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?

I finally made a trip to see Apple’s Fifth Avenue store. I expected it to stand out but it was rather inconspicuous. I almost missed it. Saw and handled all the new iGadgets. Unfortunately, I had to rush off to get a quick lunch and then to the Broadway theater to catch Les Miserables (I paid too much to miss a single minute of it), so no time for me to tinker with the stuff. Check out more photos here.

Lea Salonga

I bought a Broadway ticket to watch Lea Salonga in Les Miserables this Saturday. I’ve been a fan of hers since Miss Saigon, and that’s in the early 1990s. Now I finally get to see her perform live. I also paid big bucks to get a seat that’s 5 rows from the stage. My previous two Broadway shows, I was up in the balcony, way in the back…cheap grad student tickets. I hope this will be my most memorable Broadway experience.

Unlike Musikfest 2006, I didn’t really do Musikfest this year. I only managed to watch the finale fireworks with a friend. She has been in Bethlehem for 6 years and never once attended Musikfest!

We were at the south-side of the Fahy bridge which was not crowded at all. At the north-end of the bridge, some people already “jom-ed” (reserved) a spot since morning. They would place a big blanket on the ground to reserve the spot. This practice seems so Asian/Malaysian/Malaysian-Chinese. When I commented about the practice to my friend, she said it’s the same in India, except that people will remove your blanket reservation and place their own blanket on the same spot. “It’s not your grandfather’s spot, you know!”

After 1.7miles along the Appalachian trail from Newfound Gap, we reached the junction between the AT and the Sweat Heifer Creek Trail. Took a picture here, ate a granola bar, then hiked back to Newfound Gap where the car was parked. Got caught in the rain on the way back.

With this post, I end my Smokies adventure series.

I was all excited to hike the Appalachian trail. I realized later that the trail does go through Pennsylvania, the nearest point is like an hour to the north of Bethlehem, so I didn’t need to make the 10 hour drive down to Tennessee to hike it. But I think this stretch of the trail is almost the highest point along the whole Appalachian trail. The highest point is Clingmans Dome (6643 feet or 2025m).