oh micky, you're so fine

growing up on an island in a small town meant summers were isolated affairs. i spent most of mine on the beach reading, in bed reading, in the garage reading, with my sister reading, at the library reading, or watching tv. the reading bit i mainly did with my walkman plugged in, which meant i also spent a lot of time listening to albums i'd picked up at the library. it was a weird thing; you'd spend all school year year with your friends, but summers you spent with your siblings or neighbors your age (if you had any, which i didn't). every summer up until high school can be recalled easily with the right television show, album or book. i spent most of those three months out of school alone or with my sister.

i can categorize most of my summers by television shows. one summer spent watching the brady bunch, one sumer spent watching old cartoons, and the summer i discovered the monkees. the weird thing about the monkees was that i was sure i was the only person in the world who knew about them. every morning before i got to reading and building giant lego structures (yes, i was just that cool), i would watch the monkees, totally enraptured. i was totally in love with davy jones, and then peter, and then micky, and then finally with mike. i think it's mike that is to blame for my love of sideburns to this day. after a month of this i told my mom about it, and she said, "oh? the monkees? i used to really like them when i was a teenager." i thought, "what?! the monkees are that old?" the monkees were mine, they were only mine, and i couldn't wrap my brain around the fact that they were older and my mom liked them. i think that was the first time my mind was officially blown.

lots of kids love the beatles. i loved yellow submarine as a kid, but that was about it. the monkees were my passion, they were funny and cute and had the best songs ever. plus, a television show! it wasn't until many years later when i discovered that the monkees were produced, made-up, and considered to be a sad imitation of the beatles. this hurt me, i loved the monkees so much.

today head showed up from my netflix queue. it's not the most amazing movie ever made, but it's funny and smart and trippy (hello, 1960's) and honestly, if i had to pledge allegience to anything today, it would be the monkees. i can sing "daydream believer" without lookng at the words. i'd be more thrilled to meet peter than ringo anyday. micky is the reason i will always go for the boy with curly hair over the other guy. davy is little and cute. i am a simple, american girl who loves her 60's pop and thinks that even if the monkees were created by way of casting call they were amazing.

plus, head was written by jack nicholson, had dennis hopper, toni basil, annette funicello (!), teri garr and frank fucking zappa in it. oh my god. tell me you aren't at least a little bit interested? i'm not trying to tell you it's the greatest thing ever, but it's sly and clever and at one point peter walks into the restroom whistling, "strawberry fields forever" and damn if that doesn't crack me up. it might be that i love this movie because i love the monkees, so you might not want to listen to me, but if you even just like the monkees a little i think you'll like the film. even if you didn't spend a whole summer watching monkee reruns, eating blueberry bagels and building giant lego castles.