Somebody please stop Jay-Z from producing any more Super Bowl halftime shows

I used to watch the Super Bowls for two reasons no matter who is playing: the commercials and the halftime shows.

Having the commercials release on YouTube a few days before the game has ended that particular anticipation for the most part.  I can't stave off the temptation.  Especially for the spots of upcoming movies even if those films are ten whole months out.

That leaves the halftime show.  A spectacle that has long entertained folks regardless of the competing teams.

But let's face it: the halftime shows of the past several years have been too bereft of real engaging character.  They've become too homogenized.  Too boring.

And it's all Jay-Z's fault.

The rapper and his agency Roc Nation have been contracted by the National Football League since 2019 to produce the halftime shows.  And ever since then they have predominantly featured performers from the rap music community.  Not country music.  Not a variety of pop music artists.  No classic bands.

Rappers.  And the worlds that they have wrought into being.  To hell with the musical predilections of the country at large.

And now Jay-Z has chosen himself to headline the next Super Bowl halftime show

This past season it was Bad Bunny: by far the most controversial headliner for a Super Bowl halftime show in the history of anything.  It seems that Jay-Z tapped Bad Bunny because of his controversial nature.  As if it was an "up yours" to the normal Americans whose loyalties to the NFL are becoming increasingly strained already with each passing season.

I dare say that a lot of us have the following message we would tell Jay-Z if he had an iota of humbleness in him: STOP FEATURING RAP PERFORMERS IN THE HALFTIME SHOW!

There are a lot of styles of music than rap artists.  The music should represent a swath of the American public.  Having a show focused on Puerto Ricans to the detriment of all others, and having a profanity-laden singer be at the centerpiece of that, is not representation of that general public.

It's a sad thing: remember the halftime shows featuring Michael Jackson, Prince, even New Kids On The Block (who memorably performed as the Gulf War was raging)?  Those and so many other artists who have played at the halftime show, they would have never been considered for a show produced by Jay-Z.  Maybe they would play during the pre-game festivities, but not the main event.

And now as if to emphasize his own importance, Jay-Z has chosen himself - and will no doubt be paid for it - to headline the show.

Let's call this for what it is: it''s called "social justice".  It's "cultural relevance".  It's "representation".

It's also destroying the main audience of professional football.

Have the halftime shows been getting record audiences in the past several years?  Yes, they have.  It would be a remarkable omission to overlook that.  But how many people watching the halftime shows been legitimate football fans?  The shows' audiences have in vast part come from the fandom of the performers.  The "tourists" who only come to see the shows and then tune out.

(Why can't there be something like the legendary In Living Color Super Bowl Halftime Show that Fox broadcast in 1992?  An event that drew millions of viewers and forever changed the official halftime shows... well until Roc Nation took over.)

Maybe we'll be fortunate, and this coming Super Bowl's show will soar to new depths of viewership and force the NFL honchos to reconsider their relationship with Jay-Z and end the domination of the rappers.  It's certainly something to hope for.

Edit 09:27 am EST:  I shared this post on Free Republic.  Another user shared something quite interesting.  That Jay-Z often wears attire bearing the words "Do What Thou Wilt":

"Do what thou wilt" was the guiding philosophy of English occultist Aleister Crowley. Who was a very wicked man who preached that humanity must abandon all beliefs in a higher authority than man.  In Crowley's mad scheme there would be no law at all.  Anything would be permissible and tolerated.

Anyone who emblazon's Crowley's words upon their clothing, should be suspected of being inherently evil.

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I'm too sexy for this blog!

Was on the road early this morning when this song came on the Nineties station on satellite radio.  And now I can't get it out of my head just like 35 years ago!

"I'm Too Sexy" by Right Said Fred got a LOT of airplay during my high school senior year.  Were we supposed to take this song seriously or was it meant to be a gag?  I've no idea and I don't think anyone else does either but back in the day I could do a spot-on rendition of it 😛 

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Coming soon…

A brand new look for The Knight Shift!

(Actually, a new everything for this blog.  Oh well, this place has needed an upgrade anyway.)

It’s been a long time coming.  But hey, it IS almost 2027 after all.  I just got a new car, new iPhone, REALLY awesome new job, new friends (make of that what one will).  Might as well go all the way.  I've been testing the new look out and it's terrific.

(And hey, Tammy has a new collar too.  We are all doing well :-)

Don’t worry, all 20-some years of content will still be here.  Every random thought, movie review, recipe, installment of Being Bipolar, chronicles against the wicked, wacky YouTube video… it’s gonna be here too.  And should remain here for the rest of time.

There is a possibility that this blog won't be available for a few days.  That's technical related, having to do with the new hosting.  It should resolve itself (see what I did there?) within this next week or so.

Let’s see what modern technology can do.

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A post especially for all the politicians out there

A longtime friend is currently running for office.  Tonight on Facebook I left a comment to him.  It was worth making a post all its own, since this is such a political season.  If you ever wondered where I am coming from politically, this passage from the man who was the grandfather figure in my life puts it more succinctly than anything I could come up with on my own.  So I think it’s well worth sharing here too.

From chapter 12 of my book Keeping the Tryst:

---

At last Eagle was within sight.  For my project I chose to build receptacles for the trash cans at Camp Saurakee, a place for people with severe mental disabilities.  The receptacles would keep the cans stationary, without being a safety hazard if they were knocked around in bad weather.  I made the receptacles, and we delivered them to the camp two weeks before my Eagle Scout board of review.

​That took place on the night before my eighteenth birthday.  There were five men who conducted the review.  Among them was Doc Lewis.  For about an hour I was queried about my time in the Boy Scouts, what I had learned, what the path to Eagle had come to mean to me.  I answered as heartfelt and sincerely as I could, despite my nervousness.  This is it, I had told myself all day.  This is what it comes down to.

The review went well.  It was agreed by the board that I had passed with flying colors.  And then Doc told me something that I have never forgotten… 

​“Chris, people tell me that you have an interest in politics.  They tell me that you could have a brilliant future in that.” 

“That’s what some people have told me,” I confirmed. ​

“I believe they are right.  I’ve known you for many years, and you are an amazing young man.  If you want a future in politics, you could have that.  But don’t be a politician!  A politician is someone who serves their own interests.  A politician puts himself before others.  And that’s not what you are meant to be. I challenge you to be something greater than a politician.  Be a STATESMAN!  A statesman is someone who puts the needs of others above his own needs and desires.  A statesman is a true servant of the people.  There are much too many politicians, Chris.  But there are very few statesmen.  You can be a statesman.  That is your true calling.”

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This is the worst "news story" I've seen in a very long time

A few days ago NBC interviewed Andrew Cathy, the CEO of the very successful Chick-fil-A restaurant chain.  It was Cathy's first broadcast interview

This is what NBC's Today Show and a lot of "mainstream" media chose to focus on...

It was a six-some minutes-long interview.  And a great chunk of it became about whether Chick-fil-A was against homosexuality/lesbianism/transexualism/whatever else is beneath the LGBT umbrella.  Not so much about the company's awesome food and exceptional service that has won it generations of loyal customers.

It seems that more than a decade and a half later and the LGBT community and their fellow travelers in the legacy media are still stuck on the "Chick-fil-A hates gays" meme.

It was an attempt to ambush Andrew Cathy.  However he was prepared and he didn't take the bait.  Cathy simply told the reporter "We're focused on hospitality, serving great-tasting food, and great service."

Shouldn't that be what every business is supposed to be doing, if it wants to make a profit?  

A lot of extremists, almost entirely leftists, will scream "silence is consent!"  That is what some people tried to pull over on Michael Jordan many years ago.  They were mad that Jordan wasn't using his star power to shill for the Democrats.  Michael Jordan's response was pure gold.  He wasn't going to do that, he replied.  Because as he put it "Republicans buy shoes too."

Here's the online article that I took the above screenshot from.

Seriously, what kind of a reporter does something like that?  Too many of them, if we are to be honest.  They are fixated on social agendas, align themselves with extreme liberalism, and view everything through the narrow scope that it affords.  I bet the very first thought that entered this alleged journalist's mind when the opportunity to interview Andrew Cathy came was about how to hit the guy with the anti-LGBT charge.  That's all that they can perceive.  The "Chick-fil-A hates homosexuals" angle was going to be shoved in there one way or another.  It would have been a surprise if the reporter from a major television network - that has long tilted to the left - had not brought the subject up.

These are not normal people.  They live inside bubbles segregated from the world of decent folks.  A life absent constant obsession about social issues is something they cannot comprehend.  And if someone does choose to hold beliefs about such things, the journalists/politicians/celebrities on the "progressive" end of the spectrum simply cannot wrap their minds around the notion that a person can possess a differing perspective.  It wouldn't surprise me if Cathy's response to the questioning genuinely caused the reporter to feel real pain in the head.  It wasn't what they were expecting, at all.

The good news is that viewership and readership of traditional news media has been dropping like a rock for quite some time.  Blogs and podcasts are taking over.  At least most of them are honest about their agendas and where they stand on matters.  NBC can't do that.  It's been that way for a very long time.  And that doesn't look to change anytime soon.

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Watch the new Tesla Roadster do a midair kickflip during its unveiling!

This is officially the single coolest thing you will have seen all month.  From a few hours ago:

I just bought a brand new Toyota Corolla.  It’s got more safety features than anything I’ve ever seen in a car.  It’ll be neat in another fifteen or twenty years to see if what Elon Musk has given his Roadster will become standard equipment on new vehicles.

Seriously though, that is hella awesome.  It’s like Musk and his boffins are engineering functional Autobots.

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Margaret Hamilton, computer pioneer behind mankind's moon landings, has passed away

 

Margaret Hamilton inside an Apollo command module simulator

Margaret Hamilton, the brilliant mathematician behind the then-nascent field of software engineering and the lead programmer of the Apollo effort that put humanity on the moon, has passed away at the age of ninety.

But what a life Hamilton had!  Early on she demonstrated a prowess for mathematics.  She followed that into higher education and wound up at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  There she was brought aboard NASA to work on the computer systems for the Apollo spacecraft.  It was during this phase of her career that Hamilton developed error-correction code that in the case of Apollo 11 kept the vessel from disaster during landing.

Here are the famous photos of Margaret Hamilton with the enormous pile of computer code that she and her team developed for Apollo 11:

After the Apollo program ended, Hamilton started her own company and consistently contributed to various publications.  She definitely stayed busy!  In 2016 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of her work toward the space effort.

Margaret Hamilton was a true pioneer and heroine of science and technology.  This would be a far lesser world without her breaking ground for what came after.  Hers was a life well lived, and worth honoring.

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