Aug 25, 2025
It Ain't Like That (Alice In Chains cover) performed by Kim Thayil & Shaina Shepherd at the MoPOP Founders Award 2020
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It Ain't Like That (Alice In Chains cover) performed by Kim Thayil & Shaina Shepherd at the MoPOP Founders Award 2020
“Chris seen having his photo taken next to his beloved statue outside of MOPOP.” I’m crying at the accuracy.
Paying our respects this beautiful morning!
MoPOP 5 / Seattle May 2019
The architecture of the Museum of Pop Culture is something else. Seattle Center Seattle, WA August 2019
All three were shot on iPhone SE
1st photo
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ISO: 25
Focal length: 4.15mm
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Dimensions: 4032 x 3024
2nd photo
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ISO: 25
Focal length: 4.15mm
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Dimensions: 4032 x 3024
3rd photo
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Dimensions: 4032 x 3024
Chris Cornell’s statue is looking a little different these days. I took the first pic on October 8, 2018, the day after the statue was unveiled. The second pic was taken yesterday, August 22, 2021. The statue has lost its sheen, and the blue is gone from the eyes.
Part two of two.
Pearl Jam gives tribute to Andrew Wood (1966-1990), the charismatic frontman/singer of Mother Love Bone, which of course was the band that, with a few changes, birthed Pearl Jam.
His statue dominates the gallery, all the aisles and cases seem to radiate from it. Which is probably a really good metaphor for Seattle’s early grunge scene, in general. Andy changed everything he touched, and he touched EVERYTHING in his short time here.
The statue, made by Seattle native Mark Walker, was made possible by Jeff and Pandora Ament. It weighs 13,000 lbs and Jeff said it cost “a lot”.
“There’s a lot of things that would be different not just for me, but for the entire Seattle musical community, had it not been for him.” ~~Jeff Ament on Andy Wood’s contribution to Seattle.
The concept is Andy emerging from the rain forest, with trees, tidal pools and starfish as part of that.
Pic 5 is his birthdate, January 9, 1966.
Pic 6 is of course, The Apple, with the Heart inside.
Pic 7 is Andy from a home video taken at Lance Mercer’s studio. The hat was a favorite of his.
Pic 8 is the same hat at the Mopop. It was made either by Andy himself or by his girlfriend Xana la Fuentes. There’s some disagreement about the origin of it. But it’s certainly Andy, all over.
Pic 9 is one of the 4 cases of Mother Love Bone exhibits.
And pic 10 is Andy, sending his love to us all.
This is our history.
Part one of two:
The EMP (Experience Music Project) was founded in 2000, by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and opened to the public June 18 of that year. The building was designed by Frank Ghery, a fairly famous avant-garde architect. It was renamed the Museum of Pop Culture (or simply, The MoPop) in 2016.
The Pearl Jam: Home and Away exhibit opened August 11, 2018, immediately after the last of Pearl Jam’s two night sold out ‘Home Shows’ on August 8 & 10, at Safeco Field in Seattle.
The exhibit itself is immense, packed full of old and new stuff, obscure stuff, and stuff you have to wonder ‘why on earth would anyone KEEP this?’ And the answer is Jeff Ament and Kevin Schuss. We all know who Jeff is, Kevin is PJ’s archivist and videographer and everything in the exhibit comes from the collections of these two men.
That’s probably upward of about 5,000 pieces here and many more in storage.
First pic, the gallery sign.
Second and third pics, yes, this is the original signage from 2) the Off-Ramp (now El Corazon) and 3) RKCNDY (sadly long gone, used to be at 1812 Yale Ave and was probably the location for the first original Mother Love Bone mural).
Forth and fifth pics, 4) the original Lance Mercer shot from the shoot for the cover of 10, 5) the letters are not much worse for being stored for nearly 30 years.
Sixth and seventh pics, 6) Eddie with his brown corduroy Levi jacket, c. 1992, photographer unknown, 7) same jacket, along with the olive army jacket and other memorabilia, on display. The instrument case is amazing, with stickers from Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Mudhoney, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Tad still very much in place.
Eighth pic, the tapes that started it all, sent from ‘A Friend In California’ to Stone and Jeff. Momma-Son Demo of course became Alive, Footsteps, and Once.
Ninth pic, the ‘portable’ typewriter that Eddie carried the first tour and banged out notes to friends back home, setlists, and transcribed lyrics first jotted down on napkins and fast food bags. ‘Portable’ in quotes because the thing weights 25 lbs.
Tenth pic, a collection of Jeff Ament’s hats, backstage laminates, the ‘Tivoli’ t-shirt behind the brown shirt, and masks used in videos and on stage.
This isn’t even a tenth of the entire collection and I recommend it to anyone going to Seattle for the history of grunge. It’s amazing.
This is our history.