(1) Intercontinental Absurdities Ltd., more commonly known as Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, packed two shows at Riverside Theatre last week. Throughout the day at the downtown hall, Zappa's equipment men (roadies) found time to talk about their lives on a tour... (read more)

(2) Frank Zappa is the Kurt Vonnegut of music. His humor goes beyond satire into black humor, asking all of you out there to laugh along with his famous mythology... (read more)

 I caught part of your interview on Radio Free Madison the other night. You sounded like you were either under the weather or pissed off. I couldn't tell which.

Look, you go to a radio station, you got two guys who are sort of inept at conversation, and neither one of them has any questions. I've got to spend almost an hour there talking to them, and while they're playing records they're trying to figure out what to ask you. In the first place, they're not even interested in the answer, and in the second place they are just trying to cover their asses 'cause they're radio personalities. They're the – quote, unquote – "stars," so whenever you do a talk on a radio station it's a real weird situation. And then we went over to WISM. (Ed. note: WISM is a top forty AM station)

How did that go?

That was great! I was a disc jockey for a while. (changing to a deep, resonant dj type voice) I was talking like this and everything!

I got visions of Centerville from 200 Motels in your description of your reception in Yugoslavia: You know, with the images of the barbed wire fences and all.

Yea, there was a hint of that there. Quite a bit of the time we were just following orders. Even in the dining room. The guy who was the maitre d' wouldn't let us order anything. It was really hard to get anything good to eat.

Why?

Well, first of all your jacket wasn't right. So you change your jacket and your pants aren't right, and your hair ain't right, and this ain't right, and that's wrong, or you don't have a meal ticket. Or if you do have a meal ticket, it's got the wrong date on it. And if you ask any questions everybody's just following orders.

What's the story? Is everybody there on a meal ticket?

Well, we had meal tickets because we were guests of the government.

Was Yugoslavia the only so-called Iron Curtain country you visited on this tour?

They poo-poo the idea of that being an Iron Curtain country. They don't approve of the term. I suppose because they are the most liberal of all the "Bloc" countries. (read more)

Source: slime.oofytv.set