The closing Gnomedex party was at the EMP. I think I'd been in the building for 2 hours before it occurred to me to go upstairs and explore. Watching fellow Gnomedexers whail away on drums, voccals, bass and guitar in the interactive music studios was waay fun, but what blew me completely away was the comprehensive presentation of artifacts relating to Jimi Hendrix--from childhood drawings to old festival video footage to scraps of airline and hotel stationary with song lyrics scribbled down.
I never thought I wold have a chance to see a notebook of song lyrics, c. 1968, written for Electric Ladyland. Or a 1857 drawing of Elvis Presley done by the young Jimmy. Or the great footage from Montery Jazz Festival where no one can help dancing. --Apparently, EMP's collection includes more than 80,000 artifacts including guitars belonging Bob Dylan, Bo Diddley, Muddy Waters and Kurt Cobain, fanzines, costumes, and song sheets.
What a pleasure!
It was awesome alright. Also the art exhibition, with the Van Gogh, Liechenstein, etc was incredible! Good old Paul Allen ay... (I hear he's the person behind it all?).