Mostly dead-eyed boys with their shirts off

[pensnest]

Settling in for a bit of knitting this evening I found that MTV was doing a boyband countdown. As I happened to hit it at the very moment (#32) when Nsync began to sing Bye Bye Bye I let it run. My goodness, that was a dreadful quality video. Reminded me of the copy-of-a-copy-of-a-copy songvids we used to watch at Camp.

Next up, the Take That underage porn shoot on the beach. Dear me. Backstreet showed up shortly afterwards with As Long As You Love Me, and then something called MN8 arrived and stated that they have a little something for you (and it is cock). Okay, that last bit is not *actually* text, but it's way beyond subtext.

O-Town: a box of rocks in human skin. They look utterly devoid of intelligence. East 17—WTF have you got on your head? McFly next with a 5 Colours song which I liked, and whoever it was singing I Swear, nice vocals, lads. Well done.

Five more dead-eyed boys with their shirts off.

Ah, yay! Werewolf, mummy, mad scientist, vampire, and whatever AJ is doing. Best video so far by a long chalk.

Oh. My. God. The Osmonds. How wholesome! Their hair, so abundant, so... bouffant. Their white suits. Their unironic white bow ties. Back in the day, I believe Jay was my favourite, but I cannot now identify him, nor quite believe I had a favourite. Ahem. Oooh, choreo—yes, they swapped mikes. How the girls do scream. Well do I remember the Thursday evening when, with 49 of the 50 boarders watching Top of the Pops together, someone was inspired to fiddle with the contrast knob until all that could be seen on the black screen were five sets of blindingly white teeth. Happy days.

Take That, with a 'retrospective' clip show video. Never Forget? Blue, All Rise, I enjoyed. Nice lyrics. Smarter than the average boyband offering.

Ah, Nsync. Girlfriend (Jesus. Why?) This time, a video of fabulous clarity. One can practically count the frizzy hairs on Justin's chin. I am reminded of my continuing bafflement at why young Timberlake was so much adored, when JC, Chris, Lance and Joey were also in the room.

I don't suppose I'd ever seen Busted's What I Go To School For, but the video made me grin.

Boyzone, now at number five. Why yes, some of the intermediate entries were indeed forgettable. But the voices are good in this one, even if the lyrics are dull.

Backstreet at number four with I Want It That Way. Quite right.

One Direction, What Makes You Beautiful. Always liked that song. Catchy. Unlike Westlife's Flying Without Wings which was soporific. And, at the top of the list, Take That getting wet in a more sophisticated way this time, Back For Good, in the rain. Good song. Best boyband song ever? You decide.

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Anyway, I got my two reducing rows done. The rest of the yoke should progress quite swiftly now.

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Madam Sable is undergoing a personality adjustment, now that she no longer has a top cat to boss her around. She is become very vocal, starting from about an hour before supper time. And she is getting quite good at giving headbumps to my proffered fist. This is cute, and often earns her cheese.

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I have been watching some Jamie Oliver programmes of late, and finding that I want to cook practically everything he is making. I did "fish and chips" for lunch today: cod in breadcrumbs-with-bacon-and-olive-oil, potato wedges. It is nothing like the experience of eating fish and chips, but pretty tasty. I wonder if I can get kimchi in Sainsburys.

Comments

[dine]

oh, that does sound like entertaining background TV! the boyband love lingers, doesn't it?

[tielan]

*dies laughing at your boyband countdown commentary*

Having major flashbacks to some of those videos! And yeah, I rather liked BSB's Backstreet's Back and Larger Than Life for the weird thematic thing going on in each video. Although I have fond associations of All Over Again (possibly Westlife?) and If I Let You Go so me twenty years later is like "dear heavens that's sappy, but *glowy memories*".

[frausorge]

Yay for the classics!

Headbumps sound very friendly. I hope Sable continues to find a new equilibrium.

[brandywine28]

As you may imagine, I have thoughts about these rankings. But mostly I'm just giggling over a box of rocks in human skin. God, but it's the truth.

That's exactly what Hugo did when Aloysius died! It took him about a week to figure out that there wasn't any more competition, and then when he did, his personality morphed and he became wildly, swaggeringly alpha-tastic. He's still like that. Truly, the bossiest creature I have ever known.

[rikes]

Take That getting wet in a more sophisticated way this time

Ahahaha! Somebody should do a video countdown with nothing but boybands getting wet in various ways, there would be plenty of those alone!

[pensnest]

I have to admit it was fun semi-watching them. Quite a few of them were cute, generally speaking the not-brain-dead ones.

[pensnest]

I wasn't really interested in boybands during my actual teens, vague approval of Jay Osmond notwithstanding, but once a popslasher... it never quite goes away. My favourite Backstreet video ever is the eighties hair band one for I just want you to know, but the In Space one and the monsters are also faves.

I suspect all of them are gilded by the passage of time!

[pensnest]

It's most interesting seeing her change. I haven't quite figured out *why* the headbumps, yet, but they are adorable.

[pensnest]

*So* many of these groups of boys looked like well cleaned up zombies, seriously.

It is very interesting watching Sable develop. I miss very much having two interacting cats, and I wish I had video'd the two of them intertwining and zip-unzipping as food is delivered. But, still. Sable is doing well.

[pensnest]

Yes, indeed! It would be hilarious, and freakily brilliant.

*tries to remember whether Nsync get wet, and if so, what they are singing*

[rikes]

They're under/in a waterfall in the For The Girl Who Has Everything video! I could remember the waterfall very clearly, but it took me a second to think of the song.

[pensnest]

Lord, I don't even remember the video. But I am getting old.

I am beginning to develop the thesis that it is a mistake for managements to put together intelligent boybands. Once in a while it probably works out, but then you get lawsuits and such. A better formula is to locate a selection of cute boys capable of remembering a lyric and rudimentary choreography, keep them together for the length of a teenage girl's attention span, then move along. Which would explain a lot.

[rikes]

IMO it's such a terrible song that the video never got really played much at Camp or anywhere...

[kateoftheangels]

something called MN8 arrived and stated that they have a little something for you (and it is cock)

No, really? Heh. Here is where I confess my love for Take That, and my ability to recall every single lyric to "I Want It That Way". Have you seen their 2020 socially distanced version? Backstreet have still got what it takes.

[pensnest]

Heh. Well, the dancing was fairly explicit even if the lyric hedged a bit! I was shocked, shocked! to see such things.

I seem to have learned to love boybands rather late in life, but have great fondness for several. Backstreet's socially distanced version is rather adorable, although I *could* express surprise that Brian has not volunteered to go out and catch The Plague in homage to Trump. Probably unfairly, but still.

[turlough]

Watching boybands and knitting sounds like the perfect way to spend an evening. (We should totally do this at Camp! With the all-wet-boys like rikes suggested :-)

That's so interesting to hear about Sable's personality development. Lancecat doesn't do headbumps but he's very fond of getting his chin and ears scratched.

[pensnest]

Yes! We could teach the non-knitters and watch wet boybanders. An excellent plan.

I *nearly* got a snuggle this evening. Sable and I were sitting on the sofa, she at the far end from me, but she decided to be bold, and came over and stood between my knees... but then decided she wasn't quite ready for that level of intimacy and went back to her previous spot. Little steps.