The Stranger nails EMP

Our local alternative weekly, the Stranger, has a whole set of articles in the current issue completely nailing the Experience Music Project, Paul Allens' vanity project/museum here in Seattle. The section is titled "The Unbearable Suckiness of EMP".

Of the batch of articles, though I like the hyperbole of Erica Barnett:

EMP's failure as a music "experience," meanwhile, is simultaneously disappointing and utterly predictable. Did we really believe EMP would revolutionize museums with its shoulder-harness computers and really big digital video screens? Those vaunted Museum Exhibit Guides, clunky portable computers that play music and narration when visitors aim a laser at spots on certain exhibits, are distracting, heavy, and difficult to manipulate. In this age of iPods and handheld cell phone/computers, the MEG seems like a relic from the misty technological past. Worse, the guides now cost $3 each (or $5 for two), on top of the already steep $19.95 admission.

and appreciate the all-too-typical Seattle heartfelt angst of Emily Hall:

When a museum dies, it might be said that we get what we deserve. If the desperate, insecure-seeming new direction at EMP signals a kind of death, it is only the death of one more bloated, pandering cultural paradox for Seattleites to explain away.

I come closest to agreeing with Sean Nelson's view. Sean has the smarts to realize EMP's successes, which include funding KEXP radio (which operates in coordination with the University of Washington):

With webcasting, event promotion, an ambitious staff, and a great playlist, the broadcast wing of EMP is one of the leading forces in the current counterrevolution against the Clear Channeling of American music culture. Locally and nationally (and internationally), the station has basically invented an audience of intelligent, motivated listeners who actually make an effort to seek out and support new and important music.

the fact that EMP has done some good live music:

The sound in the room (to say nothing of on-stage) is so good that it can be alienating to people who think they prefer their PAs shitty. The towering video backdrop is an aesthetic choice. I like it because most rock bands aren't much to look at. More to the point, the Sky Church is the only venue of its kind in the Northwest. If you need a smoky, beer-stained den to make you feel more rock, you have no shortage of options.

and the success of EMP's stellar curatorial staff:

Founded on the seemingly contradictory goals of intellectual ambition and artistic transparency, the curatorial efforts of the EMP staffers have demonstrated significantly more success than the Funk Blast. The Pop Conference is a music nerd Valhalla. It's also the densest concentration of great arts thinkers and writers that Seattle has ready annual access to. The current SongCraft exhibit is full of interesting ideas and displays, and so, frankly, is the Beatlemania room. EMP's work with children, who are typically provided no musical education of any worth by public schools, more than justifies the existence of the organization.

One thing that nobody has commented on (as far as I've seen) is the fact that perhaps the most valuable asset of EMP is not the Frank Gehry building or any of the physical artifacts on display, but the thousands of hours of filmed and videotaped interviews and performances they have with a panoply of significant musicians from all walks of life. If EMP management had any sense at all of what is really worthwhile they would stop trying to realize a few bucks from outrageous admission prices and figure out how to make these materials available to the public. Imagine the value in inner city schools of being able to see the originators of hiphop talk about the dedication and work involved in giving birth to a new art form.

Unfortunately, in the rush to cut staffing and make EMP self-sufficient, this incredible body of work is likely to be devalued if not lost entirely. So much for entrusting culture to the local billionaires.