C O M M E N T S
From: jjr@panini.att.com (Jeff Rocca)
I spotted a thin paperback book in my local CD store. [ Mon, 23 Jan 95] It
had a black and white cover with a picture of Frank on it and the words
"Alla Zappa." That's all I know about it, since it was sealed in cellophane
and the store clerk was not willing to open it.
From: joe@cs.tu-berlin.de (Johannes Labisch)
I bought that a long time ago. If memory serves right, it was a booklet that
came out about the time when Zoot Allures came out, so it's not very young.
It consists mostly of articles by Urban Gwerder, a austrian or swiss
journalist. I don't like his style, it's too much into the "Wow! Great!"
direction.
The most interesting thing is the layout. It's shape is not like a rectangle!
The sides are parallel, but the angles are not 90 degrees.
From: DGWALLEY@aol.com (David G. Walley)
Urban Gwerder used to be the publisher of an underground newspaper called
Hotscha! a very early Zappa 'zine. I've been trying to contact him for years.
He was a Swiss from Geneva at one time, and his stuff it terrific, it's just
a shame I don't understand Swiss German, but then again there are at least
three or four different dialects so they don't understand each other too
well.
From: Samuel.Mumenthaler@bakom.admin.ch
Urban Gwerder is a Swiss poet from Zurich. He was one of the earliest Zappa
fans and published a lot of articles etc. in the underground magazine
"Hotscha" (1968-71). He then did some Zappa-only-fanzines called "Hot Ratz
Times". He now lives in Zurich again and I think could be contacted there.
He speaks English. He met Frank Zappa several times and was a friend of his.
He had one of the biggest Zappa archives in the world but - unfortunately -
the archive does not exist anymore.
From: "M. Deflem" <deflemm@yahoo.com>
I have a copy of Alla Zappa (in its 2nd edition). It
is a great fanbook, approved and with some
contribution by FZ. It was released on the occasion of
the Mothers shows in Zurich in March 1976 and the
exhibition of Urban Gwerder's 'Zapparchives,' the
Zark-Expo, that went along with it. It contains a
cover, two-page opening pix (of young FZ, and FZ with
Mrs. Louis Varese in 1974); 64 pages of text and
images; and 14 great pages of largely unpublished
pictures. The text is mostly in German and contains: a
preface on the book and its author, a lengthy
introduction into Zappa and the Mothers, more pics,
copies of early newspaper articles on the Mothers, a
copy of FZ's membership folio in the United Mutations,
cartoons, letters, the Absolutely Free song lyrics,
musical notes, band members tree, and more. It is
great!
Alla Zappa was published by Urban Gwerder (born 1944),
who is from Zurich, Switzerland. Gwerder first
published articles on FZ in an underground publication
called 'Hotscha!' and thereafter edited the FZ-fanzine
'Hot Ratz Times' (11 editions, 1973-75). Gwerder was
quite close to FZ, traveling with him on European
tours. He maintained a very extensive archive of
FZ-related materials by the name 'Zapparchive,'
abbreviated as ZARK. In the mid-70s, Gwerder moved
with his family to live in the Swiss Alps where he
became a farmer and continued his poetry. In 1993, he
went back to the city of Zurich. He does not, I
believe, use the internet and deals with people in the
reality of life only. In 1998, Gwerder published 'Im
Zeichen des magischen Affen' (In the Sign of the Magic
Monkey), a 350-page book, in both male and female
versions, a thousand copies of which included a
companion CD, with some Mothers music from Zurich
(1974) and Zappa interview. Gwerder still lives in
Zurich, I assume. He continues to write poetry, CD
liner notes and more, and occasionally appears in
publications and on radio.
See these links for more info:
http://home.datacomm.ch/mik/smd/g/gwerder_urban.html
http://home.datacomm.ch/mik/smd/presse/bund19990421.html
http://www.ticino.com/f.b.archive/In_the_sign.html
http://www.pat.hi-ho.ne.jp/zappappa/ro_book.html
|
|
