Cleveland Rocks

Hello, faithfuls.  We're back with (a crapload) more pictures and stories to tell, starting with the land of Drew Carey: CLEVELAND.

I don't have as many pictures as I thought I did, but the ones I have are pretty fantastic.  On our day off between weeks, the roomies and I decided to visit the Rock and Roll hall of Fame.  Bryant gave me a daytime rocker look for the occasion:

Here we are modeling our shades:

On our way to the museum:

I am a badass guitarist.  And a dwarf.

The Hall of Fame was decorated with pieces of set from different world tours.  The floating cars belonged to Aerosmith:

And its pretty obvious where these came from:

There were famous cars:

Famous drums (Van Halen?):

Joan Jett's ride:

Now, from here on in there was no photography allowed.  This of course means that I was forced to resort to renegade picture taking.  Some shots are crap, others are awesome.  Here we go:

Rock and Roll's early influences:

Elvis's police badge:

Elvis's clothes:

Elvis's Grammy:
(If I'd have known I'd be going to Graceland in the next city, I might not have tried for so many Elvis inspired shots.)

Stevie Wonder's harmonica:

Handwritten lyric pages for "God Only Knows" (Beach Boys) and "My Life" (Billy Joel):

Johnny Cash's tourbus.  Complete with roomies:

From the outside:

-----------------------------------------------------------

On our way to the movies, we passed this fantastic art structure:

And walked through the tourist hotspot, 4th street.  Go here if you want some good eats:

We grabbed a bite to eat before the film, and the Nathan's vendor gave us free funnel cakes for being Addams Family performers.  Sweet.

Here we are posing with the Dark Shadows pop up:

SPOILER ALERT!!!!!

We went to see Cabin in the Woods.  If you haven't seen this movie and are actively interested in being surprised when you do, DO NOT READ ON.

Cabin in the Woods is a standard horror movie with a funky twist.  Some teenagers go for a sexy weekend at a secluded log cabin in the backwoods.  In the basement, they come across various objects and artifacts you wouldn't expect to see in a rural environment.  What they don't know is that each one links up to a different creature of death and destruction.

The whole thing is intertwined with an office of people who are basically creating the setting for the deaths of these kids.  Its their job to sacrifice four key archetypes (the fool, the whore, the warrior, the scholar) to this Pagan god that threatens to destroy the world.  I wish there wasn't a supernatural, religious connotation to the film, because everything else was AWESOME.  Gods always throw a wrench in a good horror film, in my opinion.

Anyway, the kids are looking through the artifacts and the people in the office have a pool going for which doom they will choose.  Here's a shot from the movie:

THIS. IS. GENIUS.  Enlarge the picture and read all the possible monsters, cause they are incredible.  I really want to know what "Angry Molesting Trees" look like.

Blah blah blah, much death ensues and the office thinks its job is done.  Unfortunately (and predictably), they've underestimated the Fool and the Virgin.  These last living kids somehow find the place their demons came from (did I mention it was the family of crazy, incestuous zombies?) and they take the little elevator down into the depths of the office, passing cubes full of all the other possible monsters.

Once loose in the office, they are chased by lots of people with guns until they finally get the brilliant idea to set free all the monsters stuck in cubes.  This is where the movie blows my mind.  Remember that dry erase board with all the crazy baddies listed?  Well, they all come out of elevators and start ripping people apart.  Its amazing the forethought and detail that went into each of these beasts, but I wish I'd seen the Angry Molesting Tree.  Maybe it was there but I missed it.

Anyway, there's a whole scene with Sigorney Weaver where they try to convince the kids to kill themselves for the greater good of the world, and of course there's some back and forth and suspense.  Like I said, I don't care much for Gods in horror movies, so they lost me at the end.  Still, I really enjoyed the movie.  I will definitely see it again when it hits Netflix.
-------------------------------------------------------------

Above is the set for a little on-air school program we did with kids in Ohio - basically outreach to get children interested in the arts.

Below is lunch with Lisa Kuhnen from Syracuse U!

We ate a big meal of spinach pie with hummus and falafel, then headed over to Big Fun toys and nostalgia for an hour of "Holy crap, remember these!?"

The ceiling was spray painted and full of whimsy: 

I loved the Wizard of Oz tornado dollhouse:

Robots in disguise:

By the power of Greyskull:

Who ya gonna call?

Its fun to stay at the:

(Come on, that was genius.)

The filing cabinets were full of brick-a-brack and pulled open a-la Slimer:

The garbage can by the door made me giggle:

AND THEY HAD RING POPS:

We then went to a little clothing store and got completely lost in fabulous necklaces and Free People apparel.  I made it out alive, but only just.

HOOK PLAYING CARDS.  I mean, really?  Genius.

------------------------------------------------------------

You know its time to change out your eyeliner when:

----------------------------------------------------------

We interrupt this post to bring you the cutest pictures ever:

My niece is more adorable than your niece.  Probably your nephew, too.
------------------------------------------------------------

I don't think I ever showed you guys what's in the locket:

The original Siamese Twins!
-------------------------------------------------------------

We enjoyed Cleveland more than I'd expected, but it was good to move on from Ohio.  If you ever travel there, leave your Chinese stars at home... they'll only get confiscated and put on display in the security line: