Stuff I've drawn (Monkees stuff) and already scanned can be found here: gcfmonkees.tripod.com/art.html and I guess I'll make today a scanning day and get down to some of the things I've been meaning to do on my site for months.

Edit: I added a few things to my art page

I've always heard that celebrity deaths come in threes... One of my friends believes this more than I do, so when someone famous dies out of the blue, she tends to say things like "I wonder who's next?" *shakes head*

I remember now about that Thunder Rumbling drawing! I made it while avoiding being hassled by the principal of my high school by hanging out in the art room. (I was supposed to leave campus 'cause I had early dismissal, but I didn't have a ride a lot of the time.) I gave it to my dad.

Okay, so back on topic--Mike and the FNB trilogy. I've always thought the album covers were connected in that they're all kind of Americana. The old guy is saluting and wearing a military uniform. Okay, so really I have no idea what I'm talking about, but hey, that's never stopped me before.

I find it interesting that Mike makes the break between the two discs so that the second disc of complete is just Nevada Fighter. (Personally, and I think I already said this, I think he should have put First National Rag on there somewhere, perhaps at the end of the first disc. But that's just me.) I was vaguely annoyed that FNR was included on the British Magnetic South/Loose Salute double album and not on Complete. (My friend Belle has the British double album and I looked it over last time we had a "Monkees party".)

In the liner notes of Complete, Mike talks about how the songs highlight a unique period in his life, the shift from the "storm of media and fashion and fame to one of quiet introspection and removal from the conventions of the time."

"I sought to capture, through these songs, something of the moment and the culture that was forcing itself forward."

"I sought to turn this isolation [the inability to go out in public without being mobbed-NG] to my advantage and began to examine America from a corner of the room."

"The three First National Band records are not a trilogy except that the three of them are united by a common theme in the cover art of the album jackets and by a common thread of my own rendition of Americana." (My emphasis.)
In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity, is the vital thing. --Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest