It took this blog just over five months to pass the 15,000 view mark. While this accomplishment pales beside, say, leaping over tall buildings in a single bound, or the thrill that'll getcha when you get your picture on the cover of the Rolling Stone, I'll take it. The number isn't huge by any real-world standard, but it ain't bad for an unknown writer trying to force his opinions upon an unsuspecting world.
As my pal Rich Firestone is fond of saying, The Monkees have been good to me. Traffic on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) just explodes when I write about The Monkees. My review of the fab new Monkees album Good Times! is far and away my most-viewed blog entry; in fact, each of my top four most-viewed entries was about Good Times!, and so was Big Hit # 6 on the ol' Boppin' Parade O' Hits. My piece on Main Street Records in Brockport is the only thing breaking The Monkees' hegemony in my Top Five. (Though the above-mentioned Reechie Firestone thought my # 6 hit, The Monkees Bring The Summer: A Girl I Knew Somewhere, was the best thing I've ever written, so it wins, y'know, bonus points for that.) Big thanks to the good folks at Monkees Live Almanac for sending so many Monkees fans my way.
I've always enjoyed writing about The Monkees. When I was a teenager in the '70s, and a young adult in the early '80s, The Monkees were not considered cool at all. So I got a lot of practice championing the group against dunderheaded nonsense that The Monkees were unworthy of praise, and I got pretty good at it, too. We'll have more Monkee business here in the near future, beginning with a four-part series reassessing The Monkees' recorded legacy: with the critical and commercial success of Good Times!, how does this new material fit in with the group's body of work, and how much of Good Times! would need to be included in any updated consideration of the all-time Best Of The Monkees? Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) will assemble hypothetical four-disc, three-disc, two-disc, and single-disc Monkees best-ofs, and we'll see where we wind up. After that, I have a major Monkees piece I'm kicking around, which oughtta be fun to do.
The July 3rd BRIGHT LIGHTS! Syracuse New Wave Rock 'n' Roll Reunion will be my immediate focus in the short term. First, for God's sake, if you're anywhere near the 315 next Sunday, get to Funk 'N Waffles downtown for this show! Tickets? Here! I've already posted my 1997 interview with Paul Armstrong and Gary Frenay of The Flashcubes, and my '97 Maura Kennedy interview. I'm currently transcribing my interview with Dan Bonn of The Dead Ducks, and I'll try to also get to my interview with the elusive Charlie Robbins of The Tearjerkers. I may try to include my interviews with The Poptarts as well, but there are still some off-court logistics to navigate with those, so...no promise, no guarantee!
At the moment, I have two more Notebook Notions planned, revisiting vague ideas for writing projects from my misspent youth. I have a number of Comic Book Retroviews in mind, and I continue to dig out old stuff from the archives, too. Still toying with the idea of returning to complete my abandoned garage-rock history, "It Came From The Garage! Nuggets And The Rediscovery Of '60s Punk." My de facto autobiography, Singers, Superheroes, And Songs On The Radio remains on hold; I completed the 1960s some time back, but I've been reluctant thus far to take on the challenge of re-living the '70s. If I do return to this series--and I think I will, eventually--I can state with certainty that it will end with the '70s; I am not writing about the 1980s.
Alas, I've discovered that my attempts at fiction get the least attention here. I enjoyed writing the beginning of my rock 'n' roll superhero novel ETERNITY MAN!, and I really got into my Batman and Aquaman pulp story The Undersea World Of Mr. Freeze, but neither found an audience. Ah well--we like what we like.
And I appreciate you liking what you like, and I'm pleased that may occasionally include whatever the hell it is I do here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do). There will continue to be at least one post a day, every day, for as long as the will remains. Death. Taxes. Construction on I-81. Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do). See, there are some things you can depend on.
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