[BC] Halftime show

[Mike McCarthy]

There was a report in the Chicago Tribune attributed to a mic tech which 
stated Madona's vocals were all live. I find that hard to believe, but 
there were a number of instances very clear, to me at least, where her 
live singing was in fact being heard. All of Like a Prayer most 
certainly. Her breaths were tightly matched to the sounds and there were 
missed notes through-out. You don't have that in lip-sync'd performances 
as those are generally gated/muted.  I'd say at least 50% was really her 
and it's conceivable 100% was live.  Recall, she is a perfectionist.  
And smokin' for a 51 year old.

I thought the Who's SB performance was terrible...but the lighting tech 
sizzled on that show. I'd say this one was the best totally performed in 
recently memory, fleeting birdie not withstanding. (I missed it.) I 
really liked the high wire guy bouncing around and not falling and how 
they painted the field evenly with bright video.  It was only topped by 
the 2010 Winter Olympics opening ceremony and the LED lit dancers from 
last years SB. Way cool.

BTW...Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management voted the M&M's 
"revealing" commercial as best in show. Agreed. I also think MOPAR 
topped it's great 2011 Imported from Detroit tag line with another one 
of Clint Eastwood's great one liners: "At Halftime in America." 
Bang-nail hit.

Too many movie trailers made me want to turn the channel if only to get 
away from the scene-a-second video. I welcomed the game's relative slow 
motion by that point. And Go-Daddy was just plain tawdry chauvinistic on 
so many fronts. I love Danica, but let's move on guys. That campaign is 
getting really old. E-Trader, Bud, Chevy, Doritos and 
Pepsi...yawn.,..though I did find Elton John's cameo funny. VW did have 
a runner up with it's Darth Vader follow-up.

A final note, did anyone notice how mightily NBC pushed it's own agenda 
as opposed to selling all 90 seconds available in each of the 20+ 
breaks. Only a handful of national breaks had all 90 seconds of 
commercials. Just about every break had two 30 second commercials and a 
promo for either NBC (The Voice, SMASH, 30ROCK w/ Williams, etc.) or a 
NFL sponsored activity (NFL wear, Play60 etc.)  Was it always this bad?  
NBC either could not sell or choose to give up nearly $45M in revenue. 
Sorry, any show pushed as hard as SMASH is doomed to fail as a result of 
the unrealistic expectations painted by all the hype. If it doesn't get 
a 20 rating it's first show, stick a fork in it. The show is done.  
Wasted money....big money.

MM

On 2/6/2012 7:41 PM, Andy Soule wrote:
> I recall last year a lot of discussion about the halftime show in the superbowl, and not a peep this year.  I read Madonna nearly tumbled four times, I noticed one.  And it had the appearance to me that it was all canned&  lipsynched.  I also missed the #1 that was on the news.  Then seeing lost of comments this morning of people who liked it.  It did nothing for me, but then I'm not they could ever improve on The Who from 44 for me.  Anyone else have comments or notice glitches?
>
> Andy Soule
>