Why Disparage the Monkees After Davy Jones Death?

Article first published as Why Disparage the Monkees After Davy Jones' Death? on Blogcritics.

The death of Monkees lead singer Davy Jones at 66 is another sad loss for those of us who love music. In recent years we have lost Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, George Harrison, Amy Winehouse, and many others. I tend to look at all this starting with the death of Elvis Presley - all this referring to not only a loss of innocence but perhaps the loss of what defined our youthful days. Certainly the murder of John Lennon turned the page in a way that many of us never saw coming, and since then things have changed the world in ways (many of them not good) that Lennon could never have imagined (yes, I know).

Thinking back to the Monkees and their brief and soaring brush with fame, they were for many of us a poor cousin to the Beatles, but any relation to the Fab Four would be welcome in our homes. When the TV show came out in 1966, the Monkees were a fabricated band (perhaps truly the first boy band) that threw together Peter Tork, Mickey Dolenz, Mike Nesmith, and Davy Jones. The Beatles had started to leave the mop-top look behind, but the show was meant to capitalize on the band and the good natured fun of their films A Hard Day's Night and Help.

The Pre-Fab Four (as the jokes were made back then) had to have a British lead singer, so enter Jones. The TV show was what could be called a zany, Marx Brothers type of musical comedy, with the four guys getting caught up with spies, assorted other bad guys, and pretty girls. The show shrewdly featured videos of their songs, beating all those lip-synching videos one would see on MTV by fourteen years. Songs like "Last Train to Clarksville," "I'm a Believer," and "Pleasant Valley Sunday" became great big hits, and to this day they always bring a smile to my face when I hear them on the radio.

For two years the show was on and then, like many fads, the thrill was gone and the show went off the air. For kids like me, it was gone way too soon as was Batman, Planet of the Apes, and Star Trek, but those shows helped define a generation and pave the way for new incarnations in the years to come.
The last few days I have heard so many people on TV and the radio disparaging the Monkees and their TV show. Surely, they have no legacy as do the Beatles, Rolling Stones, and the like, but The Monkees was a children's show that was entertaining, and we kids pushed our parents to buy the lunch boxes, the singles, and other paraphernalia associated with the group. They may have been a joke to some but to us we were in on the joke, or at least we thought as much, and that was all that mattered.

Once the show was gone and the group disbanded, Davy Jones went on to have a decent career and the Monkees would eventually reunite and tour (minus Mike Nesmith). I know my sister and countless other girls still had Davy's picture up on their bedroom walls next to ones of David Cassidy, Bobby Sherman, and Donny Osmond. And who could forget when Jones guest starred on The Brady Bunch, making Marcia (Maureen McCormick) and all the little girls around the country squeal in delight? Of course, The Brady Bunch was on the same time on Friday nights as my beloved Planet of the Apes, dooming it to cancellation after one season, but that's another story.

Still and all the Monkees and their TV show hold a place in TV and musical history. Yes, they didn't play the instruments on their recordings (session musicians did); they didn't write their songs (but people like Neil Diamond and Carole King did), and their fame didn't last long. They were prefabricated and no Beatles (not even Herman's Hermits) to be sure, but they did have a memorable presence in our lives for a time and remain beloved by those who watched the show all those years ago, so I just wish people would stop knocking them and let their fans enjoy their memories.

Rest in peace, Davy Jones!

Photo Credits - The Monkees/NY Times; Davy Jones - FOX News.com

Russians Look to Establish Permanent Moon Colony

Article first published as Russians Look to Establish Permanent Moon Colony on Blogcritics.

The moon has always had a tug on us, whether it is causing our tides or filling the sky at night with luminous beauty. We have imagined the man on the moon, creatures large and small, and even it being made of cheese. The moon is our closest neighbor in space and occupies a place in literature and film, yet we have barely touched the surface after the historic landing of humans in 1969, and I have often wondered what it would take to get us back there.
So when I heard a report on Fox News that the Russians were planning to establish a moon base, my immediate thought was "What about us?" Had we abandoned the idea of ever returning to that celestial wonder, the place where an American flag stands in the stillness of a windless plane?

Vladimir Popovkin, the head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, revealed that he was in joint talks with NASA and the European Space Agency on a joint venture in this process. This would make more sense because NASA has not been able to orchestrate a return to the moon for many reasons, including the obvious financial burdens such a mission would entail. Hopefully, with these agencies working together, something tangible can happen to make this vision a reality.

Of course, President Obama is noted for saying that we should set our sights on Mars. I wrote about this in an article nearly two years ago, and I haven't heard much about it since. At the time I praised Obama's vision, but I think reality always rears its ugly head. Mars is a much more difficult mission and will no doubt take a much longer time to accomplish. The moon, on the other hand, can be more easily reached, and I even noted at the time that a base on the moon would make sense as a staging point for these missions to Mars.

Space has an allure for many of us, especially Star Trek and Star Wars fans, but also many others who have have turned their heads to ponder the universe. Whether you have looked at the moon on a sandy beach, from an airplane window, or through a telescope, the fascination is palable and the yearning for "infinity and beyond" is something more than a cartoon fantasy. If space is indeed the final frontier, then we must find ways to explore it, starting with baby steps that take us to the moon and then one day to planets beyond our solar system.

People living in 1869 had no idea that one hundred years later we would witness a man walking on the moon. In 1969 we could imagine many things after seeing Neil Armstrong take that amazing first step, but we had no idea that the communicators we saw in Captain Kirk's hand on Star Trek would be in our own hands when we grew up in the form of cellular phones. Now, if we could just get Scotty to beam us up to avoid that traffic jam, but that's for another story.

I think it is exciting to imagine what a moon base would be like, and 2020 certainly doesn't feel that far away. The question is would this open up an eventual opportunity for civilians to visit the moon? I would like to reserve a room in that first Marriot that goes up near the Sea of Tranquility. Ah, a room with a view!

Until then "Live long and prosper" to one and all!

Photo Credit - NASA

The Challenger Explosion: A Teacher Recalls That Fateful Day

Article first published as The Challenger Explosion: A Teacher Recalls That Fateful Day on Blogcritics.

January 1986. It's kind of like November 1963 or December 1941 or September 2001. The Challenger explosion was a news event that not only overwhelmed people with its impact but created a lasting impression and inspired the inevitable "Where were you?" question. Those of us who remember that day twenty-five years ago will never forget the time and place we heard about this terrible moment in the collective memory of our nation.

I was a seventh grade teacher in a Catholic school in Queens, NY. Although I taught English classes, I spoke about the Challenger blastoff with my students in the weeks before the launch. Besides the obvious applications to science and math connected to such an event, I found there was an extremely tangible literary element to space travel. Had not space voyages been the subject of stories and poems? Each time I watched a craft takeoff, I felt awash in the lyrical countdown that was poetic as it was methodical.

There was also another connection I had to the Challenger: I had submitted an application to the Teacher in Space Program that would eventually land Christa McAuliffe in the Challenger on January 28, 1986. I recall it was a long application, filled out a couple of years before when I was a rookie teacher. Although I figured I didn't stand a chance against all the scientific types that probably would be chosen, I still sent it in because I believed in taking every opportunity. Besides, if I were selected, it would fulfill all my boyhood Captain Kirk dreams to - if not boldly go where no man had gone before - be floating around in the velvet black of space and looking down at the hazy blue marble Earth.

Of course, I was not selected and I never told my students about it. I had told my family and I remember my Mom thinking I was crazy. "Who would want to do a thing like that?" she asked. Well, I wanted to do it because it would be the stuff of all the tales I had ever read and all the TV shows and films I had seen about space travel. I would write about it and maybe even star in a television show later on - something like Teacher in Space.

We all know that many educators applied for this opportunity of a lifetime, but in the end Christa McAuliffe was chosen as the teacher who would go on the voyage. Though I envied her at first, I grew to accept not going and also to embrace the fact that one of my own would be making this fantastic voyage. It was a source of great pride for all us earthbound teachers, for we saw the adulation and respect that people everywhere had, not just for Christa, but for teachers in general now that she had become so famous.

So on that fateful day I was teaching a lesson about transitive and intransitive verbs. I probably sighed a little bit, glanced at my watch, and thought about Christa taking off for the heavens while I was stuck with my feet firmly planted on the ground teaching something most of my students found boring. In those days we didn't have televisions in every classroom, but I knew one of the science teachers had signed out the only one we had on a rolling cart on our floor. She and her class were watching the liftoff down the hall. My students worked on a few examples in their notebooks and the serene quiet was suddenly broken by a kind of crying and moaning that floated through the doorway, a sort of crush of recognition that something horrible happened.

In a few moments the principal's stoic voice came over the classroom intercom announcing, "The Challenger Space Shuttle has exploded on takeoff. Please pray for those on board and their families and friends." Once she stopped speaking, I heard my students gasping, some staring out the window as if they thought they'd see falling pieces of the ship coming down from the sky.

What do you say in moments like this? Sometimes silence is the best thing, and I just sat on the edge of my desk and stared at them as they buzzed their conversations and cried tears. I waited for a time and then one of the girls (who had been following Christa's journey diligently and had written about it in her journal) looked up at me and asked the question I had no answer for: "Mr. Lana, why did this happen?"

Twenty-five years have passed and I still don't have the answer. At the time I think I stammered a bit, fighting my own tears, and said something about God's plan and Christa's bravery. I honestly don't remember what I said anymore, and I'm not sure if it brought any comfort to my students. I do know that nothing brought any comfort to me: not that day or a long time afterwards.

I remember staring at the cold winter sky that night so long ago, staring up at the constellation Orion so bold and bright in the dark night sky. I thought how I had submitted that application and wanted to really go, but so did so many others. Christa went for all of us, all the teachers who worked so hard everyday, who loved their jobs and their students as much as anything in life. That kind of dedication and spirit sent Christa McAuliffe up in that Space Shuttle, and not even the explosion that took her life could destroy the power of the example she set for teachers and students in America and all over the world.

So tonight I looked up at the sky again, but I couldn't see Orion or anything else because there was a cloudy sky, ready to drop more snow on us. Still, I could see the trail that she blazed that day, and though she's gone her memory remains and her name will forever linger in the firmament, inspiring us now and forevermore with her bold desire to reach for the stars.

Photo Credit: www.space-video.info