7/4

Everybody interprets the domestic mail manual differently. No kiddin'.

Some kind of miracle it's not in e minor... Yeah, Eb minor is not much of a "guitar" key unless he's tuning down a half step. I like early Yngvie from the mid-'80s but not the recent material. Too much shred.

Not me. I think drivers in Chicago are far worse than drivers in NYC. ...been on the interstates around Boston??? Yep. Chicago is worse. I guess I've driven there so many times that I don't notice nor does it bother me......or maybe I have become one of them! m~ Do they try to change lanes in a traffic jam that isn't moving as if it's going to make a difference?

The bearings in the tires are always first things to go. Can I be your auto mechanic? Why not? You've been f*cking with me since day one. Sounds like your Time Lag Accumulator needs to be adjusted. It's gonna cost ya though.

I'll at least make the NYC show. I don't know if I can handle a work shop.

I read that they couldn't track him down! That's what I heard, he didn't return phone messages. Strange...maybe he had a falling out with Mr. Mahavishnu.

The bearings in the tires are always first things to go. Can I be your auto mechanic?

NYC ain't nothin'. Try RT 1 in New Jersey. Meanest road I know.

we don't know what the motive was. the attacker hasn't been found yet.

June 14, 2006 Music Review Zappa Plays Zappa: Best Band He Never Heard in His Life By NATE CHINEN, NY Times The bad news is that the band featured in Zappa Plays Zappa, the sprawling tribute that touched down at the Beacon Theater on Monday night, was upstaged by an opening act. The good news is that the opening act was Frank Zappa. No, he didn't materialize. But as the house lights darkened for some rarely seen video of Zappa and the Mothers of Invention at the Roxy in 1973, the effect was more than a little séancelike. There he was, a study in lanky gravity, deadpanning about dental floss on "Montana" and developing a corkscrew guitar solo on "Dupree's Paradise." The video ran longer than a half-hour, long enough for the audience to feel transported. The guitarist Dweezil Zappa, Frank Zappa's son, knew exactly what he was doing when he arranged for this overture. Mr. Zappa has described his touring production as more than the first family-sanctioned salute to his father, who died in 1993. It's intended as an argument for Frank Zappa's legitimacy as a composer and as an outreach to a new generation of listeners. On Monday it was all those things, to varying degrees. (The outreach was the least successful effort; most of the crowd looked old enough to have been at that Roxy show.) Mr. Zappa led a sharp assemblage of musicians in a program complete with harrowing intricacies, inscrutable grandiosities and several of his father's alumni as featured guests. Chief among them was the saxophonist and flutist Napoleon Murphy Brock, who handled lead vocals for most of the night. Mr. Brock sounded comfortable even with the music's most angular intervals. And he was deliciously goofy and sardonic, often bounding or whirling about the stage. Those energies helped compensate for Mr. Zappa's demeanor, which was serious, even studious, in tone. His lone attempt at conducting doubled as a dose of audience participation and underscored his father's superior authority in both areas. But Mr. Zappa's guitar playing was duly impressive — he imbued "Inca Roads" with the proper combination of spacey atmosphere and feverish technique — and his careful organization of the concert was evident. Moreover, his egoless approach cleared a space for Mr. Brock and the other guests, the drummer Terry Bozzio and the guitarist Steve Vai. Mr. Bozzio's natural showpiece was "Black Page," a drum feature originally composed with him in mind, and he handled its notorious convolutions — what Frank Zappa once called its "statistical density" — with power and flair. Mr. Vai was equally gripping, and more musical, on a medley of "Montana," a bucolic "Village of the Sun" and a tricky "Echidna's Arf (Of You)." But again, the biggest guest was Frank Zappa himself, who reappeared onscreen more than three hours into the concert. This time he played a guitar solo on "Chunga's Revenge," and his son's musical coterie supported him, so to speak, with unobtrusive passion. The tour runs through June 24. A list of dates can be found at zappa.com/zpz/tourdates.html.

NJ Transit seems to be running ok today.

Makes the shit I put up with trivial.

article in the New Yorker

Really sorry to hear about his passing. I heard he was dealing with cancer a few years ago.

Maybe using those Simmons pads/drums sucked the life out of the band?

Yep. On the Dub Room Special, you can see/hear the difference between the 74 band and the 81 band. Night and day.

me too.

I did not know that. It's worth a visit, if you have the means. Very interesting place, but in a province most people don't visit when they travel to China. Lots of other Buddhist-related stuff, including the Shao Lin monastery, worth visiting in the area. I had a great time there. If I ever get there. Vacation time is kinda limited around here.

That'll get ya some Nirvanna.

If it is a real B3, then I guess he can be doing the Whammy pedal, but he does endorse Korg. Ads in Downbeat even.

On Spectrum? It might be pitch bend or a Digitech Wammy pedal. Doesn't he endorse a Korg B3 emulation? The CX3?

I did not know that.

Dylan Thomas drank too much at the White Horse.

He started a trend in fusion. But I love his playing. Too bad drums aren't his focus anymore.