Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum (Cleveland, Ohio)

About three weeks ago, I got a text from a friend:
"Random: You want to go to Chicago July 17-20?"
Two weeks later and straight after a work travel to Florida, I was picked up from the airport and we began our drive to Chicago. Seeing as this was a rather insane travel day, we decided to break up the trip by stopping overnight in Cleveland. It was just about halfway and we'd get to go to this little gem in the city.

I'll start by saying this: this museum is about it in the city of Cleveland. Okay, so you have the Indians and the Browns, and the NFL Hall of Fame, but according to my travel buddy, that wasn't much worth visiting.

Nevertheless, we woke up in the hotel by the Cleveland Airport and drove into the city for the museum. Classic rock blares through outdoor stereos as you approach the doors of this curious architecture. Iconic, the triangle building resembles a giant guitar hero screen running to the sky. Going in, the atrium created by the Guitar Hero of Giants merely created the space for the gift shop and ticket purchasing area. It's a shame such a beautiful shape is used for such limited purposes.

The directions led us to the basement, where there was an easy-to-follow history of rock and roll. It started with a quick movie (that you're herded into), and moves on to the real meat and potatoes historical aspect of rock and roll. What struck my travel buddy and I were the protests over music that occurred; and the fact that some protests that were quoted on the wall were but a mere 10 years old. Funny to think that we think we've gotten so far, but we really haven't. How we just got out a short film filled with the racism America was filled with in the 20th century and we haven't improved our freedom of speech. How far have we really gotten?

Elvis was enshrined in the next couple of exhibits. I love me some Elvis but I'll get to Graceland when I'm in the mood for a dose of Elvis.

The next part was interesting in that it started with Gospel Music and moved through the ages of music to show how it progressed. As you move one display to another (which had typical music examples playing, artifacts and ephemera, and multi-media displays) you don't notice a difference. But all of the sudden you've gotten to Janis Joplin about 6 displays from Johnny Cash, and you think that rebellion merely has it's own definition, and it is truly in the eye of the beholder.

There was a combination of a lot of music, ephemera, and quotes on the wall in one of the last parts of this first portion of the museum. It was overwhelming for lack of a better word and I couldn't wait to move on. That said, this is a museum of music which is a strange concept because you don't observe music, you live it. You can attempt to put it on a shelf but it will just fling itself at you and force you to live it. This part had many stage costumes and how they changed through the ages, but like I mentioned, I was so overwhelmed by the whole section I just wanted to move on.

Newly installed over the elevator on the ground floor is the original C.B.G.B awning, stained and all. Hanging from the Atrium are different pieces of music history. The atrium is entertaining, but still borderline useless for such a unique construction (see: USMC Museum).

The second level had architects of Rock and Roll, and a part on the development of music videos. Architects of Rock and Roll include Les Paul and the development of easier ways to listen to music. Going through the Les Paul exhibit shows true dedication to an art. Understanding that he made it his life to make a better sound makes you better appreciate the guitar.

The third floor had the actual Hall of Fame. As we approached the door, we noticed movie times, but since this was just a stop over, we didn't want to sit back and watch a movie so we decided to just get to the hall of fame. As we walked up a ramp, there were pieces of glass with signatures of those inducted. Then we reached the newly inducted, and that was it. I suppose the signatures were the Hall of Fame (?) but we were a little disappointed, especially after experiencing the grandeur of Cooperstown last year.