"(American) Democracy is as real as wrestling" - Frank Zappa

eom

If only Frank really were the voice of the 99%

Actually, Frank didn't advocate joining groups and I don't know how keen he would be with a posthumous appointment as an Occupy Spokescorpse?

-90% Jimmy


PS - you really got it right with Carlin and HST. Carlin's three minute "Corporations own you" video is the most important video for our troubled times on all of the internet.

having Ted Nugent as a spokesperson.....

as Full Disclosure forces me to tell you all that Ted Nugent released an album in the early 70's on Zappa's Discreet label.

I recall Ted had some nice things to day about Frank, but I don't recall anything Frank may have had to say about Ted.

Even more full disclosure - Frank produced Grand Funk's last album.

-90% Jimmy

what a smart (genius) man. His music was great and if you listened to the words, fucking brilliant.

My guess would be late 80's?

that was the time when he was palling around with Vaclev Havel and getting involved with newly liberated former Russian satellite countries in Eastern Europe.

-90% Jimmy

If I'm not mistaken, he was raised in the same "dumb" educational system

most of us were, although his kids undoubtedly attended private schools,

due to the fortune he make off his "stupid" countrymen.

why attending a public school takes away your right to complain about them?

i suppose you think everything is fine and dandy with the current system?

the system is far from perfect. we could argue about why, and there are many reasons, but surely you dont think everything is fine.

also, i dont know if you hadnt noticed..
but our president sends his kids to a private school too.

If i were famous, had the money, and were worried about that effecting my kids in a public setting.. id send them to a private school too.

people are allowed to make their own decisions concerning their family.
.

right back at ya

P.s.
Americans , for the most part, ARE ignorant. not stupid, but definitely willfully and blissfully ignorant.

but I'm unaware of anything he ever did (besides bitch) to improve the situation.

And um, no, I do NOT think everything is "fine and dandy" with the current

system, but I also don't indulge in blanket condemnation of everyone and everything

around me, either, and that, judging by his complete disinterest

in looking beyond the environment he seemingly despised, is apparently what Zappa

was into.

"I don't travel for pleasure...I never leave the house unless I have something to do".

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0953261/bio

Yes, I HAVE noticed that the president also sends his kids to a private school,

but unlike Zappa, he is working to better the country, not just

gratuitously shitting on it.

"If i were famous, had the money, and were worried about that effecting my kids in a public setting.. id send them to a private school too".

Yeah, but unlike Zappa, you might have the inclination to help OTHERS in your country

who were not as rich and famous as you, and by the way, since we're

talking education and all, you might want to look at your sentence above and

note that the correct usage is "was", not "were" and that it's "affecting",

not "effecting".

I've followed Zappa's career...I'm even old enough to have seen him,

Prue-Mother's of Invention in a small venue in the late '60s.

My impression of him is of a relentlessly negative person

who seemed congenitally disinclined to a positive outlook.

He even put put down the Sixties, the era with which he is identified and

which made him successful. I doubt he got much joy out of life.

P.S. As for "Americans, for the most part" being "willfully and blissfully ignorant",

You may be speaking for your family and friends, because as you may

have noticed, Americans, "for the most part" voted for President Obama in the last election.

How "ignorant" was that.

Let’s see here.

Zappa’s children’s education – I think he wanted them out of public school as soon as possible. I think most of his four children got High School Equivalency certificates, as he wanted them to stop attending public school as soon as it was legal. I have never heard of any Zappa kids going to private schools, or even college of any sort, for that matter.

Frank appears to have inflicted this doctrine on his children:

“Drop out before your mind rots from exposure to our mediocre educational system and go to the library and educate yourself, if you’ve got any guts.”

The City of Baltimore honored Zappa a few years ago with a bust at the Public Library. They seemed to have some appreciation for his advocacy of Libraries.

What did he do to change things – well, there’s the content of his songs. Trouble Comin’ Every Day, from the first Mothers album, was about the Watts Riots in L.A., and I argue is as valid and current today as it was back then. Probably even more so, given the increase of economic inequality that’s been festering since the early 70’s.

Another is Hot Plate Heaven at the Green Hotel, which is from the mid 80’s, but also speaks to present day political despair.

He went all over the country on his own dime to debate the PMRC hearings on any TV or radio show that would have him. He debated Senator John Danforth on a morning show the day of the PMRC hearings, for example. This was a put your money where your mouth is position for him as a self described “Constitutional Fundamentalist”.

He was rabidly against Reaganism and televangelists and abusive organized religions.

The crowning glory of his efforts to change the system was his voter registration efforts during his 1988 tour. He even got appointed honorary Ohio Secretary of State by Sherrod Brown during this time. Lastly, he was seriously considering running for President, but the prostate cancer scotched that possibility.

He was pretty cynical, but, have you all observed what’s going on around all of us this very moment? We are so awash in corruption within all our institutions that our very Democracy is in serious jeopardy. Cynicism is an appropriate response for these abysmal times, but, he railed against stupidity and corruption and NEVER GAVE UP. He just kept going.

You seem to know very little about what Zappa said or did over the entirety of his career and you project your own assumptions about self indulgent celebrities on him, in a very inaccurate way. He was in it for the money only to the extent that it could help him fund further projects and ideas. He wanted to create music unlike any that came before. Break all boundaries and barriers and experiment with things never tried before.

HE DID HAVE HIS SHARE OF HUMAN FOIBLES, but his ability to think gave him the self assuredness to punch his way through life in his own terms. As a frightened wage slave, I wish I had his courage and drive!

-90% Jimmy

Gee, 90%, you claim that I "seem to know very little about what Zappa said or did

over the entirety of his career".

Really?..Well, I don't "see" any links to your supposed special knowledge of Zappa.

Assuming, nonetheless, that what you've written is true, you'll have to excuse me, again, if I'm not overwhelmed by his going all "over the country on his own dime to debate the PMRC hearings on any TV or radio show that would have him"

Well, big effing deal...As a recording artist who made his name pushing the envelope he had a VESTED interest in doing so.

As for his being a self-described “Constitutional Fundamentalist”, call me, again, unimpressed, since that puts him squarely OUT of the progressive camp and into that of either the Tea Party or Ron Paul.

In any case, Gawd bless your overweening hero worship -- I tend to avoid that sort of thing, myself.

Hopefully, you'll some day grow beyond that and being "a frightened wage slave" that doesn't

have what you view as Zappa's "courage and drive".

So you think his points are invalid simply because he made a lot of money during his lifetime? Does having a fortune, therefore, disqualify you from having and expressing an opinion? I mean, really...

He did not put a gun to his "stupid" countrymen and demand that they purchase his music - those "stupid" countrymen chose to purchase his music. Those "stupid" countrymen undoubtedly came from all walks of life and persuasions, and from all economic classes.

I would also submit that during his childhood (in the forties and fifties), and even during my childhood (the seventies and early-to-mid eighties), the education system was in better shape than it is now. You had problems in both of those time periods, of course, but what we're seeing now (and what I was beginning to see during my time in the public school system) was the consequences of deliberately defunding the public education system due to ideology.

Although I clearly did not state that his points were invalid "simply" because he made a

lot of money during his lifetime, just as I clearly didn't say that it "disqualified" him from having and

expressing an opinion.

My point was more in line with the reality that, with all his resources, he did little

but run the people and the nation DOWN...Where were his big "efforts" or "contributions" for

improvement?

And what made him some undisputed "authority" on education OR the state of America, anyway?

By his own admission, he had little curiosity about the rest of the world in terms

of travel, so what were his points of comparison?...You could probably even extend that

to his own country, since, in his own words he never "left the house except to

do something" and that "something" was generally money-related which, in my view,

undermines his self-appointed status of national critic even further,

As I said earlier, I'm a near-contemporary of Zappa, and, I would submit, as good or better a "reference"

on the world of his time....At least I got the hell out of my house, and not because I was PAID to do so.

Sorry, I'm a former flower child with a number of "heroes" from that era, but he's not one of them.

Seeing that political meeting was cool footage. I knew he was an ambassador or consultant of sorts.

Good music isn't technique. It's knowledge. People don't know that. It's what makes any genre good. Or art. Or politics. Or science.

He could have given Norquist a ride.