I Want My...

[Sometimes I think my addiction to nostalgia will get me in trouble. I indulged it last night anyway, sitting thru a couple hours of MTV's 20th anniversary program. I identified with several of the people they interviewed who, when asked where they were when MTV began, had to admit that they didn't have cable. Cable didn't even extend to my parents' neighborhood until the very late 80's, after I'd left home. While I saw the occasional clip at friends' houses (my poor little "substance-over-style" adolescent psyche was horrified by Madonna, and I was sure Cyndi Lauper would be the longer-lasting star), I didn't start watching it regularly until the dorms. If Carson Daly had asked me who my first MTV imprints were, I would've answered Paul Carrack, New Order, the Cure, Whitesnake, and Belinda Carlisle. Talk about style over substance, but by then, I didn't care.]

[Yes, Jonno, the show was headache-inducing, for the following reason: they let very few stars, past or present, give full performances. Too bad this anniversary had to happen during summer concert season, because, while the remote spots from the Depeche Mode, Janet Jackson, etc., concerts were pretty well-coordinated (from a technical point of view), the fact that we only got to see 60 seconds or so of each of their songs felt like something akin to coitus interruptus ("Don't probe that." - Melanie Mayron, thirtysomething). And the "hip-hop medley" just sucked: while it was lovely to see Salt n Pepa together again, a few pictures on the video monitor failed to make up for a marked lack of West Coast stars. One really good performance: Billy Idol, doing "Rebel Yell" in its entirety. Surprise!]

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