Frank Zappa

So that's where the weird name comes from... The gallant Frank Zappa was in fact the son of two stowaway Lithuanians who fled to the West in 1945. Actually, that's not true at all. Frankie has absolutely nothing to do with Lithuania, nor did he even set foot in the country. But it's just this that makes the monument so glorious. The Lithuanians love Frank; king of irreverence and remarkable moustaches, and they weren't going to let anything get in the way of building a tribute to the Zap. Unveiled in 1992, the bust of the pony-tailed rocker was brought to life by some artists from Uzupis; long live Frank.

Uncle Frank for president!

I went to see it and met some people from Germany who also love Zappa's music. It's great that there is such a monument.

This is cool. Gotta get there to see it.

What a surprise to find a memorial to the great Frank Zappa in the centre of Vilnius! With all that I learned from my visit to the Baltics combined with my love of the music of Frank Zappa the connections seem obvious to me now. I hope many Vilnius visiters get to visit this unusual special place if only for a couple of minutes while walking around the old town like I did.

The 'square' surrounding Frank Zappa's monument recently got a moderate facelift thanks to the initiative of some enterprising art school students who painted over some of the less inspired 'illegal' artworks, replacing them with a bunch of original works. This is something that's needed to happen for a while in our opinion and the space looks better now than it did before.

Sure, we all love Frank and mourn his passing, but this monument doesn't really do him justice and the likeness is a bit iffy, sorry to say. And what's with the really tall cylinder his bust is on? Frank was the King of Quirk, but this monument sort of fails to honor that--it's just aloof and ultimately head-scratching. Certainly more could be done with this space. Get out your brushes and spray cans and get to it.

Frank Zappa rules!!!!!!!!!!!!