When You Least Expect It, Expect It

What has an examination of the video evidence finally told us? If there is one theme that emerges from the collective experience of the MTV generation, perhaps it is this: the most appropriate time for a dance craze, the only appropriate time, in fact, is when there is absolutely no call for dancing. One could blather on endlessly with the extrapolations and extensions into areas like cartoon logic, the itch factor in time experiments, how tricksters remade the universe in their own image using the rising tides of chaos, cooking, wack fashion statements and some other interesting scientific discussions, but suffice it to say that the unpredictability factor is part of the fun of the new paradigm, particularly for the jokers of the previous one. What happens to carefully laid plans when the web upon which they were woven decides to sing another tune? (Boom.) Shaken or stirred the metaphor cocktail is subtle but deep.