Zappa.com

With the Roxy By Proxy delighting our (many of our) ears, is it reckless to respond to the liner notes from GZ regarding the nearness of the Roxy Performances in soundtrack and (gasp) the video portion thereof? I don't think so. Hopefully, Gail would not think it improper of me to continue in this manner of inquiry.

Please GZ, Joe T. and anyone else who might be in the know and so inclined, surely the details of what is expected to be realized regarding the movie itself...theaters??? Blue Ray? Certainly one wouldn't be breaking an oath to let us know what is planned? The when of which we have now (hopefully) learned to let come as it may...all in good time and in it's own time.

I think many of us would just like to know the status and possible formats/distribution possibilities.

P-P-Please....

I agree with it, and we are very interested to know more... Please reply us if Roxy DVD will ever come out

Got a message yesterday:

Oct 31 at 6:43 PM
Dear People of Earth,

YES!!! Thank all your ghosts for showing up! Hug all your goblins and ghouls and send them on their frabjous way! Kiss all your familiars and favorite all your pumpkins. Wish all your treaters and tricksters well. Get Down in De Dew. Celebrate the next few days - from Halloween through Day of the Dead!!! - Witchypopo! We wish all of you well and safe travels whether by broomstick or standard mode of choice.

For you we have some NEWS!:

It's too scary but true. We confirm with you now that ROXY, the Movie, has been sent off to SXSW for consideration for their Film Festival. We'll let you know if they accept it. Can you imagine? And yes of course, the 100th Release, Produced in it its Entirety by FZ, will be available to order next month on Zappa Records. And then some. Expect the Treat of a new Vaulternative Concert in your near future but that's not all the Tricks up our 2014 Sleeve.

We return now to planting our 2015 Pumpkin Seeds. Next Year we celebrate FZ's 75th anniversary of his arrival on this planet. Cross your fingers, toes, hearts and souls that the planet is still here then and none the worse for wear.

Happy FZ's Fave Holiday!!

xxx the barfies

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Yes Gail please, use your well known love of offering every last detail of a project before it's released!

I don't care... I'm excited!

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Arf!

Fuck SXSW.

All that tells me is that it won't see the light of day until late march and then only to attendees at the film fest. Then another year till it's hits the shelves.

What is SXSW?

And if they "reject" it, will it then be shelved?

If it is a regular film festival, I could see a rejection. Concert footage per se is not that interesting except for the fans of the particular act.

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"Everybody in this room is wearing a uniform, and don't kid yourself" - FZ

South by SouthWest Film Festival held in Austin Texas March 13th to 22nd 2015

http://sxsw.com/

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Hey Punk, where you goin' with those two votes in your hand?

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Never argue with stupid people; they will drag you
down to their level and then beat you with experience.

LMAO...

Thanks!

No offense, but not exactly Sundance or Venice. Seems like a peculiar decision. But maybe someone knows anything about this festival that one cannot grasp from a quick glance of the web page?

I guess that if it is accepted we will afterwards get lines like: "After the fabulous reception at SXSW, we will continue the preparation of the full movie for release before the frost is on the pumpkin. Music is the best!"

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"Everybody in this room is wearing a uniform, and don't kid yourself" - FZ

SXSW is a very well respected film festival. It's a bit fresher and less stuffy then most others of its caliber, and is very music-doc friendly because I believe SXSW has a concurrent music+arts festival.

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From the Idiot Bastard website:

"The Idiot has heard a rumour that anyone expecting Roxy - The Movie to be any longer than 90 minutes will be sorely disappointed."

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Lies are like quicksand, soft and comfortable, but they will swallow us. Truth is like bedrock, hard and uncomfortable, but we can always stand on it

Well that blows.... I remember the trailer boasting 4 hours of uncut footage. Here's a crappy lo-res version of <drum roll> proof! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2pG-FENeS0
WTF?

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NEXT PLANET
iTunes
Spotify

It's sensible to have a 90 minute well-structured version for broad commercial release, to not chase away or bore the hell out of an ordinary audience.

This doesn't exclude the possibility of a more complete box set with rough cuts of all the performances for the diehards.

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If I'm not alone... I wonder if I've been asleep?

The original trailer also says 20 original songs. So what might these be? Let's see

Inca Roads
Penguin In Bondage
T'Mershi Duween
Dog Breath Variations
Uncle Meat
RDNZL
Pygmy Twylyte (depends also on whether Dummy Up will count as a separate)
The Idiot Bastard Son
Cheepnis
Village of the Sun
Echidna's Arf
Don't You Ever Wash That Thing
I am the Slime
Big Swifty
Montana
Dupree's Paradise
Dickie's Such An Asshole
King Kong
Chunga's Revenge
Son of Mr Green Genes
Bebop Tango

Does that about cover it? Listed all the music that has appeared on releases so far, or in the case of "The Idiot Bastard Son", is represented in the trailer.

EDIT: Added Bebop Tango. So either it's 21 songs (at least) or at least one song is not video'ed at all.

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Lies are like quicksand, soft and comfortable, but they will swallow us. Truth is like bedrock, hard and uncomfortable, but we can always stand on it

True, it's music oriented and is a logical place to see if your musical and or concert films are any good.

True dat. There's been 20 min. + of The Roxy Movie footage from the film floating around on youtube for a few years now. That might have been made for and taken from the trailer of the film. We'll see when it comes out, but with only 90 min. of film where's are all the new stuff gonna fit in? I think I know...It's gonna be in a little white boxed set, that GZ can sell uptown. By herself she ain't got no boss, so she can piss off the fans, at any cost. Get the picture? After awhile it just might sink on in. All she really needed was common sense for a win-win-win. While the calendar ticks on it's merry way, who knows how long before it all slips away?
The price of music has just gone up and Gail's gotta headache and needs to lay down.

If they would let myself and a couple of hand picked ZappaFreaks all approved by the ZFT in the vault it would be complete and in a theater near you within a new fans time expectancy. Let's say 6 months for all the material to be releasable/remastered and all in a Jeweled boxed set. The Movie, even with hiccups, would be released asap or around 6 months tops, edits and all.
I'd rather have all the footage, good or bad and do my own edits following the edits FZ did. Dig? Most of all I'd try it to get that FZ feel and quirky quality to it that makes it a Frank Zappa project and not someone elses. Not even his wife's idea of what Frank wanted. Just plain Franks. Looking at his film/music work over the years you can get a feel of what he wanted and how he went going about getting that special "this is a Zappa project" FZ feel. He had his own formula of how to do things that would be great to hook on to. Conceptual Continuity, what a cool way to keep a project focused. Shmaahhrt guy Mr. Zappa.

Well, that's enough of the pipe dreams and time for the real deal....dreams and real sleep. It's gotten foggy here about the time I was getting ready for bed around midnight or so and the fusion in me back sez: "Mister, my names Spinal Cord Nerve Reactions, we're a division of the pain and suffering area of your original spinal break and subsequent consequences. This is gonna hurt you in ways your spinal cord has never dreamed of. You've got seven vertebrae fused together and a twisted spinal column that's pinching your spinal cord so much it looks like a flat football with a fusion mass that's so big, it'll suck up a lot of moisture, more than a sponge the size of Alaska would and there's not a damn thing you can do about it."

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I'm getting larger as I walk away.

I haven't checked that. But around the first ZPZ shows in 2006, Montana and Dupree's Paradise from the Roxy film was up on the zappa.com site. A 32 minutes 120 MB Mov file. It matched what was shown before the concerts the same concert tour.

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"Everybody in this room is wearing a uniform, and don't kid yourself" - FZ

I just watched a short clip on youtube of JT going into the vault and he's talkin and showing what's in what. Then he points to a place out of the sight lines and sez: "...and this is where all the Roxy stuff is stored." Then there's an awkward pause as he realizes he should move on, but he clearly was like " Hey man I wanna tell ya, there's a lot of different formats that don't match up, both digital and analog, but mostly different analog tapes of all different sizes and it's the size of a walk in meat locker! " and it did look that big from what little they would show! Cool clip of the vault too. It's packed!

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I'm getting larger as I walk away.

That's what DZ was telling me at Slims in 2002, how hard it was to convert his dads stuff to marketable products...

No Roxy listed for SXSW 2015 - http://sxsw.com/film/screenings/2015-lineup

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Bill

They're very strict on deadlines and I don't believe GZ shares the same philosophy so this does not surprise me greatly.

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NEXT PLANET
iTunes
Spotify

Oh, yeah - must be the 3-hour version.

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Never argue with stupid people; they will drag you
down to their level and then beat you with experience.

We know that there were 3 days filmed, so the chances that there was a heck of a lot more material in the vault is not a joke ... the issue is, that if the sync issues are that bad, then why are those bits and pieces that add another 20 minutes to the movie, not in the movie itself?

And why is the DVD, that supposedly is mastered and whatever, not as good sounding as the original LP? The LP is 33 1/2 RPM, and it's like the DVD re-mastered is running at 34 or 35 RPM, which is barely noticeable but it is probably an issue that has to do with matching/synching the part of the recording that was completely out of line in the original. Like the old day's FM stations things like Black Sabbath always sounded "heavier" than the CD's or LP's, because many stations had their turntables sync'd down a smidge. You and I didn't know that ... but get one of those Stanton turntables and play with the level on the right ... you will go ... son of a bitch!

And I had over 3500 LP's at one time, and now have 3000 CD's instead ... and the issue is very clear and lively, and none of the "radio" stuff, sounds "heavy" anymore, since none of it is EQ'd and adjusted like a lot of music used to be to help sell it better.

If there will be another Roxy DVD, in the end, the Trust likely already blew the opportunity, since the first one did not sell like hot cakes, to help bring up the improved product ten years later ... it was a curiosity item that failed ... why? ... superb concert, but not enough guitar by Frank, and a lot of the fans that would make this a "hit" are strictly guitar fans ... and the DVD does not have enough of it at all!

Close the book. Waste of time. Conversation over.

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The only art there is, resides within your heart. Have you listened to it lately to ensure that the top ten is better than you are?