I think it's a sign of progress that all music at this year's Super Bolw was performed live, not lipsynched, for the first time in living memory. Not just Sir Paul at halftime, but a number of pregame performances as well.

The most surprsing (to me, anyway) of the pregame musical spots was John Fogerty singing two of his finest and most vitiolic anti-establishment rants, "Fortunate Son" and "Bad Moon Rising." To those paranoid souls who believe that the three post-9/11 Super Bowls have been rigged to give the championship to the politically-correctly-named Patriots, Fogerty's performance should indicate that there is still a *bit* of free speech allowed by the NFL-Corporate Complex. (Of course, we didn't hear "I ain't no Fortunate Son" during the peak-viewership halftime show, only during the more low-key pregame.)

For the last few weeks and months, I hadn't known whether I'd stay home in front of the tube Sunday evening to view the game, or go out into the streets for the big Bacchus parade. We experienced a rare conflict this year here in New Orleans: Super Bowl weekend falling on the same dates as a very early Mardi Gras weekend. (Tomorrow is Fat Tuesday.) I got myself thoroughly tired out, marching in a parade Wednesday night and spectating on Friday night and Saturday daytime and evening, and so spent Sunday soaking in a hot bath and reclining on the couch in front of the TV. I'm at work at the moment (Moday daytime), but the revelry will resume at 5pm and continue into the night, then all day tomorrow. Glad the NFL gave me an excuse to take a day off from Mardi Gras.