9/13/10 – Cleveland Rocks!

Apologies for the delayed blog post. I enjoyed a fabulous day in Cleveland and checked-into the first motel I found at around 12:30 a.m. local time. Fortunately, my chosen motel has color TV and HBO; unfortunately, it has no Internet connectivity. What should I expect for $38.50, including taxes and junk fees? It turns out that I selected the world’s worst motel last night and I’ll describe it with photos in today’s post. I wrote this last night, but couldn’t get Internet to work at Starbucks this AM. Sorry.

Please disregard any previous disparaging comments I made about Ohio. I know what you’re all thinking; Cleveland is the armpit of the U.S. It’s an old, tired, Rust-belt city with a flaming river, whose prime days came and went long ago. I’ve got news for you; Cleveland is a hidden gem that’s flying way under the radar. It’s a lovely clean and modern city on par with Milwaukee or Salt Lake. The roads are generally good, the traffic is modest and the architecture is an interesting mix of old and new. The architects of Chicago should come here and take notes on how to dress-up a glass-box by putting an interesting art-deco top on it and rather than a mass of boring white antennae; instead, try adding a simple touch like a single stainless steel spire or an American flag. Even the busses here are modern-looking and clean.

The weather today was knock-dead-gorgeous and I enjoyed the 25-mile ride into Cleveland this morning. Shortly after entering the city, I stumbled across a lovely little church and park. I stopped to snap a few pictures and as I walked around, I found myself in the center of Cleveland Ste University, so I went into the campus and had a nice lunch of Chicago-style pizza in CSU’s bar & Grill while the kids were in the middle Greek Rush Week.

After lunch I cruised about 10 blocks to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and parked right in front for free. If you love music, as I do, you should add this place to your Bucket List. The building itself is a stunning 6-story pyramid of glass, but the contents within are truly amazing. Besides the thousands of instruments on display, you will recognize a lot of the clothing worn by artists on concert tours and in their videos. There are cars and motorcycles owned by the musicians, along with stories that go along with them. I was amazed by the numerous original hand-written lyrics to thousands of popular songs. Invariably, the songs are literally scribbled on a piece of scrap paper or an old folder. The lyrics to "Hey Jude" were scribbled in pencil on a piece of scratch paper and you can still see that the original title was "Hey Jules". There's tons of original correspondence between artists and others, like a letter from MGM signing Elvis up for a $175,000 multiple movie deal with a $50,000 completion bonus. I also liked some of the art drawn by the musicians, including a hand-drawn birthday card Jimmy Hendrix made for his dad when he was 5.

I was particularly impressed with the Les Paul exhibit that has his original electric guitar made from a section of Iron railroad track, with a pick-up and strings attached above it. He later made a prototype out of a 2 X 4, which he used to convince the Gibson Guitar Company to let him design the iconic Les Paul guitar. Les Paul told Gibson that if they wouldn’t support his invention, he was going to leave them to join Leo Fender. Gibson signed-up and the rest is history. Les Paul later invented the 8-track tape and sold it to Ampex Corp. The only bummer is that the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is only large enough to hold about 25% of its 24,000 pieces of history; the rest are in storage or on loan to other museums. Also, they don’t allow cameras in the galleries, so my only photos are all from outside and in the lobby.

I wandered though the R&RHoF for 3 hours until it closed and then rode around looking for a cool adult beverage and a place to sleep. I parked in Cleveland’s Theater district on the main drag, Euclid Ave. Luckily; I stumbled into a nice little restaurant called Hanna. I sat at the bar and had a beer or two with a local named John and the bar-maid, Brett. Soon we were joined by the proprietor named Fred and we watched 2 football games, while enjoying cocktails and appetizers. John works in the Hanna building as a VP of Turner Construction's Sprts division and they have been contracted to build the 49ers new stadium in santa Clara. His firm also built the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and 13 other NFL stadiums. Fred has an Andy Warhol print in the restaurant and he claims to be the model Warhol used for the picture back when he was living in San Francisco and he had hair.

I spent around 4 hours at Hanna restaurant and we chatted about everything from what to see in Ohio, to middle-east problems. People dropped into the bar throughout the evening and it was like a scene from Cheers with everyone pulling up a chair and getting into the discussion. John, Brett and Fred are super folks and I strongly recommend that all my blog disciples stop-in to Hanna Restaurant for a great meal and a drink whenever you are nearby Cleveland. Today was one of the most delightful and memorable days [and nights] of my trip so far. John scratched-out directions for me on where to find a motel tonight, as well as things to see tomorrow, including directions to the Football Hall of Fame in Canton, OH.

All-in-all, my assessment is that Cleveland is a lovely town with great people. I truly enjoyed my visit there.