Conceptual Continuity, Comic Book Edition

You may wonder: what’s the source for “Metal Man Has Won His Wings“, off Mystery Disc? Biffy has the lowdown:

Frank Zappa’s notes on the song, prepared in 1984, tell us that:
“In our spare time we made what we thought were ‘rock & roll’ records. In this example, Vliet was ‘singing’ in the hallway outside the studio (our vocal booth) while the band played in the other room. The lyrics were derived from a comic book pinned to the bulletin board near the door.”

That comic book was called “Metal Men”, inside it was an ad for a comic called “Hawkman” and as it turns out Frank Zappa later became friends with its author, Jack Kirby. Electro-flyer!

The Boys From Paraguay

Is the Bush administration preparing an escape to Paraguay? Say what Barry? The Cuban news service reports that George W. Bush has purchased 98,840 acres in Paraguay, near the Bolivian/Brazilian border.

Wonkette (via):

Now, Prensa Latina is a Cuban-government operation that is not exactly friendly toward Washington, what with Washington trying to kill Castro for 50 years and all. But Prensa Latina didn’t invent the story. It’s all over the South American press — and not just Venezuela and Bolivia. Here’s a version from Brazil. Here’s one from Argentina. And here’s one from Paraguay itself.

… and:

Here’s a fun question for Tony Snow: Why might the president and his family need a 98.840-acre ranch in Paraguay protected by a semi-secret U.S. military base manned by American troops who have been exempted from war-crimes prosecution by the Paraguyan government?

Habeas Corpus, anyone?

Fraggle Rock

Meanwhile, here’s what Ahmet Zappa is up to these days: producing a feature-length Fraggle Rock movie.

Zappa — a musician and TV personality who will serve as the project’s executive producer — is developing a treatment in which puppet stars Gobo, Wembley, Mokey, Boober and Red will travel from beneath the Rock and venture into the human world for the first time.

Atlanta ’77 (2)

You’d think I woke up with a hangover this morning following yesterday‘s main event, but such is not the case. However I have a sneaking suspicion that Dr Sharleena is planning something for this evening that involves good company, lots of liquor and lots of delicious food as well. You see, there’s simply too much unusual stuff in the fridge (Celery! Père Joseph cheese! Mushrooms!), and the good Doctor has been sporting an enigmatic smile on her face… we shall see…

Anyhoo, on to the show: Atlanta ’77, Part Two. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Barry!

“Barry: it took a lot of money and negotiations but we could hire the very well known and esteemed gipsy guitar player Air Guitar Johnney for your birthday. We hope you’ll enjoy!” — The KUR staff
“PS: sorry to have completely wrecked your website after hours last night while you were snorting*.
In exchange, this morning you have an important amount of spam to de-spam for your amusement. Enjoy again!” — The KUR staff Again and Again

High Res version here!

*snorting detergent, first, and then snoring in bed…

Feeds, Spam & Hard Drives

  • The RSS feed for this site is now handled through FeedBurner. The transition should not be noticeable for you feed-readers out there though (which is actually what this entry’s testing).
  • With the upgrade to WordPress’s latest version, a new spam-filter has been installed which might cause a tiny delay when you hit the “post comment” button. When that happens, there’s no need to hit it again — just wait for the page to refresh. If your comment doesn’t appear at all it’s most probably been flagged and awaiting moderation.
  • Further testing of the POS intel iMac indicates the hard drive has indeed Bitten The Big One. Special thanks to KUR-reader and Mac-o-phile Scott Finney who’s been of great help over the weekend. His resolve to try and rescue at least some of the files has left us with one last straw to cling on to (more on that later, perhaps!)…

Bamboozled By Mac

Oh lord, the shit done hit the fan. Our firstgen Intel iMac which we bought in January of this year has decided to commit digital suicide — it went from running perfectly fine to zip, nada, zilch, exorcist style within hours. Upon startup we now get the dreaded flashing folder with question mark. Yes: we have tried starting up from a proper OS X install disk; yes: we have tried hooking up directly via Firewire to another Mac — we do not even get to see the hard disk in both cases. Any Mac guru’s out there that could help us out?

Manipulating The Medium

Fun with unintended record speeds:

The day I bought Frank Zappa’s “Joe’s Garage Parts 2 & 3” I listened to the first three sides at 45 RPM before I realized I had it on the wrong speed. For forty minutes, I thought Zappa had gone crazy and released an entire two-record set in his patented Munchkin style (it could happen!) The guitar solos were amazing. Since that initial experience, I’ve never liked the album at 33 1/3.

The World League Of Despots Newest Member

In his capacity as secretary of the World League of Despots, Terry Jones welcomes George Bush to the ranks of despots.

I cannot, however, disguise the fact that we adjudicators were extremely anxious when you announced your intention to remove from office one of our most stalwart members, Mr Saddam Hussein. However, we need not have worried. According to a recent UN report, you have ensured that there are now even more human rights abuses in Iraq than there were under Saddam. No less than 10% of those in custody are being physically or psychologically abused. Well done!

Congratulations on a job well done indeed!

Gods Of Guitar

… and why we need them:

Passion and creative freedom directly threaten the executive’s grip on airplay and record sales. The music biz marginalizes any trend that doesn’t lead directly to merchandising profits, big money. What do you think they’ll do if they see that dollar slipping away? A single note can evoke so many feelings: joy, triumph, pain, anger, rebellion… how long before musical expression comes under the jurisdiction of the Patriot Act?