Frank Zappa once named his favourite film of all time
Along with his incredibly vast knowledge of various musical traditions, Zappa was also interested in sociopolitical theory as well as the occult. In fact, he had conducted extensive research about Aleister Crowley and his writings and included many of Crowley’s works in hispersonal collection of bookson the subject of occult spiritualism.
I have heard from someone who knew Frank well (yes, I am on all the Zappa forums), that these books were probably gifts from others since Frank never read a book really, he was always making music. Maybe Gail was more into it.
Yes, I can only agree, even though I did not give Zappa his just due, he truly is one of the greats, if the not greatest! (With apologies to Captain Beefheart!)
@jg - Just out of curiosity, why have you recently changed your forum name to a little box that says "013 376", and your status to a similar box that says "013 080"? Are others seeing some sort of images my browser/OS is not reproducing?
Big Zappa fan here, even bigger Captain Beefheart and Wildman Fischer fan. Interesting to see his occult book list linked, sad if he never read them.
Are others seeing some sort of images my browser/OS is not reproducing?
I just see a white square and when in "Recent Posts" there is absolutely nothing. Not even one of those squeezed profile pics that have unfortunately taken place since the last update (at least for me as a Firefox user). Anybody also see these?
The blank box is his new avatar, i was talking about his new forum display name, and new status. Your status is unchanged from the default as "Member", mine is "Elderly American druggie", his is a little tiny box with "013 080" in it. I forgot to mention his completely blank avatar.
No squeezed images here, also Firefox, running in Ubuntu Linux on ancient Macbook Pro.
The blank box is his new avatar, i was talking about his new forum display name, and new status. Your status is unchanged from the default as "Member", mine is "Elderly American druggie", his is a little tiny box with "013 080" in it. I forgot to mention his completely blank avatar.
No squeezed images here, also Firefox, running in Ubuntu Linux on ancient Macbook Pro.
Alright - since enquiring people want to know - I recently bought a Dell laptop - six CPU cores - with 2000 GPU cores (primarily so I had enough to do my graphics of the Great Pyramid, CUDA, and other projects) and because Dell like other OEMs come with bloatware, I erased it all and installed the latest Windows 10 - and it turned out, unlike my last laptop (HP Windows 7 (ten years ago)) it was fully capable of displaying all the Egyptian hieroglyphs without any effort on my part, I mistakenly assumed everyone could see all see these hieroglyphs (maybe in another ten years).
Since I generally like to be fairly transparent I will switch to letters and signs generally available to all in the next month or so. However, in the interim, those odd numbers which appear on your computer screen are simply the failure of your operating system to display my (temporary) dumbo magical name
Aha; at least i'm not the only one who can't see them. And i figured they might be something interesting, and that what i was seeing was most likely not your intention. I have a minimal Ubuntu install, that disables most foreign languages stuff, and possibly these Ancient Egyptian fonts as well.
Here is a lovely little ditty, produced by Frank, and with some very Frank guitar, giving an account of ritual practice, and a resultant siddhi (invisibility):
Are others seeing some sort of images my browser/OS is not reproducing?
It is the influence of the incoming 4D (astral dimension) affecting many people including posters who are going "ethereal" in avatar and "huh?" in name. The software allows this expression and the discovery and use of it is rapidly spreading. This is similar to cross-dressing and/or the assumption of god forms, but different.
Aha; at least i'm not the only one who can't see them. And i figured they might be something interesting, and that what i was seeing was most likely not your intention. I have a minimal Ubuntu install, that disables most foreign languages stuff, and possibly these Ancient Egyptian fonts as well.
Here is a lovely little ditty, produced by Frank, and with some very Frank guitar, giving an account of ritual practice, and a resultant siddhi (invisibility):
I have heard from someone who knew Frank well (yes, I am on all the Zappa forums), that these books were probably gifts from others since Frank never read a book really, he was always making music. Maybe Gail was more into it.
Love=Law
Lutz
Danke Lutz! My thoughts exactly. Genius that he was, Zappa does not strike me as the fellow to peruse occult literature. Mind you, a look into his biography does suggest that he did his own Will, so maybe he was in fact a Thelemite, albeit without awareness of the fact?
Zappa does not strike me as the fellow to peruse occult literature.
And he even made a lot of fun about anything esoteric or spiritual in a lot of songs. Moreover he dispised the "hippie" culture and so probably also the rediscovery of Crowley that came with it in the 60s and 70s.
... he did his own Will, so maybe he was in fact a Thelemite, albeit without awareness of the fact?
Of course. Success is (anyone's) proof (regardless of philosophical or initiatory affiliation or where one's due are paid).
People in the music (and film) industry who are wildly successful have a rare talent that allows them to tap into and materialize some aspect of the collective unconscious that is just waiting below the surface of (many folks in) mass consciousness. They "activate" some archetype - people go nuts or say "how cool!" - which is reflected in song sales (records, digitals, videos, concerts).
The same is true of philosophical and metaphysical authors, whose books are not read by musicians, but their "success" is proved in book sales.
In the case of AC, we see few concerts and low book sales. Now that he is gone, his books have risen in demand and price. But the scripture says his work is for the "few and secret," so we can't (really) compare him to popular (rich) rock stars.
I agree with some of the above posters that I doubt Frank did more than a cursory reading of AC, with whatever was at hand at the time. I recall an interview where he gushed about Tolkien, maybe in 'The Dialectics Of Poodle Play', & that made more sense to me. He was attempting something similar to Tolkien, with his Conceptual Continuity.
Of all musicians you would expect to be inspired by psychedelics Zappa would be high on the list, for me anyway. Apparently he never took drugs and actually disapproved of them quite strongly, it would be interesting to know if that's actually incorrect.
Oh, Frater Omicrom! You aren't suffering from external pathogens, are you? Maybe a bit kranky due to irregularity? Your energy field, as modified by compression into ions, plus subsequent pixilation, (all modern terms for mental-video transmission), seems to be enhanced with abrasive disks and cutting edges.
Feel free to express what's really on your mind - there's no need to resort to necrophilia.
Oh, Frater Omicrom! You aren't suffering from external pathogens, are you? Maybe a bit kranky due to irregularity? Your energy field, as modified by compression into ions, plus subsequent pixilation, (all modern terms for mental-video transmission), seems to be enhanced with abrasive disks and cutting edges.
You are speaking of όμικρον? If too much wine last night is a pathogen - then yes. (Four hours of sleep only) I had intended to ask Paul to delete that post - and I am asking now - please Paul! Delete that post! I was not being cranky just joyous as can be (or at least as joyous as a man like me who had drank two or three bottles of wine could be)!
Had nothing to do with necrophilia (jeez just hearing the word gives me the willies!) I did not know the man was dead! But I guess he is. Oh it was just one of those things. It is not that I hate Zappa - but obviously I am a little of the school "give me that old time religion" as the first link to the Andrews Sisters indicates! I stand by the first link of that post and beg everyone to erase everything else from their memory! (Ignant has recently converted me to the Andrews Sisters! And now - just like when I was a kiddie with Crowley - I am as zealous as can be - they are my new prophetesses!)
Be glad that this website allows no unfriending. You can diss AC all you want, BUT NOT FZ!
Hey! I have given Frank his just due! If it is any consolation, I prefer Zappa over Zeppelin! Huh! I was just giving a preference to the Andrews Sisters. I think Zappa would agree with me 100 percent.
By the way - although I will remark more in the appropriate thread - thank you for posting the wonderful image of the back of the cover page!
