I doubt any of you guys would be interested enough, but the Punk Rock Museum in Vegas is frigging awesome! It's got like 60 years worth of stuff, from original smashed guitars, to band members' jackets, to working guitars that you can play! AND- Wesley Willis' keyboard!!!!! And you can frigging play it! Amazing. Way too much stuff to name it all. There's a bar in-house that has memorabilia from various punk rock venues (including a part of the graffiti covered wall from CT's Anthrax club that was found 20 years after it closed, and was saved by a friend of mine and shipped to the museum). All in all, just absolutely great stuff! There's a small living room setup, where you can sit and read a bunch of punk books in their "library". It's a small bookshelf, but you can read them for free and just hang out. Some are for sale in the gift shop. There are QR codes that link to playlists for various sub-genres of punk music. That is cool as hell. I was talking to the owner and he was saying they're going to try to set up QR codes for each piece, so you can look at a photo and scan a tiny QR code and get info on the photo- as much as they can get, like date, location, who is in it, etc. Cool shit!
Funny scene while going through it. There was an older couple, probably mid-60s, dressed age appropriately. I kind of wondered if they brought their kid or grandkid in, but certainly said nothing to them other than smiling and nodding as I passed. Some twit loudly asked why they'd be in such a place... And BOOM, grandma got pissy and said to grandpa "hey Mike, remember when Dave took this shot? When Mike had to borrow your car to get to the shoot because his bike broke down? And Johnny borrowed your guitar for the show that night?" Kids got a slap of reality that not all old punks still dress the part but that sure as hell doesn't mean they weren't there, long before the youngens were born.
Then it was off to the Skateboarding Hall of Fame in Simi Valley, CA (just north of LA). It's like a 10k sq ft warehouse with decks all along some of the walls, a mini ramp, and some other cool displays, but the guy has a ton more stuff to display- he just doesn't know how to get it shown. There was only a few of us in the place so he took us into the back room and showed us a ton more stuff he has- sitting in boxes! All kinds of cool shit. Needs some racks or other stuff to display more boards.
He's got the original Search for Animal Chin skateboard monument in the museum. It's made of foam on a wire frame. People have torn off bits of the outer coating to have pieces of it, so it's a bit beaten up and different looking than in the video, but it's still readily recognizable, and definitely rad to see in person. It's like 6-7' tall.
Chatted with the owner for a while. Really cool guy. It's basically his personal collection and things people donate. He's got a ton of old Schwinn bikes and some BMX bikes as well.
If you're ever in the area, check either out. Punk Rock museum is $30 ($100 if you go when someone is giving guided tours- other than some adult entertainer, who is now giving them every Thursday for the same price according to their social media page. Kind of fitting considering they're next to a 24/7 all nude strip club, where I think she works.
) The skateboarding HoF/Museum is free. And it's across from a Vans outlet.