Superbowl in Kuta Bali

Arriving early at Double D in Legian, for Superbowl XLI, I found out their great upstairs screen was off limits due to renovation. Sitting at the bar, the waitress took my breakfast order, the Big Double D (eggs, bacon, tomato, sausage, toast, tea or coffee for 35,000rp), and I settled in to wait for the game with several other westerners. Not watching that much TV here in Bali and only seeing 1 American football game a year, the media assault was rather overwhelming.

Shown on ESPN, we had a pre-game show, profiles and clips of past games interspersed with action-packed commercials. The whole thing made me dizzy. Once the game started, one of the commentators simply never shut up (I know, that’s his job), analyzing each move, past, present and future. No wonder so many westerners cannot walk down the street, do a workout, or sit alone in the room, without a iPod, TV or CD playing. In this modern world, we’re conditioned to expect constant noise and when its missing, we often try to replace it with some other noise. This is all tied into the consumer lifestyle, over the creator lifestyle, whereby you produce things yourself. A friend of mine in Bali, who is a photographer, said nowadays, kids aren’t taught to observe things properly, they look but they don’t really look. With 1,000 different images blasted at you an hour, no one has time to really look.

Anyway back to the game. Not satisfied with the barstool at Double D, I went to Stadium in Tuban, which was closed. That was followed by All Stars Cafe which couldn’t get ESPN, which was followed by B’Couple Bar N’ Grill, across from Stadium Cafe. Joining me were 2 other customers. The first half of the game was okay, 2nd half a bit dull, so I left at the end of the 3rd quarter.

Maybe a bamboo hut on Nusa Penida is what I’m missing.