Sneak Peek at Paul Allen's Sci-Fi Museum 164
The Museum, incorporated into Allen's "Experience Music Project" in the Frank Gehry-designed "Blob" at the foot of the Space Needle is divided into several sections, with "Homeworld" taking up the bulk of the mid-level. This exhibit includes "The Sci-Fi Hall Of Fame," along with a nifty timeline of s/f related events from history; a display system that projects stunning 3-D representations of planets onto a globular surface; "Not So Weird Science," focusing on how fiction has influenced scientific and technological innovation; and my personal favorite, "The Science Fiction Community," displaying examples of fan-fic, 'zines, and memorabilia that will have the most rabid s/f geek drooling in admiration: the legendary Forrest J. Ackerman's first published letter to Amazing Stories back in the 1930's (Ackerman is listed as a member of SFM's Advisary Board, along with other notables such as Arthur C. Clarke, Harlan Ellison, Ray Bradbury & Greg Bear, just to name a few), a first-draft manuscript by Theodore Sturgeon, Ellison's Smith Corona manual typewriter, a signed, first-edition copy of Aldus Huxley's "Brave New World," the first Hugo Award presented to Ackerman in 1953, and other juicy items (many of which presumably come from Ackerman's personal collection).
One floor down are the other exhibits. "Fantastic Voyages" includes the much anticipated "Space Dock," a virtual representation of famous sci-fi spaceships (although a number of notable examples are missing: there's no TV Jupiter II, none of the ships from the "Alien" series, only one example from the "Star Trek" franchise, and no "Liberator," Eagles or TARDIS -- the Brits being generally underrepresented throughout the Museum), as well as the bulk of the prop and costume displays. Although this area tends to be rather heavy on TV/film memorabilia, there are still some choice items here: a model of the U.S. Capital dome used by Ray Harryhausen in "Earth Versus The Flying Saucers," original models from "Land Of The Giants," "Alien," "Close Encounters," the TV "Buck Rogers," "ET," and "Trek," along with a literal arsenal of weapons, including original phasers, a LIS blaster from Season One, a crossbow used by Jane Fonda in "Barbarella," and an original 1930's-era raygun from the Buck Rogers serials, among many others.
This is followed by perhaps the most disappointing section, "Brave New Worlds," encompassing the "Cities of Tomorrow" display, a CGI-driven exhibit similar to "Space Dock," but which only shows environments from three sources: a rather whimsical view of life in the 4th millenium courtesy of "The Jetson's," Ridley Scott's 21st-Century Los Angeles from "Blade Runner" (look for Dolly The Sheep on one of the rooftops!), and depictions from "The Matrix." This is followed by "Experimental Societies," basically just a display of the usual genre literature, and "Out Of The Ashes," currently limited to a few costume pieces from the 1968 "Planet Of The Apes."
The final section: "Them!" is pretty much what you'd expect -- a representation of aliens exclusively from TV/film media. The Queen Alien is pretty impressive up close, and there's a funny interplay set up between "Robbie The Robot" and "LIS's" B-9 using cleverly interspliced voice clips. At the end is a small gallery of sci-fi artwork, mostly inconsequential book-cover art, but with several pieces from acknowledged masters such as Chesley Bonestell, Frank R. Paul, and the real treat -- practically the entire collection of artwork produced by Fred Freeman and Rolf Klep for Werner von Braun's 1953 "Colliers" magazine series.
Overall, I'd say if you're interested in seeing a pretty good collection of items that encompasses more than just a "Planet Hollywood" style display of film memorabilia, then this is probably worth the $12.95 admission if you're in the neighborhood, particularly if you have at least two hours to spend going through the interactive exhibits. I'm not totally convinced it's worth the $40 to cough up for the annual membership, however, in speaking with one of the Museum staff, I was informed that some of the exhibits will change over time, with new items from Allen's extensive collection being swapped in and out. Otherwise, most of the displays are considered "permanent," although it seems pretty clear at least some of them can be replaced -- and in the case of "Brave New Worlds," probably should.
Photography is prohibited in the Museum (and the lighting level was too low for me to sneak any decent shots with my Zire 71), but if you want to take a gander at some press snaps of the exhibits, check out the Seattle Times "Inside" section.
Thanks to comte for the report.
Sponsored the Plane Flight (Score:4, Interesting)
Aj
Brin, Butler, others on NPR Friday 6/18 (Score:5, Interesting)
Paul Allen, David Brin, Octavia Butler and others will be interviewed in the first hour.
The second hour will be about Mars, factual and science fictional.
Here is NPR's information page:
http://www.sciencefriday.com/pages/2004/Jun/hour1
Stefan Jones
As someone who lives NEAR Seattle (Score:4, Interesting)
I find it highly ironic that although the man has more money than God, Paul Allen still manages to convince the State to pass on the cost of his narcissistic pet projects on to the rest of us.
Re:Trek Models in Drydock? (Score:4, Interesting)
Didn't stop 2010 from happening, mind you.
Where's the Kzinti (Score:4, Interesting)
No Doctor Who? No Farscape? (Score:4, Interesting)
Farscape - possibly one of the best Sci Fi series ever.
And NEITHER are represented in the museum, it seems.
What kind of crack are they smoking?
Oh right - silly me - if it ain't Robby the Effing Robot or Captain Kirk and Baldy Picard, it ain't Sci Fi.
Yet another Allen project (Score:3, Interesting)
Why no photography? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Getting it over with- Seattle jokes (Score:2, Interesting)
This joke is borrowed from those of us in Oregon. They don't recycle bottles in Washington, whereas Oregon pioneered the bottle bill.
Interesting architecture in Seattle (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Yet another Allen project (Score:2, Interesting)
For other schemes, check out Perfectly Legal [perfectlyl...hebook.com] by David Cay Johnston. The catch? Level of wealth required is not available to 99% of Americans.
Not everything in the museum is Paul Allen's: (Score:4, Interesting)
I looked at this museum a while back, in fact, because I was considering lending out props I have from Battlestar Galactica, but as you can see [battlestar...caclub.com], I decided not to do so, because I was concerned about their safety.
(If anyone else goes to the museum, I'd like to know if there's a BG section, and what it's like, etc.)
Re:Buy a clue Paul... (Score:3, Interesting)
It sounds like your definition of a "museum" has to be an art museum. Personally, I find art museums dull -- after I've seen one or two paintings, I want to leave -- they just get repetitive. Oh look a landscape! And another one! And another one!
To me, the more interesting type of museum is the "historical artifact" type of museum -- to see in person Thomas Jefferson's desk or Galileo's telescope (and even his preserved finger! Really! I'm not making that up! Those wacky Italians!) really puts me in touch with history. While I agree that Jimmy Hendrix or Yoda may not be in the same league as Jefferson or Galileo, to devoted fans I they might seem so.