Highlights from the MTV Video Music Awards

From the MTV story:

Britney Spears, outfitted in a black leather cap and matching thigh-revealing dress, introduced birthday boy Michael Jackson and presented him with a tiered cake. She referred to Jackson as "the artist of the millennium," and Jackson, sporting his once-familiar gold-plated shin guards, thought he actually won an award by that name, though no such award exists.

That news apparently didn't make it to the New York Times, which wrote that "Mr. Jackson had appeared earlier, accepting an award called Artist of the Millennium; which millennium was not specified."

Again MTV: Pink's "Get the Party Started" nabbed two of the three awards it vied for ... "I wasn't expecting this," Pink said, sporting a new tattoo on her left arm and leg. "I'm too drunk for this," she slurred, looking sloppy and tired.


And my favorite bit: It's impossible for all 21 VMAs to be doled out during the program's three-hour broadcast, so, like most award shows, a few are distributed before the televised portion.

"(American Idol) is to 'Star Search' what modern quantum physics is to Newtonian gravitational equations."

Robert Thompson, head of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University, in a story
on CNN

Now there's a quote. When you can get Ed McMahon and Isaac Newton in the same story, that's a good day.

Finally, a useful application for the Internet

A student at Brunel University in England has hooked a DSL connection up to a toaster. It checks the weather report every day, and burns a little picture into your toast: sun, clouds or rain.

Now this, I would buy.

My company moved my office around, and I'm now sitting next to a bunch of sales guys. Endless pitching: "let me tell you more about our newsletter service..." and cursing when people obviously give them the brush off.

The guy directly next to me plays the radio all day, just loud enough so that I can hear it, but just soft enough so that I can't tell what's playing.


And the chatter. Lots of chatter about the most mindless, banal stuff (hey, I just write about mindless banal stuff, I don't force anyone to read it).

A representative sample:

"Hey, does anyone know who XXXXX Henderson is? She sent me email"

"Maybe she's Florence Henderson's daughter (muffled giggle)."

"Who?"

"Florence Henderson. From the Brady Bunch. (laughter)"

"Hey was that show set in the 60s?"

Gosh, it's almost like I've got a table at the Algonquin.