Scene and Heard

Besides being famed as the home of Starbucks, Seattle is known for its music. Birthplace of Jimi Hendrix, and closely associated with the 'grunge' scene and bands such as Nirvana, it has its own museum dedicated to popular music. The Experience Music Project, in the shadow of the Space Needle observation tower, was established by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. We tried not to let this spoil our enjoyment.

The building itself was designed by Frank Gehry.

There were several exhibitions with a science fiction theme. The one dedicated to Avatar was our first destination, featuring props from the movie.

Particularly good was an interactive exhibit where you could turn on and off the sound effects, dialogue and music tracks from several snippets of the film, allowing you to appreciate the extent to which music conveys emotion. Another interactive part of the show captured body movements and digitised them, enabling participants to act out scenes from the film. Karen's performance is here, but Ben's has mysteriously disappeared. Better still was the Sound Lab, where visitors could get their hands on guitars, basses, keyboards, drums and mixing desks.

Our hostel is just up the road from The Crocodile, site of performances from, among others, Nirvana, Pearl Jam and R.E.M. We couldn't pass up the opportunity to pop in.

No bands were playing, alas, but we were there in time for happy hour. A four-pint pitcher of beer for $6 made Ben very happy.