cleveland 5-20-03
went to pick up leighanne at the airport at 9 am and left right from there to cleveland. all i have to say is screw yahoo and their 3.5 hr drive to cleveland. took about 2 and a half (really 3 cuz we stopped for lunch)……find the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with no problem, super easy to get to. if i got there without getting lost it must be easy to find. get in the lobby, and the first thing we see are these giant guitar sculptures – much like the Chicago cows, and the Buffalo…Buffaloes…but guitars designed by different artists, and the one facing us is called “michael as a musical instrument” and is being held by a sparkling glove.
and also in the lobby were trabbants from the zoo tv tour, and the zoo tv sign (which should be placed somewhere dark so you can actually see it). i’m not really going to go into a review of the museum, just the stuff that was cool/interesting/whatever…
there’s an area that is like 50 years of….and they had popstars, and each decade in music, and stage costumes. so we’re looking at the stage costumes, and i’m like WHERE IS BOWIE?! there’s gotta be bowie costumes, he’s the king of costumes. we go through the decades, i’m like, they must be in 70s…still no bowie. bowie is on the music timeline, but no ziggy stardust costume etc. we get to the end, and go down this way we had missed, and what is there?….a whole showcase of bowie costumes LOL. ashes to ashes clown/mime costume, stage costumes from various tours (including the short shorts from the ziggy era), the union jack coat from the earthling cover that i wanted to steal, etc. so i was satisfied. fishy took an illegal picture real fast with the digicam lol. there was another bowie jacket i wanted to steal too cuz it was way rad.
la la la, the main reason we went was the u2 exhibit of course. the part that is being taken away at the end of the month is the Anton Corbijn photograph display. once again, i want to be anton corbijn. they had various photos from his history with u2, including some of my favs like bono in the bathtub. there were about 15 i wanted to steal hahaha. the artifacts part, with hand written lyrics, merchandise, blahblahblah was cool. they had these rad rattle and hum promotional posters – 4 of them, one band member on each poster – which would be so friggen cool to hang up if you had the whole set. i’d totally use them to decorate in my “real adult” living space, if i had the whole set.
the highlight was the upstairs of the exhibit – the costumes. cuz you walk up the stairs and there is macphisto in all his glittering glory. we’re like freaking out LOL. they had zootv tour costumes, like the zoo army blue uniforms the rest wore while bono was macphisto, and mirrorball man. they had elevation era clothes, like the black leather things “evil u2” wore in the elevation video, they had edge’s everyday #7 shirt and bedazzled pants…they had the popmart era stage gear, which we freaked out about again, cuz it was bono’s bubble suit, and boxing robe/tight pants ensamble…edge’s black cowboy/mr the edge shirt, one of adam’s stage outfits (not the orange jumpsuit thank god) and his rad yellow bass, larry’s “hit man” outfit. it was so fabulous. they had the flag jacket!!! i wanted to steal that too. gah bono and his jacket’s. they had other stuff from the tours in cases and crap. it was fantastic. we were so hyper cuz they kept playing the “history of u2” thing that was on the bonus dvd. OH and yeah, on the floor with the photos was the “it’s only rock and roll” theatre, where they show videos of whatever. there is a scrolling marquee to tell what’s showing in the theatre, and when i saw it, it said “making of joshua tree” so we’re still looking at the photos, we just wander in the theatre and it’s the end of zoo tv – macphisto singing “love is blindness” so i’m like AH ITS MACPHISTO and we run in. apparently they show different stuff all day long, and had shown the entire zoo tv concert. after that was going to be entire elevation show. could have stayed there all day hahahah.
we were there about 3 hours, went back to the car to get my camera to take lobby photos, and headed out. on the way home i decided to take a detour to chautaqua (that’s probably spelled wrong). chautaqua institute is this sort of camp, started in the 1800’s, that concentrated on arts and music. it’s not like… a summer camp thing, or a resort thing (like in dirty dancing)…it’s hard to explain, but you would go there to study your musical instrument, or vocal training, or art, and they’d have concerts and lectures and stuff. it’s actually pretty famous. it had gotten pretty run down as i remember it when i was a kid, when i was dragged there by my parents. but now it’s pretty damn cool to me, cuz as fishy said it seems sorta cult like. so we detoured off the highway and found it, sorta sweet talked the guy at the gate to let us drive around (your supposed to have a reason to go into the institute, even if its offseason). i wanted to go on a “pilgramage” to the “holy land”. the most bizzare aspect of the institute to me is their model of the holy land…palestine. as a kid i used to just walk around the area and step on all the cities, having no idea what it actually was. but it’s a mock version of the dead sea, and whatever other water way things are around it, with the major biblical cities placed along the “map”. so even tho it was raining, we found the holy land and walked around it a bit, drove around the institute inspecting the surreality of it, took some pictures, headed out and back to the thruway.
that led to the second unintended detour…getting on the expressway the wrong direction and heading back to the NY/PA line…it’s not possible for me to have a road trip without going the wrong way at least once. BUT it was fruitful because we got off at the last exit in NY, and stopped at the best hickass truck stop ever. it was glorious. exactly what a truckstop should look like. i took pictures. haha they also had a sign out in front advertising carol ho homemade soup…ho soup definitely picture worthy.
got back on the thruway the correct direction, headed home. driving was pretty awful cuz it was pouring most of the way, and the spray from the trucks was maddening. but we got home. had a fabulous time. it rocked major.
so tomorrow we’re journey-ing to the terminal, and the psych center, then to pick up my dry cleaning and do the falls/casino/canada thing. should be another great adventure. going to try to con our way into the terminal and psych center. hehe