So I missed most of the weeks festivities due to my 8-5, but I did get to spend a great weekend with my family and our managers in Cleveland.  Here’s a kind of “behind the scenes” of what happened during the weekend.  It was so special to see so many of Janis’ friends together as well as so many of her fans.

Brief recap: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is honoring Janis as their American Music Master of 2009!

FRIDAY

• Landed in Cleveland at 10pm…driver took me to the hotel.  Kept unabashedly asking me about my husband/boyfriend (neither of which exist outside of my head).  So that was awkward.

• Got to the hotel hugs for mom, uncle and managers, younger cousin was asleep: lame.  Missed all of the events of the day, but showed up just in time for a meeting so I felt good about that. We talked about all kinds of awesome secret things that will sometime not be secrets and I can talk about them unsecretly.

• Went to hotel room to find guitars made out of chocolate filled with more chocolates.  OMG.  Joy!

Yummies in my tummies!

• SLEEP

SATURDAY

• Met family at Case Western University where they had an all day retrospective about Janis’ life and career.  Included more intellectual discourse than some people might expect, but was absolutely fascinating.  There were discussions with Jerry Ragovoy who wrote some of Janis’ hits (Piece of my Heart, Get it While You Can, among others), Country Joe McDonald, journalists, professors and all wrapped up with a Q&A with my mother Laura and uncle Mike.  I always find it fascinating how much I find out about their lives when they’re on stage…

• Oh yeah, and then my cousin informs me that the family is going to be singing Mercedes Benz…on stage…in front of a couple thousand people…and it’s going to be filmed…OMG.  Who can I blame for this? I spent much of the next few hours ensuring that I knew all the lyrics.  Like OCD studying lyrics.

• Returned to the hotel to get ready for a night of celebration which included a VIP cocktail hour and a tribute concert…where I was going to be on stage.  Much of this “getting ready” consisted of me and my cousin assuring each other that what we were wearing was appropriate/perfect/wouldn’t embarrass us.

• Met up with my good friend Lindsey who went came to the evenings festivities. Left for the VIP pre-party.  Chatted.  Laughed.  Ate mass amounts of appetizers.  Delicious.

Left-Right: Lindsey, Gayle, Jeff, ME! (Claire), Mommy! (Laura), Mel (cousin), Mike (uncle), Cory

• Went to concert sat, watched, enjoyed performances by Country Joe McDonald, Guy Clark, Nona Hendryx, Ray Benson, among others.  Lucinda Williams even debuted a song written just for Janis! It was beautiful.

• Oh yeah, and there was that little detail about being on stage….Turn out that went okay.  It was really special to be involved in the concert.  Something we have NEVER done before.  I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again.  However, I am readily awaiting the YouTube video to appear and haunt me.

Left-Right: Bob Neuwirth, John Cook, ME!, Mommy

• After party at the Hard Rock Cafe (fitting).  I think we all needed to wind down a bit after that adrenaline rush.  Wind down, we did.  Everyone except yours truely had to leave for the airport at 6:30am  so they all wound down fast.  I lingered a bit.  And was walked back to the hotel with Ray Benson of Asleep at the Wheel.  Safety in height and deep voices.  Such a great guy!

• SLEEP

SUNDAY

• I had one last day in Cleveland, and all by myself as the rest of the family left very early in the morning.  After I woke up and readied myself to fly out I went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!  I gave myself a museum tour and then the Rock Hall was gracious enough to give me a tour of their vault which holds some very fascinating rock treasures.  From outfits to guitars to costumes they have it all…I would tell you details, but I’m not really sure how “top-secret” those things are.  I will tell you that I saw some of Christina Agullera’s clothing…one of her outfits is the “smallest” they own.  Creepy small.  If you are even in Cleveland, the Rock Hall is a must.  It’s like the Louvre of Rock!

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!

• Lastly I just stopped at a sports bar by the hotel for a bite to eat before catching my plane…I swear though, Cleveland is exactly how I imagine a post-apocalyptic world.  The streets were bare.  Nothing was open.  There were football games on and I was just one of two people in this bar.  It was the same way everywhere.  Weird.

• HOME

If you were at any of the events during the Rock Halls tribute to Janis Joplin please send me your photos, videos or stories (claire@janisjoplin.com)!  I would love to post them on the blog or in the Flickr stream!  Please check out The Weird Regular People on Flickr for more of my personal photos from the weekend.