Ain't It Shocking What Love Can Do...

I'm going to go ahead and throw out a bit of personal opinion right here at the beginning of this installment that will surely have some folks throwing things at me (in a purely virtual way, of course). I was never a huge Whitney Houston fan. Oh sure, I definitely recognized her talent, and cannot deny her huge contribution to pop music in the 80's and 90's. However, I never really gravitated toward her songs. I would much rather have listened to Aretha Franklin or Chaka Khan. Still would. I'll go ahead and admit something else about Ms. Houston while we're at it; her death really didn't come as much of a surprise. Now I'm not saying that I was rooting for her demise, or that her name was on my dead pool ballot, but given the last decade or so of sadness that seemed to engulf the singer, I really can't say her death surprised me.

That famous interview with Diane Sawyer where Whitney declared "Crack is whack!" Keeps getting played on the cable news outlets as they milk this latest entertainment tragedy for all it is worth. Whether or not she had a crack habit at the height of her alleged drug abuse problem really isn't the point. What matters is that, like the late King of Pop Michael Jackson, there were likely people/handlers that knew what she was allegedly taking and who had the power to try to stop the alleged madness. No one did. Why? Mostly because even in a career in decline Houston was a meal ticket for those folks. The doctor who allegedly killed Jackson was reportedly making $150,000 per MONTH supplying Jackson with his "milk," and you can bet that Houston's entourage was being paid handsomely from the publicists down to the bodyguards (where was Kevin Costner when she needed him?).

Of course now that Houston is gone there will inevitably be a run on her music, both online and in stores. A news report earlier this week said that her record company had jacked up prices for her online songs 30% the day after her death, but the record company later said it was a mistake.

I was attending a concert at the North Charleston Performing Arts Center the night Houston passed. Although no official announcement was made during the show, one could almost see the ripple effect as the news started rolling into the audience member's smartphones via text message, Facebook, and Twitter. By the end of the show everyone knew.

While I was never a huge Houston fan, I do have fond memories of watching her videos on MTV as a teenager in the 80's, you know, when Music Television actually played music. During the years surrounding those first two albums Houston was the cute girl next door, bouncing sassily through videos for songs like "I Wanna Dance with Somebody" and "How Will I Know." It was safe 80's radio pop at its finest. I never watched the reality series Houston filmed with her now ex-husband Bobby Brown a few years back, but from the clips I've seem played on the news, it appeared that the sensationalism of that look into the private lives of two very public people may have been the beginning of the end. Now Houston is gone from this earth. It's pretty sad that she never saw the age of 50, which is an age milestone that I myself am less than a decade from. Who knows what could have been had she not taken that bath Saturday night. Didn't she almost have it all?

And When the Music Starts I Never Wanna Stop

So another Super Bowl has come and gone. Some folks wait all year to watch the two football teams involved face off for the honor of taking home the Vince Lombardi trophy. Personally, I come to the party for two reasons; the commercials and the halftime show. Unless my beloved San Diego Chargers ever make it back to the big game (they went once, in 1994, and lost), then I couldn't care less who wins the Super Bowl. Growing up the son of an advertising executive, I've always appreciated an effective advert, and Super Bowl Sunday is supposedly when Madison Ave. rolls out their best stuff. To be honest, this year's crop of commercials were, with a few exceptions, very...meh. The Audi vampire one was my favorite, followed closely by the Dorito's "You didn't see nuthin'" dog ad. But most of the commercials were lackluster. That left the big halftime show, which this year featured the Material Girl herself, Madonna.

The whole blockbuster musical act at Super Bowl halftime thing truly began in 1993 when Michael Jackson provided the musical entertainment. The halftime show has always been a part of the big game, starting back at Super Bowl I in 1967 when the entertainment consisted of several college marching bands and a drill team. That's pretty much how it went until 1972, when Ella Fitzgerald and Carol Channing showed up to help with that year's theme, "A Salute to Louis Armstrong." In later years performers consisted of everything from Up With People, to Walt Disney characters, to George Burns and Mickey Rooney. Yeah, I know, right? Things all changed though in '93 when the King of Pop put on what was, all things considered, a pretty damn good halftime show. Songs included "Jam," "Billie Jean," "Black or White," "We Are the World," and "Heal the World." For the most part from then on every Super Bowl halftime show tried to outdo the previous one. There was a bit of backpedaling in 1995, when the Disney-produced halftime show based on a new Disneyland ride called "Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye. No, really. I swear.

After that little glitch halftime producers got down to business. Diana Ross, ZZ Top, James Brown, Stevie Wonder, Phil Collins, Aerosmith, Britney Spears, U2, Shania Twain, No Doubt, Sting, Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake (complete with Janet's infamous wardrobe malfunction), Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, Prince, Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band, The Who, Black Eyed Peas have all taken their respective shots, and some have fared better than others.

So when it was announced last fall that Madonna would be this year's halftime attraction, I was actually intrigued. She has proved over and over again that she knows how to put on a live performance, so even though the 53-year-old Madge now qualifies for AARP benefits one still had to wonder what she'd dream up. As it turned out the spectacle was way more fabulous than anyone could have imagined. Sure, she and everyone around her was lip-syncing to the music, but from her Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra entrance, to the appearance of LMFAO, M.I.A., Nicki Minaj, and Cee Lo Green, this year's halftime show was spectacularly over the top. But really, would you expect anything less from Madonna? I actually had a few friends on Facebook moaning afterward that it was the worst Super Bowl halftime show ever. Really? The worst? I beg to differ. I myself happen to be a rabid fan of The Who, and yet even I will admit that group's halftime performance a couple of years ago was downright embarrassing.

Prince may have pulled off the greatest halftime show when he played back in 2007,

and Bruce Springsteen did as good a job two years later.

Madonna's show this year was everything I expected and even provided some great surprises. The appearance of LMFAO was interesting. I have a love/hate relationship with those guys, because while I realize what a great piece of dance-pop bubblegum their song "Party Rock Anthem" is, it is also the kickoff track to my personal soundtrack from hell. M.I.A.'s apparent single-digit salute gave the proceedings some controversy, but overall the show was a lot of fun. It certainly beat last year's mind-numbingly awful Black Eyed Peas performance. Now there is a musical act that I'll never understand the popularity of...