Dr Sharl Meets John Mayall

Posted on Friday, 03/10/06 by Barry's Imaginary Publisher

Early in the morning today, Dr Sharl met with the legendary John Mayall of Bluesbreakers fame — and managed to snap a photo, as well as an autograph. Kudos, Dr Sharl!

Posted in Music, Personal | 7 Comments

The Tornadoes

Posted on Friday, 03/10/06 by Barry's Imaginary Publisher

The Tornadoes, a surf band that recorded their first hits at Zappa’s early 60s PAL Studio’s, have a new album out called “Now and Then”. It apparently includes a recording of FZ’s “The Cruncher”.

Five of the songs from their appearance [on Zappanale 15] are included in “Now and Then.” Also on the disc is the Johnny Cash song “Ring of Fire,” which Zappa had played during his own tour in 1988, and Gerald Sanders imitating Cash doing “Folsom Blues.”

Posted in Frank Zappa, Zappa Misc | Comments Off on The Tornadoes

Uddel ’70

Posted on Friday, 03/10/06 by Barry's Imaginary Publisher

There haven’t been many Flo & Eddie era concerts available here since we started with the Friday Boots. To make up for that, Gilles presents Uddel 1970. Call any vegetable!

Posted in Frank Zappa, Friday Boots | 5 Comments

23rd Annual Spaghetti Bridge results

Posted on Thursday, 03/09/06 by Balint

Who could imagine? 226.96 kg on a bridge made of nothing but spaghetti…

Posted in Bizarre, Silly | 2 Comments

Festicle!

Posted on Thursday, 03/09/06 by Barry's Imaginary Publisher

Next September 15 to 19, you don’t want to be a bull in Rock Creek Lodge. Turkeys on the other hand will want to stay away from Byron IL on October 7.

Posted in Bizarre, Silly | 2 Comments

Coat Hang Wire

Posted on Wednesday, 03/08/06 by Barry's Imaginary Publisher

Welcome to the stone age, South Dakota! Here’s your new logo. (via)

Posted in In The News, Politics | 6 Comments

Round Swamp

Posted on Wednesday, 03/08/06 by Barry's Imaginary Publisher

… is a band whose influences include Frank Zappa, Rufus Wainwright, Wilco, Weird Al and Flo & Eddie. Whoah, will have to give their tracks a listen when I get home. Look at those influences! Might as well have thrown Liza Minelli and the Tuvan Throat Singers in the mix while they were at it.

Posted in Frank Zappa, Music | 3 Comments

Meet The Press

Posted on Wednesday, 03/08/06 by Barry's Imaginary Publisher

TV interviews gone awry (including of course Zappa on Crossfire). I’d read about Tom Cruise’s looney bin performance on Oprah but hadn’t seen the actual footage until now — what can I say, the guy frightens me.

Posted in In The News, Pop Cult | 2 Comments

Würzburg ’82 (2)

Posted on Friday, 03/03/06 by Barry's Imaginary Publisher

… können Sie ab Heute hier döwnlöaden für eine Woche.

Posted in Frank Zappa, Friday Boots | 2 Comments

The Lost Tour

Posted on Wednesday, 03/01/06 by Barry's Imaginary Publisher

From AlterDudes (a site well worth keeping an eye on, methinks), an interview with Frank Zappa in Electronic Musician, dated September ’86:

EM: What about live performances? Would you go out with the Synclavier?
FZ: I’ve been trying to figure out whether it’s practical. I’ve talked to an agent about it and discussed the possibility of a tour in the fall, but without a major advertising campaign to create an interest for what the machine can do or what I’m doing with it, I doubt whether a tour like that would attract much attention. I’m certainly not going out and playing “Dinah Mo Hum ” or the rest of that stuff anymore because that’s like–what?–that’s a million years ago.

Posted in Frank Zappa, Zappa Articles | 4 Comments

Doorknob

Posted on Wednesday, 03/01/06 by Barry's Imaginary Publisher

Today’s Newsgroup Post of the Day comes from a drawing-group I subscribe to, that shall remain nameless:

I’ve just added some posts to my blog. They may not be quite “on topic” but as Karen says, “draw whatever you want…” I am, however, working on my doorknob and after that I’ll get to a self portrait.

Posted in Randamonium, Silly | Comments Off on Doorknob

Gag Me With A List Of Catch Phrases

Posted on Wednesday, 03/01/06 by Barry's Imaginary Publisher

Here’s a massive list of catch phrases to waste some time on, including “Gag me with a spoon!”, “Yowza, Yowza, Yowza!” and “Hi-ho Silver!” yet sadly missing “Great Googly Moogly!”. (And yes, I probably need to get out more.)

Posted in Pop Cult | 4 Comments

Cliché Finder

Posted on Wednesday, 03/01/06 by Barry's Imaginary Publisher

Just what the world needs:

Have you been searching for just the right cliché to use? Are you searching for a cliché using the word “cat” or “day” but haven’t been able to come up with one? Just enter any words in the form below, and this search engine will return any clichés which use that phrase.

Posted in Randamonium, Silly | Comments Off on Cliché Finder

Drinking The Kool-Aid

Posted on Wednesday, 03/01/06 by Barry's Imaginary Publisher

Time for our bi-monthly linguistic minute. “Drinking the Kool-Aid” — now there’s an expression I didn’t know the origins of!
Wikipedia to the rescue:

The idiomatic expression drinking the Kool-Aid is a reference to the 1978 cult mass-suicide in Jonestown, Guyana. Jim Jones, the leader of the group, convinced his followers to move to Jonestown. Late in the year he then ordered his flock to commit suicide by drinking grape-flavored Flavor Aid laced with potassium cyanide. In what is now commonly called “the Jonestown Massacre”, 913 of the 1100 Jonestown residents drank the brew and died. (The discrepancy between the idiom and the actual occurrence is likely due to Flavor Aid’s relative obscurity versus the easily recognizable Kool-Aid.)

Well I’ll be. You’d be surprised how many people are still drinking the Kool-Aid by the way.

Posted in Pop Cult, Randamonium | 1 Comment

Rock Swings

Posted on Wednesday, 03/01/06 by Barry's Imaginary Publisher

I know most of you will have to resist vomiting when I mention Paul Anka, but bear with me: his Rock Swings album, a collection of rock covers, has an oddly irresistible charm to it which at times transcends the unintentionally comedic arrangements (listen to “Black Hole Sun”!). And in the same vain, here’s Henry Mancini’s version of “Walk Like An Egyptian”.

Posted in Music | 3 Comments