A LOOK BACK...
SUPER BOWL L I - HOUSTON - 2017

Dear Houston SB LI Field Team Members,

So, what are you thinking about now?

How many times have you watched the show on YouTube?

I thought I’d wait a week to be sure all the feelings have taken hold. Both crazy elation and the low-down blues.

Now that the sparkle of sequins, heat of the flames, flash of the lighting, and ringing in your ears has faded away, you begin to wonder if it happened, yet you know it did. You were there. So much time, drama and feelings invested to be over in less than 13 minutes. BAM. Done. We know exactly how you feel.

You are happy and you are sad. So are we. It is part of show business. It happens to us as well. On every gig. This part is always shot through with joy and sadness. It is also, in show business as in life, inevitable.

We have returned to our homes or on to other projects. Our beloved staging, stars, towers, steps, and lighting carts have been stripped of their state-of-the-art electronics. The wheels and some re-usable parts of the stage are, by now, back in Torrance, California.  The rest of it has been dismantled, cut to pieces and fills six 60 yard dumpsters somewhere in or near Harris County.

You did an incredible job from the very first night. Everyone, including Lady Gaga, was extremely pleased with the show and for that, the credit goes to many, but it could not have happened without each of us. You may be certain of that.

We hope you made new friendships or renewed old ones. Many Halftime cart crews still get together on a regular basis, especially around Super Bowl time.

As we all go forward, try to remember a few things we shared:

• Time is a shapeshifter. See how unreliable it is? One moment the Halftime show seems 100 years ago, yet the next minute it was only yesterday…and how about that 02:00 Minute Warning before Halftime that seemed to last for half an hour?

• In life, as well as when plowing with a mule or setting a Super Bowl Stage, pick out your destination, your goal, the place you want to be; keep your eyes on it and go there. Otherwise, you are just.... well, you know.

• The value of stories. The human mind is not (yet) made for emails, hashtags and instant messages. It is hard-wired for stories and what they teach us. That’s why you enjoy them so much. Read them, listen to them, tell them. We are hopeful you have a few Super Bowl stories of your own.

• Patience. How to stand around and wait and wait and wait. (We call this standing still at breakneck speed.)

• Drink water. Drink it in advance. Daily is better. It is good for you.

• Keep things simple. The most critical measurements in this show, the precise positioning of the stage and towers, were made by using marks on a yellow nylon truck strap.

• When presented with unexpected circumstances, use your thumb.

• Continue to experience how it feels to unplug from the Internet, cell phone, iPod, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Snapchat, TV and video games for a while.

• Look into the eyes of another human being often. See them. Feel their presence and count upon them to do their part. To mutually strive for and accomplish a very complex, difficult, and dangerous task, under the most rigid of timelines, at absolute ground zero of the hottest, most intensely focused media spotlight in the world, is unforgettable. Lady Gaga was there with us. That place where magic is.

• Finally, those of you who followed my advice, have lifetime memories you will cherish. The blue feelings you have are not because you miss your fellow FTM’s or Cart Leaders, or us. What you are missing, longing for deep in your heart, is the experience we had with one another. The actual human interaction. You miss the people because they represent those feelings and because they are the faces of your human, non-digital, experience. Try to have human experience with real eyes and faces as often as possible. You don’t need the Super Bowl; you can do it anywhere every day. It’s good for you. It’s good for all of us.

Thanks, again Field Team Members. You absolutely rocked this. We are crazy about every one of you!

- Hugs!

Cap Spence and Staff
Staging: Aaron Chawla, Doug Cook, George McPherson, Richard Wold, Hans Wert, Glenn Ingram, Tony Menditto, Shayla Cave, Rob Cray FTMs: Bryan Ransom, Holly Silber, Kelly Coffey