Anybody watch the Pope -

I thought it was fun seeing all the crowds - everywhere -
the excitemnet and happiness of the people - even cops happy -
Harlem school kids were great - singing and smiling - clapping -
Madison Square Mass was cool too - great audience there also -
( Billy Joel concert was cancelled for this )
right up to watching his plane, Shephard One, take off - for Rome -
Reminded me of Led Zeppelin movie - but at night !

I watched bit and pieces of the broadcast throughout the weekend. My wife works for an event company and she was right in the thick of things. She was on tv a few times, off to the side during broadcasts. She was on the tarmac when his plane landed and was in the last group of folks he spoke to before he left. She didn't get to meet him directly, but got some great photos.

I'd love to see one or two photos !
That's amazing !
She's truly your Metal Gal

How could you NOT watch the Pope?  It was "Pope-apalooza; all Pope, all the time". 

I get that he's revered by a large majority of the world but I'm not Catholic and frankly I found the wall-to-wall coverage to be annoying.

Want the local weather?  Nope, the Pope is speaking.

Want to see what happened on Wall Street?  Nope, the Pope is moving amongst the commoners.

Want sports?  Pfffffffttt...sports?  What's that?  The Pope is here you doofus!

The popularity and position of the pope are two things I will never understand in this lifetime.

In related news, the pope has an Italian prog rock album on the way. I'm not kidding. Being on mobile I can't provide the link right now, but Google it. Honestly, the news is misleading; the music is a product of another artist; the pope is merely a bunch of prerecorded speeches layered on top. But it's being marketed as his album.

My wife watched a ton of coverage of the Pope. Partly due to our being Catholic, but mostly due to her pregnancy. She's still working 9+ hour days (she's an OT) and is pretty wiped when she gets home and just sorta crashes on the futon in her office in front of the tv. We have a few family friends who went to Philly and we were in that exact spot a few months back for a friends wedding in Philly.

corplhicks wrote:

The popularity and position of the pope are two things I will never understand in this lifetime.

In related news, the pope has an Italian prog rock album on the way. I'm not kidding. Being on mobile I can't provide the link right now, but Google it. Honestly, the news is misleading; the music is a product of another artist; the pope is merely a bunch of prerecorded speeches layered on top. But it's being marketed as his album.

and the backing band is cult Italian prog band La Orme. They've got some cool albums from the mid 70s that are pretty cool.

I'm not Catholic so the Pope's visit was a non-issue for me, but like toho sez it was kind of hard to escape the wall-to-wall coverage...especially here on the East Coast, since he visited New York and Philly, therefore all of the local news stations had a collective nerdgasm over it.

I'm Catholic(-ish) and although I can be a pretty jaded, cynical prick most of the time, it was nice to see folks coming to my town with a feeling joy & hope for the future and having a good reaction to the Catholic church for once. People were nicer to one another too, at least for a few days.

Wurthless wrote:

corplhicks wrote:

The popularity and position of the pope are two things I will never understand in this lifetime.

In related news, the pope has an Italian prog rock album on the way. I'm not kidding. Being on mobile I can't provide the link right now, but Google it. Honestly, the news is misleading; the music is a product of another artist; the pope is merely a bunch of prerecorded speeches layered on top. But it's being marketed as his album.

and the backing band is cult Italian prog band La Orme. They've got some cool albums from the mid 70s that are pretty cool.

Chewie turned me on to Italian prog but I haven't heard of them yet. After hearing some clips, I likey.

And the pope drops the first single!

Quote :

People were nicer to one another too, at least for a few days.

...yep, and now everybody's back to being total jerks again.

Fat Freddy wrote:

Quote :

People were nicer to one another too, at least for a few days.

...yep, and now everybody's back to being total jerks again.

Reminds me of Christmas.  Same thing happens then.

corplhicks wrote:

Wurthless wrote:

corplhicks wrote:

The popularity and position of the pope are two things I will never understand in this lifetime.

In related news, the pope has an Italian prog rock album on the way. I'm not kidding. Being on mobile I can't provide the link right now, but Google it. Honestly, the news is misleading; the music is a product of another artist; the pope is merely a bunch of prerecorded speeches layered on top. But it's being marketed as his album.

and the backing band is cult Italian prog band La Orme. They've got some cool albums from the mid 70s that are pretty cool.

Chewie turned me on to Italian prog but I haven't heard of them yet. After hearing some clips, I likey.

That is completely my fault for not letting you know about those guys!

chewie wrote:

corplhicks wrote:

Wurthless wrote:

corplhicks wrote:

The popularity and position of the pope are two things I will never understand in this lifetime.

In related news, the pope has an Italian prog rock album on the way. I'm not kidding. Being on mobile I can't provide the link right now, but Google it. Honestly, the news is misleading; the music is a product of another artist; the pope is merely a bunch of prerecorded speeches layered on top. But it's being marketed as his album.

and the backing band is cult Italian prog band La Orme. They've got some cool albums from the mid 70s that are pretty cool.

Chewie turned me on to Italian prog but I haven't heard of them yet. After hearing some clips, I likey.

That is completely my fault for not letting you know about those guys!

Lol yeah man but you gave me a ton of depth to plumb! I went crazy on Spotify after you listed all those guys off.

I am not Catholic but I actually like this Pope for whatever odd reason.

Sorry Glower, I didn't mean to pee in your Cheerios about the Pope's visit.

But it sounds like I'm not the only one who was a little annoyed with how much it dominated television.

It's no more annoying than sports dominating the television for so much of each year.

Yeah, I could probably agree if I didn't like sports.  It's really bad this time of year when most networks have a college football game on.  My Mom bitches about  it all the time. And if it's not football it's MLB winding down the baseball season.  Or it's the NFL starting up its season.  Or is pre-season NHL.  Or boxing. Or MMA.

Great time of the year if you're me.  Sucks if you don't like sports.

Well, I have to be honest here and say I don't watch any broadcast or cable TV any longer. I really only stream stuff now so all TV is on my schedule...the way it should be.

It's still a valid point; sports is probably more pervasive on TV than the coverage of the Pope was but since I like sports it doesn't annoy me the way the coverage of the Pope did.

But for several days there it did seem like no matter what channel I switched to , there was His Holiness.  I even saw him on ESPN where I thought I'd be safe!

The same basic circus happens anytime a Pope (or King or Queen or whatever) go on a tour of the US. I remember Pope John Paul II coming to the US in 1979 and again later in the 80s and that was all you saw on TV for a couple solid weeks.

S.D. wrote:

The same basic circus happens anytime a Pope (or King or Queen or whatever) go on a tour of the US.  I remember Pope John Paul II coming to the US in 1979 and again later in the 80s and that was all you saw on TV for a couple solid weeks.  

At least JP II was a tarmac kissing rock star of a pope, he even got shot! Total Gangsta!  

Even evil pope (Benedict) was more interesting than this guy!

S.D. wrote:

It's no more annoying than sports dominating the television for so much of each year.  

Yea, I'd take one weekend of Pope coverage over sports any day.

I did like that Francis declined events with lawmakers and other rich sponsors to instead visit with the "common folks". Word is, he was a nightmare for the Secret Service because he kept changing his itinerary and making "unauthorized stops" that they weren't prepared for.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

S.D. wrote:

It's no more annoying than sports dominating the television for so much of each year.  

Yea, I'd take one weekend of Pope coverage over sports any day.

I did like that Francis declined events with lawmakers and other rich sponsors to instead visit with the "common folks". Word is, he was a nightmare for the Secret Service because he kept changing his itinerary and making "unauthorized stops" that they weren't prepared for.