What if they played a Super Bowl and no one cared?
Back when I played Madden, the announcers would always say that Super Bowl Sunday was an “unofficial national holiday,” and I usually agreed right before I set the game to rookie mode so that the Ravens could win by a 100 points. But this year, no one seems to be too excited about the prospect of either the Patriots or the Seahawks winning the big game. I know that I’m not really enthusiastic about either team. The NFL doesn’t seem to be excited that either. Maybe if Taylor Swift was dating a Seahawk, the NFL would care more.
I always make a prediction though and I’m usually wrong. So, this year:
Patriots 28
Seahawks 7
Why not? The Patriots winning yet another Super Bowl would be the perfect anticlimax to this season.
Football Stories was a popular pulp magazine that ran from 1937 to 1953. Each issue featured stories about football players and the games that they won. Each cover featured exciting action drawn by George Gross.
Here, for Super Bowl Sunday, is a small sampling of the covers of Football Stories.
Whenever “Breakin’ My Heart” by Mint Condition comes on, it’s like flipping back to the spring of ’91 — those final high school days buzzing with possibility and that sweet uncertainty of what came next. I remember those silky keys and that laid-back groove spilling out of boomboxes in the parking lot after school, turning ordinary afternoons into something electric. It was the ultimate slow jam for passing notes in class and those marathon phone calls about crushes that felt like the whole world.
What made the track stick so deep was its smooth, patient vibe, like it was custom-made to linger in those tender high school romance moments — Stokley’s voice carrying that perfect mix of ache and hope. At senior prom, when “Pretty Brown Eyes” finally hit, the gym lights dimmed, and suddenly every sway felt like a promise. It bridged those innocent, heart-on-your-sleeve high school flings right into the haze of early college, where relationships got messier, longer-distance, and way more real, with calls late at night from someone met through college halls and weekend jaunts to clubs.
That song soundtracked our whole transition that summer before freshman year — cruising with windows down, radio cranked, as we traded high school goodbyes for the thrill and nerves of campus life. Mint Condition’s harmonies wrapped up all the nostalgia of backyard parties and first kisses, while hinting at the tougher navigations ahead, like figuring out if those feelings could stretch across states. Even now, it pulls me right back to that bridge between worlds — young love evolving, full of promise and those first real heartbreaks.
Breakin’ My Heart (Pretty Brown Eyes)
Pretty Brown Eyes
Pretty brown eyes, you know I see you It’s a disguise, the way you treat me (The way you treat me, pretty brown eyes) You keep holding on to your thoughts of rejection If you’re with me, you’re secured
You keep telling me that your time is always taken But I keep seeing you out alone (Out alone, pretty brown eyes) yeah Listen to love, your heart is pounding with desire Waiting to be unleashed
Quit breakin’ my heart Breakin’ my heart (pretty brown eyes) Yeah, breakin’ my heart, oh, yeah Breakin’ my heart (pretty brown eyes) Sugar, yeah, yeah
Don’t tell your friends That I don’t mean nothing to you Please, don’t deny the truth (Pretty brown eyes) Tell me right now, I know your heart is in the right place You know I won’t let you down, oh, yeah, yeah
You can’t disguise all the pounding of your heart, yeah (I see your eyes) I see your eyes (Pretty brown eyes) and you can’t hide Start to make sense and quit playing These love games (silly little games) Tell me what you’re gonna do, yeah
Quit breakin’ my heart Breakin’ my heart (pretty brown eyes) Yeah, breakin’ my heart, ooh Breakin’ my heart (pretty brown eyes), yeah
I just want to know one thing Will you be with me? (Pretty brown eyes) Ooh, ooh, ooh, oh, oh Here comes my darlin’ (here comes my darlin’) Here comes romance (here comes romance) Here comes my lovin’ (here comes my lovin’) (Please, honey will you dance?)
Quit breakin’ my heart Breakin’ my heart (pretty brown eyes) Breakin’ my heart, yeah Breakin’ my heart, whoa
Got me cryin’ all inside (pretty brown eyes) Ohh, ho, ho, ooh, I’m talking ’bout (breakin’ my heart) I’m talkin’ ’bout you, I’m talkin’ ’bout me I’m talkin’ ’bout we, I’m talkin’ ’bout we, we (pretty brown eyes)
Here comes my darlin’ (here comes my darlin’) Here comes romance (here comes romance) Here comes my lovin’, will you dance (here comes my lovin’, please, honey will you dance?) Oh yeah, sugar pie, baby Breakin’ my heart
Here comes my darlin’ (here comes my darlin’) Here comes romance (here comes romance) Will you dance (here comes my lovin’, please, honey will you dance?) Oh, hoo, ohh, yeah (pretty brown eyes) Heart, breakin’ my heart (pretty brown eyes) Breakin’ my heart (pretty brown eyes) Breakin’ my heart, breakin’ my heart
Happy Super Bowl Sunday! By the end of the day, some dreams will have come true and others will not. The important thing is never stop dreaming and to always keep trying, just like Charlie Brown in the scene from A Boy Named Charlie Brown!
If you were like me and you were hoping for some sort of big upset at the Oscars next month, it looks like we’re out of luck! The Directors Guild has honored Paul Thomas Anderson as director of the year for One Battle After Another.
The winners are in bold:
FEATURE FILM Paul Thomas Anderson – “One Battle After Another” (Warner Bros.)
Ryan Coogler – “Sinners” (Warner Bros.)
Guillermo Del Toro – “Frankenstein” (Netflix)
Josh Safdie – “Marty Supreme” (A24)
Chloe Zhao – “Hamnet” (Focus Features)
FIRST-TIME THEATRICAL FEATURE FILM Hasan Hadi – “The President’s Cake” (Sony Pictures Classics)
Harry Lighton – “Pillion” (A24)
Alex Russell – “Lurker” (Mubi) Charlie Polinger – “The Plague” (IFC)
Eva Victor – “Sorry, Baby” (A24)
4 (or more) Shots From 4 (or more) Films is just what it says it is, 4 (or more) shots from 4 (or more) of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 (or more) Shots From 4 (or more) Films lets the visuals do the talking.
Today, we celebrate the 132nd birthday of Texas-born filmmaker, King Vidor! Though Vidor may no longer be a household name, he was one of the most important and idiosyncratic filmmakers of Hollywood’s Golden Age. The Crowd is regularly cited as one of the most influential films ever made. (Certainly every film that’s ever featured a shot of an anonymous office worker sitting in a room full of cubicles owes a debt to it.) Duel in the Sun went on to inspire countless spaghetti westerns. The Fountainhead is also regularly cited as a favorite by a surprisingly large number of directors.
In honor of King Vidor’s life and legacy, here are….
4 Shots From 4 King Vidor Films
The Champ (1931, dir by King Vidor, DP: Gordon Avil)
Duel In The Sun (1946, dir by King Vidor, DP: Lee Garmes)
The Fountainhead (1949, dir by King Vidor, DP: Robert Burks)
Solomon and Sheba (1959, dir by King Vidor, DP; Fred A. Young)
Filmed at Long Island bar, this video is here to welcome us to Super Bowl Sunday! Pretty soon, some people will be watching the game and some people will be watching the commercials and, here at the Shattered Lens, we’ll be posting any trailers that drop during the big game. It’s a part of our tradition!
Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Saturdays, I will be reviewing Saved By The Bell, which ran on NBC from 1989 to 1993. The entire show is currently streaming on Prime and Tubi!
This week, Zack and Jessie battle for business supremacy.
Episode 1.11 “The Friendship Business”
(Dir by Don Barnhart, originally aired on November 4th, 1989)
Hey, it’s the Buddy Bands episode!
One of the things about Saved By The Bell is that, if you’re a certain age, all you have to hear is one term — like “Buddy Band” or “I’m so excited” or “Zack Attack” — and you automatically know what episode is being referred to. If you were in high school or college in the days when Saved By The Bell reruns were playing endlessly in syndication, you know what I’m talking about.
That’s changing, of course. Saved By The Bell is no longer the ubiquitous cultural touchstone that it once was. That’s a polite way of saying that those of us who grew up with it on television are getting older and, for the generation replacing us, Saved By The Bell is just one of the many old shows that they probably skip over while looking at whatever’s streaming online. It’s sad to say but, in another few decades, all of the Saved By The Bell talk will be limited to assisted living facilities and to grandchildren saying, “Was Zack Morris a friend of yours, grandma?”
For now, though, I’m just happy that I can say “Buddy Bands” and everyone remembers that this episode featured Zack and Jessie leading rival companies that both got involved in the cut-throat world of friendship bracelets. Zack thinks that he has the inside track because he’s got Lisa and the fashion club working for him but he eventually demands too much from her so Lisa defects over to Jessie’s company. But then Jessie proves to be just as demanding as Zack. Meanwhile, Zack convinces Belding to wear a Buddy Band. Belding walks around the school saying, “Hello, fellow Buddy Bander!” and everyone demands their money back. Jessie asks someone if their Buddy Band is defective. “Belding’s wearing one! It doesn’t get more defective than that!”
Among other things, this episode features the classic Buddy Bands commercial:
Seriously, why was everyone fighting over Zack when A.C. Slater — handsome, mysterious, ageless, and a great dancer! — was right there?
Along with the oddly overproduced Buddy Band commercial, this episode featured one of those weird Zack Morris fantasies, where he imagine being so rich that Screech — as Robin Screech — interviews him. Zack imagines owning the school, being married to Kelly, and forcing Jessie, Slater, Lisa, and Mr. Belding to work for him. It’s a chilling look inside Zack’s mind.
Indeed, this episode is also a good early example of Zack getting away with essentially being a sociopath. Given $100 to start a company by teacher Mr. Tuttle (Jack Angeles, making his first welcome appearance on the show), Zack proceeds to steal Lisa’s idea of making friendship bracelets, tries to overthrow Jessie as company president (leading to Jessie forming her own company and going into the Buddy Band business), and then mercilessly exploits Screech and Lisa while doing very little work himself. After this backfires on him, he sabotages Jessie’s company and drives her out of business. Then, at the Max, everyone just decides to be friends again. In fact, Zack doesn’t even flunk his business class because he learned an important lesson. I mean, as much as I disliked Ms. Bliss, at least she actually got mad (albeit briefly) when Zack stole her money and invested in potatoes!
On Monday, I turned over to Fave TV so that I could binge Bar Rescue and I discovered that Fave TV no longer exists! It’s been replaced by Outlaw TV, a western channel. I was disappointed so I watched the Pirate Bar episode of Bar Rescue online. I hope One-Eyed Mike was able to find another job about the tavern went out of business. He was cool.
Watching the Grammy Awards on Sunday, I realized just how boring modern music has become. I can’t wait for someone new to come along and hopefully remind us of what it’s like to be surprised.
This week, I binged the second and third seasons of this classic cop show. It made for oddly calming background noise. Poor LaRue, he was always getting in trouble.
I’ve been enjoying curling! Go Korey and Corey! I also enjoyed watching the Parade of Nations. I had the volume down so I didn’t hear the booing that people have been talking about. If I had heard the booing, I would have shrugged it off. Other countries will always hate America, for the same reason that some people are still resentful towards the rich kids from high school. When you consider what certain countries are on the record as supporting, it’s almost an honor to be booed by them.
Through the Shattered Lens 