The Cereal Project: Audience

Could we LOVE cereal any more?

Let's start off the cereal project by deciding who our audience is. These days it seems cereal is either for the very young or the old. But who's in the middle? 

GenX.

We are a generation that grew up with colorful boxes, addictive sugar content, and catchy theme songs. We spent Saturday mornings consuming large bowls while watching cartoons, along with cereal commercials and unforgettable slogans: 

He likes it, hey Mikey!

Trix are for kids!

Honeycomb is sweet, yeah yeah yeah!

They're grrrrrrreat!

Koo koo for Coco Puffs! 

So audience will be people like me - GenXers who are nostalgic for the cereals and prizes of our youth, but frankly can't do the sugar content. 

Next month: the product. 

Lipstick on the Mic: Fanny

Are you cool or are you Fanny cool?

We are now basic cable-free, the only thing we are paying for is Amazon Prime. I started watching free PlutoTV, which has all the VEVO channels, which was a dream come true for this girl who was raised on MTV and Solid Gold. This got me watching video clips from the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and 2000s.

Why is this awesome? While watching the 70s rock block, I came upon a band I had never heard of, Fanny.

Fanny is one of the first all-female rock groups to achieve critical and commercial success. The group was founded by sisters June and Jean Millington in the mid-60s as the Svelts, then Wild Honey. They signed a contract to record an album after a gig at the famed Troubadour in 1969 and became Fanny. 

They paid their industry dues, singing backup for Joe Cocker, working as session musicians for Barbra Streisand, touring as the opening act for Slade, Jethro Tull, and Humble Pie, and appearing on classic music programs American Bandstand, The Sonny and Cher Show, and Old Grey Whistle Test. 

The band released five albums, which included songs such as Ain’t That Peculiar, Special Care, and their version of The Beatles Hey Bulldog. The members were pressured by execs to dress more provocatively to appeal to hard rock audiences, something they did not want to do, wanting instead to focus on the music. 

Their most famous fan? David Bowie. 

The members went their separate ways in the mid-70s while staying active in the industry as performers and producers. They reformed as a Fanny Walked the Earth in 2018.

There’s a documentary, Fanny: The Right to Rock released in 2021; bands who cite Fanny as inspiration include the Go Gos, the Bangles, and the Runaways. 

The Fifth Monkee, Monte Landis

Don't sign, Pete! 

I have gone on for YEARS about The Beatles. One of the things fans debate among themselves is who is considered the fifth Beatle. For the record, I think it is not just any one person, but rather give credit in ascending order to Astrid Kircherr, Klaus Voorman, Stu Sutcliffe, Pete Best, Billy Preston, Brian Epstein, and George Martin. 

Part of Beatlemania was what came after, namely those inspired by the Fabs. One of those acts was The Monkees, an American sitcom about a struggling rock band trying to hit the big time. While the band's struggles were the storyline of the show, as a musical act, they became a smash in real life. What I have found entertaining while watching reruns is wondering who is the fifth Monkee. 

I have been freezing the credits and looking up actors/guest stars on IMDb to learn about people who have gone on to greater things... or if a spot as one of Davy's many girlfriends on the show was the lone claim to fame. The glory of The Monkees is they were both a band and a television series, so you can pull from both influences. 

The first of the Fifth Monkees is Monte Landis. He is a Scottish-American actor who, according to IMDb, started his career back in 1955 in the series Sherlock Holmes. His last acting credit was the television show High Society in 1996 before retiring. 

As a guest star in the show, Landis appeared in seven episodes as the devil, a Middle Eastern king, a scheming health nut, an art thief, an adventurer, a magician, and a politician. His turn as Mr. Zero in the episode The Devil and Peter Tork, is considered a highlight, the episode was nominated for an Emmy for Best Series, Comedy. 

The Beatles, Ranked! My Top Five

We're #1!

1
Here, There, and Everywhere (17) I can play it on guitar, I've skated to it, and I danced with many people at my wedding to it. It's everything.

2

While My Guitar Gently Weeps (8) It could have easily been my number one. First song I ever played for Will, holding an earbud up to his ear while cradling him in the NICU. I know everyone gets so excited about Eric Clapton's guitar solo in it, but to be honest, the magic is in George's composition, Paul's piano, and how well Ringo services the song with his percussion. 

3

Abbey Road side two medley (3) It is NOT cheating, as The Beatles Channel, WLAV, and almost every station that touches side two plays it to full duration. Most start with You Never Give Me Your Money, some start all the way back to Because, but everyone plays it all the way through until The End. It is a Fab Symphony. A musical journey. Another match with Sirius/XM!

4

A Day in the Life (6) I feel like I'm copying almost everyone with my top picks, but these are up here for a reason. It starts quietly with a piano intro, tells tales from a newspaper, switches to a guy getting out of bed to grab a bus and fall into a dream, and ends with a symphony and the whole band bashing the same chord on the piano until it dies out, 46 seconds later. EPIC short programs from Michelle Kwan and Jeremy Abbott. 

5

Tomorrow Never Knows (43) If a song like Norweigan Wood wasn't enough of a clue that the boy band was going in a new direction, TNK really hammers that home. 

Sirius/XM did their annual Top 100 countdown over Memorial Day Weekend. A number in parenthesis is that song's position on that countdown. It's not that I don't like Hey Jude (1), I just don't like it as much as the rest of y'all. 

Happy Christmas everyone, play these instead of "Christmas Time is Here Again."

Rethinking Jewel Tones

Life's rich palette

Jewel tones are very Christmasy! Example...

Taste: ribbon candy

Touch: hand-blown Christmas ornaments with a mirror finish

Smell: cranberry candles

Hear: Christmas carols

That's It, Just One Line - Sympathy for the Devil

I shouted out "Who killed the Kennedys?" when after all, it was you and me. 

This song deserves a deeper dive, but this line is what devastates me. It's easy to blame someone or something else when we act upon on worst instincts... 

Still feeling the anger of the elections. Four more years. 

Across the Prairie: Negro League Baseball and Touched by a Blackbird

My trip around the midwest started its trajectory back home through Kansas City, where I waited for The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum to open at noon on Sunday. We had received invitations to visit time and again throughout the years, but this was my first time on historic 18th and Vine.  The link: www.nlbm.com.

I have an interesting connection to the Negro Leagues as retired player/owner/entrepreneur Ted Rasberry was one of my clients at the Walgreens at Boston and Kalamazoo. He and I talked baseball here and there while he waited for his prescriptions to be filled and he slyly let me know one day that he was a former player. I fan girled on him in that moment, appropriately feeding his ego. Props to him for all he did for youth sports in Grand Rapids, and I'm glad to say there is a field and a youth league named after him. Whitecaps have honored him during Negro League games with replica jerseys. I thought of all the autographs on those clipboards we filed and then threw away. Oh, I found an excellent bio here. Godspeed, Mr. Rasberry. 

I was glad to see the museum was thriving. While empty when I first arrived at 11:30, there was soon a crowd waiting to get in. The site is a combination of Negro League and Jazz museums, along with a special exhibit in the lobby celebrating the voice of Kansas City by way of the black press. More on that later.

Buck O'Neil statue to greet visitors when they first arrive. He is honored as the league's best manager. 

Panoramic of the indoor field with bronze statues to celebrate the best players at each position. 

Negro Leagues honored the ladies who played, including Mamie Johnson, Toni Stone, and Connie Morgan. 

Hats and jerseys honoring each of the teams recognized in the league. This is tricky with rogue offshoots, exhibition teams, and more that laid claim to history. 

The Geddy Lee autographed baseball collection was donated by the bassist several years ago. An ardent fan of baseball (and a Detroit Tigers fan growing up as the Blue Jays did not yet exist), Lee secured many signatures from former players throughout the years and donated the collection to the museum for prosperity. Wikipedia states the initial donation was 200 baseballs; I tried to count all the balls on display, easy to say the collection has grown, and there are at least 350 on display now. 

Surprising champions for the players in the Negro Leagues were the reporters for the communist/socialist newspapers. Short documentaries were on display throughout the museum, chronicling the power of the press on MLB to integrate back in the 1940s. 

Freedom, on display

Speaking of the press... in the lobby is an exhibit on the history of 18th and Vine, which includes the history of the civil rights movement and the power of the black newspapers in Kansas City. After watching the documentary, a man and woman got up to make an announcement: their mother, who was present, was an activist in the 60s, and had gone to jail in Birmingham with Dr. Martin Luther King in the 60s! They were all in town to celebrate her birthday and stopped in to celebrate what she had accomplished, and for some in the family, it was their first time seeing the documentary. 

I was awestruck at her bravery. How hard it must have been to stand up for what is right when those in power say you are wrong. I shook her hand, and words failed me. What do you say to someone that powerful, that graceful, that majestic? I merely said, "Bless you," and she replied, "Thank you, honey" with a squeeze. I met greatness that day and one of my flaws when awestruck, I completely forgot her name. 

It cannot be a coincidence that when I returned to my car to continue my journey home, the first song on the Beatles Channel was Blackbird. To think, I encountered one of the muses that inspired Paul McCartney. 

I add that I am probably mourning the election with you ma'am. You deserved better than this.