Cleveland Steamer...Adventures In My New Favorite Town

So I posted last as I was catching my breath from packing up the car for some night driving to Cleveland, Ohio. We got into Cleveland at about 3:30am, and Melanie crashed as soon as we got to our hotel room...I, on the other hand, stayed up most of the night watching VH1 classic(I don't get that channel at home). Every time I'd start to nod off, they'd show a Devo video or something, and I'd perk right back up. I should have taken some pictures of our room. It had a real cool 60's-ish Danish-ish lamp that I really wanted to steal. I'm a bad blogger though, so I forgot to.

Oh, before I talk more about Cleveland...a real quick ADD break. I saw Joan Jett and the Blackhearts the other night! It was at a drag strip, and the stage was REALLY far away from the crowd(as seen in the picture below), but it kicked a whole lot of ass. She's still pretty hot too, for someone in their 50's.



Here's a picture of me in front of Cleveland, my new favorite city. This is outside the Rock n roll Hall of Fame. Despite the STEEEEEEP admission price, I'm real glad I went. Favorite items? One of the Ohio Express member's pants, McCoys drum head, the guitar Eddie Cochran had on him when he died(recovered from the accident by Dave Dee of Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick, and Tich fame, while he was still a cop), Cramps drum head broken by Lux Interior's head, Leadbelly's pardon letter, Jimi Hendrix's childhood drawings, and Hank Williams' boots.

Jeeeeez, I look like a dweeb in this picture!



This clock was originally gonna be for sale in Cleveland, but not long after I snapped this picture, a customer at the bakery bought it.



The BBQ/Flea Market/Rock n roll show was at Now That's Class, a nifty little punk bar held together with stickers, with some skateboard ramps in the back. It's a CBGB's for the rust belt! The awning(seen below) even reminded me of CBGB's. Incidentally, We saw the real CBGB's awning at the Rock n' Roll Hall Of Fame.



Here's a bunch of my art that I had for sale, as well as some velvet paintings and other random kitsch. I'm too big of an airhead to remember to take a picture of all the other vintage stuff we had for sale, even though part of the reason we went in the first place was to take pictures of what people bought so I could write about it here. I suck.



The one buyer and item I did think to photograph was the girl who bought this napkin holder. There's a story behind this thing. When I was in high school, a friend of mine stole this from Dairy Queen. He was(and still is) way into Rockabilly, and one day sitting around the storage unit he illegally lived in at the time, and he handed my a Sharpie marker, and asked me to "make it look more 50's", so I drew on the diamonds. A couple years later, I went over the sharpie with some paint. He ended up giving it to his brother, and I didn't see it for a few years. About 4 years ago, I was shopping at the antique mall in Allen, Michigan, and spotted it in a booth. I thought that was neat that it'd randomly show up over in the next county. I didn't buy it(I don't even really like it), and next time I went back, it was gone. Last year, We were sitting in the bakery, and one of Melanie's old co-workers came in and said "I found something at a garage sale in Indiana, and it made me think of you guys"...it was the napkin holder. Weird. Anyway, I sold it in Cleveland...let's see how long it takes to come back this time.



Here's the Sweet Sixteens playing behind Now That's Class in 357 degree heat. They're great! I forgot to take pictures of the Poppets, because I'm stupid...but we did sell them some vintage junk.



On Saturday, my new band is opening for the Poppets and Sweet Sixteens...I Can't wait! They're all super fun and friendly folks. This is our first show! I drew the poster.



Here's Melanie passing out some cake balls during the Sweet Sixteens set. Cleveland loves cake balls!



This is in the sound booth area in Now That's Class. I dig all the little kid/drunk people drawings! I should have taken some pics of Now That's Class's food...Holy cow, the Quesadillas we had there were outta sight. Actually, all the food we had in Cleveland was great! Angelo's pizza(across the street from In My Mind's Eye record store, which also RULLLLES), is fantastic! We wanted to eat at Melt(as seen on Man VS Food), but it was getting late, and I hear the lines are super long.




Here's me lookin' real smart.



This mural makes me think that Now That's Class was probably a gay bar in the late 80's....



...probably a gay bar in the 80's...



...definitely a gay bar in the 80's!



Much thanks to Erin(of Trash You Up, of course), and her boyfriend Josh, for The hospitality, and for the nifty pizza magnet that is now on my pink Frigidaire. We'll be back in Cleveland real soon.

Oh, any readers that want your mind blown, should check out Flower Child in Cleveland...the best vintage store I've ever been to...EVER!!! We sold them a whole bunch of stuff, and wanted to buy so many things, that we ended up buying nothing, because we couldn't decide on one thing(and we're trying really hard to save up for Goner Fest).

On an unrelated note...Here's another poster I recently did...