Nothing like that Super Bowl feeling
Minneapolis did well in representing all that the state has to offer
It was all the frozen north has been hyped up to be, with temperatures hovering around zero for kickoff and a snowstorm the day before Super Bowl Sunday.
It was a poignant reminder of the reputation Minnesota has built.
And yet, there was a welcome to the tundra that was common throughout the week leading up to the big game. The welcoming crew, thousands strong, were a jovial bunch, despite the cold and the volunteer status.
Despite the weather, the events at Nicollet Mall, the convention center and outside the U.S. Bank Stadium were well attended. They were fun and the entire week had a festive nature.
Despite the weather, despite the sting of the home team just missing the Super Bowl in their home stadium, the city had an excited anticipation around hosting the game. From Jan. 29 (when the teams flew into the airport) to the Feb. 4, the city was excited to show off what Minneapolis has to offer.
There is always talk of hometown pride, representing one’s state with dignity because of the attachment to place or allegiance to a community. As it becomes more customary for people to move around for college, work and just to live somewhere that they did not grow up, the notion of an attachment to one specific community is a harder one to stomach every year.
Over the week leading up to the game, Minneapolis was proud to be the ones putting their city on display. Even though the city was one game away from their team representing them in the Super Bowl and even though they were forced to endure the a**hole Philadelphia Eagles fan base, Minneapolis was a great host city.
As someone who has grown up in or around Downtown Minneapolis for most of my life, not only was I proud of my city for the job they did, I was also proud to be in my community for the game. Sitting in downtown Minneapolis and the city light up in purple during the halftime show, there was a great sense of pride about being a part of the Minneapolis community.
That stadium is an impressive work of architecture, but they really should build some nice Gothic tower over a thousand feet in Minneapolis to redefine the old skyline. Ceasar Peli had one beautifully designed for Minneapolis for the NW Bank (now Wells Fargo), but it ended up in Cleveland instead, so Minneapolis is stuck with a scaled down out-of-scale tower instead. There are two towers here in Kuala Lumpur and one in Bangkok going up that will be higher than anything in the USA and China has a dozen or so skyscrapers higher than anything in the USA in such towns at Wuhan at over two thousand feet, Shenzhen and Guangxhou, a little under two thousand feet, and Shanghai has a well over two thousand footer. But the Saudis are building the world’s tallest in Jeddah at over three thousand feet. I guess we shouldn’t feel all that bad as these buildings are being built with the cheapest labor on the planet. I was photographing the slum just below the new 106 story Exchange Tower here in KL, an interesting contrast between the tenements where the Bangladeshi hard-hat workers live and the rising glass box next to them. Good photography is always made with strong contrasts and wealth and poverty juxtaposed work well together. The USA as it is evolving is also affording such artistic opportunities, too.