In an email exhange with my good friend Emily today, I had a realization: I currently enjoy Britney Spears more than I ever did U2's Joshua Tree album. And it isn't prurient; I like mass-market girl-sung teeny pop better than self-satisfied earnest relevance rock from any decade. I like U2's "fuck off we're rock stars" period better than their Amnesty International stint, which I guess they're going back to, to the delight of all their aging, bloated fans. I didn't like Pearl Jam for the same reason. Just as a side note, is that why Eddie Vedder mumbles all the time? He wants to seem important, but doesn't have anything to say? Just a thought.

I think U2 only made us feel important in the 1980's. Meanwhile, the pop songstresses who perform the soundtrack of what I've christened "The New Me Decade" were busy being born, trying on their mom's make-up and trying out their cock-teasing performances with friends who had the bad luck to put on weight and not make the Mickey Mouse Club. There's a moral, somewhere. If we keep it up, maybe it'll be The New Me Millenium.