Baltimore to honor local son Frank Zappa

That's right, it's not all about politics here. We do music, too! I'll bet you didn't know that Frank Zappa grew up in Baltimore, did you? Don't feel bad, neither do most Baltimoreans. From today's Baltimore Sun:

Most Baltimoreans are aware of their hometown's claim on Edgar Allan Poe, H.L. Mencken and John Waters, but fewer know that Zappa, who made more than 50 records between the late 1950s and his death in 1993, was born in Baltimore, the son of immigrants from Sicily.

His family lived in the 4600 block of Park Heights Ave., then moved to Edgewood in Harford County. Zappa's father, a chemist and mathematician, had a job nearby at Aberdeen Proving Ground. They moved to California when Frank was 10.

But Frank's early years are about to emerge from their of obscurity, thanks to some ... Lithuanians?

"We're honored to have a chance to present this Frank Zappa monument to the city of Baltimore," said Saulius Paukstys, 43, the president of one of the biggest and arguably most dedicated Frank Zappa fan clubs in, of all places, the Republic of Lithuania. "As an artist, and much more than that, he has meant a great deal to the Lithuanian people."

If Zappa has been something of an unknown prophet in his own land, people like Paukstys, a photographer, have long held him in high regard as a symbol of free expression in the post-Cold War former Soviet bloc. "Before 1990, you have to remember, [Lithuanians] could not criticize society," Paukstys said through an interpreter. "Frank Zappa was a voice of freedom."

Kind of makes you want to move to Montana, become a dental floss tycoon, doesn't it? Yes, go dig out those old Mothers of Invention albums. You know you wanna.