No Rock And Roll Fun

HOW DO YOU MARK A DAY LIKE 11-09-01+365?: Especially if you're American. However much the right thing might be to allow current affairs and news programming do their thing, and carry on pretty much as normal otherwise - maybe a couple of minute's silence - the world in general and the US don't seem to be able to turn their backs on the opportunity for a mawkfest. We're hoping that the claims Alan Titchmarsh and the Ground Force team will be in New York to do a 9-11 special is just a pixie-style joke; however, MTV's plans for the US are truly awesome - as in awesomely bad: In acknowledgement of that event, MTV will air special programming before and during September 11, 2002. On September 3 at 10 p.m. ET (9 p.m. CT), MTV News Presents "After 09.11: Pop Life Goes On." From David Letterman's tearful return to the airwaves to NBC's "Playboy Centerfold Fear Factor" during Super Bowl halftime, the show examines 12 months of popular culture's highs and lows. "Pop Life Goes On" then takes a swing at predicting what's on the horizon. What, if any, lasting impact will last year's tragedy have on the zeitgeist?
So, in effect, they're treating the ninth of September like the first of January, doing a twelve month retrospective. About stuff which has very little to do with the plane crashes. Unless there's some thesis we've yet to hear which suggests that dropping maggots down the cleavage of bimbettes is somehow an act of national cleansing. Of course, there may be a programme in taking all the claims made mid September 2001 that "popular culture will never be the same again", lining them up against a largely unchanged pop culture background, and asking "why were those predictions so wrong?"; maybe even if those predictions were wrong in scale, even if in direction (is it just us, or are there suddenly a lot more than a lot fewer films involving scampering about over the New York skyline right now?) - but this isn't it. Doing a lame clips show isn't a tribute, and if the best angle you can come up with is I Love The Period Since The WTC, maybe doing nothing is the best idea?