Hi!

I'm from Poland. Last month, I visited some friends who live around 7,000 km away, mostly in Pittsburgh, PA. Thanks to their hospitality, I also had the opportunity to visit Cleveland, OH, and Mercer, PA, which is roughly halfway between the two cities. As a Nine Inch Nails fan, that gave me a chance to visit a few places connected to Trent Reznor and the band's history.

**Cleveland, OH**

The main reason I wanted to visit Cleveland was the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. In the photos, you can see the actual Hall of Fame display with the Nine Inch Nails logo and signatures (you can notice Allesandro Cortini, Robin Finck, Danny Lohner, Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, Ilan Rubin, and Chris Vrenna), as well as some fascinating artifacts. Next to Eric Clapton's guitar, you can see a Nine Inch Nails setlist from September 10, 2009, from back when yinz\* thought it was over, and a studio chart for "Head Like a Hole" from 1994. It was also possible to watch a video of Iggy Pop inducting Nine Inch Nails into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as with every other artist.

The city itself gave me a rather disturbing impression. There was a huge contrast between the wealth and grandeur of the beautiful Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and some of the much poorer, rougher areas we passed through. Because we didn't feel particularly comfortable staying in that part of the city for long, we only had about ten seconds to take a photo of this building before leaving. If I'm not mistaken, this is most likely the building where Trent recorded Pretty Hate Machine in 1988 (2106 Payne Ave). Of course, it's no longer a recording studio today. Actually, I've heard it's abandoned. We took the photo and left shortly afterwards. On the way out, we saw some things that made us glad we hadn't decided to stay longer but maybe I'll omit that part here.

**Mercer, PA**

Our next stop was Mercer, PA, the town where Trent grew up. I saw the school he attended, as well as a building that seems to have been connected to his family's business. Maybe someone here can tell us more about it. It was a strange and fascinating experience to walk through streets that Trent himself had walked long before he became famous. Mercer gave me a completely different impression from Cleveland. It felt quiet, peaceful, and safe.

We decided to stop there for lunch and went to a place called Corner Kitchen. To my surprise, there were paintings by Michael Reznor, Trent's father, hanging on the walls. That's what we were told by a waitress but also you can spot the name. The waitress was really surprised someone went that far to visit Mercer. The food was excellent, and if anyone ever happens to visit Mercer, I'd definitely recommend stopping there instead of going to one of the chain restaurants. The local people were also incredibly friendly. Some of them saw a foreigner for the first time in their life which seemed unreal for me. One of the older gentlemen there told us that he remembered Trent as a child. I didn't understand everything he said, unfortunately.

Cleveland and Mercer of course weren't the only places I visited in the US, Carrie Blast Furnace in Pittsburgh was a climactic industrial site to see, The Mr. Roboto Project, a DIY art space, was great to see local underground experimental artists and I've seen also Berkeley Springs, Harpers Ferry and Washington DC but that's more related to Fallout games, my other interest, not NIN. I spent there two weeks. The best Summer in my life.

\*I really wanted to use the Pittsburghian variant of "you all" naturally lol

My oversea NIN trip to Cleveland and Mercer