DIVINE FOOTBALL AT HALF TIME LVII

As I was searching the Internet for something that might interest me, I came across an image that jolted me to instantly think that I was not tuned into mainstream television. Make no mistake about it. There it was…live!… and in broad Arizonian daylight during the Half Time break for the Superball football classic at the Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City and viewed on television by millions of people throughout a good piece of global real estate, including the United States, Canada, Alaska, and certainly Barbados, where the Half Time goddess, Rihanna, was born. 

I hit the Superball event when its Half Time show was in progress.  In retrospect, I’ve since learned that its Half Time star, Rihanna had not performed for seven years. However, a large number of her fans attended the football game not necessarily to watch the game but because of her very successful career as a vocal artist whose credits include her lyrics.  The reviews of her performance are not as kind as mine]

[Note: There is a plethora of techniques re film editing which makes it virtually impossible to discern exactly when or where a splice has been made into the body of the whole. The close-up of Rihanna’s pelvic area was front and center and in sync with the lyrics and music, but not at all sexy.  After all, sex  and geometry don’t resonate. She uses her fingers heavily pressing against her skin to pantomime the rigid form of a rectangle surrounding the area in which her vagina resides. The reviews of her performance are not as kind as mine.]

I don’t know what Rihanna and Michael Jackson had in common other than their enormous wealth and an insatiable need to be noticed as unique pioneer entertainers. Michael thought that using his fingers to…er…playfully—er— gingerly jiggle his ‘member’ …would arouse sexual excitement in his audience and Rihanna thought that using her fingers to geometrically outline the parameters of her treasure immediately under the cloth of her jumpsuit  would at the very least rival Michael’s ‘bit’ under the fly of his pants (again, no pun intended.) 

We may never know what they intended, especially because of the two camera versions of at least one section of the Half Time entertainment. But one thing is certain: there was nothing sexy about Rihanna’s virtually soiled fingers, let alone when she smelled them after she had firmly and symbolically tinkered with the cloth flush over the location of her vagina, thereby reassuring her audience that she was as raunchy as they are—a touch of class. )

Some people might say I should mind my own business. Well, I usually do. But a rapid and global-wide cultural spiral is everyone’s business. Judgment is a major characteristic of human beings. Am I judgmental?  Of course I am. Judgment defines humanity. I don’t share my judgment about someone unless he asks me to do so. But I don’t mind judging celebrities because celebrity obliges them to accept judgment, like it or not. 

This time, I’ve expressed my concern about a rapid downward cultural spiral— tongue in cheek. This time, I am compelled to highlight the ever-increasing degeneration of our culture. This time, I add a simple yet significant suggestion here. Compare the following two quotes, the first a lyric composed by Rihanna, the second by Shakespeare, spoken by Romeo to himself and thereby to an audience, as Juliet’s hand happens to be close to her cheek.

Rihanna: Bitch better have my money.
Romeo:  Oh, that I were a glove upon her hand that I might touch that cheek.