PBS's History Detectives has an episode titled Dylan Goes Electric, Beatles Autograph & Frank Zappa Collage. It's interesting stuff, and you may learn a thing or two about Frank that you didn't know.
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If You Can Read This, You Can Read This
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If You Can Read This, You Can Read This
Hi, I'm Thad. I build websites.
This blog's been up in one form or another since 1999. In that time I've written about topics ranging from comic books to video games to copyright law to creators' rights to Frank Zappa.
I also write eBooks and narrate audiobooks. Here's where you can find them:
I seem to have caught something. Sore throat, cough, aches and a general lack of energy.
I guess it's better I get it now than a week from now; I've got time to rest up and take my vitamins and hopefully beat it back well in advance of my pending nuptials.
But man it is interfering with any tasks more complex than "send people E-Mail to let them know when to be here".
I still need to buy a bowtie.
A Rendezvouz [sic] With The Grand Wazoo, by John David Kalodner, Concert, 1974. Zappa discusses the change from the '60's to the '70's, the changes in the band, and the difference between studios and orchestra halls. Via afka.net.
So the site didn't resolve for a good chunk of yesterday. That's down to a problem with the hosting provider; both its nameservers were down. That's a fucked-up day; I sure am glad I don't work there anymore.
I should probably back this thing up more often, just in case. I write up all my posts in a text editor anyway, and could restore them by simple copy-paste if ever needed, but it would take awhile.
Running the backend of the hosting company (which also offers rent-an-admin services, and which at the time was also a DSL and dialup ISP) is the toughest job I've ever had -- and the worst-paying, which is why I finally left; I'd have been happy to take a high-pressure job or a low-paying one, but not both at the same time. I've certainly got my share of bad memories of being called in on a Sunday due to a network meltdown -- actually, again, it was the third or fourth consecutive time that happened on a Sunday when my boss had promised to cover it and said it was okay for me to take a 25-mile trip to Tempe that I decided I couldn't keep doing it.
That boss is long gone, though, and another of my old bosses is back in charge. I'm glad he's got things in hand but I sure don't envy him -- and keep in mind, that's coming from a guy who's been unemployed for the past four months.
Via uploader YourArf:
Recorded ca. 1978. Played by Peter Wolf or Tommy Mars (my guess is the latter).
Vai has some technical difficulties; uploader thefinestmusic prompts him for some stories about Frank.
AKA Let's Move to Cleveland. Köln, Germany, 1982 (and if he did Duke of Prunes at that show I could make a "Duke of Köln" joke); uploaded by Steve Sparx.
So I'm getting married in just over two weeks.
I'm not especially nervous about it. But I've got things to do, plans to make, out-of-towners to see.
I'm proud of how I've managed to keep up a daily posting schedule these past eight months, and I think I can probably keep it up. (May need to schedule some posts in advance.) But if I miss a day or two or ten, don't worry -- I'm married, not dead.
Uploaded by dragojlodudic.
Originally posted Brontoforumus, 2009-08-18.
Remembrance of the Daleks delivers what it promises: not just Daleks, but also remembrance. The Doctor travels back to 1963, to the same scrapyard where the series started, and throws out a slew of references to the earlier shows (including a delightful, R-rolling impression of Pertwee with "Now you listen to me, Brrrrrigadier! -- I mean, Group Captain.").
But it's less interesting for looking at what came before as what came after: in many ways, this serial is the template for the current series; all the coolest shit from Davies's run has seeds here. The Daleks have gained some rudimentary time-travel capabilities and set their sights on the Time Lords in the hopes of perfecting the technology; meanwhile, their use of humans continues, and their factioning and infighting continues.
But more than that, it's the Doctor's depiction here that leads directly into the 2005 series. When he executes his coup de grace, it's brutal, and he's utterly cold and remorseless. #7 was really the first You Do Not Fuck With the Doctor Doctor, and even though I still haven't read the original Human Nature novel, I have hit a moment of thinking, "Oh, well of course it was originally written for the Seventh Doctor." While the last few Dalek serials were marked with an increasingly annoying reluctance to violence on the Doctor's part, #7 has no such compunctions, and his actions here make it believable that he could bring himself to push that button, to annihilate his own planet and his entire race if that's what it took to destroy the Daleks.
And because of all that, it's quite a neat little serial -- not as good as Genesis or Revelation, but worth the $15 at Amazon (or $20 for the Special Edition, if that's your thing). Not a good one to start off with; it's worth checking out An Unearthly Child, some Third Doctor stuff (Green Death and Inferno, as mentioned earlier, are my favorites), and some other Davros serials (at least Genesis and Revelation) first, and you'll appreciate it more if you've seen the current series too.