I like Labor Day

What a holiday. I am not exactly sure why we get the day off, but hey, I'll take it. I spent my last day before starting my new job being a cultured Seattle resident. I went to the SAM, the EMP and the SFM. What are all of those acronyms, you wonder?


SAM = Seattle Art Museum
As I mentioned in my last post, the SAM is literally outside my door, and they had an Impressionism exhibit that only goes until mid-September, so I decided to head over there. They normally aren't open on Mondays, but they were open today to catch all of the Labor Day traffic. The exhibit was neat, it compared the works of several well-known Impressionist artists (including Manet, Monet, Cezanne, Cassatt, Renoir, etc) to the works of previous masters that inspired them. I used the audio guide, and was very intrigued by the paintings. Well worth my time. I'm glad I decided to do this.


EMP = Experience Music Project
SFM = Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame

I took the Monorail from the Westlake shopping center here in downtown over to the Seattle Center, which is where the Space Needle, the EMP/SFM and the Bumbershoot Music festival are located. I thought about hitting up the music festival (it's last day was today) as my favorite band (the Old 97's) was playing, as was Mike Doughty, but I wasn't willing to part with $40 to see a few bands today. Instead, I went to the EMP/SFM, and spent a few enjoyable hours in geek heaven. The complex was founded by Paul Allen, one of the co-founders of Microsoft (surprise surprise, he's one of the richest people in the world...) and it is filled with lot of cool music exhibits and "do-it-yourself" performance booths where you can learn how to play guitar or mix a track. Pretty interesting.


The SFM was funny. Lots of memorabilia around sci-fi, with a special focus on Star Trek and Star Wars. A lot of the exhibits were donated from Paul Allen's Family collection. I think it is funny that he owned so much of that stuff already, but I am not really surprised. I thought the SFM was sort of lame (how many times can you hear the Star Wars Death Star theme?) but I am glad I went to see it. It's good to explore my new city!


I drafted my fantasy football team tonight - sorry I was late, league! I had found a used DVD store close to my house, and I picked up a few movies to watch for when I am bored. My team might not be very good, so I guess I will have to work on my creative smack talk instead.


I am going to get ready for bed and hit the hay early tonight - my first day at the new job is tomorrow. I spent some time tonight researching my bus route over to the orientation building (my company has several locations in Seattle), as well as my route options to and from the Columbia Center, which is where my office is. I *think* I know what I am doing! We'll see tomorrow morning.


Have a great day, everyone!


-SKH