Highbrow/Lowbrow: Joni Mitchell / Super Bowl

Welcome to Highbrow/Lowbrow, where Rachel S. talks about all the culture she's consuming, from the thoughtful to the trashy and all things in between.

This Week's High: Joni Mitchell

As I've said many-a-times, Awards Season is my favorite time of year. Though I never really consider the Grammys a "must-see" on my viewing schedule. The recording academy is predictable, and the ceremony airs like five actual awards and about 20 performances. I get that it's "music's biggest night," but it's still an awards show... shouldn't we see the awards? Plus, the ones that get aired are reserved for the "big" categories. So I didn't get to see boygenius revel in their well-earned win in prime time.

Still, I flipped it on after coming home from a nice dinner at Laser Wolf last Sunday night. I watched Taylor win for pop vocal album and make an awkward album announcement. All things were fairly ho-hum at that point. And then, something otherworldly happened.

Joni Mitchell took the stage.

Seated in a lush throne, among chandeliers and candles with Brandi Carlisle by her side, Joni gave a haunting, heart-wrenching performance of "Both Sides Now." There she was, a living legend, singing perhaps her most famous song to a room full of the most famous musicians on the planet, and every single person was rapt by each breath. Each note. Each and every word.

Watching Joni perform is like witnessing the truth of living captured in real time. All of her age and wisdom gave her voice and the song a whole new meaning. I wanted to try and hold it with my hands, but it's ethereal. You listen to Joni Mitchell and you feel in your gut and your bones, yes, the pain of time passing by is beautiful.

And what really sung for me was that she held her power in that room. Women, especially as we age, are made to feel invisible. Inconsequential. Eighty years old and a brain aneurysm survivor, Joni Mitchell proved that the stamp she has made on this earth is timeless. And what an honor to get to live in the same timeline.

I know Joni Mitchell holds a special place for women (which isn't to say that anyone of any gender can't or shouldn't listen, her work is universal). She makes our feelings, our complicated relationships with ourselves, matter. She lifts us above the mundanity of the everyday and sanctifies all the things we're told are frivolous. Like our inner lives. And oh, how she did that with the quiet force of being an old woman with plenty left to say.

Joni forever.

This Week's Low: the Super Bowl

I suppose part of the boredom surrounding this year’s Super Bowl can be attributed to living in Philadelphia. Our team went out in painful fashion, absolutely boofing it the last half of the season. So to see the team who beat us in last year's Super Bowl play against the team who blames us for all their shortcomings made it a total "meh" of a matchup. At mehchup, if you will.

Still, the Super Bowl is the most-watched television event all year every year. You have to expect SOME spectacle. Some drama. Something worth watching. This year just didn't really deliver (other than Usher, who STILL GOT IT after all these years. FIGHT ME IF YOU DISAGREE!!!).

Here are my lowlights of the game:

• A mostly scoreless first half. You can't even call it good defense, it was just sloppy football.
• Whole lotta Jesus ads. Seems like the big guy upstairs is the crypto of this year's Super Bowl ad push. I know I'm not the first to say it, but uhhh, if you got all that money to spend on those ads, shouldn't you be doing the Christly thing and housing or feeding the poor? Not to mention the "He gets us" folks are major anti-LGBTQ pushers. No thanks.
• Too much Tom Brady on my screen. That creepy-ass MAGA freak who loves to cheat was all over ads. Don't want it!!!!
• Funny ads that had good premises but fumbled the punchline. The Michael Cera CeraVe ad was a prime example. The line "Human skin is my passion" was gold. Why not just let the clearly satirical ad just run as is? We didn't need you to explain it at the end!
• I'm mostly writing about ads! I hate capitalism!!! I hate myself!!!!
• People complaining about Taylor Swift. Ultimately, cutting to her in the crowd hurts no one. Who cares!
• However, I would have liked more cuts to Paul Rudd.
• Travis Kelce screaming at Andy Reid on the sidelines. Unsportsmanlike conduct!

Minimal highlights:

• New Beyoncé album everybody! It's a country album, and white people are furious! STAY MAD, HATERS!
• The Nickelodeon broadcast made viewing exponentially more enjoyable. We put it on after halftime and did not regret it.
• We got takeout from my favorite Mexican place, Los Gallos. For such a busy night, the quality did not falter one iota!
• URRRRSHER MAKE THE BOOTY GO 👏