Taco Bell Super Bowl Commercial 2016 George Takei Bigger Than
CHICAGO (WLS) --
Even for those who didn"t care about Super Bowl Sunday football, there was plenty to watch for during the commercial breaks.
Companies shelled out millions of dollars just to air one 30-second ad. And as usual, there were some memorable spots, and some duds.
A spot could cost $5 million and reach more than 100 million people, so companies hope their Super Bowl ad is a winner.
"In commercials, you want to entertain and you want to promote your product," said Steve Ford, of Steve Ford Music, who has been making ads for more than 30 years.
Ford, who has composed music for several Super Bowl commercials, said doing both is not an easy task.
He took detailed notes Sunday as he analyzed first-half ads. Ford"s favorite was the Dorito/ultra sound ad, which his 16-year-old daughter also liked.
"One of the problems I have with a lot of the commercials is that they"re entertaining, but you have no idea what they are advertising," Ford said. "(The Doritos commercial was) a situation where they combined the two brilliantly."
Other first-half favorites include avocado ad, Audi astronaut and the Mountain Dew puppy monkey baby.
"Because it was just so weird, it was good," Ford said.
Ford said the biggest waste of talent was the Squarespace ad, which featured comedians Key and Peele.
With close 40 first half commercials, Ford said there were many that were easy to forget including ads for T-mobile and Mortgage Rocket.
He added that since the Super Bowl is such a loud event that sometimes the most effective commercials are the quiet ones.
PHOTOS: Coldplay, Bruno Mars and Beyonce at Super Bowl 50 halftime showPHOTOS: Panthers vs. Broncos for Super Bowl 50
Tom Brady was roundly booed by the Super Bowl 50 crowd in Santa Clara, California Sunday.
The Patriotsquarterback was on hand at Levi"s Stadium as the league honored former Super Bowl MVPs prior to kickoff of the game between the Broncos and Panthers.
Obviously a great chunk of the crowd was pro-Broncos and the Denver fanbase has no love for the face of the rival Patriots. But it was somewhat surprising given that Brady grew up just down the road from Levi"s Stadium, in San Mateo, California.
Brady"s attendance for the ceremony came in question last week as he is still at odds with the NFL over theDeflategate scandal. The NFL"s appeal of the decision handed down by Judge Richard Berman, which wiped out Brady"s four game suspension, is scheduled for March 3.
DEADPOOL Super Bowl TV Spot (2016) Ryan Reynolds Superhero Movie HD
Its Psylocke vs. Deadpool! Olivia Munn already said her character in X-Men: Apocalypse would beat Wolverine in a match-up, but it seems like shed also best the merc with the mouth.
In a new video posted to her Instagram account,Munn showed off her ambidextrous sword skills in front of Ryan Reynolds before striking a fierce pose. To his dismay, the Deadpool starlearned a valuable lesson: never bring a balloon weapon to a katana fight.
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Both actors are making their debut in Foxs X-Men cinematic universe of films. This month will see Reynolds headlining Deadpoolwhenthe film opens this Friday, while Munn will unveil her Psylocke skills in Apocalypse, out May 27.
During a recent Twitter Q&A, Munn detailed her exhaustive training regime before filming a fight scene over the course of two weeks. I worked for many months training and I did, like, 6-7 hours a day of sword and taekwondo training, and stunt training and wire training, she said.
Kevin Durant vs Stephen Curry SUPERSTARS Duel 2016.02.06 - KD With 40 Pts, 26, 10 Ast For Steph!
By: Nick Schwartz| February 6, 2016 1:20 pmFollow @Nick_Schwartz
Oklahoma City Thunder star Kevin Durant visited the ESPN studio to participate in a Sports Science segment, during which he tried to replicate Julius Ervings behind-the-backboard layup, Allen Iversons nastiest crossover, and The Shot.
Durant makes it look easy against some lax defense, but his version of The Shot pales in comparison to his lesser-known reenactment of crying Jordan.
Johny Hendricks vs Stephen Thompson Fight Night Las Vegas EA Sports UFC 2
LAS VEGAS -- Johny Hendricks has shared the Octagon with the likes of Georges St-Pierre, Robbie Lawler and Carlos Condit.
As it turned out, those battles were easy compared to sharing it with Stephen Thompson.
Thompson (12-1) dominated the former welterweight champion Saturday, knocking him out with right hands at 3:31 of the opening round. The 170-pound bout headlined UFC Fight Night at MGM Grand Garden Arena.
A former NCAA champion wrestler, Hendricks (17-4) tried to close distance on the rangy kickboxer but repeatedly walked into counter punches. He failed to secure a single takedown and landed 11 total strikes compared to Thompson"s 25, according to Fightmetric.
The finish came after Hendricks came up well short on a straight left hand. Thompson stepped slightly out of range and came back with a big counterpunch. After Hendricks retreated to the fence, Thompson threw a spinning kick that left him wobbled and referee John McCarthy stepped in shortly after.
"That"s exactly what I planned to do," said Thompson, who fights out of Simpsonville, South Carolina. "I knew he was going to try and get me to the cage, use his hands to get to the fence and try to get the takedown. I didn"t look for the knockout, I just let it happen.
"He kept coming and I knew he would until he ran into something."
The win improves Thompson"s UFC record to 7-1. His only loss came in his second appearance in April 2012, via unanimous decision to Matt Brown.
"I came here to put on a good show," Thompson said. "Hopefully the fans were impressed and hopefully next, we can get that title belt, baby."
Hendricks, who trains out of Dallas, falls to 2-3 in his last five bouts. The 32-year-old won the UFC championship in March 2014 but surrendered it nine months later to current titleholder Robbie Lawler. Before this weekend, he was coming off a weight cutting failure in October during which he was hospitalized. His bout against fellow welterweight contender Tyron Woodley was canceled as a result.
He worked into the clinch early Saturday, but Thompson defended a single leg takedown and eventually disengaged. Hendricks appeared to struggle badly with Thompson"s size. A former world champion kickboxer, Thompson enjoyed a six-inch reach advantage.
"I hesitated," Hendricks said. "Whenever I closed the distance, he moved away. When I thought the cage would be there, it wasn"t. He bounced off it very well. Hat"s off to him. What else can I say? He did an awesome job. I"ll be back. It"s a new start. You"ve just got to move forward."
Nelson back in the winning columnRoy Nelson, right, avoided a fourth straight loss with a unanimous decision victory over Jared Rosholt.Rod Mar for ESPN
Heavyweight Roy Nelson (21-12), out of Las Vegas, snapped a three-fight skid by defeating former All-American collegiate wrestler Jared Rosholt (14-3) via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28). Nelson landed the harder strikes and defended several Rosholt takedown attempts. He never hurt Rosholt but consistently walked him down and was far more aggressive. Rosholt, who fights out of Arlington, Texas, suffered his first loss in four appearances.
Saint Preux dominates faded CavalcanteLight heavyweight Rafael Cavalcante had no answers for the more active Ovince Saint Preux,Rod Mar for ESPN
Light heavyweight Ovince Saint Preux (19-7) picked up a rather ho-hum victory as he outpointed a badly fading Rafael Cavalcante (12-7) via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28). Saint Preux looked as if he was nursing a foot injury early but still managed to dominate the 35-year-old Cavalcante, who didn"t offer much in terms of offensive output. Saint Preux moves to 7-2 in the UFC, and Cavalcante drops to 1-4.
Benavidez wins fifth fight in a rowJoseph Benavidez, left, delivers a blow with his knee to Zach Makovsky during UFC Fight Night 82 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.Rod Mar for ESPN
Two-time flyweight contender Joseph Benavidez (24-4) extended his win streak to five in a unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 39-28) over Zach Makovsky (19-7). Benavidez mixed his striking well in the bout, targeting Makovsky to the body and head. He caused Makovsky"s left eye to swell in the third with a big right hand. His only two losses in the UFC have come to defending champion Demetrious Johnson, in 2012 and 2013.
Nicholson loses UFC debutLight heavyweight Misha Cirkunov, top, submitted newcomer Alex Nicholson in the second round.Rod Mar for ESPN
Light heavyweight Misha Cirkunov (11-2), originally from Latvia and now fighting out of Toronto, submitted newcomer Alex Nicholson (6-2) at 1:28 of the second round via neck crank. A black belt in judo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Cirkunov took Nicholson down repeatedly, eventually moving to his back after one scramble and locking in the submission. The 28-year-old moves to 2-0 in the UFC.
Pyle survives knockdown, stops SpencerAt age 40, Mike Pyle, right, dominated Sean Spencer for a TKO victory at UFC Fight Night 82.Rod Mar for ESPN
Welterweight Mike Pyle (27-11-1) picked up a TKO victory against Sean Spencer (12-5) at 4:25 of the third round. Pyle, 40, survived an early knockdown in the first round and eventually put it on the 28-year-old Spencer late, rocking him with a spinning elbow and knees against the fence. The win snaps a two-fight skid for Pyle -- which was, amazingly, the first losing streak of his 16-year career.
The cover art for Marie Kondos The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up3 million copies sold and countingis strikingly low-key for self-help: A wash of pale blue watercolor resembling a late-spring sky forms the background, and the title is set all in gentle, lowercase type. Before I read the book, this design led me to group it absent-mindedly with a rash of titles from the 1980s about the healing of grievous trauma, from Melody Beatties Codependent No More to Louise Hays You Can Heal Your Life. Its a palette that whispers: We know youre hanging by a thread, that your psyche is so raw that even capital letters scrape it, but between these pastel covers, you can find the hope and strength to go on.
All of which seemed comical, given that Life-Changing Magic (or life-changing magic) is a book about how you really just need to throw away the c**p piling up around your house. Kondo, a professional organizer, has a Manichean attitude toward personal possessions, swinging unpredictably from the draconian to the reverent. She has ruthlessly winnowed her own personal library down to about 30 books and has also found it heartrending to discover a plastic bag filled with a clients spare change stash because the coins were stripped of their dignity as money. This is a woman who regards the proper folding of clothes as a sort of spiritual practice and laments the paucity of home economics graduates who have formally studied tidying. Her pursuit of minimalist-style housekeeping has the messianic, my-way-or-perdition tone of a cult leader, and legions of self-described Konverts share their sagas of purging their closets and shelves online.
I guess I can afford to smirk at all this, given that clutter is not one of my afflictions although I do eagerly await the publication of The Life-Changing Magic of Getting Yourself to Dust Regularly, or at Least Occasionally, a program that merits capital letters if there ever was one. I love throwing stuff out, to the degree that on one or two occasions I have actually regretted doing so because an item I discarded a few months ago would have come in handy, an event that, according to most decluttering experts, is as rare as a unicorn. And when I do keep something around that Kondo insists is useless, such as a jar of spare buttons, its because Ive actually used it, and more than once. (I recently repurposed an old coat button to replace the k**b on the pull string for some venetian blinds, though your domestic MacGyverism may vary.)
Marie Kondo.
Natsuno Ichigo
However, the last thing I expected to strike on reading The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying-Up and Kondos new follow-up, Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up, was a deep wellspring of decidedly nonpastel emotion. Although the author doesnt seem to realize it herself, her campaign is a nonstop assault on the most basic form of human denial, the one that prefers to ignore our implacable limitations. Look at your bookshelves, Kondo decrees in her most emotionally fraught chapter, and accept that all those books you havent read yet are books you will never read. At 30, perhaps Kondo doesnt quite realize the implications of this statement, but whoever designed her book jacket surely did. It doesnt resemble a 1980s self-help manual after allhow could I have been so blind? What it looks like is a greeting card, the kind that gets displayed under the euphemism Sympathy or Condolences. Here, though, the grieving and the grieved-for are one and the same, and the loss is yet to come. Or, rather, ongoing. Kondos books constitute an insistent if oblique consideration of our own mortality, and the soon-to-be-departed, dear reader, is you. Death: the supreme life-changing magic.
Granted, this could just be me, the woman who, upon watching the opening scenes of the music video for Adeles Hello, showing the singer opening up a shuttered cottage, instantly assumed she was there to clean out a dead parents home. If any activity is designed to underline the pitiful superfluity of our stuff, its that one. Perhaps Kondo is right: Things can be heartrending, although not necessarily for the reasons she offers, which have to do with her belief that material objects are semisentient. Kondo talks to her belongings, thanking them for their service, and in her new book, to name just one example, she casually remarks that bras have exceptional pride and emit a distinctive aura. Kondos prescription for the aspiring declutterer is at once oversensitive and severe: Hold every single possession in your hands before deciding its fate, and ask yourself if it sparks joy. If not, then into the jumbo-sized trash bag it goes!
The joy-sparking question is Kondos trademark, and a curious one since The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up is a fairly joyless book. Underlying it all is Kondos own story, her lonely childhood in Japan as a neglected middle sibling who spent most of my time at home on my own and became obsessed with home and lifestyle magazines at the age of 5. School doesnt seem to have brought more companionship, although she did win the coveted (by her, at least) task of re-ordering the classroom: From the fact that I spent my recesses alone, tidying, you can guess that I wasnt a very outgoing child. As a result, in a final chapter that confesses to a lifelong difficulty with trusting others, she writes, it was material things and my house that taught me to appreciate unconditional love first, not my parents or friends, which has to be one of the saddest sentences I have ever read.
Spark Joy, the new book, shrewdly offers a cuddlier, more practical take on Kondos KonMari" program. The author admits to goofy idiosyncrasies, a classic feminine gambit for endearing oneself to others, and supplies detailed tips. The latter have solid value, and I have nothing but the utmost respect for her clothes-folding method, which I have adopted with enthusiasm. But when Kondo describes discarding her screwdriver because it conveyed insufficient joy and then breaking a favorite ruler when she enlisted it to remove a screw, you have to wonder if so many readers should be following the lead of an organizational expert with so little common sense. A force more compulsive than joy is at work here.
As Slates June Thomas observed last year in a DoubleX podcast, the intensity and austerity of Kondos practice and recommendations suggest an anorexia of things (although G*d only knows we should also not underestimate the pathology of its opposite, hoarding). To discard the stuff weve acquired is to murder the version of ourselves we envision using it. One of Kondos clients avidly participated in a Japanese vogue for taking early-morning classes and seminars before work and had neatly saved all the printed materials handed out by her instructors. Kondo complains that this makes her home look like an office, which is no doubt a fair cop, but then goes on to explain that people who keep such things are kidding themselves that theyll ever need to review them. What they learned at the seminars did not stick. If the content is not put into practice, such courses are meaningless. Ouch.
Its not just your imagined future that needs paring down. Kondo also advises a wincingly strict economy in the saving of photos, diaries, letters and other mementos. Sometimes people keep a mass of photos in a big box with the intention of enjoying them someday in their old age, she writes. I can tell you now that someday never comes. You dont need most of this because [i]t is not our memories but the person we have become because of those past experiences that we should treasure. I used to believe this myself, but I was wrong. Live long enough, and you start losing treasured memories. The photo or letter that can bring some of it back is precious indeed. But not to Kondothough perhaps she would prefer not to recall her solitary past anyway.
The things you learned didnt stick and wont ever be utilized; the books you think youll read one day will remain uncracked; that box of photos and letters will become nothing more than detritus for those who must clean up after youso why not face facts and just get rid of it all now? When Kondo quizzes one of her clients on her ideal lifestyle, the woman describes coming home to a space as tidy as a hotel suite where she would bathe with aromatherapy oils, drink herbal tea, and listen to classical piano music. It is the featureless existence of a model in an advertisement, with a weird eternal quality, like limbo. Here is a woman who dreams of letting go of everything pertaining to the past or future, a behavior observable in many terminally ill people as they prepare emotionally for their own departure. Famously, Kondo always wears white while on the job, purportedly for its association with cleanliness, but it is also a color that many Asian cultures associate with death.
This is the secret language of clutter that Kondo all but ignores. The piles of stuff we might need someday are an argument that we will always be around to need them. The plans to revisit those photos and take up again that course of study, the books we fully intend to finally read assure us that there will be enough time to do so. Mementos presume the ongoing existence of a rememberer. Yes, all of that is a lie, but its a necessary lie. And all the joy in the world cant really compensate for having to let that go.
Leicester City vs Liverpool 2 - 0 Full Goals & Highlights Premier League 02 - 02 - 2016
Former Leicester City manager Martin O"Neill believes Saturday"s stunning victory over Manchester City could spur the Foxes to become the most unexpected English champions since his Nottingham Forest side of 38 years ago.
Forest won the league by seven points in 1978 in their first season after promotion and went on to triumph in the European Cup in the following two years.
O"Neill, currently manager of Ireland, compared Leicester"s 3-1 away win over title rivals City to an equally stunning success just before Christmas 1977 when the Forest team he played in under Brian Clough won 4-0 at Manchester United.
"We scrambled up from the old Second Division in third position and up until Christmas time people were saying our bubble would burst," he told BBC radio"s Sportsweek programme.
"It never did. The Old Trafford game was really something special and you can compare this great result for Leicester at the Etihad." Rated as 5,000-1 outsiders before the start of the season after avoiding relegation last May, Claudio Ranieri"s side now top the table by five points with 13 games to play. "While the other teams are faltering, as well as being involved in other competitions, they just keep going on," said O"Neill, who is in San Francisco with his Ireland assistant Roy Keane to watch the NFL Super Bowl.
"When you are opening up a gap and games are running out, you"ve got to give yourself a chance. They are winning games with less possession than the opposition but that has continued month after month. "If ever there was an opportunity, this is it. And it should give hope to every other team." Leicester, managed by O"Neill from 1995-2000, play away to another of their title rivals Arsenal next Sunday.
