Since I was just in New Orleans, I just turned on the Monday Night Football festivities, which this week take place in Crescent City, and is being billed as a celebration of New Orleans’ “rebirth.”

I have a few pictures and some thoughts on New Orleans I’ll share later. For now though, I’m wondering: New Orleans is more than anything known for its music. Jazz, blues, zydeco — or some combination of the three. So the NFL decides to celebrate the city’s rebirth with…um…U2 and friggin’ Green Day? Yeah, they threw in a backup New Orleans brass band to cover their asses, but they were drowned out by the edge and Billy Joe. And come on. Green Day’s music doesn’t exactly lend itself to the New Orleans sound. Nor does U2′s.

Also, how did Bono corner on this whole “rising above our tragedies through music” market? I don’t mind U2. I in fact like some of their material. But when did the ritual of the sanctimonious Irishman strutting across our football fields telling us to buck up and stay strong become such an intergral part of America’s collective grieving process?

You know, after visiting New Orleans, I was feeling kinda’ bummed. The city is a far, far cry from what it once was. But golly. Bono says “walk on.” So. I guess things are gonaa’ be all right, after all!

This entry was posted on Monday, September 25th, 2006 at 8:30 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.