Name: Allison

Age: 22

Location: New York City

What I Do: Grad student, child wrangler

Favorite Monkee: Mike Nesmith

Years of fanage: 12 (as of August 2009)

Favorite Monkees Songs: Listen to the Band, Auntie's Municipal Court, As We Go Along, Nine Times Blue, Randy Scouse Git, You Just May Be The One, I Don't Think You Know Me At All (Micky or Mike's vocals), Circle Sky, St. Matthew, Sometime In the Morning, Sunny Girlfriend, All of Your Toys, Shake 'Em Up, Oklahoma Backroom Dancer, Porpoise Song, Tapioca Tundra, Regional Girl, Sweet Young Thing, Of You, The Kind of Girl I Could Love, It's Not Too Late, Tear The Top Right Off My Head

Favorite Monkees Album(s): Headquarters, and Head gets an honorable mention. That album is HIGHLY underrated.

Favorite Monkees Episode(s): I've Got A Little Song Here, The Monkees Paw, The Chaperone, Fairy Tale, Monkees on Tour, Art for Monkees Sake, any episode where Mike takes his shirt off or winks

How I Became a Fan: The very very first memory I ever had of anything Monkees-related was waking up for school in the 5th grade (I was 10) and hearing my mother singing the Monkees' theme song. I thought the song was hilarious and I remember telling a friend at school that day that my mom was singing "hey, hey we're the Monkees and people say we monkey around." Little did I know.

That following summer, I rode the 1997 wave of fans who first saw The Monkees' television show when it was on Nick at Nite's Block Party Summer (Monkee Mondays!). I cite August 17, 1997 as my official fanage date. I still hold several events from that summer near and dear to my heart:

1) On a family vacay to Rochester, NY, we drove home on a Monday and I was very upset because we were going to miss Monkee Monday.

2) Going to HMV in the mall and looking to buy the Monkees' greatest hits on CASSETTE and my mom inspecting it to make sure all the hits were on it.

3) Sitting on a picnic bench in the very back of my backyard, listening to my Monkees cassette and drawing the Monkees in my lined notebook.

Another bit of trivia: I think I've had each Monkee as my favorite once, minus Peter. I'm ashamed to say I first loved Davy (who didn't?) but when I realized he was a twat, I moved onto Micky and stayed there for a number of years before finally sticking with the ever-yummy Michael Nesmith.

Why Mike Is My Favorite: I remember an encounter with a former, older friend when I was about 12 or so and she told me that when she was younger, Mike was her favorite Monkee and I laughed and laughed and laughed. I couldn't fathom Mike being a favorite Monkee of anyone! Well, I ate my words because not long after, I soon began to lust after Mike. I'm not really sure what made him my favorite all of a sudden, but nevertheless.. I guess he's my favorite because I really admire him as a songwriter (smart move), and I love his music. Plus, he's fucking GOR-GE-OUS so that helps too. Seriously, I think Michael Nesmith has ruined other men for me forever.

My History of Monkees Webbage: I, like Beth, am an alumna of the surge of Monkees sites in the late 1990s. My first website was opened in 1999 and was called "Al and Ash's Monkees Extravaganza!!! :)" (yes, with the annoying exclamation points and smiley face. What do you want, I was like 13). I, obviously, was Al, and Ash was a random girl I went to school with who I drug kicking and screaming into the fandom. She wasn't into them, so I kicked her ass out and replaced her with my friend Erin ("Er") who DID like the Monkees, thankfully. I had that site up until, oh, 2000-ish before expanding into "Al's Beatles Trip" and creating my first personal site. In July 2001, I bought flaming-pie.net and the rest is history.