Monday, February 05, 2007

The Superbowl in Argentina (Ken)

Like my old friend Dave Horch always used to say, "you never get your picture." He meant that what you imagine in your head is never what plays out before your eyes.
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The idea of watching the Superbowl in a bar in Buenos Aires intrigued me since the moment I realized I´d be in Argentina for the big game. I made my plans early to head to my favorite expat hangout--Shoeless Joe´s--for the festivities.
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There was a $30 cover that included two drinks (for those of you who still have not adjusted to the exchange rate, that´s ten bucks).
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Every USAmerican in Buenos Aires was either here or at the Hard Rock cafe. And is was a scene quite like any American bar on Superbowl Sunday. There were the buy-a-square grids where you can win money at the end of the quarter, there were drunken football fans, there was cheering and fight song singing.
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But there were the things that were missing.
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The play-by-play was in Spanish. The titles and graphics were in Spanish "3rd and 10" was "3º y 10 yardas" and . . .
NO COMMERCIALS. The entire cultural experience of the superbowl commercial was missing. That is easily 50% of the event.
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We watched the game over the Internet of wide screen flatpanel computer displays.
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It was an experience. One that I never imagined having, but once imagined, this was not exactly as I expected. Dave is right, you never get your picture.
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I miss the commercials.

4 comments:

Jos said...

No commercials????? Oh nooooooo, that is what makes watching the game (one which I don't quite understand) for me.

Lo siento. . .

Tina said...

You can't go without Superbowl commercials. I'm in Italy, didn't even watch the game at all, but today, I managed to find the commercials... go here:
http://tinyurl.com/2axmxe
expatly,
Tina

Jos said...

Tina beat me to it! I was just going to show you a link to the commercials:

http://www.cbs.sportsline.com/nfl/postseason/superads

Hope you enjoy watching them.

Hasta luego.

Dr. K said...

Yeah, but thanks for reminding me. I'll check them out right now!