burning like matchsticks in the face of the darkness

[Seattle Seahwaks] Entrance music: "Bittersweet Symphony" (the Verve) ?  Rock.  I could barely discern that the other team [Pittsburgh Steelers] had music nevermind know what it was.  I realized early on I was rooting for the Seahawks 'cause their outfits were prettier.  Lo I am shallow at times.  Plus, never been to the Super Bowl versus going for fifth?  I grew up in Red Sox country (though my family isn't hardcore about sports); rooting for the underdog is what I do.

Nice touch having musicians from Detroit and NOLA (though I wasn't impressed by the rendition of the national anthem).  And I recalled the criticisms of the lack of mention of NOLA in the SotUA and thought, "The Super Bowl knows how to play it."  As soon as they said they were gonna have a moment of silence I knew one would be for Coretta Scott King but I was trying to remember who would be the other one ('cause I was running through recent deaths and was like "Betty Friedan . . . ") but if Rosa Parks is from Detroit, that would be a duh. [Edit: The Metro confirms my father's suspicion that that was Condoleeza Rice in the stands.]

When I saw Terry on Saturday he said Seattle Seahawk linebacker Lofa Tatupo (51) was friends with his nephew Kevin.  They went to (high?) school together, played football together.  I told my dad and he got all excited and explained the history to me and then they even had a little spiel about him early in the game.

I was mostly interested in watching the commercials (I had my dad call me back for them) but I ended up seeing most of the highlights anyway.

( Do I even need to cut for this? I mean, anyone who cares watched it. Oh, why not. )

Commercials:
- "Let your man out"?  Um, no thanks.  Besides the obvious "Oh yes, Super Bowl, your target audience is stereotypically macho men," scenes of pointless rampant suburban destruction do not make something appeal to me.
- "Three guys standing around watching while one guy does all the work ... would never fly in the corporate world."  Of course we see the punchline, but I enjoy that the one working worker is a woman.
- Co-opting Dr. Seuss (and Oh, the Places You'll Go! no less -- IIRC, that was my first LJ bio) to pimp the Super Bowl?  Sadness.  I was also kind of weirded out just generally by how many "Super Bowl = rawk!" commercials there were in the first batch.  Like come on, we're already watching.  Do you need to convince us it's big and exciting?
- Disneyworld.  *rolls eyes*  I mean, I get that "What are you going to do now?" "I'm going to Disneyworld" is a Thing, but I've never understood the Disney fetish.  My dad explained that the winners of the Super Bowl used to get a free trip to Disneyworld.  Makes such more sense now.
- "But FedEx doesn't exist yet." "Not my problem." And then the ba-dum-bum at the end.
- Sci-fi geeks repruhsent in the Aleve commercial.
- Classy and exotic black woman (whose cuffs reminded me of Witchblade) emerges dripping water.  Walks off.  Then emerges a 2007 Escalade.  The parallels are obvious, and gee isn't that problematic on a multiplicity of levels?  Plus, I am so not a car person, so I was like, "car whatever, could I watch the woman again, on repeat?"
- Ford Hybrid: "I guess it is easy being green."  *rolls eyes*  I also disapprove of the co-opting of Kermit, duh.
- "Light beer . . . just got darker."  Tackling the blonde chick ded, kinda worrisome; redeemed by her tackling him in the bar at the end, though.
- "You might just watch for the commercials" (shot of a guy and his dog; props to it not being a woman, which would be the expected stereotype)  I was contesting the uberAmericanness of the Super Bowl, but yeah, everybody watches the Super Bowl, whereas the World Series is more about the fans of those two teams plus baseball fans in general.
- "Low fares, even at the last minute."  I was wondering if that guy was the personal assistant and was reminded of the commercial for whatever it is (some cell phone information service thing) where the workers are dancing and one guy comes in freaked out and they're like "We've got it under control."  Anyway, moral of the story is: Be nice to the people who run your life.  But apparently he was just a random employee.  When they cut to the "we value our employees" conferences I wanted a dramatic entrance a la "You killed my wife" in The Fugitive.
- The football players being so into Desperate Housewives . . . wigged me out the first time and they keep repeating it.
- The silver woman getting off the backflap to admire the truck (Honda Ridgeline) . .  I thought of Emma -- the whole hot women who also knows cars thing.  Kinda confused by Yosemite Sam's hat saying "Back Off!" since they were totally playing subtext between the two characters.
- Fabio: I can't believe it's not butter shampoo Nationwide Retirement.
- "We ate non-organic food, and we liked it!"  "It's a papaya."  "The old-fashioned way; we went . . . to the Internet."  Reminds me of Prof.B's comment about an old-fashioned way of syncing his Treo ;)
- zomg, the mutant hamster thing and the robot . . . tru wuv . . . and zomg pregnancy, and they birth a truck :)  Hummer!  Calling it a little monster is perfect, 'cause it gives the opposition and the supporters a catch phrase.
- Sprint: "crime deterrent"  I was amused.
- Sprint: Benny Hill (As with That 70's Show season finale, my dad pointed out that it was Benny Hill and I nodded, not really having any familiarity with Benny Hill, though when we saw That 70's Show my dad explained the original scene to me.)
- Emerald Nuts.  Um, yay druid?
- Budweiser: creating the bottle, and the glass, and the pour, and the drinking, with the bleacher audience cards was quite good.
Edited to add ones I'd neglected:
- Clydesdale!  And shortly before it aired I'd been thinking, "I miss the Clydesdales from last year."
- "Don't judge" (AmeriQuest?) "Well that killed him" and the airplane one
- debit MasterCard (MacGyver)

Bud Light series:
- Office workers going that ballistic over beer?  Though the small print "Please drink responsibly" on the heels of that did make me laugh.
- I liked the "magic fridge" one a lot.
- The bear one?  *shrugs*
- The roof one?  Eh.  I'm even less impressed by that one.

Meg and i missed each other on Thursday, and Moriah had to cancel on me for Friday. Life is pain, as Meg said. Only, not really. My life is not Tess of the d’Urbervilles (which is nigh on 400 pages and which i didn’t start in earnest until Friday, because i suck). P.S. Oh, memories.

Friday was positively balmy. Predictions of snow, what? Crazies. I slept in, had a leisurely lunch, did assorted errands including laundry and finally putting a picture of myself up on facebook. Thursday night i finally posted to slashthekey and futureverse.

And yeah, there endeth-ed the productivity. On Friday i hung out with people -- or at least Emma -- from tea (4pm) until nearly 10pm. Though i did do lots of Tess reading afterward. And finished it on Saturday. (Oh, textual entrances into slash, how i love thee.) Now i just have to read Death of a Salesman and do my reader response journal for The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe (and reread and take notes on the end of Surprised by Joy). That’s for tomorrow. For now, fanfic to quell the Hit With Big Sticks feeling that carried me through most of the novel.

ZOE: You sanguine about the kinda reception we're apt to receive on an Alliance ship, Captain?
MAL: Absolutely. (then) What's sanguine?
ZOE: Hopeful. Plus, item of interest, it also means bloody.
MAL: Well, that pretty much covers the options, don't it?
-Firefly, “Safe”

Every time i read the name Angel Clare i kept thinking of Angel Juan. Oh, things i don’t have the time to reread.

209 rearranged their room, so i swapped my bookcase for a 4-shelved one. The shelves aren’t as deep as my old one, but that’s almost a non-issue; and there are 4 shelves instead of 3, which is the important part. And the dark wood is yummy.

Friday, Felicia called me and Emma (and Cat?) repressed. Somehow not the word that usually comes to mind. And it’s possible i’ll never be able to look at pineapples with a straight face again, at least around certain people.

Emma, on Time Bandits: “I still haven’t decided how I feel about the ending. I need to write that fanfic.”
Me: “I’m already writing that fanfic.”
Emma: “Why haven’t you finished yet?”

I’m thinking SuperBowl is prime time to work on fic ‘cause i clearly can’t do homework during it.

"Sometime before 6:30, the game will start. Remember the game, between the Patriots, who could win their third Super Bowl in four years, and the Eagles, who last played (and lost) in the Super Bowl 24 years ago?"
-Richard Sandomir, on the excess of pre-game programming

Oh, look, young Ian McKellan and Judi Dench from my MAT class copy of Macbeth.

David Lenson, my UMass Comp-Lit Brave New Worlds prof, mentioned during the Maria Tatar radio interview that one of his students wanted to do a senior honors thesis on fanfiction, and from his tone it sounded like he denied said student. I e-mailed him and mentioned Susan Cocalis, my UMass Grimms to Disney prof, in my e-mail. This is the response i got:

I'd never deny a student the opportunity to do new research! C'mon! I think the project may be a bit bogged down at the moment, but her name is [name removed] and she's in my current class. I'll see if it's ok with her to give out her email address.

I invited Susan Cocalis to join us on the show, but she had a prior commitment. Tatar, Cocalis and I are old pals from graduate school.

::loves::

"Your recs page is my new crack."
-wisdomeagle

And wisdomeagle wrote me fic for buffyverse1000! I have love.

I caved and signed up for the Ethan Rayne ficathon.

I am not, however, doing the Multifandom One Ring Fic Challenge, obviously.

I’m excited about my femslash05 assignment.

Emma, i thought of you.

I have the “Normal Again” outtake [JM/NB kiss] vid clip again! ::loves mpoetess::

There is an Angelus prayer. Yeah, it’s named for the Latin beginning, but still; being in fandom makes one’s brain extra-confused. (Hat-tip, maechi.)

BlogThings says i’m 30 :)