MoPop museum

Fun updates for Seattle’s MOPOP Museum

Museums,

For anyone who loves music, science fiction & fantasy and pop culture in any form, then a stop at Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture – MOPOP – should be on the ‘go here’ list.

The museum is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. It’s had a myriad of transformations since it first opened at Seattle Center as the Experience Music Project (EMP). And we still get a kick out of walking by the curvilinear building that architect Frank Gehry said was inspired by a broken guitar.

We love stepping inside, too, to see what’s new. And to make sure that our favorite objects and areas, such as the Guitar Gallery and the Jimi Hendrix exhibit, are still around.

There are plenty of new things happening at MOPOP as it turns 25, too.

MOPOP’s refreshed restaurant and lounge

It’s nice when a great museum has a restaurant and/or lounge that invites locals and visitors to stop by even if they aren’t touring any exhibitions.

And MOPOP’s reimagined Culture Kitchen and its new upstairs bar (The Lounge) look promising on that front.

The refreshed menu focuses on Pacific Northwest ingredients and regional partnerships, while the specialty cocktail list includes the MOPOP25 (vodka, Douglas fir jelly syrup and prosecco) and the Velvet Underground (Heritage Elk Rider Whiskey, dry vermouth and chocolate bitters).

Mini Jimi Hendrix LEGO set

LEGO fan? Jimi Hendrix fan? MOPOP has a treat for you.

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen founded what is now MOPOP as the Experience Music Project (EMP), although he wanted to call it The Jimi Hendrix Museum, as an homage to the Seattle native who was his favorite musician.

While the focus and mission of the museum have morphed and expanded over 25 years (haven’t you?), the museum is still home to the world’s largest collection of Jimi Hendrix memorabilia. A small portion of that collection is on display at any one time.

But now there’s a limited edition Mini Jimi Hendrix LEGO set that visitors can take home.

Created by MOPOP, Authentic Hendrix, and Most Incredible, this 255-piece LEGO set is available for sale (while supplies last) for $150 in the MOPOP gift shop.

Smells like… MOPOP

MOPOP is also launching a bespoke fragrance.

Created in collaboration with Generation by Osmo, MOPO says Electric Harmony is the world’s first custom fragrance for a museum created using olfactory intelligence (OI), an AI-powered technology.

MOPOP’s fragrance “evokes tranquility, connection, and innovation” and seamlessly blends “the rhythmic and melodic elements of music with the electric energy of contemporary sounds,” said MOPOP CEO Michele Y. Smith.

But how did Generation by Osmo use AI-powered technology and traditional perfume creation methods to make the MOPOP fragrance?

According to Christophe Laudamiel, Generation’s Master Perfumer, an image of MOPOP’s iconic and gigantic classical and electric guitar sculpture, created by the artist Trimpin, was fed into the olfactory intelligent (OI) platform.

The platform then designed a scent structure that the museum chose as a starting point.

“I refined it to make it more like an electric guitar and gave it some very modern and unique diffusive vibrations for the nose and positive brightness and polished the back of the fragrance with elegant woods found in guitar making,” said Laudamiel, “I gave it a bit of mystery with natural oud as well,” he said.

The final product is sold in a bottle inspired by the coloring of the museum’s Frank Gehry-designed building and includes lemon oil and linden blossom, rum extract, oud oil and yes, some patchouli oil. It can be worn by “anyone who wants to bring the MOPOP experience home with them,” said MOPOP CEO Smith.

Let’s get out of here

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(Courtesy State Library & Archives of Florida, via Flickr Commons)

Feeling like you need a break?

We do.

Between the news and the weather and, well, really just the news, we’re reading every email that pops into our inbox that has a whiff of something fun to do somewhere else.

Here are some museum exhibits we’re putting on the “let’s go there” list:”

Asian Comics: Evolution of an Art Form in Seattle

(Du Gu, Zao Dao, 2014, character design for “Le Vent traversant les pin”)

This week Seattle’s MoPop Museum opens Asian Comics: Evolution of an Art Form, an exhibition that features over 400 works from Japan, China, Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Afghanistan, and Vietnam and explores the diversity and creativity of Asian comic art and its powerful impact on global pop culture.

In San Diego: the Spooniverse at Mingei International Museum 

(Photo courtesy of Erica Moody)

Across the Spooniverse opens April 12 and runs through August 17 at San Diego’s charming Mingei International Museum with over 100 spoons from across the globe.

Yes, spoons.

“Some are adorned with exquisite carvings of human and animal figures, and others are brilliant for their simplicity of form,” the exhibit notes tell us. “Some show decades or even centuries of wear and use, and others are pristine. As objects of use, spoons are universally understood.”

(Photo courtesy of Ron Kerner)

250th anniversary of the American Revolution at the Concord Museum

 

The 250th anniversary of the start of the American Revolution is coming up and in Concord, Massachusetts, the Concord Museum is ready to rumble.

The museum has the best collection of items related to April 19, 1775 – the day “the shot heard round the world” kicked off the American Revolution – including the original lantern used as a signal on the night of Paul Revere’s famous midnight ride.

And for the 250th, more than 200 Revolutionary War-era muskets, powder horns, flints, supplies and other objects will be on display across five galleries. 

Freebies + cool offers to take advantage of now

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Like the free ice water that made South Dakota’s Wall Drug famous, free stuff is a great treat when you’re on the road or out and about in your own town.

Here are few free offers and cool deals to take advantage of this weekend and into next week:

Free Museum Admission

On the first full weekend of each month, anyone who has flashes a Bank of America, Merrill Lynch or U.S. Trust credit or debit card and a photo ID gets free admission to more than 200 museums, science centers, gardens and other attractions participating in the Museums on Us program around the country.

Free food 

PotBelly Sandwich Shop is offering a bunch of free food items to members of its free-to-join Potbelly Perks program August 6-12.

Air fare deal

Need to bring a few suitcases of cash to the Cayman Islands? Or just want a great deal on a flight to this vacation destination?

From August 3 to 11, Cayman Airways is celebrating its 50th anniversary with some great discounted fares, plus extra perks such as 3 checked bags and lounge access, for flight from Miami, Tampa and New York booked for travel September 7 through November 7.

Fun hotel package for Pearl Jam fans

Not free – but fun: In Seattle,  The Edgewater over-the-water hotel has put together a package with the Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP). The Rock the Suite package includes tickets to the museum’s Pearl Jam: Home and Away exhibition, overnight accommodations at the hotel’s Pearl Jam Suite, and signature Pearl Jam cocktails in the  Six Seven Restaurant & Lounge.

Pearl Jam fans should also note that there’s a free Pearl Jam exhibit put together by the Museum of Pop Culture in the-presecurity area of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

Know of a great freebie for travelers? Please send it along.