Prairie and I went to the EMPSFM on Wednesday, using some free passes very kindly given to me back when I lost my job. I’d been to the EMP once before, just after I moved down to Seattle, but hadn’t ever gotten around to visiting the SFM side since it opened.
The last time I went, sometime around 2001/2002 or so, when it was just the EMP, I wasn’t entirely impressed, and came away thinking that it was neat, but more expensive than I felt it was really worth. No such worries anymore, though: I think the tickets have dropped in price a bit (I remember them being around $20 back then), and with the addition of the SFM and any special exhibits — especially the current Jim Henson’s Magical World — it’s totally worth visiting.
Finally getting to see the Science Fiction Museum was a lot of fun. Back when it was being created, I was excited enough to blog about it twice, but for one reason or another, I’d never checked it out. I’m glad I finally did, though — while not huge, they’ve packed a lot of neat stuff into that section of the museum, from old costumes and props to lots of first editions of classic literary sci-fi. In fact, one of the things I was impressed by the most was how much attention was paid to the written word — it’s not as “flashy” as film clips or movie props, but it’s such an important part that I was quite happy to see that it was celebrated, rather than neglected. They even had the entire handwritten manuscript to Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle, which blew me away. It’s huge!
I’ve got a few pictures from the trip on Flickr, and below is a clip of me trying my hand at being a puppeteer for the Mudgarden Experience.
I think my puppet looks the best — not only did I know the lyrics, but I have that version of “Rainbow Connection” in my collection, so I was able to keep “Kurt” pretty synced up with the music. Fun!