Zappa.com

Hello boys and girls!

I don't know if you know that in Lithuania's capitol - Vilnius there's Frank's monument!
I've searched google and didn'f find another all over the world. Do you know some other Zappa's monuments? Is that possible that there's the only his monument in post-communist Eastern Europe country? What a shame!!!
I'm from Poland and I've just been a few days visiting Vilnius - very nice town by the way, beautiful girls like in Poland . Can you imagine how I was suprised and shocked when I wrote about this monument? I run quckly to see, touch this. I made some photos, but I don't know how to add them here, can anybody help me?
The monumen is is nearly in the center of the city, by the Belgian embassy, there's a little square by the monument, grafitti on the wall.
Zappa has never been to Lithuania, you can find by google all the story connected with this monument

FraZa

The Vilnius bust is described here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_references_to_Frank_Zappa#Portraits, as is another one in Germany.

The latter looks like this:

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"Everybody in this room is wearing a uniform, and don't kid yourself" - FZ
http://www.myspace.com/kirnehness

I was there at the unveiling in 1994. I went because my sister showed me a piece in the Guardian (Uk daily paper). I got the last Lithuanian Airways plane out of Heathrow, which I later found had Joe Black from Ryko UK and Journalist Tommy Udo and his photographer from the NME (New Musical Express) on-board.

Joe met up with the 'Frank Zappa club of Vilnius' and he presented them with a complete set of Zappa/Mothers Ryko catalogue, and a signed copy of Poodle play (as I call it ) by Watson, hardback I recall. What was remarkable was how they managed it: Lithuania is very good on sculptures, and the initial proposal that they site the Bust of FZ nearby the Sculpture Academy, but a lot of dissent from the old-timers at the college said no, so as a democratic Lithuania was in its infancy, there was one or two freaks wielding 'High Executive Power' and Saulis Pukstitis of the Zappa Club managed to get a site in the old part of Vilnius, the part that is a UN World Heritage site, and a much better site than the Academy out there on the outskirts. Which is truly remarkable.

The pedestal came from a Chemical plant, which would have been a high grade steel alloy ( Chromium and Moly) which would have seen off the worst excesses of the Lithuanian winter, and the bust was made by a famous local sculpter (I am ashamed not to know his name) I went to see his studio, it was incredible, it realy looked liked a 13th Century Alchemists laboratory. He made a lot of studies of the old herd; Stalin, Lenin, Marx etc. I saw his full size maquette of FZ and some clay studies. He was very interested in me because I think I was wearing a Turban to cover my long hair, and had modelled a Sikh when India and Russian block were on their previous good terms.

I was pleased to see a full military band at the unveiling, I think they played tunes like 'The animals go in two by two' sadly no FZ, but they did have a bassoon section, and I said that FZ would have been very pleased by this. The whole unveiling was captured by local TV, also French and Reuters news agency. I said at the time that I don't know if The Zappa family know about this, but having the Frank Zappa edifice in a UN World Heritage site at the hopefull beginning of a new Lithuania, was a tremendous testament to what FZ was, and was suitably iconic. I said that I hope the family hears and approves this gesture.

I have photographs of the event and the Professors Medieval studio, I would be happy to share the images with the Forum, so please PM me.

I must agree with the previous assertion, that Lithuania has the highest % of attractive well groomed blonde women per head of capita that I have noticed

Deepinder Cheema

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A Blanket in my Muesli. A Blanket in my what??

He's a CEO for Chrissakes!

Thanx for the story.

I'd never seen the pedestal, so thanx for the pics.

I've never been to the Baltics, so thanx for the statistics.

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There isn't much chance that you'll get people to like you. The best that most folks can hope for is that people will put up with their shit. MTF

Revel in your otherness. MK

STILL pissed at Tipper. VCF

I remember I read about a Frank Zappa's Street somewhere, but I don't remember where that is. In Sweden, perhaps?

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQPfrDoNVhk

this is it!

It's in Berlin, Germany http://www.welt.de/multimedia/archive/0 ... 32740g.jpg

the street naming was a fun and important ceremony followed just a few days later by zappanale 18...debutante daisy and i were there!!
opening ceremonies for zappanale were held the night before in bad doberan, germany...just a block away from the kamp theatre is where the bust is...you rub frank's nose for good luck or just for tradition

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"gonna git a cuppa coffee..."

The picture that is included in this thread is not the one in Vilnius.
See for instance http://nl.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotos-g274951-d290794-Frank_Zappa_Statue-Vilnius.html#17629812.
Although the story how it came to be is rather funny, I do think it is a bad statue. It really shows that the artist had a history of making communist-type of sculptures. He looks like a communistic, author of intellectual crab.
Anyway: I don't think that the sculpture itself honours FZ in the way he enriched our culture..