On our way home from Maine, we stopped in Cleveland. Some may say “why they hell would you do that?” And after driving through a really nasty stretch of the east side, I agree with that question.
But we wanted to do two things in Cleveland. Go see the Gehry building on the Case Western Reserve Campus and hit the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame.
Gehery first. It’s a very cool building with his usual curved metalwork dominating the building, but it had a nice understated inclusion of curved brick areas as well. If you’re not an architecture / Gehry fan, then it’s not worth your time. But we love this stuff. (here’s a link to the 6 images I processed from the building)
Now for the real reason for this post, the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame. It was cool to go, but it was a disappointment of sorts that I don’t think I’ll ever bother doing again.
Let me explain…
First and foremost, it was way too slanted towards certain specific artists (Hendrix, Morrison, Rolling Stones, etc).
I was surprised to see nothing from an acts like Rush or The Cure and very (I stress very) little from Led Zeppelin of all bands. I also saw a few things about Sting, but nothing really about The Police.
I understand that the term Rockstar has been adapted to encompass all musicians living a certain lifestyle, but I’m not sure about pure Rap groups being inducted into the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame. I love Run DMC, but they were not a Rock act by any definition. Neither is Jay-Z or Public Enemy which had artifacts in the museum. At least the Beastie Boys had punk roots and incorporated a lot of classic rock into their music.
I don’t like the categorization of music that they utilize in the main exhibit space. There’s a whole section devoted to Seattle Grunge, but that was part of the larger alternative music movement that began long before. When I see more about Temple of the Dog than I do about Jane’s Addiction, then something is very wrong. And if you’re going to create these categories, then you missed major pieces like progressive rock that have endured.
The last thing about the Hall that really struck us was why the hell was it so damn expensive. It costs an adult $22 for admission. They seemed pretty recession proof for a Friday morning, so there’s no reason there for such a high price. The biggest thing: almost everything in the museum is part of another collection – not property of the museum (aka they didn’t have to procure it). Sure there’s insurance, property taxes (maybe), and all the costs with being an employer. But $22? Most of the best museums in the country and world are cheaper or free.
So anyway, that was my Cleveland experience. It’d take a pretty big event to get me back to the city for any reason.