Zappa.com

I know cal, but I'm happy with the experience that I'm experiencing, and I'm reluctant to do as I'm told by google.....I'm such a rebel

_________________
Frank Zappa "Politics is the entertainment branch of the Military-Industrial Complex"

Okay, confession, I haven't yet either. Viva La Resistance!

Hear Lady Gaga on Buying Frank Zappa's House, Super Bowl, 'Pussy Glue'

Lady Gaga gushed about purchasing Frank Zappa's old house, detailed the inspiration of new LP Joanne, revealed how she landed her Super Bowl Halftime Show gig and explained why she uses "pussy glue" in a revealing interview Monday on The Howard Stern Show.

In September, Gaga purchased Zappa's former Hollywood Hills home, which features two recording studios – including one which the experimental rock composer dubbed "Utility Muffin Research Kitchen." "The house is very special and magical," Gaga said. "His studio is in it, and I get to keep the [sound] board! You should have seen me while I was looking at the house. The realtors would be like, 'No pictures!' and I'm in there, photographing the compressors ... The idea is to restore it and to help it to be in its best condition, but to kind of leave it the way that it is and hear the sound that comes out."
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/hear-lady-gaga-on-buying-frank-zappas-house-pussy-glue-w446478

also

Lady Gaga Bought Frank Zappa’s House To “Restore” It And To Record New Music

Posted by Gideon Plotnicki on Tuesday October 25th, 2016

Recently, Lady Gaga sat down with Howard Stern to discuss, among other topics, her recent purchase of Frank Zappa‘s mansion in the Hollywood Hills. Fans of the legendary guitarist/composer/genius were concerned that Lady Gaga might tarnish the many historical elements of Zappa’s home, namely the famous recording studio dubbed the “Utility Muffin Research Kitchen”, where Zappa recorded several of his most accomplished and revered. However, fans can breathe easy, as Gaga discusses her desire to restore the studio without replacing the original elements that make it so unique.

In the interview, Gaga claims that: “[t]he house is very special and magical. His studio is in it, and I get to keep the [sound] board! You should have seen me while I was looking at the house. The realtors would be like, ‘No pictures!’ and I’m in there, photographing the compressors…it’s mystical to me that the music he made travelled through this board…the idea is to restore it and help it to be in its best condition and kind of leave it the way that it is and hear the sound that comes out. There’s two studios, the whole basement is recording studios, and it’s absolutely stunning and beautiful and amazing and it sounds incredible… I’ll use it for both [recording and living], you know I have a lot of friends that make music like Mark Ronson, Josh Homme.”
Sounds like the “Utility Muffin Research Kitchen” studio is in good hands with Lady Gaga!
http://liveforlivemusic.com/news/lady-gaga-brought-frank-zappa-house-restore-it-make-new-music/

_________________
“Listen to everyone, read everything; believe absolutely nothing unless you can prove it in your own right!”

New interview w/DZ.

Dweezil Zappa Talks About The Family Feud And Why He'll Play 'Whatever The F@%K He Wants'



Dweezil's current project is called the "50 Years of Frank: Dweezil Zappa Plays Whatever the F@%K He Wants — The Cease and Desist Tour" — a move necessitated by a very public dispute with brother Ahmet and sister Diva, who gained control of the Zappa Family Trust (and the name "Zappa Plays Zappa") after their mother, Gail, passed away in 2015.

Dweezil spoke to The Courant about the conflict and what it has meant for Frank Zappa's musical legacy.

Q: Are you disappointed that Zappa family issues had to play out in public?



A: That could have all been avoided, but that wasn't up to me. That's exactly what they intended to do. They have tried to strong-arm a situation that they should have looked at more carefully. They're also trying to use smoke and mirrors on the public to try to tell them things are different than they are. My brother's [Ahmet] open letter to me is disingenuous and phony. If you read my response, it really does point out the Swiss cheese that he has tried to perpetrate.

Q: I sense there has not been any reconciliation since your response.

A: They've taken it further now to try to get a federal trademark for the surname "Zappa," so that they can stop me and my sister Moon from professionally using the name "Zappa" for anything. They don't want me to use it for personal appearances, public appearances, touring, anything professional, under the guise that it would confuse the public that, really, the "Zappa" is "Frank Zappa." Meanwhile, they're trying to use it so that they can brand the name for products that have nothing to do with my father, such as beer and wine and yoga pants.

Q: Is there satisfaction in knowing, among your siblings, that you're the only person capable of playing your father's music at a professional level?

A: That's something that has been known to everyone for decades. It's not something I did so that I could have satisfaction. I do this as a labor of love. I'm proud of my father's accomplishments, and I wanted his music to carry forward. It seems obvious to me that if there was an opportunity to present the music to future generations that didn't get to see Frank, it would be worth making the effort. He's not going to be on the radio. He's not going to be supported by media and the press. The only way it can move forward is through a grassroots operation to present the music to people.

I took quite a bit of time to learn how to play the music and to put a band together, and I went out on the road. I've been doing it for 11 years. That's the only thing that has been out there to move the music forward. The Zappa Family Trust, while run by my mother — she put a few records out, but what else did she do? There was no campaign to get his music anywhere further. She tried mostly to stop things from happening, even trying to stop me from what I was doing, and then Ahmet and Diva continued. It's more about the prevention of Frank's music instead of the preservation and attempts to grow the music. It's pretty obvious what's been going on for a long time.

Q: How does the conflict play out for you on a show-to-show basis?

A: They had ideas that they could control it, but they lost the plot. The first issue was that they claimed they controlled the name "Zappa Plays Zappa," which Gail trademarked a year and a half after I already had started touring. She claimed ownership of the name. In that trademark that she got, there is some squirrelly language, made to create the distinction between the two uses of "Zappa." One would be the obvious reference to Frank Zappa, and the other would be any member of the Zappa family who wished to go on tour to promote Frank Zappa's music — in other words, creating the idea that it's not me, it's not Dweezil Zappa, that I'm not the other Zappa. It's anyone in the family, because at any time, if Ahmet or Diva or Moon wanted to go on tour and call themselves "Zappa Plays Zappa," they could do it. But none of them have ever shown any interest or ability to do so.

Ahmet and Diva claimed that I couldn't use the name. They tried to say I would have to pay $150,000 for every song that I played if I was out promoting the music or touring under the name "Zappa Plays Zappa," and none of that is real. There's no basis for making a claim like that, but that's how outrageous they and their legal team tried to take it. There are so many things that are absolutely bogus about what they're doing.

When I changed the name to "Dweezil Zappa Plays the Music of Frank Zappa," they sent another cease-and-desist letter saying I couldn't use the name "Frank Zappa." It's another meritless claim. If you're a garage and you fix Volkswagens, you can say you fix Volkswagens. You're just stating what you're doing. I have the same ability to state that I'm playing Frank Zappa's music. Rather than keep going on a day-to-day basis, I'll just go under the name Dweezil Zappa. What they're trying to do now is remove the name "Zappa."

Q: It's your last name.

A: Not only that, I was born before them. I guarantee you they're not going to enforce it on themselves. Ahmet's not going to not be "Ahmet Zappa" when he tries to get some sort of movie producer credit on something. They're infantile in their ideas of what our father's legacy is, and they have no ability to do what I do, and they're pissed that they can't control that.

Q: So, on tour, you're at least able to play whatever you want, as the tour is called. You don't have to worry about it.

A: Nope. But here's the thing: There are dozens, if not hundreds or thousands of bands that go and play nothing but Frank's music. They don't get cease-and-desist letters. They don't get any issue from the trust. The one person who's related, because they want to try to make money from it, is the one they want to try to block.

Q: My perception was that, when your mother was alive, the trust was fairly rigid about who was allowed to play Frank's music.

A: She tried to create a scenario where Frank's music was protected more so than anybody else's music, because she imagined that she could bend the legal use of what's called "grand rights." She wanted to make everything about Frank's music fall under that term, because she claimed it was all part of one ... Frank had done interviews saying he viewed his music as part of one big project. "Project/Object" is what he called it. He said everything was interconnected. Because of that, she tried to say it's all one grand work, one thing, and that it requires a license to play his music. Grand rights doesn't work that way on paper. It started with Andrew Lloyd Webber: If you wanted to play all of the songs from "Jesus Christ Superstar," you could do it. The moment you have a costume onstage and a camel and a palm tree in the background, you now have a visual element that says, "We're doing the show, 'Jesus Christ Superstar'." Now you need to pay grand rights.

We don't impersonate Frank. We don't wear costumes. None of that works. The same goes for any other band that plays Frank's music. She tried and failed on numerous occasions to go after people, but it can all be laughed off. The only person making money off it is the lawyer.

Q: Do you have any of Frank's scores or manuscripts?

A: No, that stuff is being dealt with by the trust. Who knows when they'll be selling that off. They've done so many other things. I was given all of my dad's guitars, and they were repossessed by my mother, simply because they were being stored at the studio, which is the house I grew up in where she lived. She just randomly claimed they were hers again. She ended up agreeing to give three of them back to me, three of them of my choosing, but the ones I chose Ahmet decided to keep for himself. He agreed to give three others to me and then to put the others up for auction, to sell to the public. So much of [the online auction inventory] is misrepresented, saying it's Frank's, and a ton of it is stuff that Frank never saw. He had nothing to do with it. It's well past his tenure. Everything they're doing is a systematic dismantling of our father's life for profit, without any regard for anything. They've put their things in there as well, their own paintings, Diva's knitwear. I don't understand the thought process behind any of that stuff. It's so weird.

By Michael Hamad

Lady Gaga ,an ingenue
Fills her pussy with glue
She says with a grin
"If they pay to get in
They'll pay to get out of it too"

December 15, 2016

Dweezil Zappa: Last Name Copyright Struggle Continues

The following article is entirely the opinion of Kaanii Powell Cleaver and does not reflect the views of the Inquisitr.

Zappa. Anyone with ears knows the name, right? What about the rights to the name? Dweezil has been a Zappa since the day he landed on the planet, and he’s worked under the moniker Dweezil Zappa since 1982. So why in the world are his younger siblings, Ahmet and Diva, hellbent on copyrighting the Zappa name?

When a firstborn son has to fight in court to use his own last name, something is very wrong

Just a few hours ago, Dweezil announced a public campaign to save his right to use the Zappa last name. Hosted by Pledge Music, The Others of Intention campaign is offering original music downloads along with a splendid selection of merch to fund Dweezil’s quest to retain the legal right to use the Zappa last name. Donors are invited to participate in the 90-day pledge campaign by purchasing items ranging from a digital access pass to Zappa-inscribed guitar picks to limited edition Zappa artwork and vinyl record albums.

Additionally, The Others of Intention campaign offers a select assortment of one-of-a-kind Zappa guitars for sale. At the time of this writing, Dweezil’s famous chartreuse green axe is sold, but interested donors can still pick up the pickups, Floyd Rose tremolo, and every other part of the rare silver sparkle Stratocaster that Dweezil toured with in the early ’90s. Custom built by Fender master luthier J.W. Black to Dweezil’s own specifications, the 8-pound thin-line Strat is slated to add $12,500 to Frank Zappa’s eldest son’s legal coffers.

My last name, Zappa, is in jeopardy. Learn how you can become one of the Others of Intention ????https://t.co/HTBu1cEHuP

— Dweezil Zappa (@DweezilZappa) December 15, 2016

Last May, Dweezil published a blog titled “It Can Happen Here” at his website. The open letter to Zappa fans described an upcoming tour and strongly alluded to a pending legal battle to save his right to the surname Zappa.

“Beyond that, there have been a few other changes. Mainly name changes. As you may or may not know I now tour under my own name, Dweezil Zappa, instead of Zappa Plays Zappa because my brother Ahmet and my sister Diva who run the Zappa Family Trust (ZFT) claimed ownership of the name Zappa Plays Zappa which my mother trademarked in 2007. The heavily tweezed language appropriating that trademark was designed by my mother to distinguish between the 2 uses of Zappa. One indicating Frank Zappa and the other indicating any other Zappa ‘family member’ who wishes to use the name to publicly tour and play the music. This of course is silly considering no other family member is capable of playing Frank Zappa’s music nor have they shown any intent to go out and do so in the past 11 years. Curiously, the one that is capable and has been devoted to doing so for the past 11 years, is no longer allowed to use that name because of a cease and desist order fired off by the ZFT legal department.

“There are more layers that continue to unfold around the conflict within the family. The ZFT has recently set their sites on trademarking the surname Zappa which will create a host of other issues that I will have to oppose.”

Please help @DweezilZappa keep the legal right to use his last name #zappa https://t.co/yuTBgega6E pic.twitter.com/B74O0bBP0P

— D'Addario (@DaddarioandCo) December 15, 2016

Copyright is one thing; messing with a man’s right to perform under own surname is just mean

Although Ahmet Zappa and his attorney, Dax Fausto Alvarez, could stop the late Gail Zappa’s tyranny over her children, they seem to be moving full steam ahead into a copyright war with Dweezil. Perhaps Frank saw it coming when he said,

“People make a lot of fuss about my kids having such supposedly strange names. But the fact is that no matter what first names I might have given them, it is the last name that is going to get them in trouble.”

Dweezil Zappa @DweezilZappa joins my Grand Architects Album as guest soloist! Pledge Now: https://t.co/BD60pSxvXg #guitar #zappa pic.twitter.com/sFVGBTVTph

http://www.inquisitr.com/3800382/dweezi ... continues/

_________________
Frank Zappa "Politics is the entertainment branch of the Military-Industrial Complex"

This is a telling line: "The following article is entirely the opinion of Kaanii Powell Cleaver and does not reflect the views of the Inquisitr."

Open Letter To Moon, Dweezil, Ahmet and Diva Zappa

I won't go out to see ZPZ/DZPWTFHW, as much as I want to see techie Peter Jones and former member Unica again (I still need to say hi to him from Kirk ) until this entire matter is resolved. It's completely sick. I want to know the money I spend at concerts will go into new releases and the well-being of Zappa's kin who are all the rightful heirs. Not to more lawyers.

I won't buy any new FZ releases for the same reason. It's all I can do. Get your shit together the lot of you before I'll think of supporting you again.

Thank you.

_________________

Join the PackardGoose forum! Send me a PM!

I have been reading all this stuff on the internet for months now and it all looks quite idiot to me. It seems that in the US you can go to court for almost every shitty reason. They are only in it for the money as I see it.

Zappa vs Zappa: Family Legal Struggles Threaten Father's Musical Legacy

The children of the late, great Frank Zappa have come to legal blows over their father's legacy. Diva and Ahmet Zappa, who run the Zappa estate, have filed a lawsuit against their brother Dweezil, alleging that he's spreading lies that cast their father in a negative light.In legal documents obtained by TMZ, Diva and Ahmet Zappa request that the court allow them to start a website to counter brother Dweezil's claim that they are trying to destroy his career by blocking him from performing his father Frank Zappa's work.

The court filing is the latest in an ongoing dispute that erupted last year when Ahmet and Diva filed suit against Dweezil, alleging that his tour Zappa Plays Zappa infringed on copyrighted works. Dweezil later renamed his tour as the Dweezil Zappa Plays Whatever the F--- he wants: Cease and Desist Tour 2016.

http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2017/03/zappa-vs-zappa-family-legal-struggles-threaten-fathers-musical-legacy-.html
http://www.tmz.com/2017/03/13/frank-zappa-dweezil-ahmet-diva-estate-feud/

_________________
“Listen to everyone, read everything; believe absolutely nothing unless you can prove it in your own right!”

For fuck's sake. I don't think anybody here is going to take sides in whatever this is about. In my opinion it just seems so childish.

Please just get together and work it out. I know, won't happen, but it would be so much better if everybody were working together.

I agree. Taking sides on this issue is just a dumb hobby. I'm sure none of us know the complete story. As I've said before, if the ZFT releases a product I want I'll buy it and if Dweezil has a concert I want to see I'll go to it.

Has anyone heard the 1/1/18 interview with Ahmet on the ZappaCast? I haven't been following the ZFT "feud" (when I heard about it, I could only think, "Oh, for fuck's sake -- work it out"), so I'm curious about what you in-the-know guys think of his positive statements concerning Dweezil. Is he just dodging the subject, or can we detect the aroma of an impending reconciliation?

http://www.podcastgarden.com/podcast/zappacast

_________________
that's what happens when you don't read you loose your link to higher thinking

Playing it now, but it seems from the other podcast and the open letter he's very much looking to reconcile.

Edit:

WHOA! They listen to what they write here!

_________________

Join the PackardGoose forum! Send me a PM!

It's been awhile since I listened to it, but Ahmet has always been civil about this (at least publicy). Dweezil and Moon are the ones that have vented openly about their dissatisfaction with the direction of the ZFT.

Moon's Twitter account:
Thanks @stevevai for clearing a path with your sacred axe for @divazappa and I to have a heartfelt share and Yoda sighting. Planting seeds. Baby steps. Xxx

https://twitter.com/MoonZappa/status/967905672049213440

_________________
“Listen to everyone, read everything; believe absolutely nothing unless you can prove it in your own right!”

They should be able to work this out, it seems Frank & Gail did a good job raising these kids, something like this trust can cause business issues in a family but in the end I expect it to be resolved amicably...

I repeat


They'll work it out.....

_________________
Frank Zappa "Politics is the entertainment branch of the Military-Industrial Complex"

You guys are right, thankfully, as a reconciliation seems to be imminent. Ahmet was interviewed again on the last ZappaCast, and he mentioned that he and Dweezil had hung out the night before.

http://www.podcastgarden.com/episode/za ... met_126415

Cool!

Wow, how wonderful! I got a new job last week and now I can spend my few extra euros on all the Zappa records I refused to buy during the feud!

_________________

Join the PackardGoose forum! Send me a PM!

New Job, that is excellent news BBP.....

_________________
Frank Zappa "Politics is the entertainment branch of the Military-Industrial Complex"

I figure.....bicycle repair technician.

_________________
You're probably wondering why I'm here
(not that it makes a heck of a lot of a difference to ya)

LOOK...It's BICYCLE REPAIR MAN...

Just kidding. Congrats whatever the job is.

Customer service by phone for @Leisure (BelVilla, DanCenter, Casamundo...)... Inbound. I get to watch pictures of holiday homes in gorgeous locations all day.

_________________

Join the PackardGoose forum! Send me a PM!