Seattle Center

Outside EMP was a small collector car show, of lowriders with hydraulics.  I, personally, find those cars annoying and obnoxious and a little too "East LA" for me.  Still, these were pretty fancy and I couldn't resist shooting a few pics.

A Betty Boop-themed VW Bug.

The owner of this car was clearly into orange.

Duck Tours

I love this paperweight.  I love, and desperately want, any and all items by Glass Eye Studios.

This is the food court at Seattle Center.  Mostly chains, like in mall food courts, but ten times more expensive.

More Glass Eye Studio paperweights.

I especially covet the planet and space series.

Awhile back, I treated myself to Rings of Saturn, which is the one in the center of this photo (middle row, 3rd from the left)

I also have a couple of their ornaments, made with Mount St. Helens ash.

EMP: Experience Music Project

While in Seattle Center I also visited Experience Music Project and the Sci Fi Museum.  I have to say, I was kind of disappointed.  EMP does have a lot of cool stuff if you have the time to sit at every music station, and I didn't go into the music lab either.  That would be fun to do with friends.  Axe and Madi would have gotten more out of EMP than I did, because I'm not a musician.  Still, I would have regretted not having gone at least once.  

I was also really disappointed to find out that the Lost In Space robot was no longer on display.  Apparently it had been there for 7 years and the sci fi geeks were pressuring the museum to change the exhibit, so I got to see Battlestar Gallactica.  Not having seen the TV show or movie (if there was one...was there?), the exhibit had no meaning to me.  Still, I got to use my favourite line from the TV show, "The Office":

BEARS.  BEETS.  BATTLESTAR GALLACTICA.

Honestly, this sculpture of instruments was my fave part of EMP.

EMP was pretty much devoted to mostly Jimi Hendrix and Nirvana.  Flash photography wasn't allowed so my pictures are blurry.  This is one of Jimi's outfits.

Eddie Van Halen's guitar.

If you want to really experience the music, you can go into the sound lab and noodle around.

In the Sci Fi Museum.

This was the only thing I recognized in the Sci Fi Museum, as being one of the miniture domes used to film one of my fave movies, "Silent Running".  It was also, apparently, used for Battlestar Gallactica.

Some other thing from Battlestar Gallactica.

And early pressing of Hendrix's "Hey Joe".  When I worked in San Francisco, my boss represented the songwriter who penned this song, Billy Roberts.

One of Jimi's smashed up guitars.

60's rock poster art.

The pink side is my fave.

Playing Tourist in Seattle

Scored a sunny Sunday morning so I jetted up to Seattle to visit the Space Needle.

This used to be the old Rainier brewery and had a giant R on the roof.  Now it's Tully's Coffee with a giant T.

Safeco Field from the highway

Pacific Science Center at Seattle Center

The globe spins and it says "It's in the PI", i.e., the Seattle Post Intelligencer paper.

Looking down on Experience Music Project.  It's supposed to look like smashed up musical instruments.

Inbound & outbound ferries arriving at the Port.

These are water bottles.  I didn't buy one; the souvenirs in the Needle were prohibitively expensive.