Super Bowl Anthropology

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I had not watched U2’s halftime show during the Super Bowl ten years ago. I watched it on YouTube years later to digest the production and its smooth power and spiritual energy. What I saw was Bono parading in his US flag jacket on Time magazine. I flinched, fearing Bono and all that he symbolized had become an obvious pawn for the war fervor of Bush and Blair. I hesitantly agreed with a critic who wrote, “If rock is symbolic of rebellion, Bono is blasphemous to its spirit.” Since I loved the album “All That You Can’t Leave Behind,” and having an emotional struggle with the Super Bowl show until the drop of “How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb” in 2004, I look back at the Super Bowl with a kind of animated aloofness and grateful awe.…show more content…
While the ostentation of the flag culture- jammed weeks after the game. He had only flashed the flag briefly. The names of all 9/11 victims flowing to the sky and across all of our screens, or the stage shaped like a heart softening the 50 yard line or Edge’s sprawled out butterfly with a skull tee, they are as much as the superior themes of that day as Bono’s flag jacket. About seven months ago, U2 occupied Invesco Field, resisted departing earth at the prophesied rapture, and had shared some time with quarterback Tim Tebow backstage. Tebow and Bono hanging out—now, we get to wonder about the assembly of football, religion, and rock n roll. Although U2 haven’t ever been embarrassed of their fervent Christian faith and lyrics which flaunt biblical images on every single record, the group was once nervous about being linked to high-profiled, fundamental Christian, as Tebow displays on and off the field. Many fans certainly remember watching Bono mock television ministers back in the day, criticizing fans to recall that God wasn’t short of cash. With a background of a Catholic-Protestant mixed-marriage in Ireland, Bono (formerly Paul Hewson) is all too familiar with the violent, darker side

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