I Ain’t Gonna Work On Maggie’s Farm No More

Once upon a time, in a decade far far away, I became fascinated with the music of this weird character called Frank Zappa. Then along came the internet, and it didn’t take long before I had my own little homepage dedicated to the man. We’re talking 1999. It was called “The Way I See It Barry“, and it received about 10 visitors per day. It offered transcriptions of interviews, an image gallery and, at about the turn of the millenium, a fun little regularly updated feature entitled “Hot Poop“. Soon, this little feature turned out to be the most popular section of my little homepage.

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Fast forward to late 2007, and we’re getting some 2000 visitors per day — Hot Poop visitors exclusively. A chill runs across much of the FZ fan-community as the ZFT issues Cease & Desist letters to KUR, tribute bands and festivals for — well you can read all about that here. Our initial reaction is to just keep spreading the Zappa Gospel, while complying to the ZFT’s idiotic demands. And then it hits — like a brick:

Exactly who the fuck are we going through all this trouble for?

Not FZ, nor his musical legacy — at least not anymore. The internet’s Summer of Love couldn’t have ended more poignantly than with the Zappa Family Trust spitting in our face for attempting to keep the music of Frank Zappa alive, and for attracting new fans. I think I can speak for all of us here when I say that C&D left us with a sour taste in the mouth. We find the ZFT’s morbid tactics of divide and conquer misguided, counter-productive and, well, disgusting. It has taken all the fun out of working on this site. We’ve had enough.

As of now, this weblog will no longer be focussing exclusively on FZ news. Mind you, the official site does a much better job at that, don’t you think?

What FZ news is there around anymore anyway? More releases from a Vault that’s proving to be less and less mythical? Another ZFT endorsed Zappa Beer? New ZPZ gigs with no Special Guests because all of the Zappa alumni are fed up with the way they are being treated like shit? More C&D’s telling fans around the world to bend over and comply?

Fuck that shit. Count me out.
I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s Farm no more.

So now what? Stay tuned. Changes are afoot, bear with us. As much as it grieves me to give up on this blog in its present form — a baby I’ve lovingly raised and nurtured for over seven years — it is now time for a radical U-turn.

Pictures Of You

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These photos here were taken by our own very esteemed Magic Fingers on the Reading concert during 1975 (OMG!! WTF!!!8888 There he is…! Awesome!!!) :-)

I’m very fond of this sort of pictures, and given the fact that the core of this website is the fans, and their experience as such, we could have a gallery potraying such an experience. It doesn’t have to be pictures with the *Artist* necessarily, but those who show the general athmosphere of the concerts you’ve ever attended… This could be a new feature updated periodically and with time it could be interesting to see the results.
So, if you like the idea, I’d like to ask you for your old/recent pictures, with or without you or the artist of the concerts you attended. Doesn’t have to be related with The Man himself, this is about you as A FAN. And, also, memorabilia, signatures anything that you think might be interesting. Got the Valley Girl colouring book? A lighter or a pin? An old ticket? Send me your pictures: sharleena@gmail.com, why dontcha?

“Thank you very much for coming to the concert. Hope you liked it. Goodnight!”

Crunching Numbers

Yesterday was let’s mess with WordPress plugins and see if they stick day at Barry Towers.

As you may have noticed, it’s now possible to easily quote someone else’s comment when writing a comment yourself (click the aptly dubbed “Click to quote this comment” link next to every reply and watch how magic unfolds!).

At long last: a proper contact form where you may, you know, contact us!

Over at the FZ discography section, there’s now a “Highest Rated Albums” feature. Here’s how the collective beehive mind (that would be you) have been going about rating so far:

  1. One Size Fits All (9.76 out of 10)
  2. Roxy & Elsewhere (9.45 out of 10)
  3. The Grand Wazoo (9.22 out of 10)
  4. You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore Vol 2 (9.13 out of 10)
  5. Apostrophe (’)/ Over-Nite Sensation (DVD) (9 out of 10)
  6. Sheik Yerbouti (8.91 out of 10)
  7. We’re Only In It For The Money (8.8 out of 10)
  8. Läther (8.75 out of 10)
  9. Zappa In New York (8.73 out of 10)
  10. The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life (8.73 out of 10)

I’d say #1 and #2 are obvious. Interestingly though:

  • The Grand Wazoo reaches #3
  • There’s an YCDTOSA in the top ten, at #4 no less
  • No Freak Out!, no Hot Rats, no Apostrophe/Over-Nite Sensation, no Waka/Jawaka and no Joe’s Garage
  • The Apostrophe/Over-Nite Sensation DVD is apparently more entertaining than the records themselves!

More number crunching? Here you go:

  • Total Users Voted: 1,923
  • Total Average: 7.03

“Good student, needs to put in more effort” :)

A Reader’s View, 2007

Another year is (almost) over, so as a reader of this site (for years now!!!), I’d just like to wish good luck and happyness to the Owners Of This Site, and a Happy New Year – to Barry’s Imaginary Publisher and Dr. Sharleena!
They might think they’re doing it for their own pleasure. Hah! How wrong they are. They are doing it for us! So what can I say after all these years, after all the things happened this year, etc. etc?

Just one tiny “thank you!”

Thank you!

Just one???? Nooooo! Thank you some more!!! :-)

And all the best for 2008!

We Dub Thee: Swedish KUR

Damn it’s cold over here.

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Behold the new, snowy white 1024x768px-compliant lay-out for KUR, dubbed “Fronk Zippo version 1.0”. It’s still very much a work in progress, and you won’t be seeing it at the discography or the Gig List for the time being — we’re working on that. There will be more features available soon. Oh and by the way, we didn’t move our stuff to Sweden, though we are sure it’s a wonderfully liberal country! :)

As we’re still hunting down browser bugs, please do let us know if anything looks whacky. Thanks!

Shit & Fan: Make A Sentence

On December 11, at 11 pm Belgian time, we were sent an email from the Berger Kahn Law Corporation, carbon copied to one Gail Zappa. The subject line read:

Cease and Desist Infringements Re: Zappa Family Trust

Attached was a three page pdf document, outlining in fuzzy lawyer-speak how we are blatantly violating ZFT copyrights across the board here at KUR. You can view all three pages here: page one, page two, page three.

You can imagine our excitement — to get noticed by the ZFT!
The Honor! The Honor!

You know what: The Suits are right on all accounts.

To have transcriptions on our website of long-out-of-print magazine interviews with FZ, which took me many late hours to type out and at times translate? Dude!

To present snippets of FZ lyrics on our website which showcase his incredible sense for Conceptual Continuity? What were we thinking!

To have artwork of FZ releases up on our discography section, so that readers would know what their next purchase at Barfko Swill could be? Not done, period!

All kidding aside: we believe the material posted on this website would fall well within the definitions of “fair use” in the event of a lawsuit. However, we simply lack the financial means to fund such a lawsuit.

Can’t afford no shoes. Sigh.

Therefor: behold the new lay-out! It is, we hope, in compliance with the Cease & Desist letter so graciously sent to us by the ZFT.

It is also temporary. We have new plans for KUR. This is not the end, rather it is a new beginning.

Will you be joining us?

What’s With The Lukewarm Poop?

An eloquent title if ever I saw one, as you’ll surely agree. Anyway, you may have noticed yesterday’s post which consisted merely of a bunch of links and a bit of light commentary. What’s up with that?

Well, every day I come across links that I figure could be of some interest to you, but don’t warrant a full post of their own (or I don’t have time to turn them into one). I either spot these in my RSS reader, or oftentimes because one of you has sent them to me via email.

Using my del.icio.us account, I’m now bookmarking those, and with the magic of a little WordPress plugin, they will then show up here all neatly bundled into one post.

So if you come across a page, site, article, video clip that you think would fit a Delicious Links entry, by all means: do drop me a note. It’ll either show up here in one way or another — or it won’t. Don’t get mad at me when that happens. Remember: such is life. ;)