m is for mike

mike nesmith. i know some people love to bag on the monkees, and i can appreciate where they're coming from, but i will defend michael nesmith. along with peter tork, michael was an actual, true, struggling musician when he auditioned for the television show back in 1966. he was newly married, hungry, with a baby on the way, and his laundry apparently in his car when he came in to try out. all of the songs that mike wrote for the monkees were exceptional. ('sweet young thing,' 'papa jean's blues,' and 'mary mary' were among some of his best-known early monkee efforts. ) in their later records, after they'd won the right to play their own stuff, he bloomed into an eclectic, creative, and daring songwriter. post-monkees, he burst into a prolific songstress. his 'first national band' and solo recordings are rare and wonderful examples of slightly-country-flavored pop genius. i suggest anyone who's curious to dig up a compilation of the 'first national band' recordings. its some of the catchiest, coolest, and most cohesive stuff i've ever heard. songs like 'the grand ennui' and 'nevada fighter' and 'silver moon' are absolute jewels. if you can stand a little twang, i implore you to seek it out.

honeybook

here's an example of one of our handwritten notebooks i wrote and decorated myself. and i freely admit, this shows all the signs of not knowing when to stop. i really didn't need the overhead collage banner or the faceted pink square georgina cabochon. all the rest alone would have been plenty. and the title was-is splendid enough. the main image is the lovely darling miss georgina hale as alma mahler from the ken russell film 'mahler.' but i just got carried away with the sugar-shaker, so to speak. still, i wanted to show it to you. it still beats the hell out of all those handwritten journals with plain 'no frills' covers. which i don't understand. i mean, even if its just for your physics notes or sketchy poems, why not slap a groovy picture on it? i mean, you're going to have to look at it. and a groovy notebook is also a great conversation starter, whether you're in the market for that sort of thing or not. in any case, dig it, this notebook of mine, which is at least a year or more old. click to enlarge, it gets really big... maybe too big... ( if there is such a thing. )

my sweet magnolia

michael nesmith, ladies and gentlemen. i am a proud, unafraid, devoted fan. i think its safe to say i loved mike at first sight. and i don't mean that in the 'teenybopper' sense. actually, i think it was his 'sound' that wooed me so completely. early monkee songs like the wild urgent 'sweet young thing,' are criminally underrated. seriously, listen to that song... forget everything you know about the tv band... and just appreciate the rawness he was able to get away with. that song is so complicated...i don't know where to start with any kind of coherent analysis. it even manages to jab at a bagpipe sound around the solo. i must admit, i'm not sure how much control michael had over the final production of that track, but it IS a michael nesmith composition, and he does sing his heart out... sometimes i wonder how that song made it onto their first release. i think its hardcore. i'll see if i can find a decent version to post. until then, all my blessings michael.

waternymphs

this is an embellishment from my partner jean-lucien. it's ripe, wet, green, and feature hylas and the water nymphs alongside the likes of michael nesmith and eleanor bron. i admire the boldness of the chessboard graphic, and dig the way he trusted himself to use it to the ultimate of its visual capacity. it comes across being pillow-soft and disciplined at the same time. dig it.