No photos please

Here's a guest post from the wife. Normally she writes about food at Dawnabelle.ca, and airs her random thoughts on twitter at twitter.com/dawnabelles. Today, she's all about her other love: Rock 'n' roll.

When I visit foreign lands, I do not take pictures inside churches because I feel it is taboo. When I went to see the Mona Lisa, I did not take a picture because my snapshot would not capture all of its nuances (and it is behind glass). But in the open atrium of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, I took a picture in a no photo zone and got caught.

According to the employees at the Rock Hall, visitors are only allowed to take photos in the main lobby. On display are the Gwen and Moby stars from the Southside video, cars that were used as props on U2's Zooropa tour and giant suspended hot dog from a Phish tour.

If you visit the Rock Hall, the front of the building is a pyramid that extends from the ground and creates an open air feeling all the way up to the third floor -- but you cannot take pictures on the third floor. There are rooms containing rock memorabilia and displays in the basement and the second floor, on the third floor there is a movie theatre and the annex is usually reserved from special exhibits. I do not take pictures in these areas because they are poorly list and I treat them as I would any other museum exhibition.

Hanging from various parts of the ceiling and mounted on top of large surfaces are large tour props, but on the second and theirs floors, these items -- located in open areas -- fall under the no photo zone that also applies to the other rooms of the museum. This is what I don't understand. They are large props that have already been on public display for those who have seen them on tour. Their images have appeared on albums, in movies, and have entered the public consciousness. I doubt that anyone is taking photos as a means of stealing intellectual property. They are displayed in open spaces and exposed to sunlight, so I don't think the museum is worried about damage from my flash. Also, I can see them from the lobby.

In the main part of the museum, in the basement of the building, one of the first features that a visitor is asked to enjoy are two movies -- the second movie is entitled Kick Out the Jams -- in which I am repeatedly told about the place of rebellion in rock n' roll, about following your own rules. When I leave that theatre, one of the first exhibits I see regards the witch hunts in the early days of rock and roll.

The item that I was caught taking a picture of is the schoolmaster coming out of a built up portion of Pink Floyd's The Wall. Release in November 1979, the concept of the album focused on the theme of isolation -- as the concert progressed, a physical wall was constructed between the band and the audience. At the end of the concert, the wall would collapse, revealing the band.

The idea for the album and tour arose from an incident at Olympic Stadium in Montreal in 1977. As Pink Floyd's popularity as a band grew, so did the venues they played. Roger Waters' irritation at playing such large audiences culminated on a hot summer night in Montreal when he spat on a man in the front row of the audience who was simply trying to get closer to the band. He worried about the increased sense of alienation from his fans.

So here I am at the Rock Hall, being further alienated from those artifacts meant to bring me closer to a band and getting in trouble for rebelling against their no photo policy in the house that rock built.