I thought a bit about writing something about my reaction to the “spectacle” surrounding this year’s Super Bowl, though it seems, as usual, while I was dithering about in the gym and looking into a regular Monday night d20 game last evening, Amanda beat me to it.

And, she pretty much mirrors what I was going to say: an excellent, competitive exhibition of sporting competition (seriously, it was a good game, regardless of your chosen team), surrounded by way too many hours of blinky, shiny, empty mediocrity. What’s worse, is that it really was calculated mediocrity; the entire business, especially the halftime show, was designed to be as totally inoffensive and bland as possible, kind of like modern American mainstream culture, or at least the NFL and Fox Broadcasting’s image of it.

One point she missed though, regarding the halftime show, which used as its centerpiece the most blandly commercial and mainstream act in music today (I don’t know anybody who hates the Black Eyed Peas, but think about it, does anyone honestly know a really enthusiastic BEP fan?), was how calculated the show’s choice of “guest” performers was in order to hit certain demographics and cover all bases. In addition to the BEP (for those who have no actual opinions), they brought in Slash (to appeal to the aging headbangers in the audience – remember when G’n’R was considered threatening and controversial? I guess the bedazzled top hat makes it acceptable) and Usher (to appeal to the “Urban” crowd, and allude to his Bieber connections to catch the pre-teens).

What really surprised me is that the didn’t toss in an equally bland “country” act as well, like Carrie Underwood or Rascall Flatts, to inject a bit of the manufactured heartland into the proceedings; it’s a big oversight when you think about how calculated the whole business was, not throwing a bone to that significant segment of the football audience. I wonder if plastic Nashville feels left out?

Oh well – we still had the Captain America teaser and the Darth Vader kid in addition to the really good football game buried under there, so I suppose it wasn’t a total waste of time.

And, while I won’t comment on her National Anthem flub (everyone else is doing that), has anyone else noticed that Christina Aguilera has essentially become indistinguishable from modern Cyndi Lauper?