Regional Girls and Circle Skies

Began the morning with breakfast and Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. Daniel and his friends are excited about "The Neighborhood Snowstorm," until it gets so bad that school closes early. Dan's even more upset when a pipe bursts and soaks his room and his beloved Tigey the Adventure Tiger books. He and his little sister Margaret spend time with Jodi and her family while his parents fix the pipe.

Watched Family Feud while making my grocery list, then headed out to run errands. Dropped by the post office very briefly to send Lilah's birthday card off, then rode down to the Westmont Plaza. At least it was a much nicer day for a ride. It's still sunny and much windier, but also warmer, probably in the lower 30's. It's now a lot closer to what it usually is here in late January.

My next stop was Target. I was hoping to find Valentine's Day decorations, but they didn't have anything interesting. I got a warm, earthy Matcha Latte from Starbucks instead. I'd return there later after I finished at Sprouts to see if they had chunky yarn for a project, but all they had was painting and drawing supplies.

I had far more luck at Sprouts. Picked up apples, coconut milk, Zevia diet soda, and coconut macaroons that were on a good sale. Decided to try buying light brown sugar in bulk for the next time I wanted to make cookies. I also got coconut macaroon almonds, and I haven't had oat bran for a nice, hot breakfast in ages. 

Dodged traffic on Cuthbert, finally making my way back to Johnson and down to the pretzel shop for lunch. Got two regular pretzels and a pepperoni-stuffed pretzel. They weren't any busier than Sprouts or Target had been. There were no lines anywhere, not even at Starbucks.

Ate lunch while watching Head. I went further into the Monkees' supremely strange magnum opus at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog back in March 2019.

Cult Flops - Head

After I finished eating, I worked on the Children's inventory for a while. Entered everything from the Disney Babes In Toyland book and record through The Official Album of Disneyland/Walt Disney World. The latter is one of my older finds. I got it off eBay in the summer of 2011. Mousercise, Mickey Mouse Disco, and my Disney book and record of Hansel and Gretel came from yard sales around the same time. My oldest find here is my vintage book and record of Bambi, which came from the Collingswood Library in 2008 when they still included records with their book sales.

I also got my schedule at this point. It's almost exactly the same as my schedule for this week, with slightly fewer hours on Sunday and slightly more hours next Saturday. Jessa's already put out requests to do more together next week, and with the weather warming up, it might not be a bad time to get out of the house for a long walk or bike ride. 

Switched to Match Game Syndicated while finishing up the inventory and eating dinner. The biggest panelist ever on the show appeared the next week. At over 7 feet, gentle giant Richard Kiel towered over even Gene. He took one look at the big man and said he could write whatever he wanted! And to add to the wackiness, super-short singer and songwriter Paul Williams was in the fifth "smart guy" seat. (And I do wish Kiel had returned. He was actually a lot of fun and played pretty well.)

Finished the night after a shower with the Monkees' two TV specials. 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee debuted in 1969, well after their show ended. It was originally supposed to be part of a series of specials...but once the networks saw the results, they canceled the others. I can certainly understand why. The guys are controlled by a devil-like pair (Brian Auger and singer Julie Driscoll) who want to use them to take over everyone's minds. They unleash their fantasies, then turn them into wind-up dolls. Then, for some reason, Darwin (Auger) turns up and regresses them to apes. Auger takes control again to make them into plastic 50's superstars.

Uh, yeah. You can see the problems here.  I think there's the kernel of a good idea in the first half with the guys beating someone trying to manipulate their minds, almost like an even stranger variation on "The Frodis Caper." Mike and Davy have the best solo performances, with Mike singing with himself to his own "Naked Persimmon (The Only Thing I Believe Is True)" and Davy dancing with dolls to "Goldilocks Sometimes." Auger, Fats Domino, and Jerry Lee Lewis turning up on stacked pianos briefly mid-way through is genuinely cool, and some of the 50's performances are a lot of fun, but for the most part, this is even more bitter and makes less sense than Head did.  

Hey Hey, We're the Monkees from 1997 is an all together happier affair. The Monkees may be in their 50's, but they're still living in a beach house and trying to make it as a band. They're trying to rehearse for a big gig at a lavish country club...if random girls, lawyers, and kids will stop interrupting them and trying to create plot lines. There's also Mike having turned the Monkeemobile into a low rider and a dimensional machine, to Micky's annoyance, and Micky trying to find them a gimmick, to everyone's annoyance. They're not even safe from plots at the country club when the owner (Chuck Woolery) and his silly daughter Princess insist they'll lose the club if the guys aren't a success.

This is more like it. While it's not perfect (some of the dialogue is a tad too goofy even for the guys, the throw-up gag in the opening goes on for too long), it's infinitely more fun than the bitter Head and 33 1/3 Revolutions. As a review online suggested, it was a far more enjoyable and appropriate finale to the series and their TV careers. 

Alas, I don't think the 90's special can be found anywhere at the moment but YouTube. 33 1/3 Revolutions is included on the Monkees TV series DVD and Blu-Ray sets. I will say that I don't really recommend either special to anyone but their most ardent fans...and seeing at least a few episodes of the original show before the 90's special is a must to get a lot of the jokes about archaic sitcom plots.