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Paul Allen Plans Sci-Fi Shrine in Seattle 300

Posted by chrisd from the number-two-loves-number-one dept.
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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Paul Allen Plans Sci-Fi Shrine in Seattle More

Paul Allen Plans Sci-Fi Shrine in Seattle

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  • Why Seattle? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by confused philosopher ( 666299 ) on Thursday April 17, 2003 @12:15AM (#5748926) Homepage Journal
    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?

    • Yeah, Seattle! (Score:2, Interesting)

      by electric boogie ( 639656 )
      As a Linux geek who recently moved up here to Seattle, I think that it's nice that all these Microsoft millionares are creating and supporting museums and other entertainment opportunities here. Without them, there'd be a lot less cool stuff to do here when it rains.

      Of course because of the proximity of Microsoft, none of the companies here have any Linux or Open Source friendly positions. A job would be another nice thing to have. Maybe the Sci-Fi museum is hiring for a Linux Administrator exhibit.

    • Re:Why Seattle? (Score:3, Informative)

      by foonf ( 447461 )
      It is actually going to be part of the Experience Music Project, according to the article, which is already in Seattle, so thats why. He owns everything else here anyway...bought himself an election to have the taxpayers pay for his football stadium, and now the city is going to build a streetcar to connect to an office complex he is developing.

    • Re:Why Seattle? (Score:2, Informative)

      by Malfourmed ( 633699 )
      Wouldn't San Fransico make more sense since it is at the heart of the Federation of Planets?
      <trekgeek>Actually, San Francisco is where Starfleet Command is located. The capital of the Federation is Paris.</trekgeek>

      Unless of course you're talking about some other Federation of Planets...

    • Seattle has a very progressive art budget: by law, some percentage (I think it's 1%) of the city's budget must go to fund public artworks. Seattle is literally covered with excellent public artworks in a wide range of styles, media, and installation sizes. From "Waiting for the Interurban" to the Fremont Bridge Troll, it's a part of Seattle's tradition.

  • Article Text (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 17, 2003 @12:16AM (#5748930)
    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.

  • Yikes! (Score:3, Funny)

    by l810c ( 551591 ) on Thursday April 17, 2003 @12:16AM (#5748932)
    Are his teeth going to be on display?

  • Shrine? Bah. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Michael Hunt ( 585391 ) on Thursday April 17, 2003 @12:16AM (#5748935) Homepage
    Isn't it weird all the stuff rich guys do with their money?

    I mean, If i'd made billions of bucks from starting a software concern in the early eighties, I PROBABLY wouldn't be starting a shrine to science fiction.

    Don't get me wrong, I love SF as much as the next geek (and constantly have to upgrade my bookshelves,) but.... a shrine? That's a little macabre.

    The guy should do something worthwhile with his bucks, like sponsor literary awards for young SF authors to help ensure the genre doesn't stagnate. Or donate a few hundred mil to Seti.

    Shrine? Bah.

    • Re:Shrine? Bah. (Score:5, Interesting)

      by sould ( 301844 ) on Thursday April 17, 2003 @12:39AM (#5749048) Homepage

      The guy should do something worthwhile with his bucks

      Like maybe donate money to save forests? [scenicflorida.org] or to "sustain" the Seti Project? [nwsource.com] and severl other things. [google.com]

      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 to
      • Maybe he should pay a few mil to a dentist in danger money to get his teeth removed and have a new set fitted. :P

        I don't begrudge him his shrine, but I can't see how it's like some big lifetime dream... There are plenty of things that are more rad which would perpetuate SF is all i'm saying.
      • Amen. I actually AM a Paul Allen fan, admittedly not least because I live in the Pacific Northwest (Portland, Oregon - Blazer country), but also because he seems to buy properties and make projects that he shares with other people, often for a fee but it is America. While it's highly unlikely that any of us will ever be guests at Bill Gates' "House O'the Future," any geek can go to this "Sci-Fi Shrine."

        Interrupting myself

        Did anyone else notice that because it's about science fiction, the article's autho

    • Hundreds of millions of people worldwide piss away their disposable income instead of using it to further some worthy cause. The total amount they waste dwarfs Paul Allen's entire fortune. So, it's hardly fair to pick on Paul.

      That said, it does seem weird that he would choose to build an SF shrine before getting his teeth taken care of.

  • Nice Teeth (Score:2, Funny)

    by satanami69 ( 209636 )
    Holy bajesus, check out the grimey, yellow [nytimes.com] choppers. You'd think with $10 mil to spend on a geek temple, he'd have some left over for some white strips.

  • New use for WoTC? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by RLiegh ( 247921 ) on Thursday April 17, 2003 @12:17AM (#5748938) Homepage Journal
    I heard a rumor (which I never bothered to check) that the Wizards-of-the-Coatse plaza in Seattle's University district went out of business. If that's true, then I suspect I know where Paul Allen's 3-floor-sci-fi shrine will be located at.

    Would be a neat location!
  • Paul Allen left MS more then ten years go and has since been spending his share on all sorts of extravagant projects. Get over it.

  • Holy Shit (Score:4, Funny)

    by Cokelee ( 585232 ) on Thursday April 17, 2003 @12:19AM (#5748956)

    Next time warn me that face was going to be staring at me if I clicked the link. God block images from server Mozilla, BLOCK, BLOCK NOW!

    WARNING Link NOT safe!

  • If Microsoft made a movie in the Matrix universe, it surely will be called "Deja-vu"
  • And kids, in this corner of the museum,
    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

  • This oddly reminds me of (Score:3, Funny)

    by Thomas M Hughes ( 463951 ) on Thursday April 17, 2003 @12:29AM (#5749005)
    The Holy Land Experience [theholylan...rience.com], a theme park in Orlando, based off the bible that was designed to convert Jews to Christianity by belitting their entire existence to the role of having producing Christ, and thus having fulfilled their function.

  • Keeping up with the Gates's (Score:5, Funny)

    by Tsar ( 536185 ) on Thursday April 17, 2003 @12:31AM (#5749011) Homepage Journal
    When I read about this project, I thought, "He's establishing a perpetual Con!" Then I saw the irony, and I was Enlightened.

  • Fergudsakes... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by EverDense ( 575518 ) on Thursday April 17, 2003 @12:33AM (#5749019) Homepage
    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.
    • It is a fantastic idea, marred by a single flaw:

      That giant fuckin' mouse is much less scary than those yellow fuckin' teeth.
    • How bout going to a real museum? Back in mexico city , those things are very popular.

      Disney land? that place is crap. Go to Six Flags or something. Giant Mouse? almost as scary as the teeth, but not quite.

      of course, what kind of enlightened comments where you looking for. It's f'in 2 in the morning?

    • Suggestions for what should be in museum. (Score:5, Interesting)

      by MtViewGuy ( 197597 ) on Thursday April 17, 2003 @06:49AM (#5749972)
      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).
      • One more thing: Paul Allen should try to get as much memorabilia from Forrest J. Ackerman's HUGE collection as possible to be displayed in the museum.

        Without access to what Ackerman has accumulated over the years, you really can't have the type of display of the history of science fiction that Allen envisions.

  • the most hated man in seattle (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    you can be certain this is another way to tax the locals just like his 'emp' and his 'allen' *cough* 'seahawks' stadium (300 million in sales taxes diverted to fund it). what a cheezeface.

  • Paul Allen is one of the better billionaires (Score:5, Insightful)

    by sssmashy ( 612587 ) on Thursday April 17, 2003 @12:43AM (#5749060)

    So Paul Allen is building a shrine to sci-fi. Good for him. I read a few posts mocking his smile, but the fact that he is a billionaire with yellow teeth shows that he is utterly without pretension.

    At least he doesn't suffer from the self-indulgent vanity of other billionaires such as Donald Trump, who spent hundred of millions building shrines to his own gargantuan ego (the Trump Tower, Taj Mahal, etc.) Assuming Donald Trump still qialifies as a billionaire - how the mighty have fallen.

  • It's 'Rocketship Galileo'. And it is a great book. (if not a Great Book)

    Tom

  • free registration no longer required (Score:5, Informative)

    by pollock ( 453937 ) on Thursday April 17, 2003 @12:46AM (#5749071) Homepage
    Seeing 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.

    Simply add:
    199.239.136.212 www.nytimes.com
    199.239.136.212 nytimes.com

    The only negative side effect is that the front page no longer works. You can always fix that by also adding:
    199.239.136.245 frontpage.nytimes.com

    Check out someonewhocares.org/hosts/ [someonewhocares.org] for more hosts file goodness.
    • Doing so is probably now illegal in Michigan, and will be soon in a dozen other states [freedom-to-tinker.com].
      • The recent Michigan law is primarily against the "concealment of the source or destination of any communication".

        Changing your "hosts" file is strictly a local effect, which alters the URLs your computer downloads, and doesn't conceal anything from the ISP. So the "super-DMCA" laws don't apply.

        However:

        Nytimes.com uses their dual subscriber/public multiple URL system to control access to their copyrighted content. Circumventing that access control mechanism is illegal by the normal DMCA. You won't ha
  • This Sci-fi thing will be part of a project that goes back three or more years [emplive.com]. - The Experience Music Project.

  • hmm (Score:2)

    by sstory ( 538486 )
    It seems strange to amass a collection of objects at a point in meatspace, when the objects are related to scifi, given the importance of the notion, widely distributed throughout scifi, of the virtual experience, and the use of technology to recreate a place or time without demanding travel. One of the first scifi stories I ever read, in the eighties, was about a couple who troubled themselves to go to a warehouse to pick out a bike because shopping was done electronically, and there weren't (any or many)
    • To clarify, the couple made a special trip of it. They didn't go because it was electronic, I meant to say that they had to be 'troubled' to do it in meatspace. Mibad.
    • Listen. Doing something on the internet or on a computer is absolutely no substitute for doing something in real life. I'd much sooner go to a museum and see actual objects than I would look at pictures of them on the internet.

  • The thing to watch out for... (Score:5, Funny)

    by teamhasnoi ( 554944 ) <teamhasnoi AT yahoo DOT com> on Thursday April 17, 2003 @01:12AM (#5749152) Journal
    Make sure you don't accidentally step on a tile, go through a door, touch any buttons, or even look at anything that says, "I Agree".

    We don't know what's going on in there... (cue spooky music)

  • Fun geek question of the night:
    what do we want in a Sci Fi museum, and why?

    I'll get the ball rolling...

    I suggest a Star Wars lightsaber, because to me it represents a great story, the fusion of technology and the magic of the Force. Plus I played with them endlessly as a kid. :)

    Now it's your turn...

    Cheers, Joel

    • I suggest a Star Wars lightsaber,

      "Jason Hunke, a spokesman for Allen's project [said] the goal of SFX would be to entertain and educate the public about the place of science fiction in our culture. 'As a genre, it's much broader than just Star Wars or Star Trek, he said."

      SF is a literary subgenre first and foremost. There are plenty of toy shops and themeparks for movie and TV "sci-fi". (I enjoyed Star Wars and some Trek, but having a museum for that? Maybe they could collaborate with Macdonalds Univers

  • ...is that Paul Allen, himself, is an alien. Check out the picture in the top-right hand of the corner of the article, then tell me I'm wrong.
  • Why not use the money to hack the DMCA [russnelson.com]?
  • It's too bad he can't spend some of his money to redesign the horrible eyesore that is the EMP building in downtown Seattle.

    I'm pretty sure a colorblind person drew out the plans while stationed on a boat in the middle of a typhoon.
  • Call me crazy, but this sounds like an ordinary museum. Perhaps calling it a shrine plays with the "crazy billionare" spin the NYTimes author is playing with.

    I'd love to step into a full-size "alternate reality" exhibit. Man in the High Castle, anyone?
  • He owns the building. He apparently has 13,000 square feet vacant. And it's going to cost $10 million to $20 million to build an SF exhibit? That's in the $1000 per square foot range.

    It's not that big. We're talking museum gallery here, not theme park. This is comparable to the Jefferson County, Indiana Historical Museum or the Los Angeles Science Fiction Society.

  • Shouldn't he call it sfXP? :-)
  • You have a NYT-phobia for some reason you might want to try a paper here in Seattle [nwsource.com]. The picture is better and very much younger. It looks to be about from the time M$ sold software on paper tape.
    • The picture is better and very much younger. It looks to be about from the time M$ sold software on paper tape.

      The picture isn't that much newer. Up until the last few years in every picture of Allen I saw he had a beard.
  • (The F-bomb in the middle is silent.)

    The board that Paul Allen has assembled sounds excellent, but one name was missing from the article. He has *got* to get Harlan on board. The man is not only entertaining as hell, but has a real passion for the history of SF. (Just don't let him hear you call it "sci-fi", or he'll rail at you about "skiffy".)
    • I've listened to Ellison speak twice, and both times he seemed to be (1) insufferably arrogant, and (2) woefully ignorant about modern technology, even while excoriating the audience (at least by implication) for our ignorance of some piece of cultural history that had great importance to him. Not good traits in an SF author. Plus I've read a few of his stories, and they don't do much for me. Forget Ellison.
    • While Ellison is an excellent writer that has done a number of great stories, I'd rather have the museum concentrate on the type of history that I suggested in another message here.

      And DEFINITELY include as much of Forrest J. Ackerman's massive collection of science fiction memorabilia as possible, too. Without the pulp magazines of the 1920's to circa 1950 (Ackerman has a huge collection of them), science fiction as we know it today would not be possible--after all, many of the most famous authors of this
  • Come on, guys, there's no reason to register when you use the correct links into NYT!!

  • My LEAST favourite quote... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by SolemnDragon ( 593956 ) <solemndragon AT gmail DOT com> on Thursday April 17, 2003 @08:32AM (#5750346) Homepage Journal
    Preliminary plans suggest that if it comes to fruition, it would be part museum, part amusement park and part little boy's fantasy.

    Is there really this much gender bias in SciFi? I mean, c'mon, we were brought up on the same stuff. There are girl trekkies, there are girl star wars fans, there are girl just about everything these days, and don't even get me started on the chick whom I used to live with, the one who actually made a peacekeepers (i think) coat, and wore it every day. Something with the Farscape stuff, that's not my scifi theme so I'm not familiar. Me, I'm more of a Stanislaw Lem and early Asimov girl. We're out here. We will go to the 'part museum, part theme park' but it won't be because it's a little boy's wonderland. (although, with all of us showing up, it might be more of a grownup scifiboy's dream house)

    Seriously, it's 2003. Can we get a little gender bias LEFT OUT of the major media for a change? Especially on the Scifi thing? Now i gotta go find my chrome miniskirt and my disintregration pistol and hunt him down, with my cohorts in their coverall-type armour from some other show (Later star trek, i think) and my neighbour in her Jedi gear, and that's just so not what i needed to be doing this morning...

    /end rant

    • No kidding. You would think when they go on to list Octavia Butler as being on the board, they would take a clue. I don't know that I would say the bias is in SciFi, exactly, but definitely in the perception of SciFi. I wonder if the author of the article is even familiar with the genre or the people on the board. In the grand scheme of things, his off hand comment probably doesn't matter much. But, it certainly illustrates the short distance between being excited about something and being annoyed.
  • Remember the episode where Fry wants to watch Star Trek but he can't because it's been banned after it became the laregest religion ever and almost destryoed the world? If this thing gets made we are all soooooooo screwed. The battle between the old testament and the new testament will now be between Kirk vs. Picard, old Trek vs. new.
  • 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.

    "Spaceship Galileo" by Robert A. Heinlein. Yep, a classic. Heinlein wrote one of the very few juvenile SF books that could be enjoyed by adults as well. Allen could have chosen worse.

    -- SysKoll
  • The Star Trek Museum and simulation ride at the Las Vegas Hilton is a fairly interesting s.f. exhibit. You walk through several parts of the Enterprise before taking the ride.
    Another interesting s.f. ride is the Walt Disney World's Mission Space, now in preview, and about to open later this year. People who have done that say it is fabulous.

  • Not another EMP (Score:2, Interesting)

    by ItWasThem ( 458689 )
    As a former resident of Seattle, all I have to say is please dear god, Seattle doesn't need another Experience Music Project [emplive.com] (One of Mr. Allen's other attempts at a "shrine" in Seattle). That thing is the ugliest eyesore there ever was.

    Hey maybe they should put all of the music stuff in a better looking building, and turn the EMP into the Sci-Fi shrine? At least then he could justify the hideous, cat-just-coughed-up-this-technicolor-hairball-of-a -building-its-not-ugly-its-art look of the thing.

  • How About Something USEFUL... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by johndiii ( 229824 ) on Thursday April 17, 2003 @10:58AM (#5751400) Journal
    Like a huge SF library. Or he could buy a small publisher and reprint some of the really good books that are mouldering (figuratively speaking) on various authors backlists. Or bring back some authors that were writing really good original SF that were submerged in the glut of media-based offerings (not that media-based SF is inherently bad, but much of it is ironically pedestrian and repetitive, given that it is (in name) science fiction). Daniel Keyes Moran, anyone?

    What this museum project on "literary science fiction" says to me is: "Not clear on the concept".

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