HALL MONITOR: The Rock and Roll Hall...

HALL MONITOR: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has finally opened its doors . . . sort of. “Are you Experienced?,” the first exhibit of the still-waiting-to-be-built hall’s wares, is currently giving pop culture vultures a taste of what the museum will have to offer when the Cleveland building is completed. The show, running through Sept. 27 at Cleveland’s Western Reserve Historical Society, focuses on three of rock’s most enduring figures: Elvis Presley, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix.

Among the items on display: one of the King’s karate robes, an illustrated book of the Ten Commandments that Joplin is said to have carried everywhere, Buddy Holly’s 1955 high school diploma--as well as a designer leather outfit from Janet Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation” tour, though Jackson is still many years away from being eligible to be voted into the hall. There’s also a showcase of rock concert tickets from the ‘60s, a time when they were themselves art, rather than just the computer-generated passes we now get.