Month: May 2006

Frank Whips It Out

Another jem found at jam.zappafan.net: Frank Zappa at the Senate Judiciary Committee Hearings, way back in ’86. This man truly died a decade too soon. I would’ve loved to see him trash the current Bush administration.

(YouTube link)

Update! Scott Reinard sent me this mp3 of Zappa on Howard Stern back in ’84. Scott says:

I shaved down yesterday’s Friday Show on Howard 100 (Sirius Radio) to this 6.81 MB file. In it, the show’s moderators replay a Stern show from 1984 where Frank came in and talked about some important stuff. I don’t know if you can post it or not…I hope so. Excuse the quality.

Scott, you’re excused. Thanks!

Fun With GoogleTrends

The geeks at Google have released a new toy: Google Trends. It allows you to look up the popularity of searchterms over the years, but the real fun lies in the fact that you can compare searchterm popularity of different phrases using comma’s. Here’s a couple:
– yin vs. yang
– the vs. and
– pro vs. con
– and my personal favorite: weapons of mass distruction vs. enron. :)

Don, Moon ‘n Dweez

Remember Don Johnson’s mid 80s musical masterpiece “Heartbeat”? Not only is this review of said audio-visual marvel quite a funny read — it also reveals that both Dweezil and Moon Zappa appear in the video, as guitarist and chorus singer respectively (with pictures!). Maybe it had something to do with FZ’s appearance on Miami Vice, who knows.

Did A Vehicle…

Says Gary McKinnon, who was arrested after being accused of hacking into Nasa and the US military computer networks:

Old-age pensioners can’t pay their fuel bills, countries are invaded to award oil contracts to the West, and meanwhile secretive parts of the secret government are sitting on suppressed technology for free energy.

Tinfoil Helmet Alert? Time may tell… (via)

Monster Road Out On DVD

For those of you who didn’t get to see it in your local theatre: Monster Road, the award-winning Bruce Bickford documentary, is out on DVD. The film offers a fascinating look into the life and spirit of a true American excentric and his absolute dedication to the one thing he lives for: clay animation. Much like Zappa’s, Bickford’s work lives in a self-shaped universe where reality, logic and social convention are bent and skewed into something entirely unique. As far apart as both their worlds may be, it’s no coincidence that Zappa took a keen, perhaps even anthropological interest into Bickford, as documented in Baby Snakes and Dub Room Special. Though they are opposites in many ways, one trait brings them together: deviation from the norm.
Get the DVD — you won’t regret it. Long live deviation from the norm!