Britney Spears

It was almost painful to watch Britney Spears stumble through the terrified-deer-caught-in-the-headlights performance that opened MTV’s VMAs (Video Music Awards) on Sunday night (I didn’t watch the VMAs…I’m well past the age of their target demographic and well past the point where I think MTV is relevant to anything I’m interested in…but I did catch Britney’s sad bump and grind on MTV.com.) And I’m not even a Spears fan by any stretch of the imagination. The uncomfortable looks on the faces of audience members (including P. Diddy and 50 Cent) and the tepid applause afterwards showed that I wasn’t alone in feeling like I was watching the continuation of a very long train wreck.

If this was her “comeback” she really needs to rethink the direction she going in…and her management…and, most importantly, her priorities. Once you’ve been at the top of the pop culture world I guess it’s hard to accept that no one gets to stay up that high forever and that climbing back up after a precipitous fall is possible but extremely rare (are you listening, Michael Jackson?)

Britney Spears is going to do what she wants to do…and that’s her right, of course… but unless she needs the money really badly (and reports are that she does not) she might want to think about getting her personal world in some kind of order before she tries to re-conquer the pop world. It’s just a thought.

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My other little corners of the interweb:

Creative Writing: Bread and Roses

Comic Books: Suspending Disbelief

Interesting Sites and Images: StumbleUpon

Live 8

MTV and VH1 are taking a do-over on Live 8. After getting taken to school by, of all things, AOL last week, the "music" networks are trying to make amends this week.

I don't have that many good things to say about AOL (I'm still praising my cable TV company for getting high speed internet service so I could kiss the big A goodbye years ago) but their coverage of Live 8...with simultaneous feeds and, as far as I could tell, no service problems...made MTV look like a dinosaur (the same way MTV made radio seem hidebound and old-fashioned in the early 80's.)

On the other hand MTV's "coverage" (simulcast on VH1)...with its incessant commercials, the neverending blather from their insipid talking heads, and, worst of all, the truncated performances...was all but un-watchable.

Having been slammed all week (as well they should have been) by critics and viewers, today (Saturday) MTV and VH1 are presenting 10 hours of Live 8 highlights...10 hours of commercial-free, VJ-free music with complete, uninterrupted sets by various singers and bands that performed.

Better late than never, folks.

On a related note, I'm glad that Bob Geldolf and Bono were pleased with...and kind of taking credit for*... the 50-billion dollar aid pledge that the "G-8" nations promised for Africa over the next 5 years (double previous pledges) but I reserve the right to remain skeptical until those pledges are turned into actual aid on the ground. We shall see.


*Personally I'm dubious that President Bush, Prime Minister Blair, and the rest of the leaders really took Live 8 all that seriously though if they did pay some attention it's all good.