Zappa died on 4 December 1993. I remember playing Hot Rats that evening; that was the first vinyl I could find in my collection. He died too early, and I often wonder what he would be doing musically and politically had he indeed lived.
Elsewhere I have spoken about my meeting the band at Penn State in April 1973, which netted me an autograph from Frank. Tonight I want to speak about the picture.
What is generally not known is how much of an influence and inspiration Zappa was in Eastern Europe, starting from the Cold War. Vaclav Havel, playwright-turned-politician from the former Czechoslovakia attested to this fact. Artists longing for freedom on all levels sensed a vitality and creativity unlike anything they had ever known.
The picture is from the eastern part of Berlin. I would post my own picture, but the when I was in town for a seminar in 2011, time was tight and the only day I had to take the picture of the street from the Marzahn district was the day before I flew out. I spent most of the morning and early afternoon with some friends from the seminar touring the vast Museum of German History, and ending up going to a late lunch with them. Ach, next time! The weather was nto so great then, anyway.
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