Fun_People Archive
29 Jul
Zappafrank

Date: Fri, 29 Jul 94 21:41:07 PDT
To: Fun_People
Subject: Zappafrank

Forwarded-by: <joeha@microsoft.com>
From: WhiteBoard News for July 25, 1994

Phoenix, Arizona:

Many thought that Frank Zappa's music was from another
planet.  Now one's been picked out for him.

Besieged by letters and E-mail, a Cambridge,
Massachusetts, astronomy organization on Friday named
an asteroid that orbits between Mars and Jupiter
"Zappafrank" after the late musician.

Zappa died in December at age 52 after battling
prostate cancer for two years.  Outrageous and
irreverent, he fused jazz, classical and rock music
behind lyrics that often tested the limits of free
speech.

The asteroid-naming was appropriate, Zappa fans
thought, because the planet was discovered in 1980 by a
Czech astronomer and Zappa symbolized artistic freedom
to youngsters growing up in Communist Eastern Europe.
He became friends with Vaclav Havel, the dissident
playwright who became Czech president.

© 1994 Peter Langston