Rock Hall Trip!
Hello, all!
It's been quite the while since I've posted and i felt that it was time for a good sized one.
Well, on Wednesday I left for Cleveland and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It was a school trip with another thirteen students (eight guys, six girls) and we stayed there for three days. The first night we went to the Hard Rock Cafe. That was a good time. I was amazed at some of the stuff they had in there. Just to start things off, they had six walls dedicated to just the Beatles and John Lennon. Oh-ho. And then I turned around a corner to go downstairs and nearly had a seizure because on every side of me I was faced with a towering wall of rock and roll memorabilia ... Jimmy Page's double-nekced Gibson from Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven Tour ... Clothing from Janis, Jimi, Grace, Keith, Bob, Jimmy, Neil ... Jimi's '64 Strat ... Mmmm. And that was just the stairwell. In the actual BASEment they had a wing dedicated to the Sex Pistols and Souixsise & the Banshees (how do you spell this?) ... Nyes.
On the second day we went to the Rock Hall for six hours and were shown pretty much everything by Mr Einarson. A lot of the building was under construction at the time, though, so we didn't get to see as much as we would have been about to (they were re-doing their floors?).
I cried at the John Lennon display ... yeah, yeah, laugh if you want. I don't care. He is my idol and to be as close to him as I was then was a wonderful thing, considering that I will never be afforded the opportunity to meet him in person. His Sgt. Pepper suit was enough to get me teary, but his glasses did me in. I just felt that he should still have those items, instead of a museum having them. Mr Einarson allowed me a special priviledge, though, and I was allowed to stay there longer than I was supposed to ... which was good, because I wasn't ready to leave.
Video Killed the Radiostar was quite something! I was completely drawn in by it. It's this tower of TVs that show different music videos and send subliminal messages to you telling you about how "video killed the radiostar" ... And when you are done watching it you lay back and think "Whoa. I just proved its point ..."
All of the other things were really great too. Although I was slightly disappointed with the Jimi Hendrix Experience Surround Sound Cinema. It just didn't cut it. It's supposed to make you feel like you are in the front row of a Jimi Hendrix concert. Well, the concert was very good, I was amazed as I always am when it comes to Jimi ... but I would have gotten the same thrill had I watched it in my livingroom. nothing about the theatre was special.
On the third day we spent four hours at the Rock Hall. The first two hours were spent with the curator Howard Kramer. He and Mr. Einarson are friends so he therefore gave us a special behind the scenes tour. He said he never does that for anyone else who isn't an elite rockstar, so we should feel pretty special. Kramer was a cool guy with some cool stories and a lot of cool stuff. He's got to have the coolest job in the world. I mean, he meets with musicians and then gets there valuables. For free. how does one get that kind of job, I wonder? But he showed us a bunch of awesome stuff: Hand-written song lyrics for "Pinball Wizard". One of two Jack Daniel basse made exclusively for Van Halen. Roger McQuinn's '64 Richenbacher 12-string (Mr Eianrson was drooling over this one. He loves the Byrds). One of two of Johnny Cash's custome-made Gibsons. --- He was going to bring in one of Bob Marley's dredlocks, but decided against it. It was really cool. The first thing he did when he met us in the morning was tell me how much he loved by (Velvet Underground) t-shirt ... which he continued to do at random intervals of time for the next two hours ... and so I decided I'd say something of the like back:
K: "Again. Grrrrrreat shirt!!! *thumbs up*"
J: "Thanks! I like yours too. It's blue."
He thought that that was the most hillarious thing ever. But I was just telling him what I saw.
The time spent at the hotel was fun. I roomed with Laura and Suzanne (two cool chicas), and across the hall from us were Doug, Matt, Kitt and Ethan. Oh, my. That was interesting. The first night Suz and Laura and I stayed up talking about dreams and psychological happenings and Zen philosophy ... Sound sophisticated? Well, when you put the three of us together we can take the most sophisticated of things and make them unsofisticated if we tried. And we did.
The second night I spent most of the night with the four guys across the hall, watching the Crossroads Guitar Festival in their room. My, I learned some disturbing things in the time. Hmmm. Guys are really odd ... or maybe it is just these guys ... Later Suz and Laura reappeared and we all sat watching Crossroads and mocking the PBS spokepeople ... I think that at that time I was the only person in that room who did not find Johnny Depp horribly attractive.
Jess: "Am I the only person here who doesn't find Johnny Depp horribly attractive?"
All: "Yes."
Doug: "Well, he is one attractive man ..."
Matt: "I mean, look at those cheek bones!"
Suzanne and Laura: "Mmmmm. Johnny."
Doug: "Oh, yeah ... Brad Pitt and Johnny Depp ... both beautiful men ... oh, yeah ..."
Kitt: "Well, I --- Brad Pitt ... meh. I dunno ... Yeah, sure, Johnny Depp's a beuatiful man, but Bradd Pitt ... not so much ..."
Jess (underbreath): "They aren't beautiful men. Jimmy Page is a beautiful man."
Kitt (having heard): "I'm sorry, what was that? I --- I didn't quite catch that ... could you repeat that please?"
Jess: "JIMMY PAGE is a beautiful man."
Kitt: "THANK you! See! .......... Yes, quite the fine specimine ..."
Do other guys think this way?
I bought a Brian Jonestown Massacre CD at F.Y.E. while we were in Cleveland. Everyone should check them out. They are a super good band from the '90s bent on starting a musical revolution to bring back '60s music. I was lucky; their CDs are impossible to find. I got the last one.