Keeping on with our day, we walked over to the
Experience Music Project (EMP) museum. This is a non-profit museum created in 2000 of American pop culture and science fiction, featuring exhibits of famous local famous musicians/styles of music and Star Trek. The building itself is simply amazing -
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EMP
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According to the brochure -
"EMP’s futuristic Frank O. Gehry designed building is constructed of over 21,000 aluminum and stainless steel shingles and 280 steel ribs. If its 400 tons of structural steel were stretched into the lightest banjo string it would extend one-fourth of the way to Venus."
(Photo courtesy of EMP staff.)
A world-renowned architect, Frank O. Gehry has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Pritzker Architecture Prize (1989), the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Award (1994), the National Medal of Arts (1998), a Gold Medal from the American Institute of Architects (1999), and the Lifetime Achievement Award from Americans for the Arts (2000).
The museum was created by Paul Allen, of MicroSoft in 2000. The giant exhibits were incredibly meticulous in information, pictures and memorabilia of modern and old. We primarily focused on the music exhibits.
There is a large exhibit on the 2nd floor dedicated to Kurt, Nirvana and grunge music which was born in the Seattle area.
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| Kurt |
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| Nirvana Album Covers |
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| THE Guitar |
The guitar room/exhibit also included instruments no longer used like this bass from the early 20th Century. It also displayed a few of Eric Clapton and other famous musicians guitars.
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| Hawaiin Stroh 1920s |
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| Mando Bass 1930s |
And another large exhibit of Jimi Hendrix, also from the Seattle area. In the height of his fame (1966-1970) Hendrix performed over 500 times in 150 different places and recorded 130 songs in 16 studios. There was also an auditorium with his videos playing.
Photo courtesy of EMP staff.
Situated at the base of the world-renowned Space Needle, EMP Mus
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| Cool Wall |
As with any good museum, it was chocked full of information - too much to absorb it all. What an experience to see the tangible displays of items these young, exuberant musicians made. They touched the lives of so many of us - spoke to our hearts and tragically left us at such an early age.
After watching a few videos on the largest IMAX screen I've ever seen, we decided to go outside and find some lunch. Wowza! I'd never eaten a hotdog from stand before! We had the "Seattle" which was a grilled hotdog, grilled onions and peppers slathered with creme cheese. Yummy!
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| Pure pleasure! |
We also enjoyed listening to the "Peruvian Dudes". I guess these guys play all day long, every day.
We also had our faces drawn by character artists -
Next, we rode the monorail to West Plaza shopping mall. Here's the view:
We "ubered" back to our hotel room to get ready for the evening's events. Next up - TEATRO ZINZANNI!
