Had enough Super Bowl Hype yet?

Come on, it’s only been two weeks. You need more and you know it. There might be some stuff you still don’t know about these teams and every player on them at this point.

Who would really be upset if we just did away with that extra week in between the Conference championship games and the Super Bowl? It’s a bit ridiculous. I really wish they would just play the NFC and AFC Title games on a Saturday, which would give the Super Bowl-bound teams an extra day for travel arrangements and all the other preparations they need to make. Two weeks is too long. It becomes practically anti-climactic. Not to mention that the Super Bowl has become such an ‘event’ over the past 10-15 years now that the game is practically overshadowed by everything else going on around it (media hype, a never-ending slew of ‘who cares’ type feature stories, celebrities, multi-million dollar TV commercials, halftime show, off-the-field news stories that get WAY too much play, etc.). By the time the game is over, half the people don’t even care who won. Only well after it’s all over does it really sink in as to what has been accomplished by the winning team. If we had one less week to concentrate on all the other hoopla, it would feel more like an extension of the football season that we’ve all just witnessed, rather than its own individual hype-fueled event.

And along those same lines, am I the only one who feels like some sort of weird time vortex happens in between the conference title games and the Super Bowl? Seriously, it seems like it’s been about 3 months since Jets-Colts and Vikings-Saints. I feel like a ‘Lost’ cast member during all that silly time-travel business.

Maybe it’s just all the never-ending media overkill. Oh well.

With that aside, two excellent teams are playing tonight, and only one of them can be crowned Super Bowl champ. You’ve all heard the countless angles and predictions by now. Will Peyton Manning cap off one of the greatest individual seasons any QB has ever had with yet another masterful performance in Super Bowl XLIV, cementing his status as one of the all-time playoff greats and giving him a second championship? Will the underdog but never-say-die Saints, representing the rebirth of their once-battered but still-standing-proud city of New Orleans, overcome the odds and beat the favored Indianapolis Colts? Will Dwight Freeney’s injury have anywhere near as adverse an effect on Indy’s chances of winning as many people believe? Will the team that has the ball last really be the team that ends up winning? And perhaps most importantly of all, will anyone recognize those sideline shots of Colts head coach Jim Caldwell?

Wait a minute, the Colts have a head coach? You mean it’s not Peyton Manning?! I was shocked to find this out myself.

This guy, apparently his name is Jim Caldwell, has been head coaching this team all season long! I know … crazy, right? Wow. I need time to adjust to this reality.

(wait for it)

Okay. Done.

Anyway – here’s all you need to know. Basically.

The Colts are favored, and with good reason. They’re the overall better team. They won this same game, on this SAME field, three years ago with largely the same personnel in place. Even the pouring rain didn’t stop Peyton Manning from effectively carving up the Chicago Bears’ defense in Super Bowl XLI. Why? Well there are a lot of reasons. One of my favorite is this: Before the game started, Manning practiced for almost one hour with soaking wet balls that he dipped in buckets of water, so that the predicted downpour wouldn’t be so much of a hindrance to the Colts’ offense.

Now THAT is insane.

Nobody prepares like Manning. I know the Saints are confident in their chances, and they very well should be. But let’s face it – the Vikings had that NFC Title game more or less in the bag, and then they pissed it away, like an overmatched college freshman at his first-ever frat party. Vikings fans are still rolling around on the ground from that groin kick that people call a football game.

Goddamn. That was painful. When you’re not even a fan and you can feel how much it hurt, THAT’S painful.

Anyway, whatever. The Saints are here. Whether you believe it’s because they are a team of destiny this year, or if you believe they’ve earned it with a solid body of work this season, or whether you think it’s some sort of combination of those elements, the end result is the same. They have a chance to do something great. I wouldn’t say a victory by N.O. would be the same as the N.Y. Giants’ stunning upset of 18-0 New England two years ago, but it would be close.

If both of these teams play like they did two weeks ago in their respective conference title games, the Colts are coming away with their second Super Bowl in four years. But if the Saints can somehow harass and frustrate Manning into making un-Manning like mistakes, then only at that point would N.O. have a shot. And I think that’s the reality.

The only other exception goes something like this … Manning still plays like Manning, but the Saints turn it into a Wild West-style shootout, with Drew Brees matching Peyton drive-for-drive. And then somehow, N.O. gets the ball last, trailing by less than a touchdown, and scores a TD late enough in the fourth quarter so that the Colts don’t have enough time left to answer.

Should be fun. Good luck actually paying attention to the game itself though. Seems to get harder to do so every year.

Lady Gaga – mental midget, or musical genius?

Oh music. Who is going to save you now?

We all know that the overall state of music performance, production and consumption has changed drastically over time, perhaps most dramatically over the last decade (the ‘zeros’ or the ‘aughts’). This is an entirely separate topic of conversation that could likely occupy several entries or discussions. It is, however, a contributing factor to the modern state of music, and how we perceive today’s musicians.

There was a time when musicians seemed to wield a creative power that transcended the mere act of recording songs and performing in front of a live audience. Artists like Bono and Bruce Springsteen are not just wildly popular singers and songwriters. They are cultural icons in the sense that they are identified with societal issues that are much larger than the sounds coming out of your i-pod.

They display a consciousness about the world around them, and a natural kinship or sense of bonding with the regular people. You know, the ones who might be crazy enough to travel around the country attending their shows, or spend all of their time, money and resources to acquire any and every material possession that relates in any way to their favorite artist.

Musicians like this are a thing of the past, seemingly. And the ones who are around today that still carry that kind of weight are certainly holdovers of a bygone era, i.e. individuals who began their careers when cassettes were the preferred music listening format (the 70s or 80s).

Any new artist that has come along in the past 10-15 years doesn’t seem to have that same kind of cultural magnitude. People are hot one minute, not the next. For instance, let’s take rock music. Even outstanding bands of the modern era like The Strokes, The Foo Fighters or Queens of the Stone Age are red-hot when they are on fire, but when they’re not they are instantly forgotten.

Well, ladies and germs, it seems like Lady Gaga, officially the white-hot queen of pop music, is on fucking fire and not going anywhere anytime soon. She’s like Madonna and Michael Jackson in the 80s all rolled up into one right now.

Nobody seems to have a negative opinion of her. Even people that don’t like her music love to give her credit for being so ‘different’ and ‘innovative.’

The purpose of this entry is not so much to criticize her musical acumen. After all, musical taste is all purely subjective. I might personally like and respect an artist like Amy Winehouse more than Lady Gaga, despite AW’s extremely unfortunate personal and substance addiction problems that have interfered with her career recently. And as far as I can tell (or as far as Wikipedia can tell me), both AW and LG write most of their own music, which is to be respected nowadays. But it doesn’t really matter what the reasons are for liking an artist, not liking an artist or feeling indifferent towards the artist. Just because Lady Gaga sells more records than Amy Winehouse doesn’t mean she’s any more or less skilled at her craft. By the accounts of critics or self-professed music junkies, Amy might have a better, more powerful pure vocal presence, but Gaga clearly knows how to transfix her fans in a way that goes far beyond the music. Not to mention that one of these young ladies is on top of the world right now and the other one is lucky to be alive, let alone currently off the musical map (I think you can guess who’s who).

For me, this is what it’s all about: LG has clearly cultivated a very specific identity and personality. Her fans aren’t so much buying her music as they are buying into what she’s all about. That’s always been the sign of any great artist, performer or entertainer, and she’s clearly figured that out at a younger age than any popular musician I can recall during my time consuming music.

She’s got this independence, this vibe of sensuality and sexuality (I think I heard she’s bi-sexual or something, but who the hell knows). She likes to wear insane costumes, and weird contraptions that look like birdcages that were left out in a hurricane. But there ain’t NOBODY else out there that anybody is confusing with Lady Gaga, or vice versa, know what I mean?

That, I do respect. Especially in our completely homogenized, identity-absent state of music, where all of these ‘rock’ bands sound like a bunch of whiney pussies and everything else is either country, American Idol winners or runners-up, or horrible R&B/auto-tune hip hop songs that are popular in the club but could never hold a candle to club bangers in the 80s and 90s (sorry to sound like your grandpa dissing the younger generation’s music, but it’s simply true, and I feel bad for anyone who fails to realize it).

Here’s another tip. Record sales don’t necessarily equal good music. The two are not always mutually exclusive. The model or standard set by The Beatles or Springsteen or U2 doesn’t always apply. In fact, it applies less now more than ever.

But with an artist like Lady Gaga, who clearly has more musical talent than a lot of the ‘artists’ who show up at a studio, sing a few mediocre bars over a song that they didn’t write, then wait while it gets auto-tuned and peppered with other enhancements to make it sound better (and it still doesn’t sound good), it’s hard to tell if she is completely self-aware and cognizant of how people perceive her and her career, or if she’s completely oblivious to it all and her success is coming to her in spite of that.

In other words, aside from her musical ability (she demonstrates a knack for hooks; a friend and co-worker of mine even compared some of her music to early 90s-era Madonna, and I can’t say I disagree), did she at any point make a decision that she would wear crazy clothes, talk openly about sexuality, heap on tons of makeup and ‘be a character’ essentially whenever in the public eye? Does she make an attempt to look bored and uncaring no matter what’s happening to her? I mean, honestly, how indifferent can she be when she’s walking the red carpet at the Grammys and is barely old enough to drink. I’m not buying it, sister. You’re goddamn excited, but you have to wear the frowny face because it’s part of your image. I get it.

Anyway, I suppose it’s possible none of this is an act, and that she’s completely being ‘Lady Gaga’ 100 percent of the time no matter what. But I highly, HIGHLY, doubt it. And if she were totally being herself, she’d go by a more traditional moniker. You know, one that doesn’t include the sound that a baby makes.

But if this is true, and she really has planned all of this out … wow. She either guessed extremely lucky, or is mentally advanced in a way that few of us can even comprehend. If she’s totally unaware and never had a plan, it’s the most egregious example of dumb luck I’ve ever seen (right up there with the parking garage attendant making less than $12 an hour in NYC a few years back who won the mega millions jackpot, and then his wife immediately filed for divorce).

The kicker behind it all … the music is just strong enough for it to have worked out for her. If it wasn’t, she wouldn’t be white/pink-hot, but dead fish-cold