My Hobby Is A Man

I have a hobby. It's somewhat of an obsession. My hobby is a person. My hobby is Frank Zappa, the most intelligent, the most interesting, the funniest, the most entertaining, and the strangest person I ever met. He was my personal hero. (You'll find a cute little cartoon set to one of his songs, and also a live performance with added claymation animation, on my profile page. YouTube also contains many other excellent examples of what Frank did.)

Most WireClub members have never heard of this guy. He's dead now. Died back fifteen years ago this month. He was a musician. He started producing music on records around 1961 or 62. His first album, "Freak Out!", was made in 1966. He continued working right up to when he died of cancer in 1993. What he did is not for everyone. His music is very complex. It required unbelievable proficiency by the musicians who played it, and is quite challenging to the listener. In fact, his music would probably quickly clear most rooms. But for those that liked him, there is nothing to compare to it. Those that like Frank really like him a lot.

For over 30 years, I've been not just listening to this man's music, but studying it, minutely, studying the music and his life, his influences, his philosophies, his way of thinking, the whole ball of wax. Mainly his music.

Here's the thing about Frank's music: there's a lot of it. He was really prolific. He was a workhorse. And over his long career, he produced a huge catalog of music. He also heavily utilized the concept of improvisation in his music. When you combine all of these elements, the result is that of the thousands of concerts he played, no two are the same. In fact, he actually utilized that fact, the way his shows would evolve as a tour was undertaken, as a sort of compositional element. It was as if each song could be considered as a small part of a larger form: the concert ... and the concert could be considered as a small part of a larger form: the tour ... and the tour could be considered as a small part of a larger form: the career.

Therefore, my hobby. Part of it is the acquisition of recordings, mostly concert recordings made by surreptitious guerrilla recordists in the audience at his rock concerts. Along with that, there were recordings of the orchestral music, made with such prestigious orchestras as the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the London Symphony Orchestra. There are also many, many hours of recorded radio and television appearances, various interviews, and the like. There are recordings of rehearsals and concert soundchecks. There are studio outtakes, demos, test pressings and such. There are all sorts of miscellaneous things, recordings of other artists that he produced, "covered" recordings of his works by other artists, and many other items.

I collect these things. This is my hobby. I also, of course, collect his regularly released albums, videos, and all of that. There are also many, many newspaper and magazine articles, and a host of biographies that have been written. The all form my Frank Zappa archive. It's one of the largest in the world. There are probably about fifty or sixty other people out there in the world with comparible archives.

I am now in the process of converting my 1700 hours of sound recordings, and perhaps a couple hundred hours of video, into digital formats. Take a look at the photos below. There's a photo of a box of between 120-125 audio cassettes. That is just one of fourteen boxes. Also a close-up of several shows from Europe in 1977. There's also three photos of the audio program, Samplitude, that I use, in action. (The song that is playing during the shots of "Recording Mode" is entitled "Willie The Pimp." (laughs)

That's my hobby. My hobby is a man.

The Futility Of Trying To Explain WireClub To A Non-Member

Have you ever tried to explain to someone what WireClub is, what it’s like, what you do there, what happens? I’ve tried. It’s an exercise in futility. They think you’re nuts, and if you’re lucky, they sort of humor you. When you try to explain it, it sounds kind of … well, stupid. Unless you’re there doing it, especially as a regular WireClub user, there’s just no possible way to understand it.

I’ve been thinking of how difficult it is to try to describe the world of WireClub to others. I’ve tried to find some parallels, some other things that also are vivid and real in experience, but impossible to explain or describe with any adequacy whatsoever. I’ve come up with three things in my life that I’ve experienced, that also can’t be explained or described in any real way. Those three things are:

Love
Sw~
Psychedelic drugs

These three things are simply impossible to adequately describe or explain. They simply have to be experienced in order to understand them.

What can you think of to tell me compares to WireClub in their difficulty to explain or describe? I’m curious …

I Now Leave Random Comments In Place

For a long time, I've always kept random "comments" from friends off of my profile page. I was trying to keep a nice, clean, uncluttered presentation. Hey, never hurts to make a good first impression, right?

But I've decided to change my approach. I'd like to let it just fly, and with only the rarest possible exception, I'll be leaving comments anyone makes reside there, regardless of how "cluttered" my profile begins to look. I'm going to start with Arkle's comment. So feel free to say anything. (I reserve the right to change my mind at anytime.) (laughs)

Update To My Blog Entry For November 18

Now, with the advent of the new room format, you can not only heap the abuse on a "pedophile" (defined by some as any person in a chat room older than them by some undefined margin), but then "kick" them afterwards! (laughs) Notice that my mood while writing this is somewhat rosier than the last time around. Hey, I'm getting used to it, and developing a little bit of a thicker skin. Maybe it's scar tissue. But this time around, it wasn't nearly as humiliating and stinging of an experience, even though the abuse was more severe, and of course, there was the indignity of being "kicked." And keep in mind, this wasn't the "old guys stay out" room, or the "hottie's only" room, or anything like that. This was a room that seemed, by the name of it, to be particularly inviting in a not-really-looking-to-cyber-you guy, like me. The name of this room was ... "Canadian and American Room" ... "A Place Where 2 Countries Unite!" (laughter)

(said with dry sarcasm) Yeah ... right ...

The Cipher Was Solved!

A very smart cipher-solver solved the cipher (which was consequently removed). Her name may, or may not, be divulged. That remains to be seen. But she knows who she is, and believe you me, she is one smart cookie. I know this is continuing to be very quixotic, very obscure, but there are ... personal reasons why the cipher was composed in the first place. It was really not meant to be solved at all. It was done for my own amusement, and just so I could be a smarty pants. And then it was solved. Because of the content being of a personal nature, and because the solver agreed not to divulge the contents of the cipher, it puts her in a bit of a sticky situation: If she remains nameless, she doesn't receive the public (as "public" as this blog is, anyway) recognition she deserves. But if I name her, then she might be pestered by those who want to know what the content of the blog was, and I know she understands that it was never really meant for public dissemination. It was me just being a smarty pants, and she actually out smarted me!

So...she may, or may not, be named. But she knows who she is. And man ... she's SMART!