Super Bowl XLVII
It was nice to sleep in today not least of all because Courtney's mattress is outstanding. I walked Basil, had coffee and breakfast, then played some more Wii U before Basil's full-time people came home. We battery-ed up the other Wiimotes and played some multiplayer games for a little while before I bid them adieu.
After loading up the car I picked up Justin, who now only lives a couple blocks away, and we went up to Shoreline to Barry and Janene's for their Super Bowl party. They had a fantastic spread - two different chilis, four flavors of wings, ribs, cheese, several dips to go with chips, desserts, and plenty of drinks. Barry even had a few of his recent home brews to showcase. We arrived after kickoff and spent almost the entire first half in the kitchen, eating and talking. Chris and Cody were there, Amanda came later after finishing up selling her goods at the market. I knew about half of the other people, having met them before through Barry or Janene. They watched the game on the upstairs TV. The STG misfits congregated at the basement TV for the second half.
Even if you didn't watch the game or the commercials, I assume it was hard to avoid hearing about the loss of power just seconds after halftime ended and the Ravens returned the kick-off the full length of the field to score a touchdown. Particularly embarrassing were the "announcers" who couldn't do anything but repeat cliches for 34 minutes. No information was given. No attempts at finding out or reporting the story were attempted. It was just dead air, or what would have been better as dead air. Their dialogue was inane.
The the second act resumed and it looked the the 49ers were going to make a huge comeback. They were so close to tying the game and had several attempts to take the lead, but it just never happened for them. Having no personal investment in either team, I was glad as a spectator that the second half turned interesting. The first half was very dull for non-Ravens fans or the indifferents out there like me. Now that it's over I think it was an entirely fun experience and almost undoubtedly the best Super Bowl party I've ever attended.
I didn't stick around to see things devolve post football. I heard epic karaoke ensued - there are karaoke machines for each TV and the one in the basement only has Korean songs. Instead, wanting to take full advantage of my day off and my proximity to the Crest, I went to see The Master, which luckily had been put in the large auditorium where I saw Flight just a few days back.
Smarter people have said better things about The Master than I will here. I found it difficult, perplexing, and not something I left feeling like I had enjoyed much. But I also saw a very beautiful movie with impeccable production design, deftly directed, and saturated like a Kodachrome photograph. I have enough faith in P.T. Anderson as a director the believe that everything up on the screen was there deliberately. As a narrative, things may not have been logical or made sense, but I am able to overlook that and don't find it damning. Both Joaquin Phoenix and Phillip Seymour Hoffman played their roles exceptionally well. Are all those factors enough to suggest you go see it yourself? Let's just say it's a movie that's easy to dislike and to find off putting. It may or may not be pretentious, but if you walk out of it after seeing it once and you go on and on about how much you loved it, I'm almost certain you are pretentious. But it's clearly a work of art, and a good work of art needs to be seen and thought about multiple times as it reveals different parts of itself. My brain tells me there is a lot more to the movie than I was able to appreciate on one viewing. I would like to see it again, at some point, but I probably won't because life will present so many other options.
Tomorrow is another Monday, hopefully with some gym time and some errand running, bill paying, credit union visiting, book reading, TV watching, coffee drinking time as well.
After loading up the car I picked up Justin, who now only lives a couple blocks away, and we went up to Shoreline to Barry and Janene's for their Super Bowl party. They had a fantastic spread - two different chilis, four flavors of wings, ribs, cheese, several dips to go with chips, desserts, and plenty of drinks. Barry even had a few of his recent home brews to showcase. We arrived after kickoff and spent almost the entire first half in the kitchen, eating and talking. Chris and Cody were there, Amanda came later after finishing up selling her goods at the market. I knew about half of the other people, having met them before through Barry or Janene. They watched the game on the upstairs TV. The STG misfits congregated at the basement TV for the second half.
Even if you didn't watch the game or the commercials, I assume it was hard to avoid hearing about the loss of power just seconds after halftime ended and the Ravens returned the kick-off the full length of the field to score a touchdown. Particularly embarrassing were the "announcers" who couldn't do anything but repeat cliches for 34 minutes. No information was given. No attempts at finding out or reporting the story were attempted. It was just dead air, or what would have been better as dead air. Their dialogue was inane.
The the second act resumed and it looked the the 49ers were going to make a huge comeback. They were so close to tying the game and had several attempts to take the lead, but it just never happened for them. Having no personal investment in either team, I was glad as a spectator that the second half turned interesting. The first half was very dull for non-Ravens fans or the indifferents out there like me. Now that it's over I think it was an entirely fun experience and almost undoubtedly the best Super Bowl party I've ever attended.
I didn't stick around to see things devolve post football. I heard epic karaoke ensued - there are karaoke machines for each TV and the one in the basement only has Korean songs. Instead, wanting to take full advantage of my day off and my proximity to the Crest, I went to see The Master, which luckily had been put in the large auditorium where I saw Flight just a few days back.
Smarter people have said better things about The Master than I will here. I found it difficult, perplexing, and not something I left feeling like I had enjoyed much. But I also saw a very beautiful movie with impeccable production design, deftly directed, and saturated like a Kodachrome photograph. I have enough faith in P.T. Anderson as a director the believe that everything up on the screen was there deliberately. As a narrative, things may not have been logical or made sense, but I am able to overlook that and don't find it damning. Both Joaquin Phoenix and Phillip Seymour Hoffman played their roles exceptionally well. Are all those factors enough to suggest you go see it yourself? Let's just say it's a movie that's easy to dislike and to find off putting. It may or may not be pretentious, but if you walk out of it after seeing it once and you go on and on about how much you loved it, I'm almost certain you are pretentious. But it's clearly a work of art, and a good work of art needs to be seen and thought about multiple times as it reveals different parts of itself. My brain tells me there is a lot more to the movie than I was able to appreciate on one viewing. I would like to see it again, at some point, but I probably won't because life will present so many other options.
Tomorrow is another Monday, hopefully with some gym time and some errand running, bill paying, credit union visiting, book reading, TV watching, coffee drinking time as well.