MTV -- the ultimate source of music videos and pop culture -- has been around for 25 years now. And that amount of time makes for a lot of memories. So in recognition of the entertainment MTV has offered over the years, Indystar.com, Indiana's #1 local media site, takes a walk down memory lane and counts down 25 best MTV memories. It's fitting that many of the memories include actual music -- although some may say MTV is not really about music anymore, with music videos hard to come by -- so Michael Jackson's 1983 14-minute video Thriller makes the list and so does the 1985 performances of Live Aid, a conglomeration of musicians who sang to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia.
But many memories are not recollections of music videos -- or even musical performances. They are nostalgic remembrances of other media events -- like a kiss between Madonna and Britney Spears during an award show, the running of the popular Beavis and Butthead show and Remote Control game show, peeks into spring break extravaganzas, and roof-raising reality shows like The Real World and The Osbourne's.
And even one socially-conscious piece that aired to raise awareness of testicular cancer. On May 23, 2000, wacky, stunt-pulling comedian Tom Green let viewers into his private world, in an operating room while he underwent surgery to remove a cancerous testicle and several lymph nodes. Green survived the surgery well -- and he is surviving cancer still today -- and his public handling of a serious disease goes down in MTV history as something truly memorable.
My mom just wished me a happy birthday and said she recalls vividly the days of June 19th and 20th -- way back in 1970. She remembers June 19th because she was admitted to the hospital on this day and June 20th because this was the day she gave birth to me. Her own birthday is just two days from now -- but it is my birthday that is more memorable, more joyous, more etched in her mind. And so it is not my birthday -- today -- that evokes emotion in me or makes me feel nostalgic about the day a life was born. The days my own two babies were born -- January 3 and May 30 -- are the birthdays that are most powerful for me. These are the days when I personally pushed two big boys into the world -- and for me, that is a cause for a celebration. 
