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From: xchar@rabbit.UUCP (Charles S. Harris)
Newsgroups: net.music
Subject: Re: A Frank Zappa Question
Message-ID: <3125@rabbit.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 7-Sep-84 02:00:23 EDT
Article-I.D.: rabbit.3125
Posted: Fri Sep  7 02:00:23 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 12-Sep-84 01:34:45 EDT
References: <835@ihuxx.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill
Lines: 38


     < Is this line necessary? >
Normally, I'm a strait-laced older-generation square (old enough
to use the word "square"), who would never dream of going to a
Frank Zappa performance or movie (who IS Frank Zappa anyway?).

But several years ago, as I was driving home from some fiasco and
feeling rather glum, I noticed the "200 Motels" poster on a dinky
theater.  (What?  You haven't seen the poster?  Someone must have
bought that album just to rip off the poster, and then tossed the
superfluous stuff into the rummage sale.)  I parked, spent about
15 minutes examining the poster's intricate details (reminiscent
of the OLD comic-book Mad) and trying to guess what the film was
like.  The ticket-seller didn't have the vaguest idea.  Feeling
like killing an hour or two, I bought a ticket and crept in.

I LOVED IT!!  I can't exactly say why.  Maybe because it was so
different from anything else I had ever seen (that novelty would
no doubt be missing for anyone who has grown up on a diet of
videos).  Lots of funny and outrageous bits.  Lots of silliness.
Lots of visual impact (I suspect that it was filmed on videotape
--at times I thought i could see raster lines).

A couple of years ago, I persuaded the Murray Hill Cinema Club to
include it on their ballot, arguing that if they really wanted a
"varied" program for the year, this was at least three sigmas out
from anything else.  With 70 or so films on the ballot (distributed
to all club members), "200 Motels" came in LAST!  No show.

But it is available for rental on film, and perhaps on videotape
too by now.  Hope you get a chance to see it someday.

     --Charlie Harris (rabbit!xchar)
       AT&T Bell Laboratories, Room 2D-505, Murray Hill, NJ  07974

P.S.:  Warning:  The picture book and, to some extent, the songs
and narration on the album are spoilers.  I would have enjoyed
the movie less if I had seen the album first.