It's 5 past 12 and my 2nd visit to the greater Seattle, Washington area is coming to a close. By this time tomorrow, I will be on a plane due south for San Antonio Texas.
I been on the road a lot the past couple of weeks. I was in New Jersey in early October for User Conference, then spent 5 nights the following week in Houston, Texas. I made it home in time to do laundry and spent a sleepy Sunday morning with Rhiannon before packing my bags and hopping on a plane Sunday night. I'm now only one night away from being back home for the remainder of 2014.
If all goes well, my life will return to complete norm when I pick up Elliot and Amos from my parents. Travel and heavy workloads in 2014 - kept them at their place for a good part of the year and I'll finally get to have them in my day to day life.
I'm stoked about this for obvious reasons... but I'm curious to see how it affects the dynamic I currently have at home. Rhiannon and I have had the luxury of spending weekends away from the apartment without giving anyone notice and we've been known to get in at the earliest hours of the morning. That will change a little bit with having Elliot back in the apartment... but that's a small price to pay to have the little guy back in our lives.
Anyhoo... life in the non-specific-north-west has been rather uneventful this week. With the exception of visiting the resting place of Jimi Hendrix. (He's roughly 7 miles away from me this very moment) I've pretty much spent the week avoiding the rain...
Fuck, does it rain up here. There's no thunder or lighting. The skies are simply grey and water falls from above unimpeded for what seems likes 48 straight hours now.
I recall Detroit being headache grey all the time, but this shit is damn near depressing. If the sun were to make 3 hour appearance this afternoon, I would seriously debate setting up a folding table and chair to enjoy the weather outside.
Matt Dillon playing "Cliff" - lead singer of Citizen Dick in the movie Singles. Jimi's old headstone in the back.
But enough about the weather... lets get back to Jimi Hendrix. When I came up to Seattle earlier this year, the only thing I didn't get to do was visit his gravesite. The idea of visiting his grave site can be traced back to my first viewing of SINGLES. I had this indescribable want to take a selfie at his gravestone and send it back to friends who would appreciate the reference.
I didn't really get to read what the little stones said around the memorial. I believe it had family members names tho'
Much to my surprise - the simple gravestone seen in the movie has been replaced with a memorial. A three sided dome-thingy that has a number of etched stones bearing Jimi's likeness.
The memorial is set quietly on the grounds of Greenwood Memorial Cemetery in Renton, Washington. With the exception of some grounds keepers, I pretty much walked onto the gravesite uninterrupted and spent roughly 20 minutes alone with my thoughts before taking photographs of the memorial.
While the memorial dwarfs just about every other marker on the grounds - it's tasteful and it's easily accessible to the public. There's no admittance fee or log book to sign when you visit the Park. There's also no gift shop to walk out of upon your exit to ruin your experience... It's simply a well kept cemetery in rural, Seattle Washington that sits across the street from a McDonalds and Technical College.
I spent a lot of time thinking about other people while visiting the gravesite... I thought about my dear friend Chivo - who loved Jimi Hendrix. I also thought about my college roommate Rae Rae, who had a borderline unhealthy admiration for Hendrix.
The right side of the Monument.
For him, all other guitarists/musical artists were inferior. Hours and I mean fucking countless hours were spent - theorizing what his impacts on music would have been like if he simply didn't mix prescription drugs and alcohol on September 18th, 1970.
I also thought about my better half and her father who openly share a deep admiration for Jimi Hendrix... I secretly wished that they were both with me taking it in so that I could see what their reactions would be like.
When I wasn't thinking about loved ones, I thought about what compelled visitors to press their lips upon the etched stones of Jimi. The pictures I took, truly don't do it justice... there were hundreds of lip impressions left on the etched stones and given the amount of precipitation, I'm pretty sure that they kinda wash away or get cleaned off by grounds keepers front time to time.
One of the things I didn't photograph was the center gravestone in the Memorial. You can kinda see it in the photo I took above, but what you really can't see is the stone alter that all three etchings face. In the center of that stone alter is a hole... presumably for flowers, but I secretly hoped that at unannounced times - a FLAME would rip forth and scare the shit out of me.
On the stone were a number of interesting things... someone left a very shiny penny. Someone brought a rock/stone from some other foreign place and set it on the far left side of the alter. It seemed to be set there purposely by whomever left it behind. An assortment of flowers and other keepsakes were there also, but I felt weird photographing that stuff because those were moments shared by fans and Jimi and I kinda felt like that should be respected.
Each of the portraits above, featured an inscription like the one captured here.
I'm insanely glad that I took time on my visit to take this in... the experience (no pun intended) was incredibly unique and I recommend anyone who lives around here to check it out and especially recommend it to fans who get to visit the region.
-alamo city rollie-
