Table of Contents
The Big Game………………….Super Bowl?
Sunday Songs…………………Usher, Alicia Keys, CeeLo Green
Sunday Poll……………………...3 Polls this week! Times are a changing
Sunday Carrier………………….What happened this week?
Studio Jali …………………………Studio Updates
P.S ……………………………………….Crocodiles are the ultimate survivors. Having arisen some 200 million years ago, they have outlived the dinosaurs by some 65 million years. Even humans, the most fearsome predators ever to stalk the Earth, have failed to force into extinction any of the 23 species of crocodilians.
The Super Bowl is today in America. And for the first time in Pen Sunday history, I’ll write this edition while watching it.
I don’t care about football. I follow some storylines, but it’s been a long time since I’ve sat down and watched a full game. Still, the Super Bowl is the Super Bowl. Even if you’re someone who doesn’t watch the NFL at all, chances are high you know it’s happening. That’s a big deal. It’s the last shared social event in American culture that’s not a federal holiday or The Bear Season 3.
With the Super Bowl, comes the Super Bowl watch party. I think there are a few guidelines to get through the 5-6-hour event. The first is to understand that it is an event, so it’ll require a strategy. This isn’t something you can show up to unprepared for. Meaning, stuffing your face with pizza and wings and burgers and cookies and brownies and ice cream in the first quarter, is a bad way to do things. You’ll be out of commission by halftime. Sneak a salad in there, or maybe eat a few carrots when no one is looking. And whatever you do, don’t finish an entire bag of Cool Ranch Doritos by yourself.
In the same vein, don’t be afraid to get off the couch. Going for a short stroll around the kitchen, backyard, or a longer walk at halftime is recommended. Don’t sit down for 5 straight hours having drank no water and taken steps only to and from the bathroom. The goal is to make it to the end of the game feeling hydrated and like you didn’t just gain 10 pounds of saturated fat.
And really quick, about Usher. He’s performing at the game. This is general small talk that you should know if you’re going into the game blind. Everyone’s heard “Yeah!” There’s a talking point.
Also, as a brief sidetrack. I need to make sure we’re all on the same page that Usher is on the Top 10 list of guys you don’t want your girl to ever meet or interact with. Other members of that list include Drake, Dicaprio if she’s not older than 25, Pete Davidson, Rihanna, and any NBA player she recognizes from TV.
To close, the final guideline for the Super Bowl party is to not be the drunkest person at the Super Bowl party. This is a general golden life in the rule as well but it doubles in a social setting that is usually some person’s living room.
I’m hoping for an entertaining game, and I’m rooting for the 49ers.
Sunday Songs
Super Bowl songs and Kanye. That’s the theme of Sunday Songs this week.
First up, this is one of my favorite Usher songs of all time. And I’m positive I was listening to this in middle school pretending like I had a real reason to be going through it. Middle school is also the time I unironically coated myself with Axe Body Spray every day after PE and before one of the school dances where the boys and girls casually mingled around the school gym for an hour before our parents picked us up. Little did I know that would just be a dry run for high school, where our school dances were notoriously grimy. God bless any teacher who has to supervise their students after hours during homecoming.
Next is one of my favorite Alicia Keys songs. I feel like I was introduced to this song as a teenager driving around the suburbs with my mom. She had a lot of CD mixes and I’d bet it was on one of those mixes when I heard this for the first time. Classic song. And the type of song that almost makes you want to be heartbroken so that it’ll hit that much harder when you’re listening to it and crying over the ex you just lost to Usher.
Crazy, by Gnarls Barkley aka CeeLo Green, I vividly remember being one of my first favorite songs. Similar to my mom, my aunt had a lot of CDs that I’d love to listen to as we drove around small-town Minnesota. There is almost a sadness to this song that I connect with. And it has that early 2000s sound that makes it a nostalgic listen.
To close Sunday Songs, Kanye dropped an album. And I hate to admit it, but I just don’t care. As a kid, your favorite artist is larger than life. They are an idea and an icon and shape what you think is cool and how you view the world. Then you get older and live more of your own life, and the facade of a superstar starts to wear off. In Kanye’s case, I don’t think I’ve defended him since college, and I haven’t even felt I’ve needed to.
I hate that I can’t listen to Kanye songs anymore without feeling all the baggage. And because of that, I’ve become someone who I used to judge. A fan who misses the old Kanye. The Life of Pablo was Kanye’s last real effort at making an album, and everything since then has been a wash with a few sparse highs. I listen to Vultures and I found myself skipping through tracks, not being interested in the silly puns or the brand callouts. And to add, I’ve never been the biggest Ty Dolla Sign fan, and he’s all over this album. Still, it has some of the best, most creative, and most distinct hip hop beats I’ve heard in a year, only for it to be accompanied by two bars about Taco Bell and trauma bonding. The song with North might unironically be my favorite off the album.
I just wish Kanye still had something to say.
To close, a follow through on nostalgic love songs of the early aughts. ‘Something About Us’ has been my most replayed song of the week. I want to be sad to this song on a rainy day in Paris, lost in thought over a past heartbreak.
Sunday Poll
There are three Polls this week. But first, I’m happy to announce that 3 different songs from last week’s poll were nominated to be someone’s favorite song of the week. Pen Sunday readers have taste, and their taste is good eclectic music.
Anyway, onto the polls.
Voting is free and anonymous. All it takes is a subscription. (That’s free too).
You only have one week to vote. Results will be reviewed and discussed in next week’s edition.
Sunday Carrier
Israel-Palestine Human Rights Watch
"Welcome Home, Franklin" Peanuts first black characters gets TV Special
Waste Management Open closes gates, suspends alcohol sales due to overcrowding and 'rowdiness'
Hawaii's high court cites 'The Wire' in its ruling on gun rights
Kansas City Chiefs win Super Bowl 25-22 in OT
Ivory Coast wins Africa Cup of Nations 2-1 vs Nigeria
The inside story of a cartel’s deadly assault on a Mexican town near the Texas border — and the U.S. drug operation that sparked it (2017) [Sharing this story because it’s the most compelling thing I’ve read in months]
Weekly Report:
A down week in Studio Jali. No podcast episodes schedule to be recorded until next week. Rob Rabbit table read not organized until 1st week of March.
PS
It’s the end of Pen Sunday, edition #67. If you reached the end, thank you for reading. It means a lot.
Pen Sunday is a newsletter about a writer, a dream, and a studio. With headlines from around the world, music, and maybe a poem. Every Sunday and Sunday only. Subscribe for free below.
Until Sunday,
Solomon Lovejoy