Cleveland Rocks!

I haven't had much to blog about so I thought I would post something about a bit of sightseeing I did in Cleveland.  I heard mostly negative things about Cleveland but I didn't think it was all that bad of a place.  I worked some late nights during the weekdays while I was there.  The baseball regular season had ended so there wasn't an opportunity to see the Indians at Progressive Field—I did see it from the freeway so it joins Coors Field and Kaufmann Stadium as ballparks I've seen first hand from the outside.

Arguably the most well known attraction in Cleveland is the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum so I'd planned to go there before my visit.  Some of the locals told me it was a waste of money and that you "really have to like music".  Well, I really like music so I didn't let those opinions dissuade me and went anyway.  I spent around three hours touring the museum.  I think it has 6 levels.  The basement level traced the history of rock with displays representing each of the most influential periods via a timeline... Memphis, Detroit, San Francisco, Los Angeles, London, and the one I lived through... Seattle.  There were also big exhibits for Elvis, The Beatles, and The Rolling Stones.  On one of the mid levels there was a theater that looped year-by-year videos for all of the Hall of Fame inductees.  There was a ramp up from there with a glass wall that had all of the inductee's signatures followed by showcases for this year's inductees.  At the top was a special exhibit called "Women Who Rock" which was really cool.  Every female musician I could think of was represented with a display case that typically contained a dress or other outfit that they had worn on an album cover or music video.  Shakira's outfit from her Wherever, Whenever video was there :)  As was the meat dress that Lady Gaga wore to the 2010 MTV Music Awards.  It was all kind of an emotional experience because so many of the featured artists are no longer with us but they still speak to you in their songs.

After I had finished with the R&RHoF, I went to the Cleveland Museum of Art.  One of the people I had been working with in Cleveland recommended it over the R&RHoF.  Turns out it is a great museum, too.  I spent another three hours there (until the museum closed) and saw artworks from virtually every era of mankind.  I saw paintings from Monet, Picasso, Van Gogh, Renior... you name it.  But they also had Egyptian artifacts... Greek artifacts... armor from Medieval Europe... and an exhibit for a Chinese artist named Fu Baoshi whom I'd never heard of but it was interesting nonetheless.