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

[IanEye]

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.

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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!"

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*

ein

zwei

dry

fear



ein

volk

ein

reich

ein...




*

[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

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.

I so envy you. You see, my copy of the B of A was blown to tiny bits when a holy hand-granade exploded unexpectedly.* Had it not been for a particularly brutish rabbit (with nasty, big, pointy teeth), shielding me from the blast, I might have lost my life.

_________
* Alas, it had been manufactured not in Antioch, but in China.

[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.

I so envy you. You see, my copy of the B of A was blown to tiny bits when a holy hand-granade exploded unexpectedly.* Had it not been for a particularly brutish rabbit (with nasty, big, pointy teeth), shielding me from the blast, I might have lost my life.

_________
* Alas, it had been manufactured not in Antioch, but in China.

My god, man, you may have come across an idea that saves the publishing industrie: Exploding Books! Hand them out during the super bowl!
Everything is upside down. My wife made a trip to China recently where I asked her to secure for me a copy of Mao's Little Red Book. There wasn't one to be found. People acted as if they never heard of it. Creeped me out, very much so.

[JackRiddler]

arsenic and semen-flavored lollipops.

Anywho, back to topic. Which was what again? Taking the ads and the performance together, it seems like the dominant theme was appropriation of peace/love/revolution. In the year of the most significant left social movement in many decades... like the Elton John Pepsi ad. Pepsi for the people. And a gay guy as king. Gay people and people of color are now free to lead the Empire.

Eli Manning is gay?

Started this thread on a late page. Just went back to review it from the start. Realize my comments were pedestrian. There was unexpected brilliance, given the subject. You are a smart and entertaining crew, the whole lot of you. I liked kelley's stuff, whoever saw the phoenix/eagle/dove, bs's stuff too.

Mr. MIA Bronfman might not be so bad if that algae thing really makes energy, cleans water and absorbs CO2 all in one go. Does it sound too good?

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[The Consul]

If I were Jesus and I could raise someone from the dead it would be Lenny Bruce just so he could do half time for the Super Bowl. Maybe some fireworks. Maybe he could dress up like a Hugh Heffner or an Aztec and have girls in bikinis being shot out of canons over his head dispensing thick slices of pickle loaf over the crowd...or maybe I'd just let him wear that costume he lifted that landed him in his first jail cell. The one with the Roman Collar. Father Bruce will now address the stadium, the NFL, America and the world. I would be suprised if the first word he said wasn't "fuck" the second "this" and the third "shit". After that, Christ only knows what he would say, but we would deserve every word of it. But since I am not god I would instead lobby for Sankai Juku.

use link if embedding disabled: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnR1FJ6y ... re=related



In hologram so they towered over the crowd...........

[crikkett]

Is there some kind of law or custom now that demands that major pop stars have to troll the conspiratainment/NWO/fundie freaks at least once a year?

None. I think it's just a testament to how much of our human symbolic heritage has been branded as pagan/satanic by 2000 years of hysterically paranoid Christianity. A stage designer can't wander more than a few feet from the sterilized comfort zone without stepping on something Vigilant Citizen can write a whole post on.

A Reichsadler emerging from the shadows of 'world peace' is nowhere near anyone's sterilized comfort zone.

[slomo]

Is there some kind of law or custom now that demands that major pop stars have to troll the conspiratainment/NWO/fundie freaks at least once a year?

None. I think it's just a testament to how much of our human symbolic heritage has been branded as pagan/satanic by 2000 years of hysterically paranoid Christianity. A stage designer can't wander more than a few feet from the sterilized comfort zone without stepping on something Vigilant Citizen can write a whole post on.

A Reichsadler emerging from the shadows of 'world peace' is nowhere near anyone's sterilized comfort zone.

I would also argue that a poorly-executed creaky Baphomet is nowhere near anyone's sterilized comfort zone. I don't carry the same baggage about it as Fundies (OMG the Devil!) but it does actually mean something in occult circles. Madonna seems to be signaling a spiritual inversion, a conscious willingness to seek materiality over all else. This is hardly a surprise coming from the Material Girl.

Weirdly, many people didn't even recognize it staring them in the face. However, in this case it seems a higher order intelligence may be speaking through her: at the moment of triumphant celebration of spiritual inversion, the fixation and subjugation of the entire world under the watchful eye of the corporate surveillance state, Madonna's precarious lack of grace seems instead to signal that it's all about to come down. Our civilization is not the crowning jewel of the cosmos after all - it is a laughingstock and an obscenity.

[JackRiddler]

Is there some kind of law or custom now that demands that major pop stars have to troll the conspiratainment/NWO/fundie freaks at least once a year?

None. I think it's just a testament to how much of our human symbolic heritage has been branded as pagan/satanic by 2000 years of hysterically paranoid Christianity. A stage designer can't wander more than a few feet from the sterilized comfort zone without stepping on something Vigilant Citizen can write a whole post on.

A Reichsadler emerging from the shadows of 'world peace' is nowhere near anyone's sterilized comfort zone.

I would also argue that a poorly-executed creaky Baphomet is nowhere near anyone's sterilized comfort zone. I don't carry the same baggage about it as Fundies (OMG the Devil!) but it does actually mean something in occult circles. Madonna seems to be signaling a spiritual inversion, a conscious willingness to seek materiality over all else. This is hardly a surprise coming from the Material Girl.

Or she's playing with it for entertainment purposes. Or she barely knows what she's invoking, she just likes the costumes and symbols.

If you view it as a theater, why can't you interpret the end of the piece as the demise of "Baphomet" and her values? With a flash and some smoke she disappears down into a hell of sorts and World Peace breaks out because she's gone.

The bird doesn't have to be a Reichsadler.

Weirdly, many people didn't even recognize it staring them in the face.

Well, there are also people who think Eastwood's declaration of renewed nationalist aggressivity (more significant than Madonna, by the way) was actually an endorsement of Obama Socialism. But we're here in the reality-based community, no?

However, in this case it seems a higher order intelligence may be speaking through her: at the moment of triumphant celebration of spiritual inversion, the fixation and subjugation of the entire world under the watchful eye of the corporate surveillance state, Madonna's precarious lack of grace seems instead to signal that it's all about to come down. Our civilization is not the crowning jewel of the cosmos after all - it is a laughingstock and an obscenity.

If true, then it might as well be said explicitly. I think the rest of the Superbowl as High Holiday of Consumerism and American Jingo is by nowsignal enough, no?

The commercials in the two spots that would have been watched the most - right after coin flip and and first up at half-time - both suggested big war coming. The Dictator trailer showed Saddam, Gaddafi and Kim Jong Il, and asked, who's next? And then Eastwood told the world they should expect to hear "the roar of our engines." And even as suggestive as these are, they reading is not compulsory; they're using the ambient ideological vocabulary. They represent guesses at what chords should be struck to resonate emotionally with the Superbowl audience, for the purpose of selling a movie and some cars, respectively.

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[Simulist]

I would also argue that a poorly-executed creaky Baphomet is nowhere near anyone's sterilized comfort zone. I don't carry the same baggage about it as Fundies (OMG the Devil!) but it does actually mean something in occult circles. Madonna seems to be signaling a spiritual inversion, a conscious willingness to seek materiality over all else. This is hardly a surprise coming from the Material Girl.

Or she's playing with it for entertainment purposes.

Exactly. Whether or not she understands the symbolism, she's an entertainer first.

And, when she can generate some talk, that's free publicity. If she weren't in entertainment, she be a natural in marketing.

[barracuda]

Or she's playing with it for entertainment purposes. Or she barely knows what she's invoking, she just likes the costumes and symbols.

This is a woman who has spent the last twenty years or so engaged in an erstwhile study of the kabbalah. I think we can safely presume she knows the implications of the symbology she's employing.

[JackRiddler]

Or she's playing with it for entertainment purposes. Or she barely knows what she's invoking, she just likes the costumes and symbols.

This is a woman who has spent the last twenty years or so engaged in an erstwhile study of the kabbalah. I think we can safely presume she knows the implications of the symbology she's employing.

So?

Does she believe she's literally opening the gates to call forth Baphomet? (Or banishing her, as in my suggested alternate reading?) Does anyone else? Even if it's conveying a view of the present moment in the world, is it also programmatic? Must it have future prescriptive implications?

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[Simulist]

Even if she is calling forth "the Devil," who cares?

It's not like he really ever left, you know.

[barracuda]

So?

So, it's probably a good starting place to consider that whatever conversations we're having about this spectacle, she and her handlers have already explored and understood every interpretation and shade of meaning thrown around by you and I and the various crypto-illuminati conspiratainers quoted in the thread.

Madonna is essentially a controlled member of a rather dangerous and serious cult, and has been for many years.

Does she believe she's literally opening the gates to call forth Baphomet? (Or banishing her, as in my suggested alternate reading?) Does anyone else? Even if it's conveying a view of the present moment in the world, is it also programmatic? Must it have future prescriptive implications?

While I think it's safe to come to the discussion with the understanding that she is at least as intelligent and informed and well read about most of this stuff as we are, I don't think I can really read her mind regarding whether she considered the show to be an actual ritual or not. My guess would be, no - she thinks it's a put on. But considering the very real horrific bloodletting that underpins the entire premise of the Holy of Holies who can say what purposes these kinds of pagents might be put to by those in our world who really do roast babies and eat them? If you can't put together some manner of twisted and horrific orgasm during the private viewing orgy in the White House dungeon on the Super Sabbath, you're probably not a satanist worth your salt anyhow.

[Simulist]

Madonna is essentially a controlled member of a rather dangerous and serious cult, and has been for many years.

I'm willing to try for an open mind on that one, but... really?

Barracuda, if you could point to a single piece of evidence of this that might be most convincing, what would it be? Or, if an inductive approach is most appropriate, can you please outline the most basic basics of this, which you find most convincing?

[Pierre d'Achoppement]

Madonna should study chess instead of kabbalah, shese 64 now so she could still become a good player, considering she has money enough to hire a personal coach. Is that kabbalah cult really dangerous though? I thought it was just something for bored celebrities and not that serious, but i don't know much about it. M.I.A. had a huge hit in europe couple years ago, her album was cowritten with Justine Fleischman formerly from Elastica. Anyway here are the lyrics to Freddie Merucry's Mr. Badguy:

Let´s go chasing rainbows in the sky
It´s my invitation
Let´s all take a trip on my ecstacy

I´m Mr. Bad Guy
Yes I´m everybody´s Mr. Bad Guy
Can´t you see I´m Mr. Mercury
Oh, spread your wings and fly away with me

Your big daddy´s got no place to stay
Bad communication
I feel like the president of the USA

repeat chorus

I´m Mr. Bad Guy
They´re all afraid of me
I can ruin people´s lives
Mr. Bad Guy they´re all afraid of me
It´s the only way to be
That´s my destiny
Mr. Bad Guy, Mr. Bad Guy, Bad Guy

It´s the only way for me
It´s my destiny

I´m Mr. Bad Guy
Yes I´m everybody´s Mr. Bad Guy
Can´t you see this is my destiny
Oh, spread your wings and fly away with me

Taken From The Album "MR. BAD GUY"

I posted them because of Slomo's avatar!