Sunday, February 6, 2005

....links for Jacksonville security VOA lays it all out...well, some of it... The local Bushie didn't want to pay for it.... Jacksonville just wants to be loved... 2:31:01 AM    comment []

...super done I'm glad to be done with the assignment in Jacksonville which is currently a weird combo of fear, partying, corporate shilling, ultra politically correct over-reaction and services provided by people who don't know Jacksonville and don't care. Our drivers have had pretty decent challenges in that streets that were open hours before are closed, traffic backs up, checkpoints clamp down and just the sheer number of extra people have overloaded all systems. BUT, here's the real rub. Often for these large events companies ship in out of town help, labor, specialists and...drivers. As in the past, all our drivers get lost or are unable to get us to our destination, usually after showing up late to pick us up. I mentioned that I had been to a prior event and it turned out that all the drivers were from out of town and didn't know the city. The question came up to our driver this morning. He admitted that he was from Houston and didn't know Jacksonville. He then proved it. We've started giving the wrong destination to the drivers to see if it improves our drive time. Tonight the driver was a sub contracted replacement for the out of town company who was supposed to pick us up. He claimed he wasn't late because he was replacing someone who had blown it already. Tomorrow morning we all head to the airport to escape this abyss of cultural flatulence. Goodbye to the sponsoring of the drunken orgy of gluttony, goodbye to the overwhelming of this city's infastructure and it's overwhelming need to please us all. It can't... it won't... and I don't care. Tomorrow will be the orgasm of this occupation, the international attention of the actual game, it's fans, the locals, the workers and the professional Bowl goers. It will bring the other strange international phenomonon, the attention to the Super Bowl TV ads. These things cost more to make and more to buy the space of than I will be able to earn in the next 20 years and the average Malaysian will take two centuries. There is an entire demographic of people who could give a shit about football, the Pats or the Eagles, or the spectacle of a championchip event. They actually make a yearly party of watching the ads. These are not all marketing or advertising people. The fact that there are articles about them in People magazine is either a brilliant fabrication of the creators making another holiday for their clients or the emptiness of a people who need the escape of their own lives so bad that as a whole a group of TV ads make up an evening's entertainment once a year. I'll be watching from home, avoiding the credential wars, the cell phone jamming, the red state- blue state nature of it all. I hate the Best Damn Sports Show Period but think it's a joke that they changed their name this weekend. I'll watch whatever show is presented even if the performers had to sign releases that they will behave or won't promote sex, drugs or anything bad and the same people seed audiences with beautiful people because it's better TV. Keep in mind the corporate family and guests are on the floor with the spicy Ahi appetizers while the real fans are in the upper balcony, separated by distance and black cloth and money and security guards and holographic credentials. It's always about the haves and the have nots.     I count my blessings, am glad to be back to work but am certainly pleased that I'll be long gone before the kick off.     Next week I'll talk about Limo parking at the Grammies... 1:56:38 AM    comment []