34 Hours in Grunge City
[addthis tool=”addthis_inline_share_toolbox_5h66″]
A quick work trip to Seattle.
The original idea was to take Traci with me and turn it into a little vacation, but the universe had other plans. So it turned into a few hours of me time.
For a guy who was raised on grunge music, Seattle is pretty much the best place in the world.
Museum of Pop Culture
What used to be the Experience Music Project is now the Museum of Pop Culture. And it’s still pretty great.
I headed straight to the Nirvana exhibit. It was short and to the point, just like the band’s career. It was a bunch of collectibles from their history — a casting call flyer for the Smells Like Teen Spirit video, Pat Smear’s guitar from Unplugged, a record collection from Krist Novoselic’s teenage years. Loved it.
The Pearl Jam exhibit was easily five times as big. (Makes sense, the band’s been around 20 years longer than Nirvana.) Though I lost interest in Pearl Jam after Vitalogy, it was still cool to check out the band’s millions of flyers and t-shirts and memorabilia. Plus, there was an incredibly cool statue of Andrew Wood, frontman of Pearl Jam precursor Mother Love Bone and the inspiration for Temple of the Dog. Plus, there was even a nod to Pearl Jam’s role in my favorite movie of all time, Singles.
I skipped the Marvel Comics exhibit, on account of not caring in the slightest, but did head down to the Horror Movie exhibit. After about five minutes, I remembered that I hate horror movies, on account of not liking gross things, and headed right back out.
The Fantasy exhibit wasn’t really my jam either, but I was happy to see the costumes from the Princess Bride as it caused me to reminisce about how much I liked HBO’s Andre the Giant documentary.
Pike Place
Like a good little tourist, I also headed over to Pike Place Market. It was wonderful to wander aimlessly through the shops. I thumbed through old records, used books, and almost became an amateur magician. But the best part was the shop that sold unopened packs of the same baseball cards I collected in the 80s — complete with sticks of rock-hard pink gum. I happily opened my wallet.
“You probably don’t want to eat the gum,” the shopkeep said. Sage advice.
The Anti-Corporate ‘90s: Now in a More Convenient location
Armed with souvenirs for the kids, and baseball cards for me, I took an Uber back to the hotel. I thought about wandering about Redmond in the rain to find something deliciously local for dinner but opted to stay dry in hotel restaurant so I could watch the Rockies face the Cubs in the National League Wild Card game.
A 13-inning thriller (thrilling, if you like low-scoring games and the Rockies), the game not only gave me something to cheer about, but time to practice my presentation. I’m sure all of my neighbors loved hearing me alternately yell about baseball and best practices of internal communication.
The next morning, I got up, headed to building 94 of the enormous Microsoft campus and spoke in front of 100-ish people who seemed at least mildly engaged in my 90-minute presentation. At the close of the session, I headed straight back to the airport.
Who would’ve thought the airport would be one of the best parts of the trip. After a bit of wandering, I found the Sub Pop store nestled between the duty free store and the headphones vending machines.
I’m sure that Kurt Cobain was spinning in his grave watching me buy a Nirvana record in the Sea-Tac airport (because I assume Kurt Cobain spends his time keeping his eye on me), but I did it anyway. And a huge added bonus, I found a copy of the Singles soundtrack CD for five bucks.
And with that, it was time to head home. Thanks for touching my grungy heart, Seattle.