The Terracotta Warriors of the Pond

            The Discovery Times Square Museum is a favorite of mine because it regularly borrows famous attractions from all of the world, and instead of having to fly for ten hours to see them, I could take a thirty-minute subway ride. My past visits have included the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Tomb of King Tut, and the Lost City of Pompeii, the next showing I had my eye on was the Terracotta Warriors. The first emperor of China, Qin Shihuang Ling, had an army of eight-thousand clay soldiers, plus chariots and horses, created to serve the purpose of "guarding" his tomb once he was dead and buried. Back in 1974, some farmers in China were innocently digging in the fields and came upon one of the figures, then after some more digging the entire ancient Chinese legend was unearthed. The only downer about the museum is that they don't allow picture-taking inside, but its still a worthwhile visit all the time.

             The exhibition made a trip to New York and will be around till late August, but I didn't want to delay in seeing these two thousand year-old warriors any further. Usually when I go to the Discovery Times Square Museum the place is an absolute mob scene, and even with buying a ticket online ahead of time, the line is extremely long and it takes at least an hour of waiting. Its the perfect tourist magnet and with many tourists around the city on weekends, I decided it would be best to go on a lazy Wednesday afternoon. Admission cost was a pricey twenty-five dollars and I purchased my ticket at home before heading down to Manhattan. The weather was warm, but the skies were grey and I was hoping the threat of rain would keep the tourists in their hotels. Times Square was rather full as usual when I got out of the subway, but it wasn't unbearable to walk around as it could be most of the time. I saw an ad for the Terracotta Warriors on a garbage can and knew I was well on my way. With the giant neon signs of Times Square a great back drop behind me, I made several unsuccessful attempts to take a good picture of myself. A Chinese lady saw my predicament and offered to take a picture of me. Perhaps she was a descendant the Terracotta Warriors.

             Once I was inside the Discovery Times Square Museum I was shocked to see there were only about four or five people on line before me. In my previous experiences there would be several hundred patrons in front of me and I would have to wait about an hour as they would bring groups of people in at a time. This time the wait was only a few minutes and they let us begin; they first take you to a small theater to watch a short video, then the wall lifts open and you walk into the exhibit. Actually, very little is known about Qin Shihuang Ling and his giant tomb was only a myth until a farmer whacked it with a shovel in the 1970's. Qin became leader of the Qin state by the age of thirteen and by the time he was twenty-two, he conquered the surrounding states and formed what became known as China. He had work started of the Great Wall of China as well as the Grand Canal in the south (still the biggest canal in the world). Qin brought modern forms of government and law into effect which are still present in Chinese culture. Infatuated with immortality, Qin spent alot of time looking for magic elixirs and wanted his terracotta warriors built to stand guard at his tomb in case he did die eventually. At age forty-nine, the First Emperor, the title he took, did pass away around 209 BC and its suspected it was from mercury poisoning that we thought was one of those immortal magical potions.

             Rebellions in the years after the Emperor's death did cause destruction and dis-colorment to the warriors in his tomb, as only a very few had color. In addition to those nearly six foot statues, the exhibit included alot of other artifacts from that time period from weaponry to currency to even cookware. Towards the end of the walk-through there's even a sizable section dedicated to the Han Dynasty, which came later on in Chinese history. I learned a few different items while there, such as having pigs was a sign of prosperity, and hair worn loosely in those days was reserved for the criminal culture. Without the hundreds of other annoying people in the way, I was able to get through the exhibit in roughly under an hour. Once I was out, I only had to look a few yards for my next stop, Carmine's restaurant, just a few doors down. It was still during lunch hours and the place wasn't crowded at all either. I didn't want to eat a heavy meal, so I just started out with a dozen oysters and a glass of pinot grigio. As a passing waiter cleaned my table before the food came out, he complimented me on my grey sweater (which has been a compliment magnet in recent months) and was excited to hear when I told him the Terracotta Warriors were down the block.

            Those dozen oysters were nice and went down smoothly, but I was still a tad bit hungry. The food options at Carmine's, even from the lunch options, are always heavy, so I had no choice but to order more items from the raw bar. With a refill of my wine glass, I went with only a half-dozen of cherrystone clams to complete my "light" lunch. By this time the grey skies had disappeared and the sun was out in a full bloom. This gave me no choice but to head over to Central Park for a nice stroll in perfect weather. I decided to walk it from Times Square, and knowing I was going to need a shot of energy for the long hike, I stopped off at Edible Arrangements for a large strawberry-banana smoothie. The lady behind the counter was somewhat sassy as she made it seem I was taking too long to make up my mind, but I was seeking something more than the typical strawberry-banana combo. She offered me a chocolate-covered strawberry sample while she made the smoothie, but I had no interest in that.

            The park was looking as wonderful as ever and I couldn't wait to check out some of the animals inside such as the ducks, geese, squirrels, robins, and amazingly so, turtles, which I saw sun bathing the last time I was there. I was passing by a small pond and when I looked down I saw a number of ducks cleaning themselves with their beaks. There was a couple (humans) sitting on a rock not too far away from the pond, but other than that nobody had taken notice of these ducks, I could have them all to myself. As I paced closer towards them I was expecting them to flee into the water, but just the opposite happened, they acted as if I didn't even exist. I know, especially in that park, the animals are used to the millions of visitors, but I never had ducks provide this time of unprecedented access before. Other than trying to touch them, which I tried a few times, they would let you do anything else and take all the pictures you wanted. I can't recall ever being so up close and personal to a duck like that without it being stuffed in a museum or served on a plate with a side of rice. I spent a good fifteen minutes there at the edge of the pond and probably could've stayed for the day, but my legs were getting tired from all the walking I had done. Unfortunately, I had to carry on and after passing the Central Park Zoo (with a self-promise of visiting this summer) I did get to meet up with a robin and a squirrel.

           The photogenic ducks had left a big impression on me, even bigger than the two-thousand year old warriors, and they didn't cost a dime.....

Getting a Disease from seeing Dead Sea Scrolls

            For this Holiday Season in New York the Discovery Zone in Times Square was exhibiting the infamous Dead Sea Scrolls, which included a copy of the Ten Commandments. I had saw an advertisement some time ago for this showing, and following up on it there was only one week left, so I decided to make my way to Times Square for the biblical journey.

            There was also something else I was looking forward to on this little trip to the city. Being in Haiti for most of December, it had been nearly a month since I was on a subway and in Manhattan. I wasn't expecting much changes over this time, but it felt nice to be back in the swing. Earlier in the day I had been reflecting that I hadn't been sick in a very long time, and there was something in the back of my mind telling me that being exposed to the subway after a long layoff during the start of flu season would spell bad news for me. Sure enough, I get on the train, and only after a few stops the air seems thick. I can feel something gathering in my nose, my throat, and overall my body temperature felt like it was rising, all the signs one has before catching a cold. By the time the train reached the Manhattan limits I was fast asleep in my seat as all the energy was depleted from my body. I eventually woke up to the sounds of people sneezing and coughing all around me, but luckily my stop was approaching and I got off quick.

           Eventually I made my way to Times Square where the Discovery Zone is located, and simply being in the fresh air made some of my cold symptoms fade. With New Year's Eve only a few days away and typically Times Square the center of those celebrations, I was expecting alot of people to be around, but there were many more than I was anticipating. Plus, there were also stages and platforms built for all the TV shows that will be airing the event in the coming days. With thousands of tourists around, an exhibit like the Dead Sea Scrolls in the middle of Times Square would certainly draw big crowds and long lines, so I made sure to purchase my tickets ahead of time online, which were about $30. I had been to the Discovery Zone twice before, once for an exhibit for King Tut's tomb, and another for the lost city of Pompeii, which was buried in volcanic ash. Both shows were well done and I expected no less for the scrolls display. Getting inside the exhibit only took about a half hour, even though I already had a ticket, alot of other people also bought tickets ahead of time as well.

           The exhibit begins with a brief five minute introduction from a guide who explained how the scrolls were found in 1947 by a goat hurder who threw a rock at a goat that ran into a cave. As the rock entered the cave it made a noise as if it shattered a piece of pottery. The goat hurder returned the next day to see what caused that noise, and inside those old pottery jars were what is known today as the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest known copies of the written Old Testament, aka Hebrew Bible. Experts believe they were written about 150 CE - 70 CE which would make them well over two thousand years old. The way the exhibit is displayed, first there's a room with old artifacts dating as far back as 500 CE, these include jars, a bathtub, spear heads, coins, tools, etc. Then there is a staircase which leads downstairs to where the Dead Sea Scroll are on display. They placed parts of them in a circular table, with English translations next to them, and the line wrapped around the table at least three times. Since people took their time reading the scrolls and translations carefully, treating it more like a religious event rather than a museum exhibition, the line was painfully slow and it took nearly and hour to get to see the scrolls with my own eyes. All this time I was on the line, I was still feeling little shades of a cold coming on soon.

            The scrolls were written in neat lettering of the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek language, on a substance known as papyrus. Most of the writings dealt with rules and regulations for the ancient Hebrew tribes. Speaking of which, there was a seperate line to see a scroll of the oldest known copy of the Book of Deuteronomy, which included the even more infamous Ten Commandments. That line was only about twenty minutes and much more managable than the line for the scrolls. All along the walls of this downstairs area were more artifacts on display from that time period such as sandals, pottery, comb, jars, stamps, and more. There was even a mock temple wall, as the real one exists in Jerusalam, in which people could leave small prayer notes that was promised to be taken to the real wall overseas. With the items on display and mainly because of the long lines, I spent a little under two hours inside the place, and to see ancient texts of that magnitude was all worth it. So it became time to get back on the subway and head on home. Then the same thing happened all over again, after a few stops from getting on the train, I start feeling the early warning signs of getting sick. I even passed out in my seat again and went to sleep until I woke up a few stops before I had to get off. As soon as I got home and I had an orange for Vitamin C, or B, or whichever one fights colds. The good news is the combination of the orange and not being in the subway anymore made all my cold symptoms evaporate.

            The Dead Sea Scrolls were well preserved in the caves off the West Bank for nearly two thousand years , but they wouldn't have lasted two minutes on a New York City subway...   

Doing Stand-Up Comedy at Caroline's in Times Square

            Yesterday(10/23/11) I tried my hand at one of the toughest things to do, making a room of people laugh with a stand-up comedy act. Over the past month I had been taking a six-week course provided by a show programmer at Caroline's in New York, one of the best known stand-up comedy establishments in the country, and the graduation for the class was a live performance on Caroline's infamous stage in front of a live audience. Granted, most in the audience were there to see us students perform and the place was only about 30% of capacity, but it was a sizeable enough crowd to rattle the nerves a little.

            There were two shows in which our class was broken up into, one at 2pm and another at 4:30pm. I was slotted in for the 2pm show and I went about 6th or 7th in the performing pecking order. There were also more seasoned comics on hand for both shows to host, open, and close, as us students didn't have enough experience for those types of roles. My set last about 4 minutes, although the goal was 5 minutes, but in comedy shows like that its better too be short than go over your time limit. The bit was a humorous look at being in a racially mixed relationship, and overall I think it went well. Not all the jokes got laughs, but most of them did, so that's fine with me. I was nervous being up there on the stage with the bright light and having like 40 people looking at me, but once I got that first laugh it took the pressure off and I was able to go into my routine.

            I'll need to write some more material and test it out at some open mic shows, which I plan on doing, but getting back to Caroline's I was also able to experience what its like for performers. We entered through the kitchen, we hung out in the dressing room (Comedian D.L. Hughley was scheduled to perform that night at a later show and they had his name posted on the dressing room door). Also in the dressing room is a private bathroom which must have been used by the most infamous names in the history of comedy, which also forced me to have to take a pitcure of it. One of the other students also said Darrell Hammond, longtime star on Saturday Night Live and best known for his impersonations of Al Gore and Chris Matthews, stopped in the club for a brief moment. Our teacher is good friends with him and earlier in the day she told us he might be stopping by. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see him and I don't think he struck around very long to watch any of the acts, but at least I got a good picture of the toilet.