September 17, 1992
German PPV
30 min.
Photographed & Directed by Van Carlson
Edited by Michael Gross
Produced by Ilona Grundmann
Associate Producer: Hennes Grossmann
Assistant Director: Henning Lohner
Location Sound: Roland Rebscher
Lighting: Stephan Rother
Camera Assistant: Suse Capelle, Darren Rydstrom
Music Engineer: Spencer Chrislu
UMRK Engineer: Dave Dondorf
Synclavier Assistant: Todd Yvega
Joe's Garage: Marque Coy
Music composed by FZ
Performed by The Ensemble Modern:
Mathias Tacke
Claudia Sack
Hilary Sturt
Friedemann Dähn
Thomas Fichter
Dietmar Wiesner
Catherine Milliken
Roland Diry
Wolfgang Stryi
Veit Scholz
Franck Ollu
Stefan Dohr
William Forman
Michael Gross
Uwe Dierksen
Michael Svoboda
Daryl Smith
Hermann Kretzschmar
Ueli Wiget
Ellen Wegner
Rainer Römer
Rumi Ogawa-Helferich
Andreas Böttger
Detlef Tewes
Jürgen Ruck
Conducted by:
FZ
Peter Rundel
December 16, 1993
Sweden TV (with Swedish subtitles)
Anything, Anywhere, Anytime, For No Reason At All.
A 30 minute documentary of the Yellow Shark that was shown on German pay-per-view television in conjunction with the broadcast of The Yellow Shark. This is another title that the Zappa family trust has apparantly slated for release. It features German and USA rehearsals for the Yellow Shark concerts. Original broadcast date was September 17th, 1992.
AAAFNRAA is indeed the documentary that was shown during the PPV broadcast of The Yellow Shark. I can't really comment on the holdup of the release, though (dog head problems, you know).
You were also I think involved in archiving video for Frank?
Some video. What I did mostly was I helped out on some of the documentary things that were going on—I would lend a hand to them, when he and Van Carlson were putting together videos. And I also transcribed a lot of video. He was fascinated with the LA riots in 1992. He had captured a lot of them on VCR and he asked me to transcribe a lot of the silly things the newscasters were making up on the fly. He found all of that social interaction very interesting.
If you listened to EIHN, take a look at the video AAFNRAA. You will see Master Ringo and other parts of this beautiful cd performed by the EM and FZ.
I think someone asked elsewhere in this thread what EIHN material can be seen in AAAFNRAA. It has the entire Master Ringo, bits of T'Mershi Duween and Nap Time, and possibly some of the improvisations.
And if I remember correctly, it ends with footage of the LA riots (in Frank's trademark like-it-or-not rapid-fire editing :), over which is played the title track from TRANCE-FUSION? (I have in on VHS, but no VCR right now.)
Correct, though I believe Van Carlson is to blame for the editing, rather than Frank.
Nope. I was right there when FZ did the "rapid-fire" editing for the end credits. FZ had final approval and gave some input on ideas as well as loving to do color correction, but the credit for the video really belongs to Van.
In one "Yellow Shark" segment, an Ensemble member recites bits of "Struwwelpeter," a series of grim German children's tales designed to discourage unhealthy habits (translated to English by Mark Twain).
"I went to dinner at Andreas' house [Andreas Molich-Zebhauser, Ensemble Modern general manager]," said Zappa, taking a drag on a cigarette, "and his children demanded that I look at their book, 'Struwwelpeter.' . . . They were pointing out this part with the tailor chopping the thumbs off [a thumb-sucker]. I went, 'What is this?' I mean, his children are growing up with this. Imagine the psychosis! I said, well, it's music. Better be in the show."
Didn't Zappa say the EM accompanied another reading, of a gruesome German cautionary tale for children? I don't remember where I read that anymore. I was a little surprised to find that it wasn't included.
It's true—this can be seen in a European documentary about the making of The Yellow Shark. I don't remember the details, but I saw it on Swedish TV. The story involves a boy who never cuts his hair and his fingernails—so he gets his fingers cut off!
The Name of the german Story you mentioned is "Struwwelpeter". I think, instead of this, FZ took "Food Gathering in Post-Industrial Amerika, 1992". The author is Heinrich Hoffmann.
Try this Link http://www.struwwelpeter.com/
Johan is mixing up two stories here. Konrad the thumbsucker gets his thumbs cut off. Slovenly Peter is merely unpopular.
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