ARF LOGO
TINSEL TOWN REBELLION

 Introduction II

Japanese on Barking Pumpkin logo
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  Coze TTR was first Burking Pampking Records product this old main aff-z FAQ material and some new additions I believe belong to this album Notes
  QUESTION:
  What is the cat saying on the Barking Pumpkin logo?
  ANSWER:
  On the Barking Pumpkin (Frank's record company) logo there is a pumpkin saying ``arf!'' and a cat saying (in Kanji): 
           ______           __\|/__
             |__|  ____       /|\
             |__|  |  |     _______
            _|__|  |__|     |__|__|
                |           |__|__|
              _______       _|___|_
              ___|___       _|___|_
             ____|____      /     \
  Someone was nice enough to inquire about this with someone else who could read this sort of thing. The literal translation was given as ``sacred feces'' or in the current slang, ``holy shit''.
  ASCII Kanji characters provided by : Robert F. Casey, <wa2ise@cbnewsb.cb.att.com>
From: Vladimir Sovetov
  That's all right but I would like to know also how it's pronounced too. And also how do you read it from left to right or vise versa.
From: Masahiro Sumori <sumori@din.or.jp>
  ... the description above is correct.
  BUT...in real Japanese language, there is no such expression. Zappa made it up by direct translation. The character on the left means holy, saint, or sacred. The one on the right means shit or feces. So together it should mean "holy shit".
  But that's just made up thing and I don't know how it's pronounced, either. the left character is usually pronouced "sei" (rhymes with "hey", "bay" or "say"), and the right character is usually pronouced "fun" (rhymes with "moon", "soon" or "tomb"). So maybe it's pronouced "Sei-fun"?
  Every kanji character has specific meaning to it and there are at least two different way of pronoucing each one. Do you get the picture?
From: John Scialli <JOHNSCIALLI@delphi.com>:
  The Real Frank Zappa Answer (as opposed to the real answer). When Tinseltown came out it was the first with the BP logo. I wrote Frank and he graciously replied within a month. here is the full text of his letter to me (I asked what's the cat saying & what's the cat's name)(also I'm an M.D. which explains Frankie's references):
  June 16, 1981
  Dear John:
  In becoming a doctor, you probably spent too much time learning to read Latin, and that is why you can't understand what the cat is saying. Medical professors in our country would probably be more advanced if they spent more time reading Chinese and taking advantage of some of the things the Chinese have learned in the last three thousand years in the art of healing...but never mind.
  I believe the cat is merely saying, ``radio'' and the cat's name is not ``Mao''; as a matter of fact, I haven't thought of a name for her yet but I suppose ``Wanda'' would be okay.
  Obviously you must be doing your job really well. There probably aren't any sick people in your area - you must have cured them all, otherwise you wouldn't have any spare time to write me a letter. Keep up the good work.
  Yours truly,
  Frank Zappa
  For more japanese check out ZOOT ALLURES. Introduction III (Japanese characters meaning)
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