Saturday, January 11, 2014

Why Would A Monkee Attend the Conference? Why not?

I hate to send you to a link without a story, so here's a link to Mike's announcement (why does it sound like a slight apology?), what he posted on FB, as posted by the good people at Naked Persimmon:

http://nakedpersimmon.tumblr.com/post/72894541589/the-official-word-from-the-man-himself

And if you are following them, you'll also get their reaction, the best of which is also on their Tumblr, and I quote:

"Nez’s first-ever Monkees Convention, the reality is that there is the potential for things to either go really, really, well…or really, really badly. Which way the pendulum swings will be contingent on a number of factors, of course, but should things end up going south, we do not think it will be because of Nez. "

He seems to be acknowledging the "collector community", which personally, he gets.  He feels slightly awkward about being asked for an autograph and feels bad saying no.  I will point out something here that I think NP was SHYING away from *GASP*.

He hasn't publicly discussed how he will approach the "female fan vibe", which I felt permeated the 2013 Convention. That aspect goes beyond the "autograph seeking" and "personal moment" and even the "fan fervor" that accompanied Monkeemania, circa late 1960's.

Which for me begs the question, how much entertainment can a person get being one of the featured acts at a Fan Convention?

How many people want to wait in line for hours for you, for their 5 minutes, photo and autograph-and how do you somehow make a personal connection with them-and help make "whatever their fantasy is" come true?

Difficult job.

Sometimes the applause and money and adulation from random strangers is just not worth it.

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****UPDATE 1/12/14****

From "The Real Peter Tork" on Facebook.  The responses to this post are full of fans' support, encouraging him to "take care of himself" and acknowledging his support for his fans in the past.  If anyone has ever been to a Shoe Suede Blues event, he always makes himself available for autographs (more so than any of the others in my experience).

"Regarding the 2014 Monkees Convention and whether or not Peter will attend, Peter currently has a personal scheduling conflict and is not scheduled to participate. If there are any updates to this information, we will post it the moment we hear anything. In the meantime, we ask that you please respect Peter, his friends, family, and your fellow fans. Many thanks for your understanding ~ptfb team"

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