The Mudshark Interview - Frank Zappa, The Mothers Of Invention

FZ: What’s your name?

Mr Tickman: I’m Martin Tickman

FZ: And what is your position here?

Mr Tickman: Front office manager

FZ: The name of this stablishment is.

.. ?

Mr Tickman: This is the Edgewater Inn

FZ: In Seattle, Washington.

Can you tell me, uh, how some rock’n’roll groups

have taken advantage of this unique situation?

Mr Tickman: They’ve taken advantage in different ways, and we do encourage, uh,

and advertise that you can fish from your room and we are glad to have our

guests fish from 'em

FZ: Do you supply them with fishing equipment?

Mr Tickman: No, but we have a shop in the hotel that does rent the equipment as

well as bait

FZ: What sort of bait do they usually use?

Mr Tickman: Uh, it’s a preserved minnow of some variety, I don’t know exactly

what the fish is

FZ: Well, what do they do after they fish from the window?

Mr Tickman: Well, rock’n’roll bands and other guests as well often catch shark

and squid and octopus and usually we, it lands up either in the bath tub or

dribbled on the floor on the way to the bath tub

FZ: Mm-mmh.

.

Mr Tickman: But it’s not reserved to, uh, to any rock’n’roll bands, I mean,

other guests do it too

FZ: Mm-mmh, but how frequently do you find squids and sharks and octopuses in

the bath tubs of the rooms here at the hotel?

Mr Tickman: After almost any good weekend of pretty heavy occupancy,

say like over half the house filled

FZ: If you have over the.

.

Mr Tickman: Way, way.

.

FZ:.

.. over half house filled you’d find one, say?

Mr Tickman: Yeah, say, one or something like that

FZ: So how often would you say that is each week?

Twice a week you’d find a.

.

Mr Tickman: Well, I would, I don’t know that I would say that it would average

to anything like that, you may find on four or five rooms with fish from

various places, you know, around.

But there’s not much you can do with the

shark after you’ve caught him, you know, some of these things are pretty big

FZ: What would you imagine is done with these, uh, sharks after they’ve been

caught before they are left, uh, for you to be cleaned up?

Mr Tickman: Sometimes the guest calls the houseman or housekeeper to haul it

away because there’s nothing that they can do with it

FZ: Yeah, well.

Have you ever heard of any other things that were done with

them before they were hauled away?

Mr Tickman: Yes, a lot of, some people like to, uh, perform vivisection on 'em,

or something like that.

Occasionally you find that little bit of mess.

.

FZ: Yeah

Mr Tickman: I’ll say that the, the, the «blood on the carpet» syndrome is

rather, eh, rather rare, but it did occasionally happen

FZ: Do you ever find fish blood on the sheets of your beds here?

Mr Tickman: Not identifiable as such, no.

.

FZ: I see.

Do you know of any stories about, uh, bizarre sexual activities

performed with squid, octopus and mud sharks here in your rooms?

Mr Tickman: No. .. I should think a mud shark would be a little uncomfortable,

since their skin is so sandy but, uh, never heard of anyone having it with an

octopus