Not All IM Peis are in the Louvre, a photo from Ohio, Midwest

Photographer's Note

Guitar sculpture at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio. The architect of the museum was I.M. Pei whose acclaimed work acclaimed work includes the addition to the Louvre and the National Gallery of Art East Wing, in Washington, D.C., among other well-known structures.

From the museum's website: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame honors the legendary performers, producers, songwriters, disc jockeys and others who have made rock and roll the force in our culture that it is. For a decade and a half, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation has been nominating and electing those figures, and honoring them at an annual ceremony that has become one of the most celebrated events of the year, and certainly one of the hottest tickets in rock.

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Critiques | Translate

Luko (14000) 2003-11-26 11:50

I wonder whether genuine rock bands like to see themselves as the Mickey mice of the RnR hall of fame.

Considering your background, I suppose you read a famous Harvard article, about the "experience economics", that promoted the idea that value is now added by staging and anything should be lived through an amusement park.
Marketers found and consultants advised that the best way to make John Doe shell out more money is to entertain him. How could we then complain about the price of what we're "experiencing" or "staging"?

Be prepared to live your whole life in funland : Your image perfectly shows that impossible mix between bold architecture, contemporary art and RnR...

Didn't Jimi question "Are you experienced?"

mythasiatic (0) 2005-01-30 23:11

A nice shot! I might have tried something more with the composition/perspective as the guitar and building seem to want to lend to that. Also might have waited just a moment to click as the two people walking out of the fram are a bit distracting.

I was at the museum about the time it opened in 1995/96(?). It was hardly even stocked then, but still I thought a good part of it was quite creative. Not sure if it is the same now, but back then you entered through a hall that bombarded you with media images of the paranoid anti-rock movements over the decades, including Jimmy Swaggart's famous tear-streaked expressions.

Can't see what is wrong with being entertained, or see it that r&r has some sort of bad-boy sanctity that should spare it from comercial opportunism. What was John Doe going to do with his money anyhow but contribute it to political charities or beer? $$$ is what r&r is all about, let's not be naive. This "r&r is underground stuff" is simply how it is marketed to you. The space where the museum now stands used to be a parking lot, and the museum has helped make Cleveland a viable tourist stop between New York and Chicago. No real reason for a glum despare. Before the museum (and other downtown developements) a stop-over in Cleveland promised little more than a lonely boozing in the hotel bar. Ofcourse you could have walked to the parking lot and stared at the lake, but that is what Edgewater Park is for.