Paging Mario Fuente and all earthlings in LA!

Urgent! Chaffey College to “Freak Out” for Zappa: Full details are at www.palstudioz.com, but Saturday’s performers include a chamber music septet, a jazz fusion band and a surf rock group, a suitably eclectic lineup. Mario, don’t get any compromise for tomorrow evening at 7 PM and let us know how it went!!

The Administration and the Fury

If William Faulkner were writing on the Bush White House:

“Go and get him Saddam’s gun,” Condi said. “You know how he likes to hold it.”
Dick went to my desk drawer and took out Saddam’s gun. He gave it to me, and it was hot in my hands. Rummy pulled the gun away.
“Do you want him carrying a gun into the press conference?” Rummy said. “Can’t you think any better than he can?”

A Mothers album without Zappa?…

This is Flo, Mark Volman of Flo & Eddie; I wanted to write and say hello to you all, and I wanted to clear up a few rumors:
# 1 Howard ( Eddie) and I never sued Frank or the family. In fact I believe that Gail and the family would tell you that we are the only ones that never did sue them.
We enjoyed our time with The Mothers and I think the only fallout we ever had was when Frank was pushed off the stage at the Rainbow and we were forced to make a record by Warner Brothers to fulfill a contract obligation. With Frank out of work we made the record with the remaining members Anysley, Don, George Duke and Jim Pons. Frank, on his back at the time, felt we had taken the band from him. That misunderstanding was cleared up and we remained friends with Frank until his too early death. I even helped him with choices of takes on the Playground Psychotics record and provided much of the backstage recordings for that record.
We loved Frank. We loved singing with him and we miss him very much.

Surprise. From zappa.com’s forum (message nr. 17), May 2005. Did anyone hear about it? What do you say?…

A Small Eternity (2)

You want some more Yoko, well here’s some more: in ’72, John & Yoko appear on the Mike Douglas show with Chuck Berry…

During some random boogie moments Yoko grabs a nearby microphone and lets loose with some spirited Yoko-style caterwauling. It’s SO wrong that I almost can’t believe it’s going to happen again every time I watch the video. A few times Mr. Berry’s eyes almost pop out of his head as his roots rock classic is injected with kooky downtown performance art on national television. One online critic describes the look on Berry’s face “as if somebody just poured an ice-cold beverage down his pants.” It’s that good.

Burton’s Sketches

The Guardian offers a peek in Tim Burton’s sketchbooks.

“They help me think more than anything else. They calm me down and, also, they’re a way for me to think subconsciously. I prefer to act out of my subconscious – I find if I think too much, I start to confuse myself again.”

By the way, I really enjoyed going to see Charlie & The Chocolate Factory last Saturday. As ever, Johnny Depp makes a brilliant performance and — to my delight — the movie never turns into the kind of big sappy musical where, every two seconds for no reason, the entire cast will burst into song.