So, against my better judgment, I decided to stay awake so I could watch the launch of SpaceShipOne on TV. If you don't know what it is, go read CNN or something. I'm not runnin a flop house for people who don't like space nerdy stuff here. Hundred Kilometer mark's about to get busted.

Anyway, I had to find something to occupy my eyeballs that long, and that ended up being hopping back and forth between VH1 and MTV. The bright colors and flashing lights keep my pupils dilated, you see. Anyway, it occured to me that the summer anthems are cropping up. This summer's already got its main one - Switchfoot's Meant to Live.

Perhaps I should explain what I mean. Generally I don't slave myself to popular music, and most of my collection is made up of stuff you don't find on any broadcast radio stations. But, I don't have the typical snobbery for radio pap - it has its place. It's fine. It's especially great during summer, for some reason - the RIAA moguls know how to time these things so that songs really tie themselves to the summers they get big in.

As such, I tend to adopt one big radio song each summer as the anthem for that summer. I decided for my own amusement to compile a list. I couldn't limit myself to just one for each year, and some have more than others. This is mostly an exercise in nostalgia, but it allows the random internet populace the opportunity to judge me based on the top40 stuff that has dripped through my crap filter and managed to become sentimentally significant to me.

So without further ado-

95 - Matthew Sweet - We're the Same, Gin Blossoms - Hey Jealousy, The Magnificent Bastards - Mockingbird girl, Sarah MacLachlan - Posession
96 - Butthole Surfers - Pepper, Nada Surf - Popular, Filter - Jurassitol
97 - Prodigy - Narayan, Forest for the Trees - Dream, Deana Carter - We Danced Anyway, Ben Harper - Faded, Third Eye Blind - Graduate
98 - Alanis Morrissete - Thank U, Madonna - Frozen
99 - Train - Meet Virginia, Smash Mouth - All Star
00 - Cowboy Mouth - Easy, Soul Asylum - I will still be laughing, A Perfect Circle - 3 libras
01 - Dave Navarro - Rexall, All Saints - Pure Shores, Vertical Horizon - Best I ever had, Eve6 - Here's to the night
02 - Chad Kroeger - Hero, Tommy Lee - Blue, Incubus - Warning
03 - Counting Crows - Big Yellow Taxi, Creed - One last Breath
04 - Switchfoot - Meant to Live, ...

Oh, and while I'm talking about MTV, the new Beastie Boys and Linkin Park videos are really neato, but what's up with them leaving off the white text? That's like the bread and butter of music television. It's the "It's time to pay the price." It's Snaggletooth's ",even." It's Farnsworth's "Good News, Everyone!"

Bunch of crap.

Well, I guess I'm gonna go watch some doofus in the Mohave for a bit while they delay the takeoff.

[elevator music]