The Monkees: To Julie Newmar, Thanks for Everything

The second in a series.

First ep, featuring guest appearances by Joan Crawford and Tony Robbins is here

Opening Theme
BUT the boys are MISSING!!! so we have to phone Gonzo and get him to line up a substitute. Kermit warned us this would be a bad idea, but it's five seconds to air: what choice do we really have?

Lollapalosers indeed. But meantime we've at least had time to locate Mike. He was out back smoking "herbal cigarettes" with his friend Frank Zappa, but we managed to tempt them back into the studio with promises of Doritos and sensless violence. Watch as Mike conducts an interview with the original Mother of Invention and later conducts him in musical mayhem as Frank gets jiggy with a 47 Chrysler.

Well wasn't that…strange? You know you're out of control when Frank Zappa is the one trying to keep you normal.

Meanwhile, we've just gotten a phone call from Julie Newmar, who is working at the laundromat.

Julie likes to give raincoaster a jingle from time to time to compare catsuit fitting tips and just shoot the shit.

The boys have been using the "Drop off" window for their laundry and had never laid eyes on their pretty Cinderella…until now. Turns out Julie (who lost her virginity to von Karajan in April of '56 in the back row of Teatro di San Carlo, thus the nickname "April") is quite the classical arts fanatic. Here, the boys compete for her attentions.

Davy, as always, takes the early lead despite being at least a foot shorter than April. We relay the news to Mike, who grabs the reciever from us, hears that distinctively husky, liquid-sex voice, and takes off for the laundromat on Mickey's motorcycle. He arrives halfway through the big competition, but makes a strong showing nonetheless.

But guys, don't you know that girls can't resist a rock band? Or even a bubblegum pop band, as long as it occasionally sings in a minor key? Cue "The Girl That I Knew Somewhere…"

Yowzuh! Who knew Peter looked that hot in white tie? raincoaster would be doing a lot of formal entertaining if she thought she could get him to wear that on a regular basis!

But as the big song winds up, they realize that April has been kidnapped! Davy and Mike turn into secret agents to get the answers and go undercover in the lobby of a cheesy, overdone Beverly Hills hotel, the type where rich old women go to recover from facelifts. While there, they receive a mysterious phonecall which tells them April is in Paris or something like that…

As the boys follow that lead, their plane is hijacked by the Pamplona Panthers and they are led far afield, to Spain! They make their escape and arrive in Paris to rescue April. And just look at the havoc they cause; what's French for Monkeemania? From there, they follow the trail to Toyland?

and hey, there's April! She can totally lay down the heavy Chopin when she wants to, can't she?

Finally realizing that La Newmar is out of their league, the boys free her from her kidnapper, a would-be svengali who wishes to keep her all to himself. April kisses the boys good-bye and runs off to London to appear in a George Michael video.

The boys then attempt to escape from her many jealous suitors. Cue obligatory fleeing-posing-and-making-no-sense-set-to-cancan-music scene:

The boys return home just in time for their next gig, playing the wedding reception for The Brady Grandparents. The svengali remains firmly trussed, although even prone he attempts to groove along with the music. raincoaster is not at all sure that a song about infidelity is the very best choice for the occasion, but she loves "Look Out, Here Comes Tomorrow" anyway.

Davy sure can work that lipgloss, can't he? Is that Lip Venom? Enquiring minds want to know.

And, to make up for that Zappa-tastic strangeness at the top of the show, here is special guest Tim Buckley performing Song to the Siren.

Talking to Americans…

although why bother? Here is a clip from the infamous series on This Hour has 22 Minutes, by Rick Mercer who is also in our blogroll but really needs to hire me to feed and walk his blog while he’s away.

What’s really funny is that the person who posted it on YouTube doesn’t know any more than the rest of these clueless and corn-fed specimens of Amerawkana.

DID YOU KNOW that the capital of Canada recently relocated from Ottawa to Toronto? Former Vice-President Al Gore did!

In fairness to Gore, he knows better and probably did the quick “I don’t have time to correct this dude” math in his head before coming out with the stock answer.

Zach Braff makes YouTube his bitch

75,000 hits in 48 hours. Not too scruffy, melad.

raincoaster is not a particular fan, but she knows a bandwagon when she sees it and will proudly jump, if it'll pimp the hits. Although Clay and Michael are donating a significant (and Beautiful Agony-dusting) helping hand today, posting Zach Braff's inaugural YouTube video before getting back to searching for old Banana Splits footage can't hurt a bit.

Operation Global Media Domination: Fuck Technorati!

TIAThat's right: despite (finally) breaking into the top 140,000 blogs on Technorati (of 43.6 million), raincoaster is heartlessly abandoning the inconsistent, illogical, and inaccurate Technorati rankings for a new favorite toy.

That's right. Something useful on the Huffpo. Whodathunkit, eh? But me wuvs this little tool and will abuse it daily, repeatedly, and with much affection and generous lashings of lube (gin Martinis, "for Mrs. Parker").

From Gawker:

The HuffPo’s virgin media blog Eat the Press has an entertaining new time-waster: the People Ranker, which charts the levels of buzz in the blogosphere. Just enter a string of names, and the fun little gizmo spits out popularity contest-style results. We love it — it’s so much easier to be snotty and judgmental when you have concrete data.

Yes indeedy it is. And why does raincoaster love it so much? Let's take it for a slow and careful, quarter-turn by quarter-turn spin, shall we?

Huffpo Ranking today

Left to right:

Perez Hilton, raincoaster, Jessica Coen, Sebastian Junger, Michael Lewis

Operation Global Media Domination: Dog Days

TIAOkay, so what did we learn from yesterday's Scooby adventures? That puppy posts fucking suck for hits.

To rectify the situation:

Clay Aiken and Michael Sandecki are, reports a source I never saw or heard of before, engaged and looking to get married in California before a ban goes into effect.

Does this have anything to do with dogs? Only 50/50 since Clay got that hawt makeover. Do I think it's true? Look, regardless of any and all sterling qualities that may be possessed by Michael Sandecki possibly including the ability to execute quarter-turns, after what Clay Aiken must have learned about fandom over the past few months Aiken would have to be wall-crawlingly, moon-howlingly, alien-talkingly and officially certifiably insane to even consider marrying one of his own fans.

And I speak as a fan.