Tatsu, "Does Humor Belong in Music?" is a F.Z. album title. and it's not about bathroom humor (no poo-poo jokes). not that Frank doesn't go that way occasionaly...it was just a cryptic reference fer us Zappa freaks out there. i kinda lost interest on your post somewhere along 11212312341432154325614325671234. but as long as i can dance to it...

Zappa got that quote from books on classical Indian music which allows all types of feeling except humor. It's sitting right there on the shelves at the NAU Cline Library.

I had a dream which implied this kind of music that deconstructs everything isn't of much value now. We already went through that during the modernist period. Also, although John Adams has new techniques that has moved things forward, they're not mine.

But I've had to go through all this kind of stuff to get to a place where I've tried all of the ideas I've gleaned from others, so that I can come to a place where there's nowhere to turn except inward.

It's like that Buddhist thing where you study and debate all the philosophical stuff until you've proven to yourself that you've reached the end of logic and reason, and in your desperation finally turn to intuition and insight.

However, jumping to the intuitive and not having at least the philosophical basics is considered a mistake. Without exhausting the intellectual sphere, there's no reason to transcend it.

In order to make shamanic music as per Mathew Fox, I'll have to come up with music that banishes evil, tries to summon the divine, honors the dead, heals, functions as mantra or mandala. Seems like that will make me get farther away from penetrating the limits of the fringe.

no disrespect. but sometimes i feel like i dont have time to wipe my ass. about the only thing i MUST make time for is prayer and meditation. necessary for sobriety. everything else is gravy...

Android, I've got to agree with your asessment of priorities.

Ridiculous. I love it.

Dude. Drumming. This stuff would be insane with more authentic and complex drum textures. Look into it, they're available.

Make it happen, and then sell me the album.

Love it.

Kev

Hi K-Rex,

I'm not able to easily acquire anything with no credit cards, no Paypal account and soon no American bank account. Indonesia doesn't even use checks and the post office here won't mail an envelope if you tell them a check is in it. What to do? What to do? Option 1. Lie and say this envelope is for a friend. I've done that.

I placed everything in this piece in 4/4 because when I'm exploring something new like chords progressing to more complex forms without progressing the root, I make everything else as "stupid" as possible like only one chord per bar and in 4/4.

I think perhaps my drums suddenly make more sense being in a normal unchanging meter. It's easier to understand the fluctuations in placement of the snare and such.

The more I think about Zappa's title "Does Humor Belong In Music?" the more I think how smart he was. Have you ever heard the expression that undergrads have to give the right answer but Grad students have to ask the right question?

The author Isaac Asimov used the concept when he made I Robot and in the movie Will Smith is talking to the dead scientist's hologram and the hologram only ever says at the end, that Will Smith has finally asked the right question, then turns off.

Highly educated people think this way. In the last philosophical post I made, the quote from the article said that the artists' question is rhetorical. So, when Zappa made the album "Does Humor Belong In Music? He's not asserting that it does which would automatically negate itself. And we're left with having to decide for ourselves if we think it does or not.

I have a lot of respect for Isaac Asimov as a thinker not just as a novelist and now I have a little more for Zappa too.

The other thing the article said was that artistic narrative should answer quandaries in the observer. For Zappa and other musicians at that time who were reading those books on Classical Indian performance practice, the question of whether humor belonged in music or not was very relevant. So, again, Zappa hits the bullseye with the right question at the right time.

What I want to know now is what questions are relevant now for us in our generation?

Frank wanted the notes played right but he also asked the musicians to put the "eyebrows" on it. check out Ensemble Modern performing while Frank conducts a "piece of shit"...