My Take on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
ROCKANDROLL HOF

Location

Cleveland, Ohio...take I-90 north, get off on East 9th Street, go past Jacob's Field (where the Indians play), keep going, it's the big glass pyramid on the left by the water.

Admission

$12.95 for adults; $9.50 for children ages 4-11

In a nutshell

Pretty cool

Is it worth the money?

yup

Is it worth the drive?

depends on where you're coming from

Tell me more, tell me more...

OK

It's this huge glass pyramid-ish thing, see, and it's got six levels. If you get there by noon or so, you should start at the top and work your way down, because being as how it's a pyramid-ish thing, it gets smaller the higher you go. And being as how it's a big attraction, it gets fuller the later it gets. It's kinda laid out for a bottom to top tour, but you'll have a lot more elbow room if you go top to bottom. If you get there much later than noon, it's gonna be crowded everywhere so just deal with it. Oh yeah. There are three theaters showing fairly short (15 to 30 minutes) movies. and I wish we'd seen them first off, because we had to wait half an hour to see the last one (we just dealt with it).

You'll probably feel that they don't have enough stuff on your favorite person, but they do have a whole lotta goodies. You could spend a week at the information kiosks they have on one of the levels (I forget which one; deal with it). You can look up all kinds of stuff on just about any R&R'r, and usually hear an interview or two. Each one has two headsets and a touch-screen. The interface is real straightforward, so you don't have to be a compu-geek to use it.

I really enjoyed looking at the John Lennon memorabilia. They have a report card from his grammar school days, one of his daily underground newsletters from the same era, and his Hamburg-era leather jacket, among other things. They have several of Jimi Hendrix's handwritten lyrics, and one of his favorite guitars, but I wanted MORE (I had to deal with it). Lots and lots of rocker's clothing on mannequins; a fair amount of instruments; tons of photographs (way too many of Andy Warhol for some reason); a bizarre Pink Floyd area (bizarre in a good, Pink Floyd-ish way); a one-hit-wonder booth; random exhibits on random rockers; a history of R&R on Radio area; and a whole lot more. One thing they DON'T have is very much at all on Stevie Ray Vaughan; which just doesn't get it (I've tried to deal with it but I can't).

At least one of the films has some cursing, references to drug use, and a brief scene of a topless hippie chick at Woodstock, so if you're one of those people who shield their children from absolutely everything so they can go out in the world later and be overwhelmed by reality, then skip the flick. It's not at all bad, really.

There's food on level three. It's not too unreasonable, considering. There's also a gift shop. It's real big and fulla neat stuff; and T-shirts cost thirty-six bucks. CD's aren't that overpriced. Lotsa books and trinket things, too. I went into shock after seeing a T-shirt price tag and don't remember much else, so that about wraps up the old review.

Adios, muchachos y muchachas




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