Friday, December 27, 2002

 

May I be "Frank" with you?

The last few entries here have been political of sorts......However I think the best posts contain more personal information.
I did receive a response to the last posting that I will respond to but first.........

We went to what is becoming a holiday tradition for a circle of friends of which we are fringe members. It's A Goyem after- Christmas dessert party. At these gatherings, I get to catch up with some folks that I don't see otherwise. This includes a professional photographer that was fortunate enough to be hired to photograph the guitar collection of one... Frank Zappa.

Frank's wife, Gail, was particularly interested in documenting one special guitar, although I think they did them all. The guitar the Jimi Hendrix played...and set fire to...at Monterry (as seen in the film, Monterry Pop), was either bought or given to Zappa. He stashed it under the staircase....and may have forgot about it! It was discovered after the passing of Frank in 1993(?). There are photos (I don't who took them) of Zappa's son Dweezil, a fine guitarist in his own right, (heavily influenced by Frank) playing the guitar.

But my friend clued me in to a documentery simply called, "Frank Zappa", that sounds like a must see. It's Zappa's life, start to finish. He described a scene that really peaked my interest. Frank Zappa on the Steve Allen Show in 1960....
way before he started the Mothers Of Invention. In this clip, Zappa is dressed in a suit with short hair (?)....He has 2 bicycles on the stage that he uses to produce sounds to acompany the orchestra....while instructing Steve Allen how to play along. He's conducting the orchestra in that distinctive stiff-armed style.

It will be hard to find a showing of this film. They had a special showing at a film festival in San Francisco recently, but wide spread distribution is not looking likely at this time. I'll try to stay current on the situation and report back on the ways to find it....when (& if) it becomes available.

posted by ~Brahma 6:58 PM