...at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
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by PAM
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| A souvenir from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, OH |
Finally, a little time to slow down... after that critical deadlines galore, big meetings here and there, a long string of speaking engagements, a peppering of 'painful' just-suck-it-all-in-it'll-be-over-soon events that introvert people like me dread, the release and live performance of JK's 'Dreamers', the release of RM's first album, 'Indigo'... and the 2022 FIFA World Cup where the phenomenal Lionel Messi - my idol - emerged victorious with his Albiceleste side. He can finally be crowned now as GOAT of the beautiful game (a long post to come soon! ⚽😭🎉) with no plausible objection from anyone, too!! Whew!
It has been a lot of sleepless nights - literally. How did I survive the last 30 days? No clue... perhaps, just the sheer force of determination to make it through to 'the other side'! I took a deep breath, focused... and just sprinted with all my might - real and imagined... and a lot of prayers!!
Anyway, I am putting finishing touches on our Christmas tree just a few minutes ago... in time for the 'big day' and tidying up my room as well. Now, I gotta admit that tidying up my bedroom is a bit of a challenge that I am hoping I'd overcome somehow... especially that I keep pausing to reminisce on things that should already have found their way in the trash bin a long time ago. I'm such a sentimental hoarded! Just a few minutes ago, I found a box of unopened stuffs hidden behind
a framed picture on the floor and leaning against the wall... and my heart started to beat faster. As I peeled off the thick wrappers of each little item, my heart kept skipping a beat with my mouth and eyes wide open with surprise! Ahh... I love that feeling - being pleasantly surprised! I found items from my travels to Rome, Florence, Shanghai, Seoul and various parts of the US just before the pandemic. I didn't realize I still have these things unopened. I thought, I have all my travel stuffs unpacked a long time ago!
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| Up close and personal... |
I will talk about those experiences in another post. I just want to drop by here to make sure that I have something written up about the unexpected finding of this long-forgotten beautiful Christmas tree ornament - a souvenir from my first visit to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio sometime in July 2019. It was a well-spent 'free time' as I visited my research students who were working on our project on 3D printed food at the Case Western Reserve University (CWRU, or simply 'Case') that time. I did stay for a week in Baltimore, Maryland before that for the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) series of meetings and a few networking activities with our alumni in the East Coast.
I remember spending the weekend browsing the
Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) at the Case campus, which has a superb collection! The lawn was very pretty, too, and the walk from my hotel to the CMA was so interesting. I kept finding mini monuments of guitars in the gardens. I wondered about it... little did I know that I was going to find out in a big way!
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| A bagful of souvenirs from the Cleveland Museum of Art, including a set of coasters designed with the work of some of my favorite impressionists. |
Anyway, after a couple of hours at the CMA, I wanted to do more. So, I ventured in the City Center with my students, and visited 'The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum'. I studied for a year at the Ohio State University (OSU) in Columbus, OH sometime in the mid-90s, and I visited Cleveland a couple of times. It never occurred to me then that the 'Rock Hall' was located in Cleveland! Apparently, it was established there to honor the man - a disc jockey named Alan Freed - who referred to the music genre that was making waves in the 1950s as 'rock and roll'. I am glad that I finally had a chance to check it out.
We saw an incredible amount of exhibits from the likes of Elvis Presley, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones to the likes of Michael Jackson and Oasis, and many more in between and beyond! Being a big R&R fan, I had a 'field day'! But after half a day, I was so overwhelmed that I was going dizzy. Surreal! It's a good thing that the 'Rock Hall' is adjacent to the Great Lakes Science Center, too, where famous Ohioan astronauts, John Glenn, Neil Armstrong, Jim Lovell and Judith Resnick... among other cool science and engineering stuffs were featured. So, we went to visit that as well... while we waited for a show at the Rock Hall to come on. It was an INCREDIBLE experience!
Anyway... I need to take it all in again. So, I am taking a little break. And, what better way to take a break than to drop by here in this blogsite for a few minutes to reminisce and share the experience?
Until then...
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Photo credit: The photos featured here belong to me, and were processed for the sole use of this blog. They may not be used elsewhere.
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