I pity the fool who pays full price

You know me, I love museums. Slap some art on the wall or put something in a glass case and I will gladly pay to look at it. Today I went to the Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum. I live only a 10-minute walk from this museum, and people who are not from Seattle ask quite frequently about this place. But when I moved here, I heard it was crappy, so I never went. But since the museums are free from 5-8 pm on the first Thursday of every month, I decided to check it out. And I am here to tell you, the critics are right.

I am willing to admit that fighting the kind of crowds who are trying to find free things to do at Seattle Center does not make an ideal setting, and perhaps it predisposed me negatively toward the museum. But ultimately, it was boring, and both museums have weird layouts that made it hard to determine where to go and whatnot.

I am not the ideal audience for the science fiction museum, but, as I heard James Cameron say on a tv clip, "science fiction appeals to human curiosity..it asks the question of what is beyond our five senses." Well, the museum attempts to bombard all the senses, sort of destroying the metaphor. The things I liked best in this museum were an animatronic Donatello from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III, and the third floor, which is sort of like a science fiction/fantasy Hard Rock Cafe---you can see the terminator's jacket, the wicked witch's hat, Obi-Wan's robe, and Indiana Jones' jacket and whip. One interesting idea for generating funds was asking people to donate by slipping money into slots designated for different sci-fi movies. As if putting a dollar in a Star Wars container did something. But they seemed to have a lot of money in there.

The Experience Music Project is frequently referred to as a place for Paul Allen to store his guitars and things he bought on E-bay. The best part was the Jimi Hendrix exhibit, which I think was the whole impetus for the museum. They should have just made that the whole museum instead of sticking it in a little nook that was hard to maneuver. Jimi did some great drawings when he was a kid.

But here is something I learned today (maybe revealing that I just learned this today exposes my ignorance)--the 4 elements of hip-hop:
1. writing/graffiti--the visual element of hip-hop
2. b-boying--dance element of hip-hop
3. DJ'ing--musical element of hip-hop
4. MCing--lyrical element of hip-hop

I just didn't realize they were so formal about their elements and whatnot.

I also saw things worn by Johnny Cash, Kurt Cobain, and Sonny & Cher. To be fair, I didn't do any of the "experiencing" of music that can be done on the third floor, where there are instruments and stages and things like that, which I hear is the real high point for people. But I saw this drum-like thing, with something like a six-foot diameter, and a bunch of people were standing around drumming on it. They were the most joyless group of people I've seen in awhile.