Sunday, June 12, 2005

Thank you Cleveland, Goodnight!

So I travelled north until I hit the lake.....well just stopped short, actually. The location : Cleveland. Destination : The Rock n' Roll Hall Of Fame. This was my first trip to the rock hall. I only live a couple of hours away, but for some reason I've managed to keep putting it off. Maybe it's because I'm not a big fan of the city. It's okay, I guess. I think the real reason I rarely travel to Cleveland is everything in between point A to B. Canton and Akron are always such a pain in the ass to drive through. And if I'm going to a concert in Cleveland I'm almost always guaranteed to hit rush hour traffic in one city or the other.

But not yesterday. It was a Saturday, which means no rush hour, plus I left early in the morning. The drive up was relatively painless. Canton is finally making some headway with their never-ending road construction. Gettin there, but still a long way to go. Akron wasn't too bad either. I DID, however, have to detour coming into Cleveland. I wasn't sure if I'd remember how to make my way OUT of the city, but it was no sweat.

So now I'm way off topic. The reason I trekked all the way to the Rock Hall was to attend an "Art Of Modern Rock" poster show. I collect gig posters. I spend way too much money on gig posters. I could be spending my money on worse things...like crack. Collecting gig posters seems safer, and legal. I got to meet quite a few of the artists whose work I admire....Emek....Derek Hess....Jermaine Rogers....Tara McPherson....plus many, many more. It's always great to put a face with a name. I mean, I could pick out a Emek poster out of a pile, but I couldn't tell you what the guy looked like. Plus, everyone I met was super cool. I always worry about meeting people I admire. Like, they might be a total ass to me and ruin my whole perception/image of them. I've had it happen a couple of times in the past, and it sucks to be let down like that. But yesterday everyone was fantastic. I also picked up three new sweet-ass posters. Noice.

The Rock Hall itself was pretty cool. Walking up to it I was thinking it didn't look very big. They don't allow photographs to be taken inside, so I didn't bother to take the camera. It was really impressive inside, tho. I think I spent 3-4 hours walking around looking at all the exhibits. If you're a music fan like myself, this place is mecca. This will not be my only trip there.

I'm going to be headed back to Cleveland later this week for a concert. Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers are playing at the Beachland on Thursday. I'm already preparing myself for rush hour traffic.