opinion article re: ZPZ
Hoodoo
Weekly Music Reviews - April 10 - 16
Nostramarcus Looks Into The Future - Musical Goings-On in GlamorTown
by Mark S. Tucker
http://www.opednews.com/articles/life_a_mark_s___060410_weekly_music_reviews.htm
Interesting things are afoot, Watsons, and I’ve asked Nostramarcus, a
semi-legendary, quasi-ghostly, fully-cynical bastard who
force-channels himself into ye criticke, to come in at the end of this
week’s column and predict the skinny lowdown on what’s shakin’,
drawing mysterious prognostications from the Great Hereafter.
Nostramarcus loves to peer into rock ‘n roll’s near future and
lambaste the deserving while lauding the worthy - be thus forewarned.
[snip Queensryche content]
The Zappa Kids
Following that peculiar ad, a week later the paper ran another unusual
full-pager, carrying a B&W headshot of Frank Zappa, blazoned “Zappa
Plays Zappa”. Kinda alarming at first, the face of Phi Zappa, one of
rock’s primest undisputed geniuses, dead of prostate cancer long
before his time, appearing in an ad for an upcoming gig (!). A trifle
ghoulish on the initial look-see, but what the hell, FZ was as
irreverent as any, so perhaps he’s somewhere guffawing.
Then come the credits. Starting out as “Dweezil & Ahmet and the Zappa
Family Trust”, that’s revised and we’re immediately told the concert
will star Dweezil Zappa, making no secondary mention of his brother,
so...was that first credit for one corporation or two? Was it ‘Dweezil
& Ahmet’ and ‘The Zappa Family Trust’ or just ‘Dweezil & Ahmet and The
Zappa Family Trust’? Probably doesn't matter. Maybe Frank’s again
chuckling from wherever he is. Steve Vai, Terry Bozzio, Napoleon
Murphy Brock, and “others” are also mentioned - I’d’ve rooted for
Keneally over Vai, but that’s minor. A second guess would be that the
“others” haven’t confirmed yet - might not even have been selected, as
far as that goes - else they’d be slathered all over the ad.
Next, the corporate entities return. In microscopic letters, just
beneath the guest list, resides: “Dweezil / Ahmet / Grand Rights / the
moustache & Project/Object are marks registered to the Zappa Family
Trust. all rights reserved.” Strange. Frank never much touted this
sort of thing, even if he did have to engage in it on the business
side in order to protect his work in our ersatz capitalist society,
but wasn’t he against this type of soul-less label-n-lawyer
machinery...kinda sorta?
Probably all this was done to somehow protect the Zappa family, which
Frank was keenly interested in doing as he prepared to exeunt; still,
I fail to see why the Trust needs to be so in-your-face. Frank well
understood that there came a point at which one paradoxically played
the game to beat the game...only to find the paradox backfiring as one
became the game. That was part of the reason he’d attempted to work
deals out with Vaclav Havel: to begin to escape soul-killing corporate
madness, an incipient arrangement that promised a great deal, and the
very reason Bushevik James Baker flew in and neatly crushed it.
Well, to the music then. Whether this show is a good idea or not is
debatable. I suspect the gig will be well attended merely through the
devotion of The Zap’s legion of fans but am leery about the potential
quality. After all, ever glom Dweezil’s CDs? The less said, the
better, and we note that, after the first couple, we saw no more, the
family’s now concentrating on releasing overpriced material from
Frank’s archives instead. Zappa’s magic came not only through his pen
and restless mind but equally from the choice of sidemen and endless
rehearsal hours put into honing them into a top-notch group of unified
virtuosos. The secret was not George Duke, or Ike Willis, or Terry
Bozzio, or even Don Preston, but just and only Frank. Without the
taskmaster’s overseerage (lampooned in 200 Motels), those units
would’ve been dramatically different affairs, markedly lesser.
Dennis Miller
Yer kiddin’ me, right? Arch-traitor, yuppie, pseudo-Lib Miller is
trying to sidle up to the teat of the Left again? Oh yeah, that’s
right, he failed spectacularly as a NeoCon and is now on the bum,
bereft of a career. Leg-humping the Right didn’t pay like he’d hoped.
But, yes, there’s his bewhiskered mug cheerily looking out at us above
his Right penguin paraphernalia: Brooks Bros. suit and tie. Excuse me
a moment, I feel lunch coming back up.
Rick Overton, a brilliant and much-neglected comedian and writer, was
on the radio talk show circuit not long ago, shmoozing up the
incipient re-entry of Miller but received an appropriately glacial
freeze-out for his pains, because when Dennis first stuck the icepick
into the kidneys of the Left, outrage occurred amongst that same
cognoscenti and a decided chill fell upon the very subject of his
name. Now, Overton’s signaling all to clam up and let the weasel back
in, blathering about how he’d “made a few mistakes”, but the “Left was
big enough to forgive”.
In a pig’s eye.
The Predictions
Nostramarcus predicts:
"O mortals, know that nothing is hidden behind the curtain of time
and, as surely as dollar doth grease palm, these events shall come to
pass! Nostramarcus herewith sallies forth in your time's vulgarian
tongue and prophesies that:
1) Queensryche’s Mindcrime 2 will probably be a very cool CD,
hopefully dynamite, but the tour, if it follows the formula of the
first, will be absolutely mind-blowing;
2) the “Zappa Plays Zappa” affair will be disappointing (here, the
great disembodied sage hopes he’s wrong) but worth attending just to
see it attempted at all and to hear Frank Zappa’s music in any
context; and
3) Dennis Miller will get his smarmy reptilian ass handed to him on a
steaming platter...by the audience. If he doesn’t, then the Left had
better look to its laurels. Once a quisling, blame the traitor; twice
a quisling, blame the punters."
And with that, the vaporous spirit hauls his ashes back to Nirvana
Inc., LLC, and leaves the rock world in mortal hands yet again.
-----------------------------
Mark S. Tucker, a critic, has written for numerous national indie and
newsrack magazines and websites over the past 20 years: Sound Choice,
i/e, Progression, Expose, On Reflection, Camera Obscura, OPtion,
Perfect Sound Forever, and others, as well as for this forum. He was
co-founding editor for E/I and can be reached at prog...@hotmail.com.
This article is originally published at opednews.com. Copyright Mark
S. Tucker, but permission is granted for reprint in print, email,
blog, or web media so long as this credit is attached.
--
.... --- --- -.. --- ---
Sam Rouse
Hoodoo <hoo...@spamcop.net> wrote:
> Next, the corporate entities return. In microscopic letters, just
> beneath the guest list, resides: 泥weezil / Ahmet / Grand Rights / the
> moustache & Project/Object are marks registered to the Zappa Family
> Trust. all rights reserved.
Haven't seen P/O so claimed before. Does this mean the P/O band will have to
change its name, tithe & accept dominance of ZFT, or what? Is NMB a guest
performer for ZPZ, or a hostage?
--
Gary
>
[...]
> 2) the "Zappa Plays Zappa" affair will be disappointing (here, the
> great disembodied sage hopes he's wrong) but worth attending just to
> see it attempted at all and to hear Frank Zappa's music in any
> context; and
Of course it will be a disappointment, because no matter how well the
music is played nothing can bring Frank back. Zappa's Universe
suffered from this (though the music had a few large blorps) and he
wasn't even gone yet. I still find it refreshing that someone would
attempt to do something this difficult (just play the music well).
Strictly Commercial
>>Next, the corporate entities return. In microscopic letters, just
>>moustache & Project/Object are marks registered to the Zappa Family
>>Trust. all rights reserved.
>
> Haven't seen P/O so claimed before. Does this mean the P/O band will have to
> change its name, tithe & accept dominance of ZFT, or what? Is NMB a guest
> performer for ZPZ, or a hostage?
see <http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=9ivh0j.2.1>.
Registered spring 2003 for use in respect to musical recordings,
performances, t-shirts, etc.; in October 2003 for "Books in the field of
music, posters".
The first commercial use seems to have been in September 04: on
Quadiophiliac?
Rolf
Corné van Hooijdonk
Typed Drawing
Word Mark ZAPPA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Goods and Services IC 025. US 022 039. G & S: clothing, namely, men's,
women's and children's tops and bottoms. FIRST USE: 20030610. FIRST USE
IN COMMERCE: 20030610
Mark Drawing Code (1) TYPED DRAWING
Design Search Code
Serial Number 76459926
Filing Date October 18, 2002
Current Filing Basis 1A
Original Filing Basis 1B
Published for Opposition November 11, 2003
Registration Number 2858588
Registration Date June 29, 2004
Owner (REGISTRANT) ZAPPA FAMILY TRUST, THE ADELAIDE GAIL ZAPPA, A
United States Citzen TRUST CALIFORNIA 11696 Ventura Boulevard Studio
City CALIFORNIA 91604
Attorney of Record Stanley W. Sokoloff
Prior Registrations 1840602;1847743
Type of Mark TRADEMARK
Register PRINCIPAL
Live/Dead Indicator LIVE
"men's, women's and children's tops and bottoms" ??????????!!!%%%##$$$##%???
AAAFNRAA!
Charles Ulrich
Sam Rouse
Strictly Commercial <maure...@telus.net> wrote:
> Sam Rouse wrote:
> >>Next, the corporate entities return. In microscopic letters, just
> >>beneath the guest list, resides: 蛇weezil / Ahmet / Grand Rights / the
> >>moustache & Project/Object are marks registered to the Zappa Family
> >>Trust. all rights reserved.
> >
> > Haven't seen P/O so claimed before. Does this mean the P/O band will have
> > to
> > change its name, tithe & accept dominance of ZFT, or what? Is NMB a guest
> > performer for ZPZ, or a hostage?
>
> see <http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=9ivh0j.2.1>.
> Registered spring 2003 for use in respect to musical recordings,
> performances, t-shirts, etc.; in October 2003 for "Books in the field of
> music, posters".
> The first commercial use seems to have been in September 04: on
> Quadiophiliac?
I can't help wondering about the implications. Of all the phrases in the FZ
pantheon, why this one, in this timeframe? In order to protect the trademark,
doesn't ZFT pretty much have to fuck with the band that's put more live FZ music
in front of fans for the last several years than they have? Has anyone else
used it in the context of "performances, t-shirts, etc."?
I hope my bitching is unfounded rather than premature.
--
Corné van Hooijdonk
AAAFNRAA!