24 Facts About Jon Monday

Jon Monday was born on 1947 and is an American producer and distributor of CDs and DVDs across an eclectic range of material such as Swami Prabhavananda, Aldous Huxley, Christopher Isherwood, Huston Smith, and Chalmers Johnson.

Jon Monday directed and co-produced with Jennifer Douglas the feature-length documentary Save KLSD: Media Consolidation and Local Radio.

Jon Monday is President of Benchmark Recordings, which owns and distributes the early catalog of The Fabulous Thunderbirds CDs and a live recording of Mike Bloomfield.

Jon Monday got his start in multimedia through his own psychedelic light-show company in the Bay Area in early 1967, providing visuals for concerts by Country Joe and the Fish, Janis Joplin's Big Brother and the Holding Company, Quicksilver Messenger Service, The Loading Zone, and Steve Miller's Blues Band at local Berkeley, California venues and The Fillmore in San Francisco.

In 1970, Jon Monday was hired by John Fahey at Takoma Records in Santa Monica, as their first full-time employee, becoming promotion director in 1972, and later general manager.

Jon Monday co-produced a live album, Gospel Nights, by Maria Muldaur.

In 1982, Jon Monday was appointed sales manager for Chrysalis Visual Programming Division, headquartered in Los Angeles.

In 1984, Jon Monday relocated to Silicon Valley and had a 2nd career as an executive in various software and high-tech companies.

Jon Monday held senior management positions or consulted with major 3rd party video game publishers, such as Epyx, Eidos Interactive, and Capcom.

Jon Monday was Vice President of PlayNet, working directly with Atari founder Nolan Bushnell.

Originally, Jon 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.

Jon 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, Jon 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.

Jon Monday was then put in charge of all online business, including developing and implementing the company's first website.

Jon Monday retired and moved to the San Diego area in 2004 and launched two labels: mondayMEDIA and GemsTone; producing, directing, and distributing original and archival material.

In 2006 Jon Monday brought together many notable recording artists and produced The Revenge of Blind Joe Death: The John Fahey Tribute Album, which was released on the Takoma Records label, distributed by Fantasy Records.

In 2008 Jon Monday was asked by Bill Coben and Denny Bruce, founders of Benchmark Recordings, to join as President and run the label.

Jon Monday has titles by The Fabulous Thunderbirds and Mike Bloomfield.

In 2015, Jon Monday released a biographical documentary video about Smith's association with Vedanta and how it impacted his life and career.

In tribute to Huston Smith, Jon 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, the precursor of PBS.

Jon Monday 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.

Jon Monday spent a year in jail and was given a Bad Conduct Discharge.

In 1975 Jon Monday was given a full pardon by President Ford, his discharge was changed to a Clemency Discharge, and was awarded a Certificate of Completion by the Selective Service, showing he had fulfilled his duty to his country.

In 2004 Jon Monday became involved with the Fallbrook Democratic Club, becoming a board member and in 2008 was its President.