aruan | 'cause girl you've got the love I need

Oh, man. I'm never reading another magazine when it comes out again - they're so much better a few years down the line! Like some bizarre wine/cheese combination, they age both gracefully and pungently, but the content is ever so much more fun with a bit of ironic distance and hindsight bias. They did call it on Beyonce though, who apparently wrote eleven out of sixteen songs on Destiny's Child's The Writing's On the Wall, which, wow.

So, to share in my joy, I now take you on an illustrated journey back to a more innocent time, all the way to the year 2000! (February Teen People edition)

La Spears, looking a bit different from the girl/woman of today, is on the cover:

This should come as a shock to exactly no one who didn't live in the bowels of the Mariana Trench that year. She is also featured in every single non-human-interest story, from fashion to beauty tips to contests, and of no surprise again is her having won most every music award in creation in every country, ...Baby One More Time being No. 1 in fifteen countries simultaneously, and my jaw just keeps dropping at the details of the rest because I wasn't into popular culture when all this was happening but my god, how did I miss it? I was in high school, for pete's sake, the supposed hotbed of all that is trendy and pop. I didn't watch the news much, though for the amount I watched The Tonight Show, you'd think I would've run into one or some of them along the way. However, those years were about relationship dramarama, theater productions, and partying for me, so playing catch-up it is.

The article also mentions Justin's Model Behavior (still tentatively titled Cover Girls) being set to air on the 20th of the month, though, and for real surprisingly this time, makes no insinuation of anything between the pair. The reporter actually talked to Britney about music, fame, her upbringing, and artistic direction, which seems pretty progressive for a teen magazine.

More on the fads front, J.Lo was still stooping to advertise cosmetics not her own, Pink was still pink, kids were nuts over Curve fragrance, the Toyota Echo was making its debut (is it still around?), I was supposed to be wearing white leather and glitter absolutely everywhere, we were looking to oust such names as Pearl Jam, Winona Ryder, Tom Cruise, Adam Sandler, Julia Roberts, and Keanu Reeves and replace them with Creed, Rachael Leigh Cook, Freddie Prinze Jr., Jason Biggs, Jennifer Love Hewitt and Josh Harnett (respectively, and good god my eyes hurt from how hard I'm rolling them), and young girls were still being given tips on how to imitate Christina's look rather than fear it:

Beyond basic black! Heh. Not for too much longer.

Mostly, looking at this stuff now, I'm just very glad my formative years did not consist of these inane, shopping/makeup/trend-obsessed drivel, that I read gothic romance novels and watched The X-Files over playing with Barbie dolls and learning to line my lips at the age of thirteen. I came into these magazines at doctor's offices, the occasional one I bought for whoever was on the cover, and friends at school, so they weren't a way of life, and I think I'm better for it.

Next up is Star Tracks, where we encounter the Boys:

Aah, golf. Mostly though, it's all about Nick in a backwards cap and the AJ/Kevin in the background. AJ's looking all faux-contemplative, his left arm conspicuously out of sight, and Kevin's biting his lower lip. Mmmhm.

Then Lance, in a picture very similar to one to be taken three years later at the same gala. He's an admitted horror movie buff, and Universal does put on a good show for the month of October (three-month delay, remember):

And finally, a picture of Justin and Keri Russell with matching hair! Bwah!

The caption mentions Keri being in D.C. for VH1's Concert of the Century - anyone remember if there's truth to that advertising? Also, Justin was apparently there to meet with Bill & Hilary about the foundation, so there's the timeline of that conference.

Moving on, under Star Woes, Justin tells the story of breaking his thumb in Germany, which would put that event at mid/late-1997. They used the picture with the gray sweater, black slacks, short platinum-highlighted hair and ginormous bling that reminds me so much of my brother at that age, it's eerie. In a tongue-in-cheek-funny way, he describes it as, "It just [went] pop!" Teehee. "It was during our last song, so I kept going. I walked around and held the mike with my left hand, and I was like, [singing] 'Hey - ow! - tearin' up my thumb!" Oh, our brave little popstar.

Your event calendar for the month:

3rd - asks you to remember that 1,000 people die from eating disorders a year
6th - there's something called Take Your Daughters to the Slopes Week for snow bunny moms (uh, okay)
10th - check out Elijah Wood's newest, The Bumblebee Flies Anyway, premiering on Starz
14th - Valentine's Day kicks off National Condom Week
15th - make sure to set your alarms on the 15th to get up for the Oscar noms to be announced at 5:30 a.m. PST (big hurrahs for living on the East coast in this respect)
18th - pick up The Cure's Bloodflowers which comes out the 18th (and mad props for noting that, Teen People!)
20th - Brian Littrell is "larger than life" at 25 years old (maybe he spent it curled up with Justin's movie! *g*)
23rd - the Grammys
24th - "That original swinger - Tarzan - is available on video."
25th - The Beatles' first radio single "Please Please Me" (and is it just me or is that a pretty racy title for the time?) tanked on radio in 1963
29th - it's a leap year! Except I remember distinctly people saying that it wouldn't be. Hm.

This was giggle-inducing to come across, to say the least. It's like they did a spread called 'Justin Timberlake's Dating Scrapbook' with future-telling capabilities:

The results of Teen People's second-annual Readers' Choice Awards:

Best New Artist - Christina (who wants to know where her flying car is, too)
Best Boy Band, Musical Act With All The Right Moves, Milk Mustache (???), and Music Video - The Backstreet Boys (I forget sometimes that Backstreet were also Just That Big. There were a couple of group shots of *NSYNC in here, but it wasn't their world yet.)
Best Celeb Facial Hair and Most Creative Coif - A.J. McLean (heh)
Best Summer Tour - *NSYNC (with Five and Jordan Knight)
Dream Duet - people were already pulling for those precocious Mousketeers
Favorite MTV VJ - Carson Daly ("I am honored and humbled to have been chosed two years in a row by you as your fave MTV VJ. Your opinion means more to me than anyone else's." (Carson, your massive toolery aside, I love you lots and want you to know three people can't do half as good a job as you on TRL)

Waaade! When he was still known for choreographing (You Drive Me) Crazy (and why am I the antithesis of surprised to learn that):

Apparently, Chris and Joey got hold of him, too, in their red-dye rampage.

And our featured school of the month? Dr. Pepper High School! Better known to most as Dr. Phillips and immortalized for its "Most Famous Grad," Joey Fatone, it was founded in 1987 and is located a whopping 50 feet from Universal Studios! Look:

How cool is that? Anyhow, according to a Theresa Fererri, "Everyone fits in somewhere," referring to the wide curriculum of courses in the ninth-largest public school in Florida, everything from performing arts to marketing management to medical programs. Karen Rugerio, whom you'll remember from Driven as Joey's teacher at the school, boasts about alums "[opening] doors for each other," as demonstrated by Joey last year with his stint in the glorified community theater production of Grease.

And I thought this was a cool picture, too. A little incongruity's always a good time. Also from Dr. Pepper High:

Wrapping things up is a J.Lo retrospective (already?) I love the picture on the bottom right of her and Puff Daddy. The caption says, 'These days, Jennifer, 29, is burning up the lines with her boyfriend, Puff Daddy.' Note what they're doing:

And wow, that's a sure sign the mag's dated - I think the Puffster has gone through at least three names since. It felt weird just typing 'Puff Daddy.'

I was otherwise productive today as well, sorting out my bathroom and throwing away some old clothes, in the process finding the first dress I ever remember men looking at me like that in. I was fourteen. The hem hits a little above mid-thigh now and is a bit more snug on top, but that it still fits almost perfectly makes me a happy, happy girl.