Miami River Bridge Openings

Celebrating Frank Zappa's legacy

The riverside tavern of Vilnius’ eccentric artistic neighborhood, Uzupis, seemed the perfect location to meet prominent photographer and founder of the (now legendary) Frank Zappa Fan Club of the early 1990s, Saulius Paukstys. Back in the day, Paukstys wore the leader’s hat as part of a ramshackle artistic revolution: breaking out after Soviet creative repression, he, along with a bunch of young Lithuanians, digging from a well of wild ideas, petitioned the government for the construction of the Baltics’ oddest landmark: a sculpture of American sixties and seventies rocker, Frank Zappa’s head. It was erected in 1995, and still stands today in Vilnius, on Kalinausko Street, near the city center. Nearly two decades later, Lithuania has expanded the Zappa legacy abroad. Paukstys was present last year at the opening of a replica of sculptor Konstantinas Bogdanas’ original Zappa head, in the city of Baltimore, USA. The celebrations were hosted by a free concert from Frank’s own son, Dweezil Zappa, as Lithuanian flags lit up the footpaths. So how did Lithuania become responsible for holding this Zappa flame? And how has the art scene changed since a group, posing fraudulently as the ‘Frank Zappa Fan Club,’ constructed their homage to the leader of bizarre band The Mothers of Invention? And what’s all the talk about building a golden John Lennon in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan? These secrets and more were revealed, during a conversation with The Baltic Times. In our artistic ideas there was more soul. Like a child who makes everything just for fun, just out of interest for himself, without thinking about money, or about the political situation and so on, this is how it was. Nowadays, if you want to realize an art idea, you must have sponsors who’ll fund it. Art has become a real business, and maybe it wasn’t so, fifteen years ago. It is difficult for ideas to materialize these days. It costs more money, and it is difficult to find sponsors. If you want to create a strong art project, you must be a strong art businessman. Maybe the same has happened around the world, but in Lithuania, fifteen years ago everything was easier to do. Because it was interesting. There were changes in the economic situation and the political space, from Soviet to independent Lithuania. Everyone began moving around, everything was new and there was a huge exchange of free ideas. Now everything is turning to the business side, and nothing can be done without deals, money, and so on. But anyway, places like the Vilnius Academy of Art [in the car-park of which the Zappa statue stands] are still very popular today. The Lithuanian Frank Zappa Fan Club was a mystification. When we proposed building the Zappa statue to the government of the city, petitioning under the club name worked for us. Instead of saying, “I, Saulius, want to build a Zappa monument,” we worded it as, “We, the Zappa fan club, with 1,000 members, need to do this project.” It sounded different. So we just used this mystification to help for a bigger movement. I think now it’s more interesting for foreign tourists, not for Lithuanians. A lot of Lithuanians don’t pay attention to it. When we built the statue in Vilnius, it was very strange, very interesting, and extravagant. Now, a lot of people don’t pay attention. Maybe it’s time for closing the case. A lot of friends ask me why we don’t make business from this statue, and why we don’t make other statues. But, we just don’t need it. We would like to make a gold statue of John Lennon in Kyrgyzstan, in the mountains, up near the clouds. A whole golden figure, with a golden guitar. It was a good idea, but also it’s just a joke. But anyway, Kyrgyzstan needs peace, it needs an end to civil war, and in this case maybe John Lennon, with his ideas about peacefulness triumphing over war, could be perfect. A lot of people ask about Bogdanas’ statue of Lenin. He maybe made one or two statues of Lenin, but in Soviet times, the government was asking for statues of figures like Lenin only from the best artists. Not every artist had permission to do this, make art about Lenin. So when he made Lenin, it’s a statement of how he was one of the best artists in his generation. Of course, he didn’t just make statues of Lenin. He has made many works without political thinking behind them, a lot of statues of historical figures from Lithuania, historical monuments, and so on. He’s really one of the best portrait sculptors from Lithuania, and maybe the whole [former] Soviet Union. It was very, very good he did the Zappa sculpture for us. Fototeatras is a photo studio for when people throw a celebration, for example a birthday, with a photo session. We have a lot of decorations: caps, jackets, and so on, and people dress up as they wish, and then can improvise some theater moments, while we make photos of this. We have a lot of military uniforms, guns, Middle Age dresses for the girls. Well, it’s been going for over fifteen years, and we thought in those years someone would make a mark about Zappa in the USA, but it never happened. So we figured we could create a replica statue in his childhood city. At first we were thinking about Los Angeles, but our friends from the U.S. government, from the embassy, told us LA is like a big village, with millions of people. A small statue in such a huge city wouldn’t make a big resonance. They told us Baltimore was the place. It’s one of the oldest cities in the USA, and has a very strong community, and the monument would be very important for the city. So, it happened, and they opened the monument last year, on September 17. It was very impressive. Zappa’s son, Dweezil Zappa, performed a free concert near the monument. Police closed the traffic in a space of around five blocks, and about 5,000 people came to the opening ceremony. Everybody was out on the street, a lot of people were shaking our hands and saying “Thank you Lithuania, thanks for the monument.” It was like a little euphoria there in Baltimore. We were feeling very important (Laughs). The mayor of the city presented us with honorary citizenships of Baltimore city. Yes, of course. Two years ago he played in Vilnius, and we met him there, and in Baltimore also, last year. His concert in Vilnius was interesting, nice music. There were around 2,000 people there. We showed him the statue [of Zappa in Vilnius] together. All his family was in Vilnius: [his widow] Gail Zappa, and his daughter Diva Zappa. His other daughter, Moon Unit, was not there. I’ve never met Moon Unit Zappa. In Baltimore, Ahmet Zappa was also there, another brother of Dweezil. The whole family was there in Baltimore, except for Moon. If everything goes well, we will go to the anniversary of the monument in Baltimore this year. It costs a little bit of money, so that’s the biggest problem, like everywhere. I think, otherwise, the Zappa monument case is closed, and we don’t have plans to make ten more monuments of Zappa in different countries. Maybe Kyrgyzstan, for John Lennon.

Walking Off the Big Apple: Flow On, East River: Brooklyn to ...

For two hundred years, crossing the East River by ferry was a commonplace activity although often unpredictable. Residents of Brooklyn routinely commuted to Manhattan by this variable way of water, subject to storms and tides, no doubt a stomach-churning experience during a fierce storm or frightening during the icy waters of winter. During the 18th century, in addition to weather hazards, commuters often complained about inebriated boatmen or boats overloaded with cattle. With its inaugural service in 1814, the steam-powered Fulton Ferry made the voyage not only safer and faster but much more pleasurable. Poets like Walt Whitman could then focus on the metaphors of "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" as opposed to simply hoping to reach the other shore. The decline of ferry service began with the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883, putting many East River ferry routes out of business. According to Manhattan's Lost Streetcars by Stephen L. Meyers (Arcadia Publishing, 2005), at the time of the bridge's opening, "there were at least 12 ferry routes in operation between Manhattan and Brooklyn, using 10 different ferry terminals in Brooklyn and 11 in Manhattan." Now, a hundred and twenty years later, give or take a few years, we're back on ferries on the East River. Like the first Fulton Ferry, they are wildly popular. As noted in The Wall Street Journal ( "Ferry Is Well Afloat" ), the city counted more than 109,000 people riding the new East River Ferry from its inaugural voyage on June 13 through this past Sunday. Operated by NY Waterway, the East River Ferry's regular weekday service connects two stops in Manhattan, one on E. 34th St. in Midtown and the other downtown at Wall Street's Pier 11, with four resurgent waterfront communities in Brooklyn and one in Queens. An additional route for Fridays in the summer adds Pier 6 at Brooklyn's Atlantic Avenue and Governors Island. The company made the ferry free for the first two weeks, but now the $4 one-way trip is in effect. Riders need to obtain a ticket at the vending machines at each stop, and the ticket is good for starting at any terminal and arriving at another. Please consult NY Waterway's East River Ferry official site . Designed for the modern-day commuter seeking alternative modes of transportation on the East River, the ferry will also likely continue to be popular with pleasure-seeking sightseers.

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