The news was announced this week that the NYC Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Annex in SoHo was closing. We have mixed feelings at the Paddywhack Machine about the closing of this short-lived institution. On the one hand, a Hall of Fame is kind of un-rock at its heart and we question the value of any memorabilia collection that juxtaposes Jimi Hendrix and the Whitestripes in the same display. On the other hand, there are many reasons to mourn the passing of an institution whose sole purpose was to remind the rest of the world and ourselves just how much NY has given to the world of music.
If you haven't visited the annex yet and even if you have reservations about the prospect, you should make time to see it. There's only a few places in the world where you'll have the chance to get that close to a guitar played by Jimi Hendrix. Was Jimi Hendrix a New Yorker? Not really, but he recorded some of his best tracks in a building that is now a bank on Second Avenue. You might also get a kick out of the CBGBs display. A unique bit of New York history that only New Yorkers and punk devotees from the 80s and 90s will truly appreciate.
The jewel of all the current exhibits is the special John Lennon: The New York Years collection curated by Yoko Ono. The Lennon exhibit is rich with multimedia content and if you're anything like us you'll spend as much time there as in all of the other exhibits combined. There's Lennon sketches, handwritten lyrics, home movies, and even the unopened bag of John's clothes that he was wearing the day he was shot. If that seems pretty morbid, it is. But it's also a moving reminder of what beauty and genius was stolen from the world and from NY in a senseless handgun death in 1980 (precicelsy 29 years ago today). A handwritten note from Ono also asks us to remember how many innocent people have been killed in the US by handguns since that fateful day December 8, 1980.
Book your visit at a discount rate here: http://bit.ly/4BtyBz
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment