Super Bowl 2025 may have been more of a beatdown than an exciting football game, but luckily, Kendrick Lamar was around at halftime to provide some much-needed drama. You probably need some backstory, too. From “Uncle” Samuel L. Jackson providing a preemptive critique of the show from “mainstream” America, to Serena Williams crip walking for more total yards than the Kansas City offense (also, when your ex-girlfriend dances to the tune of the guy publicly humiliating you, it’s never a good thing), to all the Drake-baiting, plus some provocative, timely questions about what “America” means anyway, all of it performed in front of the sitting president himself, it was a lot. Here are some of the easter eggs/hidden meanings in the show. Apparently, MAGA had a meltdown?

I loved the scope of the choreography, but I honestly don’t find Lamar particularly musical.

For those of you who watch the Super Bowl for the commericals: The best (and worst) Super Bowl commercials this year. It’s missing the Nike So Win ad that was in my top three.

Lastly, the new scorebug was bad in so many ways.

Robert Sterling —

I don’t want to connect my coffee machine to the wifi network. I don’t want to share the file with OneDrive. I don’t want to download an app to check my car’s fluid levels. I don’t want to scan a QR code to view the restaurant menu. I don’t want to let Google know my location before showing me the search results. I don’t want to include a Teams link on the calendar invite. I don’t want to pay 50 different monthly subscription fees for all my software. I don’t want to upgrade to TurboTax platinum plus audit protection. I don’t want to install the Webex plugin to join the meeting. I don’t want to share my car’s braking data with the actuaries at State Farm. I don’t want to text with your AI chatbot. I don’t want to download the Instagram app to look at your picture. I don’t want to type in my email address to view the content on your company’s website. I don’t want text messages with promo codes. I don’t want to leave your company a five-star Google review in exchange for the chance to win a $20 Starbucks gift card. I don’t want to join your exclusive community in the metaverse. I don’t want AI to help me write my comments on LinkedIn. I don’t even want to be on LinkedIn in the first place.

I just want to pay for a product one time (and only one time), know that it’s going to work flawlessly, press 0 to speak to an operator if I need help, and otherwise be left alone and treated with some small measure of human dignity, if that’s not too much to ask anymore.

Last week, Democratic Governor JB Pritzker of Illinois shared a video titled “A Special Announcement from Governor JB Pritzker.” In the video, Pritzker made fun of some of President Donald Trump’s more absurd proclamations in the weeks since he was confirmed as the 47th president. Obviously, Lake Michigan should be Lake Illinois. More of this.

Speaking of Illinois governors, Trump pardons disgraced former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. Sigh.

What a week. I don’t know about you, but we could all use some female power hip-hop in this joint. The Tiny Desk Concert from Doechii fits the bill. Featuring a full band, horns, and two background singers, the performance is a masterclass in creativity. I’m not even a huge fan of hip-hop, but this jazz-influenced mini-show is amazing. The girls with the cornrows… they got all the talent.

Need more? This Jazz musician reacts to the Tiny Desk concert.

Will Leitch, writing for New York Magazine, has a smart piece on the Super Bowl and how it’s trying to keep the outside world outside and how the Super Bowl itself is an escape from the outside world.

The Super Bowl is the most American of unifying traditions. But it’s happening with the country in a nearly unprecedented state of confusion — not even the people in charge seem to know who’s in charge — when nothing is unifying and tradition lasts as long as you can rip the copper wiring out of the walls. What does a country do when it is transmogrifying itself into something more unrecognizable by the second? Well, it does the one thing it has always done together: It watches the Super Bowl and pretends that everything is just fine.

That is to say, it handles it the New Orleans way. The New Year’s terrorist attack was only 38 days ago, yet it seemingly happened several decades in the past, or in a different universe. But it didn’t. It happened in the same area where I had dinner last night and saw countless colleagues, like I do every year at the Super Bowl, which is as close to a national sportswriter convention as anything in the business. It happened in New Orleans, and in America. But so much has shifted since then, so much will continue to shift, that lingering too long on one incident, one more speck of random violence in an ever-elevating spate of them, can’t help but leave you in the past. It all morphs together anyway. The terrorist truck driver, the plane crash, the January 6 pardons, the California fires, the Luka Dončić trade, some techie teenager bro with your Social Security number — it’s just one thing after another.

Combined, they just give more impetus to escape, to turn your mind off, to watch football, to pretend, for three hours, like none of this is happening. It can only work for so long. The illusion can never last. But that’s the promise of the Super Bowl, and of the city that is hosting this year’s game. This is what sports has always done. I’m not sure it’s ever tried to do it harder than it has this week in New Orleans. I suspect it will still not be enough. But New Orleans, and the Super Bowl, will do its best regardless. If you keep the party going and make sure not to look too far in any direction, you can almost convince yourself everything is fine.

I would not cut to Trump in his suite at the Super Bowl at any point in the game. Then again, I wouldn’t cut to Taylor Swift, either.

Every night, my wife and I sleep to reruns of The Golden Girls. It has become our ritual.

I was in college when The Golden Girls was on television. I never watched it. The demographic they were looking for did not include me. I was too busy watching Star Trek: The Next Generation and MTV.

Watching The Golden Girls today is like time travel. Certain shows are products of their eras. Unsurprisingly, it feels nostalgic, but it also makes me feel old. I am the age now the leads were on the show. Of course, they are permanently fixed in the late 1980s as much as the cast of Friends is stuck in the 1990s.

What will be the equivalent for today’s viewers? I have no idea.

There are several journalists putting together clear-eyed reports on what is currently happening in the Federal government. None of it is good. NONE. OF. IT. Seriously, read them all while you still can.

Here’s a few to get started: Jamelle Bouie, Elizabeth Popp Berman, Ezra Klein, Heather Cox Richardson, Heather Cox Richardson again, Timothy Snyder, Timothy Snyder again, Paul Krugman, David Roth, Joan Westenberg, Mike Brock, and David Frum.

These elected and unelected clowns think they’re smart, but really, they’re just Fredo flailing on the deck chair.

Additionally, here’s a long video from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez laying out what’s happening and what congressional Democrats and citizens should do about it.

This idea circulated around the blogosphere a month or so ago, and I decided to try it out a month later. Never say I don’t hop on trends.

I use these apps and services pretty much every day. Anything new to you?

Mail Client: iOS: Spark. Desktop: Gmail, Outlook

Notes: Notion and Apple Notes (I haven’t fully set it up, but I’m a fan of Forever Notes)

To-Do: Apple Reminders and Notion

Photo Shooting: iPhone 12 Pro Max. I probably need to upgrade this year.

Photo Editing: Mostly: Photopea. Sometimes: Photos

Calendar: Apple Calendar and Outlook Calendar

Cloud File Storage: Mostly: Dropbox. Sometimes: iCloud Drive (for apps that do it by default I don’t care that much about the file locations)

RSS: Inoreader

Contacts: Apple Contacts

Browser: Desktop: Chrome. iOS: Safari. I want to like Arc, but I can’t get into it.

Bookmarks: Notion Web Clipper and Instapaper Clipper

Read It Later: Instapaper, Notion

Rich Media: Iframely

Blogging: micro.blog, Medium

Word Processing: Mostly: Word and Ulysses. Rarely: Pages

Shopping Lists: Apple Reminders

News: Inoreader. Rarely: Apple News

Music: Spotify.

Podcasts: Overcast

Password Management: 1Password

VPN: NordVPN

Sleep Tracking: Sleep Cycle

Personal Site: Carrd

I watched most of the Grammys last night, and honestly? It was a mixed bag. I mean, sure, there were some cool moments, but nothing that’s gonna stick with me for long. It always feels so political, just like the Oscars.

Beyoncé winning Album of the Year for her country album Cowboy Carter was surprising. Over Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, and the others? I don’t think so. Plus, beating Chris Stapleton for Best Country Album? No way.

Chappell Roan’s acceptance speech, in which she criticized the music industry, probably won’t get the response she thinks it will. Although it was bold, that feels par for the course for this artist.

The performances were where things got fun. Sabrina Carpenter brought the energy and fun. Benson Boone, with his ripped tux and crazy flips in a shiny bodysuit, was also entertaining. I can’t stand his song (especially that scream), but I’ll give him style points.

But Doechii? She was something else. I’d never heard of her before, but her performance was electric. She moved with incredible precision, switching between vocal styles like it was nothing, backed by dancers in matching suits. My wife and I were totally blown away.

Raye was another surprise. This UK artist performed an incredible hip-hop-soul fusion, scatting in front of an old-school bandstand. It was just phenomenal.

The thing about the Grammys is they’re basically a one-night wonder. Super entertaining while you’re watching, but by tomorrow? Completely forgotten. It’s like musical fast food - tasty in the moment, zero nutritional value afterward.

And seriously… The Rolling Stones and The Beatles winning again? Come on.

The NBA was rocked last weekend by news that the Los Angeles Lakers have acquired Luka Dončić from the Dallas Mavericks – a stunning move that could prove the most consequential sports deal of the decade. What made this 100% not-a-hoax trade particularly extraordinary is that Luka – a 25-year-old superstar who led the league in scoring last season while nearly averaging a triple-double – never requested to leave Dallas. In fact, the Mavs front office initiated the trade themselves amidst alleged concerns over his conditioning and a reluctance to offer a $345 million ‘supermax’ extension. Making matters more bewildering, Dallas didn’t shop their franchise player around the league, instead dealing directly with the Lakers in a secret negotiation that left other teams' front offices (and even Mavs staff) completely blindsided. The Lakers, continuing their historic tradition of landing generational talent (see: Wilt, Kareem, Shaq), now pair Luka with LeBron James in a dynamic that could reshape the sport for years to come.

Seth Werkheiser pointed me to this incredibly dark and surreal short.

This is Victoria Warmerdam, the writer and director of I’m Not a Robot, and Trent, its producer. Our short film tells the story of Lara, a music producer who spirals into an existential crisis after repeatedly failing a CAPTCHA test—leading her to question whether she might actually be a robot. Through a dark comedic lens, we explore themes of identity, self-determination, love, and technology in a world where the line between humanity and artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly blurred. We’d love to hear your thoughts and are happy to answer any questions in the coming days.

“I’ve stopped caring, and it’s worked out beautifully. I know that sounds irresponsible and somewhat Canadian, but I just don’t even not give a fuck. That’s too extreme. When I hear someone say, ‘I don’t give a fuck!,’ I think you sound like you put a lot of effort and energy into that fuck that you’re refusing to give. I need you to dial it down…that’s what I’m preaching — radical apathy.” – Doug Stanhope

Warren Ellis –

Seeing a lot of people in my RSS announcing they’ve deleted various social media products. Usually to announce they’re on BlueSky or Substack Notes or whatever today’s one is. I am not on any of the new ones and just left the old ones by the side of the road. Some say these accounts should be deleted so you’re not part of the overall user count, but I honestly don’t care that much. And doing all that just to state you’re signing up someplace where they promise to wear slippers to kick you to death with so it doesn’t hurt so much… well, good luck.

Chris Hays in The Atlantic:

“Attention is a kind of resource: It has value, and if you can seize it, you seize that value. This has been true for a very long time. Charismatic leaders and demagogues, showmen, preachers, great salespeople, marketers, advertisers, and holy men and women who rallied disciples have all used the power of attention to accrue wealth and power. What has changed is attention’s relative importance. Those who successfully extract it command fortunes, win elections, and topple regimes. The battle to control what we pay attention to at any given instant structures our inner life–who and what we listen to, how and when we are present to those we love–and our collective public lives: which pressing matters of social concern are debated and legislated, which are neglected; which deaths are loudly mourned, which are quietly forgotten. Every single aspect of human life across the broadest categories of human organization is being reoriented around the pursuit of attention. It is now the defining resource of our age.”

Kek-W is a UK-based writer of comic-books, graphic novels, prose fiction, film and TV. Warren Ellis, another UK-based writer, noted the following on Kek-W’s newsletter about another UK-based writer:

Grant Morrison famously had a series of black notepads with ideas / pitches for virtually every major character IP from Sherlock Holmes onwards, just in case someone, you know, asked. It’s a good habit / exercise / praxis to get into as a writer: well, what would you do if you got to write, for example, a Tarzan story? And even if you never get to play with that character / universe, it can spark ideas for yr own original creations. But in the unlikely situation that someone from DC is reading this: Well, hello, there!

What an interesting idea.

We are exactly 20 years from a 012345 (01/23/45) date stamp.

Warren Ellis –

The human race has had the technical ability to send a crewed mission to Mars for decades.

All the human race is currently missing is the proven technical ability to get a crewed mission there safely, in a decent period of time, without the crew dying, landing without the crew dying, keeping everyone alive on the surface, launching back to orbit safely, and getting everyone back to earth again without the crew dying.

If you want to just stick a bunch of engines and fuel tanks to a shipping container and fire it in the general direction of Mars on a straight injection, then von Braun of the SS wrote that technical specification in 1948.

Chuck Wendig, writing at his site, on how to handle today and the future.

It’s just the first of the weird bad days.

And if we’re being honest, it’s not even the first of them, it’s just another in a long line of weird bad days where the weird part and the bad part are spiking simultaneously, like an outbreak of a particular kind of illness. It’s not just turbulence on a flight, it’s a turbulent flight, from start to finish, snout to tail.

But we can get through it, we can land the plane.

This country is a mess, it’s always been a mess, always will be a mess, but it’s our mess. We’re with it, in it, and have often helped to make it, and that’s not defeatist, that’s not apathetic, it’s just realist to see that we’re a fucking goofy nation that has stumbled and staggered up and down some big hills and into some mucky fucking ditches. Just try to remember we need to climb the hills to see the beautiful views, you know? And first we gotta get up and out of the damn ditch. Beyond that? I think at the end of the day the people we’re with, that we surround ourselves with — that matters. It’s the people we love and care about and who care about us in return. I think it helps me to remember that it’s not like we’re some shining castle in the clouds. We’re a messy place full of messy people and I think it’s good to recognize that, and to see that we can still make motions to make it better than it is, even when it fights us like a bucking, sweat-foamed horse.

Then again, I don’t know shit about shit and might feel different tomorrow. Don’t let anyone chastise you for feeling sad or upset. Toxic optimism isn’t going get us through shit. We feel how we feel and those worries, those concerns, they’re valid. It’s okay to see that shit’s gonna be hard.

Take care of yourselves. Take care of others. Be taken care of when needed.

CJ Moore, writing for The Athletic, did not like the officiating during the Illinois-Michigan State game.

I was disappointed when Jakucionis fouled out in only nine minutes of action against the Spartans. Illini coach Brad Underwood was in the same boat. “The best player in the game played eight minutes,” Underwood said at his postgame press conference. “You saw just a little bit of what he can do when he’s in. Just controlled the whole game with pick-and-rolls and passes. Unfortunately today, he didn’t get to play. … There hasn’t been one team in the country that has guarded him with any success. He’s a maestro. He is completely different than anybody else. You saw the little three-minute stretch he went on that he did play; every bucket was easy. He got a layup. He is that dude now. Don’t make any mistake. If he’s not the best point guard in the country, he’s very close and he’s 18 years old.”

As for the fouls: “I don’t know. I’ve got to look at the film.”

I did. And I don’t love commenting on the officials, but every single one was on the questionable side. (I have much more to say on the interpretation of the fifth foul, when Frankie Fidler jumped into Jakucionis to draw a whistle, but I’ll save that for a column down the road.) It’s a lot easier to slow down the film and critique, but it was frustrating officiating for anyone who just wanted to see the best players play in a great matchup. Luckily we get to see a rematch on Feb. 15. Fingers crossed no one fouls out.

I got in trouble in my house because I was yelling at the TV a bit too much. The Big Ten and maybe all of Division 1 basketball has got to be more consistent across the board.

Plenty of pundits, who had no skin in the game, commented on how obvious it was that Illinois had been hosed. It looked so bad that I actively wondered if the fix was in.

That’s got to change.

I could not care less about TikTok and would consider it an upgrade to the Internet if it were removed from the US and, frankly, everywhere else. Of course, I watch plenty of Reels, so my opinion is eye-roll-inducing.

Anyway, John Gruber has all the details about TikTok and the roller coaster of the last few hours if you need a deep dive.