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Thread: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame / Annex

  1. #1
    Stuck on the Border eaglesvet's Avatar
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    Default Rock and Roll Hall of Fame / Annex

    My family was so impressed by our visit to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Annex on Mercer St in NYC on my birthday/Father's Day this past weekend, I wanted to tell you a bit of the details. I also figured there might be a few of you who've visited the main RRHF in Cleveland, that maybe you'd want to describe your impressions/adventures here as well.

    The Annex, which opened in November 2008, is in an unassuming building in Soho. It's got a small sign on it that simply says, "Annex." In fact, the only reason we knew we had found it were the John Lennon banners and posters on the Annex and surrounding buildings, announcing a special feature exhibit created by Yoko Ono about the couple's New York City years. The Lennon exhibit opened May 12 with tickets currently being sold through July 12...however there is no official ending date.

    The first part of the museum is the Hall of Fame Gallery, a room housing the silver plaques of each honoree, inscripted with his/her signature, and displayed according to year of induction. Imagine the grin on my face as we entered this darkened room, and the sounds of Best of My Love hit my ears! I knew I was gonna like it here! In the Gallery, as about 30 seconds of a rock song would play, the artist's plaque would light up with a pretty neon light behind it, so that the signature would glow from amongst the hundreds (?) of plaques mounted on the walls. Then, another song would come on, and another plaque would light as the first would fade. That was pretty cool! It was fun to see who could find their favorite artists fastest; and surprising sometimes to see which artist beat another one into the Hall. I learned, for one, that although the Beatles each have their own individual plaques as part of the Beatles induction in 1988, all but Ringo have been inducted as individual artists and have plaques in later (different) years. Also, Jimmie Page has been inducted both as a member of the Yardbirds and of Led Zeppelin...but his signature is so different on each plaque that you would never think it was the same person in a million years!

    Next, the museum staff shuttles us into a room made out to be a large club with stools and a stage, and they show a movie...well, media show...that literally makes you feel like you in the audience watching concert after concert of famous rock performances throughout history from the 50's to today. I was surprised by how many my kids recognized...I guess "our" music has rubbed off on them. No Eagles here, however.

    Then, to explore the rest of the museum, the staff hands each of us wireless stereo headphones that transmit the audio for the rest of the exhibits in the galleries. That makes the museum what it is. As you pass a certain display, poster, whatever, technology triggers the correct song/voiceover to play in synch with what you are viewing. If you back away, or circle around to view something else, the audio automatically changes to suit what you are changing to view. Brilliant! The highlights for me in the galleries were the original handwritten manuscripts of songs that artists had written. I'd say the best was Elvis Costello's (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes which he wrote on a train schedule while on a 10-15 minute train ride in England. I also enjoyed the room dedicated primarily to the Boss, Bruce Springsteen; with a smaller area of the room bringing in Billy Joel. They had Bruce's first car, a 1957 Chevy convertible (along with his driver's license/registration), plus a few handwritten manuscripts, clothes, etc. Billy Joel's manuscripts were actually in notebooks in a large colorful display...he seems pretty organized!

    Finally, the show ended with a separate exhibit hall dedicated solely to John Lennon. Yoko Ono had gathered personal photos, movies, artwork (both by him and her), newspaper articles, etc. and created this exhibit to memorialize his NYC years with her. We spent a lot of time in this area. There were two very moving things at the end, that led to a wall-sized petition for tighter gun-control laws that will be sent to Obama when the exhibit is over. One was a photo shoot Yoko did of John's blood-stained glasses for her album cover (the glasses looked to be real behind the glass display case...it took a while to realize it was a photo.) The other was a brown bag of the clothes he was wearing at the time he died. She states that even though he was a famous man who had everything he needed, that this was the way he was returned to her...as Patient #---, in a brown paper bag. She wanted that display to invoke the senseless nature of all killings.

    Well, that ended the official tour of the Annex. Of course, no tour is ended until you are led out into the Gift Shop. They had some lovely first-rate rock and roll items that I briefly considered buying for some of you. First up, Soda, a mounted and framed Fleetwood Mac Rumours album signed by all band members for a mere $2500. That seemed a better value than a mounted and framed "test pressing" of the Hotel California album signed by all the Eagles for $4500--the reason being is that this item was a plain white wrapper-type album cover with their signatures, plus a typed song-list dated Nov. 12, 1976 on a separate page. (No photos of the guys or the hotel!) Finally, the best one of all was a signed Beatles album (an early one, though I'm sorry I've forgotten which one) for $39,500!! I didn't see any takers for any of these. We settled for a poster for the Lennon exhibit (the same one hanging on the street outside) and a pin of the Annex logo.

    This has only whet my appetite to make the trek to Cleveland to see the main Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, where I know there is a HUGE Springsteen exhibit that just opened, and is on until spring 2010. Road trip!
    ~Eva~

    ...the calling of the tide's eternal tune, the phases of the moon, the chambers of the heart, the egg and dart...

  2. #2
    Stuck on the Border MikeA's Avatar
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    Default Re: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame / Annex

    I really enjoyed reading your impressions Eva.

    I might have been able to put together as detailed rendition of our experience at the Cleveland RRHF as was your's Eva of the Annex. But I seriously doubt it! I certainly cannot do so now.

    But I say that I would love the opportunity to go back to Cleveland and do it again with the intent of soaking it in better than before. It was just too overwhelming at the time. We had been to a Simon & Garfunkle concert the night before in Columbus and had to make the drive to and from Cleveland to get back to the Eagles Concert in the same arena in Columbus that night! That didn't leave a lot of time for us to take our time through the RRHOF.

    But it was a one shot deal and I didn't want to miss it Because we had to hit the road early the morning after the Eagles concert to drive to Indianapolis for the last of our Eagles Concerts on that trip. I'd LOVE to return to take my time going through the RRHF but Cleveland is a long way from Wichita <sigh> (everywhere is a long way from Wichita!).

    MikeA

  3. #3
    Stuck on the Border eaglesvet's Avatar
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    Default Re: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame / Annex

    The Annex is designed to be toured in about 1 1/2 hrs, without the special exhibit...so I guess we spent about 2 1/2 hours there (actually lost track of time!) From a brochure, it seems the Cleveland exhibit takes at least 5 to 6 hours, and considering they sell a 2-day pass, I'm sure 2 days could do it justice!
    ~Eva~

    ...the calling of the tide's eternal tune, the phases of the moon, the chambers of the heart, the egg and dart...

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    Stuck on the Border TimothyBFan's Avatar
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    Default Re: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame / Annex

    I loved the one trip I've made to Cleveland to see the HOF. The displays that stood out for me on that trip were the Jim Morrison/Doors exhibit that included hand written notebooks of some of Jim's lyrics and poems and Pink Floyd's The Wall exhibit. Pretty cool to actually walk up to "the wall" and be able to touch it! I must admit tho, it was hard for me to take it all in and I would love to go back one of these days. I was in such awe of most of it because to me, most the people in the HOF are Gods and I just couldn't believe I was actually seeing where so much of it began etc.

    I know a lot of you here have already heard how that trip came about but for those who haven't, I will tell you so you can all get a really good laugh at my expense. My husband being the sweetheart he has always been to me (sincerely!), decided that we had to go visit it in 1998-the year that the Eagles were actually inducted! He said I HAD to see the Eagles display THE year they were actually put into it!! We got up early on a Saturday morning and drove 5 hours only to find out once we got there that the display was not finished and that the whole floor that it would be on was closed down while they worked on it. I was disappointed but there was still so much to see that I figured oh well, always later, but I thought my poor hubby was going to sit down and cry right there when we were told that. He was so mad that he hadn't thought to check before coming. Poor guy! It was a great experience anyways.
    He sings it high, he plays it low

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    Stuck on the Border Prettymaid's Avatar
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    Default Re: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame / Annex

    This is a place I want to go to. It's probably 4-5 hours away for me. Everytime I read about it on here I want to go even more!
    ~ Cathy ~

    And I dream I'm on vacation 'Cause I like the way that sounds,
    It's a perfect occupation for me.

  6. #6
    Stuck on the Border
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    Default Re: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame / Annex

    It's been years since I've been there. Pre-Eagles induction, in fact. Our boys were pretty small so we had to do kind of a "speed tour" since they weren't at all interested.

    Now that they're grown and music lovers themselves, we really want to get back as a family and take our time going thru.

    We may be making a trip to Detroit this Fall to visit family, and I'm hoping we can head over to Cleveland then.

  7. #7
    Stuck on the Border eaglesvet's Avatar
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    Default Re: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame / Annex

    I wanted to post my photos of the RRHF Annex that I finally had developed. The musicians don't allow any photos of the exhibits, so we had to settle for pics of the exterior only. Here are two shots of the rather unassuming building in Soho...you see what I mean about the little "Annex" sign. If there weren't the special Lennon exhibit going on currently, the site would be easy to miss.

    The third shot is of my guys near the Lennon poster that is an exact replica of the one we purchased for a mere $5--a veritable bargain next to the various signed artists' posters and album covers selling for multiple thousands!
    Attached Images Attached Images
    ~Eva~

    ...the calling of the tide's eternal tune, the phases of the moon, the chambers of the heart, the egg and dart...

  8. #8
    Stuck on the Border MikeA's Avatar
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    Default Re: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame / Annex

    Wow Eva, that is a rather obscure location!

    MikeA

  9. #9
    Stuck on the Border Prettymaid's Avatar
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    Default Re: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame / Annex

    Great poster and handsome boys!
    ~ Cathy ~

    And I dream I'm on vacation 'Cause I like the way that sounds,
    It's a perfect occupation for me.

  10. #10
    Stuck on the Border eaglesvet's Avatar
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    Default Re: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame / Annex

    Thx!
    ~Eva~

    ...the calling of the tide's eternal tune, the phases of the moon, the chambers of the heart, the egg and dart...

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