Tuesday, June 30, 2020

#BLM Art and Former Statues

The thing that got me interested in the Monkees, even as a young kid, was the idea of history. All these references to things I had yet to learn. And then as I learned, I saw the pattern that every generation tries to remake or destroy the generation prior to theirs. The 60's were the template, the ultimate idea of the teenagers who don't trust anyone over 30 (knowing full well that people age). America was formed in rebellion.  Every day now seems like history, with pandemic numbers at absurd highs across America (We have 1/4 of the world's deaths, with only 4% of its population).  Where I live, MA, today was the FIRST day of no deaths from Covid since March. And yet, the police violence hasn't stopped, which is why the protests haven't stopped.  And why people are taking to the streets, seizing whatever power they can.  Social Media turned onto the real world.

Not only have there been gorgeous murals going up around the world in support of Black Lives Matter, but they are also painting the streets themselves. Black Lives Matter in huge letters, visible from space, or at least from small aircraft.

And the statues, ALL the statues seem to be coming down, all the ones which lack compassion.  And even the ones of old men, who might be on the good side of history.  In these days, it is better to rethink everything.  Even those who fought, did they not fight hard enough?  Did they do everything and we are still stuck in this world? Would their ghosts be fighting for change, along with the protesters? 

I imagine the ghosts on the better, more equitable side of history, cheering on the living.  All the energy (both living and dead) are contributing to the new world.  And even the ghosts with regretful pasts, are changing their minds.  Even they can change their minds, even they can fix things for the better from the grave.  

All the souls in the world want mercy for the future.

Even in Portugal,there is a sense of reckoning.  The idea that "Portugal is not a racist country" has been brought up again-how can the country which started the slave trade and commissioned histories to define the hierarchy of races- Prince Henry the Navigator has lots of statues-but we must now understand who he really is.


Sunday, May 31, 2020

Protests: Then and Now

I was going to write a post about what a bummer it is to have the Mike and Micky Show postponed due to Covid (although we want them and us to stay safe). Or mention how sad it is that MeTV has taken the Monkees out of rotation, in favor of more Andy Griffith and Love Boat. Just taken them off their broadcast slot on Sundays at 5 and 5:30.  One never knows who might accidentally discover or rediscover the show; people still click through channels on TV.

Replacing a slightly subversive TV show with absolute pablum and the glory days of the 1950s-the kind that never existed-this would have been enough.  But America is going through especially dark days.

As a tag-interview sequence to one of the Monkee shows, the Boys discussed the Sunset Strip "riots", about teenagers having a curfew-a bus was turned over and caught on fire. Daily Nightly and For What It's Worth are 2 songs that came out of that night. And then there were Vietnam protests. The camaraderie of Woodstock (and drugs and music) helped the white youngsters feel like they had the power to change the world. And in some ways they did. 

Before that (and in parallel) were the lunch counter protests, Martin Luther King Jr.'s marches, and even Malcolm X and the Detroit Riots.  Looking back- these 2 movements were so racially divided. The white teenagers in those years understood that things were getting bad and reacted in large groups-African Americans chose their tactics carefully.  And the police turned dogs and firehoses and (insert cruelty here) on the African Americans.

This past week, there was yet another African American killed at the hands of police. Someone else had been murdered while jogging, A white woman called the police because she had her dog off leash and was upset to be called out on it by an African American birdwatcher. There have been peaceful protests because America is having a moment right now, it is insane and this is our reality and it is impossible to take.  Protests have turned ugly, infiltrated by angry white groups-who are eager to incite violence, to light fires, to get the police to respond with violence.  

The country is leaning into an ugly part of itself.  It is hard enough for us to survive a pandemic, but this brutality visited on African Americans directly by the police is impossible to take.  And so many were outraged when the protest was simply taking a knee. Better for a football player to kneel in respect than a policeman on the neck of the country. 

Love is understanding. Violence is the opposite of that; sometimes love is not enough. Let's hope this revolution turns into a deeper understanding and a better America. Where we can love one another and treat each other with respect, equally. All of us. A more perfect union indeed.

Thursday, April 30, 2020

Monkee News Amid Covid-19

The Mike and Micky Show has been recorded and released. Reviews are in and it is an amazing recording mix, capturing the best of the live performances. That's the good news.

Middling news includes the scheduling of upcoming shows.  Originally scheduled for April of 2020, they were rescheduled to later in the year, July/Oct, etc. But we will see.  As of now, the end of April, there is talk of "reopening" the economy after 45ish days of Stay-At-Home orders differing from state to state. But reports from places that have opened up again indicate that infection rates have gone up as more people begin interacting again.  So when will we begin feeling comfortable hanging out in crowds again?

And the bad news, we've just hit and surpassed the number of deaths that we saw from the war in Vietnam.  So many people have been hurt by the sickness and the death toll: friends, families.  And Adam Schlesinger passed away from Covid on April 1st.  This whole thing has been a horrible joke, not limited to April Fool's, and it is not funny.  And it does not seem to be ending any time soon.  That's the worst news of all.


Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Adam Schlesinger has Corona

Adam Schlesinger is on a ventilator with the coronavirus.

He produced the past two Monkee albums (Good Times/Christmas), and has had excellent taste throughout his career.

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2020-03-31/adam-schlesinger-coronavirus-covid

Personally, I know LOTS of people who are sick nowadays, know of a few people who have died-and someone I was directly friends with.  Lots of my friends who are sick are trying to journal about their symptoms, if they can.  Only rich and famous people can get tested. Everyone is hiding in their houses. Everything is surreal-beyond all the sci-fi stories. Things are weird.

I don't know about you, but this is the best time EVER to escape into old TV shows and Netflix.  Health and happiness to everyone reading this. Especially to everyone in the Monkee family & fandom. Love is everything!

Saturday, February 29, 2020

Heavy Monkee Month: Remembrances

February has turned into a salute month.  There was a Monkee Fan Gathering to celebrate Peter's life in Connecticut. James Lee Stanley was there, as well as lots of fans and vendors. The spirit is still alive. Beyond the show, beyond the music, there is still something that brings people together over this band name, this brand, this emotion that is associated with the Monkees.

And there are a slew of Peter passed on Feb 21, 2019 and Davy died on February 29, 2012.  Samantha Juste (Micky's 1st wife) died February 5, 2014 and Phyllis Barbour Nesmith (Mike's first wife) also died in February (2010). Naked Persimmon did a nice salute-giving everyone a week of posts on their Facebook and Twitter feeds.

Since February is generally a cold and grey month, it is highly fitting to take this month to celebrate the good people who have passed on, There is plenty to be sad about in this world (including divisive and destructive politics, coronavirus, and the fall of the stock market-and that's just this week!) It seems like a rare psychological treat to have a way to emotionally remind yourself of the beauty of laughter, of time traveling back to when you thought you were in love, or safe, or wherever your subconscious mind goes when you hear or see a picture of the Monkees.

Better to have loved and lost. (Imagine all those people who NEVER had this kind of love in their lives?)


Friday, January 31, 2020

The Possibilities of Future Media

I've been working on a project about the Monkees TV Show which will someday live in VR/AR and for research-last weekend, I attended the MIT Hackathon about XR, actually called a Reality Hack.

 I crafted and scripted the narrative about Desegregation in Miami in 1957-specifically a story about Frank LeGree and how his family had picketers outside his house, threw rocks and eventually erected a cross on his front lawn-all in order to get him out of a neighborhood.

The video of the AR experience we created is here: https://youtu.be/C6w3e4wqwfk

Our team would love to do more with AR and explore this and other stories of America's growing pains further. Desegregation of schools, different neighborhoods in large cities i the 1950's. Life for a growing country and how that time period brought forth change that is still unresolved today. 

Connect that period with When They See Us-and #OscarsStillSoWhite and you will see how America still exists in black and white for so many people. The best part of the Hackathon was the idea that so many different people could come together to build a new reality. One in which the only judgments issued are on a lack of imagination.