in print

about every five weeks or so, i find i've filled up another journal with hot trash and a lotta verbal screwin' aroun.' and every journal gets a hand-decorated cover. personally decorated and titled by me, almadora english. this one features a groovy mr. peter tork, in a bookshop, wearing a hippy top, snagging some literary buys. included in the collage portion below, we see olivia newton-john ( with the stack of books ) morrissey, from an early-to-mid 90's concert tour, a miniature collage of jean-luc's, r.e.m., who have now called it quits... umm, a few colorful scraps, ian holm as napoleon at six 0'clock, and georgina hale in ken russell's 'mahler.' i make a sweet journal cover, if i do say so myself.

he's a sissy...!

yeah, i know my baby sister sarah is older, and has probably

'moved on' from the monkees, even though i totally haven't. but its her birthday and i must acknowledge the fact that, if it hadn't been for her, and her spot-on quick crush on the pre-fab lads during their mid-80s re-run on MTV, i might have seriously missed out on some of the best music in the latter half of the 20th century. yes, that may sound lofty, but i stand behind 90% of the monkees music 100 percent.... and as far as their solo efforts go, mike nesmith went on to make some of the most beautiful, brave and relevant records i have ever heard. and ultimately, if it hadn't been for my darling sentimental sister sarah, i might never have heard ANY of it. so here's to you, sarah. your tastes in art are keen and most often, correct. thank you for shedding light on an orchard of such quality. here's a screen shot i took recently of peter and his newly-found motorcycle mate, from the second season 'wild monkees' episode. "....does that mean we can go out together tonight?" "...no." "...why not?" "...let's face it man, you're a sissy..." (hey, sarah... dig the video i have for you below.)

it's art

okay, i'm still behind as far as posting is concerned. tonight i had to start a new picture file, so that's taking some time. but as usual, i wanted to mark my place. here's a groovy notebook illustration jean-lucien made a long time ago. and it features, amidst the lush colors, mr. peter 'hippy' tork, reminding us to 'know its art.' its on my desktop as we speak. i love the shades and satiny texture this one has. considered it was scanned in on a now-dead scanner, it still looks pretty gorgeous. plus, i had to cook for seven people tonight, which always stresses me out somewhat. i made spaghetti with meat sauce and garlic bread. and hey, everybody chowed down, so that's a good enough review for me. i feel pretty mellow now, with six new inches of glittering snow out there on the deck. and man, its cold, cold. but me and the kitty are cozy and warm inside. and we send our love. "...meow!" (yeah, thanks strumbie.)

hey hey, they hung out

i'm a huge monkees fan, as everyone knows. and i'm also a lifelong beatles fan. and being fans of both, i can attest to the fact that, back in the 60's, all the teen mags and stuff preyed on the manufactured concept that the two bands were harsh rivals, and were often like, openly hostile and competitive about it. it sounds like a cliche, but nothing could be further from the truth. once the monkees got 'big,' they inevitably met their english 'rivals,' and often did the 'hippy thing' together. both bands had common ground when it came to hassles with contracts and managers and publicity stunts and stuff like that. by the third album, the monkees were playing all their own music, and they were pretty damn good at it, considering davy and micky weren't primarily musicians. so here's groovy photographic proof that they weren't exactly tearing eachother's throats out. needless to say, we've got the legendary george harrison on the left, and the breezy, carefree hippy peter tork on the right. just for the record, i seriously don't think i've ever seen this picture before. god bless this wild machine.

damn hippies

i say that affectionately, of course. here's a screen capture i took from one of the monkees dvd's. actually, i can't remember if i snagged it, or jean-lucien. but i'm pretty sure it was me. i think they're doing one of my least favorite monkee hits, 'daydream believer.' i fully believe their more brilliant stuff was the stuff that never charted. in any case, i think this artfully cropped shot of david jones and peter tork makes a hell of a nice graphic design. it would make a great t-shirt, and almost made it on to one of my journal covers. the way the haircuts fall within the square just works with my natural sense of composition. i can't say enough good things about the monkees. to me, they were every bit as much a comedy team as they were a band. and they were good at both. the more control they had, the better they were. unfortunately, the 'tv machine' back then wasn't too cool with them having a lot of control. listen to some of their older records. from 'headquarters' up until and excluding 'changes,'... those were some seriously cool records.

bass and drums

so... its late. i'm really not feeling that keen and slightly psychedelic, somewhat metaphysical inspiration. so forgive me if i just mark the day with something like a handmade slice of notebook art featuring morrissey's former drummer and the monkees bassist. peace.