Frank Zappa

Today is/was Frank Zappa's 69th birthday. Happy Birthday, Frank.

And today's deal is an 11x14 open edition signed print of this photograph...

Frank Zappa

12/21/40-12/4/93

The retail price is $200.

Today's A Deal A Day In December Price: $60
+ shipping (free shipping in Los Angeles)

If you are interested in today's deal, email: info@cheshercat.com. Please include "Day 21 Deal" in the subject line. Include your City, State, Country, Zip in the email so we can determine shipping.

Each person who emails will be notified of their status.

If the first person doesn't submit the payment to PayPal in the allotted time, the second person will be contacted and so on and so on.

Enjoy yourself some Frank...





You can see a lot more pictures of Frank Zappa and learn more about him and the 47 other musicians in my tribute book, Everybody I Shot Is Dead.

Ol' Skool vs. Digital CONTEST RESULTS

First, let me thank all of you who took the time to enter. I hope you enjoyed the process, even if you didn't win.

This was a really interesting contest for me. It was very exciting to see the answers people gave and I was especially entertained by those of you who added your comments.

Only two people got all the answers right. Just seven people got only one wrong. The majority of the entrants got two or more wrong. I have to admit that these results really surprised me. At first, I thought it might be too easy when Tyler picked them all within a couple of minutes, only pausing on #3. But I chalked it up to him being a photographer and having gone to film school. But when Jaimie - who is very inexperienced when it comes to photography - was looking at the blog while I was on the phone with her and got them all right in a matter of five minutes, then proceeded to give me the exact same reasoning that Tyler gave, well...I was completely gobsmacked.

But then the entries started coming in. Two people on day 1 had just 1 wrong. The two people who got them right came a couple of days later, after I finally sent out to my mailing list. I guess it wasn't so easy after all. There was really no rhyme or reason to people's answers. Even with all the data, I can't point to why so many people had trouble figuring them out. And now I can't even figure out how to apply the data for a definitive theory, nor can I say people tend to prefer film over digital or vice versa. I'm going to give the overall response below each picture and maybe one of you brilliant people can tell me what it all means...

#1 Wavy Gravy shot at the Harmony Festival, June 2008:

1a - FILM
More people got this set right than wrong. Only one of the 7 got this one wrong.

1b - DIGITAL

#2 Paul Kantner shot at the Harmony Festival, June 2008:

2a - DIGITAL
More people got this set wrong than right.
Two of the seven 1-wrong answer people got this one wrong.

2b - FILM

#3 Damian Marley's drummer shot at the Harmony Festival, June 2008:

3a - FILM
I also thought this set would be the most difficult one because the
photos are so similar, but more people got it right than wrong.
Only one of the seven got this set wrong.

3b - DIGITAL

#4 Damian Marley's bass player shot at the Harmony Festival, June 2008:

4a - DIGITAL
Way more people got this set right than wrong,
except two out of the seven got it wrong.

4b - FILM

#5 Fish shot at BB King's NY, June 2008:

5a - DIGITAL
This set was only one off from being 50-50, and
only one of the seven got it wrong.

5b - FILM

Are you surprised at which were film and which were digital? The way Tyler and Jaimie came up with their answers was based on looking at the backgrounds of each photo. They said the blur was smoother on the pictures shot with film (well, I think that's what they said). Does that make sense to you?

I was hoping I would find my answer by asking the two people who got them all right how they chose their answers. So I sent them this email, not mentioning that they had them right.

Can you please tell me how you chose the answers you picked in this contest? And how you came to enter?

John was the first to respond:

I am on your mailing list and received an e-mail to enter the contest from you. I met you at the Fest for Beatles Fans about 2 years ago and bought 2 of your books.

I am an amateur photographer myself and saw various things in each of the photos that led me to choose film vs. digital. For instance, I noticed some of the blurring of the light and shadows on some photos which is more indicative of film vs. digital. Also, digital to me seems to smooth out some of the detail where film picks everything up. The ones I thought were film seemed more natural looking and had more detail. I really just stared at them for a few minutes each and made my choices.

Then Kevin wrote:

You said in your note that you saw a difference between film and digital, and preferred film, so I tried to choose the one I thought was ‘better’. That part seemed straightforward, if not exactly easy to my untrained eye, but then I noticed a pretty clear difference between the sets, one shot was always darker (or lighter) than the other, and I didn’t always think the darker (or lighter) one was better, so I was pretty sure I didn’t know what the hell I was doing and just picked the ones I liked best without thinking too much. I think I saw your note about the contest on FB. How did I do? I should add that my colleagues never listen to my opinions regarding the aesthetic quality of our books so I won’t be shocked if I got them all bass akwards.


Does that solve the question? Not really, because other people made comments on their entries that they preferred film but then picked several of the digital shots as film. And I have to be honest, after adamantly raving about the images that came up on my screen as I scanned my negatives, once I put the photos side by side with the digital I had to admit that I thought a couple of the digital looked better than the film :-(.

So, now that you know which is which, and the general proportion of the vote, can any of you solve this debate for me once and for all? What's better? Film? Or digital?

And the winners are...

The Grand Prize Winner of the framed Frank Zappa print is Kevin Becketti, because his email arrived two hours in advance of Second Place Winner, John Young, who takes home the Ringo Starr print...

And Honorable Mentions go to the seven entrants who only missed one answer:

Steve Bastien
Bill Lantz
William Schaff
Cory Tucker
John Krill
Maureen Felk
Craig Nisker

Thanks again to those who played, and thanks to anyone who chimes in with their opinion in the comments section.

Irony or Poetic Justice?

I fell asleep around 1AM and woke up 45 minutes later... and couldn't fall back to sleep until after 4:30AM. Slept until around 10 and woke up beyond tired. Happy Earth Day. Can't somebody around here give me a full normal night's sleep?

I had a list a mile long of things I needed to accomplish today including, at the bottom, Stay Off The Internet. That is definitely something I want to do for 24 hours...but it couldn't be today. The note for today was that I didn't want to hang on Twitter or Facebook. As much as I love them both, they are a creative juice suck.

First thing I did was check my email. There were a bunch but nothing after 7:15AM. I didn't really think anything of it until I went on Twitter (yeah, I didn't even make it 10 minutes) to answer a couple of DMs. That's Direct Messages for those unfamiliar with the Twit lingo. I was answering one with a link to the two Zappa photos I have up on my website. That meant I had to go to my website and collect http://www.cheshercat.com/store-eisid-prints.html then go to the tiny url site and turn it into http://tiny.cc/gRzkm so it wouldn't eat up all 140 characters I get to use on a Twitter message.

After a minute of watching the progress wheel spin 'round and 'round going nowhere, I ended up on the Road Runner page. That's where I go when I enter a url that doesn't exist. I rechecked...same thing...opened a different browser, tried again and still got Road Runner.

My website had disappeared, as in evaporated or never even existed. And that, my friends, is a sinking feeling. Where could it have gone? Will I ever get it back? I went back to my email and checked for mail - still no new mail. I sent myself an email but it didn't come back. I checked the webmail online that routes my mail from my site host to my email software. Nothing in the inbox. I went on my gmail account and sent myself an email...it didn't come.

Then I went to my web hosting company's site...their's had disappeared too. Oh my God, it's Armageddon. I called the company. They weren't accepting phone calls. The lady on the recording said if I needed assistance to go to their website where I could participate in an online chat with them. Really? When your website has vanished into thin air?

Now, you're probably thinking that I am a complete dumbass because I must have I signed myself up with some rinky-dink-fly-by-night web hosting company and they've now emptied my bank account and run off to Tahiti. Well, you'd be wrong.

My website is hosted by one of the major companies. A company that couldn't possibly go completely down. Especially today. Today of all days. It just doesn't make any sense...can someone please explain...

How could EARTHLINK crash on EARTH DAY?

So, I ask, is that irony? Or is it poetic justice for the company trying to take over the universe. My website eventually appeared back on the scene around 3PM. Then I started to get some of my emails. It wasn't that I clicked Get Messages and was bombarded with 100 emails. There probably were that many, but they literally trickled in. I'd get one that was an hour old, then a few minutes later there would be a couple for the early morning, then a brand new one. I have no idea if I got everything. Hell, I just got one with an *:29AM time stamp. And I'm sure they obliterated the one from that guy I used to know that said, "If you call in the next 30 minutes you can claim the $100,000 I owe you."

Such is life.

If any of you wonderful people out there know a really reliable webhosting company that doesn't rake you (I'm really missing the arm and the leg I've had to give up to Earthlink) please let me know. I've been loyal too long.

Finally, don't forget, there's only 48 hours left to enter to win the $300 Zappa print. Don't miss out.

Pertinent to the film vs. digital debate, I took the above picture on slide film. It's the kind of gorgeous sky that you can only find in Alberta or Montana.

Happy Earth Day. Now go hug a tree.

Win Frank Zappa

Hey People...get your finger on the scrolly button and head down to the previous post and enter the Ol' Skool v. Digital contest to win this valuable piece of artistry:

I want Frank to go to a nice home...do you have a nice home? Do you have a friend who has a nice home? If so, tell them and everyone else you know to stop on by. We've had a lot of people stopping by but not as many entries as I'd like. Don't wait until the last minute. And don't make me extend the contest...I don't think I can handle the suspense.

I know some of you are finding the challenge to get the right answers rather daunting. Just click on the photos to see them bigger and feel your way (with your intuition, not your hands) to the right answer. It can't be much harder than breathing.

In other non-breaking news, I'm really really tired, even though I feel I've accomplished nothing this weekend. I'm hoping to get a good night's sleep tonight and greet Monday which the energy of an atom bomb. Keep your defensive gear handy. And consider yourself forewarned.

Now, git yerself down there and play the game. I've been told it's actually fun.

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Happy Birthday, Frank and Carl

Happy 67th, Mr. Zappa.
You are missed.

Happy 61st, Mr. Wilson

Two Birthdays

Happy 60th Birthday, Carl!

Carl Wilson
12/21/46 - 2/6/98


Happy 66th Birthday, Frank!

Frank Zappa
12/21/40 - 12/4/93

Odd fact: Frank was born on Carl Wilson's birthday and died on Dennis Wilson's birthday.