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About Jon Monday

 

Jon Monday always had an interest in Audio/Visual technology. Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1950s and 1960s he had the opportunity to put those interests into practice. Starting in the 6th grade he was a member of the camera club and ran the film projectors for school.

He served in the Army as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division, with a specialty in advanced electronics and was a licensed film projectionist.

Later, while living in Berkeley with his future wife Anna, he started a psychedelic light show company, working at local concert venues, including the Fillmore, behind some of the great bands of the San Francisco era such as Big Brother and the Holding Company (with Janis Joplin), Country Joe and the Fish, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and the Steve Miller Blues Band. During that time he also invented a two-color strobe light (alternating red and blue light) that was a hit at the concerts and was sold at local head shops.

In 1970 Jon and Anna moved to Venice , California and landed a job with guitarist John Fahey’s Takoma Records – at first as the company’s only employee, and as the company grew, became its General Manager.

Takoma was known for its innovative artists and was an early leader of independent record labels. Jon’s efforts included variously producing and engineering, as well as art direction, promotion, sales and marketing of unique and highly acclaimed albums from such artists as George Winston, Leo Kottke, John Fahey, Canned Heat and Mike Bloomfield. He also designed, built, and ran Takoma Studios, a sixteen-track recording studio, that was able to record concerts from the stage of McCabes Guitar Shop located two doors away. Artists using Takoma Studios included Laudon Wainwright III, Peter Rowan, Norman Blake, Michael Bloomfield, the Chambers Brothers, and Maria Muldaur.

In 1979 John Fahey sold Takoma to a joint venture between Chrysalis Records, music business attorney Bill Coben , and producer/manager Denny Bruce. Monday was brought into the new company to continue as its General Manager. During this time albums were released by The Fabulous Thunderbirds, T-Bone Burnett, beat-era poet Charles Bukowski, Doug Sahm, and Maria Muldaur.

Eventually, Chrysalis sold Takoma and brought Monday into the main company as a utility player, reporting directly to the president, holding several positions including Director of Marketing, Sales Manager of the Video Division. Responsible for marketing programs & materials and coordinating all departments’ efforts to launch and promote new albums,  working with such artists as Blondie, Pat Benetar, Jethro Tull, Billy Idol, Huey Lewis, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, and Toni Basil.

Monday briefly lived in New York when Chrysalis relocated its US headquarters there as part of a distribution deal with CBS, but was soon lured away to Silicon Valley as an executive with various companies in the emerging and fast-growing video game business.

Romox, Inc., 1983 - 1984

Vice President of Product Marketing

Romox was the innovator of point-of-sale manufacturing and electronic distribution. This revolutionary product distribution method allowed retailers to carry a wide selection of “virtual inventory" licensed from leading consumer software publishers

Epyx, Inc., 1984 -1988

Director of Operations & Vice President of Management Information Systems

At the time, Epyx was a leading developer and marketer of entertainment software for the home computer. Areas of responsibility included MIS, consumer technical support, sales administration, manufacturing, and operations. Worked closely with the finance department to develop and fully integrate a complete manufacturing MRP system with sales forecasting, marketing projections, budgets, and sales results. Brought in as part of a new management team that achieved 36 consecutive profitable months during a period of rapid revenue growth.

MusicWriter, Inc. 1988 - 1996

President & Co-founder

Monday was responsible for all product development, business development and operations of the Company. MusicWriter is a technology company that developed and markets a kiosk and Internet based innovative method of electronically distributing sheet music, MIDI files, software, and related products. It employs “point-of-sale manufacturing” technology, which is a high-growth segment of the burgeoning market for interactive multimedia applications. Customers can order products to be produced on-demand through retailers or the company’s Internet site. The award-wining core product, NoteStation, was featured on CNN and Beyond 2000 and is operating profitably in a network of over 300 music retail locations in North America plus additional systems in the UK and Europe .

PlayNet Technologies January 1997 - August 1997

Director of Music Development & Vice President

PlayNet was a developer of on-line entertainment products designed by Nolan Bushnell, the founder of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese. I was brought in to head up their digital, online jukebox project. The jukebox accessed titles and had the capability to order music CDs over the Internet. Responsibilities included overseeing the product development, manufacturing, contract negotiations, and marketing of the jukebox. Monday’s role quickly evolved and was promoted to Vice President, reporting directly to the CEO.

Capcom Entertainment

Director of IT, Director of Online Business , 1998 to 2004

Functioning in variety of roles for the company including overseeing all online activities, head of the MIS department, and managing Capcom’s Arcade group. Directs the company’s web site, which is considered one of the most successful in the industry – achieving over 1,000,000 hits and 40,000 unique visitors a day. The massive site also handles online ordering of the company’s products, downloading of video clips, and has a very active BBS community.

In 2004 Monday retired from his high-tech career and relocated to Fallbrook , CA in Northern San Diego County . Jon and Anna Monday launched mondayMEDIA as a production studio to create, promote, and sell audio CDs and video DVD products across a wide-range of material from lectures by Aldous Huxley to music from the Pacific Island of Samoa.

Presently, mondayMEDIA is digitizing, authoring, and distributing products on CD and DVD, as well as creating, producing, and directing new documentaries. As a corollary, mondayMEDIA is issuing and re-issuing sacred and metaphysical projects released on the separate GemsTone label.

Bill Coben and Denny Bruce approached Jon Monday in 2008 to be President of Benchmark Recordings, which owned the early publishing and recording catalog of the Fabulous Thunderbirds and a live recording of legendary blues guitarist Mike Bloomfield.

Credits:

Personal Interests:

For the past forty years both Jon and Anna Monday have been practicing Vedantists and are members of the Vedanta Society of Southern California. While living and working in the San Francisco Bay Area during the 1990s, Jon served on the Board of Directors of the Berkeley Vedanta Center .

Jon Monday served on the Board of Directors of the Fallbrook Democratic Club as its Vice President in 2007 and President in 2008.

Since 2005 Monday has been a member of Veterans for Peace and the 82nd Airborne Division veterans group.

 

Contact Information
E- mail: General Information: anna@mondaymedia.org