Annual Monkee Bday Holiday

The annual Monkee holiday is a great opportunity to figure out how to clean out the old and make room for the new. I always try to play the episodes and/or the songs-to have them on in the background while I clean. Or frankly, just watch them again during the breaks.

On Facebook, people keep sharing pictures of both Mike and Davy. Mike is still in shape for touring and has been reading chapters from his books and becoming a bigger presence on social media. Mike keeps aging nicely-but this year (and probably every year), there is a growing gap between where Mike is . . . and where Davy would be.  With Peter's loss this year, there seems to be more of the past frozen in time. Mike and Micky still have potential to create new surprises for us. And somehow the Thing will never die.

I don't have much more to say. Other than, Happy New Year!

Considering the Monkees and the Beatles

Gathering my thoughts together to compare the Monkees and the Beatles, similarities, influences, and where they differed. Huge difference between Season 1 and Season 2-parallel to early Beatles and late Beatles (dividing line is Headquarters/Sgt Pepper)

Other thoughts include the following, to develop into a larger paper:

The existence of the Monkees TV Show (1966-1968) was a direct result of Beatlemania.
The concept of 4 musicians struggling to make it as a rock band for TV had been proposed
prior to the British Invasion, but not until 1965 was the series given the go-ahead and proved
to be a sure fire moneymaker. The Monkees band has been named the “PreFab Four”
and have often been unfairly dismissed as mere copycats.However, there is a lot
of evidence of respect and positive influences between the two groups. 

Lennon called them The Marx Brothers. Nesmith was invited to the recording of “Day
in the Life”, Dolenz wrote a song mentioning the “four kings of EMI”. Harrison invited
Tork to play on his Wonderwall album. The Monkees pilot literally has a character taking
a shot at a photo of the Beatles, in the final episode the Beatles’ song “Good Morning”
appeared-which was an unusual precedent for any Beatles song to be used in an
American sitcom.  Visual gags, camera shots and photos echoed the style of
Richard Lester and Hard Day’s Night. 

But the long and winding road of evolution would led each band down different paths.
The Beatles capitalized on their musical success by appearing in films as themselves.
The Monkees were created and developed as a TV Show before the music came into play.

Toronto Counterculture Conference: Me, Madison Williams and Angela Davis!

So, there is an amazing event happening in Toronto the first weekend in November.

As part of the 40th Annual Toronto International Festival of Authors, they are having a conference especially dedicated to the 1960's aspects of counterculture.

It's officially called The (re)making of a Movement: New Perspectives on the 1960's Counterculture and I'm presenting at it.  What's more, I'll be presenting a talk about Six Degrees of Monkees and the relationship map I'm creating. <insert fangirl scream of well-earned pride here>

The official description is below. I'm on after Angela Davis. She's a tough act to follow, but I hope to channel all my (nervous) energy into being inspired by her.  Additionally, my talk will be followed by Madison Williams, who will be speaking about HEAD (see below)! 

Very happy to help represent the Monkees and their importance in the counterculture movement of the 1960's!

==

Counterculture on the Radio & TV

Nov 2, 2019 | 1:30 PM - 3:00 PM | Main Loft

Tammy Rose, MBA, MS, User Experience Research Lead

Six Degrees of Monkees in a Relationship Map of CounterCulture

The Monkees phenomenon involved music & a TV show, and an unusual amount of connections that make it the center of American counterculture. Despite being dismissed as bubblegum, from 1965 to 1968, the brand encompassed a wide variety of non-commercial memes from Vietnam protest references to Frank Zappa to their most infamous masterpiece, the movie HEAD. An extensive relationship map visualizes any and all references to people, works and concepts to the Monkees. Almost anyone working in Hollywood prior to 1980 can be connected to the Monkees by a low number of degrees. Sex, drugs and rock and roll as well as cynicism were regularly snuck into America’s living rooms and fed into the minds of children.

Madison Williams, BA, University of California San Diego

Can You Dig It?: The Monkees, the Alienation Effect, and the "Epic Album" HEAD

Bertolt Brecht describes his interpretation of alienation as hindering the audience from “simply identifying itself with the characters in the play. Acceptance of rejection of their actions and utterance was meant to take place on a conscious plane, instead of, as hitherto, in the audience’s subconscious”. While alienation can be achieved through many modes, Brecht emphasizes that the “radical separation of the elements” of music, words, and production and invocation of the “strange and surprising” are necessary for the audience to be spurred to critical thought, and eventually, political action. The epic theatre techniques used to invoke these reactions have evolved and transformed over the years to be applied to countercultural art beyond stage performance. In 1968, the music group the Monkees embarked on a journey of self-destruction that culminated in the release of their film HEAD. An under-examined performance project originally deemed a failure, HEAD satirizes and critiques the Vietnam War, the Monkees’ teenybopper fans, the film, television, and music industries, and the group’s own commercialization. HEAD’s soundtrack is an album that itself utilizes Brecht’s idea that rather than being drawn into the world of a performance, audience members should be forced to think critically about the enactment of the world before them and use the drama to critique their own societies. Using a close reading (and listening) of the tracks along with archival research, I demonstrate how the HEAD soundtrack functions as a mode of alienating performance and is a key example of the interdisciplinary form “epic album”, achieved through the Monkees’ utilization of the verfremdungseffekt, or alienation effect. The Monkees and “album coordinator” Jack Nicholson utilize sound collage, didactic and gestic lyrics, and even the packaging of the album itself to create a feeling of “strangeness” in the listener. By estranging themselves and their listeners from the typical commercial pop album, the Monkees use the HEAD soundtrack as an attempt to destroy their commodified “pre-fab” image and force their audience to think critically about their identities as passive consumers of media.

The Really Amazing Thing About Ed Sullivan's February 9, 1964 Show!

Let's start by talking about the obvious reason why this show this night was important. 

Davy Jones.

He had just hit Broadway in OLIVER!, fresh from the West End.  On his opening night in America, Judy garland took him to the roof of the theater to look out at the city lights.  "This is all yours,' she said.  The night on TV was his first exposure to America, and America's first exposure to the Artful Dodger.  His song was "I'll Do Anything", which seems to set the willing tone of his attitude for the rest of his career.

Another great performer that night was the impressionist Frank Gorshin, aka The Riddler from the Batman TY series starting in 1966.  His IMDB Number is 142, so he was in a TON of other things-but not the Monkees. NOTE: he is NOT to be confused with the impressionist David Astor who played in "Monkees on the Wheel" and had a James Cagney faceoff with Dolenz.  They are definitely the same type. And poor David Astor probably got confused with the RICH David Astor-British newspaper publisher and member of the famed Astor family.

Buried in this cavalcade of stars was Toni Basil's family, she was due to be the Monkee's choreographer just a few years later.  Her family was showbiz all the way, performing most of their act on the show here. She also went on to have her own Gold record with the smash hit Mickey in the 1980's, and to choreograph the Playboy Bunny Mansion dance scene in Once Upon a Time . . . in Hollywood.

Oh, and there were some boys from Liverpool.

Okay, so there are SOME TV Critics who will ONLY mention this one night in Ed Sullivan's career, trying to reinforce the night that changed music as the night that changed America. Despite the fact that Sullivan had already been active in show business for 32 years. And certainly had enough cache to create a show full of exciting acts-more than just the single event he may be remembered for.

So yeah, yeah, yeah. There's that.

John Brockman's HEAD and His Network: Including Jeffrey Epstein

One piece of the Monkee spiderweb extends into the network of Modern Art culture, and a certain man named John Brockman, a self described Cultural Impresario. Also, Editor/compiler of 30 books, creator of the Edge Foundation, Literary Agent-representation including Michael Nesmith, Friend of Jeffrey Epstein & Intellectual Enabler and more. But someone like John Brockman-someone who had actively managed to grow a network during his whole career- knew the nature of what was going on, and encouraged the seedier side of things. Back in the 1960's, it was common knowledge that women were treated as objects (and worse) especially by the rich & famous-NOW at least, society is recognizing and calling it out.  Even if justice is still elusive.

But Monkee fans know him as THIS guy:

The head of HEAD, not to be confused with Headquarters. 

(He doesn't have anything to do with either, actually)

 On his own website, Edge.org, he begins to discuss his involvement with the poster as he stumbles upon himself in the hallway of the Museum of Modern Art, the description for the artwork is below:

Brockman describes his involvement:

"The original b&w poster, the basis of a national ad campaign by Columbia Pictures, had nothing to do with my own head. (But then, neither did the movie). It was based on the cropped photograph of the screen of a television set in the Columbia studios in Burbank on which the one-minute version of the silent movie trailer of my head was playing. In the mylar version, the viewer sees his or her own head reflected while looking at the silk-screened image. Same also on the record album cover I designed using mylar. The press missed the point; but the art world certainly got it."

For what it's worth, he makes note of Some of the Corpses are Amusing and includes screenshots to the page about HEAD.

Mike had even posted on Facebook about connecting his fans' responses to his Literary agent:

"I just sent it off to an agent, John Brockman, to see what he could do with it as far as getting it published. He is a long time friend, and a remarkable character (he did the ad campaign for “Head”. That is his pictures on the poster!). 

I enjoy his company and like him a lot. I know he will shoot straight with me. I also know it is hard to get things printed these days in the world of no print presses, so we shall see.

You can help by sending him an email and telling him why you think they should be printed – or why you think they should not, if that is what you think.

It’s hard to know just which summer beach books might work and which wont. If you comment here you can just cut and paste an email to John — brockman@edge.org — with “Michael Nesmith updated his status” in the subject line – that’s the name of the book — so he can get a look at some of the comments the idea of this book has received over the years."

He also made a guest appearance in the 1997 special.  (Photos courtesy: Corpses)

And he's a fascinating man -as he will tell you himself, especially if you read the copy on his website about the goals of his career and how he named Edge.org, which seems to be a combination TED Talk support group, Think Tank, LinkedIn for the One Percenters, and the world's top mover-shakers-influencers.

"To arrive at the edge of the world's knowledge, seek out the most complex and sophisticated minds, put them in a room together, and have them ask each other the questions they are asking themselves." -from the Edge.org About Page

It includes a thing called "The Billionaires Dinner" which brought together many academics (including Steven Pinker) with prominent billionaires (Ricardo Salinas $13.7 bil), and tech giants (Sergey Brin & Larry Page $4.8 bil) The photo below is from the dinner in 2013.

To quote from the article published by the New Republic,  Brockman views the network he has created as maybe his greatest achievement.

 "He is no mere literary agent; he is a true “organic intellectual” of the digital revolution, shaping trends rather than responding to them. Would the MIT Media Lab, TED Conferences, and Wired have the clout and the intellectual orientation that they have now without the extensive network cultivated by Brockman over decades? I, for one, very much doubt it.
Lately, John has been in the news for other reasons, namely because of his troubling connections to Jeffrey Epstein, the so-called financier who reportedly hanged himself earlier this month while facing federal charges of sex-trafficking. Epstein participated in the Edge Foundation’s annual questions, and attended its “billionaires’ dinners.” Brockman may also be the reason why so many prominent academics—
from Steven Pinker to Daniel Dennett—have found themselves answering awkward questions about their associations with Epstein; they are clients of Brockman’s. Marvin Minsky, the prominent MIT scientist who surfaced as one of Epstein’s island buddies? A client of Brockman’s. Joi Ito, the director of the elite research facility MIT Media Lab, who has recently acknowledged extensive ties to Epstein? Also, a client of Brockman’s.

Based on my observations over the last decade, his whole operation runs on two simple but powerful principles. First, the total value of the network (and thus his own value) goes up if the nodes start connecting to each other independently of him. Second, the more diverse the network, the more attractive it is to newcomers as well as to all the existing members. "

Which leads us to the Jeffrey Epstein connection. Again from the article:

"... it seems clear that Brockman was acting as Epstein’s PR man...
Edge Foundation’s (publicly available) financial statements suggests that, between 2001 and 2015, it has received $638,000 from Epstein’s various foundations. In many of those years, Epstein was Edge’s sole donor. Yet, how many of Edge’s contributors—let alone readers—knew Epstein played so large a role in the organization?"

There is an old article, surfacing again, called the Prince and the Perv-Prince Andrew walking in Central Park with Epstein AFTER JE had been convicted of sex crimes.

Brockman is the source of the quote that has been reprinted in several of the articles (including New Republic & from the Guardian below), where he overhears "Andy" (PRINCE Andrew-thank you very much) complaining about how he can't party after-hours:

“In Monaco,” he says, according to Brockman’s account, “[Prince] Albert works 12 hours a day but at 9pm, when he goes out, he does whatever he wants, and nobody cares. But, if I do it, I’m in big trouble.”

In the Guardian, Mariana Hyde brings up the hypocritical view of men who traffic in this kind of world-and yet hold a different standard for their own daughters and refers to Arthur Miller's All My Sons:

"They suggest the kind of man – and we’ve all met them – who has a two-tier view of the female sex. There is a world for their daughters, hopefully insulated from men like their friend Jeffrey, and then there is another world for the girls who service their friend Jeffrey.

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Yet decent, humane people know there aren’t two kinds of women and girls – there are just women and girls. I’m reminded of the climactic line in All My Sons, where the wartime profiteer Joe Keller has been finally made – by his own son’s suicide note – to see how his actions were responsible for the fate of so many other young men. “I think to him they were all my sons,” Keller reflects. “And I guess they were. I guess they were. "

What do you call the person who encourages someone like Epstein? What is the larger cost of building a network like this, that goes deeper than any of us can possibly imagine, especially among the top influencers of the world?

Thoreau/Twain in Concord, MA

And now for something completely different.  I wrote a play, NOT about the Monkees.....

I'm happy to report that the performance of Thoreau/Twain: Brothers in the River for the Thoreau Society was a tremendous success.

Brent Rinalli, Tammy Rose and Joel Hersh

The main performers were Brent Rinalli, who has been in and around Concord giving lectures and historical interpreting as Thoreau for the past few years and Joel Hersh, a local actor known for his varied musical ability-played Twain.

The main conceit of the show is that an Academic is trying to summon the spirits of the authors, to have them discuss a major, and underexplored parallel of their lives.  Both of them had a deep relationship with a brother on the river of their childhood, and both of them lost that brother to a sudden event. This happened before either of them began to write-but both found inspiration in their brothers and documented the influences strongly in their writings.

The authors -who had never met in real life- get deep into conversation, about their lives, commonalities they share-and especially their brothers. Most of the text of the play is taken directly from journals, letters and the formal published writings of the authors-and their contemporaries. They argue with each other using their own words and get a chance to recount a major emotional moment in their lives. (No pop-psychology or therapy here-the drama comes directly from their own words and existing texts).

Thanks to the Thoreau Society and to all the amazing and attentive attendees!  Especially those who took pictures and gave me feedback on new areas to explore between the two!

And extra special thanks to my fellow Tourguides who make all the research and the entire experience of Concord SO MUCH FUN!!!

The Beginning of the Beginning: Shooting of the Shows begins in 1966

When did the Monkees actually begin?

Was it when Rafelson was dreaming of turning his adventures with his 3 young friends on a sailboat into a story? (Can we sing? Sure-we can do anything!)

Was it when the ad was placed? "4 Ben Frank's types. Must come down for interview"

Was it when the pilot was being shot? Or its first test flopping with audiences? And then recut and green-lighted? (Include the audition scenes, and then we can tell who is who)

Once upon a time, on May 31, 1966 to be exact, the cast and crew gathered at a farm to begin shooting "Don't Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth". The gate was locked & the farmer was nowhere to be found. Knock it down-they said, a new fence is a couple hundred dollars but shooting costs $100,000 a day!!

And so they got to filming, and they shot more shots than any other shoot ever shot. Thus began the legend. The wheels began to turn, the camera cranked and the machinery of 2 years swung into motion.

I still don't know what the VERY first shot of the day was, or what day they shot the "Early Morning Wakeup" scene-but there is genuine sunrise in the distance as the farmer gets the confused boys up to do the chores.  The best lighting is natural lighting, the kind of dawn that money can't buy. Whatever rumors of artificial assembly were floating in the ether-were they a copy of the Boys from Liverpool, or the Boys of the Beach? They had to make it on their own. From here on in-it was up to them to make it happen.

For Bob Rafelson's memory on the Monkee's Live Almanac, go here: https://www.monkeeslivealmanac.com/blog/rafelson-on-filming-the-first-monkees-episode

Davids Bowie and Jones: How Do Fans Forge a Connection? CONTEXT

David Bowie died a few years (days?) ago, and although I personally never felt any deep personal connection to him or his music, it touched a nerve for so many of my friends that gets me thinking.

The morning after it was announced, my entire Facebook feed was literally filled with people in shock (like a close friend/mentor/rock god) had died. There were the waves of shock, yes, but then the waves of "here's how I connected with him", or "here's how his music turned me on to my current artistic taste/persona".

I saw people making connections between his style of shape-shifting to Lady Gaga's, or even to the current pop-cultural awareness of transgender people (who had been doing it long before, but now it seems o be something pop-culture seems to embrace, rather than thinking worthy of insult). NOT Madonna, who seems to be an exact parallel in terms of wanting to reinvent herself continuously, but who is now out of the spotlight and coolness, (more of a parallel to Hillary now).  Also her ascent to power seemed to be a "lust for fame".

I don't understand what it is that has NOT touched my own heart about him.  I like his SONGS, well enough, but I am not EMOTIONALLY INVESTED in his "character" or his "characters".

Which is the sign of the exact moment of my musical education being past his maturity (I first heard of him on V66, and he seemed like just another Rocker in his 40's-Bruce, Madonna, John Lennon (?), Huey Lewis, and he was starring in Labyrinth, which I never saw .  What is the connection between Elvis' and the Beatles' rise to success coinciding with the age/musical maturity of someone?  You root for them bc you get to convince your friends (be a "thought leader")

Micky and Mike and Magdelena Concerts

Micky always jokes about HEAD, and asks the audience if they know what it's about, and if they can explain it to him. It always gets a laugh.  But at the most recent set of shows done by him and Mike, there was a lovely deep dive into HEAD-which in and of itself feels like a good happy/high-low point in the whole journey. Beauty-diving in, being in over yr head, near-death, rebirth, mermaids rescuing you-feeling suspended in a very specific moment. That's the amazing experience that happens when I'm watching and listening-I get transported to my past self-but I'm very in the now.

I was lucky to catch some of the last few concerts.  Boston (Medford) and NYC (The Beacon). These were the rescheduled events from last year, postponed due to Mike's cardiac incident-and a perfect confluence of other emotional days. Peter's passing on Feb 21, the anniversary of Davy (Feb 29, 2012 for the record), and on the upside-Micky's Bday on March 8.

After all these years of attending shows, including Shoe Suede Blues, the previous reunions and incarnations, this felt like a great reunion of sorts for all of the fans-at least all of the familiar faces I saw in the audience.

And the show's set list was a love letter to the fans-alternating the big hits with more obscure yet well loved songs. I can't believe Micky seemed to miss a few lines from some Clarksville, but I was amazed at how Door Into Summer is a song about ME as a grownup business person.

I ran into Eric Lefkowitz after the show, who said he felt old. If anything, I feel rejuvenated-I feel like I had just dived into something timeless-a way to preserve & relive the memories and still be rescued by the mermaids.

Peter's GLOW

It's been about a week since Peter passed. I'm still in shock.


Most of the PT fans I know have been with him for the latter part of his career. That’s right-he HAD a later part of his career. Since the beginning of the 21st Century, he’s (he HAD-past tense), been playing in an amazing Blues band called Shoes Suede Blues.


He'd get on stage as an old man and play his music. And there would always be a moment where the music just takes off and becomes transcendent. I've NEVER seen a happier person, anywhere.

==

Watching ‘One Man Shy”-the 1st season episode where he falls in love with a rich socialite and is too shy to tell her. He steals her picture and learns how to “treat a lady” -with the lady’s help-during a (fantasy?) romp to “I’m a Believer”. The Boys help him out at the party when all he can think to discuss is the plot of Hamlet. REALLY! Honestly, a Danish prince, “and then his mother drinks the poison-and SHE dies”. The joke is not that he DOESNT know what Hamlet is, he is just too nervous to recap it well.


He was the only one who had taken any college courses; he had dropped out but later was given an honorary degree. He came from a family of teachers and moved back into his parents’ house in Storrs, CT-near UConn, where his father had been a Professor of Economics.


In the episode, after The Boys play their best roles as a stockbroker, tailor and captain of his yacht, he admits that its all a lie-but the girl gives him the Mr. Rogers Line: I like you just the way you are/for being yourself.


“Me?”


His response is that of a young actor, surprised and sweet and eager to love someone who loves him. He's a good actor, but that moment is good because he's not polished at pretending.


And then there were years of a fall from fame, the Monkees sacrificed at the altar of Raybert, in the name of Hollywood success-which they had granted (5 easy pieces/Easy Rider) but which has faded into film history.


His response is that of a young actor, surprised and sweet and eager to love someone who loves him.

He's a good actor, but that moment is good because he's not polished at pretending.


Then the 80’s-when they return AS OLD MEN-they were 40! (Saying that now, when lots of us fans have already hit our own mid-life crises, it’s too ironic) they are popular-AGAIN. And then they fade out again, periodic reunions, are they as good? Are they copies of the Beatles and why/why not?

I never understood the comparison. The Beatles never had a TV show-so they couldn’t have been as popular. (That was a joke, kid-except not). But also as a young kid who wanted the illusion of getting to know a favorite singer-the TV show offered time spent with the band. And granted, I KNEW their lines were scripted, but there were the moments in between, the improv, the fan interviews in the magazines, the reaction shots-SOME of that had to be real, right?


The Monkees TV show allowed us into their personas-which were close enough for crushes. Close enough, closer than any other music/tv personality. We felt like we KNEW them-and when they die, they take a piece of us with them.

===

He was modest in later years about his fame. He was just happy to be performing. And if anyone had felt awkward about seeing a “has been” or that copycat band or whatever-all doubts disappeared quickly as soon as the music began.


And then-EVERY SHOW-they would get to the BEST part. It was usually the second to last, when all the band members had fully warmed up, gotten into the groove, etc. There would be a round of solos, and during Tork’s solo-I swear-the heavens opened up. The music became the most beautiful thing in the world-everything and everyone was focused on every note-more present in that moment than they had been during most of their lives. And I could SWEAR, there was a glow coming from him. Not just a smile, not just the music, but a sense of complete command and focus. A person who made have been more famous, more rich, more whatever in other parts of his life-but THIS was what he was existing for. Creating music on that level and sharing it. Creating that kind of moment for others-completely selfless.

MERRILY! a Musical by George Furth (Ronnie/Henry) and Sondheim

There are a plethora of amazing supporting actors who have appeared on the Monkees TV Show, and several amazing writers.

If you don't know about George Furth, he was both.  Not only was he IN 2 episodes-the first "One Man Shy?Peter and the Debutante" was written by Treva Silverman-who went on to win an Emmy for writing for the Mary Tyler Moore Show. His performance in the episode is QUITE a showcase, and he is an evil delight to watch in every scene that he gleefully steals.
His next appearance, in the 2nd season, was "A Coffin Too Frequent"-which was otherwise notable for showcasing Ruth Buzzi (don't try too hard for a plot).  Sadly, there is no decent scene of them together-one of the MANY real missed opportunities of the series.

Besides this introduction to Monkee fans, he kept working as an actor (96 credits on IMDB!!!), including in Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid (he was no slouch!)

And despite having passed away in 2008, he is STILL WORKING! Or at least his words are! ;)

Currently, in NYC, you can see them being performed in the show Merrily We Roll Along!
https://www.roundabouttheatre.org/get-tickets/2018-2019-season/merrily-we-roll-along/

It's a story that is told backwards-an idea from the George S Kaufman/Moss Hart original.  We start with all the characters "old" and cynical. (Old being 43!) then we get scenes of how they got to be so unhappy, and finally, we end at their beginning-when they get excited about their futures.  Funny, seems to be the way a lot of people discovered the Monkees too. (Seeing them as middle aged men on MTV, talking about their glory days in the show-and the middle years being a question of unexplored scenes)

And this is sometimes known as Sondheim's big flop (when it was on Bway, it lasted 6 performances).  Don't feel too bad-their other collaboration was Company.