Google Earth screen grabs of Jimi Hendrix places in Seattle
I grabbed these pictures from a Google Earth scan of Seattle, recalling my trip in 2000 when I applied to work at Microsoft. The recruiting trip ultimately proved unsuccesful, but the experience was unforgettable. I've been playing guitar since I was 5 (I'm 31 at the time of this posting), and I'm a big Jimi Hendrix fan.
During the few days I had to hang with a high school buddy, he took me around and showed me the place on the NE corner of E. Pine Street and Broadway where there's a statue of Jimi (the actual statue is hidden beneath the tree shadow to the right of the pushpin). If I recall corectly, the building on the left is a community college.
...and then on a rainy Sunday afternoon, a few friends came with me - all from Guam - making the trek to nearby Renton, to visit Jimi's grave at Greenwood Memorial Cemetery. A homeless Vietnam veteran sitting by Jimi's headstone told us all about him, his life and his death...and then asked us for $5 to buy some crack. I gave him a ten-spot and asked him to spend it on two days' food and a phone call to someone who could help him out.
Standing there, above the final resting place of one of my axe-wielding heroes, I was truly moved. I said a little silent prayer and told Jimi what he'd meant to me. It was something as a guitar player I'd always wanted to do, and it was a really spiritual moment.
Anyone got any more shots of Seattle having to do with Jimi? I'm thinking of checking our Graceland in Tennessee next.