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Beyonce Quake

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Admittedly, I had gone to the kitchen to make something to eat during halftime.  I was pissed the NFL let all those people onto a field that was already churned up and proving to be a major factor in the game, with so many players changing their cleats to get better traction.  Besides, Coldplay leaves me stone cold.  What a surprise it was to read the next morning that the halftime show might have been the best part of the Super Bowl!

Fox and the conservative blogosphere are still shaking from Beyonce's seismic tribute to 50 years of the Black Panthers, which started out in nearby Oakland.  You do have to wonder how this program got past the Super Bowl and CBS censors, but from the clips I have to say it was pretty good.  Beyonce has made Black Lives Matter the centerpiece of her new song, Formation, and kicked off the promotional tour in rousing fashion this weekend.

The music itself doesn't appeal to me much more than Coldplay, but I like the way Beyonce asserts herself.  This woman has "lady balls," and I mean that in the best possible interpretation of the term.  She is what Lady Gaga used to be, who by the way gave a wonderful interpretation of the national anthem to start the game.  But, nothing compares to Beyonce's in-your-face performance that left conservative talking heads fuming.  She softened it up in the end by joining Bruno Mars and Chris Martin on stage for Uptown Funk, with Chris hunched over like Quasimodo in between Beyonce and Bruno.



It's Beyonce's dancers that really set conservative pundits on fire with their racy interpretation of Black Panther outfits and X-formation half way through the song.  These gals were more than just back-up dancers, they were a powerful political statement in the otherwise apolitical world of football.

Of course, one could say that this is just another politically-charged promotion from the hip-hop team of Jay Z and Beyonce, who have long been getting the goat of guys like Huckleberry Mike.  The poor guy appears to have an unhealthy obsession with Beyonce.  He just can't seem to get her out of his head, treating her as though she is a harlot bent on the destruction of young impressionable minds like Obama's daughters, with Jay Z serving as her "pimp."

These kinds of histrionics sell, no doubt about it, but there is a level of commitment from Beyonce that goes far beyond her fellow B-girls, like Shakira and Lady Gaga, which is why she remains forever in the news.  She has combined the best and the worst of Michael Jackson and Madonna and wrapped it all in a steamy tight-fitting lycra suit, which appears to barely contain her boundless energy.  She is even more enticing in the way she can freeze lustful desires with a cold stare that would would give even Mike Huckabee pause.

What makes Beyonce dangerous in the minds of so many conservative pundits is that she wears her blackness proudly and defiantly.  Formation may just be her boldest act yet, as her video makes it crystal clear what she is referring to, and this is something most conservatives don't want to deal with, especially not at halftime of the Super Bowl.



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