My Birthday and the EMP Experience

Jason's mask and machete from "Friday the 13th"

Last Friday, October 11th, was my birthday.  I usually know exactly what I want to do every year, but this year, I was a bit stumped.  One friend took me to lunch.  I had dinner later with another friend, who asked me if I wanted to go see a horror movie thing at the EMP.  "A horror movie thing?"  I said, "I don't really like horror movies."  Then, I realized, it would not be watching horror movies, but looking at the props.  That sounded kind of cool, so I told her I would let her know.

Entrance to the horror exhibit at the EMP, I think it is a really cool design.

While I was looking online, I noticed that the EMP also had Science Fiction and Fantasy movie props!  There would be a Dalek from Doctor Who there, a cool dragon, costumes from "The Princess Bride," and many other interesting and awesome things!  We bought our tickets that night, and went on Saturday.

Above:  Costumes worn by the cast of "The Princess Bride"

Below:  The sword of Indigo Montoya, and the sword of the Six-Fingered Man 

and his glove (The Princess Bride).  I am not certain what movie the bottom sword is from.

Susan's bow and arrow's from "The Chronicles of Narnia"

We started off looking at the Nirvana exhibit.  It has been there for awhile, in fact I went with my sister and her husband before they left for Japan.  I saw a few things I don't remember seeing before.  One of the things I did not remember seeing was a MTV moon-man award given to Nirvana at one time.  That was pretty cool.  There were some also funny little hand-written letters with drawings that may have been there, but it was so crowded the time we went that I did not bother to read them.

Part of the Nirvana exhibit at EMP.

We looked at another area of the EMP and saw Eddie Van Helen's guitar!  I have always thought his guitar was really cool looking, so it was fun to see in real life.

Eddie Van Halen's electric guitar.

Next we went to the Jimmy Hendrix exhibit.  I am almost certain they changed that a little since I have been there.  I was looking at some of his clothes they had on display, and was amazed at the quality of fabric they were made out of.  I would not have guessed from photos I have seen of him how nice the fabric was, but it was quite luxurious looking.  I really like the outfit currently on display with the vertical striped jacket.  It is very nice.

Jimmy Hendrix's cool style.

The Sci-Fi exhibit was our next stop.  We walked through some fluorescent lights that looked as if we were traveling through space!  The first things we saw there were from the classic T.V. version of "Star Trek."  There was red dress uniform, as well as a yellow pants uniform, Captain Kirk's chair, with a bunch of furry little round things (called "Tribbles") surrounded below it.  I had no idea what they were supposed to be, but after some research it sounds like they are some sort of furry and purry alien thing, so I would probably like them.

Ex-ter-min-nate!!!  Beware - it's a Dalek from "Doctor Who!"

Yoda's cane and necklace, it is!

So many other things were on display, Neo's coat, from The Matrix (which had a really cool texture to it), the cane that Yoda hobbled with (which was maybe a foot-and-a-half tall?), and the necklace he wore in "Star Wars," Superman's outfit that was worn by Christopher Reeve in the first movie, and my personal favorite thing - a Dalek from a classic "Doctor Who" show!  There were many other items there from various movies and T.V. shows, it was all very spectacular.

Is it a bird?  Is it a plane?  No... it's Superman's outfit!

Exiting the Sci-Fi exhibit, a little down the hallway, was a very large, wooden door to open into the Fantasy Exhibit.  Inside was dimly lit, had what appeared to be some sort of straw on the ground, there was an odor of a fairy-woodsy-smell, and music to set the mood.

The first room had a "Xena, Warrior Princess" costume, also a costume from "Snow White and the Huntsman," (that Kristin Stewart wore in the prison scenes), looking around the room there were several illustrations of from various movies, shows and books.  The second room had the most amazing dragon.  It appeared to be sleeping, but when you moved it's tail a little, he sort of opened his eyes wider, to wake up a little.  He was one of my favorite things.  There were also some costumes and props from the Princess Bride, Narnia, Labyrinth, as well as many other exciting items.

The prison dress from "Snow White and the Huntsman."

David Bowie wore this in "Labyrinth."

This is a very cool dragon (though the photo is lousy, sorry), while it tries to "sleep," it's eyes are more 

shut and red,then you go pet his tail, and he starts to wake up!

The last exhibit we walked into was the section that my friend wanted to see most.  The Horror Exhibit.  When we first walked in we saw a white shirt with blood stains on it with a red tie.  We were both kind of hoping for some reason it was a shirt from the popular TV series, "Dexter," but it was not.  We saw the ax from "The Shining," Jason's mask and machete from "Friday the 13th," one of the actual masks from "Scream," and a bunch of other things that I did not exactly know the movies, but I think some I recognized from previews from TV.  My favorite thing at that exhibit was a costume worn by a dancing zombie in Micheal Jackson's "Thriller" music video!  Since it was not the costume that Micheal wore himself, I had to re-watch the video to see which zombie it was from the video.  I forgot how awesome that music video was!

Worn by a dancing zombie in Micheal Jackson's "Thriller" music video.

After seeing the amazing exhibits at the EMP, we went to this place called "Pie" in the Seattle Center Food Court and had, well, pie.  I first had the Chicken Pot Pie, which was delicious.  I had trouble deciding on a dessert pie.  I originally was going to order the Strawberry-Rhubarb pie, but I had a strawberry-rhubarb thing recently, so I ordered the Almond Cream pie.  I was expecting the filling to be fluffy and light from the looks of it, but it was thick and rich.  It was not exactly what I was expecting in taste or texture.  My friend let me try some of hers (she did order the Strawberry-Rhubarb pie), it was very tasty.  I kind of wish I had that, instead.

(Pie was eaten too fast for photo to be taken.  Photo person was very hungry.)

We left Seattle, then I hung out with my friend at her apartment and played video games and watched "Frankenweenie" which I saw last year, and really enjoyed.  It was a perfect ending to our awesome day.

A cool poster to a movie I have never heard of.

For more information about the exhibits and the EMP, visit http://www.empmuseum.org.  

"Can't Look Away, the Lure of Horror Film" only runs till the end of the month, October 31st, so if you want to go, go now!

My Review of "Alice I Have Been" by Melanie Benjamin

Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars on audio, 5 of 5 stars on digital.

My mom recommended this book quite awhile ago.  The book is about a woman who was the inspiration of the “real life Alice” of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking Glass.”  At the time, my mom told me the book was fiction, and I started reading it, thinking it was purely fiction. Later, my dad looked online and told me that it appeared to be a true story, that “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” was inspired by a real person (which it was).  However, at the end of the book, it states that the book itself is fiction, with historical facts, which, in that sense, does make it fiction.  There is much speculation in the book, and I was starting to feel a little judgmental about certain characters, but after reading the afterword in the digital version, one cannot be sure if what was written really happened or not, or perhaps back then, for some reason, it may have been more acceptable, under the circumstances.  The afterword is not in the audio version of the book.

The book is funny in some parts, creepy in others, romantic, and heartbreaking.  It draws you into Alice’s view of growing up and growing old might have been like.

I started listening to the audio version first (as read by Samantha Eggar).  The voice actress has a pleasant enough voice, but there are a couple of times in her narration, that the tone seems wrong.  Like, for instance, when a character is supposed to say something calmly, and it comes out of the narrator’s mouth as agitated.  There are only a couple of incidents, but it was a bit distracting.


I might have been about half-way through the book, when I decided to also download a digital copy to read along as well.  I noticed it also had pictures, which always seems to bring the story to life a bit more.
The book was definitely intriguing.  I enjoyed reading it.  I wonder about some parts, hoping maybe the speculation was a bit misunderstood.



Because of this book, I am listening to an audio version of “The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass,” as read by famous actor, Christopher Plummer.  So far, he is doing an excellent job with the reading.  The voices are really perfect.


View all my reviews