Cleveland, Ohio
1/19/2015
We got the Rock Hall without much incident. The building
hard to miss, with its distinctive I.M. Pie design – so, you know, triangles.
Did I mention the museum is free on Martin Luther King Day? Oh yeah. Lots of
people seemed to know that. The place was so packed it was truly hard to move
around. It felt more like being in the crowd at a rock concert, rather than at
a rock museum. It was hard to keep all the kids moving yet together. That’s ok.
We’re kind of used to that, and you do get what you pay for.
The museum itself is neat. It’s got a lot of goodies from
various rock acts. They have Rage Against the Machine’s tour van. Actually, I
don’t care for their music, but I had the exact same van when Laura and I were
dating. Mine is not in a museum… yet.
I have a couple of students who are real musicphiles. We
have a bit of an indignant running joke about how someone like Madonna could be
inducted into the Rock Hall. (“Where do they draw the line? Why not induct
Benjamin Franklin, because if he hadn’t discovered electricity, there wouldn’t
be electric guitars!”) Actually being at the museum, I got the impression the
museum was built less around the music, but more about the “Rock and Roll
attitude” – this sort of anti-establishment cultural shift and I suppose
someone like Madonna fits into that tradition. I don’t know. It sort of made
sense, actually being in the museum, and the way the exhibits are designed.
They had a whole hallway of Jimi Hendrix’s wild costumes,
which Kathleen really liked. (I think she’s forgiven me for the snow.) Daniel
wanted his picture taken next to the signatures of the band-mates in Queen.
Yes, he’s five. He has a favorite band. It is Queen. In fact, ever since he was
a baby he has called them “Rock Star” – presumably in the pantheon of rock
stars, Queen is such a pinnacle that they can claim the title “Rock Star” above
all others. He still calls them that, even though he knows they are called
Queen.
Brigid is more of an Elvis fan.
I enjoyed seeing the Pink Floyd wall. All teachers have to
appreciate that one, don’t they?
When we left, Daniel and Philip wanted to see one last
exhibit. There was this crazy looking bus just outside the museum, with all
sorts of kooky stuff hanging off of it. We went over to get on board, when I
realized this wasn’t an exhibit, but just some weird bus full of awesomely
bearded dudes parked up against the museum. ROCK AND ROLL, MAN!
We didn’t go
in.
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