Superbowl XLIII Was Fantastic on Every Level

This year's Superbowl on NBC was completely awesome and had something for everyone. Even the most Football-Phobic person on earth could have enjoyed this show, as it started with a salute to the heroic crew of the US Air flight that landed safely on the Hudson, including pilot, "Sully" and all the flight attendants. The coin toss was from a military hero (General Petraeus) and the national anthem was sung magnificently by Oscar winner, Jennifer Hudson. I always watch for the commercials and the half time show, but even as a complete football moron, was able to get a great deal of excitement out of this extremely close game between the Cardinals and the Steelers. It was chock full of last minute cliff hangers and even a historic 100 yard play, the longest in SuperBowl history, by Pittsburgh Steelers player, James Harrison.

Springsteen and the E Street band were an absolute delight at halftime, playing a tight 12 minute set that included "10th Avenue Freeze Out", "Born to Run", "Waiting on a Dream" (from the new album) and the football themed "Glory Days". Afterwards The Boss screamed, "I'm going to Disneyland!!!" Kind of corny, but it worked for me.

Only the commercials seemed a little off...good, but not great like some of the award winners from past SuperBowl events. And by the way, has anyone noticed that Pepsi ripped off Obama's circular red, white and blue logo?

My favorite spots, as always, were the Budweiser horses; in this instance a 3 commercial story arc that included Jake the draft horse a) showing off to a dog, b) going on his first date and c) recalling the story of his grandfather who was, apparently an immigrant from Scotland! And if you've missed any of the commercials or would like to see them all again, MySpace has kindly posted them all on their homepage for your convenience. That's where I got this lovely copy of the Clydesdale horse chasing a stick below.

"Clydesdales/Stick" (Budweiser)

We Are One-HBO Inaugural Celebration at Lincoln Memorial

HBO gave a wonderful gift to the nation on January 18th with one of the first big celebratory concerts for the inauguration of Barack Obama. Under a slate grey sky, with Lincoln gazing on and the frozen waters of the Potomac River as a backdrop, some of the biggest film and music celebrities in the world gave tribute to America and a new President.


As Obama and his family watched and occasionally did a little enthusiastic seat dancing (probably to keep warm, it looked like it was about 22 degrees in DC yesterday) rockers such as Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi and U2 kept the crowd of thousands enthralled. They also had the Naval choir, the Marine band and wonderful actors including Denzel Washington, Tom Hanks and Forest Whitaker reading stirring words from America's founding fathers. And if film and music celebrities were not your thing, they even had Tiger Woods on stage, relating a powerful memory about his father's devotion to the military.
Tribute must be given to HBO, which offered the special multiple times yesterday to all cable homes, whether they subscribed to HBO or not. If you don't have cable, you can still watch the entire patriotic special on the HBO website, it is streaming continuously.



Favorite moments for me included a very out of character, non-country
performance from Garth Brooks, who had the enormous crowd dancing and singing along to the old soul stomper, "Shout". When the camera cut to the President-Elect he was bopping in time to the music and singing along himself...I think he rather liked Mr. Brook's rendition!

Beyonce' brought the house down towards the end with a stunning version of "America the Beautiful". Her voice has improved so much over the past few years and it has never sounded better than it did yesterday, floating over the huge crowd clustered around the reflecting pool, with the Washington monument in the distance.

Bono and U2 played "In the Name of Love", their tribute to Martin Luther King, and joked about the incongruity of "four Irish lads" being present at such an historic American event. They also sang "City of Blinding Lights" and mentioned that Obama had adopted that song for his campaign, proving that either he or his handlers have impeccable taste.

Just before the end, the crowd went completely silent, as an animal expert brought a huge live American Bald Eagle on the stage. The magnificent bird flapped his wings and stared fiercely at the new President. I was crying like a baby at this point, animal lover that I am.

The two hour program wrapped up with about a billion pounds of stars on the stage, singing a joyful, spirited version of "This Land is Your Land". It was absolutely glorious. Go watch the whole show on the HBO website, or take a look at some highlights on this video below. No matter what your political persuasion, or where you are in the world...you'll feel pretty good about the USA after this program.