The EMP Museum

The EMP Museum           [photo courtesy of Wikipedia]

We finally made it to the EMP Museum (formally known as the Experience Music Project) which was founded by Paul Allen (of Microsoft money).  The EMP is part museum and part interactive funland. It is a Mecca for music lovers and Sci-Fi geeks alike. The building itself is as architecturally interesting on the outside, as the content is on the inside.

Gigantic sculpture of musical instruments in the middle of the museum.

Current exhibits include Nirvana and the Seattle Grunge scene, Jimi Hendrix, AC/DC, photos of The Rolling Stones, a guitar gallery, Avatar, horror films, and Sci-Fi artifacts.

I really enjoyed the Nirvana exhibit as a look into the musicians lives and Seattle as a music scene as well as the epicenter of music for a brief moment in time. The horror films showcase was really cool too and gave me an appreciation for horror films that I previously did not have.

It was cool to see all these music, Sci-Fi, and horror artifacts.

There was a scream booth where you make your best bloodcurdling scream.

This was an interactive display based on the movie Avatar, where you literally controlled an avatar. The computer calibrated to you, and then it mimicked whatever you did, in a computer simulation of Pandora. Pretty nifty. Watch until the end when I touch the plants and make them retract, just like in the movie! Don't worry, I won't quite my day job to pursue an acting career....

To summarize... the EMP is cool.