I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: THE MONKEES: Best of the Monkees (2003).

One of my college roommates (a guy from Ireland) absolutely LOVED the Monkees (and he was from Ireland, which may not be that weird, but were the Monkees big in Ireland?). Anyhow, he not only had the boxed set that Rhino put out several years ago, but he actually owned all of their records. All of them! I didn’t even know they put out enough for a boxed set. (Evidently, they put out something like six, and then someone left the band and they kept going…what a sordid career!).

My wife, it turns out, also loved the Monkees, but that was when she was a kid, and she and her best friend watched them daily and knew all the songs. I recall watching the show myself, but when we Netflixed the first season I realized I didn’t remember anything about it. Oh, and that you really have to be in junior high to watch it, but I digress.

As a surprise I bought her the Best of the Monkees CD. She was thrilled to get it, and I’ve just been listening to it and realized that it’s a really great collection of songs. There is, of course, the argument that they didn’t play their own instruments, and this is true, somewhat. Although they did eventually start playing their own on later albums. But all that is just splitting hairs.

The album is certainly great. Wonderfully poppy songs, that are clearly from the late 60s/early 70s. Okay, so they didn’t write most of them, but who cares. Back then (as now of course) poppy bands didn’t write songs, they just sang them. I’m not sure if people know the Monkees anymore. I don’t know if the huge hits (“Last Train to Clarksville,” “I’m a Believer,” “Pleasant Valley Sunday”) are still familiar to people but man, they brought back fun memories. And, really, they hold up quite well as great little pop gems.

In addition to the poppy songs, there’s a few pretty ballads, a few all-out rockers, and, as befitting the trippiness of the show, some psychedelic freak-outs (check out “Randy Scouse Git” and “Porpoise Song”). It is nothing if not enjoyable. So put aside all the negative associations you may have with them, and cheer up, sleepy Jean. Oh what can it mean?

Oh yeah, and the CD comes with a 5 track bonus karaoke version of their biggest hits. Whoo hoo!

[READ: December 4, 2007] Goth-Icky & Love Sick

I discovered these books (and his other two in this series) when I was mooching around looking for information about Mystery Science Theater 3000. I learned that Mike Nelson had not only written some books, but that he got involved in this fun series of graphic heavy, silly confections. I bought one in the series, Happy Kitty Bunny Ponybecause how could you pass up a title like that? And, when Sarah looked at it, she discovered that the pictures in it would be make awesome decoupage. And, if you go to her Sew Buttons site, you’ll see some fabulous creations with some groovy pictures and instructions for how she did them.

Anyhow, I enjoyed the book so much that I thought I’d check out the others as well. The series of books is a co-creation of Michael J. Nelson (words) and the Charles S. Anderson Design Company who supply the crazy pictures. I’m a little unclear about the origin of the pictures. In the Happy Kittybook, the premise seemed to be that the pictures were actual treacly pictures from the trippy days of yore. There’s a photo of a blow up pink bunny that I recall actually having as a child. But in these two books, I can’t imagine that these pictures are not updated for the book.

Goth-Ickyis, as its name implies, a collection of prints about goths (and lots of fun cute pictures of dolls made up to look goth-y). It is a celebration of all things black. But since you obviously couldn’t fill a whole book with goth things, it morphs into the icky part: monsters, vampires, mummies, etc. There are so wonderfully dumb pictures of “scary” monsters, and then also some genuinely creepy pictures of blood and gore. Each page has a humorous, snarky comment about the pictures; its almost as if MST3K was still on the air!

Love Sickis a collection of prints concerning love, marriage, sex and other observations about intergendered relationships. The clever Nelson wit applies to all manner of treacly and perverse pictures. As I mentioned earlier, I wish I knew if these pictures were older pictures that they are using in the book or if these are new pictures that they have created. It doesn’t really matter, I suppose, but somehow, if these were genuinely published back then it would make their discovery all the sweeter.

The cover photos should give you an idea of what lies within. And as of this writing they’re all on sale at Amazon. So, if you just want to enjoy the snarky comments or you have a decoupage project yourself, check out these cool Pop Ink creations.