gerry fialka

Gerry Fialka used to work for the Zappa Family Trust, answering the phone, taking care of mail order business, etc...

random notes

     From: Patrick Neve (splat@darkwing.uoregon.edu)
Who is the guy who wraps stuff so it doesn't break?  There's something about his surreal performance at the end of those videos that prevents me from turning it off until I've seen every t-shirt and poster, until I've had the warning/guarantee read to me, until I've gotten the full tour of the cage and an offer to see the bathroom. That's the real cliffhanger.. we never did get to see it.  I'll probably always wonder what the bathroom looks like.  Perhaps we should all petition to Gail that they release a video containing footage of the Barfko-Swill bathroom.  Actually, it's funny how he says that they're "all out of videos at the moment."
But who is this guy, what's he doing now?  What a wild man.  I don't know why I don't turn it off; does anyone else have this experience?  For one thing, I think that after 3 hours of Baby Snakes I'm too physically and mentally exhausted to pick up the remote.  But also his speaking style is so absurdly different than anything else in the video that it serves as sort of a 15-minute dada after-dinner mint.

     From: Lewis Saul (lsaul@azstarnet.com)
When Gerry Fialka was running things, packages were sealed, phones were answered (hell, that's how I met Gerry -- just shootin' it on 818PUMPKIN a couple of times, and finally met him a few months later).

    From: Bill (billf_spamfree@patriot.net)
Just a nice guy.  I used to call him up at 818-pumpkin and just shoot the breeze once in while about what records were coming out and 'wouldn't it be neat' if George Clinton and FZ did something together ..... like a doo-wop album ... or have George record with FZ's band or take them on tour without Frank, etc... It was weird seeing him in NYC in a  buttoned shirt and jacket after seeing him in that video for years. :-)
I had heard that Gerry Fialka went to work for George Carlin after he left the ZFT.  I still read Fialka's record reviews once in a while in a CA-based punk-new wave magazine (using newsprint so my fingers get all dirty) whose name escapes me. I haven't seen Gerry since Zappa's Universe.

     From: Gregory J. Sandell (sandell@sparky.parmly.luc.edu)
     Date: 1997/01/02
Nigey Lennon will be appearing February 16 at 4 p.m. at Skylight Books, 1818 N. Vermont Ave,, Los Angeles, as part of California Classics Books' "Collision of the Sublime and the Ridiculous" event. She will discuss "Being Frank" and her collaboration with David Walley, "The Lost Episodes". Also appearing will be longtime Zappa colleague Gerry Fialka's acoustic funk duo Black Shoe Polish with their sociopolitical satire. For more information, call the bookstore at 213/660-1175.

     From: Zoogz Rift "The Liquid Moamo" (moamosan@earthlink.net)
Gerry Fialka used to tell me that he'd find my stuff on Zappa's kitchen table, but that Frank never mentioned my name.

     From: purple (purple@ingress.com)
     Date: 1996/06/24
The Canadian Bob Dobbs explains Nenslo in the new issue of FLIPSIDE(June96) on the magazine stands now. There is also an article in today's Los Angeles Times (June 24/96) about a Finnegans Wake group that he started featuring a photo of Gerry Fialka disguised as Frank Zappa.

     From: Biffyshrew (biffyshrew@aol.com):
I had a nice chat with Fialka once...he asked me if I had ever met Robert Fripp, I said yeah, I interviewed him once, and Fialka's burning question was "Is he an asshole?" 

     From: Raymond Ricker (JRTX82B@prodigy.com)
Gerry was, and most likely is to this day, a fabulous human being whom I enjoyed talking philosophies with over the phone.

     From: Jeffo 
Gerry Fialka must be a heck of a cool dude. I used to talk with him a lot about Zappa stuff, and I remember one time I was going to be in LA on business and I asked him if Barfko-Swill was "open" such that I could check it out. He said, "no, not really, but give me a call and I can take you around a bit, maybe check out Venice Beach or something" and he actually gave me his home phone number! Very cool and trusting! Unfortunately, I had my wife with me and we have friends in LA that we hadn't seen in a long time and the trip was short so I wasn't able to work it in.