Are you experienced?

Today was sublime - the kind of detatched but focussed absorption that I used to get hanging around in second hand bookshops working my way through their stock. The reason? My excursion to Experience Music. The downstairs has a good mix of physical exhibits annotated with cards with the right depth of information, plus headphone stations wher you could play with things like 8 track mixes of Jimi Hendrix songs. A whole history of Seattle music was laid out, from jazz, blues and Louie Louie to grunge.

Upstairs was awesome, with stations where you could do multi-level lessons on guitar, bass, keys, drums and vocals, plus single level lessons on mixing, beat matching and guitar effects pedals. After you'd had a go at all of these, there were numerous soundproof rooms where you could spend 10 minutes at a time putting into practice what you'd been leanring, either by doing more lessons or doing what you wanted. I kept coming away from stations with a silly grin on my face, and I WANT SOME DRUMS!

After a break for lunch, I went back in, to the Sci Fi museum which is in the same complex. I hadn't expected to spend very long there, but it's all laid out very immersively. They've taken a large number fo sci fi themes and traced their development through the history of the genre. As I'm someone who appreciates things more when I understand where they come from and how they evolved, I really enjoyed working my way round this.

They also had a temporary exhibition about Jim Henson's work. I hadn't realised that the Muppets had existed long before the Muppet Show, having starred in various advertising shorts as a result of his 'Sam and Frriends' show. They had lots of his sketches and storyboards, juxtaposed with the final versions - most notably his 9 minute file Time Piece, where stills of the storyboards played simultaneously beside the film itself.

All in all (including lunch) I spent six hours amusing myself there before finding dinner and coming to the hotel I'd managed to book in a sale with an extra voucher. So I'm currently sitting here in an en suite room larger than the 4 person bunk-bedded dorm I spent last night in, having paid less than I did for the dorm room. Oh, and I have UK proxying working so am able to watch ITV's Tour de France coverage. Result!

Tomorrow I need to be at a nearby hotel for a 7:30am start with Trek America. It's not clear what, if any, internet access I'll have for the next fortnight so it might be au revoir for the moment...