I discovered Frank Zappa’s music in the early years of the ’70s, back in my home country, Budapest, Hungary. I was about 20 years old, and just went through eight years of music training, and four years of art school, and all I cared about was art and music (big coincidence, huh?). Of course, I had some interest in girls too, but since I had no formal training regarding that matter, I thought I shouldn’t mention it.
Nice, long article by Gábor Csupó, creator of (among others) the Lost Episodes CD-cover – about youth, about music, about FZ.
This piece of early animation set to “Sleeping In A Jar” excerpted from the Swedish TV program ‘Spotlight: Stockholm, Sweden‘ originally broadcast on December 4, 1971, begins and ends with Frank Zappa’s commentary on the possibility of the merging of music and animation mediums in advertising. Given the date, era and technology, it is truly amazing how much of a witting futuristZappa was with MTV and music videos another ten years away, and the advent of the Internet and the World Wide Web another ten years after that.
The Black Page is our first true interactive short film & by far our most ambitious project to date. Combining the highest quality musical and visual design, The Black Page is a new entertainment experience in which our live onstage band will control in real-time a cast of onscreen animated musical characters.
The short film tells the tale of a lost wanderer who stumbles into a surreal desert landscape, and learns that the door home can only be opened by an unusual guardian. “Frank Zappa meets Salvador Dali in this unique interactive entertainment experience.”
World premiere: 24th September 2009, Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle UK. More background here.
A wonderful cultural archivist, metaphysical snake-oil salesman, antiquarian ne’er-do-well, and star of the end of the VHS version of “Baby Snakes” Gerry Fialka interviewed Bruce Bickford recently after the showing of FZ’s Bickford film at the silent movie theatre in LA.
