February 2, 2015--Halftime Show

Rona growled, "I just read they used 108 footballs in the Super Bowl. A separate one for each play."

"I wonder if they were all legally inflated."

"I think the NFL cared more how much they could sell them for as balls that used during the game."

"Everyone of them is a so-called 'game ball.'"

"Do you think they collected all the uniforms and sneakers and--"

"Jockstraps," I added. "And are selling all of that junk on eBay?"

"The same article said that balls from last year's Super Bowl XLVIII are selling on the secondary market for about $180 each so the bottom line of all this nonsense is not that huge considering the billions in other forms of revenue the Super Bowl generates."

"It's just a game but has become the single most-viewed event in America, sort of a national holiday."

"The cheapest tickets on StubHub were going for $7,000 each. And others sold for upwards of $40,000."

"Insane."

"I'll tell you what's really insane," Rona said, "More than 115 million viewers tuned in, though for sure it was a great game."

"Even crazier, 117 million watched Katy Perry during the halftime show. That's an even bigger mega-event."

"No surprise. She has more Twitter followers than anyone else in the world. Sixty-four million."

"Unbelievable. Who's second and third?"

"Justin Bieber has 60 million followers and the person in third place you won't believe."

"Taylor Swift?" I guessed.

"She's fourth. Guess again."

"Madonna?"

"Wrong again. She's sixth. In third place, with 54 million Twitter followers, is Barack Obama."

"I don't know if I should be depressed about this--especially the Justine Bieber numbers--or impressed that so many people know who the President of the United States is."

"Maybe," Rona quipped, "they think he's a rapper."

"Speaking of Barack Obama, do you know how many watched his recent State of the Union Address? All the networks, even Fox, carried it."

"About 52 million. I think I know where you're going with this."

"Maybe yes, maybe no."

"If more that twice as many watched Katy Perry than the SOTU, why not next year begin the halftime show with Lady Gaga or Rihanna and--"

"That would assure another 'wardrobe malfunction.'"

Ignoring me, Rona said, "And after the music and costume changes, have Obama deliver the State of the Union and--"

"And three-quarters of the 115 million viewers would take a bathroom break."

"Not if they showed a few Budweiser commercials with the Clydesdale horses and that cute lost puppy."

December 2, 2014--Dumb Phone

I can finally come in from the cold thanks to Anna Wintour and Rihanna.

We sometimes go to places frequented by young people in part to get away from all the serious and tragic things that accrue to people our age. OK, my age. To soak up an alternate view of the world and my place in it. The existentials are working against me and I crave to know what the young people at The Smile are thinking and how they see the trajectory of their lives.

We are viable there, I think, in part because we're eager to listen and learn and because we represent an alternative view for them. They too are searching. So we have something to share.

Like so many of my generation I am fascinated and a little horrified by all the iPhoning. Feeling left out and even excluded, this is one of the things I've been eager to learn about. Why all the young people we know and see on the streets and in cafes are so relentlessly and ubiquitously tethered to their smart phone. What are they up to, sending back and forth, texting even as they step onto the elevator in our building early mornings, while walking up and down Broadway, while having coffee or meals with friends?

I admit to leaning in close on the elevator, looking over shoulders in an attempt to read what's going on on those luminescent screens. Glimpses suggest mindlessness, not anything personally or professional important or urgent.

Part of my alienation is self-imposed. I know my place, my generation.

And I know about the cell phone phone in my pocket.

It's a flip, dumb-phone with no Internet capacity and doesn't even allow me to send simple texts--assuming I ever wanted to. And so I keep it hidden in my pocket as out-of-sight as my young friends seem eager to have their smart-phones on display.

But then I learned from Michael Musto, self-described "night-life chronicler" for the New York Times that very with-it, very cool people such as Anna Wintour, Rihanna, and Scarlett Johansson have been spotted with old clamshell style phones like mine.

So the other day, after assurances by chronicler Musto, at The Smile, having breakfast with a couple of Millennium friends, without feeling dated and old, I put my flip-phone out on the table, side-by-side with their iPhones and, since they are more than with-it, they smiled in recognition of my new-found coolness. Or, more likely, maybe to humor me. They are that nice and compassionate.

I've been wondering about Scarlett and Anna and Rhianna. What's the story with them?

Maybe they don't want to be thought of as smart-phone zombies, the sort I see in my elevator or those in a hypnotic state as they navigate the cyber-Monday crowds on Broadway. Maybe they want to signal that they are too important to be all that accessible--or feel the need to be such--even to each other. To be tethered to a mobile device. Or, for that matter, to anything.

July 16, 2014--Tatts

"When I was in the Coast Guard," Al said in answer to me, "which was a long time ago, and we were in port, the older guys would get the kids right off the farms drunk and then take them to tattoo parlors and get them an anchor or heart with MOM inked on their arms. When they came to they were men."

"But what about you? You have that amazing tiger tattooed on your arm and had it done only a few years ago. What were you thinking? Why did you do it? I mean it's beautiful and all that."

"I'd been thinking about it for years and nobody had to get me liquored up to get it done."

"I assumed that but I'm trying to understand why so many people, very much including girls and women, are getting tattooed. So I thought, why . . . ?"

He smiled, "I just liked the idea and how it looks." He pulled up his sleeve and the crouching tiger, in vivid colors, slowly emerged.

Al clearly wasn't in an introspective mood, but I kept trying, "My whole thing about tattoos is because of something that popped up on my MSN homepage. I think it's programmed to report gossip, which I confess to enjoying. There was a story about Rihanna getting another tattoo. I think it's at least her 19th, if you can believe that. I admit I was intrigued why someone as beautiful as she would have tattoos all over her body, including, the piece said, a huge image of the goddess Isis on her chest with her wings extended under each of her breasts. She needs that?"

"I read about that too," Al chuckled, "It's apparently a tribute to her grandmother who died recently."

"Some tribute," Rona chimed in, "though in Greek mythology she is considered the ideal mother and protectoress. So I get the Isis thing but not the disfiguring tattoo. I guess that tells you how I think about the whole thing. Tattoos."

Sitting at the counter of the diner were a couple of young women, maybe in their early 20s, both with tattoos visible on their backs and arms. I wondered how many more might be hidden from view. I had too much caffeine in my bloodstream and called out to them. "Can I ask you something?"

Both women swiveled towards us. "You mean us?"

"Yes," I said. "Forgive me for being personal but I'm writing something about tattoos, about why so many young people get them. Could you . . .?"

"Sure," the woman on the left said, who had a large bird tattooed on her back with its tail feathers wrapping around to the front of her right arm. "I wanted something that would distinguish me. You know, something that would stand out. Be unique."

"If I may?" I said.

"Sure," she said, "Anything. I'm cool to talk about this."

"There's a lot that's unique about you without needing a tattoo. Your face, for example. Unless you have an identical twin no one else in the world of seven billion people looks like you. Or, for that matter, sounds like you, has thoughts like you, has . . ."

"I get your point," she cut me off.

But I pressed on, "No one else has had the experiences you've had. So why do that bird and any others you may have make you unique?"

"You have a point. But it's also body art. A way to express my creativity."

"But couldn't you do that on paper? On canvas? Sculpt, paint, draw, take photographs?"

"I could and I do. I feel I'm a very creative person and I guess I want to put my creativity on display."

"I get that. I respect that. But what happens if ten years from now you feel you made a mistake? They're permanent, no?"

"Basically, yes. You can get them sort of lasered off. But that costs a fortune. Maybe if ten years from now I want them removed there'll be an easier way to do it."

"And cheaper," her friend said, smiling broadly.

"The same is true for you?" I asked, looking at the bouquet of flowers on her shoulder.

She kept smiling and nodded. And then they both swung around to finish their breakfasts.

Later in the day I did a little research about what people say about being tattooed.

Rihanna herself says, "I am so intrigued by tattoos. It's an entire culture, and I study it."

Intrigued indeed and she's also right about it being an "entire culture." Many tribal people routinely are tattooed or painted as a way to mark them as a part of a tribe or member of a religion or sect. Also to delineate their social status or, as in India, their caste or marital status. So people now who think of themselves as tribal or members of a world culture or indigenous religion may get tattooed as a way of connecting them to, to them, more authentic, less hybrid cultures.

Tattoos have also been used to stigmatize people. Criminals, for example, in the Western world until the last century were often tattooed on the face to warn others of their potential to do harm. As a way to offset and undermine this, imprisoned criminals, on their own frequently will tattoo themselves as a way of flaunting their outlaw status. Gangsta rappers, as a show of solidarity and to proclaim their own toughness and authenticity, are frequently extensively tattooed.

Gang members, to tag themselves as members of the Bloods or Crips have certain symbols tattooed on they bodies. As a right of passage.

Some young people, also to demonstrate their "badness," emulate prisoners by getting tattoos similar to the ones common in prisons.

And of course tattoos can be expressions of undying love. Though their permanence can be a problem when relationships sour and love turns to animosity.

Then of course, in Nazi Germany, Jews in concentration camps were tattooed on their arms to identify them as Jews and, in the unlikely case they were able to escape, could be easily identified and sent back directly to the gas chambers. So some, who know that history, may be showing solidarity with the persecuted.

This is a long way from Al's tiger or the women's tattooed bird and flowers. But perhaps, as Rihanna said, even these benign and decorative tatts connect them to this "entire culture."