Of Getti and Grammy

Of Getti and Grammy

As I was walking from hotel to the Los Angeles International Convention Center, I noticed a round stone fixed on the footpath. Surprisingly, it had a Grammy logo in the middle and details of 1986 Grammy award winners – Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie for WE ARE THE WORLD!
As I was looking up to see what it was, Andy coldly said that it was done by Grammy Museum and such stones are put all around the building, signifying every Grammy award. I peeped through the glass of museum and could see a colorful old car parked near the reception. Barring two more guitars hanged on the wall; I could not see anything from outside.
Just a day before, I had visited Getti Paul Centre and I decided to visit this also. Till such time I reached Centre, I assumed it was another amusement place to pass time. The tram, which took us uphill of Santa Monica, was good but I thought it was symbol of modern American set up. Once I reached on the top, I could sense that there was something more than I thought. I pulled out a literature of the area and began wondering how much of the center we could cover within next three hours.
After lunch, I headed towards photo exhibition, but parted soon in the hall. Every photo spoke million words. It started with `Girl issues’, where a photographer had shot a teenage girl trying a bra at a show room. Such photo would have created a furor in some conservative countries, including India. There was lot more photos talking about the teenage girl issues in America.
There were other galleries like `America through Black and White’ and `Great Depression years’, leaving one wonder how did the country progressed so much. As I was passing through the galleries of `The Sacrifice’, a huge collage `Tribute to Soldier’ and `Medical Unit in Iraq’, I could not move faster.
Most of the photos were taken during wars in Vietnam and Nicaragua. The photographers had not spared their own soldiers, committing atrocities. One of the photos had two US army officers raping a Vietnamese girl. It is difficult to imagine public display of such photo, involving Indian police or armed forces. I just felt that democratic values are high in America, though we are the largest democracy in the world.
Along with this, there was a cute photo of mad rush during peak hours at Church Gate railway station in Mumbai. The photographer had used pedestrian over bridge in the railway station to take the shot.
Though I visited the sculpture gallery, I could not understand much about it. I loved each and every sculpture in the gallery. Since photography was allowed inside the sculpture gallery, I clicked as many as I could.
After completing three-day conference, I had couple of hours for myself. Without much thinking, I started walking towards Grammy museum. As I entered the museum, I realized that it was just a small corner of the building, which was converted into museum. But there were four floors and I thought I could finish it in an hour or so. In the ground floor, there was Clive Davis Theater and Porsche car, which was once used by American heartthrob of yester years Janis Joplin.
I took an elevator to the fourth floor and started by watching different designs of Grammy award trophies over the years. As I passed, there were galleries on brief history of sound recording. There were other interesting things like `compose your own music’. On video screen, a person guides you through composing music for a song. After trying your hand on various instruments, you will get to hear how the song is played with composition of your music. My experiment was disastrous.
Once I hit the theater area, I knew what it took to build the museum. Each theater looks like a cubicle, but has been done with great details of each section of music. It starts with `Sacred’, the oldest American music that was being sung in religious places to Classical, Jazz, Pop, Rock and Folk music. Each one has been done with great details and there is no way one can run through these theaters.
Legendary rock star John Lenon and Janis Joplin virtually live here, years after their death. In celebration of John Lenon’s 70th birthday (Oct 9, 2010), his wife Yoko Ono and Emi Music have released re-mastered versions of Lenon’s iconic solo hits, inclujding stripped down versions of Double fantasy’s, watching the whale and (just like) starting over. A separate theater has been built to showcase all these hits, which takes an hour for a visitor to come out of it. While walking out of the theater, I could not stop humming `Happy X-mas, War is over’.
The museum has showcased all personal belongings of greatest singers, including white shoes, jump suit with cape used by Elvis Presley and letters of Janis Joplin to her family members, which she wrote before becoming famous. There was also a semi-nude photo of Joplin, which she posed before rising to fame.
When the museum keepers announced that there was less than 15 minutes for closing, I knew that I could not cover even quarter of the museum in three hours. The building is size of a single bedroom apartment, with four floors. It is hard to believe that so many legends live there `ever after’!