Nez's Thanksgiving

Quoting his FB post today, this is what he does the day before Thanksgiving, works on compiling his live album.  (Semi-advertising, semi-insight into his editing process)  You can't take a full evening performance, but he at least tries to use a whole song straight ("minimum meme" which sounds more profound than it is).

Back in California. Starting work on the live album. It sounded pretty good from the samples we listened to on the road. I'll start editing the best of all the versions of the songs and it will come out in January. It is only a limited edition and wont be available on Amazon or ITunes for a while.
The Super Deluxe is sold out and the Deluxe is almost sold out but there are a stack of the Standards left.
You can read all about it here. www.videoranch.com
.Live albums are hard to do -- so many things have to fit together -- and its not like taking a recording of one show and having that be the representative of all the live shows. It is almost impossible to catch all the subtleties and nuances in one show. We did 22 shows on this tour and I think there is a little magic in all of them. But it will be a long and arduous editing process. The band performances and the slight changes in the arrangements and the different reactions of the crowds make editing it all together almost intractable --- finding the one take where everything meets and melds just right.
Nonetheless I am going to try to leave each song as complete in one take as I can and try to use the whole song and performance as a minimum meme.
It may not work.
Then again, it might.
Like all Thanksgiving dinners -- one never knows. Just plenty to be grateful for.

Nez on FB-Hesitation

Another Post from Nez.  He takes a simple moment, places it into the context of his life on tour. And then he goes into marketing mode, talking about distribution and limited release.  No hesitation about going on this tour (as opposed to previous years when he couldn't face a cheering crowd).  Have I bought a ticket yet?

(Honestly, I hesitated)

"I asked the waitress at Over Easy in Scottsdale how the latte was? She hesitated a nanosecond and I said I’ll just have a cup of regular coffee. That was the better decision – the coffee was good and the breakfast was really good. I recommend it but I can’t recommend the latte since I didn't have it.

That little pause speaks volumes and I have learned to listen to it.

There was an entire movie made about it in the 30’s or 40’s but I can’t think of the name of it. She is standing on the street level at the foot of the stairs outside a brownstone in New York looking up at him and she says something like, “Do you love me, Johnny?” and there is that pause. Devastating.

Because it’s a movie the pause is longer than real life for dramatic effect – and in that pause her face falls and her shoulders slump. She knows he doesn't love her regardless of what he might say next. It would be even worse if he said “Sure, kid.” Or some horrible flip reply – like Nicholson’s response to Shirley McClain in Terms of Endearment –“I love you too, babe.” Again, devastating.

Fortunately is was only a latte this morning and not a life changer – but that little hesitation brought back so many moments like that in my life. In the blink of an eye everything is known; one of life’s little features to steer us down the right paths by just listening.

I’m in Scottsdale today to perform the “Movies of the Mind” opening show at the Musical Instrument Museum tonight. It is such a great facility. I am going over early to go through the museum with Chris Scruggs. Chris is on tour with me and Joe and Boh and Paul – and he is a real treasure of information about instruments and the history of music –Nashville music especially -- and he is a gifted player. (I hope you get to hear him in this band.) I think he will love the Museum so I am really looking forward to it.

Since tonight is the first night of the tour everyone’s heart is racing. Like the start of a great marathon or something. So exciting.

It’s sold out and that is always a thrill.

This will also be the first time that the Live album “Movies of the Mind” will go on sale.

Not the album itself but a card for it –like a Starbuck’s card or a Target card -- because I am recording every show for archival purposes and then I will select the best performance of each song and each narrative and create the Live Movies of the Mind album in three packages.

It will be a limited edition so I am going to make a total of a thousand copies.

The first package of 200 will be signed and numbered CD’s and have the complete best of the Movies of the Mind Tour 2013 – songs and narratives -- plus a vinyl LP signed and numbered and some other collectibles in a Super Deluxe Edition. (The first ten of those are reserved so the first one for sale will be number 11)

The second package will be another 200 of the CD’s signed with complete music and narrative and a t-shirt in a Deluxe Edition.

The third package, the Standard Edition -- will be a compilation of the all the music that will fit on one CD – also with a t-shirt.

After I select and edit everything I’ll master and produce and ship sometime in January.

You can find out more about it here: www.videoranch.com

and there will be sales at the merch tables at the shows.

We left Nashville yesterday in 28 degree weather and now we are sitting in the Arizona desert where it is 80. These fall tours leave it so one never knows exactly how to pack. I have gloves, a ski hat, and a bathing suit and flip flops. Austin tomorrow then Dallas – all sold out.

These tours have been great to do. The last Monkees tour was a blast. And now this one – my solo one –is even more fun.

No hesitation about that."

Michael Nesmith, FB post, 10/28/13, 4pm EST

Nez FB Post on "Spiritual Center of a Song"

Again, Mike posts about how he analyzes and views songs, songwritings and songsinging.

Oddly enough, I heard a much longer and more in depth version of the same topic on the radio this morning.  A program called "On Being" in a discussion with the Indigo Girls.  I'd love to hear Nez in a similar setting.

"There are few things in this world you can point to as metaphysical  Music is metaphysical."  I helped produce a benefit performance they did in Provincetown in the summer of 2012.  I was genuinely amazed at how they charged the air.  (Akin to what happens at Monkee concerts, but something deeper and transcendent somehow.  Like appreciating all of your current relationships & your world in the moment.  Monkees create perfect moments of Time Travel)

Here's his post from October 3, 2013, 9:59am.

I had a nice talk with Marc Myers at the Wall Street Journal the other day. He does a column called “Anatomy of a Song” and we were talking about Different Drum.

I tried to explain the idea of the spiritual center of a song, but I don’t know how well I did. 

When I do these live shows like the ones coming up in October/November I introduce the songs by telling a little something about the narrative they are set in. These narratives are the settings for a song -- like a gemstone is set in a ring or set in a bracelet. It’s not what the song is about necessarily but more how the song lives in my mind – like a mind movie.

The spiritual center is what gives the song its luster and color and meaning and informs the setting it is in. These settings vary but they all gather meaning from the songs.

I have written before how “songs sing us” – and that is more than a phrase. This ability to sing us is what makes a song live and breathe. Why we sing in the car and along with the radio and in an audience. A song takes us over in a specific way that causes us to let it sing -- one of the great features of a song, I think.

Mind movies are fun for me, too. They are a wonderful part of the creative process of song writing --bringing an idea into the world -- although creative process doesn’t quite describe the way a song comes to life for me. Creation is not so much a process as it is a discovery of something as it comes into view.

Songs start in mind as sound and rhythm with syllables and bits of words that may change as the song’s spiritual center starts to emerge and assert itself. The spiritual center forms the words that express it and the melody that surrounds it and at last the mind movie that sets it.

I’ve been hard at work writing down the mind movies for this coming tour. I’ll play more songs than last tour and it is great fun for me to watch these new mind movies that have been dormant – just waiting for the chance to come out and play.

I suppose each of us have a spiritual center of our own – what makes us who we are – our ethics and morals and character – our point of view and the settings we create for ourselves – the mind movies that become our experience.

All around me I see systems of ideas, each with their own spiritual center, creating these songs and mind movies -- creating life as we know it.

We start in Phoenix on the 27th. I can hardly wait.

Nez and the upcoming Meet & Greets on the Fall 2013 Tour

Last time, tickets were released in the middle of the night (12am on the West Coast) by email and many fans got upset.  Except the restless sleepers.  25 opportunities for up to 2 people (2 Nez objects and one Monkee for autographing) Tickets will be released September 21, at 9am (probably West Coast Time), check Videoranch here for more info.

 Naked Persimmon on FB posted this policy when it was announced and then did a follow up post about all the Haters who resented being charged.

"We here at NP would just like to take a moment to say that the “fans” commenting on Nez’s FB post about the Conversation Receptios seem to be some of the most ungrateful, entitled, awful excuses for “fans” that we’ve ever seen. *It does not matter* if the other Monkees don’t charge for meet n’ greets. *It does not matter* what other musicians do or do not charge for their meet n’ greets. It’s *Nez’s show,* he doesn’t owe anybody a damn thing, and the money is going to paying the venue, staff, and equipment that is needed for the meet n’ greet, though people clearly do not seem to realize this and instead have decided that Nez is nothing more than a greedy, money-grubbing, Monkees-hating bastard.

Frankly, if we were in Nez’s position, we would consider these people a terrible representation of Nez fans and would go ahead and cancel the Conversation Receptions altogether just to avoid dealing with them. Of course it’s unfair to the good, awesome, lovely fans (like you guys on here), but looking at those comments, it truly does not seem worth the hassle. Ugh…"


This time he's making them available on the Videoranch Website on Saturday.  (Like a normal performer)

Here's his post:

'm glad the Conversations came together. I enjoyed them last time. We cut the number of guests per show down this tour so I can have a little more time with each of you. I enjoy hearing what you are doing and learning about your interests.

These gatherings are better than standing around behind a venue or in a parking lot next to a bus. The environment is nicer -- warmer:) -- and its much more comfortable for all of us.

I am happy to sign any nez solo stuff that you may have, and happy to take pictures with you and yours if you would like that. There will be plenty of staff to help with that kind of thing.

These shows themselves are shaping up very well -- they are different from the Spring tour -- but I am keeping the best of the Spring tour and just adding a little more from some later work.

I am also trying to put together a live recording of this tour. That is an even bigger logistic problem than the Conversations -- but at this point it all looks very promising. The plan right now is to just make a few signed and numbered copies of this live show -- taking the best from each of the 19 dates -- then making a custom CD in a nice presentation case -- like the First Edition Rays -- with special art and an edition of a small and limited number.

It is very odd these days putting together a self-sustaining music effort -- as most of you know. The whole distribution chain has changed dramatically in the last few years and I expect it to change even more. I read with some sorrow and empathy Jonathan Taplin's tribute to Levon Helm after Levon died -- and must say I agree with his analysis of the state of the music "business" -- even thought I don't share his anger.

I think it is actually a good thing that the live performances have become such an important part of a music career -- sitting on a couch collecting royalties was never my idea of a good time. Live performance is such a wonderful experience and I am happy to be back and out among the stars. It is the most fulfilling aspect of a music career to me -- even though it is far and away the most difficult. Touring is almost like running a full marathon four times a week.

Thanks for the support. A few shows have already sold out and I am very happily anticipating seeing you.

It seems he genuinely likes meeting the fans and doing the live performances.  But no mention of attending next August's Monkees Convention.  There are already over 250 people who like "Bring Mike Nesmith to the Monkees Convention" on FB.