Old Hat from 2001

Winter

New Year's Eve 2001/2002: zappa.com has a new guestbook up, with two mutually contradicting messages from "Gail", at least one obviously by a faker. Every time something dynamic happens, no matter how insignificant, it is exciting to be a Zappa fan. ZAPPY NEW YEAR!

December 24 2001: Record collecting isn't dead - Battle of Eric Burdon & the Animals and the Mothers of Invention sells for $3,050.

December 23 2001: Merry Christmas. I'll don my gay apparel, and you can go on alt.fan.frank-zappa and troll the ancient yuletide carol. :)

December 2001: Webmaster wakes up from his midwinter slumber and registers zappapatio.unixlover.com. Daily update program returns on December 9:

  • December 12: Oops! Cut my fingers on some broken glass ... guess I won't be doing any typing, for, like, a week!
  • December 9: Occurances of "RATW" on bootleg pages clarified to "Rock Around The World" after a tip from Biffy. I realise that this kind of update can feel like a glove in the face when you're waiting for something more substantial. :)

November 2001: Quote of the month, from Biffy the Elephant Shrew, on alt.fan.frank-zappa:

Zappa was indeed a major fan of Gentle Giant, as well as related bands like Yes, ELP, Jethro Tull and King Crimson. But he got sent to Czechoslovakia because everyone thought he was saying that he was really into Prague.

Link of the month: As an alt.fan.frank-zappa veteran, The Flame Warriors is just the site I need to put Usenet matters in perspective. Sit back and have a laugh about everyone! 

And daily updates:

Fall

Halloween 2001: HAPPY HALLOWEEN, EVERYBODY! Special style sheet today. Doesn't work 100% in Netscape (Halloween surprise! :), no black background on links and pink background on inline images, but mostly legible, and looks smashing in Evil Empire products.

Daily Update program/travesty, October 2001:

Links of the month are this Usenet post about tuning and psychoacoustics (required reading for aspiring teenage musicians) and Say No to Zombie Woofs by "Queenie DeVoon". Also, the new Asad Ali Khan is out! Quote of the month is one long sentence from page IX of Jamie Hubbard's Absolute Delusion, Perfect Buddhahood (why Hubbard didn't get the Nobel Prize instead of Naipaul is beyond me :):

Related aspects include the emphasis on dana and the above-mentioned eschatological orientation; the five suppressions of their teachings and practices over a two-hundred-year time span and, heuristically, questions of orthodoxy and church-state relations; their reformation of Vinaya rules and bodhisattva practices as an institutional organ of social welfare (the charitable foundation of the Inexhaustible Storehouse , the forerunner of the pawnshop and other mutual aid societies in China and Japan); the fact that Hsin-Hsing, the founder, abandoned his precepts yet continued to lead a monastic life (obviously an important precedent for East Asian Buddhism); the emphasis on dhuta and other ascetic practices, including "sky burial" (i.e., leaving the dismembered corpse out under the open sky as an offering of food to the denizens of the animal and preta realms), topic more often discussed in the context of Southeast Asian forest monks yet very popular among the monks of the Northern dynasties (cultivated by Chih-i, among other lumiaries of this period); their formulation of a graded system of doctrinal tenets and its relationship to the other such emerging systems of the Sui-T'ang scholastic schools, especially the Hua-yen (and thereby issues of imperial patronage also become interesting); the confessional and repentance practices of the Seven Roster Buddhanama, Thirty-five Buddhas, the fang teng , and other aspects of daily practice and liturgy, and their relation to T'ien-t'ai and Pure Land configurations of these widespread practices; questions of community membership and rules; the reliance on the Shih lun ching and Ksitigarbha devotion, and the political implications of both; the cult of the sixteen arhats (especially Pindola) and their influence on the sixteen practices of the Inexhaustible Storehouse; and more.

VS NAIPAULOctober 11 2001: Nobel Prize goes to Naipaul! Hooray! The staff at the Zappa Patio celebrate by playing Zappa's cover of Tony Allen's "Night Owl".

October 10 2001: Webmaster predicts that the Nobel Prize for Literature this year will go to Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul.

October 1 2001: People who have called 818-PUMPKIN report good news. Lestatkatt, via e-mail:

I called 818-PUMPKIN today and asked when were the videos getting re-released. The man was nice on the phone and said that the old ones should be out before Christmas and that they were working on a new DVD for the new year (Roxy film).

Patrick Neve, on alt.fan.frank-zappa, reports that this includes the rights to 200 MOTELS, now slated for Barfko release. The web site is "undergoing a face lift", and the scores and Them Or Us book, which disappeared from Barfko-Swill on-Line a white ago, are still available.

Septemer 30 2001: Karaikudi R Mani Iyer plays in Stockholm with Allam Durgaprasad, BV Balasai, G Harishankar, Ghatam Suresh & Srirangam S Kannan. Zappa Fans United in Righteousness send a representative.

ATTACK ON AMERICA: A "Nostradamus" prophecy is making the rounds on the internet, making it seem as if Nostradamus hundreds of years ago predicted the 12/9 assault on the World Trade Center. In reality, the verse is pasted together out of parts from two or three separate Nostradamus prophecies, which were originally set in separate years, and even then the date has been changed to make it fit recent events. Some versions have an extra verse pasted on at the end, which is completely fabricated and has nothing to do with Nostradamus at all. Common sense is our only hope! Other than that, I guess we may all have other things to think about right now than this little web site. There won't be much action here right now.

September 2001: Roxy video trailer yanked off zappa.com! The conspiratorial workings of the Zappa Family Trust continue :) According to fan site shawstudios.com, Celestial Pictures will spend up to HK$ 117 million to digitally remaster the Shaw Brothers film library! Unlike previous rumours concerning these mysterious vaults of Clearwater Bay, this report is confirmed by Celestial CEO Will Pfeiffer. Remastering machinery and staff have already been flown in for the job. Link of the month: pictures of Zappa in Sweden at ulfhaase.com!

Summer

August 2001: Hello! It's me, Bossk (R)! Welcome to the new but not improved launch of my web site, The Zappa Patio. As you can see, only the Vinyl vs CDs FAQ and Miscellaneous Leaves are here yet, but I'm working on it. The rest is still at ye olde location. And if anyone knows a way to get a free domain name of some sort to point to this stupid address, let me know.

As you probably noticed, I conducted a poll here recently on whether or not I should re-organise the site to a one-item-per-page affair and do away with the long list format. 27 people voted to re-organise it, but 104 people voted not to re-organise anything. So I'll keep it the way you like it!

To thank you for voting, I presented you with a charming recording of ES Shastry and MA Kannan in raga Shri, which was heavier than a Danzig riff. This has been taken down, and instead I present you with my own old two-page academic paper Non-Standard English in Frank Zappa's "Zomby Woof", in PDF format! (The assignment was to write about non-standard English in a piece of popular music.) (Unfortunately, I dropped out of this English class later.)

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July 2001 - MAJOR NEWS: The Zappa Patio will not be staying at this address, because I've switched ISPs (now with a nice European ADSL line and crappy news server). The new URL will be w1.858.telia.com/~u85821131/ - not exactly elegant, but perhaps I can register an alias for it later with Telia or simply buy my own domain name pointing to it. I'm in the business, you know. The new web site is not operative as of this writing but I'm working on it. To all you hundreds and hundreds who have supported the Zappa Patio over the years at this address, I extend my deepest felt thanks - it is you who have made this web site what it is today. I'm looking forward to many more years with you all over at the new domain!

July 11 2001: Salamat Ali Khan, master singer of the Sham Chaurasi gharana, died in the early morning hours in Lahore, Pakistan. He will be remembered for his outstanding duets with his late brother Nazakat Ali.

3rd of July 2001: Webmaster goes on vacation again, this time to Italy and the catwalks of Milan. Will be gone a few weeks so don't expect any action here in July. (Was going to publish this text before I left, not after I came back (as happened), but the ISP switch put a stop to that - I had to be connected to Swipnet to get at the FTP server, and for a while I had uninstalled the dialup connection and lost the user name and password.)

From Hasi, June 25:

Today G&S Music announces the release of "21 FZ CD titles specially produced by the Japanese in these nifty mini-LP-style cardboard sleeves. These are limited editions. The titles are shown here for your reference at present as they are not due to release until September (first 11 titles) and October (next 10 titles) 2001." The 21 titles are (in chronological order) from Freak Out! to Zappa in New York (without Mothermania and 200 Motels).

I made a mix CD-R for my vacation, with the One & Only Dagmar Krause ("Heading for Kyoto"), Notre Dame de Zappa Thana Harris, and CHITHRA - Kerala State Govt. Award for Best Playback Singer 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995 & 1999, and the first singer to receive Goverment Awards for Best Playback Singer from both Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Three women, six lotus feet, one faithful worshipper. Meanwhile, in Zappa-Zappa-Land, Jonathan Gatarz unearths an old ad for quadraphonic Zappa albums, which includes Roxy & Elsewhere - so maybe, even if it wasn't actually released in quad, it was at one time planned for 4-channel release. Interesting!

June 16 2001: Meet Zappa Fans United in Righteousness! Ghulam Hassan Shagan, 85-year-old khyal singer from Pakistan, will sing tomorrow Sunday June 17 at the Southern Theatre (Södra teatern) in Stockholm, Sweden. Concert is scheduled at 7 o'clock in the evening. Zappa Fans United in Righteousness will occupy seats 94 and 95, sixth row, and will be available for assassination or chat immediately before and after the concert. (For tickets, call 077-170 70 70 / +46 77-170 70 70.) This is also a rare opportunity to contribute financially to Zappa Fans United in Righteousness.

June 2001: Daily Updates continue. The re-release date for the Honker videos on zappa.com is clandestinely changed to September 2001 (news item courtesy of Hot Barfse).

May 19 2001: I'm finally resuming my Daily Update program. Thanks to everyone who's supported me through these hard times! I'm experimenting with playing two CDs simultaneously; now it's the younger Dagar brothers singing Miyan ki Todi (Jecklin Disco JD 628-2) and Multani (JVC VICG-5032). Daily updates:

  • May 27-31: No updates. Six updates on June 1 instead.
  • May 26: What the "Rock Around the Clock" track on the Metal Man Has Hornet's Wings bootleg really is.
  • May 25: German promo CD of Son of Cheep Thrills.
  • May 24: Indexing error on a version of Stage 6. Some details on the Globus CD of Joe's Garage.
  • May 23: A-ha! Ryan Davenport discovers an edit in the Specialized Digital Audio Gratification promo! :) 
  • May 22: The Canadian original of Sheik Yerbouti had a track listing on the back cover. A Beat the Boots pressing of 'Tis the Season to Be Jelly included an errata/corrigenda sheet. This site is not exactly addressing the great problems of the world.
  • May 21: More on Japanese Best Band CD from Ryan Davenport.
  • May 20: Some reflections on the Old Masters version of Roxy. By the way, I recently bought a Spanish brand of Broccoli called Roxy.
  • May 19: new bootleg listing - Frank Zappa's Best Band, also known as St Patrick's Day (inbox unread count: 170). On alt.fan.frank-zappa, "John Holm" posts an insanely funny subversive story about Mike Keneally ("the Bard"), assorted alt.fan.frank-zappa profiles and a "blackamoor", identified by Johan Lif as Ike Willis. It seems to parody Ensemble Ambrosius, a Finnish ensemble playing baroque arrangements of Zappa's music, as "Ensemble Mongoloidus" playing Ravi Shankar on accordion. The story is archived here.

May 14 2001, about 9 PM: I (in central Stockholm) observe a person snorting cocaine on a public bus. What's this town coming to? Link of the month is Arbiter Records - the Golden Age of Pianism.

May 13 2001: This alt.fan.frank-zappa post from Bengt Jönsson (Re: What if FZ were a Killer Bee?) deserves to be quoted in full:

I am a beekeeper and beekeepers always try to breed ambitious bees. Zappa would be a good hard-working bee and collect a lot of honey to me.

But the bees I have today are more like the Zappa Family Trust. They are lazy and nothing happens. I call them Flakes.

But I read that Steve Vai also is a beekeeper so I think Zappa would live in his hive instead.

May 2001: A friend of mine discovers "The Fish Page", fisksidan, a Swedish joke site by "fish lovers" (not people who love to eat fish, but who love the creatures and want to protect them), where Frank Zappa is listed as an example of a famous fish lover. Also, I'd like to forward to you some relevant spam:

Our record label Eyeinhand Entertainment has released a sampler CD featuring mostly unreleased music by Don Preston, Jimmy Carl Black, Thana Harris, Arthur Barrow, Roland St. Germain, Scott Thunes, Nigey Lennon, Mike Keneally. On this amazing CD you can also find performances by Steve Vai, Robbie Krieger, Bob Harris, Ike Willis, Ray White and a bunch of other amazing musicians. Check eyeinhand.com for details.

May 2001: The new Ravikiran is out! Compositions by Tyagaraja, Dikshitar, Shastri's son, Bhagavatar, Arunagirinathar and the non-person Swati Tirunal hoax.

Spring

April 2001: we have a release date for the release date! Stephanie Anderson reports that she was told on 818-PUMPKIN that in May 2001, the ZFT would announce the release date for the Roxy video. I'm still away from the web, listeing to Balachander and writing about quantum cryptography, so no updates. Link of the month: The Tomb of Niankhkhnum & Khnumhotep! Another one: Tai Shing Pek Kwar! Support the real monkey-style kung fu!

Sharmistha Sen - American Tour Spring 2001

Winter

March 2001: The daily updates continue.

February 13 2001: To come to terms with the amount of unread mail in my mailbox (currently 92, going back to April '99), I'm instituting something called "Update of the Day" - every day a new update, until I'm down to zero. If I miss a day, I'll do two the next day, &c. They will be announced here. Here are the updates of the days so far:

February 2001: Doug Michel sent in an absolute must-see, namely the Weasels Ripped My Flesh cover of Man's Life magazine from 1956: the pulp magazine cover that inspired Zappa's album title. But he sent it to several webmasters at the same time, and the master, Vladimir Sovetov, beat me to publishing it. Here it is - follow this link! However, Johan Lif sent in a suitable substitute. As you can see, the Zappa Patio is back with a vengeance and a new design. I think many pages load a bit faster now. There's also a highly useful "frames" function for those who like to maximise their browser window. The Singles FAQ has moved away. And while we were out, the Only Wizard, Moghubai Kurdikar, died (on the 10th) in a Mumbai hospital. She was 97 years old, one of the last north Indian classical singers of that famous generation, and the Only Wizard among them. Zappa song of the month: "Nig Biz"! Link of the month: www.anomalist.com

January 2001 - new stuff: Artwork by Johan Lif and a funny sound clip from M*A*S*H, sent in by Sad Jane 82. Lithuania celebrates its 10th-anniversary independence day on the 13th. A country with a public bust of Frank Zappa! The bust can be found in Vilnius at the address Kalinausko 1. At the same time, there's a heart-warming post from Hasi on alt.fan.frank-zappa:

In my opinion, God had only two reasons for "making" the world:
 
1: bringing Frank Zappa to life
2: the creation of ZAPPA PATIO

According to a seller ("Delta Haze") on ebay, the original all-orchestral Lumpy Gravy, thought to have been an 8-track only release, was released in the 4-track format. Perhaps it was an 8-track, perhaps it was a 4-track, perhaps there were both; at any rate, the Lumpy Gravy page in the Vinyl-vs-CDs FAQ now has a scrumpteous picture gallery. Read more about the original all-orchestral Lumpy Gravy here. Rene De La Salle gets in touch to correct his old "ten favourite boots" article, which is now brought gloriously up to speed with complete text, typos corrected and footnotes by yours truly. We are a truly bizarre web site. :)

Also in January: Zoogz Rift is elected an honorary member of Zappa Fans United in Righteousness after his "pop-quiz" post to AFFZ containing:

3. I never have anything of interest to say because:
 
e) I'm a Mike Keneally fan

He is paid ten or twenty dollars. Link of the month: Ng Man-Tat for President - a real web classic!

Zappa Fans United in Righteousness sealNew Year's Day 2001, 03:23: Zappa Fans United in Rigtheousness declare themselves sworn enemies of Mike Keneally as it is discovered that his review site noneforyoudear.com contains honest-to-goodness porn video reviews. Zappa Fans United in Righteousness adopt a no-comments policy with regards to their new Keneally policy. Link of the month: mummytombs.com - it's ugly, but it's about mummies! 

New Millenium - midnight CET: Because of a slow busdriver, the webmaster doesn't get to the record-breaking fireworks display on time, but has to spend his midnight on a train together with a group of drunk kids, one of whom sings "jerking off is my job". Zappy New Year!

 

home - vinyl vs CDs - weirdo discography - bootlegs - misc - hot lynx - e-mail us at zappa dot patio at gmail dot com 2006-04-22 20:02

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