Culture Fiend

New AC/DC, Jimi Hendrix Exhibits to Open at Experience Music Project

Plus: Learn the history of the leather jacket.

Posted by: Brian Colella on Jan 24, 2012 at 09:45AM 1 Comments

Photo courtesy: VARA (Beeld en Geluidwiki – Gallery: Fanclub), via Wikimedia Commons

See EMP’s new collection of Hendrix memorabilia, courtesy of the estate of Jimi Hendrix Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell.

EMP released a schedule of four new exhibitions slated for 2012, including a collection of Jimi Hendrix paraphernalia focusing on the artist’s time in London, where the Jimi Hendrix Experience was born and where Hendrix died in 1970. Among the items: previously unseen artifacts from drummer Mitch Mitchell’s estate.

Here’s the full lineup:

AC/DC: Australia’s Family Jewels
Apr 28–Sep 24, 2012
The touring exhibit makes its only stop in North America, presenting more than 400 items—including guitars, promotional posters, Angus Young’s schoolboy costume, and Bon Scott’s Highway to Hell sweatshirt—from the Aussie band’s nearly four decades in rock and roll.

Icons of Science Fiction
June 9–Ongoing
Coinciding with the reopening of the Science Fiction Hall of Fame, EMP hosts some of sci-fi’s best known props and costumes from film and TV: an Imperial Dalek from Doctor Who, Captain Kirk’s chair, and Yoda’s cane, among others.

Worn to be Wild: The Black Leather Jacket
Oct 20, 2012–Jan 20, 2013
Follow the leather jacket as it transcends its utilitarian beginnings and becomes an emblem of badassness. The leather on display includes outfits belonging to Elvis, and couture by Jean Paul Gaultier and Gianni Versace.

Hear My Train a Comin’: Hendrix Hits London
Nov 17, 2012–Ongoing
The home of the world’s largest Hendrix collection celebrates what would have been the guitarist’s 70th birthday, and the 45th anniversary of the infamous performance at the Monterey Pop Festival that ended with Hendrix igniting his guitar and smashing it to bits.

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Tags: exhibit, Seattle Center, Jimi Hendrix, Experience Music Project

Jane Espenson Is a Grown-Up Girl Geek

One of TV’s biggest science-fiction writers comes to EMP for GeekGirlCon.

Posted by: Allison Williams on Oct 05, 2011 at 11:30AM 3 Comments

Who are you calling a geek? Oh, this lady. Cool.

If you’ve ever watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Battlestar Galactica, or Game of Thrones, guess what: You’re probably a geek. It also means you’ve seen episodes penned by Jane Espenson, a prolific television writer and producer who’s also behind this fall’s drama Once Upon a Time and comedic web series Husbands (check out the Nathan Fillion cameo!).

With nerd cred like that, it’s no wonder she’s a featured guest at this weekend’s GeekGirlCon. Espenson will be at the EMP to talk about her career on Saturday at 1pm, then wax poetic on her Buffy years in a Whedonistas panel at 5:30pm. We caught up with the sci-fi celebrity to find out what’s so exciting about girls and geeks:

Would you call yourself a nerd?
Sure, absolutely. [Nerd] is used now to mean a fan, anyone who’s obsessively into anything. But it used to mean someone more academically advanced and socially disadvantaged. I definitely fit both of those.

What do you expect from the GeekGirlCon?
It’ll be good, as long as it’s not exclusive. I want boys to feel included. The whole emphasis should be that we’re not the cool kids, so we don’t exclude anyone.

Do you ever get tired of being a poster child for female geeks?
No, not at all! I love science-fiction fandom, because there’s no reason why anyone should know my name. But in science-fiction shows, people pay attention to who writes the show. They value writing and they value ideas. Writers get to be as revered as the actors, or more. And I love that, because I’m a writer.

Many sci-fi shows film in Vancouver, including your own upcoming Once Upon a Time. Is the Northwest naturally geeky?
I think there’s something about tax breaks [in Vancouver]. There are enormous financial incentives, and it makes it much more affordable. And with sci-fi, you’re wanting to spend some money on effects, so you’ll want to save money on other areas. And it’s part of the tax break, that you employ local hires, so you can hear the Canadian accents all over sci-fi.

What’s the geekiest piece of clothing you own?
Oh my gosh. On my first season at Buffy, the Christmas gift we got from [actor] Alexis Denisof was a fanny pack that says BUFFY. I wear it in Las Vegas when I go to there.

Are there still gender issues in the world of sci-fi and fantasy?
Yes, though maybe a little less acute than similar problems outside of science fiction and fantasy. I think they have a great history of inclusivity. There’s always been a pretty good presence in sci-fi for women…. People think sci-fi must be the worst boys’ club in TV. No, that’s sitcoms.

I try to make myself hyper-conscious of [gender portrayals]. I ask myself, what if I switched all my genders? I try to make sure that I’m writing something as enlightened as I’d like to think I am.

So your writing is genderless?
No, it’s not genderless portrayals… [but] I’m not sure I’m willing to say that men and women are different, that women are more romantic and men are more likely to fly off the handle. I would like to see things a little more genderless. Why do we assume that the female will fall in love and the man will, like, pick his nose? I know a lot of active women who pick their noses.

Hear Jane Espenson at GeekGirlCon on October 8.

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Tags: Television, Interview, Experience Music Project, GeekGirlCon

Slideshow: EMP’s ‘The Lure of Horror Film’

The most frightening thing is the unknown.

Posted by: Laura Dannen on Oct 03, 2011 at 11:00AM 0 Comments

All photos by Lucas Anderson.

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All photos by Lucas Anderson.

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No one jumps out at you, but this exhibit has film clips and some gruesome masks that aren’t for kids. Or wussy adults like our arts editor.

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Before the exhibit opened, EMP collected as many screams as it could to line the wall leading up to the entrance to Can’t Look Away.

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Directors Roger Corman, John Landis, and Eli Roth curated a list of 100 Horror Films to See Before You Die. I love that Bride of Frankenstein is on there.

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In a soundproof booth, visitors watch a clip from a horror movie and are prompted to scream on cue.

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An installation by artist Philip Worthington turns visitors into shadow monsters, complete with tentacles, fangs, and claws.

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The exhibit features lots of iconic horror movie props, including Jason’s hockey mask from the Friday the 13th film series.

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Don’t worry: The alien from Alien is behind glass.

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Classic horror films are projected from the ceiling into a pit as you enter the exhibit.

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On display: Edward Scissorhands’s…scissor hands.

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We wouldn’t set foot in this screening room, but we took a peek. You can also watch clips and video discussions on Bride of Frankenstein (1935), Les Diaboliques (1955), Psycho (1960), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), Suspiria (1977), and Evil Dead II (1987), among other horror classics.

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For opening night, the exhibit featured local makeup artists “zombifying” museum-goers.

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The making of a zombie.

As you approach EMP’s new exhibit, Can’t Look Away: The Lure of Horror Film, you feel like you’re descending into the bowels of hell. The staircase spirals down to the basement, with photographs of people mid-scream lining the walls like they’re hell’s denizens, frozen for eternity. You almost expect a guy in devil horns to greet you at the double doors, but let’s not forget this is an EMP exhibit. It’s an understated, academic approach to horror that opens with the philosophical question “What Is Horror, and Why Do We Like It?” emblazoned on the wall.

Because it deals with taboo subjects?
Tests our courage?
Reflects the landscape of nightmares and dreams?

Or is it just the rush? “Guillermo del Toro calls it a roller-coaster ride for the soul,” director John Landis (of Blues Brothers and American Werewolf in London fame) said during a Q&A at EMP yesterday. “I don’t know what that means, but I like how it sounds.” Other nuggets from Landis: “Monster lore was mostly created by screenwriters.” “I don’t believe in ghosts or the supernatural—but The Exorcist scared the shit out of me.” “The last true grindhouse movie was Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ.”

Landis, along with Hollywood fright flick mavens Roger Corman (Little Shop of Horrors) and Eli Roth (_Hostel_), curated clips from their favorite horror films to screen inside cleverly constructed viewing rooms that look like creepy forest groves. If you, like me, wouldn’t set foot in the Ringu/The Exorcist room, check out the original typed manuscript of Bram Stoker’s Dracula instead, complete with a handwritten cover page with the original title The Un-Dead.

Also on display: a series of props from classic horror films, including the alien in Alien, Freddy Krueger’s glove from Nightmare on Elm Street, and the “Gill man” mask from Creature from the Black Lagoon.

This isn’t a haunted house with teenagers hired part-time to jump out at you wearing Jason’s hockey mask, but the exhibit is plenty eerie, especially if you let your imagination run a little wild. View the slideshow for more. (Warning: It’s rated PG-13.)

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Tags: exhibit, Experience Music Project

Slideshow: Avatar: The Exhibition at EMP

James Cameron brings us his own blue man group.

Posted by: Allyson Marrs on Jun 08, 2011 at 01:00PM 0 Comments

Before touching the computer or a camera, Cameron and his artistic team created casts of each blue avatar. “He didn’t settle for mediocrity,” says Giovanni Ribisi, who plays Parker Selfridg in the film.


All photos by Lucas Anderson

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Before touching the computer or a camera, Cameron and his artistic team created casts of each blue avatar. “He didn’t settle for mediocrity,” says Giovanni Ribisi, who plays Parker Selfridg in the film.


All photos by Lucas Anderson

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It took a full year to put the exhibit together after James Cameron approached EMP’s Paul Allen about it. Curator Brooks Peck says there are two main themes to the exhibit: world building and imagination, and invention and filmmaking.

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The designers of Avatar had strong scientific backgrounds, evident in their creations. Exhibition visitors get the chance to see props from the movie, like the chest garments worn by CCH Pounder (Mo’at) shown here.

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Step into the shoes of the massive blue avatars by comparing the size your feet, hands, and height to theirs. The avatars tower at 9’ 7’’ and wear a whopping size 17.5 shoe.

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Learn to speak Na’vi by choosing from a slew of popular phrases. The best part: It’s a real language, specially created by a linguist for the creatures of eywa’eveng (the Na’vi name for Pandora).

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An interactive concept board allows users to choose from plants, creatures, and other objects from the film, then get a detailed account of the creation process. The board took five years to construct and uses sophisticated technology: Users place a tablet on the screen, turning and touching to their liking, watching the film element evolve from inception to final product. Those who’ve seen Avatar will recognize that it’s strikingly similar to the technology used by characters in the film.

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The exhibit allows visitors to direct and shoot their own Avatar scene using “virtual cameras,” equipment similar to what was on the original set. These handy little cameras shoot from any point of view you choose and move as you move. Action!

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The Performance Capture Stage lets you do the acting in one of two scenes, becoming either Neytiri or Jake Sully. A virtual Cameron directs you through the scene while you watch your own avatar image stroll on the screen. These fourteen cameras create the same digital world they did in the movie. Bonus: You can send the link of your Oscar-worthy performance to friends and family.

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During the Actors’ Experience panel, Avatar cast members shared lighthearted stories about their time on set. Veteran actress CCH Pounder, who plays Mo’at, greeted her costar Giovanni Ribisi with a hiss. Pounder describes how the film forced her back to her childhood imagination, having to believe that the set, a gray hanger-like building, was the world of Pandora.

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Actor Laz Alonso, who played Tsu’tey in the film, talks about some of the challenges during filming: “[ Cameron] had to start creating a new word, like, every week for ‘action.’ The horses would learn what ‘action’ meant, [so] when he’d go ‘Annnd’, the horses would just start running!”

“I feel like actors do the same thing,” commented Giovanni Ribisi with a roar from the audience, one of many jokes that passed between the two men.

James Cameron doesn’t do anything halfheartedly. His partnership with the Experience Music Project is Avatar: The Exhibition, a show that will stun even the most diehard fans of the 2009 blockbuster. Consisting of props, technology, and sketchbooks from the film, the exhibit is designed to give you a full Pandora education.

During last weekend’s series of events, from star-studded panels to a “blue” carpet entrance, viewers got a look at how the movie magic was made. The exhibit “amplifies creative contemporary culture,” says EMP’s curator Brooks Peck. Avatar fans not only have the opportunity to explore the world of Pandora, but they get the chance to create it, and, quite literally, step into it. Attendees are flocked by forest creatures even before entering: Outside the doors, digital projections of woodsprites—Pandora’s friendly jellyfish-like beings—swarm your shadow. For these kind of interactive displays, EMP enlisted the help of the folks who did the digital renderings for the movie.

James Cameron chose Seattle specifically for EMP, saying in a blue-carpet interview, “There isn’t a better venue in the world.” He describes the exhibit as both educational and experimental, and promises that it’s as authentic as he could make it. “In our minds, [Pandora] was a real world,” he says.

Take a look at our slideshow above to see blue Na’vi models, props from the film, and the interactive experiences that make up the show.

Avatar: The Exhibition is on display through September 3, 2012.

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Tags: Visual Art, exhibit, Experience Music Project

Slideshow: More Photos from EMP’s ‘Nirvana’ Exhibit

Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic makes an appearance.

Posted by: Laura Dannen on Apr 19, 2011 at 04:00PM 0 Comments

All photos by Lucas Anderson.

They Might Be Giants An early photo of Nirvana flashes on screen at the EMP preview party for Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses.

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All photos by Lucas Anderson.

They Might Be Giants An early photo of Nirvana flashes on screen at the EMP preview party for Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses.

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Photo: Lucas Anderson

Preview party of the new Nirvana exhibit. Guests included Krist Novoselic, Dow Constantine, Kurt Bloch of Young Fresh Fellows and Fastbacks, record producer Steve Fisk, local photographer Charles Peterson, and Mark Pickerel of Screaming Trees and Truly.

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Photo: Lucas Anderson.

Kurt Cobain played this guitar—a Mosrite Gospel, one of his favorites—at the OK Hotel in Seattle on April 17, 1991, when Nirvana first performed “Smells Like Teen Spirit” live.

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Photo: Lucas Anderson

Inside Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses, now housed in the former Northwest Passage at EMP.

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Photo: Lucas Anderson

The interactive exhibit includes 100 oral histories about Nirvana, plus songs by punk, grunge, and rock bands from the ’80s and ’90s.

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Photo: Lucas Anderson

A map of Nirvana’s influence on Northwest music.

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Photo: Lucas Anderson

Reliving Nirvana’s live shows on a (really) big screen in the EMP Sky Church.

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Photo: Lucas Anderson

King County Exec. Dow Constantine’s first Nirvana experience? Driving his parents Buick Skyhawk through the U-District, listening to the band in the car.

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Photo: Lucas Anderson

“My stepmom lived next door to the Cobains in the ‘60s and ’70s, and in the early days of the band, she’d ask, How are the Cobainies?” Krist Novoselic said. “Kurt Cobain…here’s a man who would never clean his kitchen or take out the garbage, but he was not a lazy person. He was a compelled artist who excelled in any form.”

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Photo: Lucas Anderson

Plugged in at the new Nirvana exhibit.

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Photo: Lucas Anderson

Center: Remnants of the Univox Hi-Flyer, the first guitar Kurt Cobain ever smashed in a show, at an Evergreen State College dorm party in 1988. Far left: Original Sub Pop artwork.

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Photo: Lucas Anderson.

The Nirvana exhibit also includes a brief history of punk and underground music.

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Photo: Lucas Anderson.

A boy tries to teach his friend to play the opening lick of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” in the EMP Rec Room.

We enjoyed a preview tour of the new Nirvana exhibit at EMP last week, but you didn’t think we’d skip out on the preview party, did you? Photographer Lucas Anderson was at the EMP festivities on Friday night—view the slideshow for scenes from the evening, including close-ups of the exhibit (more guitars! In Utero angels!) and Krist Novoselic addressing his people.

Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses is on display at Experience Music Project | Science Fiction Museum through April 22, 2013.

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Tags: Seattle Center, Museums, Local Music, Experience Music Project, Nirvana

Slideshow: Nirvana at EMP

It’s the most comprehensive look at Seattle’s grunge gods to date.

Posted by: Laura Dannen on Apr 14, 2011 at 09:30AM 0 Comments

Photo courtesy Shelli Hyrkas.

Kurt Cobain takes a break during the “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video shoot in Los Angeles, Aug 18, 1991. This is just one of the dozens of candid Nirvana photos on display at EMP.

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Photo courtesy Shelli Hyrkas.

Kurt Cobain takes a break during the “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video shoot in Los Angeles, Aug 18, 1991. This is just one of the dozens of candid Nirvana photos on display at EMP.

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Some of Kurt’s high school artwork is on display—all kinds of Reagan-era, post-apocalyptic sketches, including this striking A New American Gothic from 1984. It’s part of the EMP’s permanent collection.

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Original lyrics by Kurt Cobain, 1988. The majority of these songs were recorded during Nirvana’s first session at Reciprocal Recording in Seattle on Jan. 23, 1988, with producer Jack Endino.

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This Univox Hi-Flyer is the first guitar Kurt Cobain ever smashed in a show, at an Evergreen State College dorm party (dorm K208) on Oct 30, 1988. And someone kept the pieces all those years.

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Nirvana’s first demo tape, 1988.

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Photo by me.

I’m sure you’ll recognize the sweaters in there (two of Kurt’s favorites, including the green one from the “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video), but the MTV Video Music Award from 1992 is even better. It’s for their “Smells Like TEAM Spirit” video.

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Photo courtesy Shelli Hyrkas.

Dave Grohl, Kurt Cobain, and Krist Novoselic board a plane in Australia, cir. Feb 10, 1992.

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Photo by me.

Center: the TEAC reel-to-reel tape machine owned by Mari Earl, Kurt Cobain’s aunt. He used to record early tracks on it, and used the suitcase as a drum kit.

The new Nirvana exhibit at Experience Music Project doesn’t bowl you over when you first walk in. No “Smells Like Teen Spirit” blasting over the loudspeakers, no looping video of Kurt Cobain crashing into a drum kit. It’s more subdued: gray walls, dim lighting, guitars behind glass casings. It feels very Pacific Northwest, like a drizzly day driving through Aberdeen. It feels right.

Senior curator Jacob McMurray wanted to go with a more contemplative mood for Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses, and he’s certainly achieved that. The former Northwest Passage at EMP (home to the “Louie Louie” exhibit) has become a punk sanctuary. You could spend hours examining the 200-plus band artifacts and rock star ephemera—nearly half come straight from the attic of Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic—and listening to 100 oral histories about the rise of the little grunge band that could. Former Nirvana and Soundgarden producer Steve Fisk created a special soundtrack for the exhibit: the sound of a guitar reverberating, much like the lingering resonance of the band itself. “The music’s definitely not supposed to rock—no drums,” he said yesterday (as I quietly panicked that I was talking to the Steve Fisk). “It’s about an hour of music with no melody.”

It rings behind you as you peer at the candid snapshots of Kurt, Krist (back when he was Chris), and drummer Chad Channing as teens; the photo that Chad’s mom saved (and framed) of Nirvana sharing the Moore Theatre marquee with Mudhoney and Tad. There’s a shot of the band stepping onto a plane in Australia during their 1992 Rolling Stone cover shoot, waving like goofy dignitaries; of Courtney Love pregnant; of the guys doing whippets with Sonic Youth. This is the best part of the exhibit, even more so than the busted guitars, wall-sized concert photos by Charles Peterson, or the original Sub Pop album cover art. It’s a glimpse at the boys acting like smartasses, being themselves, before they exploded on the national scene with Nevermind in 1991.

And in true EMP fashion, there are hours and hours of taped conversations telling that story, by everyone from Fisk and Novoselic (he does the entire audio tour) to Mark Arm of Mudhoney and Buzz Osborne of the Melvins.There’s also a history of punk and underground music through the ’80s and early ’90s, and a selection of sounds from the Pacific Northwest (I always forget Death Cab came from Bellingham) curated by Fisk. And an In Utero angel stands atop stacked roadie trunks, guarding it all.

View the slideshow above to get a glimpse of what’s on display. Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses opens on April 16 and will stay open through April 22, 2013.

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Tags: Seattle Center, Museums, Local Music, Experience Music Project, Nirvana