Gen X Guide To The Universe

This week Heather and Jameson take a break from MTV and return back to the best films of the 1980s with this very special bonus episode as they talk Top Gun! The duo are joined by Top Gun aficionado and actual pilot, Matt, who can recite this film line by line, literally.

This film features a lot of shower scenes in addition to world class flying and some confusing sex scenes. Oh, and volleyball. 

Heather has a new idea for Gen X Only Fans with Matt receding Top Gun whilst standing in a shower wearing tighty-whities (thanks, Matt!). 

Eddie weighs in on Top Gun via text, why is the movie so white and so straight? Why is everyone so sweaty in this film? This episode is long but distinguished (just like my johnson). 

Heather has Matt and Jameson watch a Kenny Loggins video from the Top Gun soundtrack, but Jameson refuses on the basis of the lyrics. 

You can watch the trailer for the new Top Gun, Maverick, here: https://tinyurl.com/mt2k2wjr (films comes out next month!).

Heather and Jameson are again joined by guest star and trivia king Eddie Jones (who’s essentially the third co-host at this point) as they talk about Pop Up Video this week! Pop Up Video is an actual music program that ran on MTV’s sister station, VHI, which focused on the “softer side” of pop music before turning to the dark side of reality television. 

Heather, Jameson, and Eddie watch a bunch of Pop Up Videos with their delicious “info nuggets”.  Jameson finds a way to connect Spice Girls to that survivalist show he loves. The trio try to figure out which came first, Lisa Loeb or Daria? 

Eddie offers a Yelp review for various Cameos (we’re looking at you, Lance Bass). Jameson shares his magic podcasting tips to grab music from YouTube, follow him for more pirating hacks. 

Heather appreciates all the info nuggets about nipples in Madonna’s music video for Vogue. And the trio offer up their own info nuggets that would play for their music videos. By the way, listeners, you’re not losing your mind, March Madness is indeed over.

Grab your spy kit and get out your blacklight, time to talk about Room Raiders!  Jameson and Heather are joined by the unofficial third podcast host Julie and the trio welcome a new special guest, Michael Satow, who was a contestant on the first season of Room Raiders. Michael recounts his awkward adventures as a MTV star as he searched the bedrooms of three potential mates (hello, blacklight!) and his kinda famous moment as everyone recognized him from the show when he hit the mean streets of Boston for college.

Heather is still salty over two bad reviews. Jameson fills everyone in on everything we didn’t know about Zac Efron (check the article here: https://tinyurl.com/3ammr89m) and suggests everyone watch Zac run wild with Bear Grylls here: https://tinyurl.com/593paww2. And Jameson and Zac Efron are essentially the same person, so ladies, slide on into those DMs.
 
Julie picked the Top Countdown video this week, and everyone gets caught chasing Waterfalls as Julie raps for us. And if anyone sees Pauly Shore, have him call Heather and Jameson, they have a guest spot waiting for him.

Shocker, more reality shows on MTV! Heather and Jameson are joined by expert elder millennial Eddie Jones this week as they discuss MTV Cribs, which took viewers on exclusive tours through the homes of celebrities. Everyone agrees Cribs is boring now as social media provides a constant intrusion in celebrities’ lives.  The best of Crib’s included Missy Elliot’s race car bed, Solange living in the garage, and all the fools who passed off other people’s homes and possessions as their own (hey there, Robbie Williams!).

Heather can recall the interior of Britney’s entire home from memory thanks to Instagram, Eddie asserts social media was founded by children, men and sociopaths (he’s not wrong though), and Jameson was practically neighbors with 50 Cent as he lived in the “Greenwich of the North”. 

Eddie ushers in the first of the Britney videos with “If You Seek Amy”, which is hella Swedish. In other Eddie news, he uses the word “begat” correctly in a sentence and hosted a version of Cribs for his company during the pandemic.

Grab your tanning oil and toss some Boone’s Farm in the Igloo cooler, Heather and Jameson are on spring break!  Well, not really, but this week they explore MTV’s annual Spring Break coverage beginning in 1986 in Daytona Beach, Florida with a week of live broadcasting for eight hours a day. Eight hours a day, people.

Jameson recalls fond memories of riding quads with his grandma on the beach in Florida and Heather is still salty about some podcast reviews.

Both Heather and Jameson are disgusted by foam parties and wet t-shirt contests, and rich kids wasting their parents’ money on tropical beaches.  Jameson shares the story of a cool new prehistoric crocodile found with a chicken-sized dinosaur in its stomach, read more about this Listen to this Shit here: https://tinyurl.com/373m6n9z. 

We finally add more to the Venn Diagram of Heather and Jameson in terms of “foods they will try”.  Jameson has Heather watch a wildly entertaining music video by The Beastie Boys. 

Until next time, Heather can be found at band practice with Julie, just counting the days until “No Adult Supervision” is called to open for John Mayer.

Heather and Jameson take a break from MTV this week for this very special bonus episode as Gen X Guide to the Universe turns TWO! Celebrate Gen X Guide to the Universe’s anniversary as our favorite Gen Xperts recall their journey from a galaxy far, far away with Star Wars to some basement in New Jersey with MTV.

Jameson misses watching movies while Heather describes the podcast’s character as “organized structure rogue”.  The duo reflect fondly on growing up in the 1980s, as Jameson’s dad would record Celtic games over confirmations and other major family events.  Heather and Jameson talk about their favorite guest stars (psst, it’s you, don’t tell the others) and decide who’d they leave the podcast to in their will.

Oh, also, stop what you’re doing and check out guest star Dagan’s music here: https://daganmusic.bandcamp.com/.

Heather and Jameson end the debate on which generation can claim the recent Super Bowl halftime show (Generation X, there’s no competition), check out the argument here: https://tinyurl.com/3wrkz85w. 

Spend time listening to Snoop narrate Animal Planet and tune in for some fun Gen X Guide to the Universe facts from Jameson. Thanks for tuning in, here’s to another two years, or more!

Heather and Jameson are again joined by superstar guest Eddie Jones as the trio discusses the teen pop music scene of the late 1990s and early 2000s.  Airplay of rock, electronica, and alternative music took a backseat as boy bands and pop princesses took over MTV (thanks TRL!).   

Dropping knowledge, Eddie talks about the distinct sound of this style of music coming out of Sweden with Max Martin, in which the lyrics never need to make any damn sense.  The trio also talk about the elephant in the room, as mentioned during the TRL episode, the lack of attention to and airplay of black artists at this time, leaving us to ask yet again: MTV, why so white?

In other podcast news, Jameson got a discount on a new disc golf bag, Heather is not shopping at Kohls, and Eddie challenges Jameson to recall the writer of Crossroads (Shondraland for the win!).

Jameson pays homage to Shackleton during Listen to this Shit in honor of the recent discovery of his ship, the Endurance. Check out the article here: https://tinyurl.com/4jhvjkyj. Eddie takes charge of Top Countdown again with U + Me + Us (Calculus) by 2Gether (check out the video here: https://tinyurl.com/2p85d36x).  And of course, Gen X might have jumped the shark with the mention of Nickelback (everyone has to drink now).

Heather and Jameson welcome back pop culture and lifestyle icon guest star Fawziah to talk about Total Request Live, or as the kids call it, TRL.

Originally hosted by Carson Daly,  TRL featured the most requested videos of the day during a live (well, not so live) countdown while musicians, actors and other celebs stopped by to promote their work.  Everyone complains about the bubblegum whiteness that was TRL and how no one seems to get through to TRL or radio contests in general.

Though, Fawziah once got through to Hot 97 and Jameson won Shakira tickets (well, a friend did, but same same), so there’s hope for us all.  Everyone offers up appreciation for the hotness that is Dua Lipa’s dad (stop what you are doing and Google that man).  We give way too much airtime to Tom Green and Heather wants everyone to watch Ali Wong’s new Netflix special (Don Wong).

Jameson offers up some awesome internet hacks (go to https://www.dialupsound.com/ right now), follow @GenXGuide for more life hacks.  Fawziah has everyone watch the timeless and classic music video for “The Boy is Mine” by Brandy and Monica, which gives us some major early 2000’s vibe.

Catch up with Fawziah on her blog, Foozy Does (https://www.foozydoes.com/). 

And for future reference, there are 5280 feet in a mile.

In honor of misery girls everywhere,  Heather and Jameson take on Daria,  an animated series on MTV from 1997 to 2002 about an unpopular, intelligent, cynical, and sarcastic teen tolerating the morons at Lawndale High School.

Jameson self identifies as a combo of Daria and Kevin the jock, while Heather identifies most with young sister Quinn.  Both love the theme song, “You’re Standing on my Neck”, not to be confused with Heather’s Only Fans theme song, “You’re Standing on my Dick”.

Read more about Daria’s legacy for weird kids everywhere in this Bust magazine article: https://tinyurl.com/yc7ze2vz

Jameson is still very excited about disc golf while Heather may or may not be experiencing baby strokes sprinkled throughout the podcast (she’s tasting nickels or licking pennies, maybe both).

Jameson explains the difference between old Helens and new Helens (hint: avoid the young ones and avoid horse girls while you’re at it).  Jameson gets super pissed off about Jewel and dazzles us with a story about the world’s smartest 9 year old (https://tinyurl.com/y8wweb38).
 
In other podcast news, Jameson’s brother and his partner Marty got engaged.  And happy birthday to Heather’s brother and belated birthday to her mom. 

Catch you all in self esteem class, bring the square crackers to share around!

This week Heather and Jameson are joined by the one and only Dan Cortese as they talk about MTV Sports.  Dan recounts his adventures from his time as host (and incidentally, own production assistant at times) of MTV Sports, which aired on MTV in the 1990s and featured extreme sports all over the world.

Dan talks about the origins of MTV Sports and shares his stories in which he nearly BASE jumped off a bridge in West Virginia, went ice driving in Sweden, and ran with the bulls in Spain.  Dan acts as the unofficial ambassador of Pittsburgh and Heather and Jameson convince Dan he needs to watch the groundbreaking film, Rad.

For more fun with Dan, check out his recent and hilarious memoir, Step Off: My Journey from Mimbo to Manhood on Amazon (or wherever you buy books): https://tinyurl.com/5n8zxtak.
 
Aside from basking in the glory of having a special guest who is not only a bonafide celebrity but has actually been on MTV, Jameson has Heather watch Eye of the Tiger (hello, mullets) and the Gen Experts decide what “extreme sports” should be featured on a 2022 MTV Sports reboot.  You know, lawn darts and horse dancing, all the extreme sports.