Today’s joke is the ice and snow and weather. Periodically throughout the day, I’ve dropped a random observation about it in the middle of conversation. I look around soberly. No one is watching, but this part of the performance is for me, a half-trained method actor, so that I may immerse myself in the role, as Stanislavski would want.

And then, with a fixed look upon my face, and in a sincere, likeable, confidential tone, I interject, “This snow and ice is never going to melt.”

Because it is never going to melt.

I’m also doing this out of the blue.

It’s not a funny joke the first time, but after three or four rounds it started hitting every time. And I can do this bit for a while, because it is never going to melt. Oh some of it may disappear this weekend, if the long range forecast is to be believed. It has been suggested in a tantalizing display of numbers, that we might enjoy something like almost 48 consecutive hours above freezing. I don’t believe it, and, yes, I have some method acting about that, too.

We talked about the Super Bowl in Rituals and Traditions today. Talked about the game for a few moments, but we watched the opening vignette and I tried to get them to think about what the production was trying to tell us here.

Then we talked about the halftime show for about 25 minutes. And then we discussed the postgame show, and it occurred to me: I never had a class like this, and while the productions back then aren’t as epic as they are today, I wish I had a had class where we walked in and talked about stuff like this.

We talked about interesting and important things, but this was a Tuesday lecture, and how fun is that?

Finally, I brought it back to the halftime show. Some 120-130 million people (the solid numbers should be out tomorrow) watched. Why did the NFL book Bad Bunny?

It’s good business, of course. We have here the world’s most successful musician — 16 Grammy nominations, six wins, 17 Latin Grammy Awards, 113 songs in the Billboard Hot 100, 41 in the top 40 and 12 in the top 10, while having also been the most heavily streamed artist in four of the last six years — playing to one of the world’s largest television audiences. And the NFL wants to expand it’s audience. They’re playing nine games overseas next year. Bad Bunny, meanwhile, was just recently the most heavily streamed musician in China. Plus, younger audiences, women, there’s plenty of crossover to explore.

Someone said: controversy. And, sure, controversy sells. We’d been talking symbolism and messaging for a half hour or so by then. I put this on the screen. Isn’t it something, I said, when this is controversial?

In today’s installment of the criticism class, we discussed a story that was, I thought, one of the more interesting pieces from 2024. I wanted the class to see the mechanics of how the writer wrote about the mechanics of deaf soccer. I played when I was a kid, and when I first saw this story I thought, “How do they do that?” Soccer is basically played, and communicated, from behind you. But if no one can hear …

Soccer — and life — through the eyes of the U.S. deaf women’s national team

The first thing to know about deaf soccer is that it is soccer, and a match looks the same as at any level of the sport.

Instead of a loud, profanity-laced pregame speech from the most extroverted leader on the team, players gather in a circle and execute a synchronized movement of quick fist bumps and back-of-hand slaps. During the game, the center official raises a flag in addition to blowing their whistle for fouls and stoppages of play, and games are typically quieter than the average match that features more verbal communication.

From a technical standpoint, players must have hearing loss of at least 55 decibels in their “better ear” to qualify to play deaf soccer and, crucially, hearing aids are not allowed in games, ensuring all players are on a level playing field.

On a hearing team, communication often comes from the back. The goalkeeper and defenders see everything in front of them and can direct their teammates accordingly — and verbally.

“For us, that’s not possible, that’s not realistic,” Andrews says.

The process is more about inherent understanding and movement as a team. If a forward pushes high to chase a ball, everyone behind her must follow. Halftime or injury breaks become more important, Andrews says, because they represent rare opportunities to look at each other as a group.

We also discussed this piece on the NWSL’s sexual abuse settlement. I find it somewhere between a process piece and a rote recap from someone, Meg Linehan, who’s been all over the story for a long while now. It’s a straightforward news story, and we need a lot of those. In this case, it allowed us to discuss how you can make that determination from the first three paragraphs.

The NWSL will create a $5 million player compensation fund as part of a settlement regarding its role in widespread allegations of abuse.

The settlement, announced on Wednesday, ends a joint investigation by the attorneys general (AGs) of the District of Columbia, Illinois and New York concerning systemic abuse across the league and potential violations of state and local human rights laws.

The three offices, as with the investigation by former U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates and the joint investigation by the NWSL and its players association that came before them, focused on “pervasive sexual harassment and abuse by coaches against players” and systematic failures by the league to “exercise adequate insight, institute workplace antidiscrimination policies, or appropriately respond to complaints,” as listed in the settlement agreement.

Then we talked about what’s not there. And we talked about the visuals included with the story. I had a different perspective on the photos than they did. I need to make a more distinctive point about that the next time it comes up.

And here’s the sun going down, from our 6th floor almost-corner office.

That was 5:37 p.m., proof that the days are getting longer. There’s some solace in that.

… This snow and ice is never going to melt.

We left at just about that time, because who wants to stay longer than that? Also, we had somewhere to be.

So we went over the river, and got to the arena just in time to see The Head and the Heart. I didn’t even know they were going to be there until they started playing this song while we were walking through the concourse, meaning we had to get to our seats.

That was a platinum single in 2011. And despite some early success — and a habit of getting songs on soundtracks — they’ve stuck to their indie Americana roots. Delightfully enthusiastic for their art, and quirky in their performance.

They make for an energetic opener, which was great, because backstage, Brandi Carlile was waiting for her turn. She was fresh off singing “America the Beautiful” at the Super Bowl and, this very night, beginning her first arena tour. While the curtain was up, they played Madonna through the PA. And then they lowered the lights, and light the stage and curtain like this.

At the right moment in that first song the curtain fell and there was the whole band and this circular shot of the singer before revealing to us that she was, in fact, eclipsing the sun.

That’d be a little much, but Brandi Carlile is an exceptional performer. Each song made for a different style of visual treatment on the stage screen. And, from this, I have inferred that we are returning to an era of 1990s liner notes, which also looked like an earlier era of vinyl art. Suits me just fine.

Early in the set they did request gimmick. Years ago, she said, they did a tour like this. So this should be no sweat. It’s a deep cut of a tune they recorded 20 years ago, and apparently haven’t played live in a long time. Not that you’d know. She was 24 when she recorded this. It sounds like it. Still works. Still a great song.

She also did a cover of a Linda Rondstadt classic. And then a bunch of her rock tunes and a lot of her Americana. She also covered an Alanis Morissette song and it was so good that, according to American and Canadian law, Morissette can’t sing it anymore, because it belongs to Brandi Carlile now.

Vanity Fair once wrote a review saying her voice is the eighth wonder of the world. If that’s overstating it, it isn’t overstating it by much. See her if you can. That was a fantastic show. I want to go back again right now.