The Virtue of Ambivalence, and Vice Versa
Super Bowl LVII has come and gone and your favorite podcast is here to yap about it for an extended period of time, whether you like it or not. We also quickly touch on last week’s State of the Union and a local kerfuffle over the name of a nearby elementary school. Listen, if you must! Has something we said, or failed to say, made you FEEL something? You can tell us all about it on Facebook or Twitter, leave a comment on the show’s page on our website, or you can send us an email here. Enjoy!
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The Virtue of Ambivalence, and Vice Versa
Show Rundown
Open — Valentine’s Day the CIB way
8:34 — Super Bowl LVII Chat! Underwhelming announcers, bad grass, and a great game
40:02 — Rihanna’s halftime performance gets a curious review from the NYT, and from our hosts
59:30 — SB commercials recap, because that’s what we do around here, apparently
1:16:18 — State of the Union recap
1:29:19 — A local school is undergoing a name change
1:44:02 — Wrap-up! Titanic’s 25th anniversary and an alternate ending, The Last of Us
Relevant Linkage
ESPN, before the Super Bowl: The grass at Super Bowl LVII has been years in the making
CBS News: Hurley: NFL shows off new way to waste $800,000 with slippery field in Super Bowl
ESPN: How the Super Bowl tests boundaries, including the Constitution
12News: Judge rules Phoenix's Super Bowl 'Clean Zone' rules were 'unconstitutional'
Bill Barnwell: How Mahomes' Chiefs beat Hurts' Eagles in Super Bowl 2023
The Athletic: How the Eagles pushed (and sometimes pulled) Jalen Hurts to the top of the NFC
NYT: At the Super Bowl, Rihanna Returns to Music, Briefly
Rihanna hasn’t released an album since “Anti” in 2016, and many in her fervent fan base took her willingness to perform at the Super Bowl this year as a sign that her return to music might be imminent. Perhaps she would announce a new single or album, or maybe a tour.
Instead, she used one of pop music’s biggest stages to assert that despite all of that collective anticipation, she had other things to focus on: a private life to return to. So if her actual onstage delivery had been slightly weary, well, there were more important things to focus on.
In 13 minutes, Rihanna casually performed snippets of 12 hits, universally known songs that don’t require much in the way of fluffing or bombast. The closest she came to frisson, to sass, to authority, to verve came a little after the halfway point of the set.
…
A quick cosmetics ad? Sure. An implicit statement of support for an embattled peer? Why not. Rihanna — one of the crucial pop hitmakers of the 21st century — needs the Super Bowl less than the Super Bowl needs her, and her performance was a master class in doing exactly enough. She treated it like many people approach their professional obligations when their personal life is calling: dutiful, lightly enthused, a little exhausted, looking to work the angles ever so slightly.
The queen of nonchalance, Rihanna first appeared Sunday night on a stage floating above the 50-yard line (a gesture cribbed from Ye’s 2016 Saint Pablo tour) singing “Bitch Better Have My Money.” She was tethered to the platform, limiting her maneuvering, but even when she reached the ground she didn’t overemphasize dance, instead holding sturdy court at the center of 100-plus dancers, sharing in their movements but never outdoing them. During “Work,” she led them as if she were a tutor calling out moves but not participating in them.
FiveThirtyEight: How Massive The NFL Really Is, In 4 Charts
The Hollywood Reporter: Harrison Ford: “I Know Who the Fuck I Am”
NYT: What Does ‘Lots of Luck in Your Senior Year’ Actually Mean? An Investigation.
As President Biden delivered his speech on Tuesday evening, he issued a challenge to Republicans who have threatened to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act: “That’s OK,” he said. “As my football coach used to say: ‘Lots of luck in your senior year.’”
Democrats laughed. Republicans did not. Viewers watching at home smiled and nodded, maybe getting it but not totally getting it. Representative Ro Khanna, a Democrat of California, said he had “no idea” what the football line meant, but that he was inspired by the president’s economic plan.
Why Name a School for James G. Johnson?
OSU.edu: Taft's Attitude
Taft had written in 1906 that the Jim Crow laws designed to codify segregation and to disenfranchise Southern black voters were not harmful because African Americans were not ready to use the vote well anyway. In Taft’s words, "When a class of persons is so ignorant and so subject to oppression and misleading that they are merely political children, not having the mental stature of manhood, then it can hardly be said that that their voice in the government secures any benefit to them." In 1906, over forty years after emancipation, Taft still favored a "gradual acquisition of political power" for Southern blacks.
National Parks Service: New Beginnings: Cherry Blossoms and Helen Taft's Landscape Diplomacy