[JPL] A Piece of Cleveland With a New York Accent

[Jazz Promo Services]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/21/arts/music/21rock.html?_r=1&ref=arts


November 21, 2008
A Piece of Cleveland With a New York Accent

By BEN SISARIO
The Clash looked down from a wall-size 1978 photograph at a roomful of
workmen sawing, measuring, painting and lugging. Vintage amplifiers were
wheeled in from the chill outside, passing by plexiglass exhibition cases,
Bruce Springsteen¹s tarp-covered 1957 Chevrolet and a 26-foot scale model of
Manhattan. Then came the heads-up.

³Here comes the phone booth,² somebody said, and in rolled the wooden phone
box from CBGB, plastered with decades-old stickers like a punk sarcophagus.
Workers stood it up beside graffitied wall sections from that landmark club,
along with two of its loudspeakers and a metal frame for the ³CBGB & OMFUG²
awning that hung over 315 Bowery until the place closed two years ago.

These were among the hundreds of artifacts being prepared for the opening on
Tuesday of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Annex NYC, a $9 million branch of
the Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland. The Annex, in a 25,000-square-foot
basement space at 76 Mercer Street in SoHo ‹ upstairs, facing Broadway, is
an Old Navy store ‹ was created as a smaller, quicker offshoot of the
headquarters.

A trip through should take about 90 minutes, and costs $26; in Cleveland,
where admission is $22, the full experience takes four or five hours. As in
Cleveland, you can hardly turn a corner in the Annex without bumping into a
smashed guitar, yellowed lyric sheet or pointy bustier.

But the Annex was also designed as a New York-centric temple of rock
culture, said Joel Peresman, president of the Hall of Fame Foundation, on a
tour one crisp afternoon this week. In addition to having a special gallery
for local musicians, the Annex will open with an exhibit honoring the Clash,
the British punk giants who kept a particularly high profile in the city.
(That shot from 1978 was taken under the West Side Highway by Bob Gruen.)

³The legitimacy of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, we¹ve established that
over 25 years,² Mr. Peresman said. (The foundation, which inducts members
into the Hall of Fame, was founded in 1983; the museum in Cleveland opened
in 1995.) ³But in New York you have to prove yourself, whether you¹re a
sports team or a museum. We have an important story to tell. And you have to
have something interesting and compelling; otherwise, New Yorkers are going
to blow it off.²

It will be tough for any pop history buffs ‹ whether they first encountered
the Rolling Stones on ³The Ed Sullivan Show² or in the recent documentary
³Shine a Light² ‹ to resist goodies at the Annex like David Byrne¹s big suit
from the film ³Stop Making Sense,² a blue sequined dress from Tina Turner¹s
final tour with Ike, Michael Jackson¹s handwritten lyrics to ³Billie Jean,²
and Prince¹s coat from ³Purple Rain.²

There are also teenage letters between Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel and at
least two items that tell the story of Elvis Presley: his motorcycle jacket
and his Bible. Some of the pieces are lent from Cleveland, and many, like a
tape of a private Bob Dylan show in 1961, have never been exhibited before.
And for those with particular memories of CBGB: Yes, they will have a urinal
from its notorious bathroom.

Temporary exhibitions will change about twice a year; the Clash show,
³Revolution Rock,² runs through the spring.

The Annex uses high technology at nearly every stop of the six galleries.
Visitors, 100 at a time, are to enter in 15-minute intervals and encounter
first a seven-screen ³immersive theater² resembling a small club, complete
with stools. They will be given headsets made by Sennheiser, a high-end
audio company, which play music programmed for each exhibit, as well as
sound for videos; the device is guided by wires beneath the carpet that
detect a visitor¹s presence.

³You¹re seeing, hearing, feeling ‹ getting the full experience,² said Stacey
Lender of Running Subway, a New York-based production company that helped
design the Annex.

The Annex is part of a broad expansion plan by the Hall of Fame organization
to draw both tourists and financing to its main branch.

³This allows us to tell our story and reach sponsors we never could in
Cleveland,² said Terry Stewart, the president of the museum, in a phone
interview. More annexes are being considered for other cities, including
Memphis, he added.

The museum¹s growth is not without risk, and the New York Annex has a
three-year lease that will be renewed if the branch is successful, Mr.
Peresman said. To open it, the museum teamed with Running Subway and two
other producers, Jam Exhibitions and S2BN Entertainment, a new company led
by Michael Cohl, the veteran concert promoter and former chairman of Live
Nation.

The partners have financed the project and will operate it, although the
museum retains oversight of all aspects. Running Subway has produced ³Dr.
Seuss¹ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical² on Broadway, as well as
multimedia concerts pairing live orchestras with films of Frank Sinatra and
Judy Garland.

The Annex has been under way for about two years, Mr. Peresman said, and
various sites were considered for it, including some in Midtown. But the
downtown space suited the subject matter better: somewhat gritty, somewhat
flashy and a stone¹s throw from many of the Greenwich Village clubs and
other historic spaces highlighted on the museum¹s detailed, white polymer
model of Manhattan.

And as workers rolled in equipment, storage containers, large amplifiers and
bits of CBGB, the movement at the museum¹s entry ‹ nondescript, since the
building is in a landmarked zone ‹ had more than a little resemblance to the
load-in rituals that happen at clubs throughout the city every afternoon.

³There are certain things you just can¹t quantify,² Mr. Peresman said, ³that
are just a vibe. Being in this place, it just felt like the right vibe.²


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