When "I Love the '80's" hit VH1 awhile back, I thought, "Yeah, I suppose it's about time that we began to revisit the events of my youth in a retrospective, nostalgic way." I enjoyed the series immensely and began to find myself waxing poetic about events that I felt were far enough in the past to join the warm, fuzzy memories of yesteryear.
When VH1 followed up with "I Love the '70's" I though, "How appropriate that the '70's receive the same treatment that the '80's received since most viewers of the '80's series probably remember at least a part of the 70's."
Then a somewhat troubling trend followed that I've been noticing more and more of lately: we began to celebrate the nostalgia of events whose ink is barely dry in newspapers and magazines. While I enjoyed "I love the '90's", I had to wonder whether we really needed to take a fond look back at the years that produced pop culture references that are still in regular use. I started to see it happen more in specials ranking the most influential people of the last century (I believe it was just the century and not the millennium) including the likes of Princess Diana, who did some good things and was a pop culture personality, but to include her on the same list as Albert Einstein...
I started to see it on web polls: "Where does last night's game rank on the list of all time great (insert sport here) games?" How can we be impartial judges of such a question with the final buzzer still ringing in our ears, the adrenaline from a great finish still pumping in our veins and the soda (beer) and chips we ate while watching said game are still working their way through our digestive systems?
VH1, not to be outdone in celebrating "the nostalgia of the now" then began their "Greatest Week Ever" series with a lot of the same personalities from their "I Love the.." series presenting (in the same style as "I Love the...") a nostalgic look back at the past week. Absurd? Yes. They are presenting a retrospective on events that haven't even played out yet, in some cases not giving due process to legal news before presenting what their impressions are as fact. Yes, I realize that bloggers do the same thing at times, but blogs usually allow you to post responses that can keep a dialogue rolling about a topic that gives it a less final feel.
Well, this week brought news of yet another nostalgic absurdity. I pulled the following off of Relevant Magazine's site:
Though only 30 years old, The Aviator star Leonardo DiCaprio received the lifetime achievement award from the Santa Barbara International Film Festival ...
Somehow I think we should wait until after Leo's fourth acting Oscar, second directing Oscar, third marriage, term as president of the Actor's guild and fourth decade in the business before giving him a lifetime achievement award.
If we were to apply similar criteria, other artists to receive lifetime achievement awards from movies and music would include some of the very same people that were featured in "I Love the '70's" and "I Love the 80's" as "remember that guy?" moments.
Peace
