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Paul Allen Plans Sci-Fi Shrine in Seattle
ctar writes "You couldn't ask for a more appropriate or schizophrenic slashdot story...The NYTimes online was the only one carrying the story according to Google News, so this is all you get."
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Confused Philospher thinks this is a strange place to do so.
Wouldn't San Fransico make more sense since it is at the heart of the Federation of Planets?
Why slashdot? Why not?
Sci-Fi Shrine for Seattle, Complete With Aliens
By STEPHEN KINZER
n the nearly two centuries between Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" and "The Matrix," science fiction has captivated countless millions of readers, listeners and viewers. Now one of them is taking his obsession to a higher level, investing $10 million to $20 million to build a temple to the genre.
Paul G. Allen, a billionaire businessman and co-founder of Microsoft, is planning to build a "cultural project" in Seattle that will seek to draw visitors into the science-fiction experience.
Details of the project are to be announced today. Preliminary plans suggest that if it comes to fruition, it would be part museum, part amusement park and part little boy's fantasy.
The project will extend Mr. Allen's influence over entertainment in the Northwest. He has backed a number of films, including "Far From Heaven," and owns the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League and the Portland Trailblazers of the National Basketball Association.
His new venture, tentatively called SFX ? The Science Fiction Experience, is to fill 13,000 square feet of exhibit space that has been part of the Experience Music Project, a multimedia museum devoted to American popular music, especially rock 'n' roll. (The museum was also conceived by Mr. Allen, along with his sister, Jody Patton.) Mr. Allen owns the building, which was designed by Frank Gehry and is a Seattle landmark. The science-fiction project is scheduled to open in the summer of 2004.
According to promotional material, SFX "will explore our culture through the broad, historic and compelling lens of science fiction." The material promises models of "bug-eyed monsters" and exhibits that illustrate "science fiction's alternate realities."
In an interview, Mr. Allen said the enterprise would be incorporated as a nonprofit enterprise but might eventually become a business. He called it "a hybrid project" that would have "a multimedia component" but would "not be a theme park or a ride."
The announcement of this project comes as museums in several cities are postponing or scaling down new building projects. Some arts organizations are reeling from large cuts in public and corporate giving. But Mr. Allen said he would bear all the costs of SFX himself.
"I see it as a jumping-off project for examining the future."
Plans call for a hall of fame for science-fiction heroes, another hall shaped like the interior of a spaceship and a third that would commemorate terrifying aliens and other evil creatures. SFX's advisory board includes the science-fiction writers Greg Bear, Ray Bradbury, Octavia Butler and Arthur C. Clarke.
Writers like those transfixed Mr. Allen when he was young. He said he was a small child when he stumbled on a book called "Spaceship Galileo" and has been "a huge fan" of science fiction ever since.
Wizards of the Goatse make some very, VERY interesting collectible card games...
evil adrian
we have a Microsoft Security Whitepaper.
This is 21st century science fiction at its finest!
On your way out, board the flying car on the left.
Cheers, Joel
When I read about this project, I thought, "He's establishing a perpetual Con!" Then I saw the irony, and I was Enlightened.
The guy goes and does something vaguely positive, and the most "enlightened" comments on SlashDot are "Look at his teeth, haw haw haw!".
I think its a fantastic idea. A lot of people will go there to be inspired by past scifi works.
Certainly better than going to an amusement park dedicated to a giant fucken mouse.
http://jesus.everdense.com/
The guy should do something worthwhile with his bucks
Like maybe donate money to save forests? or to "sustain" the Seti Project? and severl other things.
I'm not a big Paul Allen fan, but hell, he's rich, he's allready been a bit of philanthropy - let him build a Sci-Fi shrine if he wants toSeeing as people don't seem interested in posting links to archive.nytimes.com, you can always fix the reg. required problem using your hosts file.
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Oh yeah, and a trash compacter like the one on the Death Star...
Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
We don't know what's going on in there... (cue spooky music)
I think Mr. Allen should include the following displays in the museum:
1. The origins of science fiction, including homages to Mary Shelley (the author of Frankenstein, considered by many to be the first science fiction novel ever written), Jules Verne, H.G. Wells and Edgar Rice Burroughs.
2. The rise and heyday of science fiction pulp magazines from the late 1920's to circa 1950. Many of the truly great names of science fiction started writing stories for these magazines.
3. The rapid ascendency of science fiction book popularity from the 1960's on.
4. The influence of radio plays, movies and television on science fiction.
5. The influence of science fiction fandom. Allen should pay close attention to how conventions such as Worldcon spread the popularity of science fiction. He needs to mention groups such as the the pioneering Futurians in the US Northeast during the 1930's, plus long-running groups like the Los Angeles Science Fiction Society (LASFS) and Northeast Science Fiction Association (NESFA).