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)......found 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. got in the lobby, and the first thing we saw 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, which had 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 #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 chautauqua. chautauqua 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 (you're supposed to have a reason to go into the institute, even if it's 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.
buffalo/niagara falls 5-21-03
finally i had a partner in crime to go scope out buffalo central terminal again, and the psych center. started at the terminal. there was a gas company truck parked in the "parking lot" of the terminal, so when we got out of our car the guy was all like "Want me to take your picture?!" so we were like um sure, he took pics of us in front of the building, artfully hiding the "no tresspassing" sign behind us lol. he left us alone, and we took more pictures, walked around to the other side where there were workers sitting in their bulldozers. we asked them if they could let us inside, gave them our story about working for the railroad museum in baltimore, and he said no. fine. so we walked back the other way and down to the street that ran underneath the terminal. there is another strip of building there, all fenced off still. a cop drove by, scoped us out, la la la not doing anything wrong. just taking pictures. turns out that this farther end part of the building wasn't fenced off and was completely open. so we went in. it was so rad. kinda scary, lots of broken glass, but so friggen cool. probably could have gotten into the terminal from there, but that would be pushing it since we had no kind of first aid stuff with us, and we're chickens hehe.
eventually left there and drove down to elmwood, stopped at a store that has a table i want for 120$, stopped at the poster store that had many of the posters i want for our apartment, so that'll be helpful, won't have to order them online. went to the psych center, and the bastards fenced it in too, like the terminal, for the restoration. ug. i hate chain link fences. so we couldn't even get close to the building. walked the entire way around it, looking for places to maybe get in. found a giant hole someone cut in the fence, so people are still getting in at night. i ran in the hole real quick to grab a few shots, and then ditched. got conversed to by one of the patients. she thought i was jewish. hahah. so pissed about the fencing. ug.
headed back home, got ready to go to the casino. had dinner, fishy got to see the bitch that is minnie mouse. headed to see the falls, and went to canada. went to the casino there, i played some pai gow. cashed in 35 left with 115. and actually got a good exchange rate changing the 100 to american, got 71...better than last time when i got 64....walked down clifton hill, got martinis at the sports bar and watched the 2nd period of the ottawa new jersey game, headed back to the states and the casino again. fishy got to see john. goddamnit why does he have to look so hot all the time. he looked like beyond good tonight, ug ug ug. stupid john.
and oh yeah... my car turned 20,000 outside cleveland on the way home last night....took 15 months to hit 10,000 and 8 to hit the next 10...