Day 7: Super Bowl XXX, Big Cars, and Smoking
Last night I watched Super Bowl XXX between the Dallas Cowboys and the Pittsburgh Steelers that took place January 26th, 1996 in Tempe, Arizona. I stopped following the NFL about five years ago but up until then I was a die-hard Cowboys fan. I realized the best part about being a Cowboys fan is most of their games are televised and the worst part is that on top of being terrible for the last 25 years, people will actively and openly hate you for liking them. It’s exhausting and frankly not very worth it. But in the 90’s, being a Cowboys fan was about as good as sports-fan life could get. Conversely, my dad and brother were both Steelers fans likely due to the team’s blue collar vibes and successes of the 70’s that carried over throughout the years. My brother is 18 years older than me and formed his sports allegiances in an era well before my time. So, within the family, this Super Bowl was a big deal and I made sure to record or “tape” this one on the VCR so I could cherish my hopeful victory forever. My team won, I rubbed it in as only an eleven year old boy could, and I probably never played that tape again. But during last night’s rewatch, I was struck by how much of the game I didn’t remember despite knowing I watched it. I did not remember a single moment. I remember watching the game and I remember who won, but not one single play looked familiar. My brain tosses away sports minutia but will retain the names of kids that moved away before second grade or every facial detail of a girl that sat across from me in a doctor’s waiting room once when I was 7. I am jealous of people that have a mind for remembering each beat of a meaningful event in their life. Meanwhile, I’m still looking for a kindergarten friend named Stuart that sat across from me for a week in 1990. Stuart, are you out there?
There’s so much smoke! Hurry, send the rescue chopper to lift me out!
I also didn’t recall the halftime show. Diana Ross came out and sang a medley of hits in what I would consider an overall above average half-time performance. At the end she was whisked out of the stadium via helicopter as she continued to wave and sing in a dramatic exit. I probably didn’t remember this because at eleven I cared more about football than Diana Ross. I can’t admit to that being any less true now but it was a great performance despite shoddy 1996 camera angles and a general disregard of the consequences of using too many smoke machines.
Never go full Nixon
The most disappointing thing was the ads. I have fond memories of Super Bowl ads as a kid but the ones from 1996 were disappointing in retrospect. Evidently I’m not alone in thinking so as YouTube didn’t even have a compilation of commercials from that year while 1995 and 1997 were easily found. In 1996 there was a McDonald’s commercial where a late night museum security guard gave french-fries to a reanimated dinosaur skeleton that begged like a dog. It was cute. There was a Pepsi commercial where Wile E. Coyote sparred with Deion Sanders. The funniest one was of a guy who painted the field for the Kansas City Chiefs but he accidentally painted “Chefs” into the endzone. I was most disappointed with the Budweiser frogs. They must have been played out by this time. They had one commercial where they were all cold and had their tongues stuck to a frozen Budweiser can out in the snow, each taking turns with their “Bud”, “Weis”, “Er” schtick. I remember those commercials always being a hoot among the school kids but this particular one was beyond lame. There might have been more commercials from 1996’s Super Bowl XXX that are worth watching but I couldn’t find them.
I managed to finish Pilotwings 64 and despite a few tedious moments and expected launch title glitches, I found it to be an altogether impressive game for its time. It controls well, it exudes nothing but tranquil and peaceful vibes, it has the right amount of challenge, and a perfect length. I have to mention the soundtrack here and plug the interview we had with the composer, Dan Hess, on the DrunkFriend podcast. Dan Hess nailed it on this game and he’s a solid guy to boot.
Trees Lounge - 1996
I watched a couple of 1996 movies that are lesser known even among movie folks: Trees Lounge and Hard Eight. The first starred and was written and directed by Steve Buscemi. It was about a free loading loser who can’t do anything right and is destined to end up as the old man at the end of the bar for the rest of his days. It was an ironically sobering watch and I walked away being very impressed with Buscemi all around. It’s not a movie I would recommend necessarily, it’s mostly uncomfortable and lacks a conclusion, but the journey was memorable. The film did leave me with some other impressions of 1996 that you may not factor into your memory: cars on the road were huge.
NYC - 1996
I always make the mistake of looking up dealership ads from any specific year if I want to know what cars were like then, but few people owned those models in that time. If you want an idea of what cars were littering the streets then, movies are good for that. Most car models on the streets in 1996 were from the late 80’s and on. Streets were packed tight with enormous, boxy vehicles taking up the roadway while new, smaller, compact import vehicles were less common. The thought of parallel parking one of those Sherman tanks gives me retrospective anxiety. What were people taking with them in those trunks? It’s easy to jump to “bodies” or “kidnapped victims”. Sure, that’s funny. Haha. But that’s rare and you know it.
1996 Lincoln
“And buy a one way ticket on a west bound train
See how far I can go”
During breakfast
Hard Eight has John C. Reilly, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Samuel L. Jackson in it. It’s a complicated film to summarize and takes place primarily in and around casinos and hotel rooms. Places I didn’t frequent often as a preteen. It did help me remember the ubiquity of cigarettes though. Both of these movies show people smoking constantly. In restaurants, in bed, in the streets, in their cars, in the bathroom, in casinos, in hospitals, at funerals, before sex, after sex, during sex, while driving an ice cream truck, you name it. Everywhere. I almost forgot how common it was to see people smoking in the 90’s and how it was generally acceptable to smoke whenever and wherever one felt the desire. Walking into a bar or restaurant and not being able to see the back wall through the misty gray haze of lung soot wafting about is something I surely do not miss. If you still smoke today though, good for you! Way to hang in there.
Hard Eight - 1996
