Superbowl Halftime Show - M.I.A. Flips the Bird

[JackRiddler]

We are not talking about a random music video. This was the highest rated show in TV history. 111 million viewers.

If you watched the show, what do you think is going on? Nothing to see here, just move along? Really?

Not at all. It's a theatrical performance like any other. It employs symbols taken from the infinite variety and long history of human language and culture. The meanings you think you see probably are the meanings they wanted to convey, but that doesn't mean it's brainwashing, or a manifesto. It's a show. If they'd done Julius Caesar, it would not have been an endorsement of Roman paganism or of murdering the emperor.

If so, that's fascinating to me and I would be interested in hearing why beyond the fact that you don't like AJ and/or VC type of commentary on the event.

Eh. If it wasn't reposted on this message board I frequent I wouldn't even know what they said. Except that it's easy to guess.

It is easy to just tune it out because the topic has become blasé. I normally do too, but I'm making an exception here because it was the Super Bowl.

See this?



That's not just a show, but an unfortunate reality. Those are real warplanes, not brief gestures of body language that suggest sex or pleasure. That's about a thousand times more worthy of our dismay than Madonna arranging a bunch of lights to spell "World Peace." The worst thing about the latter is that it's not meant very seriously.

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[Saurian Tail]

Cool. Thanks for your perspective. I agree that whatever meme Madonna was hoping to communicate, it doesn't hold a candle next to the ever present Team USA meme. I was just shocked by how dark the show was.

It is interesting that there has been some mild protest from the religious right about the middle finger, but as far as I can tell, near silence on the actual content of the show. No flesh, no foul I guess.

[kelley]

i'd guess it's because the religious right is visually illiterate. jesus fish and flag lapel pins pretty much bracket the narrow iconography.

[yathrib]

Saurian: Pretty much what Jack said. And as I said earlier, I think they are actually trolling the Usual Suspects. The performers and producers etc. grew up with the same influences the rest of us did. They know there's something mysterious and exciting about the pyramid on the dollar bill. They probably grew up watching Star Trek and reading Tolkien. Some of them may even know about Ancient Astronauts, the Illuminati, and the Necronomicon. Most importantly, they know that alluding to this sort of thing excites some and enrages others. What more do you need?

We are not talking about a random music video. This was the highest rated show in TV history. 111 million viewers.

If you watched the show, what do you think is going on? Nothing to see here, just move along? Really?

Not at all. It's a theatrical performance like any other. It employs symbols taken from the infinite variety and long history of human language and culture. The meanings you think you see probably are the meanings they wanted to convey, but that doesn't mean it's brainwashing, or a manifesto. It's a show. If they'd done Julius Caesar, it would not have been an endorsement of Roman paganism or of murdering the emperor.

If so, that's fascinating to me and I would be interested in hearing why beyond the fact that you don't like AJ and/or VC type of commentary on the event.

Eh. If it wasn't reposted on this message board I frequent I wouldn't even know what they said. Except that it's easy to guess.

It is easy to just tune it out because the topic has become blasé. I normally do too, but I'm making an exception here because it was the Super Bowl.

See this?



That's not just a show, but an unfortunate reality. Those are real warplanes, not brief gestures of body language that suggest sex or pleasure. That's about a thousand times more worthy of our dismay than Madonna arranging a bunch of lights to spell "World Peace." The worst thing about the latter is that it's not meant very seriously.

.

[MacCruiskeen]

This is why they call it paying attention.

[Saurian Tail]

Saurian: Pretty much what Jack said. And as I said earlier, I think they are actually trolling the Usual Suspects. The performers and producers etc. grew up with the same influences the rest of us did. They know there's something mysterious and exciting about the pyramid on the dollar bill. They probably grew up watching Star Trek and reading Tolkien. Some of them may even know about Ancient Astronauts, the Illuminati, and the Necronomicon. Most importantly, they know that alluding to this sort of thing excites some and enrages others. What more do you need?

Ah, I see it now. I didn't fully understand what you were getting at earlier and now I do. Thanks for your perspective yathrib.

[JackRiddler]

"The entire act was sending a subliminal message to the world, and that message is the following. 'Take heart, lovers of pleasure. Our satanic messiah is about to appear with great power to usher in world peace so that everyone (who worships Satan ) can have a good time,'"

Damn it, always making promises. Don't we all wish.

"So, we see her final Act and she comes out in a black Sabbath witch's gown, singing to her track 'Like A Prayer' but yet this supposedly religious song doesn't use the word Jesus, so who was she praying to when she dropped to her knees?"

My impulse is to say this is intentional self-parody. Then again, when I first saw the Phelps group holding "God Hates Fags" signs one day at Ground Zero (on July 4, 2004, if I remember right), never having even heard of them before then, I laughed out loud and concluded they were a gay group doing a theater piece.

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[82_28]

This is why they call it paying attention.

Dude, that is fascinating, Mac! I've only read the 27 or so page introduction so far, but I am into the little crevices Beller is plying that I normally apply a very broad brush. Thanks for the link!

[MacCruiskeen]

This is why they call it paying attention.

Dude, that is fascinating, Mac! I've only read the 27 or so page introduction so far, but I am into the little crevices Beller is plying that I normally apply a very broad brush. Thanks for the link!

You're welcome, 82_28. Beller does make a hell of a meal of it at times, but the book is well worth ploughing through.

Wiki gives a decent summary. (See the links to "attention economy" and "to look is to labour".) We're now on page 7 of this thread, and our disapproval or decipherment or "deconstruction" of the Superbowl Spectacle is trivial in contrast to the fact that we've attended to it in the first place. Watching it is work, and its not us that our attention-work is making money for.

[The Consul]

"If someone flippeth the bird in thy half time, rememerest it not, for ye shall be but lambs caged on scuttled warships off the Bikini atoll waiting to be obliterated so thy preachers may pisseth in thine ashes."

[Simulist]

"If someone flippeth the bird in thy half time, rememerest it not, for ye shall be but lambs caged on scuttled warships off the Bikini atoll waiting to be obliterated so thy preachers may pisseth in thine ashes."

— The Book of Armaments, Chapter 3, verses 1-4

[JackRiddler]

We're now on page 7 of this thread, and our disapproval or decipherment or "deconstruction" of the Superbowl Spectacle is trivial in contrast to the fact that we've attended to it in the first place. Watching it is work, and its not us that our attention-work is making money for.

Okay, you got me feeling guilty about another total sacrifice of time to the Consumer Gods. (I only watched about an hour out of the whole show! I swear!)

We do it cos it's fun, right? They give us sausage, we make lemonade.

This particular attention work ain't making money for anyone. It's a real crisis for The Artists and Creators (read: music and movie corporations) that it resists direct monetization. I think this thread should be sued for failing to pay royalties!

The most important message in the show was not "World Peace" but the following brand renewal effort:

"L-U-V - Madonna!

Y-O-U - You wanna!"

One's right to be appalled, if that's the caliber of poesie to expect under Satan's coming tyranny! This is pleasure?

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[The Consul]

Was she wearing panties? That's what I heard someone say. Was she wearing panties? I don't think she was!

[The Consul]

"If someone flippeth the bird in thy half time, rememerest it not, for ye shall be but lambs caged on scuttled warships off the Bikini atoll waiting to be obliterated so thy preachers may pisseth in thine ashes."

— The Book of Armaments, Chapter 3, verses 1-4

Ah yes, I keep it under one pillow and the Military Industrial Complex Manifesto under the other! Sorry, off for tennis lessons, a round of golf, and to get that gold spinacker for my schooner.

[MacCruiskeen]

Okay, you got me feeling guilty

Mission Accomplished! (Once a Catholic, always a Catholic.)

The most important message in the show was not "World Peace" but the following brand renewal effort:

"L-U-V - Madonna!

Y-O-U - You wanna!"

I was dumbfounded. She didn't look too convinced herself. They should have come right out with it and said "F-U-K". Maybe they're saving that for 2022, with Miley Cyrus and real gladiators.