You have
Brendan to blame for encouraging me to record a video response to this
Stranger slog question.(British Knight, Sorry it was 4 days late. I was a bit tied up...)
My reaction is such a classic case of overkill, with a touch of overreach.
For those of you who don't click links (
Hi Mom!) the gist is this:
"Is the Super Bowl a legitimate sporting interests for many, or is it just an example of everything that is wrong with the USA?"
First I wrote out this response:
Listen:
I'm gonna have to throw my lot in with the both answer. Yes and yes, the Superbowl is a legitimate sporting interest and also one of the many signs of our declining US Hegemony
The Superbowl is the tail end of a football dependency reduction program that seems carefully laid out by a methadone clinic official. The entire football season culminates in two wonderful weekends where first there are four meaningful wildcard games where heroes rise and anything is possible. followed next weekend by four divisional playoffs where we are reminded both that there is a reason that those teams earned the bye, and that Norv Turner is who we thought he was.
At the end of that Sunday, we are tweaking. We can’t fly closer to the sun. The gradual weaning begins. The following weekend is just two conference championship games. Then there’s the long two week wait for an overhyped game that more often than not is a blowout, and is really only interesting if you’re a fan of one of the remaining teams.
The actual game is pretty lame, but the promise of one more hit is essential at the end of the conference championships or hard core fans like myself would riot like Walmart ran out of Blu Rays on Black Friday..
The two weeks of hype is perfect too. It’s long enough that I have to really focus on college basketball and start asking questions like is John Wall getting all the hype while DeMarcus Cousins is doing all the work? Do work son!
On the other hand, for those of you who can’t tell a field goal from a free throw, and never want to be able to, the SuperBowl offers you something as well. The chance to get bogged down in the crowd favorite Abortion debate. In one of the planned commercials, Tim Tebow* is going to explain how his mother chose to have him against medical advice. Cincinnati fans who traveled to New Orleans this year for the Sugar Bowl (and pretty much the rest of the SEC) lament her decision. Tim, no one is trying to make abortions mandatory, and I think going out of your way to cast dispersion on women who might make that choice in life of the mother, health of the mother situations is despicable and inexcusable. Those women are already in an incredibly difficult, personal situation and drumming up public disapproval helps no one.
That, and usually there are some commercials with monkeys. Monkeys. I'm gonna set the Monkey sitings under/over at 3 and half and watch expectantly.
Later on.
* Those of you not up on your Tebow might read
this to get some background.
Then, I took a stab at recording my video response. I think writing it out first actually made it worse. I tried to record it a couple of times. It was really annoying. I just kept trying to imagine sitting across a bar from Jesse and discussing this stuff I rant about all the time, but watching myself on my MacBook was really distracting. This is what I finally posted:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfHM1hcKY0sThe finished product comes across much less funny than I was going for and much more moralizing and Conscendo.
I hate it of course, but I won't bother to try again (like some terrible college papers I wrote, I'm not proud of the end product, but I'll be damned if I'm going through that again.) It's interesting when two ingrained traits but up against each other. I'm vain, and I'd prefer to look smart and well spoken (instead of slurring Norb Turver and watching with, "Baited Breasts?"). But I'm lazy enough not to try again. And (surprising me) paramount here is my unwillingnes to fold.
Anyone who's played hold'em with me is nodding right now. The right answer might be to bail, but I wanted to at least try for Brendan, who, I like to think, wanted me to try for me. I'm lazy enough not to try hard enough to get it right, but not lazy enough to bail entirely. I guess I'll just have to fess:
That is me. Nervous, alone in my Ft. Greene apartment, just because the green light on my MacBook is blinking at me. Luckily for me, it's the four of our's little secret.
Also, based on this effort, he might retract it, but if he's too polite, I'll be live blogging the Super Bowl with Brendan and some other straight Gs.
Commenters: Do you like the written version better than the live version? Does that mean I'm better off writing, or should I just shut it down?
Look out Stewart Scott, this is just the beginning.
