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.

... keeping an EYE (Weekly) on The Blue Jays

There are things we can all agree on:

• Puppies are cute
• Ice cream is delicious
• Bad things are wrong
• The Blue Jays are in trouble.

Some have specualted that the Beloved Jays are not long for this world and if any team were to be moved, it would be them. I don't think it's that bad, but I also don't think it's all lollipops and sunshine, Sunshine.

There are many theories about what can be done. EYE WEEKLY recently posted a list of things that can be done to fix the Rogers Centre as a way of proposing what can be done to fix the Blue Jays.

I'm not linking to it. Why? Because, as Queen Victoria was known to say, "It's a right load of bollocks, it is!" Find it yourself.

But I am going to go through their points, and I'm going to use this to make a couple of my own points.

1. Admit that you have a problem

I don't think anyone in Rogers (the Beloved Blue Jays owners), or anyone with two feet and a heartbeat to be honest, would maintain there isn't a problem. However, this in itself is a problem with EYE's list - it's first suggestion isn't even a suggestion. When one option is 'We'd love a new ballpark'...yeah....it's gonna be that kind of list.

2. Remove on field shortcomings.

Make the team better. Right. Gotcha sport. Good one. Also, you know what would fix Global Warming? Make the air cooler.

What's really funny is that I can only assume that EYE is willfully missing the point here. They talk about the sellout crowd when AJ Burnett pitched against Roy Halladay last year and that that's because "the hometown fans have stars to cheer for". What's funny is that Halladay and Burnett were both Blue Jays the previous year, and that there wasn't much of an uptick in attendance. It also doesn't mention that Burnett was playing with the Yankees, and that games against the Yankees tend to have about 20,000 more people than the average game, and they are all wearing Yankees gear. Thirdly, until this year the lowest attendance figure ever for the Blue Jays was on a night Roy Halladay pitched. There are your three strikes (EYE, in baseball when someone has three strikes, they go and sit down. Just want to make sure you're keeping up with the lingo.)

3. Feed the huddled masses properly

This you have to agree with. Did you know that every other ball park I've been to I've been able to get hot dogs at my seat - every park except for Rogers' Centre.

As for the cost of the food, this is an issue, but it's also a macro-issue: I've never heard someone day "The cost of the ticket to <%Insert ANY sporting event%> was expensive, but the food was cheap, and the selection was awesome!". This can be improved at Rogers' Centre, yes, but it's not limited to just Toronto, nor just the Blue Jays.

Having said that, joy can be found in a pretzel and hot dog with brown mustard in Cleveland. Oh yes, yes it can.

4. Embrace the history of the Blue Jays.

Build a museum? Ummm...okay. I don't think this does a damn thing one way or another. I'll get to why it won't in a little bit.

5. Change the name back to Skydome.

Stop. Just stop. STOP TALKING.

This is exactly NOT the problem. EYE wants to beat the "People hate Rogers" drum. Maybe people do and maybe they don't. The building's name has NOTHING to do with the team and its placement in the city whatsoever. "Hey, these Blue Jays have a great young team and are exciting to watch. The kids really want to go. Let's get on the TTC and go to...oh...it's called Rogers' Centre? I guess we better stay home and look at the sun then."

There are stupid ideas, really stupid ideas, moronically stupid ideas, Cito Gaston's ideas about when to use a pinch runner, and then this idea. I don't know if it's sadder that someone wrote it, an editor left it in, or that it made me so angry I've written 3 paragraphs about it.

6. Modernize the ballgame experience

(You know, while also celebrating the history of the team from 20 years ago)

EYE want the Jays to display more stats on the screens because, as this article says, "Sabermetrics are totally the way of the future," which right away should raise the red alert that the person writing this has no idea what they are talking about. Yes, stats are important to baseball. Yes, there are more important ones than RBIs. However, most people who know or care about VORP are hardcore and probably already at the game (Yes, they actually used VORP as a stat that everyone would be interested in seeing. EYE has access to Wikipedia, evidently.)

7. Improve the 500 level

Since no one goes there, it's quiet and most of the places are shuttered. At least in this article the writer admits they don't know what to do about it, and hopes that all their pointers will bring more people there and the area will open up more. ("Kids, they've got VORP on the screen and an outfield museum dedicated to Alan Ashby. Let's get tickets to the 500 level of the Roge.....oh.....never mind. I guess it's back to putting our hands in the fire.")

There are problems with the Jays, and Rogers Centre. Yes the stadium is dated and not very friendly (either as a structure or the way it is staffed). Yes the team should be better. But for making it a destination, there is a larger issue that would have made a more interesting article, and here it is.

Toronto needs to be educated about baseball

Toronto is a one-sports city - hockey. There is no shame in that. There are a lot of one-sport cities (Miami, Boston, I would even argue New York City and Los Angeles are).

Hockey and the Leafs will never be supplanted in this city, but that doesn't mean there can't be room for a sport to occupy the second tier.

The key word in that is "Sport".

EYE's list is about the team. "People support a winning team". Yes, that's true. What's important is how to retain those people when the team is not winning. You do that by making people interested in the SPORT.

The Leafs didn't make the playoffs, but people still talked hockey in Toronto. Why? Because they are invested in the sport.

Can this be done for the Jays? Probably not, as it's too late - that horse left the barn. But it could have been avoided, and there's no reason not to try to mitigate the damage. Marketing would have been smart to get current players out in the community, doing all those corny things that cities do. If this city saw Aki Berg and Tie Domi as all-stars and hall of famers, then there's no reason why I shouldn't hear the name "Fred Lewis" or "Jose Bautista" on the patios after work. That Rogers's job - to market the team like that. Their current marketing plan, which does not feature any players and serves mostly as "aren't marketing people stupid" jokes does the exact opposite of this (and the fact that they reference bringing hot dogs to people's seats shows how out of date they are. Hot dogs, and the ran running around yelling "Getcher red hots!" is part of baseball. GOD THOSE COMMERCIALS MAKE ME ANGRY!)

Stop trying to sell the past of the team: yes it was nice, but it's gone. Ernie Whitt was a hitting coach, at every game for the past few years - that didn't raise attendance, nor will putting a a little plaque with his batting stats on it in the outfield. People don't go to Yankee Stadium because of Monument Park - Monument Park is possible because people went and continue to go to Yankee Stadium. If you have to tell people why Ernie Whitt was great, tell it in the context of the team as it was, the promise of the team today, and in the entire history of baseball (which they will never do because in that case? Ernie Witt is an above average catcher with some hustle and a couple of good years).

Rogers: Love of the Blue Jays is one thing, but love of the game will fill your coffers year after year and give you a better quality of fan at your part.

Fans: Rogers owes you a better team, but you have to prove to them that any investment they make isn't going to be a band-aid solution.

They had the best pitcher in baseball, and one night only 11,000 of you bothered to come to watch him pitch.

That's really all you need to know: Toronto is a city that's angry that they're not going to get a chance to see a pitcher who pitched here for seven years who they didn't come to see then, either.

And EYE? Stick to club listings and imagined slights on the subculture, and leave sports reporting alone. You do that, and I won't write about Deadmau5. Deal? Deal!