Brightest Young Things

MTV turns 30 years old today.  While that makes MTV a daddy in gay years (Wubba Wubba Woof!), my own daddy was a preacher and wouldn't allow me to watch the Devil's channel growing up.  I had to sneak it, like the time I went over to my cousin Amy's house and got to see my first video - the Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams."  Her parents were Methodists and, like all Methodists, were a little loose with the rules.

For those of you who didn't have to sneak MTV as a kid, what are your favorite memories? Share them in the comment section.

Here's what I'm doing to celebrate:

1) Remembering how I first realized that I was gay when I watched Eric Nies shower with his gay roommate Norm on the first season of the "Real World".  I didn't tell my girlfriend Becky, but god that episode later helped me through the 1990s.  Nies would go on to host "The Grind," thus becoming the only "Real World" castmember to not move back in with their parents after the season wrapped.

2) Wishing Mark Wahlberg would call Marky Mark and ask to bring back his body.

3) Calling my friend @DJTravLuv at MTV and asking him to create a reality show where both Julie Brown and Downtown Julie Brown live in a house where SHIT GETS REAL.

4) Pouring one out for Kurt Cobain.

5) Taking style points from Cindy Crawford.

6) Posting on Facebook about how mind-blowing Guns N' Roses' "November Rain" was back in the day, and how all we could talk about in art class was how Axl Rose played the freaking piano in it, and that there was Slash outside of a church and Jesus and rain, and how we were gonna ditch school to go see the their show all the way in Tampa, and how we were gonna totally do it, and how "no were were gonna totally do it for real" if we could just find a kid with a car, and then we never did.

7) Grabbing my Remote Control.

8) Toasting the cold stone ginger bitchiness of Tabitha Soren.

9) Choosing between boxers and briefs (For some reason YouTube does not have footage of this famous MTV "Choose or Lose" segment with Bill Clinton in 1992.  Although, the soundstage where they filmed it is now the Harris Teeter in Adams Morgan, so you can totally shop there and think about it for yourself).

10) Smugly smiling when I remember the day that Carson Daly's smug smiling face retired from the network.

Previously in BYT Guides:

• 5/4: The Bourgey Guide to Guacamole
• 4/9: What to Wear to Work - Spring Edition
• 3/30: BYT STYLE GUIDE: SPRING/SUMMER 2012!!!
• 3/26: ARTS Guide: Spring/ Summer 2012
• 3/23: Creative Cocktailwear: BYT + Corcoran ARTINI 2012
• 3/22: Theatre Guide: SPRING/ SUMMER 2012
• 3/21: Food Guide: Spring/ Summer 2012
• 3/20: MUSIC GUIDE: SPRING/SUMMER 2012
• 3/19: FILM GUIDE: SPRING/SUMMER 2012
• 2/29: I Spy: A Movie Marathon