“I never set out to be weird. It was always other people who called me weird.”
Frank Zappa
The festival of Zappadan runs from the date of Frank's death, 12/4, through the date of his birth, 12/21.
I did not make this up. You read more about this holiday season from an old post at the blog
The AristocratsOK, so i do have a Zappa thing, just look at the hair. We were both born at Mercy Hospital in Baltimore. His parents were part Italian ....and Catholic. Mine were full blown Italian which requires one to be Catholic too. He too was the oldest child of four and he also had asthma. wheeeeeze gasp... pass that inhaler please.
Frank and his family ended up in San Diego in 1955ish depending on which bio you read. (I eventually moved there in 1981) You can read more about Frank's early career at
wikiIt was not just the brilliance of Zappa's music that made me fall in love with him. He was a rebel. Outspoken. Blunt. A genius... a real one with a high IQ. He was a smart bad boy with a sense of humor and an inhaler. Oh take my breath away. And he had no problem being odd, different or weird. He did not even try. I can relate to that- though it took me much longer to accept that about myself. Some of us are just born that way. It pisses some people off, confuses others and stuns the rest. Rest assured, most of us freaks are harmless, just scary to watch or understand.
He was oh so very handsome in that ugly-sexy rock star kind of way too. Of course i think if i ever had kids i would have thought of better names for them than Moon Unit, Dweezil, Ahmet and Diva Thin Muffin Pigeen. (Diva is a beautiful name without the pigeen muffin.)
So in 1993 Frank Zappa died on my birthday of prostate cancer. (Bill Bixby, of the Courtship of Eddie's Father had just passed away a week before with the same disease.) What a shitty year for good guys. I remember that day vividly, what i wore, ate, drank and the tears. I took it as an omen that it was going to be a very bad year. (And yes it was THE year that sucked- but it also was the year that sparked many big changes in my life- death of my dear friend Edie, the death of a bad marriage, moving to new apartment alone with terrorist cats, a sick dog and starting acupuncture college. And i am certain it sucked much more for the Zappa family.)
It has been 18 years since all that has transpired. My terrorist cat will be 19 in April. I can't even believe how old i am today. I feel young inside. Old in my joints. My inhaler is still in my purse, tho since moving to Virginia away from the coal dust of Salem, i no longer need to puff on it as much. So..when i learned of the holiday season known as Zappadan started on my birthday a few years ago, i took it once again as an omen, but this time as a good one.
So today i will floss, not eat yellow snow and celebrate my weirdness.
It's my birthday and i'll floss if i want to. (yes i did live in Montana for 9 months too!)
Thank you Frank!
Jane Austen
