Zappa - a critical look at joe's garage (part 2)

Joe takes the councilor up on his kindly offer, and meets a girl at a church social named Mary. Things seem to be going well until one night Mary finds herself backstage (and then later traveling on the tour bus) with a band called “Toad-oh”, performing unspeakable sexual acts with both the band members and road crew. Finding himself forcefully turned away from music, and becoming disillusioned with relationships after Mary broke his heart, Joe turns to religion to ease the pain of his soul:

Arriving at L. Ron Hoover's modernistic office / cathedral / warehouse /
condominium complex, Joe is greeted by a pre-recorded message and a dramatically
illuminated image on a wall-sized TV screen...
L. Ron Hoover:Welcome to the
First Church of Appliantology! The WHITE ZONE is for loading and unloading only!

Again we hear the mantra of the Scrutinizer, this time being recited by the ghostly video-image of L. Ron Hoover, leader of the Church of Appliantology. This intro to the track, “A Token of My Extreme” cements the direct collusion between religion and ruling in Zappa’s created world. This is also a commentary on real concerns about religion and politics mixing. Zappa obviously saw the seed of the problems we are now facing (namely, the recent inability to separate the notion of Conservatism and the fanaticism of Fundamentalist Christianity).

As Joe relates his feelings of the grief within his soul, Hoover makes a grandiose pronouncement: Joe is a latent appliance fetishist ( as explained by Hoover, “a latent appliance fetishist is a person who refuses to admit to his or herself that sexual gratification can only be achieved through the use of machines”). Now all Joe has to do to find nirvana in this life is to find himself a nice appliance to have relations with…after learning how to speak German to entice a “really good” one to accede to Joe’s advances.

The directive given to Joe, at first glance, is apparently no more than some sort of deviant joke that Zappa threw in simply to shock the listener with pure absurdity. But, upon deper reflection, Zappa seems to be making commentary on religion itself. Religions are infamous for making incredible claims that are (almost) never proved out by science or the rational and reality of logic. Along with these articles of faith, are some outrageous claims on how to attain spiritual enlightenment or some form of ascension. Zappa, in his description of religion in this track, alludes to the notion that no matter how “out-there” the words of a man on a pulpit wearing a nice suit might be, that there will be those who will follow these directives without question. Additionally, the bigger the spiritual hole in a person (in the case of this tale, everything Joe has cared for has been whisked away from him) the more apt they are to seek out solace for their soul…but caring little for the specifics of where that assistance is coming from or what it is requiring one to do.

So Joe and his newfound date Sy Borg (a hunk of gadgetry that looks like it's a cross between an industrial vacuum cleaner and a chrome piggy bank with marital aids stuck all over its body), whom Joe seduced with his recent fluency in German, end up back at Sy Borg’s apartment for a night of (in the words of Zappa) “plooking”. Unfortunately, Joe “plooks” the machine much too roughly, causing the overtaxed gadget to break down.

Central Scrutinizer:This is the CENTRAL SCRUTINIZER... You have just destroyed
one model XQJ-37 Nuclear Powered Pan- Sexual Roto-Plooker And you're gonna have
to pay for it! So give up, you haven't got a chance.
Joe:But I...I, I, I, I,
I...I can't payI gave all my moneyTo some kinda groovyreligious guy...Two songs
ago...
Central Scrutinizer:Come on out son...Between the two of usWe'll find
a way toWork it out

Zappa uses an interesting lyrical quirk in the above passage. After the Robot is reduced to a gaggle of moist, sparking, and whirring circuits and do-dads, the Central Scrutinizer shows up to pronounce Joe’s guilt. But when asked to pay for the damage to the robot, Joe is unable to pay up due to the fact that he had given his money to L. Ron Hoover “two songs ago”. This series of lyrics denotes not only how inventive Zappa is in the use of his lyrics to paint a mental picture or to pass on a message, but also the way he uses words to create a sense of continuity throughout the entire album. Zappa makes the story seem more alive and vital and less rehearsed and liner. linear.

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Zappa - A Critical Look at 'Joe's Garage' (Part 1)

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Joe’s Garage: A Token of His Extreme

In studying an author or his works one can often point to a singular piece of work in order to define an artist; or possibly to analyze a given work that has become personal and meaningful to the one conducting the study itself. In choosing to examine Frank Zappa’s seminal recorded work, Joe’s Garage, this author would have to admit that the incredible production would fall into both the former and later categorizes.

Joe’s Garage weaves a tale of a very dark and grim future time in our American experience, furiously painted on an aural canvas shot through with the abstract, the comical, the frightening, and the absurd. If one takes the nineteen tracks that make up this masterpiece of musical theatre, one can glean from it many things: music that winds its way through various genres ranging from punk, to rock, to experimental jazz, to reggae; sublime musicianship that showcases the incredible talent that Zappa gathered to bring life to his creation; lyrics that can confuse with their complexity, bring about a chuckle or guffaw with their prankish punditry, offend with their blunt and straightforward honesty, or frighten with their darker vision. But if one takes the work as a whole, the entire concept offers the most nourishing food for thought on the reeking mess of bureaucratic manipulation that surrounds our desire to make sure our rights as citizens of this republic remain as rights – and are not relegated to the lesser roll of cherished but half-forgotten memories of the “golden years”, “good old days”, or “how things used to be”.

One can gather from some of his work (including some of the lyrical commentary he had made in Joe’s Garage) that Zappa might have felt apart from people as a whole; that he was not particular to being part of the American culture. In fact the contrary was true. Although he was a private man he was quite at home in the musical community he was a part of, often working with various well known artists (the likes of John Lennon, Eric Clapton, Sting) and kicking off more than a few careers (namely Steve Vai and Alice Cooper). And the fact that he was a performing artist plainly showed that he had an innate need to not only create but share his creations as well.

He did find himself scornful of most of the ideals and attitudes that were common in his continental environment. But he was also a societal sponge, soaking up various bits and pieces of Americana and inserting them in his various artistic endeavors. He simply avoided using these things in a way that people would expect. His father (Francis Zappa) had often talked about a great history of the world that he had wanted to write, from the perspective of personas not in power and without wealth… with Sicily as the hub of historical existence. His rational for this was that the history that had already been written and passed down was created for the amusement of the ruling classes; since the lower classes throughout history could not read, their rulers did not care about what happened to them.

Even though Francis never got around to writing this history, you can see that Zappa took the concept of his father’s thought to heart. His characters are at times “good guys” or “bad guys”, but their always just “some guys”…your average Joe surrounded by
a certain surrealism brought on by unforeseen circumstance or their own personal undoing.

Zappa’s body of work is often overlooked and dismissed as offensive, shock-music, inaccessible, or lyrically nonsensical. But the best way to determine if this is indeed true of Joe’s Garage is to actually study the work itself.

First we shall take a look at the narrator of our journey, known as The Central Scrutinizer. The scrutinizer is not a person…or at least not human in the traditional sense.
He is the product of the society which has allowed him to become real; a society that had left its own proverbial head buried deeply in the sand for way too long. In the liner notes of the album, Zappa describes him thusly:

Sometimes when you're not looking he just sneaks up on you. He looks like a cheap sort of flying saucer about five feet across with a snout-like megaphone apparatus in the front with two big eyes mounted like Appletons with miniature motorized frowning chrome eyebrows over them. Along the side of his disc-like body are several sets of stupid-looking headers and exhaust hoses which apparently propel him and punctuate his dialogue with horrible smelling smoke rings. In the middle of his head we can see an airport wind sock and constantly twirling anemometer. The bottom of him has a landing light and three spoked wheels. In spite of all this, it is obvious that the way he really gets around is by being dangled from place to place by a union guy with a dark green shirt up in the roof who is eating a sandwich (pieces of which drop off every once in a while and lodge themselves near the hole where they put the oil in that makes the cheap smoke).

The vile creature, his whispering, scratchy voice dripping with self assurance and oozing righteousness hovers into view and introduces himself and his purpose to the story:

This is the CENTRAL SCRUTINIZER...it is my responsibility to enforce all the laws that haven't been passed yet. It is also my responsibility to alert each and every one of you to the potential consequences of various ordinary everyday activities you might be performing which could eventually lead to *The Death Penalty* (or affect your parents' credit rating). Our criminal institutions are full of little creeps like you who do wrong things...and many of them were driven to these crimes by a horrible force called MUSIC! Our studies have shown that this horrible force is so dangerous to society at large that laws are being drawn up at this very moment to stop it forever! Cruel and inhuman punishments are being carefully described in tiny paragraphs so they won't conflict with the Constitution (which, itself, is being modified in order to accommodate THE FUTURE). I bring you now a special presentation to show what can happen to you if you choose a career in MUSIC...The WHITE ZONE is for loading and unloading only...if you have to load or unload, go to the WHITE ZONE... you'll love it...it's a way of life...Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha...Hi, it's me, I'm back. This is the CENTRAL SCRUTINIZER...The WHITE ZONE is for loading and unloading only...If yah gotta load, or if yah gotta unload, go to the WHITE ZONE. You'll love it...it's a way of life. That's right, you'll love it, it's a way of life, that's right, you'll love it, it's a way of life, you'll love it. This, is, the CENTRAL SCRUTINIZER!

The Scrutinizer seems to be an amalgam of all the negative characteristics that Zappa has perceived in our own various departments of law enforcement…seemingly heavy handed, smarmy, and always, always, all too willing to help you (the average citizen under the thumb of his protection) make up your mind about the laws (including the ones that haven’t been passed yet) that you have to follow and he has to enforce.

Now Zappa introduces the “hero” of our tale; a simple man with extravagant dreams – a man named Joe. In the first verse, Zappa describes the environment in which we find him:

It wasn't very large
There was just enough room to cram the drums
In the corner over by the Dodge
It was a fifty-four
With a mashed up door
And a cheesy little amp
With a sign on the front said "Fender Champ"
And a second hand guitar
It was a Stratocaster with a whammy bar

In a very breezy tone, Zappa manages to paint us a picture of the rehearsal space that the band practices in, a typical area that brings to mind the vision of what our common tongue would call a “garage-band”. The lyrics continue on to tell the tale of an all too typical band, in an all too typical garage, with all too typical parents who grow annoyed with the cacophony of sound and scream, “Turn it down!” into the garage. Much in the way of a typical group of young musicians, they ignore the pleas of Joe’s parents. Unfortunately, the neighbors are becoming upset at the racket that the band is causing, prompting a call to the local law enforcement agency. As the police are busy surrounding the garage, Joe muses:

Well the years was rollin' by, yeah
Heavy Metal 'n' Glitter Rock
Had caught the public eye, yeah
Snotty boys with lipstick on
Was really flyin' high, yeah
'N' then they got that Disco thing
'N' New Wave came along
'N' all of a sudden I thought the time
Had come for that old song
We used to play in "Joe's Garage"
And if I am not wrong
You will soon be dancin' to...
Central Scrutinizer:
The WHITE ZONE is for loading and
unloading only. If you
gotta load or unload,
go to the WHITE
ZONE. You'll love it...

Joe’s musing about the future is obviously Zappa’s lament about the state of the music industry. He had released quite a few songs about (what he thought of as) the sad state of the commercial music industry. This verse is simply another reiteration of that sentiment. But in the last part of the verse, we see Zappa’s fear of governmental control over the arts as he quips that we’ll soon be dancing to the mantra of the Central Scrutinizer that we had originally been privy too in the first track, “The Central Scrutinizer”. This might be a reference to the problems in Iran that he knew about during the time that he was working on this album, and a reflection of how their government banned all music soon after the Shah was deposed.
The Scrutinizer returns yet again in the track, as he explains what happens to Joe when the authorities finally arrive:
Central Scrutinizer:

This is the CENTRAL SCRUTINIZER...
That was Joe's first confrontation with The Law.
Naturally, we were easy on him.
One of our friendly counselors gave him
A do-nut...and told him to
Stick closer to church-oriented social activities.

Again, we see Zappa’s paranoia about governmental control. Joe was sent to a councilor for playing music, not for any sort of serious crime or wrongdoing; in addition, he was prompted to “stick closer to church oriented activities”. This line shows Zappa’s frustration with the cultural norms that we find ourselves constrained by (rock music bad, church good), as well as the mixing of church and state that he was so adamantly against.

(NOTE: continued in part 2)

Gulag or Dentetion Center?

There are many issues that have gained national attention and have been celebrated as cause for public debate and political polarization. But one item that should be on the national agenda that has been woefully underreported, and has remained relatively obscure on the landscape of news-land, is the veritable attack on the Constitution and Bill of Rights itself. I have mentioned some of these items within this (or my Yahoo page) blog, such as: radio host Mike Gallagher calling for public dissenters of the current administration to be put into camps, John McCain’s internet speech bill, the Military Commissions Act (or HR6166), and the brutal tactics used by Law Enforcement on American citizens who are peacefully protesting. And now, it seems, there may be yet another worry to concern us about the rights that we hold as citizens.

Radio host and Constitutional commentator, Alex Jones, has recently released a video about a holding facility in Taylor, Texas which he believes is some sort of modern day ‘concentration camp’ right here in the US. One can easily slough off his claim, putting it on the same shelf as other ‘conspiracy theories’ that have been discussed around the water cooler in hushed tones all across the country. But, at least to this author’s eyes, there are some facts surrounding the creation of the holding facility that certainly should raise an eyebrow in caution and pause, if not be cause for further investigation.

THE COMPANY

According to the official listing on the US Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE)site, the facility (named the T. Don Hutto Family Residential Facility) was set up by ICE to be run by a private corporation (Corrections Corporation of America or CCA) in order to house illegal immigrants and their families (including children) while they were being processed. The listing goes on to say that this type of facility was necessary due to the failure of the ‘catch and release’ program that ICE had previously instituted. Upon reading this, it would seem quite above board and legitimate, but some questions do arise apart from this official listing.


CCA, according to their own site, is: “the nation's largest owner and operator of privatized correctional and detention facilities and one of the largest prison operators in the United States, behind only the federal government and four states.” And, as seems to be the norm with government contractors of this magnitude, they have been involved in their share of scandal and subterfuge. In December 2006, they were accused of trying to get around paying taxes for their facility being constructed in Arizona; also in December 2006 they convinced the local politicos of Pike county, MS, that there was no need for a public hearing on a proposition to build a prison facility in their area, citing that there was not enough public dissent to warrant a public hearing; they came under fire for the use of money received by one of its prisons under the banner of federal faith based initiatives; have been fined for purposefully understaffing their facilities concerning positions that were mandatory according to their charter and contract; have been noted for working with the Governor of Hawaii to ship off many of that State’s prisoners to mainland facilities owned by CCA for incarceration (so much for any sort of visitation); for Department of Corrections officials helping the company get government contracts; and for funding discrepancies (including payments made to the county from the company) for their Texas facility. Additionally, there have been accusations of intentionally overcrowding the Hutto facility in order to bill the state for a higher head count; according to the Texas Civil Rights Review the facility has space for 512 ‘residents’, but is currently holding 645 inmates. Yet, even after all these allegations levied against them, according to their site they have a 95% renewal rate for their government contracts.

THE FACILITY

According to a story from the Taylor Daily Press, a newspaper local to the area where the facility is located, the place has had somewhat of a spotty history. In 2004, CCA had planned to put the prison into ‘mothballs’ due to the sheer lack of prisoners. But in 2006 CCA signed a new contract with ICE to use the prison for the detention of illegal aliens; this contract, according to the story, has no term limits and is on a continuing, rolling renewal. Prior to this contract, the facility held prisoners that had to be relocated due to hurricanes Katrina and Rita, prisoners of the US Marshal’s office, and overflow prisoners from other facilities.

THE GOVERNMENT

At first glance, one could surmise that the situation is relatively (in the world of political/business intrigue, at least) benign. Seemingly, this could be simply another case of the Government throwing money at a company in the form of no-bid government contracts regardless of their ethics record, and making that ‘business as usual’ in a Halliburton-esque way (speaking of Halliburton, it is that company’s subsidiary, KBR, who recently received a no-bid contract from the government for $385 million dollars for the building of more ‘detention centers’ all across the country).

There has been great debate as to the effects of privatizing the prison system, with problems ranging to cost effectiveness, the companies getting the contracts (like CCA), and the lack of public oversight due to the prisons themselves owning the status of a private corporation. Investigative reporter Eric Schlosser wrote in an article for the Atlantic Monthly: “The prison-industrial complex is not only a set of interest groups and institutions. It is also a state of mind. The lure of big money is corrupting the nation's criminal-justice system, replacing notions of safety and public service with a drive for higher profits. The eagerness of elected officials to pass tough-on-crime legislation — combined with their unwillingness to disclose the external and social costs of these laws — has encouraged all sorts of financial improprieties.”

Obviously this situation is a reason for some investigation, or even Congressional oversight, in order to determine if there is unlawful collusion between segments of the government and private industry. But is it possible that there may be something more sinister afoot, or are the outcries of some accusing the government of troucing on the civil liberties of the civilian population nothing more than “conspiracy theories”?

HISTORY and PRECIDENT

Looking back on the history of our Republic, there are quite a few instances in that time-line where the government has stepped in and superceeded the rights given us in the Constitution and Bill of Rights in times of War or great national strife and created laws (or worked around them) and unconstitutionally imprisoned American citizens. In 1798 the Alien and Sedition Act was passed which made illegal the opposition of any law or being critical of the government; during the civil war the South jailed abolitionists, the north jailed anti-abolitionests, and Lincoln himself suspended freedom of the press, free speech, and habius corpus; much of the same happened during WW I; American citizens of Japoneese and German decent were imprisoned without being charged of any crime in ‘residential facilities’ during WWII.

Obviously there is much in the way of precident when it comes to uncontitutional imprisonment in our nations history, but is there any basis for having worries of similar situations occuring in our current timeframe?

Back in 1984 there was a plan forulated by the Federal government that outlined their ability to detain large ampounts of the civilian population in a time of civil unrest named REX84. The scholar Diana Reynolds wrots thusly of REX84:

“The Rex-84 Alpha Explan (Readiness Exercise 1984, Exercise Plan), [otherwise known as a continuity of government plan], indicates that FEMA in association with 34 other federal civil departments and agencies conducted a civil readiness exercise during April 5-13, 1984. It was conducted in coordination and simultaneously with a Joint Chiefs exercise, Night Train 84, a worldwide military command post exercise (including Continental U.S. Forces or CONUS) based on multi-emergency scenarios operating both abroad and at home. In the combined exercise, Rex-84 Bravo, FEMA and DOD led the other federal agencies and departments, including the Central Intelligence Agency, the Secret Service, the Treasury, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Veterans Administration through a gaming exercise to test military assistance in civil defense.
The exercise anticipated civil disturbances, major demonstrations and strikes that
would affect continuity of government and/or resource mobilization. To fight
subversive activities, there was authorization for the military to implement
government ordered movements of civilian populations at state and regional
levels, the arrest of certain unidentified segments of the population, and the
imposition of martial rule.”

With the institution of both of the Patriot Acts (written, interestingly enough by Viet Dinh, ex assistant Attourney General, and Michal Chertoff, currently the head of Homeland Security)and the Military Comissions act, one can have their citizenship stripped by federal law enforcemnt if one is even suspected of being (or being connected to) terrorists, held indefinately without being charged of a crime, and tried only before a military tribunal in leiu of a judge and jury (this has already happened, the most well known case being that of Yaser Hamdi). The Department of Homeland Security created a plan in 2003 called project ENDGAME which proports to expand on the mission of the Alien and Sedition Acts, the goal of which is to, “remove all removable aliens," including "illegal economic migrants, aliens who have committed criminal acts, asylum-seekers (required to be retained by law) or potential terrorists." Also implemented have been various Continuity of Government (COG) plans which have been cause for public outcry and scrutiny concerning warrant-less eavesdropping, expanded detention capabilities, preparations for greater use of martial law, in addition to firming up other items that have received mention in the Patriot and Military Commissions Acts.


CONCLUSION

After stating all the above the question now becomes, ‘do I think that there is some sort of sinister plot afoot’? In all honesty, I’m not entirely sure. But the sheer amount of documented evidence which all points in the same direction makes it a fact that the power and ability for the government to close up shop on our Republic is most certainly available for them to do so at any given time. That alone is enough to make uneasy the footing of any citizen. The question of whether this power be exercised at any time in our future is certainly a matter for debate, but the existence of such needs to be warily scrutinized by the public.



US Immigration link : http://www.ice.gov/pi/news/factsheets/huttodetentionfac.htm

CCA Links: http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2006612230326

http://www.enterprise-journal.com/NF/omf/ejournal/ssiuname=WebOSTTN/ssipwd=/news/news_story.html?rkey=0047773cat=news

http://www.chieftain.com/metro/1166015694/1

http://www.haleakalatimes.com/news/story2244.aspx

http://texascivilrightsreview.org/phpnuke/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=708

Yaser Hamdi: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaser_Hamdi

COG: http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/march2006/010306_b_camps.htm

REX84: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rex_84

Mike Gallagher’s comments: http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-ops5w1A7dK6gFjhfKgWwXC_nLPU-?cq=1&p=397#comments

John McCain’s internet bill: http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-ops5w1A7dK6gFjhfKgWwXC_nLPU-?cq=1&p=373#comments

Military Commissions Act: http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-ops5w1A7dK6gFjhfKgWwXC_nLPU-?cq=1&p=191#comments

Law Enforcement thuggish behavior: http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-ops5w1A7dK6gFjhfKgWwXC_nLPU-?cq=1&p=191#comments