Seattle’s new EMP, featured in June’s Smithsonian Magazine;
http://www.smithsonianmag.si.edu/smithsonian/issues00/jun00/music.html
Has anyone been there yet? Look’s very cool to me.
I was in a town near Seattle (Bothell?) for training recently, but couldn’t make it into the city. Boy, does that traffic suck! Damn nice people, though.
Anyway, I plan to go back (on my own time) late this year or early next year. And this time, I’ll get a room in Seattle. Screw the cost. As they say, you only go around once.
BTW; Thanks to those who gave me much good advice on this board when I posted before I went last time.
I shall use that advice when I go next time.
Just remember, as you’re making your way around downtown:
Jesus Christ Made Seattle Under Protest.
I’ve been wanting to move to Seattle for about two years now. I really planned to be there last January. I’ve wanted to move to the Pacific Northwest since I was 12.
The company I work for has an office in Bothel. There is plenty of room in the office. I write my Easytrieve Plus programs and my data reformat profiles and JCL and process the data on a computer at my desk. Reports on the progress of the two people I supervise arrive via Excel file e-mail attachments. I correspond via e-mail and telephone. I’ve come up with programs that improve the quality of our data (after I took the initiative to find out the data could be improved), and that allow more of these higher-quality records to be loaded into our database. I’ve received cash awards and nice awards “suitable for framing”. People respect me. Does it really matter where my desk is physically located?
Sure, I interact with my co-workers. I often show them printouts of information they should know. But I can share the same information by e-mail and telephone. And I could get more work done without people dropping by my desk all the time.
But my manager will not support a remote desk in the Bothel office. He knows how much I hate Southern California – the heat, the crowding, the traffic. The traffic is much better around Bothel (although it’s worse actually in Seattle and I’ve heard lane-sharing on motorcycles isn’t allowed in Washington). He knows I’m looking for a job up north. He thinks it’s better to let me quit and then train someone else for the position I’ve come to know intimately over the past several years. But he, and management in general at this company, think that everyone should be in the same building. He’s willing to give up experience for “group dynamics”. He’s willing to put more work on the one person who could fill part of my position, even though she is innundated with more work than she can reasonably handle (and yet she does!). On a side note, he’d rather get rid of someone who, while slow, is extremely thorough and knowledgable just because this person is slow; even though the person he thinks can take up the slack is a ninnie who makes bad mistakes every day and for whom daily training (she’s been with the company for about a year and she still needs daily training!) does not take. Mr. Promise Keeper the Manager will lose me unless I can transfer my desk, he’s considering getting rid of the other guy because the guy isn’t as fast as other Database Analysts, and he promoted and will keep the woman who keeps screwing up. And the woman next to me will be overloaded so much that she may decide to quit.
Sorry about the hijack. I love Washington and I will move there whether or not I keep my present position. I like my job, but I like Washington state more.
Good luck getting back there yourself!
And if you know of any place that needs someone who’s comfortable on a mainframe, drop me a line.
I was born in Seattle and still live there(here). I have never been to the EMP, Experience Music Project, but my sister is in a band and they played there at the bar, I forget the name. I couldn’t make it but would have liked to. I’ve had a few friends that went there; some said it sucked, and some said it was OK. I guess it’s a total ripoff(like $25) and if you want to go into special sections you have to pay even more.
It’s ugly as sin. I have to drive/ride by it every day. It used to generate long lines, now it just looks abandoned.
Well, Johnny, the company who’s equipment I went to train on just moved into new digs in Bothell.
Don’t know if they need anyone with your skills, and you may be familiar with them, but here’s their site,
http://johnsoncontrols.com/cg/
Good luck. I’d hate to be stuck in a place I didn’t want to be.
BTW; Bothell is in a cool area.
Peace,
mangeorge
Thanks mangeorge, I’ll check out the link after the caffeine kicks in.
Bothel is nice, but I really like Bellingham. B’ham is right up close to the border, so it’s closer to go to Vancouber, B.C. than to Seattle. Although I like rain, B’ham is a little dryer than Seattle – you can have too much of a good thing. (I have a friend in Hoquiam, and I think there’s a reason they call it Grey’s Harbor.) I’ll be going up there (B’ham) on Friday to see the first screening of a film I worked on. Ah, five days of Washington weather! I can’t wait!
Well, no offense to you all, because you seem like decent people. But the city of Seattle can plunge into Puget Sound for all I care. I was engaged to a girl from there once. Until she decided to run back there with the guy that she left me for. I hope every single one of their kids looks just like me, and I laughed when the earthquake hit. Not that I wished any bodily harm to anyone. But I hope her house burned to the damn ground.
[sub]
Not that I’m bitter or anything[/sub]
Well I was at the EMP about a month ago. I was on vacation with my girl and she is a music nut. The place was kind of a watered down R&R hall of fame. If you want good displays and more variety, head to Cleveland (never thought I would say that).
Although there were two great things about the EMP. The upstairs has a section that lets you play instruments in sound proof rooms. We had a blast doing that. There are rooms for playing guitar, keyboard, drums, bass, and vocals. Plus a room that lets you jam with a partner. Like I said we had a great time doing that, and we wished that we had spent the whole time in that room.
Oh, and the restaurant downstairs had pretty good food.
Tony
Ahhhh… Seattle. I spent 3.5 years in Oak Harbor (Whidbey Island), which is right between Bellingham and Seattle. I’ve never flown in such beautiful country. Heck, I’ve never lived in such beautfiul country. And I doubt I ever will again, unless I move back there.
This time of the year is the absolute best. The sky is a brilliant blue, the forests and pastures are so green it almost hurts your eyes, and the temperature is usually around 70. Ocean, mountains (real mountains, not this Appalachian shit), and rolling countryside all in a glance. The winter months weren’t so bad, knowing I had that to look forward to.
Damn, I miss it!
I thought it was Jenny Craig Makes Small Underwear Possible.
I’m moving to Seattle in 3 weeks. Moving out of a NYC hole in the wall and into a Bellevue 3 Br house. I’ll miss the big city, but I’m real excited to go.
The EMP Music Project. Admission is $20, so I doubt I’ll be going anytime soon. As for the building itself, Spouse has a great description: “It looks like a steel mill took a crap.”
I don’t think it looks THAT good.(!)
I’m just wondering why no one has asked Ike or choosy what the heck they’re talking about, this JCMSUP stuff. Everyone knows? No one cares?
Do other cities have something like this for their downtown areas?
Do ya all know how to get from Western to 9th (or was it just 6th?) without walking uphill? I used to know, but I’m afraid some of those buildings might not be there anymore.
Of course I know the JCMSUP thing. Every legitimate Seattleite does. (snort) 'Cept I heard it as "…under pressure."
And re getting from Western to 6th – some of the buildings have changed, yes, and some of them now have “no public visitors” policies. If you have a cardkey to all the buildings, you can take escalators and elevators all the way up the hill, but the rest of us just have to count on the traction on our Docs.
And my description of the EMP building: It’s a wad of foil-wrapped gum, dropped by God.
From the South: These are the streets in downtown Seattle.
Jefferson St.
James St.
Cherry St.
Columbia St.
Marion St.
Madison St.
Spring St.
Seneca St.
University St.
Union St.
Pike St.
Pine St.
Auntie Pam, it’s cause everyone knows about it. Now you do too. 
I worked as a bicycle courier downtown. JCMSUP was like the law of the lay of the land. I seriously used it everyday, many times. When I was starting out I used a map I ripped out of the front of a phone book. 
I’ve been in every elevator from Spokane St. to Denney. I think the elevator thing would take about an hour. Most of those buildings down between Western and 3rd are ooold. The elevators take a while.
There aren’t really any buildings you cant get into downtown. I’ve even been on the F.B.I. floors of the federal building. I’d be really impressed if they let you use the catwalk from the King County Courthouse to the jail, though.
I’ll go downtown soon and plan an elevator route.
Ok, I looked at a few photos. It isn’t all that ugly. After all, San Francisco has the Pyramid Building;
http://dotcom.gi/virtual/sf/transamerica_building.htm
Some people (me) think it’s kinda cool. I’ll withhold my opinion of the EMP until I’ve seen it up close and personal.
And Superdude, I feel your pain man. My old gf ran off with some dude to Fresno. Hahaha. Justice, huh? Serves her right.
BTW; Is this, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, really the name of a newspaper?
Peace,
mangeorge
Yes, it’s really the name - and I think its the oldest daily in the city…
I’m actually a member of EMP, so I can go whenever I want… which isn’t as often as it should be. It is ugly, it is even uglier from the inside, but it’s got cool museum stuff inside it. and definite potential (for things that are not visual aesthetics. It’s simply too ugly. I’d go with “ashtray after someone, who after 30 years has not quit smoking, has hacked something up into it” as a description)
& Bothell, though pretty at times, is not now, nor will ever be cool.
No kiddin’…is THAT what it means…?
I just liked saying “Jesus Christ made Seattle under protest.”
Well, excuse my ignorance. 
From m-w;
Main Entry: in·tel·li·genc·er
Pronunciation: in-'te-l&-j&n(t)-s&r; -‘te-l&-"jen(t)-, -"te-l&-’
Function: noun
Date: 1581
1 : a secret agent : SPY
2 : a bringer of news : REPORTER
You really do learn something new every day. If you pay attention.
Ahh, Seattle. One of the many places I’d like to call home. I hear it’s absolutely beautiful. And am I the only one here who actually likes fog and overcast skies? I live in Florida, which, in my humble opinion, can sink back into the Gulf of Mexico. It’s too hot, too humid, too many mosquitoes, and then you get hurricanes. It’s like Florida is another layer of Hades, built especially for cold-weather folks like myself.
I do like oranges, though.
Jesus Christ made you under protest.