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The Monkees
were a
pop rock
quartet assembled by
Robert "Bob" Rafelson
Bert Schneider
in Los Angeles in
for the
The Monkees
, which aired from 1966 to 1968.
The members were Americans
Micky Dolenz
Michael Nesmith
Peter Tork
, and Englishman
Davy Jones
, who were supervised and popularized by
Don Kirshner
At the time of the band's formation, its producers saw The Monkees as a
-like band. At the start, the band members provided vocals, and were given some performing and production opportunities, but they eventually fought for and earned the right to collectively supervise all musical output under the band's name. The group undertook several concert tours, allowing an opportunity to perform as a live band as well as on the TV series. Although the show was canceled in 1968, the band continued releasing records until 1970. In the 1980s, the television show and music experienced a revival, which led to a series of reunion tours, and new records featuring various incarnations of the band's lineup.
Aspiring filmmakers
Bob Rafelson
Bert Schneider
were inspired by the
' film
A Hard Day's Night
to develop a television series about a fictional rock 'n' roll group. The duo, jointly calling their firm "Raybert Productions", sold the idea to Screen Gems television and in September, 1965,
Daily Variety
The Hollywood Reporter
ran an ad seeking "Folk & Roll Musicians-Singers for acting roles in new TV series". As many as 400 hopefuls showed up to be considered as one of the "4 insane boys" who would be the stars of the show. From this pool, four were chosen to become the fictional band The Monkees.
George Michael "Micky" Dolenz
had been the 10-year-old star of the
Circus Boy
series in the 1950s, during which time he had used the stage name "Micky Braddock", and was a working actor. He found out about
The Monkees
through his agent.
Davy Jones
had achieved some initial success on the musical stage. Already recording for the Colpix record label and already under contract at Columbia/Screen Gems, he had been identified in advance as a potential star for the TV series. Indeed, he later acknowledged that
The Monkees
was initially created primarily around him, even with its linkages to
A Hard Day's Night
Robert Michael "Mike" Nesmith
was a songwriter and guitarist who had recorded for Colpix under the name "Michael Blessing". He was the only Monkee who had come in to audition from seeing the original advertisement. He repeatedly denied having been the only musician in the team or, for that matter, much of a musician.
Peter Tork
, whose real name was Peter Halsten Thorkelson, was recommended to Rafelson and Schneider by friend
Stephen Stills
. Tork, a skilled multi-instrumentalist, had performed at various Greenwich Village folk clubs before moving west, where he was a dishwasher before becoming a Monkee. Nesmith subsequently called Tork a better musician, by several orders of magnitude, than Nesmith himself was.
Developing the music
During the casting process, Screen Gems head of music,
Don Kirshner
was contacted to secure music for the pilot that would become
The Monkees
Not getting much interest from his usual stable of
Brill Building
writers, Kirshner assigned
Thomas "Tommy" Boyce and Robert "Bobby" Hart
to the project.
The duo contributed four demo recordings to the pilot, featuring their own voices.
The Monkees
was picked up as a series, development of the musical side of the project accelerated.
Screen Gems
RCA Records
entered into a joint venture called
Colgems Records
primarily to distribute Monkees records. Raybert set up a rehearsal space and rented instruments for the group to practice playing, but it quickly became apparent they would not be in shape in time for the series debut. The producers called upon Don Kirshner to recruit a producer for the Monkees sessions.
Kirshner called on
Snuff Garrett
, helmer of several hits by
Gary Lewis & the Playboys
, to produce the initial musical cuts for the show. Garrett, upon meeting the four Monkees in June 1966, decided that Jones would sing lead, a choice that was unpopular with the group. This cool reception led Kirshner to drop Garrett and buy out his contract. Kirshner next allowed Nesmith to produce sessions, provided he did not play on any tracks he produced. Nesmith did, however, start using the other Monkees on his sessions, particularly Tork as a guitarist. Kirshner came back to the enthusiastic Boyce and Hart to be the regular producers, but he brought in one of his top east coast men, Jack Keller, to lend some experience to the sessions. Boyce and Hart observed quickly that when brought in to the studio together, the four actors would try to crack each other up. Because of this, they would often bring in each singer individually.
According to Nesmith, it was Dolenz's voice that made the Monkees's sound distinctive, and even during tension-filled times Nesmith and Tork voluntarily turned over lead vocal duties to Dolenz on their own compositions, such as Tork's "
For Pete's Sake
", which became the closing title theme for the second season of the TV show.
The Monkees' first single, "
Last Train to Clarksville
", was released in August 1966, just weeks prior to the broadcast and, in conjunction with the first broadcast of the television show on September 12, 1966, on the NBC television network, NBC and Columbia had a major hit on their hands. The first long-playing album,
The Monkees
, was released in October and shot to the top of the charts.
From TV to stage
Developing a live act
In assigning instruments for purposes of the television show, a dilemma arose as none of the four was an actual drummer. Both Nesmith, a guitarist, and Tork, who could play several stringed and keyboard instruments, declined to give the drum set a try. Jones tested well initially as a novice drummer, but the camera could barely capture him behind the drums because of his short stature. Thus, Dolenz was assigned to become the drummer. Tork taught Dolenz his first few beats on the drums and the producers hired him a teacher.
Unlike most television shows at the time, the Monkees episodes were written with many "setups", requiring frequent breaks to prepare the set and cameras for short bursts of filming. Some of the "bursts" are considered proto-
music videos
, inasmuch as they were produced to sell the records. Eric Lefcowitz, in
The Monkees Tale
, pointed out—and Nesmith corroborated him—that the Monkees were first and foremost a video group. The four actors would spend 12-hour days on the set, many of them waiting for the production crew to do their jobs. Noticing that their instruments were left on the set unplugged, the four decided to turn them on and start playing.
After working on the set all day, the Monkees (usually Dolenz) would be called in to the recording studio to cut vocal tracks. As the Monkees were essential to the recording process, there were few limits on how long they could spend in the recording studio, and the result was an extensive catalogue of unreleased recordings.
Pleased with their initial efforts, Columbia, over Kirshner's objections, planned to send the Monkees out to play live concerts. The massive success of the series and its spin-off records created intense pressure to mount a touring version of the group.
Against the initial wishes of the producers, Dolenz, Jones, Nesmith, and Tork went out on the road and made their debut live performance in December 1966 in
The band had no time to rehearse a live performance except between takes on set. They worked on the TV series all day, recorded in the studio at night, and slept very little. The weekends were usually filled with special appearances or filming of special sequences.
These performances were sometimes used during the actual series. The episode "Too Many Girls (Fern and Davy)" opens with a live version of "
Steppin' Stone
" being performed as the scene was shot. One entire episode was filmed featuring live music.
The last show of the premiere season, "Monkees on Tour", was shot in a
documentary style
by filming a concert in
Phoenix, Arizona
on January 21, 1967.
Bob Rafelson wrote and directed that episode.
On tour
In commentary tracks included in the DVD release of the first season of the show, Nesmith stated that Tork was better at playing guitar than bass. In Tork's commentary, he stated that Jones was a good drummer and had the live performance lineups been based solely on playing ability, it should have been Tork on guitar, Nesmith on bass, and Jones on drums, with Dolenz taking the fronting role, rather than as it was done with Nesmith on guitar, Tork on bass, and Dolenz on drums, yet when they took over as instrumentalists the members stayed in their known roles. (Jones mostly played maracas and tambourine, filling in briefly for Dolenz on drums on a song and for Tork on bass when he played keyboards.) The four Monkees performed all the instruments and vocals for most of the live set. The most notable exceptions being during each member's solo sections where during the December 1966 – May 1967 tour, they were backed by the
Candy Store Prophets
. During the summer 1967 tour of the United States and Great Britain (from which the
Live 1967
recordings are taken), they were backed by a band called the Sundowners. In 1968, the Monkees toured Australia and Japan.
The results were far better than expected. Wherever they went they were greeted by scenes of fan adulation reminiscent of
. This gave the singers increased confidence in their fight for control over the musical material chosen for the series.
With Jones sticking primarily to vocals and tambourine (except when filling in on the drums when Dolenz came forward to sing a lead vocal), the Monkees' live act constituted a classic
power trio
of electric guitar, electric bass, and drums (except when Tork passed the bass part to Jones or one of the Sundowners in order to take up the banjo or electric keyboards).
Meeting the Beatles
Critics of the Monkees observed that they were simply the "prefab four", a made-for-TV knockoff of
the Beatles
, but the Beatles took it in their stride, and made the Monkees welcome when they visited England.
John Lennon
publicly compared the Monkees' humor to
The Marx Brothers
George Harrison
praised their self-produced musical attempts, saying, "When they get it all sorted out, they might turn out to be the best." (Peter Tork was later one of the musicians on Harrison's
Wonderwall Music
, playing
Paul McCartney
's five-string
During the time when the Beatles were recording
Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
, the Monkees were in England and met the Beatles at a party, partially inspiring the line in the Monkees's tune "
Randy Scouse Git
" which read "the four kings of
are sitting stately on the floor". Nesmith attended the "
A Day in the Life
" sessions at Abbey Road Studios; he can be seen in the Beatles' home movies, including one scene where he is conversing with Lennon (who called him
Monkee Man
). Dolenz was also in the studio during a session, which he mentioned while broadcasting for WCBS-FM in New York (incidentally, he interviewed Starr on his program). McCartney can be seen in the 2002 concert film
Back in the U.S.
singing "Hey, Hey, We're The Monkees", the theme from
The Monkees
, while backstage.
Separation from Kirshner
The Monkees had complained that the producers would not allow them to play their own instruments on their records. This campaign eventually forced the series' musical coordinator
Don Kirshner
to let the group have more participation in the recording process (against his strong objections). This included Nesmith producing his own songs, and band members making instrumental contributions. The Monkees were capable of playing their own instruments on the recordings and they had written some material. Except for the few songs forced through by the Monkees' campaigning, they were not allowed by Kirshner to play or use their own material.
The animosity between Kirshner and the Monkees began in the very early stages of the band. The Monkees' off-screen personalities at the time were much like what became their on screen image (except for Peter). This included the playful, hyperactive antics that are often seen on screen. Apparently, during an early recording session, the four Monkees were clowning around in the studio. The antics escalated until Micky Dolenz poured a Pepsi on Kirshner's head; at the time, Dolenz did not know Kirshner on sight.
Nesmith and Tork were particularly upset when they were on tour in January 1967 and discovered that a second album,
More of The Monkees
, had been released without their knowledge. The Monkees were annoyed at not having even been told of the release in advance, at having their opinions on the track selection ignored, and also because of the amateurish-looking cover art, which was merely a composite of pictures of the four taken for a
clothing advertisement. Indeed, the Monkees had not even been given a copy of the album; they had to buy it from a record store.
The climax of the rivalry was an intense argument between Nesmith and Kirshner
lawyer Herb Moelis, which took place at the Beverly Hills Hotel in January 1967. Kirshner had presented the group with royalty checks and Nesmith had responded with an ultimatum, demanding a change in the way the Monkees' music is chosen and recorded. Moelis reminded Nesmith that he was under contract. The confrontation ended with Nesmith punching a hole in a wall and saying, "That could have been your face, motherfucker!" (However, all the band members, including Nesmith, reluctantly accepted the royalty checks.)
Kirshner's dismissal came in early February 1967 when an agreement was reached between
and the Monkees to release material directly created by the group in addition to Kirshner-produced material. Kirshner violated this agreement when he released "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You", a selection of
Neil Diamond
's authorship and composition, as a single with "She Hangs Out", a song recorded in New York with
Davy Jones
vocals, as the flipside. When the single was discovered, Kirshner was immediately dismissed.
Kirshner was reported to have been incensed by the group's unexpected rebellion, especially when he felt they lacked the musical talent, and were hired for their acting ability alone. This experience led directly to Kirshner's later venture,
The Archies
, which was an
animated series
– the "stars" existed only on animation
, with music done by studio musicians, and obviously could not seize creative control over the records issued under their name.
Screen Gems
held the publishing rights to a wealth of great material, with the Monkees given first crack at many new songs. Their choices were not unerring; the band turned down "
Sugar, Sugar
", which became one of the biggest hits of 1969 when Kirshner recorded it with studio musicians and released it under the name of
The Archies
. A rumor circulated that a version of "Sugar Sugar" was recorded using session musicians with Davy Jones providing all the vocals that was never released. However, when asked Jones confirmed that Kirshner had offered it to them, but stated he never recorded it. The Monkees never had to record a song they truly disliked, as Dolenz affirmed on
The Larry King Show
in 1987. (They would sometimes lampoon songs during takes, though; their lighthearted version of "Gonna Buy Me a Dog" ended up being picked for the group's first album.)
On their third album,
(produced by
Chip Douglas
and issued in May 1967), the four Monkees wrote and played on much of their own material. Nearly all vocals and instruments on
were performed by the four Monkees (the exceptions being only a few small parts usually filled by producer Chip Douglas). The album shot to number one, but was quickly eclipsed the following month by a milestone cultural event when
The Beatles
Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
, they began what they referred to as "mix mode" where they played their own instruments but also continued to employ
session musicians
. The Monkees continued using additional musicians (including
The Wrecking Crew
Louie Shelton
, members of the
and the
, drummer "Fast"
Eddie Hoh
, and
Neil Young
) throughout their recording career, especially when the group became temporarily estranged after
Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.
and recorded some of their songs separately.
The Monkees performing "What Am I Doin' Hangin' 'Round" in 1967.
(l to r: Nesmith, Jones, Dolenz, Tork)
The high of
was short-lived, however. Recording and producing as a group was Tork's major interest and he hoped that the four would continue working together as a band on future recordings. However, the four did not have enough in common regarding their musical interests. In commentary for the DVD release of the second season of the show, Tork said that Dolenz was "incapable of repeating a triumph". Having been a musician for one album, Dolenz no longer was interested in being a drummer, and largely gave up playing instruments on Monkees recordings. (Producer Chip Douglas also had identified Dolenz's drumming as the weak point in the collective musicianship of the quartet, having to splice together multiple takes of Dolenz's "shaky" drumming for final use.) Nesmith and Jones were also moving in different directions, with Nesmith following his country/folk instincts and Jones reaching for Broadway-style numbers.
While the first two albums, produced under Kirshner's direction, constituted prime examples of the traditional American pop music industry, with its Brill Building composers and its skilled studio session players, the next three albums, while not shining as brightly in terms of polished commerciality, constituted high class, original examples of the individual Monkees' country-rock, folk-rock, psychedelic rock, soul/R&B, guitar rock, Broadway, and English music hall sensibilities. Tork, free from Kirshner's restrictions, contributed some of the most memorable and catchy instrumental flourishes, such as the piano introduction to "
Daydream Believer
" and the banjo part on "You Told Me". Nesmith dove into his country sensibilities, producing a roots sound for popular consumption and contributed his idiosyncratic poetry as lyrics to several pieces. Jones and Dolenz's vocals continued to shine, even after
, when the project was clearly falling apart.
When the Monkees toured Britain in 1967, there was a major controversy over the revelation that the group did not always play all of their own instruments in the studio, although they did play them all while touring (except for the solo segments, which used backing band the
Candy Store Prophets
). The story made the front pages of several UK and international music papers, with the group derisively dubbed "The
Four". Nevertheless, they were generally welcomed by many British stars, who realized the group included talented musicians and sympathized with their wish to have more creative control over their music.
Many Monkees fans argued that the controversy unfairly targeted the band, while conveniently ignoring the fact that a number of leading British and American groups (including critical favorites such as the Byrds and the
Beach Boys
) habitually used session players on their recordings. This commonplace practice had previously passed without comment. However, the Beatles had led a wave of groups who provided most of their own instrumentation on their recordings (although they at times used additional musicians such as
George Martin
Eric Clapton
Billy Preston
to augment the Beatles' own instrumentation) and wrote most of their own songs. The comic book quality of the Monkees' television series (where they mimed song performances out of necessity) brought additional scrutiny of their recorded music. But both supporters and critics of the group agree that the producers and Kirshner had the good taste to use some of the best pop songwriters of the period.
Neil Diamond
the Boyce-Hart partnership
Gerry Goffin
Carole King
Harry Nilsson
Barry Mann
Cynthia Weil
, and many other highly regarded writers had songs recorded by the Monkees.
In November 1967, the wave of anti-Monkee sentiment was reaching its peak while the Monkees released their fourth album,
Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn, & Jones Ltd.
In liner notes for the 1995 re-release of this album, Nesmith was quoted as saying that after
, "The press went into a full-scale war against us, talking about how 'The Monkees are four guys who have no credits, no credibility whatsoever and have been trying to trick us into believing they are a rock band.' Number one, not only was this not the case; the
was true. Number two, for the press to report with genuine alarm that the Monkees were not a real rock band was looney tunes! It was one of the great goofball moments of the media, but it stuck."
The Monkees went back into the recording studio, largely separately, and produced a large volume of recordings, material that eventually turned up on several albums. In April 1968,
The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees
was released. Being released after the final season of the television series (the series was cancelled in February 1968), this was the first Monkees album not to hit number one, but it still went gold. The album cover—a quaint collage of items looking like a display in a jumble shop or toy store—was chosen over the Monkees' objections.
Beyond television
During the filming of the second season, the band tired of scripts which they deemed monotonous and stale. They had already succeeded in eliminating the
laugh track
(a then-standard on American sitcoms), with the bulk of Season 2 episodes sans the canned chuckles. They proposed switching the format of the series to become more like a
variety show
, with musical guests and live performances. This desire was partially fulfilled within some second-season episodes, with guest stars like musicians
Frank Zappa
Tim Buckley
Charlie Smalls
(composer of
The Wiz
, performing on the show. However, NBC was not interested in eliminating the existing format, and the group had little desire to continue for a third season. Screen Gems and NBC went ahead with the existing format anyway, commissioning
writers Gerald Gardner and Dee Caruso to create a straight-comedy, no-music half-hour in the
mold; a pilot episode was filmed with the then-popular nightclub act
The Pickle Brothers
. The pilot had the same energy and pace of
The Monkees
, but never became a series.
The Monkees
was cancelled in February 1968, Rafelson directed the four Monkees in a feature film,
, originally titled "Untitled". Schneider was executive producer, and the project was co-written and co-produced by Rafelson with a then relatively unknown
Jack Nicholson
. Rumors abound that the title was chosen in case a sequel was made. The advertisements would supposedly have read: "From the producers who gave you HEAD".
Nicholson also assembled the film's soundtrack album. The film, conceived and edited in a
stream of consciousness
style, featured oddball cameo appearances by movie stars
Victor Mature
Annette Funicello
, a young
Teri Garr
, boxer
Sonny Liston
, famous
Carol Doda
, and musician
Frank Zappa
It was filmed at
Columbia Pictures
' Screen Gems studios and on location in
, and
The Bahamas
between February 19 and May 17, 1968 and premiered in New York City on
November 6
of that year (the film later debuted in Hollywood on
November 20
was not a commercial success, in part because it was the antithesis of
The Monkees
television show, intended to comprehensively demolish the group's carefully groomed public image. Rafelson and Nicholson's "Ditty Diego-War Chant" (recited at the start of the film by the Monkees), ruthlessly parodies
Boyce and Hart
's "Monkees Theme". A sparse advertising campaign (with no mention of the Monkees) squelched any chances of the film doing well, and it played only briefly in nearly-empty cinemas. In commentary for the DVD release, Nesmith said that by this time, everyone associated with the Monkees, including the four Monkees, "had gone crazy". They were each using the platform of the Monkees to push their own disparate career goals, to the detriment of the Monkees project. Indeed, Nesmith said,
was Rafelson and Nicholson's intentional effort to "kill" the Monkees, so that they would no longer be bothered with having to deal with the matter. Tork said in DVD commentary that everyone had developed such difficult personalities that the big-name stars invited as guests on the show would invariably leave the experience "hating everybody".
But they all proved later to have gotten it entirely wrong. For over the intervening years
has developed a
cult following
for its innovative style and anarchic humor, and the
soundtrack album
(long out of print, but re-released by Rhino in the 1980s and now available in an expanded CD version) is counted among their most adventurous recordings. Members of the Monkees, Nesmith in particular, cite
(the first Monkees album not to include any Boyce and Hart compositions) as one of the crowning achievements of the band. The highlights include Nesmith's "
Circle Sky
", an all-out rocker, Tork's psychedelic "Can You Dig It?", "Long Title: Do I Have to Do This All Over Again?" and the Goffin/King composition "Porpoise Song".
The Monkees had several international hits which are still heard on pop and
stations. These include "
I'm a Believer
", "
Steppin' Stone
", "
Daydream Believer
", "
Last Train to Clarksville
", and "
Pleasant Valley Sunday
". Despite their seemingly permanent reputation as a made-for-TV act, their hits and many lesser recordings present an enduring quality that has earned respect over the years.
Six albums were produced with the original Monkees lineup, four of which went to number one on the
chart. This success was supplemented by a series of successful world concert tours. But tensions within the group were increasing, and Peter Tork quit shortly after the band's Far East tour in December 1968, after completing work on their 1969 NBC television special,
Thirty-Three And One-Third Revolutions Per Monkee
, which rehashed many of the ideas from
, only with the Monkees playing a strangely second-string role. In the DVD commentary for the television special, Dolenz noted that after filming was complete, Nesmith gave Tork a gold watch as a going-away present, engraved "From the guys down at work." (Tork kept the back, but replaced the watch several times in later years.)
The remaining Monkees had decided to pursue their musical interests separately since
Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn, and Jones Ltd.
; they were no longer in the studio together—and planned a future double album (eventually to be reduced to
The Monkees Present
) on which each Monkee would separately produce one side of a disc. No longer getting the group dynamic he wanted, and pleading "exhaustion" from the grueling schedule, Tork bought out his remaining contract.
Reduced to a trio, the remaining members went on to record
Instant Replay
The Monkees Present
. Throughout 1969, the trio would appear as guests on various television programs such as
Glen Campbell
Goodtime Hour
Johnny Cash
Hollywood Squares
, and
. The Monkees also had a contractual obligation to appear in several television commercials with
Bugs Bunny
drink mix as well as Post cereal box singles.
In the summer of 1969 the three Monkees embarked on a tour with the backing soul band Sam and the Goodtimers. The concerts for this tour were longer sets than their earlier concert tours: many shows running over two hours. Unfortunately the 1969 Monkees' tour was not all that successful; some shows were cancelled due to poor ticket sales. In March 1970, Nesmith left the group, leaving only Dolenz and Jones to record
as the Monkees. By this time, Colgems was hardly putting any effort into the project, and they sent Dolenz and Jones to New York for the
sessions, to be produced by
Jeff Barry
Andy Kim
. In comments for the liner notes of the 1994 re-release of
, Dolenz and Jones said that they felt they had been tricked into recording an "Andy Kim album" under the Monkees name. Except for the two singers' vocal performances,
is the only album that fails to win any significant praise from critics looking back 40 years to the Monkees' recording output. This would also mark the last official Monkees single "Oh My My" which also became the last Monkees music film promo (produced by Micky).
After a 1971 single ("Do It In The Name Of Love" b/w "Lady Jane"), the Monkees lost the rights to use the name; in several countries, the USA included, the single was not credited to the Monkees but to Dolenz and Jones. The duo continued to tour throughout most of the 1970s but were unable to use the "Monkees" name.
Due in part to repeats of
The Monkees
on Saturday mornings and in syndication,
The Monkees Greatest Hits
charted in 1976. The LP, issued by
, who by this time had custody of the Monkees' master tapes, courtesy of their corporate owner, Screen Gems, was actually a re-packaging of an earlier (1972) compilation LP called
that had been issued by Arista's previous label imprint, Bell Records, also owned by Screen Gems. Dolenz and Jones took advantage of this, joining ex-Monkees songwriters
Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart
to tour the United States.
From 1975 to 1977, as the "Golden Hits of The Monkees" show ("The Guys who Wrote 'Em and the Guys who Sang 'Em!"), they successfully performed in smaller venues such as state fairs and amusement parks, as well as making stops in
They also released an album of new material as
Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart
(they could not use the Monkees name due to legal reasons). Nesmith had not been interested in a reunion. Tork claimed later that he had not been asked, although a Christmas single (credited to Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones and Peter Tork) was produced by Chip Douglas and released on his own label in 1976. The single featured Douglas' and Howard Kaylan's "Christmas Is My Time Of Year" (originally recorded by a 1960s supergroup, Christmas Spirit), with a B-side of Irving Berlin's "White Christmas" (Douglas released a remixed version of the single, with additional overdubbed instruments, in 1986).
Tork also joined Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart on stage at
on July 4, 1976, and also joined Dolenz and Jones on stage at the Starwood in
Hollywood, California
in 1977.
Other semi-reunions occurred between 1970 and 1986. Peter Tork helped arrange a Micky Dolenz single, "Easy on You"/"Oh Someone" in 1971. Tork also recorded some unreleased tracks for Nesmith's Countryside label during the 1970s, and Dolenz (by then a successful television director in the United Kingdom) directed a segment of Nesmith's NBC-TV series
Television Parts
, although the segment in question was not included when the series' six episodes aired during the summer of 1985.
1980s reunions
Brushed off by critics during their heyday as manufactured and lacking talent, The Monkees experienced a critical and commercial rehabilitation two decades later. A Monkees TV show marathon ("
Pleasant Valley Sunday
") was broadcast on February 23, 1986, on the video music channel
. In February and March, Tork and Jones played together in Australia. Then, starting in May, Dolenz, Jones, and Tork made a "20th Anniversary Tour". MTV promotion resurrected a smaller version of Monkeemania, and tour dates grew from smaller to larger venues.
Producer David Fishof reunited the trio which became one of the biggest live acts of 1986 and 1987, with their original albums selling again, and a new greatest hits collection reaching platinum status. Mike Nesmith appeared on stage with Dolenz, Jones, and Tork twice, both times in Los Angeles: at the Greek Theatre on September 7, 1986, and at the Universal Amphitheatre on July 10, 1989. By now, Nesmith was amenable to a reunion, but forced to sit out most projects because of prior commitments to his bustling Pacific Arts video production company.
However, he did appear with the band in a 1986 Christmas medley music video for MTV, and took part in a dedication ceremony at the
Hollywood Walk of Fame
, when the Monkees received a star there in 1989.
Because his mother
Bette Nesmith Graham
was the inventor of
Liquid Paper
, Nesmith was wealthy and had little financial need to join in Monkees-related projects.
The sudden revival of the Monkees in 1986 helped move the first official Monkees single since 1971, "That Was Then, This Is Now", to the #19 position in
Magazine. The success, however, was not without controversy. Davy Jones had declined to sing on the track, recorded along with two other new songs included in a compilation album,
Then & Now...
The Best of The Monkees
. Some copies of the single and album credit the new songs to "the Monkees", others as "Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork (of the Monkees)". Reportedly, these recordings were the source of some personal friction between Jones and the others during the 1986 tour; Jones would typically leave the stage when the new songs were performed. A new album by the touring trio,
Pool It!
(the Monkees' 10th), appeared the following year and was a moderate success.
From 1986 to 1989, the Monkees would conduct major concert tours in the
United States
In 1986, a new television series called
New Monkees
appeared. Four young musicians were placed in a similar series based on the original show, but "updated" for the 1980s. The show, its accompanying album and the New Monkees themselves all sank without a trace. (Neither Bob Rafelson nor Bert Schneider were involved in the development or production of the series, although it was produced by "Straybert Productions" headed by Steve Blauner, Rafelson and Schneider's partner in BBS Productions.)
Beginning in February 1987, Tork and Jones played in Australia together. When they began playing North America in June, they were joined by Dolenz and in September 1988, the three rejoined to play Australia again and then Europe and then North America, with that string of tours ending in September 1989. On July 9, 1989, the three were joined in Los Angeles by Nesmith, the first time all four played together since 1986.
1990s reunions
In 1993, Dolenz and Jones worked together on a television commercial, and another reunion tour was launched with the two of them in 1994.
In the 1990s, the Monkees continued to record new material. Their eleventh album
was released in 1996. It was the first since 1968 on which all four original members performed and produced.
was produced by the Monkees, all songs were written by one of the four Monkees, and it was recorded using only the four Monkees for all instruments and vocals, which was the inspiration for the album title and spelling (
= Just Us).
The trio of Dolenz, Jones, and Tork reunited again for a successful 30th anniversary tour of American amphitheaters in 1996, while Nesmith joined them onstage in Los Angeles to promote the new songs from
For the first time since the brief 1986 reunion, Nesmith returned to the concert stage for a tour of the United Kingdom in 1997, highlighted by two sold-out concerts at
Wembley Arena
in London.
The full quartet also appeared in an ABC television special titled
Hey, Hey, It's the Monkees
, which was written and directed by Nesmith and spoofed the original series that had made them famous. Nevertheless, following the UK tour, Nesmith declined to continue future performances with the Monkees, having faced harsh criticism from the British music press for his deteriorating musicianship. Tork noted in DVD commentary that while in 1966, Nesmith had learned a reasonably good version of the famous "Last Train to Clarksville" guitar lick, that in 1996, Nesmith was no longer able to play it, and Tork had to take over the lead guitar parts.
Nesmith's departure from the tour came with acrimony in the press. Jones was quoted by the
Los Angeles Times
as complaining that "he made a new album with us. He toured Great Britain with us. Then all of a sudden, he's not here. Later, I hear rumors he's writing a script for our next movie. Oh, really? That's bloody news to me. He's always been this aloof, inaccessible person...the fourth part of the jigsaw puzzle that never quite fit in."
2000s reunions
Tork, Jones, and Dolenz toured the United States in 1997, after which the group took another hiatus, until the three regrouped again in 2001. Dolenz, Jones, and Tork toured the United States from March through September 2001. However, this tour was also accompanied by public sniping. Dolenz and Jones had announced that they had "fired" Tork for his constant complaining and threatening to quit. Tork himself was quoted as saying that as well as the fact he wanted to tour with his band Shoe Suede Blues. Most acutely, Tork told WENN News he was troubled by the overindulging of alcohol by other members of the tour crew:
Jones and Dolenz went on to tour the United Kingdom in 2002, but Tork declined to participate. Jones and Dolenz toured the United States one more time as a duo in 2002, and then split to concentrate on their own individual projects.
With different Monkees citing different reasons, the group chose not to mark their 40th anniversary in 2006, and it seems doubtful that the Monkees will be sighted together again.
In June 2007, Tork complained to the New York Post that
Jann Wenner
had blackballed the Monkees from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. Tork asserted:
Over the years, the Monkees have expressed admiration for each other's talents and contributions. However, by 2008, it seemed that their relationships had soured again. In a March 2008 interview with the
Baltimore Sun
, Jones spoke bitterly about his fellow ex-Monkees. When asked about any future reunions, Jones was not optimistic:
Nonetheless, that same month, Jones spotted Tork in the audience at one of his shows in Connecticut, and he invited Peter onstage, where they performed "Papa Gene's Blues" together, with obvious playful affection between them.
The Monkees, selected specifically to appeal to the youth market with their manufactured personae and carefully produced singles, are seen as an original precursor to the modern proliferation of studio and corporation-created bands. But this critical reputation has softened somewhat, with the recognition that the Monkees were neither the first manufactured group nor unusual in this respect. The Monkees also frequently contributed their own songwriting efforts on their albums and saw their musical skills improve. They ultimately became a self-directed group, playing their own instruments and writing many of their own songs.
The Monkees found unlikely fans among musicians of the
punk rock
period of the mid-1970s. Many of these punk performers had grown up on TV reruns of the series, and sympathized with the anti-industry, anti-Establishment trend of their career.
Sex Pistols
Minor Threat
both recorded versions of "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone" and it was played live by
Toy Love
. The Japanese new wave pop group
The Plastics
recorded a synthesizer and drum-machine version of "Last Train to Clarksville" for their 1979 album "Welcome Plastics".
In 1985,
Monte Landis
, who had appeared in almost every episode of the television series, had a cameo in
Pee-wee's Big Adventure
, a feature film comedy in the style of the Monkees' television show, and his appearance suggests the producers wanted
Pee-wee's Big Adventure
to have a connection to it.
In 1988
recorded "Mary, Mary" on their album
Tougher Than Leather
. Australian
bands of the 1980s such as
("All The King's Horses"),
Prince Vlad & the Gargoyle Impalers
("Mary Mary", "For Pete's Sake", and "
Circle Sky
") and
The Upbeat
The Mexican Spitfires
("Mary Mary") performed Monkees cover versions.
Cassandra Wilson
had an indie hit with "
Last Train to Clarksville
" in 1995. The
alternative rock
Smash Mouth
had a hit with "I'm a Believer" in 2001, and their version was featured in the blockbuster computer-animated movie
. Japanese indie rock band
Shonen Knife
recorded "Daydream Believer". Indie group
Carter USM
recorded "Randy Scouse Git", which is also called "Alternate Title". The 1980s psychedelic rock band
, featuring
Ann Magnuson
Mark Kramer
, recorded "You Just May Be The One" and "The Porpoise Song". The Monkees also had a big influence on Paul Westerberg, lead singer/songwriter for The Replacements. "Daydream Believer" and "You Just May Be The One" are staples at his live shows. The British alternative rock band
The Wedding Present
recorded "
Pleasant Valley Sunday
" in the early 1990s.
The band's legacy was strengthened by
Rhino Entertainment
's acquisition of the Monkees' franchise from
Columbia Pictures
in the early 1990s. The label has released several Monkees-related projects, including remastered editions of both the original television series and their complete music library, as well as their motion picture
In the 1990s, three of the Monkees had minor roles in the family sitcom
Boy Meets World
. Tork played Topanga's father Jedidiah; Jones played Reginald, an old friend from Europe; Dolenz played Gordy, Mr. Matthews' best friend. In the one episode that the three were in together, they performed "My Girl".
In 1991, a feature film called
Daydream Believer
(known as
The Girl Who Came Late
in some markets) was released in Australia.
Jones, Tork, and Dolenz also feature memorably as themselves in
The Brady Bunch Movie
. Jones is invited by Marcia to appear as the surprise star guest at the high school prom. After a difficult start, he proves a surprise hit with the modern-day audience. Later, the Bradys themselves perform "Keep On Dancing", a 1960s-style "groovy" song, in the evening's "Search For A Star" talent contest. Everyone is surprised when they win the award until it is revealed that the judging panel consists of Jones, Tork and Dolenz.
David Bowie
, already under contract to record his debut album, was forced to adopt the stage name of "Bowie" in order to have any chance of having his music released in the United States, his legal name being David Robert Jones. During the early 1960s Bowie was performing either under his own name or the stage name "Davie Jones", and briefly even as "Davy Jones", creating confusion with Davy Jones of The Monkees. To avoid this, in 1966 he chose "Bowie" for his stage name, after the Alamo hero Jim Bowie and his famous Bowie knife.
In 2005,
used "Daydream Believer" as the theme for a promotional campaign.
In 2006,
used "Daydream Believer" in their adverts; the lyrics were adapted for the product.
Notable achievements
Had the top-charting
single of 1967 ("
I'm a Believer
(Billboard number-one for seven weeks) with "
Daydream Believer
" tied for third.
First band to use a
Moog Synthesizer
in a top-10 album (used on "
Star Collector
", "
Daily Nightly
" and "Love Is Only Sleeping" from
Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.
, released in November 1967).
Gave the
Jimi Hendrix Experience
their first US concert appearances. It should be noted that Hendrix's heavy psychedelic guitar and sexual overtones did not go overly well with the teenage girl audience.
Compelled another David Jones to change his surname to
to avoid being confused with Davy Jones of The Monkees.
Gave the producers of
Star Trek
the idea to introduce the character of
in response to the popularity of Davy Jones, complete with hairstyle and appearance mimicking that of Jones.
The Monkees reunion tour was the largest grossing tour of 1986.
Tim Buckley
to a national audience, via his appearance in the series finale, "Mijacogeo, Or--The Frodis Caper".
Last music artist to win the
Friday Night Video Fights
by defeating Bon Jovi 51% to 49%.
First music artist to win two
Emmy Awards
First television series to star teenagers living on their own without parents.
First rock band to use a multimedia live concert show (film, stage choreography and music).
First actual live concert footage to be featured in a motion picture (Head, 1968).
Had seven albums on the Billboard top 200 chart at the same time (six were re-issues during 1986/87).
The Monkees are one of only ten
artists achieving number-one hits in the United States and United Kingdom simultaneously
More of The Monkees
spent 70 weeks on the Billboard charts becoming the 12th biggest selling album of all time (Billboard.com).
Four number-one albums in a year span. The only act to have their first four albums go to number one on the Billboard charts.
Held the number one spot on the Billboard album chart for 31 consecutive weeks.
Held the record for the longest stay at number one for a debut record until 1982 when
Men At Work
's debut record
Business As Usual
broke that record.
The Monkees
More of The Monkees
Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.
The Birds, The Bees & the Monkees
Instant Replay
The Monkees Present
Pool It!
There was also "The Monkees" comic published by Dell which ran from 1-17 (1967-1969) as well as a Daily Mirror "Crazy Cartoon Book" (2/6, now 12.5p) which had four comic stories as well as four photos of The Monkees, all in black and white. Published 1967.
See also
List of best-selling music artists
List of The Monkees episodes
The Monkees: The Day-by-Day Story of the 60s TV Pop Sensation
External links
The Monkees Website
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text:
you've got some neighbors moving in upstairs!
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
watch out bottom teeth!
3 comments:
- ohmylanta said...
Lyns, you take such great photos of her. Photos that unveil her cute personality!! I just want to reach through the monitor and squeeze her cheeks.
- March 3, 2010 at 12:21 PM
- Meghan said...
Oh my goodness! Best. Picture. Ever.
Enough said.
- March 3, 2010 at 5:31 PM
- Carlee said...
Lynsey, your kids are so dang cute!! Thanks for your comment. I feel the same way about other girls....how can they do it all and I am drowning?!! I know it will get easier! Thank goodness. Okay so I LOVED your last blog about the utlrasound tech! Totally made my day! You are so funny. I thought to myself, WoW...you are even beautiful making all of those silly faces!!
- March 4, 2010 at 8:04 AM
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
Social TV data a new tool for gauging shows' buzz
For decades, TV shows have lived or died based on their Nielsen ratings. But the advent of sites like Facebook has spawned an emerging industry of companies that say they can measure more than just the sheer size of an audience.
These "social Nielsens" can measure the buzz about a show's characters or plots, and can give advertisers specific information about the ages, gender and location of who's watching.
In the near future, social Nielsens may help influence how a particular character is written.
"Social analysis presents a significantly new opportunity to understand your audience at a large scale and in real time," said Greg Artzt, co-founder of General Sentiment, a Jericho, N.Y., firm that tracks the millions of TV show mentions on Twitter, Facebook, blogs and news site comment boxes.
Social TV research is one of the topics that will be discussed Tuesday at the Social TV Summit, a conference for 200 high-level TV industry executives at the Bentley Reserve in San Francisco.
MBA BY THE BAY: See how an MBA could change your life with SFGATE's interactive directory of Bay Area programs.
Changing habits
A study that will be presented at the summit shows that social media is helping to drive new viewers to shows.
According to a TV Guide survey of 10,000 people, 17 percent said they began watching a show - and 33 percent said they continued to watch - because of a mention on social networks or other online sites. Meanwhile 69 percent said they wanted to see what others were saying.
And 76 percent shared what they were watching to help keep the show from being canceled, while 27 percent said they watched more shows as they aired, instead of recorded, to avoid getting stung by spoilers being shared on social networks.
"There's a new and growing industry developing around the opportunity that technology provides for viewers to connect with each other and with their familiar shows, sports teams and celebrities that they haven't had before," said Christy Tanner, executive vice president and general manager of TV Guide Digital.
There are about 70 companies now offering research and social TV applications that in one way or another provide audience measurement, said Andy Batkin, chief executive officer of Social Summits LLC, the event's organizer.
Top of the charts
Trendrr.TV of New York, for example, has a daily chart of the most popular network and cable shows based on activity on Twitter and Facebook. On Monday, Trendrr.TV said "WrestleMania XXVIII" and "Game of Thrones" topped the cable network charts, while "The Simpsons" and the Academy of Country Music Awards had the most activity of network TV shows.
The MTV Network, which now has 100 million "likes" on Facebook, last month said it uses Trendrr.TV data to analyze audiences' engagement with shows like "Jersey Shore" and "The Pauly D Project."
"The powerful combination of linear and social is a game changer for how we entertain and engage our audience," MTV President Stephen Friedman said in a statement. "Storytelling is at the core of what MTV does, but thanks to the extensive social ecosystem we've built, we can now provide our viewers with an even richer experience which drives ratings as well as provides scale and connectivity for our advertisers."
Then there are mobile apps like Miso, GetGlue and TVPlus that center around social sharing, which becomes important because research shows as many as 80 percent of couch potatoes are watching TV along with using a smart phone, tablet or laptop, Batkin said.
Indeed, the TV Guide study found 49 percent of social-networking users said they posted comments about a show as they watch it.
Social TV data is crucial for advertisers because "now the consumer is in charge. They pick and chose the messaging they are interested in and if it's not delivered correctly, they're going to tell you," he said.
And he said there are those in the TV industry that are "creating shows with the second screen or social TV capability in mind," he said.
One game show developer is considering a game that lets viewers also "play for cash and prizes," he said. "And dramatic programs are thinking about how to use it to allow people to have a say in the direction of the show, such as should a character move back to Chicago."
A work in progress
Greg Artzt, who is General Sentiment's chief strategy officer, said social-media data may be key for shows or networks that may not have a huge Nielsen audience rating. But he said social Nielsens are only "in the first inning" of their evolution.
"Social analytics is not looking to fully replace Nielsen data," he said. "Nielsen is still the standard in measuring audience, although we think they do a poorer job of valuing a viewer."
Tanner said the TV industry is still trying to figure out what to do with social media data, since high social ratings may not translate to higher Nielsen ratings.
Much of the social ratings come from publicly available data, which leans more heavily toward Twitter tweets than Facebook posts. She said BET's "106 & Park," for example, generates high trending topics on Twitter mainly because the show encourages viewers to tweet.
ABC's "Glee" also generates a lot of social media traffic, "but the ratings went down year over year," Tanner said. "So does that mean Nielsen is not capturing it or does it mean that the audience they have happens to be inherently more social?"
Plus, the use of Nielsen ratings is entrenched in the TV industry and executives may not be quick to switch to a new metric.
"I don't know of anybody who has canceled their Nielsen contracts," Tanner said. "It's really early days. We're just getting started. The best applications of these technologies are yet to come."
Benny Evangelista is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. firstname.lastname@example.com


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The objective of this conference is to stimulate and enhance international dialogue and co-operative efforts of relevant law enforcement agencies of the OSCE Mediterranean Partners for Co-operation and participating States on methods and good practices to increase their capacities to identify and counter emerging transnational threats
The workshop was organized by the Strategic Police Matters Unit of the OSCE Transnational Threats Department and Ukraine's Ministry of Social Policy, with the support of the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine and INTERPOL.
This workshop, organised by the Strategic Police Matters Unit (SPMU) in co-operation with the Lithuanian Ministry of the Interior and UNODC, aimed to develop preventive measures against production and trafficking in synthetic drugs in the Baltic region and strengthen a regional co-operation among law enforcement agencies, reducing the supply of drugs, improving international co-operation and raising public awareness.
The Not Just a Picture Conference was an opportunity to look at the activities and achievements of the EFC to date, allowing delegates to gain a good understanding of the collective knowledge about how the online, payment and financial environments are being exploited by offenders and the steps that need to be taken in the future to prevent the abuse of children in this manner.
This meeting will be the first time that chiefs of police from the OSCE area will meet at the highest level. It is part of the Organization's focus in 2006 on combating organized crime.


text:
Deployed Meters, proudly presented by El Sewedy Electrometer Group:
Meters Deployed Worldwide
PRIME (PoweRline Intelligent Metering Evolution) today is a mature, consolidated and worldwide PLC standard for Advanced Metering, Grid Control and Asset Monitoring applications and the objective to establish a set of open international PLC standards has been met.
With an increased number of PRIME certified products interoperability among equipment and systems from different manufacturers has been achieved and deployments of over 20 million PRIME meters by utilities and solution providers, across Europe with recent expansion into the Middle East. PRIME is now being utilised and installed in over 15 countries worldwide. Read our Members press releases for the latest deployment news around the world.
Thank you for joining us at PRIME's 1st BPL Workshop, the 5th Annual PRIME Utility-to-Utility User Group Conference in Munich and at the European Utility Week in Paris!
"Based on several smart metering pilots, E.ON chooses PRIME's Broadband Powerline (BPL) for its Communikationmix SmartWAN" says Mr Elmar Peine from E.ON Deutschland at the first PRIME BPL Workshop.
"Utilities are rapidly evolving due to the energy transition for a cleaner environment and the digital transformation. Telecommunications are essential and PLC technology, as complemented as needed, will definitively have a place in the Smart Grids" inspires Mr Sánchez Fornié from the PRIME Alliance during the fifth PRIME Alliance Utility User Group Conference.


text:
Join Scott Simpson for an in-depth discussion in this video Navigating the GNOME Shell, part of Learning Fedora Linux (2015).
- If you're accustomed to Mac OS X or Windows, the GNOME desktop environment, or GNOME Shell, could look a little daunting. Let's take a quick look. A great place to start is the login screen. Here at the top there's an icon for Accessibility options. If you need to turn on High Contrast, Large Text or any of the other options, this is where you do it. Next to that is the Status menu where you can see the status of your network connection, change the audio volume and choose to shut down or Restart the system, if you need to. I'll Cancel that for now.
Here in the middle of the screen is a list of users on the system. We'll get into adding other users later, but for now I'll click on my name. This little gear icon down here lets me choose which desktop environment I'm logging into. And again, we'll get into that later in the course. For now, I'll type my password and press Sign In. And now I'm looking at the GNOME Shell. Here across the top of the screen there's a bar with a section labeled Activities, which I'll get into in a little bit. And a date and time display, which if you click on it, gives you a calendar.
And over here's the Status menu that we saw earlier, but now it gives you a few more options. Clicking it brings up a menu with some details and controls and buttons to open the system tools, lock the screen and, of course, shut down and restart the computer. I can also get to the settings by right-clicking on this desktop area, and I can go right to Change the Background as well, but I'll leave it alone for now. Now, I'll click on the Activities button in the upper left of the screen to open overview mode. On the left side of the overview is an area called the dash, where you can put icons for applications you use frequently.
At the bottom there's a button to Show Applications. This will show you the applications installed on your system. At the bottom of the screen there's a notifications area where notifications about the system will appear, if there are any. Clicking it opens up a bar with icons for applications that have notifications to share with you. You can choose to act on them or dismiss them. I don't have any right now, but you might see some text down there at the bottom. Also, notice the lozenge button that lets you toggle between frequently used applications and all applications. On the right, you'll see an indicator of which page of applications you're currently on.
You can scroll with the mouse or use the arrow keys to navigate. You'll notice some of the applications are inside folders. Click to open and close the folder or you can press enter to enter the folder and escape to leave it. If I right-click on an application, I can find out more information about it or add it to my Favorites or I can drag it to the dash. Personally, I don't think the Terminal belongs buried in a folder, so I'll drag it over here to my dash. And I can see at the bottom of the screen, in the notifications area, there's a notification that I added the Terminal.
And, of course, to open an application, just click it. My application opens up in the Shell and I can dock it to the left or the right of the screen, if I like, just by dragging until I see this snap indicator. Dragging an app to the top of the screen makes it full screen. If I switch back to the Overview mode, I can take an application and drag it to another workspace over here in the Workspaces list. I can use that list to switch between the workspaces. When an application's open, it has a menu up here at the top.
Application-level functions and options will be here, usually including Preferences, Help and About. Some applications will have their own title bar, too. Files doesn't, for example, but the Terminal app does.
- List the things one should do during Fedora installation on VirtualBox.
- Explain how to begin working with files and folders in the GNOME shell.
- Name the minimum requirement for adding a new user.
- Identify where to go to customize the GNOME environment.
- Name the desktop environment that Fedora uses by default.
- List the command that you would issue to install an infrastructure server.
Skill Level Beginner
Q: Why don't the VirtualBox Guest Additions install properly on Fedora 23?
A: It seems that the VirtualBox Guest Additions don't like the version of the X.Org Server software that comes with the Fedora 23 ISO. Before installing the additions, make sure to run:
sudo dnf update
This will get the latest version of X.Org Server (currently 1.18). After that, restart the VM. Then run:
sudo dnf install gcc kernel-devel-$(uname -r)
This command installs the gcc compiler and updated kernel headers, which the Guest Additions need in order to build themselves. $(uname -r) takes the output of the uname -r command, which returns the current kernel version number, and uses it to request to install the correct version for your system. Then try installing the Guest Additions again. You should see "Installing X.Org Server 1.18 modules [ OK ]." Restart the system again, and the full-screen feature should work.


text:
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text:
By Richard Menta 3/30/05
When I look at the picture of the annonymous woman at the right I wonder if her future means one where the record industry wins or where the file swap companies do? The instrument in her hand suggests she is not a platinum recording artist and therefore more prone to support the file share programs as a self-promotional vehicle for herself. Then again, maybe not.
But I was quite happy to see all of the photos of demonstrators on both sides of the argument. This case has become very visible and that spurs debate both in and out of the Supreme Court building. Debate is critical as too many people seem to focus on absolutes rather than the shades of gray that mark this conflict.
Day one shows that the justices are likewise taking a hard look at this case trying to find equilibrium from both sides. They are also cutting neither side slack.
The justices showed significant concern that innovation could seriously be hampered by the media industries proposal. Several of the justices pointed questions to the entertainment laywers that showed this concern ran deep.
Pro file swapping or against?
Justice Stephen Breyer noted that at the time of their release the MP3 player, the Xerox machine, and Gutenberg's press all had "vast numbers of infringing uses that would be foreseeable".
"What I worry about is a suit that comes right out of the box" said conservative Justice Antonin Scalia. His questions showed it troubled him to give too much power to copyright holders to sue as abuse could chill positive progress.
The justices know all to well that the wealth and influence of this country was built on progress. With the asian economies agressively keeping up with us in technology, the national competitive advantage we held matter-of-factly in the 20th century is shifting partially overseas. Supressed innovation can hurt this country.
"The Supreme Court asked exactly the right question: How do we preserve innovation?" Fred von Lohmann told CNET. Lohmann is the Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney who represents StreamCast Networks. "How do we protect the innovator in a garage who's inventing the next iPod?"
But the justices were likewise critical of the activities of the file sharing companies. Again, they were looking past the absolutes.
Justice Anthony Kennedy said that allowing companies to ignore the potential for copyright infringement equals "unlawful expropriation of property as a kind of start-up capital".
Justice Scalia pointed out that Grokster's more-decentralized method of downloading had been developed "solely to get around" the Napster ruling.
The justices also asked several questions that probed for alternate ways that the file swap companies can be held responsible for the protection of copyrighted material. It is possible that at the end of the trial, whichever way it goes, the case can be sent back to a lower court to define parameters as to the involvement of file sharing technology with regards to this issue. In other words, they may not be allowed to continue to create applications that allow them to remain intentionally blind to how their products are used.
Several of the justices expressed frustration on the lack of information that can accurately describe the magnitude of copyright infringment in the case. This works against the entertainment industries who are claiming massive losses without solid proof.
For example, the movie industry has experienced no loss of revenue at all, setting record box office and DVD sales each of the last several years. The RIAA represented record companies have shown losses and blame all of it on file trading without isolating it from other potential causes. Many non-RIAA represented independent labels have shown an increase in sales, citing file sharing as a promotional tool for their artists.
Stay tuned.
The Samsung Yepp YH-999 20 GB Portable Media Center is available on Amazon
Other MP3 stories:
MP3 Frees the Music of Fiona Apple
Can Free Broadcast TV Really Be Napsterized?
Bruce Springsteen's 'The Boss' iPod


text:
GDB's Blog: No Bones About It.
Blog Post Teasers
How Receiving a Guide Dog Really is a Life-Changing Experience
Blog Post Date: Dec 15, 2016
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Blog Post Date: May 12, 2016
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Gaya's Legacy: By Breeder Dog Custodian Peter Michael Miller
Blog Post Date: Mar 24, 2016
Categories: Puppy Socializing, GDB Breeder Dog


text:
CDJ Today: August 31 in Classic Rock
August 31, 2012 – Eddie Van Halen undergoes emergency surgery for "a severe bout of diverticulitis" causing Van Halen to reschedule a tour of Japan slated for November. August 31, 1976 – George Harrison is found guilty of "subconscious plagiarism" when Bright Tunes Music Corporation sues him, claiming that he plagiarized "He's So Fine" by The Chiffons for his song "My Sweet Lord." The case … Continue reading CDJ Today: August 31 in Classic Rock
CDJ Today: August 17 in Classic Rock
August 17, 1991 – AC/DC headline the Monsters of Rock festival at Castle Donington in the U.K. with a strong bill – Metallica, Mötley Crüe, Queensrÿche and The Black Crowes. August 17, 1985 – ZZ Top headline the Monster of Rock festival at Castle Donington in the U.K. Their bill includes Marillion, Bon Jovi, Metallica, Ratt and Magnum. August 17, 2012 – The members of … Continue reading CDJ Today: August 17 in Classic Rock
CDJ Today: January 7 in Classic Rock
January 7, 2004 – Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes and wife Kate Hudson announce the birth of their first child Ryder Russell Robinson. January 7, 1997 – Two bronze busts worth $70,000 are stolen from George Harrison's estate in Henley-on-Thames, England. Thieves cut the figures of two monks from their stone plinths. Classic Rock Birthdays January 7, 1937 – Paul Revere … Continue reading CDJ Today: January 7 in Classic Rock


text: Trump: FBI 'in Tatters —Worst in History!' Says 'we will bring it back to greatness' after 'years of Comey' By Newser Editors and Wire Services Posted Dec 3, 2017 8:36 AM CST 460 comments In this 2013 file photo, former FBI Director Robert Mueller. A veteran FBI counterintelligence agent was removed from special counsel Robert Mueller's team investigating Russian election meddling after... (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File) View 2 more images (Newser) – President Trump is attacking his own FBI in a series of tweets, reports the AP, and says the law enforcement agency's reputation is "in Tatters - worst in History!" The president tweeted that "we will bring it back to greatness." Trump was responding to reports that a veteran FBI counterintelligence agent was removed from special counsel Robert Mueller's team investigating Russian election meddling because of anti-Trump text messages. He writes after years under fired FBI director James Comey, "with the phony and dishonest Clinton investigation (and more)," the agency's reputation "is in Tatters - worst in History!'" The president also retweeted a tweet suggesting FBI Director Chris Wray "needs to clean house." The president said earlier Sunday he never asked Comey to stop investigating ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn. (Read more President Trump stories.) View 2 more images My Take on This Story Report a story error Show results | 11% Hilarious 4% Intriguing 9% Depressing 14% Brilliant 5% Scary 57% Ridiculous


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Directions & Contact
Located in the village of Erbalunga, the gateway to the Cap Corse and 9 kilometres from Bastia city center.
Castel Brando
20222 Brando
Corse (France)
04 95 30 10 30 (From France)
+33 495 30 10 30 (From Abroad)
Rent your electric bike
Cap Corse with its small wooded or sunny roads is an ideal playground for cycle touring.
Directly from the hotel, you could rent up to two electric bike with our partner AppeBike.
Simply download the app AppeBike, available on IOS & Android and unlock your bike with your mobile device.
Bike by AppeBike :
E-bike manufactured by Peugeot
Bosch Active Line enginer with 500Wh battery
74 mile battery life
Accessible to everyone
Rear luggage rack
Snap-on child seat on rear luggage rack
Front basket
Continuous transmission Nuvinci N330
Aluminium adjustable lever handle
30 lux front/AR LED lighting / integrated LED in luggage rack
The electric bike we propose are manufactured by the world leaders in this sector : Peugeot and Bosch. Especially selected for Corsican roads, this bike will be the perfect companion for your next holidays in Corsica.
Easy Check-in and Check-out
- Free and secure parking lot, with bicycle stands
- Help with luggage on request and luggage storage space,
- Courtesy bathroom available
Stay connected
- Free Wi-Fi internet access throughout the entire property, in both communal areas and bedrooms
- Internet access point and office services (print, scan, etc.)
Enjoy Corsica's culinary delights
- A gourmet breakfast, offering products and produces from organic and local farms
- Our restaurant : "Les Américains"
- At the Bar or on our terrace, for tasting great Corsican wines
- Our boutique is the ideal stop for authentic, high quality products and souvenirs
Enjoy a hassle-free holiday
- Concierge service to book restaurants, activities and excursions
- Electric Bike to hire available at the hotel
- Iron and board available
Leisure and Relaxation
- The Spa Intimu with two massage rooms, massage for two, steam-bath, sauna and an indoor jacuzzi
- Two swimming pools (one heated) and one outside jacuzzi
- Free tennis courts available, only 200m from the hotel
- Bicycle and 2 person kayak rental available (boat ramp 100m from the hotel)
- Room service and Bar
For families
- Baby-sitting (subject to availability and upon request)
- Baby cots, changing tables, high chairs and bottle warmers
- Loan of stroller (subject to availability and upon request)
- Baby monitor and DVD player
- Water wings and beach toys
Guests with disabilities
- Two Superior rooms wheelchair accessible, on the ground floor with wide door frames and spacious bathrooms.
Events & Seminar
conference room
Our conference room of approximately 50m2 can be used for about 20 persons, within our gardens and with natural light.
Also available upon request : a projector, a white screen, paperboard, pens and paper sheets.
We also propose coffee-break, inside the meeting room or outside under the palm trees.
Do not hesitate to contact us for more information and availabilities by email to firstname.lastname@example.com
Built in the XVth century, the Couvent de Pozzo used to be the house of Capucin monks and is only 10 minutes from the hotel. During the sunny season, a privatization of the garden is possible for about 80 to 120 persons, and the interior salon and patio can host up to 20 persons.
Please contact Emmanuelle PICON MATTEI by email or by telephone :
Couvent de Pozzo – 20222 Brando
+33 4 95 60 39 11


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Introduction Divi Theme Sites
If you're looking for a new WordPress theme, one name you will almost certainly come across is Elegant Themes. With a huge portfolio of attractive themes, a choice of powerful plugins, and an active user community, Elegant Themes is one of the greatest names in the WordPress ecosystem.On paper, Elegant Themes surely deserve a place in your own shortlist in regards to theme and plugin shopping. But are their products the right alternative for your website? Should you sign up with this WordPress mainstay or continue your search? By the end of this article, you will hopefully have everything you want to make a well-thought-out, educated decision.Let's begin. Divi Theme Sites
Elegant Topics are in operation for eight decades, and have served over 500,000 clients to date. In the process, they have grown into a workforce of over 50 workers working in many countries — a far cry from their humble beginnings working from creator Nick Roach's college apartment.Elegant Themes currently offer 87 WordPress topics and five plugins. Access to each of their topics (for example their flagship'Divi' theme — more about this below) and plugins will probably put you back $89 annually , making them very competitively priced. If you are considering using their products for several decades, though, it is really their slightly pricier'Lifetime Access' plan that is the very best value alternative, providing you with access to all present and future products to get a one-time fee of $249. But is lively Themes the ideal choice for your project? Let us find out.
WordPress Themes
Let us begin with a look at the various themes on offer, before continuing on to the plugins.As mentioned, signing up with Elegant Themes provides you access to 87 WordPress themes for the purchase price of everything you can pay for just 1 motif elsewhere. However, there are two options to take into account. Since the arrival of Divi at 2013, the attention of Elegant Themes was on making this the only best WordPress theme available. Extra followed shortly afterwards, and together they've become the highlights of this Elegant Themes portfolio.
Divi is Elegant's flagship motif, and is truly multipurpose, with the capacity to create just about any kind of website.From sites and company homepages to ecommerce shops and everything in between, Divi is unquestionably a versatile website building tool.It's also excellent for new WordPress users seeking to make custom websites without having to look at one line of code. But this powerful theme has also become a popular choice with specialist web designers searching for a tool to create building sites to their clients more efficient.Some of the motives experienced and inexperienced web designers alike choose Divi are its own useful set of high quality templates as well as the highly effective drag-and-drop builder tool. Loading up among those Divi layouts gives you a fast way to begin your website, as well as the new-and-improved Divi Builder may be used to personalize these designs through a intuitive front-end drag-and-drop user interface. Making your custom designs from scratch is not a issue either with Divi.No matter what your ability level, Divi does a fantastic job of democratizing web design. Those new to WordPress can utilize the Divi designs, together with the builder's point-and-click port to make custom webpage designs. More seasoned designers can do exactly what they've always done, only much faster.Another facet of this theme that is worth mentioning is the Divi Leads tool. Divi Leads lets you conduct split testing experiments on your website's design and content. If you have ever wondered which headline or color scheme your customers will best respond to, Divi Leads removes the guesswork.Divi Leads makes it easy to display multiple variations of your website and its content, so that you can just sit back and wait for the results. If you have to create websites which convert against their goals — whether for yourself or to your customers — Divi Leads will be a priceless addition to your toolkit.The sole disadvantage to Divi when compared with Avada and the other best-selling multipurpose topics is the lack of complete website demos. Divi may provide you with a library of templates to your individual pages of your website, but, unlike Avada or Enfold, there is no more straightforward importer tool which will populate an whole site with demo content.New layouts and templates for Divi are being made available all of the time via the Elegant Themes site. Accordingly, despite not being able to import an whole site in your WordPress installation, you will not be needing new layouts for your website's pages.Overall, Divi is a superb choice for creatives who'd like to build a custom WordPress site irrespective of their technical abilities. Divi Theme Sites
"Click here to sign up to ElegantThemes.com"
The Extra theme (view live demo) was started after Divi, also contains many of its best characteristics. Employing this homepage layout gives you the capacity to exhibit your best or most recent content in a stylish grid format. It's possible to use post carousels, tabbed areas, mini-article sliders, and custom widgets to display previews of your content.Extra also includes an image-focused homepage design which uses the featured images from the articles to draw focus on your articles. The plan of the theme is centered on enticing your visitors to click through to more of your articles.As Extra includes the strong Divi Builder tool, you are able to customize some of the theme's templates via a front end drag-and-drop user interface. Also, but you may use the builder and its library of modules to make custom layouts for every article you publish on your site. If you'd like your blog or online magazine to coordinate with the demonstration quality of leading news media sites, you finally have a powerful tool that can help.With Extra along with the Divi Builder, then you can design custom page designs that overlay pictures with text, include photo collages, use pull quotes, feature multiple columns, and also include other tried-and-tested content components to improve your website from a fundamental blog to some professional-looking online publication.Even if you don't need to use the incorporated Divi Builder, Extra is still a good choice for bloggers and online magazine websites. The library of templates makes it easy to add significant pages to your website with hardly any effort. Using author, timeline, portfolio, and contact page templates included, you can save yourself a lot of time when setting up your website.Extra may also be used to create an ecommerce store with WordPress, thanks to its entire support for the WooCommerce plugin. If you want to establish an internet store or simply add physical or digital products to your magazine or blog, Extra is greater than up to the task.While Elegant Themes created Divi together with the objective of making it the best theme for any WordPress site, Extra was created to be the best theme for bloggers and online books. They have definitely done a good job, and Extra is an aggressive theme that any blogger or magazine-style website owner should consider. Divi Theme Sites
While Divi, and, to a lesser extent, Extra, are multipurpose topics which can be used to create any sort of website, the other topics are somewhat more focused on a particular kind of project. |} It's possible you may find a theme from that the Elegant Themes back catalogue that is right for your site. However, in the event that you really want to take advantage of what Elegant Themes has to offer and has been working on for the last few years, you should only think about the Divi and Extra themes from their collection.While signing up using Elegant Themes gets you access to Divi, one of the very best WordPress themes around, and the remarkable additional magazine theme, do not get overly excited about the other 85 alternatives. However, as we'll see in another section of the Elegant Themes review, there are far more reasons to select this company than just their flagship WordPress themes.
The Elegant Themes WordPress Plugins
As stated before in this review, the team supporting Divi and Extra have also produced quite a few high quality WordPress plugins. By linking Elegant Themes on either the mid-level $89 Developer plan or the top grade $249 Lifetime Access program, you get access to all these plugins.
Let's have a look.
The Divi Builder plugin is based on the webpage builder tool that is incorporated in the Divi and Extra themes. |} The Divi Builder that's found in the latest version of the Divi and Extra topics includes a back-end user interface. However, this update hasn't been implemented to the Divi Builder plugin nevertheless (it will be added in the future). Because this is a standalone plug, you may use this version of this Divi Builder using almost any WordPress theme.The Divi Builder plugin may still be used to create custom page designs, albeit via a back-end builder port. Any of the 46 customizable content modules could be added to your layouts, with the ability to drag and drop them to position.Other useful features of the Divi Builder plugin have the ability to quickly replicate any page component, copying and pasting inside the builder, unlimited undos and redos, and a simple method to add custom CSS to your pages.The Divi Builder plugin now makes it effortless to save any layout, section, or module into your library for reuse elsewhere on your website. If you update any of these library items, you're able to selectively apply those changes to every instance of the thing during your site.Even if you are not using a theme from Elegant Themes, you need to be able to use Divi Builder to customize your WordPress site. Consequently, if you would rather use a minimal motif (like those produced by StudioPress rather than Divi) but you still want the ability to make custom layouts for your articles, then the Divi Builder plugin may be a good choice.Divi Builder compares favorably to another drag-and-drop builder plugins for WordPress. But before the dwell front-end editor has been added to the plugin, you will find more user friendly WordPress page builder plugins out there. Divi Theme Sites
"Click here to sign up to ElegantThemes.com"
Having the ability to email your audience each time you publish a new post, launch a product, or possess some other significant statement to create has many added benefits. Unfortunately, building a record of email subscribers is not simple. Thankfully, Bloom is a plugin that can help encourage your visitors to sign up and hand over their email addresses.After triggering Bloom, you can begin adding a range of email optin or signup molds to your website. Form choices comprise pop-up, fly-in, below post, inline, and widget types. There is also a locked content type that requires your customers to enter their email address and subscribe to your list to obtain access to a particular piece of content.Bloom also includes a fantastic choice of email optin form templates which can be customized via the plugin's editor.As and the ability to personalize the appearance of forms, you also get a fantastic amount of control over how they work. It's possible to select an intro animation which decides how the form appears, and you can also set a time delay which controls when the form appears. Custom triggers can also be employed to control the form's visibility, and more.Through the Bloom form screen preferences, you can define where on your website each form will be more active. These choices include activating the shape for your whole website, the home page, person articles and pages, plus even more. Since you are able to create multiple kinds and then display them on specific parts of your website, you can really tailor the design and content of your forms to match the content on which they are displayed.Bloom also includes a split testing tool that makes it easy to compare two kinds to find out which one works best with your audience. Thanks to these attributes, Bloom compares well to the other top email optin form plugins, such as OptinMonster and Thrive Leads.Nearly every type of website can benefit from having a record of email subscribers, and Bloom is a capable tool that can help you develop your listing.
The Monarch plugin has been created to help you increase the number of times your articles has been shared on social media. Social stocks not only help drive more traffic to your website, but they can also help your content to rank more prominently in search engines like Google.Once Monarch is live, it is possible to display a range of social sharing buttons onto your website. Over 20 social networks are encouraged, and you can display the buttons in five distinct places — including on images and videos.As well as showing floating, always-visible sharing buttons, Monarch enables you to pick from a range of trigger-activated buttons. Timed delays, page scroll position, after commenting or purchasing, and after a period of inactivity can be used as triggers to control every time a pop-up or slide-in set of societal sharing buttons is exhibited to a visitors.You may also use Monarch to display links to your social media profiles, complete with user friendly counts. This feature provides you with a quick way to add social proof to your website.Like the remaining Elegant Themes tools, Monarch gives you a great deal of control on how your social networking buttons and hyperlinks are exhibited. The customization work occurs via a user-friendly interface, with many options and settings to ensure that this plugin works exactly how you want it to.Monarch is one of the greatest social media plugins for WordPress, so it is great to find access to it within your Elegant Themes membership.
The Elegant Themes Community
With such a sizable userbase, it is not surprising that a large ecosystem and community has built up around Elegant Themes and its own products. There are now a number of active Facebook groups, marketplaces selling child topics, and blogs dedicated to Divi. The Elegant Themes site is among the busiest WordPress websites. As well as publishing suggestions and suggestions for web designers and WordPress users, the site frequently shares new page layouts and other extras for Divi users.
Elegant Themes Support
Some years before, Elegant Themes had a bit of a reputation for delivering less-than-stellar service to their customers. After looking into this and being a happy customer for a little while now, I'm very happy to report that Elegant Themes seem to have resolved any issues there might have been.Their flagship products are often updated and improved, and also the online documentation for their plugins and themes is extensive, such as walkthrough videos and text. People that have an active Elegant Topics account can open a service ticket by submitting a question in the support forums.As well as a General Questions sub-forum, each Elegant Themes product has its own busy sub-forum. The Elegant Themes support forums have been staffed by a group of tech support representatives, who, in my experience, respond to questions quickly and inexpensively.
Divi is unquestionably among the very best and most popular multi-purpose WordPress topics around. As you are able to buy Divi and Extra, along with 85 (admittedly increasingly outdated) other themes for only $89 (along with a handful of very helpful plugins), signing up for Elegant Themes represents excellent value for money.The updated Divi Builder that's a core part of the Divi motif is also among the finest WordPress page builders available now. Everybody, from those new to creating websites to seasoned web designers, can benefit from the ability of the Divi Builder.But, Divi, Extra, and Elegant Themes are not for everyone. As they're such flexible topics, there is a great deal of creative freedom, which might be overwhelming — especially in the event that you don't have a clear vision for your site. The library of page templates has been created to a high quality, but there are not any comprehensive website demos that you can import to your website in only a few clicks.If you prefer to have a theme built for a particular focus, such as a business website or an internet portfolio perhaps, you might actually be better off looking at themes offered by some of the other, more focused theme shops.However, if you're looking for a WordPress theme that may be used to create any sort of site, subsequently Divi and Extra and their countless customization tools and settings are difficult to beat. Throw in the rest of the benefits of registering with Elegant Themes and you should have everything you need to make your WordPress site a success. Divi Theme Sites
"Click here to sign up to ElegantThemes.com"


text: While anyone with any pirating wherewithal (and some lucky Amazon customers) got an early peek, today marks the official release of Grand Theft Auto V for PS3 and Xbox 360, the outrageously popular series' first main entry since 2008's IV. And with a rumored budget of $265 million, you can expect the biggest ever drop from Rockstar Games to make its $60 price tag more than worth it. For one, it's the first time you can control three different main characters, weaving between multiple storylines. And there's more heavily detailed virtual terrain (including underwater!) to explore than ever before: the fictitious Los Santos metropolis is more expansive than what you encounter in Red Dead Redemption, GTA IV, and GTA San Andreas combined.


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The decade 2000-2010 hosted milestone events in Eritrea's recent past; yet mostly disappointing. Coming on the heels of the optimism, pride and peace of 1990s, the decade 2000s, without question, has been a turbulent time for Eritrea and Eritreans. It is more reminiscent of our bloody past than the neighbourly …Read More »
Home / Ghezae Hagos Berhe (page 2)
Whom does Eritrea love? Amanuel Asrat or Yohannes Tiquabo
Generals and tyrants love to dance to the loud tunes of cowardice, oozing betrayal, in that circular formation of followers, until their heads loudly spin with inequity, with madness while wail, yes primal wail of utter silence descends and falls on the hills of 'Eira-Iro.' This installment is not …Read More »
The Kind Citizen and 'Zemen'
I am launching a column in this venerable website, Awate.com. The column's name is 'the kind citizen.' I choose this name because that is my vision for Eritrea, a nation of kind citizens. Citizens who pride in their histories and identities, who know and exercise their rights and duties (mainly …Read More »


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Non-mental health workers who work with young people can be identified
Non-mental health workers include midwives, health visitors, tutors, social workers, Citizens Advice staff, housing and employment support workers and youth and community workers to name but a few. They are also often the first point of contact for young people with emerging mental health issues.
Non-mental health workers struggle to support young people with mental health issues
Many practitioners, such as college tutors, do not receive initial training in mental health awareness. 30% of participants in 2010's CAMHS review reported that their access to training and development opportunities in supporting young people's mental health issues was poor.
It's not just about understanding their mental health needs, it's about understanding their mental health needs as 16-25 year olds
Non-mental health workers have an important role to play in supporting mental health
The services they provide are often considered to be early intervention mental health services in that they are universal services (e.g. clinics, youth centres, welfare services etc) available to all and staffed by people whose primary qualification is not in mental health. There are also targeted services aimed at specific groups of young people, or with the purpose of meeting a particular need or vulnerability, such as counselling and services for those not in education, employment, or training (NEET).
There are benefits to early intervention
There is a large, respectable, trustworthy evidence base for early intervention. It's both inherently better and cheaper than late intervention. For young people with mental health issues it can mean getting earlier support in a non-mental health setting where they may feel more comfortable. This can reduce the likelihood of their deterioration in their symptoms or reaching crisis point.
Young people want mental health services that they can access in general, young person friendly settings
Young people have said consistently and repeatedly that they wish to choose the setting in which they receive support for mental health difficulties. The settings they most frequently choose are those with which they are already familiar and in which they feel unthreatened and comfortable. Many young people find specialist mental health services stigmatising and prefer more low-key support.
All this is important
2010's CAMHS review clearly identified the need for a workforce who:
– understand what mental health and psychological well-being is;
– know what they can do to improve it;
– have access, in a way that is relevant to them, to an accessible and high-quality body of knowledge that covers both the growing evidence base on interventions to improve mental health, as well as best practice in working with young people.
Time for Change's approach is based on a similar view: "studies show that roughly half of all lifetime mental health problems start by the mid-teens, and three quarters by the mid-20s. Ultimately, our aim is that young people who experience any mental health problems can receive support and understanding from those around them".
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I heart nerds. Like, a lot. The condition began in college, when I realized that my obsession with smart people had resulted in a disproportionate number of my friends being Computer Science majors.
One late night in a friend's room at Triangle, the engineering frat (that feels like an oxymoron), it occurred to me that I spent more time there than at "normal" frat houses. Granted, I was not a sorority girl, but still. I was like, W-T-F? Shortly thereafter, I reluctantly accepted my fate. Clearly, my role in life is the Nerd Hag/Nerd Whore/Nerd Groupie (or whatever your preferred nomenclature might be). Now I wear that hat with pride.
Disclaimer: when I say "nerd" I am using the term loosely and intend for it to include the various subcategories of nerd, as well as other labels like geek, dork etc. Yes, there are some big differences. But I won't go into that here. Lots of other people cover that territory. Here and here, for example.
Oddly enough, it seems that mainstream society is increasingly embracing nerd culture too. While Revenge of the Nerds was a surprise hit back in the day, these days nerd is everywhere. Consider the recent slew of nerd-friendly and goofy-guy-gets-the-hot-girl themed films and TV shows: SuperBad, Knocked Up, Beauty and the Geek, The Pick Up Artist, Napoleon Dynamite, 40 Year Old Virgin, etc.
Some say this is simply a reflection of society – which is getting more nerdy – and that the entertainment industry is racing to catch up. Like this article. I say Nerd is the new Black. So much so that instead of auctioning off attractive women during fundraisers, some colleges are auctioning off nerds. Because they're awesome.
Speaking of awesome, let's not forget the xkcd comics. Here are a few of my favorites:
There's also the wonderful world of sardonic t-shirts (nerd uniform) found at places like T-Shirt Hell and NerdyShirts.
That's right, talk nerdy to me.


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Weekly measurements and stats.
Sunday, December 21, 2008 by John Stone
Filed under Daily Blog
It's Sunday and time for my weekly tape measurements and body fat reading. If I had to sum up this week's progress in a sentence, it would be "Weird, but very good!"
My scale weight this morning is 214.0 pounds. That's a whopping 2.6 pound gain over the past week. That's the "weird" part. I woke up yesterday weighing in a full two pounds more than the day before, and this morning I'm still at 214 pounds. I remain convinced that this sudden weight gain is water weight (I know what water retention feels like, and I can feel it through my entire body), but I have no idea how I could be retaining water right now – my diet has not changed at all! As I mentioned in yesterday's update, I wonder if some of the very mild flu symptoms I've been feeling the past couple of days have something to do with it? It will be interesting to see what my weight does over the next few days….
My 2008 bulk total scale weight gain (after 12 of 17 weeks) is 19 pounds. That's an average weekly gain of 1.58 pounds. At the 12 week mark of my 2006 bulk I'd gained a total of 28.1 pounds (an average of 2.34 pounds per week). I'm pretty sure that ~9 pound of additional weight in 2006 was all fat. That's a pretty significant difference when you consider that 9 pounds would take me about a month to lose on a fairly aggressive 2 pound per week cutting diet.
My body fat reading this morning is 13.1% (as measured by the Fat Track PRO Digital Body Fat Calipers). We took the measurement twice this morning to be sure. That's a very small jump from last week's 12.9% reading (which I "officially" called 13%).
This week's tape measurements (as measured by the MyoTape) were fantastic! I literally added a quarter of an inch to each and every measurement except my calves! That's the "good" part!
Total measurement progress looks like this: over the past twelve weeks I've added an inch to my forearms, 1.75 inches to my arms, 2.25 inches to my quads, one inch to my calves and 2.25 inches to my chest. My waist size has only increased one inch over the past three months, and that is something I'm very happy about (at the 12 week mark of my 2006 bulk I'd added over three inches to my waist!)
All my stats, past and present, can always be found on the stats page.