Googling Zappa

Posted on Thursday, 09/07/06 by Barry's Imaginary Publisher

Google has introduced archive search to their news service. That’s 200 years of news articles right at your fingertips (some of which you have to pay a small fee for unfortunately). Any Zappa articles? You bet — right back to 1968 (see here for one).

Posted in Frank Zappa, Zappa Articles | 6 Comments

A Note On “Fake” Comments

Posted on Wednesday, 09/06/06 by Barry's Imaginary Publisher

In response to this comment from someone pretending to be Joe Travers, the real Joe Travers writes:

Only a true asshole zappa fan would go up on a site like this & say that it was me. Do you guys really think I would post comments like that? Do you really think GZ would ever allow something like that from the ZFT? Yeah, I’d really have some job security saying stuff like that. You guys really continue to prove yourselves.

There have been other occasions where a commenter reacted under the guise of Gail, or Dweezil, or Joe (or me for that matter). I tend to leave such comments untouched in cases where it’s obvious that the comment is a non-malicious spoof. When that line gets crossed however, it becomes a matter of identity-theft, and the rules change.
And so, since:

  1. nobody wants their name attached to something they did not write, and do not agree with or feel insulted by,
  2. it is not my ambition to get into trouble with the ZFT

… I will as of now be deleting any malicious comments from people that do not respect these guidelines. You know I like a good laugh as much as the next guy, but let’s keep it civilized and respectful. Okay?

Posted in Personal, Site News | 22 Comments

Spot the Jewels

Posted on Tuesday, 09/05/06 by Dr Sharleena

Do you see any in this picture?

I did recently, in Buenos Aires while visiting the Rio de la Plata galleria:

Upon asking Rik, owner of Soundtrack Records, for the price, I hastily ran out of the shopping mall to call KUR headquarters.

– (me) “The price is $200, whaddayathink?”
– (The Boss) “Mmmmh… that’s a lot of money… does it have the beret?”
– “Yes!”
– “Buy it! Why, I’ll donate a kidney if need be!”

I didn’t much like the thought of a one-kidneyed Barry — so I resorted to robbing two enchanting old ladies of their pesos, and kicked a cocacola machine to get some more cash. Mission about to be accomplished…

Here’s Rik The Enabler, checking with me whether the goods are in mint condition (i’ve waited my whole life to say “mint condition”! at last!)

Fast forward to half an hour ago. Barry is running around the house sporting the beret mumbling something about disconnected synapses and swiss cheese while i take some pictures:

I’m a little worried about the foam around Barry’s mouth right now…

Posted in Frank Zappa, Personal, Zappa Imagery | 6 Comments

A Proper Reaction

Posted on Monday, 09/04/06 by Barry's Imaginary Publisher

In the comments of the previous post, Balint says:

What if ALL the FZ-tribute pages would accept a kind of “statement” or something, and all would present in their homepages at the same time? Telling what we think about it, what we suggest/ask for, and why. It could be called “We’re Only In It For The Music”

While I like the idea, I’m not sure how many FZ-tribute pages would actually agree. So for starters: who of you out there with a FZ-fanpage are reading this — and what do you think about the idea? Second: we’d need a clear, well-written text that explains our position in a restrained, respectful manner. My English is “okay”, but for this kind of copy we’d need some collaboration I guess. Third: do you think it’ll make a difference?

Thoughts?

Posted in Frank Zappa, In The News | 2 Comments

Chrome Dinette To Be Shut Down?

Posted on Saturday, 09/02/06 by Barry's Imaginary Publisher

John Healy, curator of the wonderful Chrome Dinette has apparently received a cease & desist letter, courtesy of the ZFT’s lawyers.

We are hereby formally advising you that you must immediately disable the above-referenced website and cease and desist any and all further unauthorized use of the materials referenced herein or any materials owned by The Zappa Family Trust. Our client will consider every available remedy including injunctions and recovery of attorney’s fees, costs and any and all other damages which are incurred by our client as a result of any action that is commenced against you.

Ouch…

Posted in In The News, Zappa Misc | 40 Comments

Tiny Music Makers

Posted on Friday, 09/01/06 by Barry's Imaginary Publisher

Music Thing has a great series of posts up on “tiny music makers”, the people responsible for the sound of your Mac/Windows OS starting up, the “Intel Inside” tune, and more.
Brian Eno who composed the Windows 95 tune:

The thing from the agency said, ‘We want a piece of music that is inspiring, universal, blah- blah, da-da-da, optimistic, futuristic, sentimental, emotional,’ this whole list of adjectives, and then at the bottom it said ‘and it must be 3 1/4 seconds long.’

Posted in Geek, Music, Pop Cult | Comments Off on Tiny Music Makers

Hannover ’79

Posted on Friday, 09/01/06 by Barry's Imaginary Publisher

This and next week’s Friday Boot: Hannover, West Germany, 26 March 1979. Gilles had uploaded the tracks as .wma, so I had a bit of fun converting to 192 kbps .mp3’s using Switch and the truly craptacular flip4mac. Anyway, enjoy.

Posted in Frank Zappa, Friday Boots | 5 Comments

At First It Was A Hobby

Posted on Thursday, 08/31/06 by Barry's Imaginary Publisher

Meet Alfred, the Belgian Penguin Man. Throw in the Poodle Woman from a couple of entries ago, and we have ourselves some nice Conceptual Continuity brewing!

Posted in Bizarre, Silly | 1 Comment

X-Ray Sound

Posted on Thursday, 08/31/06 by Barry's Imaginary Publisher

A different type of bootlegging: in the USSR and Eastern Europe in the 1950s underground night spots would play music pirated from the west. The only media they had were records etched into discarded X-ray film.

(…) enterprising young people with technical skills learned to duplicate records with a converted phonograph that would “press” a record using a very unusual material for the purpose; discarded x-ray plates. This material was both plentiful and cheap, and millions of duplications of Western and Soviet groups were made and distributed by an underground roentgenizdat, or x-ray press (…)

Further reading on underground music in the Soviet era.

Posted in Music, Politics, Pop Cult | 1 Comment

Hit it, Dweez!

Posted on Thursday, 08/31/06 by Balint

We didn’t talk about sports much, though he did like a game of badminton,” says Zappa. “But I don’t think he’d be upset that I play golf. For my dad, the ultimate disgraceful pursuit would be becoming an A&R man at a record company, and the second-worst would have been a lawyer. Golf is harmless by comparison.”

Hehe – I’ve just pictured FZ playing badminton…

Posted in Zappa Misc | 5 Comments

A Random Number

Posted on Tuesday, 08/29/06 by Barry's Imaginary Publisher

54.

Posted in Randamonium | 17 Comments

Open Mike Weekend

Posted on Friday, 08/25/06 by Barry's Imaginary Publisher

I’ll be away from the site for most of the weekend enjoying things like sunshine, beer, and actual human interaction — but in the spirit of Web 2.0 I figured: why not let our readers express themselves any which way they want through the comments. The mike mic is open for any and all as of now. Bring on your stories, your pet peeves and poodle adventures, your must-see websites, your hopes and dreams, or lack thereof.

Oh boy, this is an accident waiting to happen, if ever I saw one. La-dee-da.

Posted in Personal, Randamonium | 14 Comments

Vancouver ’75 (2)

Posted on Friday, 08/25/06 by Barry's Imaginary Publisher

Those who downloaded part one of Vancouver, Oct. 1st ’75 will be happy to know that part two is now up.

Posted in Frank Zappa, Friday Boots | Comments Off on Vancouver ’75 (2)

The Pikasso

Posted on Thursday, 08/24/06 by Barry's Imaginary Publisher

Top 20 strangest guitars. Here’s the “Pikasso”:

pikasso guitar

The guitar was built for Pat Metheny by luthier Linda Manzer in 1984 and it has 42 strings.

Posted in Music, Pop Cult, Silly | 10 Comments

Tu sais ce que c’est un lapdog?

Posted on Thursday, 08/24/06 by Barry's Imaginary Publisher

Here’s one reason why French TV makes my toes curl:

For some reason they think the viewer can’t read subtitles, so they bring in a staccato-speaking voice-over to dub Frank’s voice, thus losing all the little nuances of what he’s saying (insert angry fist shaking). Oh, and Thierry Ardisson is an ass, if you don’t mind my saying so. Les goûts et les couleurs, you know…

Posted in Frank Zappa, Zappa Audio/Video | 1 Comment