Russ Young
From:
Seattle, Washington, USA
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Posted 8 Jan 2003 3:59 pm |
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Over the weekend I spent several hours at Seattle's Experience Music Project, a musical museum founded by Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen. (A Jimi Hendrix aficianado, Allen had the world's largest collection of Hendrix memorabilia, and the project grew out of that.)
The museum's guitar collection includes lap steels from Weissenborn, National, Audiovox, Gibson, Rickenbacher, K&F and Dobro. The contributions of people like John Dopyera, George Beauchamp, Leo Fender and Doc Kaufman are prominently featured and acknowledged.
If you're in Seattle, I'd recommend taking the time to visit. If you can't, you can visit virtually through their web site: www.emplive.com (Don't let the disco stuff scare you away -- keep going!)
Some real treasures can be found in the "EMP Digital Collection." Try launching it, and check out the Guitar Gallery in "Gallery Views." You can also see the multimedia materials that I bookmarked during my visit my going to "My Bookmarks" and entering my ticket number: 009278105.
A word of warning: like all Microsoft software, there are some bugs.  So the interface can be a little temperamental, but when it's working right you can see some interesting artifacts, listen to sound clips, hear descriptions of guitar development, etc. (You can even explore grunge, disco and rap -- no one will ever know.)
Provided the software is behaving, I think you'll enjoy it ...
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Gary Slabaugh
From:
Scottsdale, AZ
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Posted 10 Jan 2003 12:32 pm
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If you hurry you can see Elvis. This weekend is the Elvis impresionist contest. I know they come in all types but today's Seattle Times had an article and one of the contestants is a transexual who won the amature catagory a fews years back.
This thought allow triggers other 1) what does it take to be a "professional elvis"? Tests, certifications, blood work up? and 2) if there are transexual Elvis's out there does this make the Lisa Marie/Michael Jackson thing seem a little more normal?
sorry for getting away from the family orientation here |
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