In 1979, Fahey sold Takoma Records to a new company formed by music business attorney Bill Coben, veteran producer/manager Denny Bruce, and Chrysalis Records. Monday continued with the new company as General Manager.[11] During that time, Takoma signed and released albums by The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Canned Heat, and T-Bone Burnett. Monday also co-produced a live album, Gospel Nights,[12] by Maria Muldaur. The concert was at McCabes Guitar Shop in Santa Monica and recorded at Takoma Studios, two doors down from McCabes.
In 1984, Monday relocated to Silicon Valley and had a 2nd career as an executive in various software and high-tech companies. He also held senior management positions or consulted with major 3rd party video game publishers, such as Epyx, Eidos Interactive, and Capcom. He was also Vice President of PlayNet, working directly with Atari founder Nolan Bushnell.
Monday's first role in the emerging video game business was with Romox, a company that has developed a kiosk-based video game distribution system.[16] Originally, Monday was hired as Sales Director of Special Markets to provide distribution through the "Rack Jobbers" who got records into Sears, ToysRUs, KMart and other major retailers. Then he was promoted to VP Product Marketing, to help introduce their kiosk. A gamer could buy a blank video game cartridge and download a game from a vast library into the cartridge (for Atari 2600, Atari Computers, TI-99, Commodore, etc.) and play the game for a few weeks. IF they got tired of the game, they could bring the cartridge back to the kiosk, erase it, and program a new game into it. The system answered the biggest problem plaguing the industry - the high cost of the cartridges.
One of the game publishers who licensed their titles to Romox was Epyx, headed by Michael Katz. After the cartridge-based video game industry collapsed (due to the overproduction of the Atari game ET, which failed upon release) Monday was originally hired by Epyx as a consultant overseeing IT, manufacturing, and customer service and eventually was promoted to Vice President of IT and Operations.
In 1989. Monday left Epyx to establish MusicWriter Inc., with music research pioneer Larry Heller. During Monday's term as president, the Californian company developed the NoteStation, a point-of-sale kiosk for printing sheet music, in any key, for sale to customers in music stores.[17][18][19] In addition to printing sheet music, the NoteStation was able to produce MIDI disks containing selected music. In 1994, NoteStation kiosks were in 175 stores in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.[20][17]
Monday was hired as Vice President of PlayNet, working directly with Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, to develop an online jukebox, that was connected to a vast library of songs licensed from the major record companies.
In 1998, Monday was hired by Capcom, a leading video game publisher, to design and implement an entire IT overhaul, including replacing an aging mainframe with a Windows based hardware and enterprise reporting and accounting software. After completing the project he was given the assignment to make their arcade division, Nickel City, profitable by shutting down the unprofitable stores, and beefing up the existing ones. Eventually, Monday oversaw selling the division piece by piece. He was then put in charge of all online business, including developing and implementing the company's first website.
Retirement
Monday retired and moved to the San Diego area in 2004 and launched two labels:[21] mondayMEDIA and GemsTone; producing, directing, and distributing original and archival material.
Monday's work with Huston Smith yielded 2 DVDs, The Roots of Fundamentalism, in 2006 with Phil Cousineau interviewing Huston about the genesis of modern Christian Fundamentalism, which came into existence around 1900 in reaction to modern scholarship into the origin of the biblical scriptures, which raised questions about who really wrote them and when they were written. The 2nd DVD was from 2012, The Arc of Life: Huston Smith on Life, Death & Beyond, was Huston being interviewed by noted American gerontologist and psychologist, Ken Dychtwald. In 2015, Monday released a biographical documentary video about Smith's association with Vedanta and how it impacted his life and career.[30]
In tribute to Huston Smith, Monday received donations to research and restore the original 16mm films of Huston Smith's TV series from the 1950s that ran on National Educational Television (NET), the precursor of PBS.[31] Most of the episodes of The Religions of Man, were located in the archive of the Washington University in St. Louis. A few missing episodes were found in the Library of Congress. Most of the episodes of Smith's second NET series, Search for America, were also found and digitized. Permission for public viewing was granted by all the original stakeholders: KETC, Washington University, NET (via WNET the successor), and the Smith family.[32] The archive includes both NET television series: Religions of Man[33] and Search for America[34]
Political activism
Jon Monday enlisted in the army in March 1965. After completing his basic training and courses in advanced electronics, he volunteered to become a paratrooper and was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division.[35][36]
As the Vietnam war escalated, Monday turned his attention to becoming a Conscientious Objector, feeling that the war did not reflect the high ideals of America and America's democracy. He refused to participate in the war and eventually he was given a court martial, at which he pointed out that the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi war criminals, had established the right and duty of soldiers to object to wars they felt to be illegal and immoral. Monday spent a year in jail and was given a Bad Conduct Discharge.[35] In 1975 Monday was given a full pardon by President Ford,[37][38] his discharge was changed to a Clemency Discharge, and was awarded a Certificate of Completion[39] by the Selective Service, showing he had fulfilled his duty to his country.
After the start of the Iraq War, Monday joined Veterans For Peace and became active in the San Diego Chapter, giving talks to local colleges,[40] organizing Arlington West memorials,[41][42][43][44] and speaking at anti-war rallies.[45][46]
In 2004 Monday also became involved with the Fallbrook Democratic Club,[44] becoming a board member and in 2008 was its President.[47] In 2011 he was reelected to the FDC's board as Vice President for the 2012 term[48]].
Credits
1973 - George Winston, Piano Solos, LP - Takoma Records, Art Director
2011 – Esalen Institute, Connections: The Elixer of Life, DVD – with Ken Dychtwald, Michael Murphy, Gordon Wheeler, Tricia McEntee, Sam Yau, Michael Krasney, Dani Shapiro, Akuyoe Graham, Van Jones, and Maddy Dychtwald, Producer/Director
