Daydream Believer by The Monkees

Hanging out with a couple friends last week the topic of Taylor Swift came up. One of my friends said that she didn’t like her because she was a corporate constructed pop singer. While this isn’t true at as Taylor is an independent artist from Big Machine Records a label that her family created before her because everyone else rejected her, the criticism of pop artists because they are created, molded and marketed is a common complaint.

I understand that some people are turned off from the business side of music. The idea of certain songs only being popular because of marketing can be frustrating and often the artists that certain companies construct are mediocre and can be quit annoying. I totally understand but that doesn’t mean all commercially created music lacks artistry, heart and soul.

Don’t forget The Beatles looked like a biker gang before Brian Epstein became their manager, made them get hair cuts to polish them into a more marketable look. Berry Gordy modeled Motown records after the assembly line that he used to work at to mold artists. Then there were the Monkees, a pop group created in response to the Beatles for a television show.

Inspired by The Beatles film, A Hard Day’s Night, The Monkees television show followed the life of a rock ‘n’ roll group (ala The Jonas Brothers). Originally only allowed to provide vocals the Monkees eventually gained creative control of their music and while never reached the creative heights of The Beatles or The Beach Boys, they  influenced musicians with their pop music style and cultural impact.

I love the Monkees. I watched this show when it used to be re-run on Nickelodeon. A Monkees greatest hits CDs was one of the first albums my family owned and one of my favorite songs continues to be “Daydream Believer.”



To this day, I have no clue what this song is really about. I mean the first verse is simply about waking up in the morning and then there’s a chorus about depressed homecoming queen. The second verse is doesn’t really connect with the rest of the song but it works all the same.

If you turn off your cynicism or skepticism and let yourself enjoy this song, you find that even though the creation of the Monkees doesn’t line up with any romanticized idea of the way music should be created, it’s still great. The song builds through the each chorus with glee and warmth. “Daydream Believer” sound like a reassuring smile and that’s a beautiful thing.

Music is great or mediocre, sometimes because and sometimes despite the circumstances of its creation. If you don’t like a song that’s fine, there’s no apologizing for taste. But turning off your ears to an artist because it’s an independent artists or a corporate created pop star is like stereotyping people by their race. And when you make assumptions about a song or person based on their circumstances as opposed to their content you are the one who is missing out.

Stupid iphone Commercials!!!

I thought I was done with crying in front of the television.

It took time to accept the fact that a television commercial could make me tear up but I put a box of kleenix by the television and worked through it. Then I saw this commercial:



Really Apple?!?   I can't take it any more. It’s just a simple phone conversation. When she says “you know that things we’ve been working on a while,” we know something special is coming and we experience their emotion through the woman’s look as she speaks and she responds to the man’s reaction. As the commercial goes to the Apple logo we find out that they are going to be parents.

Making us feel the emotions before knowing the situations that is behind it draws us in to the world, and when we find out the news we rejoice as well and Kingsley starts to cry.

I love a good commercial and most of the time commercials that are really awesome more are humorous like the now classic Betty White Snickers commercial.



The focus on humor in commercials is so prevalent that I was caught off guard by Apple’s Facetime ad campaign.

Now most of the time I watch television shows played back on my DVR and I fast forward through the commercials. So it was only by chance that I heard the unmistakable voice of Louis Armstrong and watched one of the beautiful studies on the power of human interaction.



This commercials shows a variety on contexts which Facetime would be nice. The first uses the commercial shows aren’t extraordinary situations, a dad saying goodnight or two girls trying to chose what to wear.

Then we see a woman having a sonogram sharing that experience with the father who is in the military and we instantly feel the sacrifice this family making and how hard this must be for this couple to be apart. Their expressions as they are able to connect with each other are amazing.

If that doesn’t get to you, the next scene when they speak to each other in sign language will.  Near tears, they sign to each other, “I love you” and oh my god . . . I’m tearing up right now just thinking about the commercial.

If Apple keeps making these ads I'm going to be a mess every time I watch television.  These commercials are beautiful, touching and poignant contemplation on what it means to share life with the people you love.  This is the most noble goal of technology and I'm thankful to apple for reminding all of us how powerful a smile can be.

NO!! I just saw this new one:



. . . Diana, I'm out of kleenix. . .

I’ve Got a Rock 'N’ Roll Heart by Eric Clapton

I’ve never really been big into cell phones. I don’t really care about having the newest one with the camera and the mp3 player and the touch screen and the lotion dispenser. I just want a phone that works, one I can make calls on and send texts. The only times I’ve gotten new phones are when my old one has died but after seeing this commercial for the first time in my life I was excited about a new cell phone.



Yes, the only reason I want this phone is because of Eric Clapton, the fact that it has a the classic Fender Stratocaster sunburst design on the back and because this ad features my new favorite Eric Clapton song, “I’ve Got a Rock ‘N’ Roll Heart.”



So after finding this commercial on youtube.com and watching this 30-second clip about 43 times I broke down and downloaded the song on itunes. On what sweet, bluesy ecstasy.

This is Clapton pre-“Tears In Heaven” (which I wrote about in one of my first posts). Clapton had great success in the 1960s and 1970s but as the 1980s began, things were not going so well. After battling a heroin addiction and admitting that he was an alcoholic, Clapton went into the studio to produce what he considered most forced album, Money and Cigarettes. You wouldn’t have known this if all you knew from Clapton was the lead single from that 1983 album, “I’ve Got a Rock ‘N’ Roll Heart.”

The instrumental introduction with the organ pouring in like sunlight with soulful guitar licks set a warm and optimistic tone for this song. You know the first twenty seconds of this song how good its going to feel.

Clapton’s voice quietly creeps in describing how serious this relationship is getting. He feels need to warn his love interest before it gets any further how much music is part of his life and with that we have the laid back and inspired chorus that is featured in the cell phone advertisement.

I get off on 57 Chevys,
I get off on screaming guitars.
Ike the way it hits me every time it hits me.
I’ve got a rock and roll, I’ve got a rock and roll heart.

The way the song leads up to the chorus there’s a sense of warning, “there’s something baby that you got to know.” And while Clapton explains the way he feels about music, it quickly switches from a warning to an declaration of love. It’s not so much that these are things to be fearful of but that his woman has to understand how great these things makes him feels.

The best thing about this song it expresses that feeling that Clapton so perfectly sings about. Simply close your eyes, turn up this one and my God it’s the perfect combination of rock, blues. It’s simply righteous. I understand Eric, I don’t want to change either.

Man if that cell phone makes me feel as good as this song I’ll buy a dozen. Talk about the perfect song to for that commercial. God I love music.

Maybe I should have warned Diana about my rock ‘n’ roll heart. . .

I heart Richard Simmons

When my wife, Diana was in grade school, she would often go to day camps during the summer. A wife and husband team ran summer art camps my Diana went to. The husband and wife would switch off activities and one of the activities the wife did involved the children exercising. This fairly overweight woman would put in a copy of Richard Simmon’s “Sweatin’ To The Oldies,” sit in a chair in the back of the gym and watch the kids dance around with the tape.

Now that’s physical education.



Richard Simmons in a hilarious personality. Sometimes he goes on “The Late Show With David Letterman.” David and Richard had a love/hate relationship, well more hate then love. For example in this clip when Richard to trying to promote his steamer.



The tray underneath the steamer was planted by Letterman. I love how David is poking holes in everything Richard is saying and how indignant Richard’s response is to Dave. Now this is all is in good fun. That's one of the things about Richard Simmons. He has always had a sense of humor about himself, which is evident in this classic clip from the improv show “Whose Line Is It Anyways.”



This show IS broadcasted on ABC Family network. Now, there’s a lot going on here. I’m not really going to get into. I’m going this one alone. If you don't understand what is so funny about the clip it's best that you just figure it out on their own.

I got introduced to Richard Simmons through his infomercials. I love infomercials, QVC and the Home Shopping Network. Every night as I’m getting ready to go to bed I flip on the television in our bedroom and watch some quality television advertising before I go to bed. I’ve never bought anything off of an infomercial however, I just find the internal logic and advertising techniques of these commercials hilarious. Like this commercial for the “comfort wipe.”



Now, this is actually a great idea. Many older people with limited range of motion could use a device like this. And seriously, this is the greatest innovation to toilet paper since the 1880s!! I like how “following the contours of your body” is a slight curve. If they were just selling this to people with a limited range of motion that would be one thing but they advertise this product for “someone who just doesn’t want to touch dirty toilet paper.” Wow.

One of the kings of infomercials is Richard Simmons. He’s had his workout tapes, his “Deal-A-Meal” program and his current “Food Mover” program. Yes, he is selling a product, but his message is one of the most genuine that you hear on television. Richard Simmons bases his program around the idea of cutting down caloric intake while exercising more to burn calories, resulting in losing weight.

This is how to lose weight, pure and simple and it’s amazing how many weight loss programs, diets, pills and devices don’t work off of this idea. I’m not saying that understanding the relationship between caloric intake and exercising more makes weight-loss any easier, but it does make it clear the fallacy of other weight-loss programs.

Surfing around the web for hilarious Richard Simmons moments, I came across “Richard Simmons on Capitol Hill”



Once you get over the initial shock of seeing Simmons in a suit, it’s hard to not take his personal and passionate speech seriously. I don’t know a lot about the program that he is talking about, but his message is right on. With the “No Child Left Behind” program federal funding for schools is based on tests score. If a school gets tests scores that do not meet, their “Adequate Yearly Progress” funding is reduced. These tests are in reading and math, so educators feel pressured to spend more time preparing for these tests, which often results in cutting arts and physical education classes in to spen more time on reading and math.

This combined with our fast-food culture and archaic physical education classes that focus more on sports then teaching students about their bodies has created a nation-wide health crisis. There needs to be someone waving the flag for this thing and I thank God that Richard Simmons is out there trying to make something happen.

I’ve always found Richard Simmons entertaining, but after watching his speech to congress I truly respect and admire him. Simmons has a huge heart and a beautiful message that just makes me feel happy to be alive.



Love you too Richard.