>God-awful? I have seen him put on "better" shows, too, but you can't blame him for tailoring it somewhat for the audience. Bear in mind that a large majority of the audience had undoubtedly never listened to him before. So of course it was a quick run-through of hits. I didn't think there was anything wrong with the playing. Mike Campbell's guitar solo at the end of "Running Down a Dream" is still playing in my head.

Maybe I had just SET GROUCHY ON or something. I thought the first number was ragged. That may have been the acoustics or whatever as I've never found superbowl halftime shows to be musically good. But it just seemed like a bad sound check. Turned it off after that, so it may have got better.

I like Tom Petty a lot but in my head he's still looking like the Mad Hatter and sounding like Bob Dylan and okay, maybe I'm different now too ( at least chemically. You know what Deadheads say when they straighten out ... 'man, this music really sucks ... <g> )


>
>BTW, if you didn't already know this there is a new Tom Petty DVD/CD set out. It consists of a documentary directed by Peter Bogdonavich, a concert DVD, and a CD of excerpts from the concert. It goes for about $30 and is available at Best Buy (only).
>
>>I never suggested doing nothing different. But I don't see fasting as anything other than a gesture someone can make so show how much they care so other can see it.
>>
>>I agree that as a society and individuals we can do more to promote social justice. But I also feel that well-meaning people promoting feel-good stuff instead of direct action just gets in the way and causes people to be suspicious of the cause.
>>
>>If you want to have superbowl halftime show change from that god-awful Tom Petty show ( he was a hell of a lot better at the Oakland Colliseum at Bill Graham's Day on the Green in the 70s ) to a serious appeal to support local food banks I'll back it all the way. If you want Richard Gere to come on to tell people they should fast so they know what it's like to be hungry I'll throw a bowl of Tostitos Salsa ( the official sponsor ) at the screen.
>>
>>
>>
>>>>I don't care if people know what it is to be hungry as long as they know what it is to feed the hungry.
>>>
>>>100 million people watched the Super Bowl.
>>>
>>>They all celebrate gorging themselves on junk food.
>>>
>>>How many of them donate food?
>>>
>>>Feeding the hungry usually comes after you care about the hungry, and for most of the people in our country, they really don't care.
>>>
>>>If you had a national day of fasting, it's pretty obvious to me that donations would increase by the millions of pounds.
>>>
>>>Half the people I've talked to that fast voluntarily also donate the food or money that would have gone to the meals that were skipped. Making that part of the tradition is a guaranteed way to pump some life into the faltering food banks.
>>>
>>>I'm surprised you think that doing nothing different will reverse the problems those food banks are having.