shot up in the air.

After the performance, the power failed. I mean, totally failed. They said they lost power to half the stadium. I think they were being generous- the lights which remained on were probably safety lights, tied to the emergency generators which would be located on site just for these emergencies. At any rate, the commentators, desperate to fill airtime which was now totally null, made a bunch of stupid pointless comments for the half-hour it took to restore power, interrupted by more commercials.

"At this point, it looks like there was a problem with the power coming into the building"
Astounding. I thought the Astrodome produced its own power.

"As you can see, the lights in the stadium are still off, and we are waiting for official league response."
....

I don't think the power outage was an aberration. From what I know about New Orleans and the amount of infrastructural difficulties the city is suffering, I was surprised that there weren't two blackouts.

The commercials were surprisingly bad. Long, poor graphics. I used to be astounded by the quality of the computer animations used. This was really hack work. I was also surprised by the melodramatic depths to which car commercials in particular would dive. Dodge's commercial about a mythical America of farmers, Jeep attempting to wear a camouflage jacket as a supporter (get it?) of the US armed forces. Lest we forget, Dodge and Jeep are both brands of cars owned by a multinational corporation divided between Italy and the US.

And let's please forget as quickly as possible the simpering ad about the Budweiser (wholly owned by InBev, a Belgian company) Clydesdale and the cowboy.

I was kind of irritated at the cheetah commercial for Sketchers too. I would not put money on the cheetahs surviving to Superbowl 2023.