bye Davy

I think it caught everyone off-guard when Davy Jones died today.  I was exactly the right age to be crazy about the Monkees, although I was also a huge Beatles fan at the time. Back in the 60s, the Monkees were derided for being a Beatles rip-off and a "created" band. The four members were cast for a television show, which was inspired by the Beatles' movie A Hard Days' Night, rather than forming as a band on their own. Other people wrote their songs and played most of the instruments, although some of the Monkees were actually talented musicians, and they all sang on their records. As a disparaging riff on the Beatles' nickname "The Fab Four," the Monkees were often referred to as "The Pre-Fab Four" (meaning "pre-fabricated").

But over the years, people started to realize how really good their music was. This owed in part to the outstanding songwriters who created their songs, including Neil Diamond, and Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart. They were always hugely likeable and remained well-liked over the years.

Davy, Micky and Peter continued to perform, occasionally reuniting as The Monkees. Mike Nesmith performed as a solo artist, in a more country vein. He also produced movies (including one of my favorites, Tapeheads); he also started creating promotional videos for Warner Brothers songs which became a Nickelodeon show called Pop Clips which became (wait for it) MTV. Nesmith was already a millionaire many times over because his mother, a secretary, invented (wait for it) Liquid Paper.

I'll try to get some Monkees clips up here later. For now:

Davy ("the cute one") on the right.

I went out for coffee last night (although we didn't end up drinking any coffee) with an old friend from summer camp with whom I recently reconnected on Facebook. He was a cute, sweet, hippie-looking guy back then, and we kind of crushed on each other, fooled around a little, never anything too heavy or serious. At sixty, he's still very sweet, very gentle. I have to say I had no anxiety about meeting with him and we talked for a very lovely hour. Considering that my friends have been none too available to listen to me, it's nice to have Bob back in my life, and good to listen to him as well. I look forward to seeing him again; it was a truly nice time.

I bid on and won some metal bangles in an eBay auction yesterday; it was actually a link to eBay from eBay India. I had to pay 576 rupees! Fortunately, that translates to $10.76. This is going to give me a pretty good collection of metal bangles:

I'll have to buy some more glass ones when I get paid.

A couple more pix:

My impossibly adorable nephew Walter. (He's wearing a kippah/yarmulke for a bat mitzvah he was attending.)

It's Amitabh in The Wall Street Journal (literally).