The Bossk (R) Memorial

the zappa patio

Summer, 2009: So does anybody want to take this over? I know it's been mentioned before, but it's a freakin' shame how little time I have nowadays, and I do not think (unfortunately) much will improve.

If you have the time/energy/patience to take this site over and to update what I've missed in the interim, please email the usual address.

Much, much later, 2009: Yeah, yeah, inexcusable. Whatever. I finally have something approximating some free time and will do my best to catch up with emails and update that which needs to be updated.

Much later, 2007: So in case people have been wondering where I've been: grad school applications led to grad school acceptence, so I'm currently faced with having less time than I ever have had to work on the Patio. I've asked a few people if they'd be willing to take the page over on either a temporary/permanent basis. In the meantime: it's going to get worse before it gets better, so please be patient regarding updates and confirmation of material received.

February, 2007: Added a "details" page to MoFo. I still need to figure out where the Birthday Bundle goes.

December, 2006: Happy holidays, everyone! I'm slowly working on a big MoFo/Birthday Bundle (the iTunes exclusive) update. I'm currently embroiled in (vomit)applying to graduate school(/vomit), so responses may be slow for a bit.

November, 2006: With the small exception of "Trance-Fusion," a slow month! MoFo will hopefully liven up next month.

I've recently become flush with images that I haven't been able to properly situate on the site. What would people think about a sub "gallery" page for a few of the albums?

September, 2006: Finally-FINALLY-got set up in my new digs. Things're slowly getting back to normal; any submissions received over the past month will hopefully be up in a few days.

I refuse to acknowledge the existence of MoFo in any more formal a fashion until I know what's on it.

August 2006: Yes, I am alive, and so is the site; I just have been lazy about updating this index page. I should returned from a splendiferous jaunt to far away places, so I will shortly be processing submissions received in the interim.

In the meantime: go order your Freak Out box!

April, 2006: Mike E and Roman are both sourcin' me up something fierce. Thanks, guys!

I've updated some more stuff (as I constantly am), and have started experimenting with including tiny sound clips on a few pages. Check the Money page for one example.

And to the ZPZ folks: congratulations on the mini-gig at the Jammys. I'm curious to see how the rest of the tour ends up going.

March, 2006: Matt Olmos alerts us to the fact that the rare, pre-released version of CPIII now circulates among collectors (more widely than before, at least). He's thrown enough new info our way to justify spinning of that page into its own new page. Check it out.

Feb, 2006: Stones thing is coming along nicely, finally. I'm hopeful that we'll produce a revision soon.

In other news, this website has suddenly attracted the attention of all sorts of press-release mavens. I'm unsure how Bossk(R) handled press releases and such, but I see no harm in posting them here.

The first one is for a Terry Bozzio Drum Contest (text only...I didn't HTMLize it), and the grand prize is "a DW collector's series exotic drumset with six Sabian cymbals from TERRY BOZZIO & FAVORED NATIONS." I trust those interested in such things know what that means.

The other press release is even more interesting. Henrietta Bannister is the daughter of the promoter of the famous Knebworth festival, and she sent me a press release regarding a super-deluxe, really-amazingly-nice looking boxed-set they've released (moderately HTMLized). It looks pretty spifftacular, and there's some nice Zappa content. The Pink Floyd site Brain Damage has a positive review, although they (unsurprisingly) focus on the Floyd content. It's apparently a limited set.

Oh, and go to Zappateers right this instant and grab the amazing Boston '76 tape they have up. It's Biancariffic.

December 21st, 2005: Caught up with my backlog of updates, and added the two new (!!!!!) ZFT releases. I also reverted the Studio Tan page back to its original format...although I didn't get any feedback from it, I wasn't entirely happy with the way it was presented. I might do another pass on it at some point.

In case it wasn't clear before: please don't send me any bootleg updates. I simply don't have enough time to process them. They should go to United Mutations.

October 4th, 2005: I have some people who're looking at potentially much-nicer new Patio designs.

In the meantime, I've ushered in the debut of the new "dual-page" format. I really like the discussion format of some pages, but for newbies (or for people who just want to know "What's the difference?") it isn't really too helpful. Consequently, I've split the pages into the "information" page, and...err, the "old" page, where personalities remain intact. The one I've finished thus far is Studio Tan. Tell me what you think!

(Oh, and Frontpage is de debbil. What should I be using?)

September 4th, 2005: The hideous new Index page goes live. It's nicer than the old one, but not by much...I really wish I knew how to do Javascript.

...and on that note, I will definitely be learning/ripping off Javascript for the eventaul re-do of the weirdo page.

Yes, I realize that some of the categorization (esp. between posthumous and archival releases) is a bit arbitrary.

August 12th, 2005: Getting my life back in order is taking longer than I thought. I have, however, made some EMERGENCY UPDATES, especially with regard to the gold disc of "Money" that's been making the rounds.

May, 2005: So I guess taking the site down temporarily for rennovations isn't an option after all, as archive.org seems to have deleted their mirror of this incarnation of the site.

On the plus side, an Italian reader seems to be working on a graphical (chart-based) version of the vinyl-vs-CD faq, which may verily well jibe with the docu-based version I have in mind, so rennovations might go quicker than planned.

In any case, the site will be staying up in the interim, but don't expect any major updates for a little bit longer.

Feb 5th, 2005: Many new Vinyl VS. CD additions, some new bootleg updates. Tell me if you like the page idea for Quadiophiliac.

Jan 21st, 2005: Once again: yes, there're updates, even if I don't update this particular page. That said, the going's been slow as of late. Target to blame: a thesis. Once it's at least semi-done, expect bootleg updates to come more quickly.

Dec 25th, 2004: Yes, there've been extensive updates. Most of them are secret. We really, really need to have a better format for the weirdo/bootleg discographies, as it's a pain having to maintain both the category AND alphabetical pages.

Several new boots are up, as are some new promos, etc.

I also plan on putting many more images up soon.

Dec 12th, 2004: A new week, a new vague message at Zappa.com. Your guess is as good as ours as to what exactly this means.

More Vinyl VS CD updates. Bootleg updates will begin this week.

JWB had an intesting idea regarding the potential structure of the Vinyl VS CD section of the site. He notes that there's an awful lot of redundancy, and that we should ideally group by "version." Problematically, we don't know in many cases which "version" certain issues belong to, so I think this is a job for a future, better-informed iteration of the site.

Dec. 9th, 2004: Exam week just ended, so I'm going to start processing the next batch of updates now. If you emailed me and didn't get a response, rest assured I read your missive, and if you sent information it has been acknowledged and added to the "to do" list.

November 26th, 2004: Everything up to Thing-Fish is up-to-date.

I've just begun sorting through Bossk's massive "updates.zip" file, and I will shortly begin to attempt to make sense of it all. I have, however, incorporated one or two of the things contained therein into the guide, and one of these updates ranks as my favorite: a frighteningly-observant update on Sheik Yerbouti, which dates from 2001. Thank you, Mr. Watkins! It's this kind of obsessive attention to detail which makes us all brother in Zappa Fandom.

Once again, thanks to everyone who's been sending in additions. Once I get started on the bootleg guide, you'll hopefully all see your valuable contributions show up.

November 22nd, 2004: Everything up to Joe's Garage is up-to-date. We're going the slow-but-steady route.

I'd like to send a note of thanks to those who're sending in bootleg updates and other miscellany. Rest assured, your contributions are in fact being noted, and will be added as soon as the main FAQ is up to date.

November 15th, 2004: As Gene Clark once hinted, tomorrow can be a long ways away. Oh well. In the meantime, the second batch of album updates have been processed (up to Apostrophe). My current plan of action is to finish the oustanding Vinyl Vs CD updates first, then proceed to the incredible backlog of recent Zappa bootlegs; there're a lot, I haven't heard any of them, and I'll be relying on user input almost exclusively. Once I get started, bug me mercilessly if there's anything I miss.

Oh, and before I forget: for the newer discs (QuAUDIO, Joe's Corsage, etc.) that have nothing to be "versus" with, I'm going to fill out those pages with various AFFZ reactions, et cetera. I think it might be interesting.

Lastly, as I've been getting questions to this end...I don't plan on changing any of Bossk's designs. He ran this Patio for untold centuries, and it would be incredibly rude of me to force my crude, American ethos onto this gem of a site. Besides, I don't properly know from web design, so eh, I say. In all seriousness, feel free to deep-link away, as I don't plan on changing directory structure or anything else anytime soon. Updates below will linger for a while, although you'll note I've separated them from mine with an awesome, HTML bar.

November 9th, 2004: Part 1 of the major updates...a few of the individual sections have been updated. Look for part two tomorrow.

October 2004: Zappa patio changes hands. Provisionally. We're working on getting the site functional at the moment. If you know of a stable place we can host the Zappa Patio, or if you can offer your expertise re. web design as we struggle to match Bossk's brilliance, drop us a line at zappa dot patio at gmail dot com, which (until it inevitably becomes clogged with spam) will be the official email address for the site.

July 2004: Gail Zappa plans "subscription series" of unique CDs and speaks to the LA Times. One album mentioned is Quadropheliac, "essentially an audio documentary being made from unreleased tapes on which the elder Zappa experimented with surround-type recording in the mid-'70s."

Late June 2004: A reader speaks out against the Them Or Us CD.

June 12 2004: (DPA) HAMBURG: A new species of mammal has been discovered in Brazil but was promptly converted into roast pork and eaten by villagers, German natural-science cinematographer Lothar Frenz said on Friday. The animal was the fourth known species of Peccary, a pig-like mammal found between the southern deserts of the United States and Patagonia. Resembling a wild pig, the peccary has dark, coarse hair and a large head with a circular snout and small ears.
    News of the discovery of the giant Peccary was held back till shortly before the airing next Wednesday in Germany of the latest documentary by Frenz, who accompanied a Dutch naturalist, Marc Van Roosmalen, on an expedition to the Amazon region of Rio Aripuana.
    The most common species are the white-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari) and collared peccary (Pecari tajacu). A third sort, the Gran Chaco peccary, was discovered in Argentina in 1974. Frenz said the colouring and behaviour of the new species were different, along with its size - 1.3 meters long, weighing 40 kg.
    A report appeared on Saturday in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung quoting Frenz that he saw the first discovered giant peccary struggling valiantly before villagers killed, flayed and roasted it. Frenz said he and Van Roosmalen abstained from trying the meat, but collected some of the remains for a genetic study.

May 2004: Weird new Zappa release called Joe's Corsage from zappa.com with old Mothers material, including a few demos from as long ago as 1965. I've forgotten my Barfko-Swill password and haven't been able to order it.

February 27 2004: Leaving for England! Link of the month: www.bottesini.com/alife. Fantastic!

Christmas Eve 2003: Belgian band The Wrong Object e-mail me at six o'clock in the afternoon about their Zappa covers, which include "King Kong", "Chunga's Revenge" and "5-5-5". Merry Christmas and a happy new year to The Wrong Object!

December 2003: Updates are slower than ever. At least a Christmas stylesheet, I think, will not be promising too much. :) Meanwhile, in Spain:

I'm an old Frank Zappa fan, I work in the municipal government and after months of boring everybody ... I get it!!! In Almería, Spain, in three or four months, a new street: Frank Zappa Street. It's official. I send you more news when I know.

September 2003: I'm sorry I haven't been very attentive lately, but once you go Unabombing GHB-addicted tranny, you never look back.

August 29 2003: A dream from Johan Lif:

I'm looking through the books of a street salesman. He has a sizeable collection of anti-Semitic literature, among it (unclear how this particular book is anti-Semitic, though it is) a pamphlet called The Other Zappas. It's about all other historical persons with the Zappa name, and it's written by Carol Burnett and Bob Hope. Later the same day there are some kind of festivities. Some people walk about town dressed as police officers. Zappa himself is walking around in funny clothes with some sort of radio antenna to pick upp strange noises. A friend is disappointed that Zappa stoops to that level. I tell him Zappa was always like this.

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