As historic moments go, this one, it could be argued, was closer to "Watson, come here!" than to another Saturday night at the movies.

A small audience scattered among a few dozen computer laboratories gathered Saturday evening to watch the first movie to be transmitted on the Internet -- the global computer network that connects millions of scientists and academic researchers and hitherto has been a medium for swapping research notes and an occasional still image.

Yes, the cult movie, "Wax: Or the Discovery of Television Among the Bees," had to be reduced from full color to a blurry black and white. And true, the spotty audio occasionally went silent. But coming as companies in the cable TV, telephone and computer industries are hot on the trail of 500-channel, all-digital TV, let history record that Saturday night marked the first baby steps in that direction. 

The movie, an 85-minute feature by David Blair about a beekeeper who ends up being kept by the bees, has attracted a cult following since its release in 1992. Mr. Blair transmitted it Saturday night from a film production studio in midtown Manhattan. He played it on a VCR and fed it into a computer that converted it into digital form and fed it into the Internet. Promises, Promises

Mr. Blair's effort demonstrated that while information industry giants like Tele-Communications Inc., A.T.& T. and Time Warner are tantalizing the nation with promises of hundreds of channels of ultra-high-resolution interactive pictures transmitted via fiber-optic superhighways, the technology is still in its infancy.

Indeed, it was not until halfway through the digital network premier of "Wax" that the engineers gathered at an office of Sun Microsystems Inc. in Mountain View, Calif., were even able to find the movie signal in the Internet datastream and direct it to play on their color work stations.

Carrboro's reputation as an arts-heavy small town will get a boost in August when photographer Jesse Kalisher opens a new gallery at 209 E. Main Street, across from The ArtsCenter.

Kalisher's photographs are included in the permanent collections of musuems including the Fine Arts Museum of Houston, the DeYoung Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco and the Ackland Art Museum in Chapel Hill. Limited edition prints of his works start at $1,500, but Kalisher said he believes "everyone should have access to affordable art," and his gallery will sell reproductions starting at $20.

The first exhibit at the Jesse Kalisher Gallery will feature selections from his "Art Watching" series, including "Mona Lisa at the Mona Lisa." The gallery will also show a selection of international images from cities including Venice, Paris, San Francisco and New York.

Jon Wilner, executive director of The ArtsCenter, said the addition of Kalisher and his gallery will be a welcome addition to the town's arts community. "His success in town will pave the way for more art galleries," Wilner said. "And more galleries means more people downtown, shopping in our stores and eating in our restaurants."

The Jesse Kalisher Gallery will open on Aug. 8, coinciding with that month's 2nd Friday ArtWalk, the popular monthly event in which participating galleries and other arts venues in Carrboro and Chapel Hill stay open late and often feature music and refreshments. He and his wife Helen and the gallery staff will be on hand for the opening from 6 to 9 p.m., with food catered by the Open Eye Cafe.

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Regional Juried Exhibition--Cultural Crossroads

Ever hear of "The Futurist Manifesto"? It was first published in 1909, and it wasn't what people today would view as "politically correct". It wasn't even a fuzzy wuzzy tome on the arts. Here is is for those who are interested. There is a lot of information on this on the web, but here is the original along with a link to a web site devoted to the The Futurist Manifesto.

The Futurist Manifesto

Dweezil Zappa, center, leads Zappa Plays Zappa.

Yet, all that really matters to Zappa is his guitar.

So it's not surprising that Zappa is obsessed with the music created by his icon father, Frank Zappa. For the last two years, Zappa -- who calls his late dad Frank -- has been focusing on his pop's tunes. His aptly named tribute band, Zappa Plays Zappa, will reverently showcase Zappa material tonight at the Lincoln Theatre.

Zappa, 38, called to chat about the impact of his late father, his unusual upbringing and remarks made by Project Object, a Zappa cover band.

Q: What inspired Zappa Plays Zappa?

A: I don't want Frank's music to be forgotten. There are a lot of younger people who were never exposed to his music. And then there are the casual listeners, who just know "Dancin' Fool," "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow" and "Valley Girl." Frank was much more than those songs. Those songs don't give you one sixty-fourth of what he was all about. There was no one like Frank, and there is no one remotely like him today. That's why I'm out there playing his music.

Q: How do you even put together a set list? The Zappa canon is so diverse and immense.

A: He composed and recorded so much music that what I pick for shows is endless. I look at that as a good thing. The first thing I did when I started this project was listen to everything Frank did in chronological order. There are so many special details in his music.

Q: Project Object takes exception to your work. This is what PO's Andre Cholmondeley said recently: "Our band is the closest to how [Frank] Zappa did it. We leave room for experimentation. Zappa Plays Zappa plays it by the book. There's a gross misunderstanding there. Zappa kept it tight, but he kept a window open." Your thoughts?

A: There's no reason I should take anything they say as valid. To try to turn this into a competition is stupid. They're trying to make a living off of material that's not their own and they're doing a poor job.

Q: So you treat your father's music like an orchestra treats Mozart?

A: That makes total sense to me. Do some of these bands think they're going to make my father's music better? That's not going to happen. Do orchestras take Mozart and rip it apart? Of course not! Frank did things a certain way, and that's the way we present the material. This project is so important to me.

Q: You add an extra element that Project Object or any other band tipping the cap to your father can't bring, which is Frank Zappa. He performs posthumously courtesy of audio/video synchronization, which is trippy.

A: Yes. He's on multiple tracks playing and singing, and it really works well. It's something you have to see to believe.

Q: When did you realize that your dad was different from everyone else?

A: I think it was pretty obvious early on. I would go to friends' houses, and they were run rather differently. Most kids wanted to come to our house because it had a very different kind of structure. The kids had freedom. At our house there wasn't a real issue how you expressed yourself. We didn't go out of our way to use profanity. There was an appropriate time and place for that language. It was used to best make a point.

Q: You take the taboo out of it.

A: Exactly. We did that about everything. Look at the way my family grew up as opposed to other Hollywood families. I've never smoked a cigarette, never taken a drug, never been drunk. Compare that to the rest of the Hollywood kids, many of whom have been in jail or rehab. They say, "Life has been so miserable." Give me a break. But people figured that my siblings and I with the screwed-up, crazy names would be the troubled kids. We ended up being smart and creative due to how we were raised. We learned right from wrong. What I left our house with was the belief that no matter what you do, do it the best you can and be of some value to society.

Q: When did you realize that your dad was a music icon?

A: It never was something that I thought about it. I knew that's what he did. It became important for me to realize it. That's been brewing for a long time. I decided to do this tour four years ago. I had to take two years to make a lot of changes in my own guitar playing style.

Q: What was your greatest adjustment?

A: I physically played guitar for over 20 years. I had to adjust how I attacked the strings. It was the equivalent of learning how to walk in a different manner. Frank approached things differently. He wasn't a traditional guitarist. He started as a drummer and then studied to be a composer. He didn't worry about texture or instrumentation. He didn't worry about things that went together. He was about deviating from the norm. That's how he approached everything, and that's why his music is so unique.