Monkee Mobile / Island Excursion / BTR

Tuesday night

Dream 1: Monkee Mobile

A father and son brought a special car to an auto show; they had created a smaller version of the "Monkee Mobile," the souped-up car that the Monkees used in the first season of their TV show -- or at least in the opening credits for said show. They even wore replicas of the brown button-down shirts that the group sported on their first album cover.

Dream 2: Island Excursion

I lived in Hawaii, and a buddy and I (he was a native Islander) were out paddling a canoe in beautiful, clear water. At one point, my friend glanced down to the ocean floor, and I could tell that he had noticed something down there that surprised him. He could see a microphone with a long cord, with some other attachments. The mic itself was yellow on the recording end. As if that wasn't strange enough, that very microphone had been a present that my fellow paddler had given to his mother. He realized that it must have worn out, and her way of disposing of it was to take it out and dump it in the ocean. He said, "That's what they did [how they handled their trash] when she was young." We decided that we'd have to dive down and get it.

In the meantime, my friend's dad, who was a Hawaiian king, even though Hawaii was a state, was off visiting a group of people in a long one-story building with a low roof. He was wearing a regular, off-white business suit, so you wouldn't know he was a king unless someone had told you, but he carried himself with dignity, and was admired. He stood on the far side of a long table, in the center position, and proceeded to perform a Catholic Mass for the assembled group, partially in Hawaiian, partly in English. When the ceremony was over, the king noticed a woman off to his right, and was surprised. He said, "I haven't seen you in 37 years!"

Dream 3: BTR

I was examining a rare copy of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run" album. I pulled the record out of the jacket, and saw that the vinyl was in really nice shape. The real prize was the paper sleeve which protected the record. It was covered on both sides with very interesting, previously-unseen black and white photos of the band, from the mid-1970s.

*****

Dream 1: I grew up watching and listening to The Monkees. I have fond memories of their debut record and of their third album, "Headquarters."

Dream 2: Island Excursion

I may have thought about Hawaii after reading a recent article about Barack Obama's mother. Her father was a furniture salesman who had a habit of uprooting his family and moving them around the country. Shortly after Hawaii became a state (in 1959) he heard about the opening of a large furniture store there, and decided to move again. Barack's mother decided to go along, and shortly thereafter she enrolled in a university there for her freshman year of college. It was at that university that she met a fellow student, Barack Obama Sr.

The king in the white suit may have been a nod to Pope Benedict XVI, who is currently visiting the United States. He said Mass at a baseball stadium in Washington this week, and my brother and sister in law and two of their kids were able to obtain tickets and see him.

Dream 3: BTR

The vinyl version of "Born to Run" featured two large black and white photos: one of Bruce with Clarence (on the cover) and one of Bruce by himself on the inside of the gatefold. There were no photos on the record sleeve.