My Visit To The Carpenters Exhibit

[Will]

I recently returned from the Carpenters Exhibit located at the Richard and Karen Carpenter Performing Arts Center within the California State University Long Beach campus.

It was fantastic and I highly recommend a visit if you haven't been there.

It is located at the side of the entrance to the Center and contains Karen's drums (similar to some I owned a long time ago), Richard's electric piano, many gold and platinum albums and singles, and many awards.

There is also a video biography of the Carpenters that plays. I believe it contains material you don't generally see elsewhere (early cute photos of the two and such.)

While entering the facility I met a young woman who was greatly influenced by Karen Carpenter and their music.

So much so that she is currently the drummer for an all female rock group called 'antigone rising.'

Turns out she used to love to listen to the Carpenters as a child and actually got to meet Karen back stage at a Carpenters' concert. She says that Karen was very nice and (as we know) loved children.

The exhibit is only open 2 hours on the first Saturday of the month (during performances as well I'm sure), but I would have stayed all day if allowed. It was just nice to be there.

Questions?

[cam83]

Good to hear that you enjoyed yourself. That must have been awesome! Did you take lots of pictures? I would have loved to have been there. I would have been in seventh heaven. What gold and platinum records were there?

Cam

[smoothie2]

:)how very special that must have been..! I would just be so in awe of it all as I'm sure you were! Wow lucky you!


smoothie

[Will]

cam83 said:

Good to hear that you enjoyed yourself. That must have been awesome! Did you take lots of pictures? I would have loved to have been there. I would have been in seventh heaven. What gold and platinum records were there?

Cam

Believe it or not, I didn't have a camera with me. I thought about this fact several times while I was there. Maybe Rick has taken photos there since he lives fairly close by.

I'm not certain which of the gold and platinum were there. I looked at them but wasn't trying to remember them (sorry.) I did notice that the number of sales for each album seemed to vary and I wondered why there wasn't a specific number to reach platinum. The singles all seemed to have 1 million sales.

[Will]

smoothie2 said:

:)how very special that must have been..! I would just be so in awe of it all as I'm sure you were! Wow lucky you!


smoothie

I feel fortunate to have been there.

I was in LA for a conference that was planned at the last moment, and it happened to be scheduled where I'd be there for that first Saturday, and they just happened to be open that day (apparently this is not always the case) for a meeting of new volunteers.

I didn't realize how exciting it would be just to drive up to the Carpenter Center. I haven't felt that way in a long time.

[Will]

One other thing -- I sent a note to Dena (the drummer I mentioned in my initial note) telling her where to find this discussion and asking her to add her comments if she likes.

Her Carpenters knowledge is at a much higher level than mine so maybe she'll be able to help out with some of the detailed info about the exhibit.

[Rick Henry]

willbarns said:

Believe it or not, I didn't have a camera with me. I thought about this fact several times while I was there. Maybe Rick has taken photos there since he lives fairly close by.

I'm not certain which of the gold and platinum were there. I looked at them but wasn't trying to remember them (sorry.) I did notice that the number of sales for each album seemed to vary and I wondered why there wasn't a specific number to reach platinum. The singles all seemed to have 1 million sales.

Unfortunately I don't have pictures of the performing arts center, but that sounds like a good project for me over the next month or two. I'll have to take some to post on the site, seeing I live only 25 minutes away.