The MIM with M2

Despite being sleep deprived, nervous, and generally grumpy, M2, my mom's good friend managed to coax me out of the house to go to the MIM. The MIM stands for Musical Instrument Museum. Located in Phoenix, the museum is brand new, enormous and jam packed with awesomeness. It makes the EMP, Seattle's music museum, look like a Jimi Hendrix broom closet.

The MIM showcases traditional and contemporary musical instruments from around the world. Each country has a display, or in the case of huge countries like China, several displays, organized by geographic regions and types of instruments. There are drums of all shapes and sizes made from every imaginable material, violins, guitars, sitars, lutes, harps, didgeridoos, and some instruments I'd never even seen before interspersed with costumes traditionally worn during concerts, special ceremonies or important events. Centered in every display is a flat screen TV that plays short performances on a loop. When you enter the museum, you're given a wireless headphone set that links you in to each display as you pass.

I spent several hours wandering around marveling at the beauty and difference from culture to culture, but after awhile I began to see unlikely similarities, like how the Korean folk singing sounds a lot like something they do in Mauritania. It was absolutely phenomenal, this sense of the inter-connectivity between different music, as if providing evidence for the thesis that there is a universal spirit that is the springboard of all our creative endeavors.

And though I saw a lot, visited the exhibits of various continents as well as the mechanical music room filled with player pianos, and the celebrity donation room with John Lennon's piano and Santana's guitar, I barely scraped the surface. There is a theater devoted to showcasing fabulous music and an on-site facility that rehabs broken instruments. It's the kind of place you could spend several days. Next time I'm AZ I probably will.