HORSE/SHOW

Again, Happy (Chinese) New Year! My pal, the brilliant artist Vince Larue, made these gorgeous horses for The Kid, who was born in the previous Year of the Horse:

Check out my list, on Topless Robot, of 12 Nerdy Alternatives to the Super Bowl.

However you spend it, I hope everybody enjoys UberBowl Sunday. If, like me, you’re mostly indifferent to football, you’ll enjoy the quiet streets, sparsely populated movie theaters and short waits at restaurants. If you’re a fan, you’ll enjoy the festivity of the day, the excitement of the game and the spectacle of the show.

You may also be one of those who enjoy the Super Bowl commercials, those little exercises in corporate ego that often showcase dazzling skill in compressed cinematic narrative. Last year, one of the more popular ads was the “Team” commercial for the Hyundai Santa Fe, in which a put-upon little kid assembles a football team of other wimpy-looking kids engaged in various macho activities—wrestling bears, etc.

One kid is welding some big, round, suspended metal structure covered with what look like square shutters, making it for all the world resemble the sphere that heroes take to the Moon in The First Men in the Moon by H. G. Wells.

Can that possibly be what was intended—that he's planning a trip to the Moon?

PETER THE GREAT

RIP to the wonderful Pete Seeger, passed on at 94.

One of my earliest memories was being in the back seat of a car in Newport, RI, and seeing a smiling guy get out of a car up ahead of us, and a wave to everyone, and being told that this was Pete Seeger. My parents were taking my folkie sister to the Folk Festival in Newport, and I was along for the ride. I also remember being taken to a Hubert Humphrey rally, so one or the other was the first famous person I can remember seeing. I’m told I also saw Bob Hope once when I was very small, but I have no memory of it. Maybe only the lefties stick in my mind.

On a more personal note, RIP also to bluegrass musician Kip Martin, my one-time step-nephew (though he was older than me) and unofficial extra older brother, passed on way too young yesterday.

Happy New Year tomorrow everybody! Chinese New Year, that is.

Farewell to the Year of the Snake, welcome to the Year of the Horse.

In honor of that noble beast, and also of The Kid, whose zodiacal sign is the Horse and who favors the Monster High series…

Monster-of-the-Week: …let’s give the nod to a new character from Monster High—the Nightmare Horse belonging to Headless Headmistress Bloodgood (“daughter of the Headless Horseman!”).