Speed Dating Seattle Part II

The completion of the journey started in part I.

The thing everyone told me to do in Seattle was to see the EMP (Experimental Music Project) museum. The museum building, which I did not bother trying to capture on camera because of its impossibly untamed intricacies, was built to look like the pieces of the guitar Jimi Hendrix burned and smashed at the Monterrey Pop Festival of 1967 - from Kerry Park Viewpoint I could see what clearly resembled a guitar neck.

A large art piece of assembled musical instruments? Actually, this well-known piece in EMP is an instrument itself. Quite a few of those instruments are computerized and play works all day long that you can enjoy through provided headphones.

As a museum, it was very interactive. Computers and iPads were set up throughout the exhibits so one could casually browse through interviews and tracks at one's own pace. In the upper floors were recording studios where one could record a brief demo tape and small booths where one could take quick instrument lessons from a computer program. In another room more or less closed off by velvet rope, a bouncer, and a door sign that read "Performer Entrance Only" was a stage designed to allow guests to simulate the experience of performing in a live setting (above the door was a television screen showing a man banging gleefully on the drums and a woman pushing random notes on a keyboard). On the lower floor some free classes were offered; I think the art of singing duets was being offered while I was there. In other words, there was plenty to do, enough to take up a few hours.

One of the mechanical guitars.

I spent a substantial amount of time in a theater within the building that showed Jimi Hendrix concert videos on loop - Seattle is very proud to be Hendrix's hometown. I got to see for the first time that 1967 Monterrey show where he burned and smashed his guitar in the most sexually provocative way possible, then tossed the pieces out to the crowd (two of which I saw in the museum's guitar collection). Besides being shocking even now, 45 years later, and beside the presence of a family with small children in the theater watching as well, the experience was emotional for me as someone who has played on that stage with Berkeley High School and seen the spot where it all took place. I guess I always knew it was historical, but it means something so much richer now.

A security guard watches over the upper level of EMP. This art piece was the only thing I managed photos of at EMP.

The next day Steve took me to a park on Bainbridge Island and we walked around either taking pictures (me) or scouring the sand for worn-down shards of glass (him and his wife Lynn). It was a peaceful, uneventful morning, a nice contrast to the rain we heard in the forecast. Instead there were just clouds, beautiful, dazzling clouds ready to eat us all up.

Steve and Lynn, a distant pair of dots, walk down Fay Bainbridge Park.

A tire is batted around my little waves.

On the ferry back into town, the city never seemed so insignificant.

Seattle under the sky.

Seattle above the water.

I think I forgot to adjust my white balance after taking pictures inside the museum, so some of these pictures seem a little too blue for me. Still, it makes the orange of the Space Needle stand out.

I didn't expect to love the Space Needle as much as I did. It was by far my favorite visual of Seattle, despite being a building with no practical purpose. It distinguished Seattle's skyline by on the one hand being of unique construction and on the other by being separate from the rest of the city. As I wrote in part I, Kerry Park Viewpoint is the only landed place in Seattle where the Space Needle appears to be in the downtown area with the rest of Seattle's architecture. As it turns out, the Space Needle isn't even the tallest building in Seattle, although it does have the advantage of being on higher ground. If it were in downtown, it would be lost among the office buildings. It stands out because it stands alone. I found that very attractive.

Finally, I ended the trip by waiting at the zoo for my friends. Having arrived earlier than anticipated, I was able to practice my experimental photography and "round" out my photographic journey that weekend. That is, until my camera battery died.

Psychedelic Zoo!

Like the spinning of a record.

You spin me right round baby, right round.

Working on focusing the center of my whirlpool on something.

And the world spins madly on.

Pine cone pupils.

Bitiş

Speed Dating Seattle Part I

The top of the Space Needle has been painted orange in honor of the color it was during the world's fair for which it was built.

Memorial Day Weekend was my first opportunity to investigate the city of Seattle, Washington. In fact, it was one of my first chances to find myself in the state of Washington at all, despite living in Portland, Oregon, which borders Washington - once, on the way to the airport, I missed a turn and biked until I saw the "Welcome to Washington" sign, then continued biking until I was beyond it in order to say I had been in the state.

A couple of friends were heading to Seattle to visit family and offered to take me along for the ride. It was all very last-minute. I called my Dad's high school friend Steve on Thursday telling him I'd be there for the weekend starting Friday night, and luckily enough he was available to visit and give me a place close to the city where I could spend a couple of nights, although no plans were final until about mid-way through Saturday.

Mostly the visit was for travel's sake, but also I needed to evaluate Seattle's livability, since there is an excellent law school there that I may be seriously considering in a year from now (while Portland is just fine as far as cities go, it doesn't have any top notch law schools except Lewis and Clark, which is only top notch for environmental law). It turns out that big cities - Seattle - have much more going on than little metropolises - Portland - and there's still much more to see before I get a real idea of what living there would be like. I guess this means we have to schedule a second date.

Still, Seattle is beautiful and green, and it has some great architecture. I'll split this post in two parts just because there are too many photos to bombard you with in just one "welcome to June" announcement.

While I was there a large folk festival, "Folklife Northwest" was taking place. I did check it out, but it was far too crowded and noisy in general. I couldn't stand it, in short. But there were some small, removed patches where I was able to escape before I escaped the entire festival altogether. Off to the side one table sold books of poetry written by kids in juvenile detention, where an organization called Pongo Teen Writing teaches non-profit poetry. It felt like something I could support, and the poems, which now sit in my room, are often quite good for being written by kids aged 13-17.

Then I made my way to Kerry Park Viewpoint, up a huge hill that rewarded me with a sweeping view of the cityscape. This is where my picture taking of the day started, because it's the only place in the city where a shot of the Space Needle makes it look like it's actually within downtown Seattle, while in reality it's off to the side in a different section of town from the skyscrapers.

See? No skyscrapers nearby.

The next day I went to Waterfall Garden Park (of course) because the public transportation was limited during the holiday weekend and I couldn't make it out to Snoqualmie Falls as I had originally planned. It turns out I wasn't allowed to take pictures with a tripod in the park because it's a private garden and no professional photographers are allowed. I was too flattered to be considered a pro despite my dinged up tripod to protest.

Waterfall Garden Park is a quite, tucked away fountain in the shape of a waterfall. It

's a few blocks away from where the Seattle Seahawks play.

Later, on the way back to the Space Needle, I accidentally ran into the downtown public library, an example of Seattle's bizarre and amazing architecture. Portland also boasts a fine public library, but not ten stories of modern glassy book holdings, complete with a book spiral built exactly how I imagined my protagonist's home to be in the novel I'm writing. It was a legitimate research library and piece of art, and made the prospect of being a University of Washington student seem quite appealing.

A wall of the library

Outside the library's entrance

Part of the library's roof

All right, enough for part one. More travel writing to come in the next installment. Hope you all enjoyed your holiday weekends too.