Oooh look, a tweet from Charlie Boswell:
Via @Weirdomusic.
Category: Movies
Zappa Meets Dali
The Sancho Plan collective have created an animated short film entitled “The Black Page”. It is apparently quite an ambitious undertaking:
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.
Coming Soon: Frank Zappa’s 200 Motels
Here’s an excerpt:
Tony Palmer DVD confirms: “we have no fixed release date… but one thing is for sure, we have the master tapes and the urban myth that they ‘disappeared’ is untrue.”
Thing-Fish Live: Highlights
In 2003 Stagecraft Entertainment managed to stage an authorized (!) adaptation of Thing-Fish. Here’s, quote: “a very roughly edited selection of scenes of the unforthcoming DVD release”:
Takes me back to the weekend of my 35th birthday, when Tommi presented us with a full screening of this performance! Good times…
Salad Party 93
Fantastic viewing.
Some background. Hat tip: Charles-Henri Hérault, and thank you to Vimeo user tuva for uploading these gems.
John Cassavetes & Company, in the Studio
A tiny bit of studio-presence, that supposed to be a “talk show” – if they were normal people. I love John Cassavetes, by the way, my favorite director – check out his film “Husbands”, if you can. Or any of the others.
See the other parts: part 2 | 3 | 4
My favorite moment is at 7:48 in part 2.
Dummy Up: a/k/a Tommy Chong
Tommy Chong appears on Alex Jones‘ nationally syndicated radio show to discuss the recent FBI raid of Spectrum Labs and the seizure of 10,000 DVDs of Chong’s documentary, a/k/a Tommy Chong. Also on the show is Kevin Booth, creator of American Drug War: The Last White Hope; Josh Gilbert, creator of a/k/a Tommy Chong; and Matt Stevens, owner of Spectrum Labs. The show is guest-hosted by co-producer of the Loose Change documentaries, Jason Bermas.
At the height of popularity of the Bush administration (huh?) — the federal government entrapped and subsequently imprisoned Tommy Chong. Josh Gilbert began documenting the federal case against his long time friend, for the terrible crime of selling bongs. This film (broken down here into four clips) examines the personal effects on Tommy, the motivations and tactics of the politicized Justice Department under George Bush, set against the back drop of the War on Drugs and the legal issues involved.
Listening to Jones’ radio show, followed by Gilbert’s film, one can easily see how one can become a target of a vengeful government bent on teaching someone a very public lesson. Just imagine, if the U.S. Federal government could view Cheech & Chong’s “Up In Smoke” as a threat, how might they have viewed Frank Zappa’s “Pygmy Twylyte/ Dummy Up” (from WSTM-FM’s ‘FZ as DJ’ broadcast, 21 Nov 1974) and treated him if he were alive post 9/11:
[audio: http://www.killuglyradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/Pygmy-Twylyte-Dummy-Up-MOI.mp3]Confessions Of Robert Crumb
Am posting this just so I can watch it myself later: a fifty-five minute documentary from 1987 on one of my heroes, Robert Crumb. This film was apparently written by the man himself.
Via Non-Stick Plans.
Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey
Sam Dunn, a 30-year-old anthropologist and lifelong metal fan, embarks on a trip into the heart of heavy metal in Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey. His mission is to figure out why metal music is consistently stereotyped, dismissed and condemned, even while the tribe that loves it stubbornly holds its ground – spreading the word, keeping the faith, and adopting styles and attitudes that go way beyond the music. Dunn visits heavy metal landmarks as far flung as L.A.’s Sunset Strip, the dirty streets of Birmingham, and the dark forests of Norway. Along the way, Dunn explores metal’s obsession with sex, religion, violence and death, meets his heroes, and discovers some things about the culture that even he can’t defend. Part social document, part celebration of a misunderstood art form, this documentary is a window into a culture that’s far more complex than it seems.
Sam Dunn holds a BA in anthropology and history and an MA in social anthropology from York University.
View the other parts of this documentary: Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10.
2009: The Year Of Roxy?
Just a casual update from Balint on the ZPZ Grammy post:
No official confirmation for this at all, but here’s what z dot com forum user Gregory had to say as an addendum to his review of ZPZ’s December 12 ’08 show at the Roxy:
I almost forgot! DZ announced at the top of the show that he has transferred the footage from his dad’s concert at the Roxy, 35 years ago to hi-def, and will finally be releasing it on DVD!
Yes: it’s hear-say, but (if this is really) coming from DZ I tend to give it a slight bit more credibility than most anything GZ sends out into the world…
Update: Sigh.