My small group went for the replacement Sight and Sound show last Saturday. Our first Sight and Sound show — Daniel and the Lions’ Den — was canceled halfway through, so we had tickets for a replacement show. Instead of going for another Daniel show, the group decided to go to the Abraham & Sarah: A Journey of Love show at the smaller Living Waters theater. Here are the highlights of my second trip to Strasburg/Lancaster:

1. An interrupted journey

Two cars left Bethlehem in the morning. I was in the first car. After an hour plus in the car, we received a call from the second car informing us that they ran out of gas. So we had to turn around, go to a gas station, buy a special container, fill it with 2 gallons of gas, get to the second car, and fill the empty tank. Then there was this debate of whether the second car should go to the nearest gas station and get more gas before going to the show. It was already 1pm now, the show started at 1pm. Becky, the driver of the second car, decided to go to the show first and fill up later, which troubled many of us: What if the car runs out of gas again? What if the car does not have enough gas to go to the nearest gas station after the show? What if? What if? Anyway we honored Becky’s decision and continued on to the theater.

2. An interrupted show

We finally arrived at the theater at 1:20pm. The ushers had to wait till an appropriate time before letting us in. We had seats in the first 2 rows in the center block and they didn’t want us to interrupt the show for everyone else. We went in stood at the side of the theater at the very front. Just as Abram and Sarai entered Egypt, I bowed low and ran in from the side towards my seat in the first row, right in the middle. Two of my friends ran in after me. The others were able to sit on the available empty seats at the side till intermission before taking their proper seats.

3. Keen sandals

Sitting at the very front of the theater, I saw everything clearly. I noticed that all the casts wore Keen leather sandals and they looked really comfortable. I kept wondering if the sandals will get sweaty after prolonged wear. They looked odd but quite cute. After closer observation, I noticed that Sarai was wearing foot covers underneath her sandals. Yes, I was that close to the stage. Hmmm….if she’s wearing foot covers, I guess the sandals aren’t that comfortable after all and it will probably get icky after prolonged wear. Maybe I’ll get Crocs instead.

4. Floods of dry ice

Sitting at the very front of theater, I experienced everything more intensely. When they pumped out the dry ice, I felt the full effect. And I felt and smelled it again and again.

5. God’s sacrifice

After these things, God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here am I.” He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” (Genesis 22:1-2)

As Abraham was on his way with Isaac to Mt Moriah, it was one long sad and heart-wrenching scene. Finally, on Mt Moriah, Abraham placed Isaac on the altar and was ready to slaughter Isaac with a knife.

But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here am I.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” (Genesis 22:11-12)

And I realized then that God spared Abraham the pain and suffering of killing Isaac, but He didn’t spare Himself the pain and suffering of giving His only Son, Jesus Christ, to die for us.

6. Donkey droppings

As Abraham and Isaac were heading home from Mt Moriah, the real donkey (Sight and Sound theaters like to have real animals in their shows) left a trail of donkey droppings all over the stage. Yes, I was that close to the stage. At least the droppings were dry, like brown stones falling and rolling around the stage…hahaha.

7. Shady Maple Smorgasbord

After the show, we went to Shady Maple Smorgasbord. Smorgasbord is sort of a Pennsylvania Dutch tradition of buffet-style restaurant. There are many smorgasbords all over the Lancaster area. And the Shady Maple is the Smorgasbord of all smorgasbords. That place can seat 1200 people. It looked like a megachurch from the outside. My friend commented that it’s the Church of Gluttony. The food was pretty good but I wasn’t that impressed with the place. They haven’t seen the food places that we have in Malaysia. Our varieties and tastes will trump all smorgasbords!

I’ve been wanting to write about the things that caught my eye at the museums in D.C. but things got really busy at school. So three weeks after the trip, here’s my top 10 in no particular order:

10. The cherry blossoms.

9. The lone duck (AIM)

I saw this lone duck swimming in the man-made waterfall (Grandfather Rocks) outside the National Museum of the American Indian (AIM). I found it really charming because it was the only duck there, so I didn’t suffer from the “see one, seen it all” syndrome here.

8. IMAX show: To Fly (Air & Space)

I’ve never seen an IMAX show, so it was a must see when I went to the National Air and Space Museum. I decided to see To Fly because it was the first and the most popular IMAX show. It was pretty good. However towards the middle, the horizon started to swerve left and right following the movement of the jets and the hand-glider and that was when I felt a bout of motion sickness. After that I just wanted the show to end and spare me the agony.

7. Planetarium show: Cosmic Collisions (Air & Space)

And I’ve never seen a planetarium show, so it was another must see. It was an ok show. But then I heard the narrator, Robert Redford, announced:

And in less than a month… incredible as it may seem…our moon was formed. That’s right. It took only one month to create our moon.

And that got my mind reeling: How did they know it was one month? How can they be sure of it?

Anyway, when the lights came up, I saw a 4-year old boy, who came in with his mom, sleeping soundly in his seat. So funny, he slept through the cosmic collisions.

6. Ghost dance statue (AIM)

I thought this was so adorable.

5. Creation story (AIM)

An American Indian creation story mural.

4. Gut-skin raincoat (AIM)

I almost bypassed this exhibit but I stopped when I read the plaque and learned that the raincoat was made from the gut-skin of seals. Gut-skin raincoat..that’s amazing! Actually, I don’t think it rains much in Alaska, so I should call it a gut-skin windbreaker instead.

3. American Indian baby cradle (AIM)

Beautiful and unique.

2. Allies in War, Partners in Peace bronze statue (AIM)

This little girl was at the back of the statue. What is she looking at?

1. Ito Jakuchu (1716-1800) (Sackler Gallery)

I was at the Freer and Sackler Gallery towards the end of the trip. Tired and suffering from the “See one, Seen it all” syndrome. And then I saw these two Japanese screens by Ito Jakuchu.

According to wikipedia:
Another of his famous pieces, dubbed “Birds and Animals in the Flower Garden,” is arguably one of the most modern-looking pieces to come out of Japan during this period. The piece, one of a pair of six-fold screens, depicts a white elephant and a number of other animals in a garden. What makes it unique, eccentric and modern is the division of the entire piece into a grid of squares roughly a centimeter on each side. Each square was colored individually, in order to create the resulting aggregate image.

This is my number one D.C. highlight.

I always associated cherry blossoms with beauty, tranquility, harmony, sort of zen-like. I was expecting that when I was on my way to the National Cherry Blossom Festival. But instead of a nice stroll in a peaceful Japanese garden wrapped in cherry blossoms, I found myself walking in an atmosphere that was almost Pesta-Pulau-Pinang-like.

The Smithsonian Castle

Museum admission in NYC is usually around $12-20, so free admission to any good museums sounds real good. That’s why I like the idea of visiting Washington D.C., all those museums with free admission in one area…wonderful!

However, after running through 3 museums (National Air & Space Museum,
Museum of the American Indian and the Freer and Sackler Galleries of Asian Art)
in 6 hours, I realized that too much of a good thing is bad. I ended up browsing through many things but learning nothing much. I became a museum burnout.

After I’ve seen one porcelain vase from the Tang dynasty, I felt like I’ve seen them all.
See one japanese screen, seen them all.
See one chinese calligraphy, seen them all.
See one old aircraft, seen them all.
See one space capsule, seen them all.
See one native women’s dress, seen them all.
See one portrait, seen them all.
Seen them all, seen them all, seen them all, I ended up not really seeing anything.

I guess to make things worse, there were just too many people.
Long lines to enter the museum.
Long lines through security checks and metal detectors (yes, there were security checks at each museum, and the bigger museums have metal detectors too).
Long lines to the restroom.
Long lines to the cafetaria.
Lots of stress!!

I’ve learned my lesson, next time I’ll choose just one museum and spend my time slowly looking through the things and actually learn something during my visit.

I went to the annual National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington DC today. While I recuperate from waking up before dawn, long bus rides, day-long walkathon, numerous security checks at museum entrances, and people, people and more people everywhere, here are some photos of the cherry blossoms and tulips. Enjoy!

My small group from church organized a trip to the Daniel and the Lions’ Den show at the Sight and Sound theater (Broadway-style show with a Christian theme) in Strasburg, PA. It was a 2-hour drive to the Amish-land. We had lunch at a family-style restaurant where we had way too much food. Then we headed towards the theater. While in the car, I had my camera ready to take shots of Amish farmland and people, but I only saw strip malls, outlet stores, lots of restaurants, and an occasional Amish horse buggy driving by.

I was surprised by the number of cars, buses, and people at the Millennium Theater.

A giant mammoth, Wooly, greeted visitors inside the theater.

And then there’s the mandatory group picture.

After Nebuchadnezzar died and his son, Belshazzar, became king, we had a 15-minute intermission. But the intermission dragged for an hour. Finally we heard that there’s some technical difficulties, and a group of actors came out and led the audience in an extended praise and worship session. Finally after a 2-hour intermission, we were told that the technical difficulties were too major (a stage lift broke leaving a very large hole in the middle of the stage, I think), so they were not able to continue the show. However, we could exchange the ticket for another show another day.

Then it was a 2-hour drive back to Bethlehem. I guess the biggest disappointment was not being able to see the lions’ den scene, because everyone was debating whether there were any real lions in the show (most probably no) and how real the fake lions will look.

Here’s where I spent my Christmas and New Year break.

During my vacation, I….
1. Slept in 3 different houses.
2. Helped the Cheah family move to a newer house.
3. Took GBs of photos and videos.
4. Completed 12 imovie projects.
5. Shopped for free.
6. Spent some time with a doberman and a cockatoo.
7. Learned some skateboarding vocabulary.
8. Visited the Bridal Cave (the 3rd most scenic cave in the US), the Ha Ha Tonka (the nearby state park) and the Windermere Baptist Conference Center.
9. Enjoyed the sights (especially of the Lake of the Ozarks) and sounds and food of NTM Roach.
10. Experienced what it is like to be with a family again!!

The Cheah family and I went to the Bridal Cave in Camdenton, Missouri. The Bridal Cave is the third most scenic cave in the U.S. The sights were absolutely amazing. At the innermost part of the cave-tour (the cave still goes on but not the tour), the guide turned off all the lights and there was…total darkness. According to the guide, no matter how long we let our eyes acclimatize to the total darkness, we will not see anything. That was quite an experience.

My iMovie projects have primarily been made up of still photos. But I knew that I’ll have to learn to edit videos eventually. So when the iMovie bug bit tonight, I gave videos a try. Unfortunately, I don’t have a big library of home videos, just some random clips I took here and there. After some trial and errors, here’s my very first almost-a-video project!

Photos and videos taken at Glen Onoko Falls (Jim Thorpe, PA)
Music: I Believe (by Kokia)

Top Ten things I like about Les Miserables

10. I’m close enough to the stage that I can actually see the actors’ faces/expressions and I was able to differentiate the numerous characters. Compared to my previous Broadway shows where I was sitting up in the balcony towards the back….forget about facial expressions, sometimes I couldn’t even differentiate who is who.

9. The turntable stage. A big part of the stage floor is a turntable that can spin around. So the prop people can actually set up the props on the turntable towards the back of the stage and then spin the props to the front of the stage. And when someone dies at the front of the stage, the turntable will spin and bring the “body” to the back of the stage and the “body” can get off the stage in the dark. Hard to describe actually. Just imagine a CD with miniature people and props, put that CD on the table and spin it slowly and you’ll sort of get what I mean.

8. The major props. Big gigantic wooden structures that came out from the sides to form the ghetto in one scene and then later those same structures were spunned around to form the barricade in the battle scene. Very ingenious.

7. The music. Live orchestra and actor-singers.

6. The ensemble of actors. All the actors giving their very best. Fighting on stage, messing around on stage, dying on stage.

5. The for-comedic-relief actors. The innkeeper and his wife made everyone laughed. It was good that they added some funny parts in this otherwise too intense show.

4. The story. A very remarkable story. The self-righteous Javert unmercilessly pursuing Jean Valjean who skipped parole after spending twenty years in jail/hard labor for stealing bread. Later when Jean Valjean spared Javert’s life, Javert couldn’t accept the fact that he’s indebted to a “crook”, so he committed suicide. Also, the young revolutionaries fighting and dying for justice was quite inspiring.

3.The suicide scene. They lowered a platform bridge and Javert was standing on it and then he climbed over the bridge. As soon as he jumped off the bridge, the platform was pulled up to the ceiling quickly (indicating Javert was falling deeper and deeper into the water) and only one spotlight (almost like moonlight underwater) was focused on Javert who was rolling on the floor “struggling” in the water.

2. Lea Salonga. She’s the main reason I went to see Les Miserables. Without her in the show, I probably would have gone to the Museum of Modern Art instead. I got her autograph after the show

1. The actor who played Jean Valjean. He was really good. I cried when Jean Valjean died.

Random observations and minor unsubstantiated critiques:
1. I’m glad I was in the fifth row. From where I sat, I could see sprays of spit flying out of the actors’ mouth blessing the people in the first row. I think it’s the orchestra conductor who got the most blessing. Not that the actors were purposefuly spitting, the microdroplets of spit just came out naturally when they had to sing strongly and loudly.

2. I found the very soprano-ey voice of the actor playing Cossette rather irritating.

3. Lea’s voice was lower and harder compared to her voice in Miss Saigon. I was surprised by that.

4. I thought the actor playing Eponine didn’t have strong stage presence, but she sang very well.

5. An understudy (replacement for the main actor) played Marius (a major character) in that show. So when this actor came out of the theater, many people asked for his autograph. I wonder if anyone will ask for his autograph on the days that he plays a lesser character. Because I noticed when many of the lesser character actors came out of the theater, people hardly even glanced at them.

6. Did you know that top Broadway stars earn around $30K a week?