What a great week to be a spectator!
And even a radio listener.
Last Sunday’s Super Bowl LIX and Friday’s victory parade made the Philadelphia Eagles the unanimous local valentine.
Last week, I was a petulant little skeptic jaded by repetitive topics of discussion, wary, and weary of those supremely confident about an Eagles win, worried about Jalen Hurts being constantly sacked by holding the ball too long, and irritated by throaty renditions of the Eagle’s E-A-G-L-E-S cheer.
By the time Zack Baun followed Cooper DeJean in intercepting until-then fearsome Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, I was threatening permanent damage to my vocal cords by emulating the exact sounds that made me sigh and roll my eyes hours before.
From the first Eagles touchdown to the point I could just dance around my living room until 0.0 on the time clock cemented our Birds’ dominant triumph, Super Bowl LIX was a joy and delight.
I couldn’t even be daunted by the plethora of dumb commercials — thank goodness for Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal — or the unintelligible if well-photographed halftime show featuring Kendrick Lamar, which at least gave me the chance to cook up some great turkey burgers.
The game, and the performance of just about every Eagle on both sides of the ball, and especially the poised, pinpointing Jalen Hurts, was a reward in every way.
To be an Eagles fan and see the way the team’s defense stymied every Chiefs drive, forced painful looks of frustrated disbelief and helplessness on the faces of Mahomes, Andy Reid, and Travis Kielce — all of whom I usually root for except when they play the Eagles — might be the greatest sports moment of a life that is close to reaching the three-quarter century mark.
And I’m primarily a Phillies fan!
Add an offense that rubbed brine in the Mahomes-Reid-Kelce wounds with an aerial attack to DeVonta Smith just when it seemed a good time for the Eagles to milk the clock, and ecstasy came to some who watched the game alone while chopping parsley and onions, baking Brussels sprouts, and mashing potatoes with a fork.
I may succumb to the Eagles cheer, but bet securely I will never touch a chicken wing or a spicy dipping sauce.
To an Eagles fan, Super LIX was joy from start to finish, even in the nanosecond when the score seemed close.
On a practical matter, I differ from many, or so I learned this week, by having Tom Brady and Cris Collinsworth as my favor color analysts.
Brady’s read of the field has been enlightening all season.
I enjoy hearing him explain what’s going on from a top player’s perspective and saying what he would want to do in a given situation enough to excuse his regular mistakes about what team is playing, who its last opponent was, what conference it’s in, or how much time is left in the football game.
He may not be rookie Quinyon Mitchell, Cooper DeJean or Jalyx Hunt, but Brady can hold his head high after the first year. I, for one, was always glad to see him.
Though I did not like Kendrick Lamar’s act, mostly because I didn’t think to tell my remote to apply closed captions, I thought it was staged better and that Fox’s direction of it was an improvement over most Super Bowl performances.
Instead of having the star act parade all around the stadium or move bizarrely from one place on the field on the next, Fox contained Lamar in a large but manageable space that gave the camera a chance to focus and keep the show looking cohesive, as opposed to becoming a jumbled sprawl. like most Super Bowl halftime shows do.
A suggestion to Fox, or any network taking a turn at broadcasting the Super Bowl — the next two are in Santa Clara and Inglewood, California, respectively, followed by Atlanta, — is to make the entertainer more general.
Lady Gaga looked and sounded so good at her white piano on Bourbon Street during the pre-game show. She is a star who can appeal to multiple and disparate viewers by her ability to entertain in several musical genres.
Grammy recipient or not, Kendrick Lamar is too specialized. Television loves to appeal to younger members of the audience.
The Super Bowl attracts one of the most inclusive audiences in the world, of all ages from dozens to countries.
Going more middle-of-the-road is not going vanilla or missing the possible Grammy darling of the day. It’s acknowledging your audience might want something that is more for everybody.
And devoid of politics, ideological allegiances, or the fashion of the day.
Like the gym in “West Side Story,” sports should be neutral territory, especially during a game with just wide demographic appeal.
I didn’t enjoy Lamar. Or Samuel L. Jackson’s Uncle Sam. Or the tuneless music.
I may have keyed into the words if I could understand them. But probably not.
At least I got to giggle, as I always have since seeing Li’l Wayne on a “Saturday Night Live” eons ago, at watching the dancing of Lamar’s back-up ensemble, which half the time resembles robots imitating a clock mechanism or other times did that silly, formless wave that gave me at least one more chance to sigh, roll my eyes, and laugh out loud.
At the stupidity of the performance!
If Lamar, in my opinion, had limited general appeal, most of the commercials overreached.
They were like most governmental policies, going too far in fear of not going far enough and not knowing when the baby is nearing the drain with the bathwater.
More than half the time I could not tell you what the commercial was actually selling.
I enjoyed Bud Light going decidedly butch after its sales-crushing Dylan Mulvaney debacle a few years back.
I enjoyed more Ryan and Crystal’s spoof of their famous “When Harry Met Sally” restaurant scene, Catherine O’Hara and Willem Dafoe as pickleball hustlers, Harrison Ford hawking Jeep despite his whispered last name, and Daniel Levy’s spots for Homes.com.
I could have lived without the Drew Barrymore-Orlando Bloom bits. Easily.
Surprisingly, I liked a Little Caesar’s commercial although today I can’t remember why.
Beyond the Super Bowl and the parade, or maybe because of them, this week brought a change of heart about hosts of sports radio.
I understand different day parts in radio have different audiences so same topics can be broached to allegedly different listeners.
I understand too that some subjects, like what late-in-the-fourth-quarter scenario a listener might prefer in game that could be decided by one play, are good ways to elicit callers, the life blood of talk radio, sports or not.
As with the Eagles cheer, I was tired by the time the Super Bowl arrived of hearing it. With the Eagles win, my attitude took a 180.
It went from “Shut up already; where’s Meg Beagle?” to “Talk to me, Spike Eskin, Rob Ellis, Jody McDonald, talk to me. You, too, Ike Reese and Hugh Douglas.”
Eliot Shorr-Parks, on the other hand, can stay silent, assuming that’s possible.
I couldn’t wait to hear their jubilation and admonishment to people who are so worried about challenges in the off-season that’s now here, they couldn’t savor the moment of victory and exhilaration.
I also found myself driven to watch and listen to WIP (94.1 FM) coverage of Friday’s parade.
Yes, I, the personification of a professional audience who sees 100 plays, 100 movies, and countless television programs every year, teared up at how happy the parade and all who attended it were.
It turns out there were some incidents of violence, but in general, a friendly, joyful million or more descended upon Philadelphia, and shared peaceful celebration was the result.
Speeches by Eagles players Landon Dickerson, Brandon Graham, Jalen Hurts and my favorite, A.J. Brown, were the perfect cap for the day.
So was a game-day sound bite that had my favorite of all Eagles, Cooper DeJean, saying his crucial interception turned him so giddy he just ran with the ball “like a little kid.”
The one thing sports has over all other forms of entertainment: You can’t script it.
If you could, the Eagles, their fans, and local broadcasters from Merrill Reese and Mike Quick to Don Bell and Pat Gallen did a perfect job.
E-A-G-L-E-S. Eagles!!!!!!
SAG expectations
Award season continues Sunday when the Screen Actors Guild names it recipients for Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Performers, Best Ensemble and Best Stunt Teams in several television and film categories.
The ceremony can be seen at 8 p.m. on Netflix.
Although I’ll concentrate on television, I find it interesting that both SAG and the Oscars pit two award-earning members of the “Succession” cast in the running for Best Supporting Actor in a movie.
They are Kieran Culkin for his performance as the nudnik cousin in “A Real Pain” and Jeremy Strong for his searing turn as Roy Cohn in “The Apprentice,” a movie about the formative days of Donald Trump.
As usual, I will list the nominees in all television categories in the order I would prefer to decide the recipient. My prediction for who get the award will follow.
Best Actor in a Limited Series: Andrew Scott for “Ripley,” Richard Gadd for “Baby Reindeer,” Colin Farrell for “The Penguin,” Javier Bardem for “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story,” Kevin Kline for “Disclaimer.” Winner: Farrell
Best Actress in a Limited Series: Jessica Gunning for “Baby Reindeer,” Cate Blanchett for “Disclaimer,” Cristin Milioti for “The Penguin,” Kathy Bates for “The Great Lillian Hall,” Lily Gladstone for “Under the Bridge.” Winner: Gunning
Best Actor in a Drama: Eddie Remayne for “The Day of the Jackal,” Tadanobu Asano for “Shōgun,” Hiroyuki Sanada for“Shōgun,” Gary Oldman for“Slow Horses,” Jeff Bridges for “The Old Man.” Winner: Asano
Best Actress in a Drama: Keri Russell for “The Diplomat,” Anna Sawai for Shōgun,” Kathy Bates for “Matlock,” Allison Janney for “The Diplomat,” Nicola Coughlan for “Bridgerton.” Winner: Sawai
Best Actor in a Comedy: Jeremy Allen White for “The Bear,” Adam Brody for “Nobody Wants This,” Martin Short for “Only Murders in the Building,” Harrison Ford for “Shrinking,” Ted Danson for “Man on the Inside.” Winner: White
Best Actress in a Comedy: Ayo Edebiri for “The Bear,” Jean Smart for “Hacks,” Liza Colón-Zayas for “The Bear,” Kristen Bell for “Nobody Wants This,” Quinta Brunson for “Abbott Elementary.” Winner: Smart
Best Ensemble in a Drama: “Shōgun,” “The Day of the Jackal,” “Slow Horses,” “The Diplomat,” “Bridgerton.” Winner: “Shōgun”
Best Ensemble in a Comedy: “The Bear,” “Hacks,” “Abbott Elementary,” “Only Murders in the Building,” “Shrinking.” Winner: “The Bear”
Sadness over 2 who passed
The year is only beginning its eighth week, and already sadness is rife among the arts and broadcasting communities.
In addition to the beloved Dorie Lenz, whose death at age 101 I wrote about in January, two other significant figures in the arts have passed.
Carrie Gorn, age 49, was a dedicated public relations and marketing specialist who knew the people on her beat and crafted stories that might appeal to them.
By “crafted,” I mean Carrie knew what subjects interested individual writers. When she asked about my interest, I could tell she’d been reading my articles and what artist or aspect involved in a production would pique my curiosity.
She was also a great conversationalist and fun to be with at opening nights and other occasions.
Carrie leaves behind a husband, Chad, and a daughter, Rosalind, called Rosie, age 17, whose interest in the arts, as performer and audience, Carrie nurtured. The loss of both of them seems incalculable.
Sally Friedman was a colleague I sought out at the many events we attended together.
Sally could write about anything. She was a premier entertainment writer but also filled pages of most local publications with stories from life about family, health, women, and the day-to-day incidents that make existence eternally fascinating.
Sally was age 86 and leaves behind possibly the largest body of work by any local freelance journalist.
Lights were dimmed at local theaters in Carrie’s honor on Thursday.
Both Carrie and Sally were lights so bright and vibrant, it’s hard to think of them as gone.
Source: Berkshire mont