By Dan Lalande
Thanks to a complicated combination of COVID, caregiving duties for my demanding daughter and the feast-or-famine reality of belonging to the “gig” economy, I had not had a vacation in five years. Where to go when you’re overdue for a well-earned immersion into a world so full of wonders, it takes you completely out of your own troubled circumstance?
Cleveland.
No, that’s not a typo. While for years Cleveland was America’s favourite geographic putdown, today it’s a city on the rise, a faith-restoring example of the tangible miracles that can be wrought through strategic urban renewal.
Cleveland is Ohio’s most populous city, boasting over 1,700,000 residents—and growing. Thanks to an ongoing economic revitalization, young professionals are moving to the area in droves. The city has lured such major growth industries as health care, education and technology, which has facilitated money for gentrification and family-friendly tourism. Many a fallen neighbourhood has been transmogrified into a mini-Mecca of professional, domestic or cultural interest.
University Circle hyperbolically calls itself “Ohio’s Most Spectacular Square Mile!” But it’s no exaggeration, as art lovers will attest. Gathered into this green, grandiose concourse is a veritable community of museums, from the majestic Museum of Art (rivalling only Philadelphia’s as the most impressive collection in America) to the eclectic progressivism of the state MoCa (Museum of Contemporary Art). Comb the crannies of the community and you’ll find smaller venues devoted to emerging artists, such as The Sculpture Center and The Reinberger Gallery, an addendum of the civic art college. The area also includes the Wade Oval, a circuitous green space favoured by flaneurs, joggers and buskers from the nearby Cleveland Institute of Music.
Travel to the city’s North Coast Harbor on the shore of Lake Erie and catch a spectacular view of the downtown skyline, approaching only the perspective offered by Progressive Field, the breathtaking home of baseball’s contending Guardians. The area contains such tourist magnets as The Great Lakes Science Center, First Energy Stadium (home of football’s Browns) and seven floors of music and memorabilia commemorating Cleveland’s greatest contribution to the international cultural fabric, rock and roll.
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame isn’t just famous for the artists it so euphorically celebrates; it’s the cornerstone of Cleveland’s renaissance. It was founded in 1986 when a bid was put out for a hosting city. What better place than Cleveland, civic authorities argued, home of the first rock ’n’ roll radio show? Taxpayers agreed. A sum of 65 million dollars was collected toward the cause—a steep investment that has paid off more spectacularly than one of Destiny’s Child’s pantsuits, part of the endless array of music-related memorabilia on display in I.M. Pei’s pyramidal shrine. Follow the anthem du jour past the expansive entrance and get to know the music’s unsung pioneers. Then, floor by floor, progress through successive decades stocked with musical mementos from the likes of Bill Haley and the Comets (including the guitar used in the seminal Rock Around the Clock), The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Whitney Houston, Green Day and countless others.
Level Three is devoted to the full roster of hall inductees, while Four and Five feature special one-time exhibits: currently, there are salutes to Pink Floyd’s iconic concept album The Wall and New Jersey rockers Bon Jovi. The museum also features plenty of screening rooms, one playing the last film ever produced by Oscar-winning director and pop music documentarian Jonathan Demme (of Stop Making Sense fame).
If you’re planning a visit, check out the HOF’s website, rockhall.com. You’ll find details about everything from special events—some free with admission ($50 Canadian), some requiring extra costs to Q & As with up-and-coming singer-songwriters (Ottawa’s own Sue Foley among them) to concerts staged by household names. And of course, there’s Induction Day when, in a high-octane atmosphere of all-day music and pyrotechnics, the new class of Hall of Famers is welcomed into the fold. This year’s crop includes Cher, Peter Frampton, Foreigner, Kool and the Gang and the Dave Matthews Band. Sounds like a party!
And if you have rock-’n’-roll dreams of your own, make sure you spend extended time on the interactive level known as “The Garage,” a floor-long replica of the kind of unfinished suburban space that served as the primordial pool of every aspiring power trio or supergroup, where you can pick up any of the instruments provided (guitar, keyboards, etc.) and woodshed with fellow wannabes.
Cleveland was once a dark, elegiac Springsteen-esque ballad about a near-dead steel town. Today, like the title of the famous live album by Hall of Famer-to-be Peter Frampton, it has come alive.
