Fast Times

thanks to OATS, who sent me the following:

How exactly does one praise Britney Spears, "...Baby One More Time," and particularly its accompanying video without coming off at least vaguely lecherous? It's partly nostalgia, to be sure?pre-Justin, pre-Crossroads, pre-K-Fed, pre-"Toxic," pre-pregnancies, pre-pregnancy photo spreads...didn't life seem so much simpler??but it's also undeniably iconic. Britney's schoolgirl get-up belongs in the Smithsonian, somewhere between Marilyn's wind-blown Seven Year Itch dress and Janet's malfunctioned Super Bowl attire. The video's PG-13 naughty private school theme gels seamlessly with the song's puppy love histrionics, and the results are flat-out classic. Which is to say, no matter what stupid shitt our Brit does or says, we'll always have "...Baby One More Time." (Josh Timmermann)

the enduring allure and steadfast LOVE for TEEN CRUD, i wish i could be bothered to articulate it, i hope to one day. i remember being in my early 20s bopping up and down to a singles tape of la Brit, and bouncing with giddy abandon on the sofa in my underwear in a chelsea hovel. the world can go to hell in a basket. love will come and go. but T-C evokes a time loop i want to lose myself to.

and while i'm at it, let me just drop this in about WHY BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER IS THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH:

``And it is this, finally, which brings us the secret of Buffy's success: Despite the vampires and Satanic priests, the mermen and possessed ventriloquist dummies, "Buffy" is a classical format with a tragic heroine at its center. Buffy can see happiness, but never be truly happy. She can have friends, but never have intimacy. She can fight for a world she wants to live in, but will die before she gets much of a chance. All of which makes her a hero; that she's self-aware, that she understands her lot, makes her tragic.

That "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" showed us these tensions, the fears of loneliness, the power of redemption, the fleetingness of faith, makes it the best show ever on television. '' (Jonathan V. Last is online editor of The Weekly Standard.)

and The (Un)Bearable Darkness of Buffy

QUOTES:

"Believe me, I want to be here, do things. I want to graduate from high school, and I want to go to the stupid winter formal. I have this friend, and it would be fun to go with him. Just to dance and hear lame music to wear a silly dress and laugh and stuff. I'd like to go. There's a lot of stuff I'd like to do. I'd love to ice skate at Rockefeller Center. And I'd love to see my cousins grow up and see how they turn out 'cause they're really mean and I think they're gonna be fat. I'd love to backpack across the country or, I don't know, fall in love, but I won't. I just never will."
-- Cassie, a student at Sunnydale High who knows she'll be dead by next Friday