Zappa.com

I was at the concert Wednesday. All I can say is WOW. 200 Motels (the movie) was my introduction to Zappa 42 years ago when I was a skinny 15 yo trying to sneak into an R-rated movie. Fell in love with the orchestral music in that movie and never looked back. So sitting there at Walt Disney concert hall wednesday evening seeing and hearing this music performed was like pure bliss! (OK, so I'm a little biased )

The show captured the spirit of Zappa--beginning with (pre-concert) the orchestra doing the wave, the concertmaster tuning the orchestra and they hit a discordant chord instead, oh and the ladies of the chorus were having waayyyy too much of a good time as well, waving to the audience, and some deliberately exposing cleavage!

The orchestra itself kicked butt, esp the percussionists. Every orchestral piece from the album was included, some new linking passages heard (not sure if that was originally in Zappa's score or not), and I finally got to hear and see "What's the Name of Your Group" and "Can I Help You With This Dummy?" performed. (The latter's manuscript was included in the Frank Zappa Songbook Vol 1 way back when).

"I Have Seen the Pleated Gazelle" was explained--still probably the most surrealistic thing Zappa ever created--and soprano Hila Plittman was up to the task in a challenging role.

Only rough patch I saw was at times the dialogue spoken by the actors was a bit out of synch with the orchestra (like on Dental Hygiene Dilemma) but hey, a very minor quibble. To be expected in a live performance (after all, the original was partly a studio performance).

Gail appeared ebullient before the show. What an experience. Gained an even better appreciation for what Zappa poured into scoring 200 Motels. A consummate piece of work and an amazing performance!
Esa-Pekka Salonen et al pulled it off, and stayed true to the spirit of Frank. (Of course, it was all "in the score so they had to do it." ) I still got Strictly Genteel going through my head....

I asked about an official release and it sounds like details will be provided soon. The email address is questions@zappa.com.

I hope you stole the towels.

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I took alot of pictures during the trip overall. But, as previously mentioned, the theater itself was a pain in the ass in that regard. I suppose they don't want people flashing their cameras, but whatever. So, I wish I had more pictures of the show itself, but here is a good a place to start as any:



Of course, we don't want people to shit their pants or anything.

Before the show started, I walked in on the main floor entrance. I got about 1 foot before an usher shut me down. Before that, I got this:


Not exactly a gem of a pic, but you can see the lucite w/ metal chairs, which glowed variously during the performance.

Here is the only shot I got worth anything during the performance. Its blurry, but gives a bit of representation of the effect of the flourescent dildo waving in the front row of the choir.


Two blurry pics of the clapping segment of the show, at the end.

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Don't Be Stupid Unless You Want To

Here are some pics of the preshow.
I shot this one during the day. I had no idea it would be the location of the preshow talk until about 5 minutes before it started.


This view is from outside the building. There is a walkway that goes by.


Lotsa walkways. This one is above.


I shot this pic just after sitting down. I don't know who the lady with the poodle is, but it seemed right for the occasion.


Joe Travers with Joe Guzzi (sp?) and his friend, who is also from the Chicagoland Area.


The ensemble is seated.


Ready to begin.

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Don't Be Stupid Unless You Want To

Nice RK, more, more! From your advantage point on the balcony, the whole thing looks like a pop-up from and old album or a miniature set. Very cool pix, thanx manx!

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I'm getting larger as I walk away.

Well, Sir, I do have more... but mostly outside of the theater. I figured that they let FZ into an establishment and that has to count for something. Plus, it is a Frank Gehry building. We have the Pritzker Pavilion of his in Chicago's Millenium Park.
There are tons of great pictures of the building as a whole, so to find something different, I walked around the whole thing and here's what I found.

Its not always nice to see behind the curtain. This little bit looks cool lit up at night, but angle of approach means everything with this building, good or bad.


Sign of things to come.


Close-up.


That banner across the street at the LA Opera sometimes looked like John Goodman


From the roof of the Disney, he seemed more like Zach Galifianakis


Large-scale pix of the building usually make it look like one kind of metal, but its not.


One of my favorite shots. The toroids fold against each other with different textures. Approaching this, it seems like it leads to something secret. You look over that blockade and below you just see some junky storage.


This one was more typical

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Don't Be Stupid Unless You Want To

I like those back door-behind the scenes shots. Very cool. Thanks for sharing them RK, now I really feel bad for not going!

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I'm getting larger as I walk away.

Great job, Arkay! You da man!

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I can't tell when you're telling the truth.
>I'm not.
How do I know anything you've said to me is...
>You don't.

Who painted that????

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Je suis désolé pour les roles que j'ai joué dans toutes ces videos, ce n'est pas tres valorisant pour l'humanité mais si cela peut avoir fait progresser la science, alors il y aura eu un coté positif.

Thanks Arkay for the great review and pics!! at some point i had the feeling someone was telling me his last night dream.

Thanks all for all reviews !!

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Je suis désolé pour les roles que j'ai joué dans toutes ces videos, ce n'est pas tres valorisant pour l'humanité mais si cela peut avoir fait progresser la science, alors il y aura eu un coté positif.

...and where's my copy? Or is this available for purchase, perchance? I didn't see it in SHOPPAGE...yet.

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I'm getting larger as I walk away.

Moving along with the tour of the outside of the building. The walkways, garden, outdoor theaters are all well above street level. You either climb a ton of stairs or take elevators to reach the various places.

There is a Kids Theater


I couldn't get it in one pic, so here's the other direction


While the Kids Theater was amplified, there was a smaller area with stone bleachers that was not amplified. Seemed to be for outdoor readings or chamber music.


A nice garden area and fountain


A close-up of the fountain, ceramic dishware!


A nice lookin spiral area near there


I'm sure this placement of greenery looked great inside, but it stuck out kinda ridiculously from above


The kind of vehicle that screams Security is parked in front of the theater. Seriously, for the Security guy.


Took me a while to figure out that there weren't actually some kind of Jurors who judged concerts for local schools, rather there was a court house near by that has people park at the Disney.

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Don't Be Stupid Unless You Want To

Some odds and ends of the inside of the theater.

There was a painting that was too long to fit in to the pic. Stand further back and you hit the wall.


A weird pic, imo. Even though it was taken inside, it feels outside.


Another weird one, I think looking downward from the 4th floor hallway.

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Don't Be Stupid Unless You Want To

OK, this is my last picture post of the tour.

During my first day there, I took the subway to Hollywood. As subways go, the decor wasn't half bad


Some of LA reminded me of downtown Chicago. Some ways good, other ways were more about people sleeping in doorways. This poster on a streetboard caught my eye.


Hollywood may be mostly homosexual strip shows, porno shops and pot distributers (local news had 3 stores ripped off in last month). But, not every city has busker bagpipes! (Ukelele too, though no picture)


The real reason I went to Hollywood was Amoeba Music. I had to take a picture from across the street in case anyone was wondering if Jack in the Box was still around.


Took this picture in the store. This is just the Used FZ Cds on the top shelf. There were more below. And used FZ Vinyl. And new FZ cds. And new FZ vinyl. A bit pricey, but great selection, imo.


Just down from Amoeba. A restaurant. What do they eat there? I didn't find out.


I've got to give a shout out to Jose, who made my breakfast every day. Chorizo and Eggs with Hash Browns, Beans and Rice, Tortillas and Salsa, freakin dynamite!


I'd eat a block or so from my hotel since there was this indoor street market, which had many kinds of food to choose from.


Salvadorean food. Pork tamales and Revueltas O Mixtas de Chicharron, Queso y Frijoles, yum!


Not just cooked food either. It was a whole market, fruit, vegetables, candy, spices, very used jewelry, the works!


I've since heard there is a market like this in Milwaukee, so I'll be lookin'. Maybe the next time I'm in LA, I can check out this joint.

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Don't Be Stupid Unless You Want To

I registered for the Forums at the Activation section on 10/23, before going to the show. I posted a couple of links after the show but my post to this section never showed up, I guess because I hadn't been "approved" yet. Anyway, here are the links again because I haven't seen that anybody else posted them. They are both from the LA Phil Facebook page. One is an album of a dozen photos from the show, a couple of which may be on Dweezil's site.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set= ... 609&type=1

The other one is the board audio from the pre-concert talk.

http://www.laphil.com/sites/default/fil ... 102313.mp3

Enjoy.

WOW, great pix and Rick Steve's kinda tour dialog RK. Thanks again!!!

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I'm getting larger as I walk away.

He looks a bit like Charles I. in that one.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... rlesx3.JPG

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"I have learned from my mistakes, and I am sure I can repeat them exactly."

Probably the same artist eh?



(Bwahahahaha!)

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I'm getting larger as I walk away.

This painting is very well done, Frank expression is super.

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Je suis désolé pour les roles que j'ai joué dans toutes ces videos, ce n'est pas tres valorisant pour l'humanité mais si cela peut avoir fait progresser la science, alors il y aura eu un coté positif.

Nice pics RK.
I saw none other than Steve Vai down in front, just after the house lights came on. He is real easy to spot.

He'll probably go to The Roxy shows too. I met and talked briefly with him 5yrs ago at the 35th R & E anniversary show. Nice guy.
Whoa, those 5 years flew by man!!!

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I'm getting larger as I walk away.

Sorry KK. I just checked Steve's site, and he is touring Brazil that week.
I remember that show 5 year ago. During BTM: some people say he looked like Steve Vai(Scheila- "little Stevie") but nobody knew for sure cause he was soooo mysterious....