Halloween Bound

Experts to unmask spooky goings-on:

ECCENTRIC rock legend Frank Zappa, zombies and the spookiest day of the year will be explored at an international conference. Among the topics to be discussed will be the Halloween Zappa concerts, which took place in New York in the 1970s and 1980s. They attained iconic status thanks to the costumes on and off stage.

Ed Seeman’s Zappa Movies

Way cool! Ed Seeman’s “Zappa Recording At The Apostolic”:

This 6minute exerpt is a small portion of the 14 hours I shot with FRANK ZAPPA & the Original Mothers of Invention over a two year period from 1967 to1968 for a film titled “UNCLE MEAT” in 1967.

For more, have a look at Ed’s YouTube profile or visit his homepage. (Thanks MySpace Greg!)

Strange Units

Looking up “The Truman Show” on Wikipedia just now, I clicked through a couple of times and stumbled upon this list of strange units of measurement. The Mikrotuki! The MegaFonzie! The Warhol! And of course, The Belgium:

Conservationists discussing the destruction of the Amazon Rainforest often use Belgium as an approximate measure of how much forest is being lost annually. The area of the country of Belgium is 30,528 km².

Wherein Barry Blatantly Copies The ZFT Newsletter

… for those who didn’t receive the Zappa Plays Zappa email…

Starting now, you have a chance to bid on premium seats, a tour poster, and access to sound check the night of the show. Starting Wednesday, Sept 27th, ALL Shows (except for Vancouver, which is on-sale at a later date) will run a pre-sale. You can get your tickets for that here. The New Orleans and Cabazon shows will not have auctions – instead, for $100, you will have access to the Zappa Plays Zappa soundcheck, as well as tickets to the show. These tickets are very limited and only available through the Front Gate presale, starting on Wed, Sept 27th.

Auction info & links at ticketmaster.com:

Special guests for all shows are Napoleon Murphy Brock, Steve Vai and Terry Bozzio — although Terry will not be performing at the December 30 show. For full tourdates, check the official site.

The Preston-Disney Connection

An interview with Don Preston, who just turned 74.
On how his love for dissonance came to be:

“When I was a kid, I saw Fantasia. Like 25 times. My favorite part was the dinosaurs, and behind them was Stravinsky’s ‘Rite of Spring.’ It was one of the most dissonant pieces Stravinsky ever wrote. And it’s probably what led to me thinking like that. It was one of the most powerful things in my life.”

(via David Ocker)

The Making Of Freak Out!

Being the only one who mysteriously didn’t receive the Barfie’s email I am a bit late with this, but on to the news:

zappa MOFO

  • the release of MOFO’s limited edition (4 discs + 60 page booklet) has been postponed to “just in time for Halloween”
  • the “regular” MOFO release (2 discs + 30 page booklet) is planned for 11 November and will be available in stores
  • only Disc 1 of both releases are the same ( ! )
  • today zappa.com should be streaming a few samples of the album. Update: yup, #77 and #78.

Oh, and tickets for all ZPZ December shows should be on sale as of 29/30 September. For details, keep an eye on the tourdates page which has yet to be updated. (Yes: I did get that email!)