Zappa Plays Zappa – Zomby Woof
I mentioned getting Dweezil Zappa’s autograph in a previous post. I managed to get 5th row tickets to Zappa Plays Zappa at Orchestra Hall in Chicago in 2007, and the crowd energy was so intense that Dweezil stuck around at the front of the stage for about 1/2 hour after the show ended. Zappa Plays Zappa is basically a band that Dweezil put together to play his father’s music. I saw them 2 years in a row and in 2006 (where my seats were not so good) the special guests included former Zappa band members Napoleon Murphy Brock, Terry Bozio and Steve Vai.
Here is a clip of the song Zomby Woof from the 2006 tour featuring an unbelievable solo by Steve Vai, who, in my opinion is the best guitar player alive. Even if you don’t go for wanky guitar playing, you have to appreciate his absolute mastery of his instrument.
UPDATE: Youtube removed the Zomby Woof video so I am posting Echidna’s Arf from the same tour. It’s a pretty nice composition too. Hard to believe a band playing this live, but Zappa did it way back in 1972.
Search Engine Optimization – Jeff Ownby Knows What He’s Doing
I ( Ownby ) have been doing search engine optimization (seo) since about 1996, long before the majority of marketing people even knew what this meant or the importance of it. I guess I was a web 2.0 guy in a web 1.0 world. It was really hard to get gigs doing this back then, and now it’s a matter of fighting against the agencies and design firms who sell this service into their existing clients even though they don’t do it well.
One thing that has always killed me was not having great rankings for my OWN keywords in my industry. It wasn’t because we couldn’t do it. It was more the result of not having any time to do it because we were so focused on doing it for our clients. It was the classic case of the cobbler’s kids who didn’t have any shoes.
In October, we decided to focus a little more on our site for the term search engine optimization. It’s now Decemember and I just noticed some increased traffic coming in from this term. I checked in MSN ( and Live.com, which is Windows default search engine) and got a great Christimas present for the company – a #4 listing. Here is a direct link to the listing if it still shows up.
We’re still not showing up well in Yahoo and Google, but these things usually start in MSN and then move to the others as you build up your strategy.
I’m so glad we finally spent some time in our own house and got some good results.
Filed under Online Marketing by jeff | Comment (0)Summer and Smoke
Laura Leo Ownby finally got a lead at Theatre of Western Springs and it was a HUGE lead. She played Alma Winemiller in Summer and Smoke by Tennessee Williams for Mainstage 2, 2007. This show was a personal favorite of the theatre’s creative director so it was a big deal. The part was gigantic with huge monologues and lines on all but 2 pages of the script.
As I have written about before, I think Laura is a great dramatic actor and she really nailed this part.
Clarksdale, Mississippi, Tom Williams and Betty Ellis
In July, Laura and I took a drive down to Clarksdale Mississippi to study the accent for her upcoming role as Alma Winemiller in Tennessee Williams’ Summer and Smoke. Clarksdale is where Tennessee Williams grew up and was the inspiration for the town Glorious Hill, where the play is set. Clarksdale is also the home of the Crossroads and is the birthplace of the Delta Blues.
We rolled into town in late afternoon and checked around for a hotel, but it appeared that Clarksdale had seen better days. We decided to head up to the Moon Lake area to stay at a crappy casino on the river. There is a Moon Lake Casino in the play, which is where John Buchanan spends many a debaucherous night so we thought this was an appropriate place to stay. In the morning we headed back into town and found the downtown area, the Delta Blues Museum and Morgan Freeman’s juke joint, Ground Zero, where we had lunch. A kindly, unofficial tour guide of Clarksdale pointed us in the direction of Tennessee Williams park so we went across the center of town to visit his 20 foot by 50 foot park. Then something pretty amazing happened.
We were there about 15 minutes just soaking up the hot Delta air, trying to absorb some Tennessee Williams energy when an older woman pulled up in her car and started walking her dog around the park and eventually found her way over to us. At some point we mentioned that we were there to research accents and the area because of Laura’s part in the play. The woman, whose name is Betty Ellis, then proceeded to tell us the story of how she met Tom (Tennessee) Williams and how Summer and Smoke was her favorite play by him. She told us that Tom stayed in the rectory of St. George Episcopal church, the church she was active in all of her life. As we were recording her voice so we could study her accent more later, she told us about how the character Alma was based on her grade school piano teacher and that the character John Buchanan, was the based on the son of the real life Blanche Dubois.
We were wondering how we just happened to be in that park at the same time as Clarksdale’s eyewitness expert on Tennessee Williams when she asked to borrow my cell phone so she could call her son to come let us into the church and rectory that is so prominent in Summer and Smoke. We tried to insist this wasn’t necessary but trying to talk an older Southern woman out of this kind of hospitality was futile. So, we followed her over to the church and toured the rectory where Tennessee Williams lived and where Alma, through his writing lived. It was quite a magical moment.
Thank you, Miss Betty!
Filed under General Posts, Theatre by jeff | Comment (0)Time and The Conways
Laura played Madge Conway in the Mainstage 4, 2007 production of Time and The Conways. I think Laura’s performance in this role really caught the attention of people at the theatre and she will likely be doing a big part every year.
