Well that was a hell of a game.

For two teams I could hardly care about (well, I cared about the Steelers a little, thanks to having Hines Ward on my fantasy team), I found last night's Superbowl really, really interesting. It dragged a little in the third quarter but man, wasn't it pretty exciting? For me the play of the game was not Santonio Holmes' nigh-unbelievable catch to secure the Steelers' win but James Harrison's interception and 100-yard runback touchdown. Man, that was incredible.

I guess it's good the game was exciting because most of this year's commercials kind of sucked. Those GoDaddy ones... what the hell? I will not visit that website on principle. I also found the Budweiser clydesdale series pretty lacking. I loved Alec Baldwin's Hulu commercial, though. Also another thumbs up to Pepsi; that McGruber commercial (starring SNL's Will Forte and Kristen Wiig and also some other guy?) was awesome!



I enjoyed the movie trailers I saw for the most part; I was totally apathetic about GI Joe until I saw the shot of Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow dueling. That looks pretty great. Also I'm majorly psyched for Transformers 2; there were some funky-looking robots in that commercial... did we maybe see a glimpse of the rumored Constructicon combiner robot? Was that the big guy beating up Optimus and lunging at the screen at the end? Time will tell.

I found the Boss' halftime show fantastic, although honestly for me it did not top Prince's from a couple years ago (Prince had the benefit, though, of playing to a Bears/Colts contest). Still, Bruce sounded lively and sharp. I tried to nail down his setlist before halftime and I only guessed two songs correctly, "Born to Run" and "Workin' on a Dream." "Glory Days" should have been obvious but I always forget that song exists. I would never in a million years have guessed he'd play "Tenth-Avenue Freeze Out" but that was one of the coolest versions of that song I've ever heard. And you can't beat Bruce's crotch coming at you in HD.

I also really enjoyed the episode of The Office, which ran us through the emotional wringer between Stanley's heart attack, Pam's parents, and Michael's depression. Good thing those Jack Black/Cloris Leachman scenes were there to balance it out. I honestly think my favorite part of the episode, though, was Andy's dabbles into criticism: "I could be a food critic. 'Those muffins are bad.' Or maybe I could be an art critic. 'That painting is bad.'"

So, all-in-all, a fantastic night of television from NBC... that was the most fun I've had watching the Superbowl and surrounding programs probably ever. Great job, peacock!

So who will we see in the 2010 Superbowl? The Bears? The Patriots? A Jonas Brothers/Miley Cyrus halftime show?! I would really like to see at least one of these things... but if the mood was right... oh, I could go for all three.

My Super Bowl predictions:

Steelers: 8, Cardinals: -2, Bruce Springsteen: one million, the advertisers: -4, the new episode of The Office airing after the Super Bowl starring Jack Black and Jessica Alba: also one million.

Alternatively: Steelers 16, Cardinals 14.

I listened to the new Springsteen album "Working on a Dream" twice in succession

and I am not really sure what to say about it. I made the mistake of reading two reviews in the press last week (Jim Derogatis in the Chicago Sun-Times and Spin's featured review) and they were both fairly negative. This unfortunately prepared me to not like the album, but I don't think that's the case. I think I kind of like it. I know I like some of it a lot.

So let's start with the beginning. This is the first Springsteen-with-E-Street album I can think of since Born to Run that doesn't start with a high-energy rock song to get you going--instead it starts with an 8-minute tune called "Outlaw Pete" that totally builds to a deliberate rock pace but takes its time getting there. This is kind of jarring for someone who's used to his Boss records starting off with "Badlands" or "The Ties That Bind." The thing is once "Outlaw Pete" builds to that mid-to-fast rock tempo the rest of the album pretty much stays there until the last couple cuts. There aren't many sensitive valleys, there's little balladry, except for maybe bits and pieces of songs. There's no "Magic" or "I'm on Fire" to bring things down a little. So, yeah, strange.

Mostly, though, I like these songs. "Outlaw Pete" is cool and I really like "My Lucky Day." I'm also a fan of the songs that immediately follow. The album starts to wane for me a little in the middle as Bruce brings in some styles that don't seem to fit, such as the blues/garage rock "Good Eye," where a combination of odd production choices and an affected singing voice make for a jarring listen. I think the album recovers fairly quickly, though, with "Life Itself" and "Kingdom of Days" before hitting what I would consider to be the only really bad song on here, "Surprise, Surprise," whose lyrics (mostly just repeating "surprise, surprise" over and over again) are stretching it even for Bruce, who often can turn silly into poetry but for me misses with this one.

I'm not really sure why this album seems kind of unliked, though. I get the feeling from reading a lot of reviews that people consider it toothless because it's a generally happier record than Springsteen tends to make. Well, that's okay, right? I mean I think the reason I love Bruce Springsteen's music so much is because it covers the emotional spectrum so well, from energizing hope and optimism to down-and-out, nothing-to-live-for despair. This album's 13 songs almost completely reside more in the former category than the latter, and maybe that means that as a whole it is a less satisfying listen, but when thrown in with the Boss's other songs I think tracks like "My Lucky Day," "Working on a Dream" and "Life Itself" will find their home nicely.

I would like to say that I am pretty unequivocally on board with the way this record sounds. I really like producer Brendan O'Brien, who worked with Bruce on The Rising and Magic and more famously produced huge and noteworthy works for Pearl Jam and Rage Against the Machine. I think he has made the E-Street Band sound amazing on his records with them, and I hope their collaboration continues.

Another definitely great thing about this record, and I'm stealing this from Jim Derogatis' review, is that this surely means another Bruce tour is coming soon. That, if nothing else, is a reason to be happy to see this record on the shelves.

Happy Inauguration Day!

Man, I am SO glad Obama won the presidency.

Now I won't feel silly for wearing this shirt for at least four more years.

FOUR MORE YEARS! FOUR MORE YEARS! ...... too soon?

... Actually, you know what... I was gonna leave this post as a joke but fuck it. I'm gonna be serious for a second.

The shirt above, while awesome, is also incredibly apt. Artist Alex Ross knew exactly what he was doing when he cast Barack Obama in a (the?) classic Superman pose. See, to people like me and Alex Ross Superman stands for one thing above all else--hope (don't believe me? Read his Kingdom Come). And following Obama's campaign and watching his amazing acceptance speech just now, it is incredibly clear that above all else this is what Barack Obama stands for too--hope that we can elevate ourselves out of our economic and social drudgery and move ourselves ever closer to the perfect America we all feel we can be. There is one key difference between Superman and Obama, of course--while Superman can only inspire change, Obama can actually affect it as well. He kid about it in his campaign but I kind of feel like it's true--it seems that we have a version of Kal-El as our president for at least the next four years.

On an interesting related note, at the end of the Obama rally in Chicago's Grant Park, after the President-Elect and his VP's families came out to greet the crowd, I heard a familiar song coming over the TV through the park's PA system. It was "The Rising" by Bruce Springsteen, off The Boss' post-9/11 album of the same name. If you read my blog regularly or know me, you'll know that Springsteen is one of my favorite musical artists. I never really made the connection before but, just like Superman and just like Barack Obama, what Springsteen seems to care about most is hope. Sure many of his songs are full of tragic characters and situations, but anyone really familiar with his body of work will know that almost every one of his songs is about getting out, getting away from that tragedy... rising above it, if you will. My very politically active friend Craig (who actually worked on Obama's state senate campaign at the beginning of his career) told me that his favorite Springsteen lines are from the song "Badlands" (my favorite Bruce song, FYI) and it's this bridge:

For the ones who had a notion, a notion deep inside
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
I wanna find one face that ain't lookin' through me
I wanna find one place, I wanna spit in the face of these badlands

I think what we have done tonight, America, is elect the man who is going to do that (metaphorical) spitting. We'll come on up for the rising, we'll save the world from threats both at home and abroad. We've elected the spirits of Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen of Long Branch, New Jersey, and of Clark Kent of Krypton and Smallville, Kansas. We've elected Barack Obama, and at least for one night the nation's got an injection of hope that it so desperately needs. I can't wait to see where we go from here.

Rock and Fashion

or image, if you will. How do they relate? SHOULD they? Can they NOT?

I have been thinking a lot about fashion lately... well, compared to any point previously in my life, anyway. This is mostly due to my friend Emily's fashion blog, which I have already linked to but why not do it again. Her last post over there (as you can see on my sidebar!) was about how the Fratellis dressed themselves at a New York show. Now, I'm hardly qualified to talk about the Fratellis, but someone over there made a comment that was exactly along the lines of what I was thinking... "there's something to be said for the Springsteens of the world."

(Yes, it's another post about the Boss. I'm thinking of making this Bruce Springsteen Week).

Because, see, during this whole post I was thinking "alright, is it really fair to tear up a band for not putting a lot of thought into their dress?" And I was trying to think of all the fashion-less bands and artists out there, and about how good music doesn't require good fashion sense.

And it's very telling that the first artist who popped into my mind was Springsteen.

This is telling because one's knee-jerk reaction (like mine) is to say "obviously Bruce is fashionless. He wears jeans and t-shirts or overalls. He dresses like the good ole boys in Youngstown, PA or Asbury Park, NJ." I daresay that this is the most famous image of Bruce's, well, image, the one everyone conjures up when they think of his fashion:


Jeans, a t-shirt, and a red baseball cap. Is he going to rock Yankee Stadium or is he going to watch his kids play baseball? Hey, he's the Boss. He can do both!

But there's an obvious flaw in thinking Bruce is fashionless: he wants you to see him this way. This is his image, just as much as Ozzy's is looking like a vampire, and Britney's is looking like (?) a tramp (yes, I took that from a comment I made on Emily's blog before I decided to write up this post. Sue me).

For most people, this can probably go unsaid; of course Bruce has constructed this image, it's good marketing. But the funny thing is that for me and at least one other person interested in the relationship between rock and fashion, we still jump to this image without thinking and label Bruce as a "fashionless" rock-star.

Now, this is not to knock the Boss (whom, obviously, I love). But some people, like my aforementioned friend Jim, are really put off by this. Jim's words: "I don't buy that whole working-man shit." In other words: Bruce pretends to be someone he's not by embodying the blue-collar man in word and dress, and this is a lifestyle he couldn't possibly know about. Well, okay. I'm not sure how well that criticism holds up. Does Metallica know anything about fighting ancient monsters or bringing death to villages? Doubt it. Is David Bowie really an alien? Hell, he's not even an astronaut! Bruce's blue-collar songwriting perspective is just an adopted character like any other. The most one can say is that it's slightly more tricky than most adopted characters, because it's less of a stretch than Alice Cooper as a demon from hell or Dave Mustaine as a sociologist. But only a little less.

See, almost every good songwriter adopts a persona (or several!). The only genre I can think of that shies away from this completely is emo, and you know what? Emo is fucking boring. I could care less about the bad day you had, dude. They Might Be Giants can write better, sadder songs in their sleep, and they're using their imagination to do it. Being able to write songs from a perspective not your own is simply more interesting, more inspired, and more complimentary to an artist's creativity. There's nothing "dishonest" about it. It is a basic tenet of writing that this is the case--one would not expect Stephen King novels, for instance, to be about what Mr. King does for a daily routine.

So it's silly to expect that rock stars would not adopt some kind of persona. And, following that, it only makes sense that rock stars would adopt a fashion to fit this persona. Some genres along those lines are obvious: goth, new wave, hair (really anything from the 80s!), punk. Some take the Springsteen route to make you think they don't care, like the grunge movement of the 90s. But, you know, they care a lot. See, any band who consciously shuns fashion is thus adopting it, because they have to try to dress in such a way that shows that dress doesn't matter. Medieval Italian courts called this sprezzatura. Modern rockers might call it "the Kurt Cobain."

I'm sure that there are bands out there that are more or less, to use a term in Emily's arsenal, "fashion-invisible," that don't make any kind of fashion statement for or against. This would probably be most indie bands; I couldn't tell you how The New Pornographers dress in relation to any persona, just that they're awesome (and that, whatever Neko Case wears, it should be less). So maybe that is an example of music speaking for itself. But even in that case, those artists have to choose to just dress like they want, go out on stage, and rock, and thus the fashion is a personal choice, not a group one. But there is still a larger group dynamic in play, an umbrella under which all band members choose their wardrobe; either spoken or not, The New Pornographers have agreed to all dress like 30-something hipsters that let music speak for itself; if Kurt Dahle decided to wear a robot suit, Carl Newman would probably shoot this down (this is probably why Statements Lost was upset when I wore faux-leather pants when playing with them. But damn it, it was funny).

The point is that it seems like when it comes to rock-n-roll, there's no such thing as "fashionless." And while those of us who live without fashion (like me) may at first balk at this, that's really the only way things could be. Would Bruce Springsteen be as compelling in a suit and tie? Definitely not. Would you want to see Jenny Lewis in jeans and a t-shirt? Not when the other option is a cocktail dress. Fashion... image... is just another way to get at the themes behind an artist's work. It's an interesting point because, I think, so many of us consciously choose not to care about how musicians look when we embrace their music... but maybe this choice is in error.

There is at least one definite and immediate upside to this rock-fashion consciousness. One need only look at Fall-Out Boy to know they suck.

I'd Drive All Night

just to listen to some Bruce Springsteen.

I was out in the far western Chicago suburbs yesterday (Sandwich, Oswego and Yorkville to be precise) to do a couple cool things, not the least of which was see Blackened, a Metallica cover band that my buddy Jim is in. They are pretty awesome, and Jim is a crazily-talented lead guitarist... I recommend checking them out. I didn't leave their show until midnight (which was the halfway point!... I had to get up for work early today). And while nighttime driving is not always the most fun from a safety standpoint, it affords me an enjoyable opportunity that some may chalk up to mild neuroses but what do they know?!... I love picking music to drive to at night. Further, after many many moonlight trips, I have found that one artist excels at providing a soundtrack for the road under the stars, and, as you may have guessed, that is none other than the Boss.

Now, don't get me wrong. I love Bruce Springsteen in any context. I think he is one of the great voices in American rock-and-roll, if not the greatest. But something about him just... resonates...in the nighttime. I don't know what it is, but I can't really listen to something like Magic or Devils and Dust when the sun is out.

But, as awesome as those albums are (especially Magic), there is one Bruce album that, to me, is king of the night-time driving routine, and it is this:


Yes, The River has been my traveling companion countless times in the past year, and I haven't gotten tired of in. In fact, I seem to discover something new I like about it every time I listen... kind of like having a good conversation with an old friend. For instance, just last night I finally got into track 18, "The Price You Pay," and really began to see it as the beautiful piece of songwriting it really is.

I'm not sure what makes The River so ideal for a night-driving situation. There are certain empirical factors, to be sure. The fact that it was originally a double-album (back in the days of vinyl, can you believe it?!), for instance, makes it sufficiently long--a little over 80 minutes--to knock out long stretches of road. But I think in the end the only satisfactory answer is that this album feels right to drive to. It exhibits incredible pacing that weaves together some of Bruce's most intense rock songs and his most sensitive ballads expertly. I mean, just listen to disc one, side one--"The Ties That Bind" has got to be one of Springsteen's most kick-ass songs, and it gives you a great shot of adrenaline to get that drive going. That fast pace continues on through "Sherry Darling," "Jackson Cage," and "Two Hearts" before any sign of slowing down with "Independence Day." But then, over on side two (side note: what's nice about MP3 players is you don't have to flip records over. Look into that, guys!) we get another huge burst of energy with "Hungry Heart," "Out on the Streets" (this album's second-best tune behind "The Ties That Bind," in my humble opinion), "Crush On You," and "You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)." This side, too, closes with poignancy, but this time with two ballads ("I Wanna Marry You" and the titular track), which pave the way for the slower, more reflective second disc, which actually almost inverts the number of rockers to ballads (first disc: 8 to 3, second disc: 3 to 6).

And, the second disc is really pretty. Like, usually I hate when rock-stars oversaturate albums with ballads to try to be, I don't know, more mature (see: Bon Jovi). But these ballads are great. They are legitimately moving, powerful songs. I won't go through disc two cut-by-cut, but I do want to mention that for me this album climaxes with the second-to-last track, "Drive All Night," which was featured in the movie Reign O'er Me (which, actually, is responsible for turning me on to this album). Maybe because I associate it with a sad scene in a sad movie, I find this song to be one of the most emotional tunes ever to be constructed in the rock milieu. I think that, if you were feeling especially sentimental, it might actually be tough to get through this whole song dry-eyed.

Maybe it seems silly that my best "night time driving record" would be one which front-loads its power and eventually turns reflective, almost sad. Does that really carry me through the night? Well, yes. See, I think The River hooks you with its rock, and then draws you in with its ballads, making a wholly immersing, wonderful listening experience. More albums need to be constructed with this cohesion. By the time you're on to the second disc, you don't need high-octane rock songs to get you through the drive. You're part of the Boss's world for a rich 80 minutes... a world where all of America is laid out in front of you, waiting to be explored, yet perhaps the richest story is the one right inside your car...

Oh, yeah. Having a song called "Drive All Night" also kind of solidifies the River/nighttime driving connection too. Just sayin'.