I’ve been holding off on any discussion of Marc Maron’s burgeoning romance with rock princess and reluctant ’80s poster child Moon Zappa. Maybe because the subject matter felt too gossipy to deliberate on. Maybe I just forgot to get around to it. But when she dropped by the garage back in October of 2013, it caught me off guard. Here was an unusual guest. She’s a former MTV VJ, and of course her father was Frank Zappa. She was the Val voice-over in his most successful commercial song, “Valley Girl.”
But she hasn’t exactly been a person of note this millennium. And seemingly out of nowhere she’s on WTF. Hmm. I’m not saying I was unhappy to hear from her. Quite the contrary. Moon Zappa has been a buzzword in my head for as long as I can remember.
My father cited her given name, “Moon Unit” as one example of how eccentric ’70s Hollywood was–the name Moon-unit means ‘one that orbits the moon’. In hindsight, my father’s throwaway comment was probably why the triple album box set “Thing Fish” intrigued me like it did every time I passed it at Turtles Records. That and the grotesque thing fish creatures on the cover.
And my intrigue with “Thing Fish” is probably why I would purchase Zappa’s R-rated “Joe’s Garage” some five years later much to my mother’s chagrin. The lyric “don’t get no *expletive* on that sofa… sofa” rang out in refrain in English and in German throughout my house for years.
I’ve followed Moon’s ordeals and lack thereof over the years. She always struck me as cool yet practical. Maybe a little neurotic. But certainly intriguing. Sound familiar? I could picture her running in the same circles Maron did in New York in the late ’80s. It really didn’t seem that weird that she would be on the show after I chewed on the idea for a minute.
In the episode no. 434 of WTF, Zappa talks about her books, both published and still in the oven. And she talked about her unusual childhood. It was a pleasant and interesting conversation.
Then the flirting started, and the reasoning behind her appearance became less of a mystery. No to say Maron just aims for women he wants to date and asks them to be on his show. But there was a level of comfort and simultaneous awkwardness that wreaked of mutual crushing. Did I just write the words, “mutual crushing?” These two travelers, whose paths and proclivities often crossed, were clearly vibing.
I don’t think many WTFers were surprised to hear, after months of comments about his friend Moon and an unnamed special lady friend, Maron revealed earlier this month that he was dating his former guest. In fact, I’m guessing many of us were relieved to hear it. As a fellow broken human being, I’m always pleased to hear someone who has recently endured a difficult passage in life has found a happy thing. Here’s to happy things Marc and Moon. I wish you all the best.
