Originally published at: Watch: stagehands break down and remove Rihanna's Super Bowl set in 4 minutes | Boing Boing
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Can’t say I cared for the music at all, but keeping one’s composure while aloft on a swaying platform is something of a feat. What sort of safety features were involved there? One snapped cable would have been ruinous.
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My wife greatly enjoyed Rihanna’s performance.
The sexism in the BBC report was glaring IMO - if Rihanna were a man would they have stated that she “failed to debut any new music”? Men “don’t” do something. Women “fail” to do something. Total BS.
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I applaud not bringing new material to a big show like this where the crowd aren’t necessarily fans, and so might only want to hear the hits.
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Kept thinking: man, if i had to design multiply independent four* distant cable winches to be able to smoothly crank in and pay-out without one getting so much as 2.54 centimeters ahead of one other, well then, total tangled dangling devastation would certainly result. That is, MVP award to the technical set designer.
*what was it, seven? independent platforms times four cables which had to stay ~level?
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Jesus Christ, the whole set up gave me anxiety. Yes I saw they had cables attached but JESUS CHRIST! No thank you!
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Eight cables! Each corner had two split off toward each side of the field. (nothing directly overhead to hang from with the open roof and all)
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Rob Tornoe writes and cartoons for The Philadelphia Inquirer (assuming it’s the same Rob Tornoe), so half time of the Super Bowl was a high point of the last year for him.
Pretty cool write up in Wired (pun not intended) about the logistics involved. Seems the primary reason for the floating platforms was to reduce impact on the turf - not necessarily for the theatrics.
I’m sure your system would look just like this:
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The stagehands and the rigging crew for the platforms are the real MVPs from the event. incredible job.
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I’m surprised the sections of the set didn’t tear up the field. The players sure did. It looked like there was something wrong with the turf.
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Yeah, because they knew it was complete trash. KC’s kicker turned his ankle on the exact same field in the first game of the season, which is one reason his kicking the game-winning field goal was so important. Philly’s kicker nearly hurt himself as well.
They’ve been attempting to utilize a system in which the grass is grown in a tray and rolled in and out of the stadium daily to get sun. It’s been an utter disaster.
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Is there a second one aside from the obvious one coming from under the platform? I presumed that one was there to stop her from falling off, and that it wouldn’t do much good if something happened to the platform itself. (Or maybe it would? The logistics are frightening to contemplate.)
Not a fan of the music, we always watch because of the production value of these shows. Those hanging platforms were impressive. Watching the skill and planning it takes to tear that stuff down always makes me want to have award shows for the roadies and back stage people. Sure Rhianna is talented but she doesn’t get to be the center of that show without the people running the cables and safety gear. One rigger saddles a dead horse and that cable and platform come crashing down.
Tina Turner didn’t need no stinkin’ harness. Every time we see these concerts we yell at Tina, no don’t do it. Not as high as Rhianna but still a scary set up. About the only person I regret not seeing in concert.
The first one is scary because she hangs out under the rail holding on with only one hand.
This one is scary because she runs down the lift with no rail or harness.
protecting the grass
I applaud this important work. (What? Oh, wait. THAT sort of grass? Not such a super ‘bowl’ after all. Oh well.)
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I generally skip the half time (generally skip the whole show these days, I’m totally over football now). But for aerial shows, nothing will beat this one from P!nk.
I see what you did there…
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Still - how do you fuck up grass? They said it was a blend used on golf course - like on the greens?
And the ground is only 2"? Is that enough depth for it to “give”?
The whole “roll it outside” in a state that gets a ton of sun is stupid. Make the roof more retractable instead.
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No tilth. Soil is multi-layered, packed with critical microbes and relies on the subsoil to keep the topsoil balanced. You can’t just grow grass in a tray with the necessary nutrients, just as we can’t just live off of protein pills and vitamin supplements. You see this all the time in new housing developments; they lay down a bunch of porous garbage for fill (old cinder blocks, bricks, busted up concrete) and then lay sod over it. It dies soon after the owners close and then you see them install expensive irrigation systems to overwater it because the soil has no ability to retain moisture or resupply nutrients once the sod is depleted. Planting grass in a tray only works for juicing.
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