Re/search Conversations

Thorsten Schutte, director of Eat That Question: Frank Zappa in His Own Words, joins V. Vale and Marian Wallace in the RE/Search office. Eat That Question: Frank Zappa in His Own Words directed by Thorsten Schutte (2016) Review by Marian Wallace There is never a dull moment watching Frank Zappa, from age approximately 14 to just before his all-too-early death at 52. “Eat That Question” shows that Frank Zappa was not only a self-taught musical prodigy—while also fun, topical, and “real”—but he was a straight and obsessive genius with Integrity. It is a wonderful thing to see him interact with the senate hearings committee on censorship (which was spearheaded by Tipper Gore) inviting the straight-laced, woman-senator-questioner (forgot her name) to “come by the house” if she wanted to see what kinds of toys his children played with. Besides her being foiled by Zappa’s unorthodox answers and trying in vain to remain “in character” as the “pro-censorship” hearings unfolded, she was obviously charmed by Zappa, and