Sunday, February 6, 2005

THE SEASON-ENDING BIG GAME IN JACKSONVILLE EXPERIMENTAL LIVEBLOGGING: While Adam covers the sports side of the material later this evening, I'll be blogging the game from a pop cultural perspective.

5:58 PM: The Black Eyed Peas substitute "Overseas they got football, but we like our American football" for "Overseas we tryin' to fight terrorism, but we still got terrorists here livin'" in their version of "Where Is The Love?" The live version also makes one recognize how much Timberlake contributed to the record.

5:59: Will.I.Am proclaims "Everybody have a happy football!" I'm not quite sure what that means.

5:59: Eugene Levy as a "football scientist." Levy's always a good thing. And it's actually funny, which is all the more shocking.

6:10: Alicia Keys doing "America the Beautiful" with a signing choir in honor of Ray Charles. But couldn't we have done without the product placement for Charles' last CDs?

6:15: "Buy an extra pair of underwear" for tomorrow night's 24? That's not a problem from a decency standpoint?

6:16: Michael Chiklis introduces the AFC champ Patriots. We can be thankful he did not say "It's Clobberin' Time!" to plug his upcoming movie role, and be even more thankful we didn't have to endure an introduction from this blog's favorite whipping boy, Jimmy Fallon.

6:17: Will Smith introduces the Eagles. Am I the only for whom "Let the Eagles soar" summons as many memories of John Ashcroft as it does of McNabb and TO?

6:22: Michael Douglas leads a tribute to the "Greatest Generation," including appearances by Presidents Clinton and Bush the Elder. No, I don't know why either, though Clinton and Bush are, for some reason, both wearing identical awful-looking blue jackets.

6:27: Cut to "Camp Victory" in Iraq. Not quite sure where exactly that is.

6:32: Contender #1 for "Obvious Statement of the Night." "The Ford Kickoff Show Has Been Brought to You By Ford."

6:42: "Constantine" is rated "R" for "violence and demonic imagery." James Dobson must be proud.

6:45: Ah, officiating call reversed. I already know what my dad (who officiates high school football for fun) will spend much of tomorrow discussing.

6:51: Someone spent 2 million bucks to promote LeBron James bubble gum on the big game. Perhaps not the best use of funds.

6:54: The sole reason I'll even think of seeing "The Pacifier" is the presence of Lauren Graham as second-billed, and the fact that she has yet to appear in a trailer or ad, that's not reassuring.

6:55: FedEx takes the early lead in the "best ad of the night" sweepstakes with their "10 elements to a great ad" ad.

7:53: After a break (cooking and eating dinner), during which nothing of any real popcultural significance occured, we return to the obligatory pan of the stands for celebrities. Somehow, we have a very awkward cut from Bill Clinton to John Travolta, followed by Jeff Gordon.

7:58: We get a first real look at "Batman Begins." Looks like they're throwing back to the Tim Burton era, which is a good thing, but continuing the overloaded casting that helped do in the franchise before--Liam Neeson, Michael Caine, Katie Holmes, Christian Bale, and Morgan Freeman all get screen time in a 30 second spot, making it a little too quick.

8:19: Halftime show. No real spectacle. Paul McCartney, a band and a guitar. Bizarrely, he leads with "Baby You Can Drive My Car." He follows it up with "Get Back," which is more suitable. The stage is oddly designed, with the band members each having their own separate platform in corners of a cross.

8:25: McCartney walks over to a piano, and begins to play "Live and Let Die" with much meaningful handwaving in the background, and massive fireworks as the guitar solo after the first chorus kicks in. The crowd moshing in front of the stage seems far more Nirvana than McCartney.

8:31: No surprise that the big closer is "Hey Jude," but can someone explain what genius decided that it would be a good idea to have cards held up that made the stands spell out "Na Na Na?"

8:49: Have movie studios learned no lessons? Even after seeing the trailer and the Super Bowl ad for "Robots," I have no idea what the movie's actually about other than that it's computer-animated and features celebrity voices as robots.

8:59: The ads have been genuinely unspectacular this year, though the careerbuilder.com "I work with a bunch of monkeys" ads have been decent.

9:03: OK, that "War of the Worlds" ad was pretty darn impressive, and spooky considering it was filmed like two miles from where I sit right now.

9:04: Ah, the "erections lasting longer than 4 hours, though rare, require immediate medical attention" disclaimer has made its glorious return.

9:16: Fox--you've got "American Idol" to use as a promotional tool--is there really a need to have so many self-promotion spots? At least they made fun of it with a "24" spot making the point that "it's worth 2 million dollars to us to say this to you."

10:20: OK, the liveblogging kind of petered out, but that's because for once, the game overshadowed the external trappings of the show, and, honestly, there wasn't much pop cultural to snark on. Was one of the best games in recent memory, though, even though I know some folks around these parts are probably less than thrilled with the outcome.

10:24: Thought I was done, but time to be a little indignant. Seeing, moments ago, an "Arrested Development" ad made me realize that while we've had incessant promotion for "24," "American Idol," and "House" throughout the game, that was the first ad for what is Fox's most critically and awards-wise successful series right now. Ridiculous.

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