I have a hard time respecting a guy who tried naming one of his sons after an oddly curled toe of his wife.

Sumiki, with all due respect, don't make assumptions about someone you haven't been able to properly experience. Zappa was just... different... than anyone else who's ever walked this earth. Granted, I thought he was a nutcase too, the first time I saw him (in Baby Snakes) but I came to realize the man is a genius. The music he made; the subject of the music he made, the impact he had on the way people make music... I can't even begin to describe it. You'd have to hear/see some of the stuff he's done to get an appreciation for him, anyways.

(He found/taught Adrian Belew, too... imagine a world without him! No Three of a Perfect Pair! )

Pointless rant aside; I had no clue today would have been his 69th, so here's wishing it would have been a great one... if he was still here.

Beefheart is weirder.

I remember the first Zappa song I ever heard... It was the one about that deadly yellow snow.

I thought it was hilarious as a kid, and I still do. The way events unfold in his songs is just... priceless.

Happy birthday, Frank.