Today was an important day for the USA. It was the day of the Superbowl. Brief history:
Two American football leagues - the American Football League and the National Football League or AFL and NFL. One day, the heads of these two leagues decided to get together and create the biggest sporting event in the American calendar, in which the champion team of the AFL plays the champion team of the NFL. Pretty cool idea.
The 'bowl' thing puzzled me for a while, but Mr Wikipedia cleared things up for me. All the college football league games etc were known as Bowl games, after the Rose Bowl stadium, so called because of it's bowl-like shape. (Not the same as the cricket venue in Southampton.) There's an Orange Bowl, a Sugar Bowl (which I think is v. funny, is there a giant Sugar Spoon sticking out of it?) etc etc so Super Bowl is the natural progression.
I even went and learned some of the Am Foot rules. I learned about 'downs' or 'plays', how you score points (touchdowns are 6, kicking the ball through the goalposts is 1 and a something or other something conversion is 2.) I also learned while watching the game that there are few limits on the amount and nature of physical contact permitted. These guys are nuts! You aren't allowed to grab another players' helmet grill, or do something like drag them to the ground by the arm. You are allowed to pull hair (!!!) and generally shove a lot, and jump on top of anyone unfortunate enough to hit the floor. Very violent! People compare to rugby and say 'oh rugby's for real men cos they don't wear padding etc' but I dunno - rugby seems to have more decorum than American football.
The game today was Pittsburg Steelers vs Green Bay Packers. Packers won - I forget the score.
A lot of people told me the main draw for the Super Bowl broadcast is the commercial breaks - because advertising space during the broadcast is so in demand and therefore so expensive, companies tend to spend the most money on the ads they will be showing during the game. Hence the ads tend to be really cool. There were some cool ones, none too memorable, except for a pretty funny Chevy one -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwgJzNHvJ-c
And the other thing people watch for is the half time show. Now this is a big deal - they've had The Who play the half time show. It was the setting for Janet Jackson's infamous 'wardrobe malfunction' while performing with Justin Timberlake.
This year it was the Black Eyed Peas. Ohhhhhh dear. Oh Peas. What happened? They've been on a downward spiral for a while and I feel this was the culmination. Fergie Fergie Fergie. You caaaaaan't siiiiing! How have you had this gig for so long! Truly cringeworthy live performance. Guest artists were Slash, who rose up on a trapdoor platform rocking the opening riff to S.C.O.M, which would have redeemed the whole thing somewhat had Fergie not started howling over the top of it and then gyrating annoyingly around him - she did not look cool. There was also a cameo from Usher, who didn't sound great (the levels were rubbish throughout, apart from the gee-tar) but at least he can dance and look cool not lame. The production was astounding - hundreds of dancers surrounding the stage all dressed in head to toe white space suit type things, all moving in sync and creating arrows, hearts and letters on the pitch. Shame about the act itself.
We missed this part but apparently the other live act of the night screwed up royally as well - Christina Aguilera sang the N
I just found out this too - 'The winning team receives the Vince Lombardi Trophy, named after the coach of the Green Bay Packers, who won the first two Super Bowl games and three of the five preceding NFL championships in 1961, 1962, and 1965.' Which is nice as the Packers won tonight.
I watched the game in the room of a friend of Kait's from High School, called Chuck. Kait, Wave and myself made our way to Chinatown, stopping on the way to pick up crisps, cookies and wine. I feel that was the optimum way to be enjoying my first ever American Footb
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Funny thing - I'm now back at Loftstel and just listened to a really thought-provoking conversation between Bholi and Derek, both Nigerian by birth though Bholi's been in USA for a while.
They were talking about 911. Now, I remember the day. I was on the school bus going home when Esther Newson leaned over the back of her seat and said 'a plane has hit the Twin Towers'. And I probably went 'what?' and carried on reading. Honestly, I didn't even know what the Twin Towers were, or why it was significant that a plane had hit them. I remember arriving home and my mum had the TV on with every channel showing footage of the smoke and fire that was all you could see from the wreckage. And I asked her what was going on and I remember her saying, exasperated - "This is like the biggest disaster since World War 2" or something. And I thought 'wow...ok, that is a big disaster.' And I felt sorry for the people who had died, and lost loved ones, and lost livelihoods and would suffer post traumatic stress syndrome and all the other damage that was inflicted. Of course I did. But I still didn't really comprehend the significance. I'm not huge on politics, though I try to learn and understand these days. So to hear a conversation between two guys, only a few years older than me, who were in America on the day those planes hit those towers, was a real eye-opener. I've seen many news reports and read a lot of media that covers the attacks with witness accounts, politicians, those directly affected. But I've never met anyone who was here. Actually Derek was in Washington DC and Bholi was in upstate New York at college. Derek remembers that suddenly, the streets of DC were swarming with military vehicles and the sky was droning with every kind of aircraft the Pentagon had to send out. And Bholi (his mother was in NYC at the time) was at college and the whole place just shut down and they all got sent home. He tried to get to the City but the entrances had literally been sealed off, noone came in or went out. Same in DC. When he finally did get in, he said the streets were empty - he stayed with a friend who lives near Central Park, a place where the streets are never ever empty, but they were completely deserted.
They also mentioned Eric (which I think is probably Eric who lives in Loftstel, a hardened New Yorker of 38 years) who was somewhere around 14th St when the planes hit. And he didn't see the first one. But he actually saw the second plane go crashing into the tower, with his own eyes. Hearing that has really got me, because now I can sort of see it in my head. It must have been like watching the world come to an end. Here's the thing - the first plane that crashed, everyone thought it was an accident and of course chaos and panic set in but everyone ran towards it, thinking they needed to help at the scene of this accident and find out what was going on. Then the second plane crashed. Imagine watching an aeroplane be flown, in deliberate cold blood, into a fucking great tower. This thing that is going to cause so much death and destruction and there's not a damn thing anyone can do about it. I can't even concieve of the sheer fear and panic that must have immediately set into the hearts of everyone in America - someone has crashed a plane into our city because someone wants to cause us untold pain. Think how it would feel to watch someone drive a truck through your house, with your family inside, and all the threat that would be implicit in such an action. It's desperately painful to think of.
Bholi and Derek then relayed stories of people they knew or had heard of, on holiday in New York and not knowing how they'd get home, or people trapped miles from their homes, and noone able to reach anyone else on the phone. Everything shut down, no subway, no cabs, and hoardes of people walking through the City, away from Tribeca. Some people may have had to walk miles just to get home. Some people just slept in trains and doorways.
Those disaster movies, where humanity is being wiped out by a disease, or a meteorite is going to hit the Earth, and they have the refugees moved from their homes or people running in panic separated from their families. Ok, now those fictional tales are real.
I'm glad I have finally been able to realise what 9/11 really meant. And I hope the people of the USA and especially New York won't have to live in fear. Likewise London, Madrid, every other place that has come under terrorist threat. And as for terrorists...I'm not going to transcribe the words in my head right now, as I don't want to shock anyone who may be reading.
Thank you to Bholi and Derek for enlightening me so very well.
Peace and love, but particularly peacexxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
They were talking about 911. Now, I remember the day. I was on the school bus going home when Esther Newson leaned over the back of her seat and said 'a plane has hit the Twin Towers'. And I probably went 'what?' and carried on reading. Honestly, I didn't even know what the Twin Towers were, or why it was significant that a plane had hit them. I remember arriving home and my mum had the TV on with every channel showing footage of the smoke and fire that was all you could see from the wreckage. And I asked her what was going on and I remember her saying, exasperated - "This is like the biggest disaster since World War 2" or something. And I thought 'wow...ok, that is a big disaster.' And I felt sorry for the people who had died, and lost loved ones, and lost livelihoods and would suffer post traumatic stress syndrome and all the other damage that was inflicted. Of course I did. But I still didn't really comprehend the significance. I'm not huge on politics, though I try to learn and understand these days. So to hear a conversation between two guys, only a few years older than me, who were in America on the day those planes hit those towers, was a real eye-opener. I've seen many news reports and read a lot of media that covers the attacks with witness accounts, politicians, those directly affected. But I've never met anyone who was here. Actually Derek was in Washington DC and Bholi was in upstate New York at college. Derek remembers that suddenly, the streets of DC were swarming with military vehicles and the sky was droning with every kind of aircraft the Pentagon had to send out. And Bholi (his mother was in NYC at the time) was at college and the whole place just shut down and they all got sent home. He tried to get to the City but the entrances had literally been sealed off, noone came in or went out. Same in DC. When he finally did get in, he said the streets were empty - he stayed with a friend who lives near Central Park, a place where the streets are never ever empty, but they were completely deserted.
They also mentioned Eric (which I think is probably Eric who lives in Loftstel, a hardened New Yorker of 38 years) who was somewhere around 14th St when the planes hit. And he didn't see the first one. But he actually saw the second plane go crashing into the tower, with his own eyes. Hearing that has really got me, because now I can sort of see it in my head. It must have been like watching the world come to an end. Here's the thing - the first plane that crashed, everyone thought it was an accident and of course chaos and panic set in but everyone ran towards it, thinking they needed to help at the scene of this accident and find out what was going on. Then the second plane crashed. Imagine watching an aeroplane be flown, in deliberate cold blood, into a fucking great tower. This thing that is going to cause so much death and destruction and there's not a damn thing anyone can do about it. I can't even concieve of the sheer fear and panic that must have immediately set into the hearts of everyone in America - someone has crashed a plane into our city because someone wants to cause us untold pain. Think how it would feel to watch someone drive a truck through your house, with your family inside, and all the threat that would be implicit in such an action. It's desperately painful to think of.
Bholi and Derek then relayed stories of people they knew or had heard of, on holiday in New York and not knowing how they'd get home, or people trapped miles from their homes, and noone able to reach anyone else on the phone. Everything shut down, no subway, no cabs, and hoardes of people walking through the City, away from Tribeca. Some people may have had to walk miles just to get home. Some people just slept in trains and doorways.
Those disaster movies, where humanity is being wiped out by a disease, or a meteorite is going to hit the Earth, and they have the refugees moved from their homes or people running in panic separated from their families. Ok, now those fictional tales are real.
I'm glad I have finally been able to realise what 9/11 really meant. And I hope the people of the USA and especially New York won't have to live in fear. Likewise London, Madrid, every other place that has come under terrorist threat. And as for terrorists...I'm not going to transcribe the words in my head right now, as I don't want to shock anyone who may be reading.
Thank you to Bholi and Derek for enlightening me so very well.
Peace and love, but particularly peacexxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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