The Super Bowl, Olympics, Rodarte & Herzog: When Sports & Art Collide

Until now, the closest sports have come to reaching the cathartic stratospheres of high art was the Tiger Woods sex scandal--call it theater of the absurd. But today, the internet brings us two when-sports-meets-art projects that both merit a peek. The New York Times--proving they're way hipper than we give them credit for--commissioned downtown (and everything that connotes) photographer Ryan McGinley to shoot a portfolio of U.S. Olympic athletes doing what they do best, while sporting (hey!) designs by Rodarte. The sisters Mulleavy, with their fluttery, ethereal motifs are the last ones you'd expect fabricating clothes for athletes, but then again, we are talking about figure skating. Check out a slide show and a Q&A with the sisters here.

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The second collision of these two worlds comes to us via Slate, and its “If Famous Filmmakers Directed the Super Bowl” video. You can’t tease us like that unless you plan on really pulling it off, and boy do they ever. The Super Bowl as seen through the lenses of Quentin Tarantino, David Lynch, Wes Anderson, Jean-Luc Godard and Werner Herzog makes the regular Super Bowl, as seen through the lens of CBS, look as boring as a football game. Pay close attention to the Herzog segment at the end, itself a small masterpiece. The man behind this video is Andrew Bouve, who also made the brilliant ”36 Days” recap in the heat of the election.