Fridays With Frank (Zappa) #1

I've been on a Frank Zappa binge lately, focused mainly around the Verve/Mothers years.

He is certainly missed. So I thought I'd dedicate every Friday for a while to Mr. Zappa.

Since I've recently figured out how to stick videos on this thing, here's a clip from one of the last episodes of The Monkees. Frank appears in this pre-credits segment only. The "You're a popular musician, I'm dirty, gross and ugly" line cracks me up every time.

The tune you hear, as Frank hits the car with a sledgehammer, is "Mother People."

Yes, There Is A Devil. And He's In The Movie Business. (Or, The Three Stooges Of The Apocalypse.)

MGM gets its 'Stooges'
Penn, Carrey, Del Toro part of studio's plan

By Michael Fleming, from Variety


MGM and the Farrelly brothers are closing in on their cast for "The Three Stooges."

Studio has set Sean Penn to play Larry, and negotiations are underway with Jim Carrey to play Curly, with the actor already making plans to gain 40 pounds to approximate the physical dimensions of Jerome "Curly" Howard.

The studio is zeroing in on Benicio Del Toro to play Moe.

The film is not a biopic, but rather a comedy built around the antics of the three characters that Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Howard played in the Columbia Pictures shorts.

The quest by the Peter and Bobby Farrelly to harness the project spans more than a decade and three studios. They first tried at Columbia, again at Warner Bros., and finally at MGM, where Worldwide Motion Picture Group chairman Mary Parent championed the cause and bought the WB-owned scripts and made a deal with Stooges rights holders C3.

Production will begin in early fall for a release sometime in 2010. The Farrellys, who wrote the script, are producing with their Conundrum partner Bradley Thomas, and Charlie Wessler.

C3 Entertainment principals Earl and Robert Benjamin will be executive producers.

Project will get underway after Penn completes the Asger Leth-directed Universal/Imagine Entertainment drama "Cartel." He hasn't done a comedy since the 1989 laffer "We're No Angels."

The Farrellys have long had their eyes on Del Toro to play Moe. Del Toro, who's coming off "Che," showed comic chops in the Guy Ritchie-directed "Snatch."

The surprise is the emergence of Carrey to play Curly. Howard established the character as a seminal physical comedian, from the first time he appeared in the first Stooges short in 1934 until he suffered a stroke on the set in 1946.

Coop, I'm sorry about sullying your illustration. But it seemed so devilish and Hollywood-y.

The Tormentos: "Dragstrip Night"

The Tormentos are a surf band from Argentina. They've taken the baton from the short-lived US surf resurgence of the Nineties and run with it. More power to 'em.

This video is boss. Especially the footage lifted from Bikini Beach and Endless Summer. It seems to really capture the whole vibe of modern-day surf/hot rod music.

My daughter asked what a Tormento is. "Is it like a tomato?"

Now where do we find their CDs here in the States?

Geek Alert! The Warner Archive.

My wife just brought this to my attention. Warner Brothers has started a made-to-order DVD program, The Warner Archive, where all sorts of cool stuff can be yours — stuff the general populace has little or no interest in.

The list of titles (the initial listing is 150 films) is pretty impressive. Darby's Rangers. Westbound with Randolph Scott, directed by Budd Boetticher. Doc Savage. Wichita with Joel McCrea directed by Jacques Tourneur. And more.

All are in their proper aspect ratio. Wichita, for instance, has its CinemaScope all 16x9'd.

People, this is a good thing.

And for a limited time, the discount code XB392 will get you 25% off. Basic shipping's free these days, too.

Every Spring, all the Bugs come out.

Necessity Is The Mother Of Invention.

But what kind of necessity lead to this?

Cleans & Thrills You!

I don't know why this strikes me as funny, or as brilliant, but I love the fact that some of the greatest Rock N Roll albums of all time were sold through comic books!

Imagine scooping a couple bucks out of your piggy bank, handing it your mom and asking her to write a check to United Mutations for something called Freak Out! by Frank Zappa and The Mothers.

It's stuff like this that makes me proud to be a Capitalist Swine.

Fired up my Marantz last night.

Now I'm in a vintage stereo mood.

Happy Birthday, Kid!

One Adam-12, One Adam-12, Happy Birthday in progress...

Crap, I missed it (by 53 years)!

Thought For The Day: John Milius.

"There's no shame in the world, and without shame, you cannot have honor. Our world is ruled by consensus now. There is no sense of honor."

After.

Today, Jennifer had her head shaved (by her sister Amy) at a local St. Baldrick's event to raise money for children's cancer research.

We both lost our moms to cancer. Fact is, Jennifer's mom was buried on this day nine years ago. This was something Jennifer felt she needed to do, and she's been growing her hair for the last two years in preparation. Her hair will go to make wigs for children who've lost their hair for some medical reason.

The last I saw, today's event had taken in over $105,000, but the final tally won't come for a day or two. About $1,800 of that is what Jennifer raised, courtesy of our friends, co-workers and family. We know a lot of good people.

I've never been more proud of her. And she's never looked more pretty.

Gentlemen, start your trimmers!

Wedding Anniversary #11-B.

Or maybe it counts as our 22nd. Either way, we had so much fun getting married on February 23, 1998, that we did it again on March 1. The place: the front seat of our rental car — a blue Mercury Sable — in the Little White Chapel's Tunnel Of Vows, a drive-thru wedding chapel.