It's Good To Be The King...

Goodness Gracious, bloggers it's that time again, so hold on to your proverbial hats! When last we left our hero...me...I'm the hero...anyway, I was in Xian, China visiting unearthed warriors, Wild Goose Pagodas, dumpling restaurants and otherwise having as good a time as possible while being laid off for a few weeks. Well, I was not the only one trying to enjoy myself as most of the cast and crew were also gallivanting about the former capitol of China when a stroke of bad luck struck one of our cast members.

The gentleman playing the King, Jefferson, was on a lovely bike ride atop the Xian City Wall(see last entry for details) with a few others from the gang, when the pedal on his bicycle broke, cutting him very deeply. He received immediate medical attention but the laceration needed nearly 30 stitches, inside and out, and he was quite immobilized for almost 2 weeks. Well, if you didn't already know, I am the principal understudy for the king and, as he was pretty well out of commission for a number of days, that left yours truly to step into the role.

I was fortunate enough to perform the role of His Royal Highness King Maximilian Godfrey Ladislaus Leopold Sidney Frederick John for 4-5 shows during the run in Xian. I'm very glad to have had the opportunity to perform the role and even gladder to report that Jefferson is on the mend and back atop the throne where he belongs. His wound is still healing and it will be sometime before he is fully back to snuff, but he is the definition of a trooper and will have an interesting story (to say the least) when people ask him about his scar

That aside, things were relatively tame throughout Xian and as I write you, I am in a lovely hotel in Zhengzhou, China with one performance left to do this evening and then onto Guangzhou for a few weeks. After that comes Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. After that, I cannot remember exactly where to next, but it's probably for the best as our schedule is in a constant state of flux. One of the joys of touring this part of the world.

One of the exciting things I have done here in Zhengzhou is visit a, or rather The Shaolin Temple where Kung-Fu was born. There was a demonstration of Kung-Fu skills, the grounds were beautiful and I had a bit of a Karmic experience in one of the gift shops, of all places.

Last year in Singapore, I found a little shop in a market in Central Singapore where they sold Tibetan charms, jewelery, etc.. I bought two pendants for myself, one of which was a cross-hatched diamond pattern made of silver that was supposed to be a good luck charm. I happily purchased it and upon returning to the U.S., I had only worn it one other time when I donned the charm and went shopping at one of my favorite places, the Ocean State Job Lot. Little did I know, but somewhere between the car and the store, the charm fell off my neck and was lost. I retraced my steps, but, alas, alack, it was gone. Bummed as I was though, I though it was best to think of it as a sign it was meant to happen.

While in Japan a few years ago, I was visiting a temple in Kamakura and bought a few luck charms made of clay that were expected to eventually break. As it was told to me, when the bell shaped charm breaks, it is believed that something bad which was to happen to the owner instead happens to the bell, causing its' destruction. Pretty neat, eh? Well, I sort of adopted that to mean the Tibetan good luck charm took a Karmic hit for me and perhaps was found by someone who needed it more than I. Good story, right? Well, at the Shaolin Temple, there in front of me at a Tibetan gift shop was the same good luck charm in silver and turquoise and, of course, I bought it and now, more than ever, feel I was not meant to own the original charm I brought back from Singapore, but was meant to "deliver" it into the hands of another whose needs outweighed my own.

At least that's what I tell myself to help me sleep at night.

OK, enough babbling and pontificating. I'll leave you be with the hope that you are well fed, well rested, and well aware of just how lucky we all are, Tibetan charms aside, to have the things and most importantly the people we hold dear.

Zaijian!(Good-bye!)

Gags

Quite A Lotta Chinese Terracotta...

Warriors, that is. Ni Hao, blog buddies! It's time for another exciting installment of blog-o-rama. As if you couldn't guess, I'm now in Xian, China and am finding it to be quite to my liking. The city if clean and interesting, the people seem nice, and the hotel lobby has free wireless- all in all, a good combo. I am off for a total of about 2 weeks while the set/costumes/ props(etc.) clear customs, so I am trying to see the sights of Xian. Luckily for me, there are plenty of them.

As the title of this blog installment suggests, we visited Xian's main attraction yesterday, namely the Terracotta Army. For those not familiar with these clay fellows, the Terracotta Army is a collection of thousands of life sized clay soldiers from about 200 B.C.(E.) that were constructed to protect the tomb of the first Emperor of China's Qin Dynasty. This great and terrible ruler(his name escapes me at the moment) was the first to unite China into a single kingdom/country and the Terracotta Soldiers were to be his protection in the next life, guarding his tomb and providing him a sort of spiritual security blanket in the afterlife. He died at around 50 years old, some say as a side effect of drinking mercury, as he thought it would prolong his life.

Duh.

Anyhoo, the soldiers lay undiscovered for almost 2000 years until in 1974, some local farmers unearthed the head of one of the soldiers while digging a well. They freaked out, thinking it was the devil himself and contacted the local authorities. It was determined, much to the relief of the nervous and superstitious farmers, that the head did not belong to the devil, but in fact was one of the greatest archaeological discoveries in Chinese- nay, human history. As a reward, the main farmer was given a cash prize and some lovely parting gifts. As a further(well deserved) thank you, he was given a job for life at the museum autographing souvenir programs for tourists like me. I was not fortunate enough to meet him, as we arrived after he had departed for the day(@ 3PM- good hours!). Seeing as he's around 80 years old, I'll cut him some slack, seeing as I got a signed copy anyway! Lucky me!

One of the interesting things about the excavation site is that of the suspected 10,000 life sized figures buried there, since '76, only some 2,000 have been unearthed. It is painstaking work to Humpty-Dumpty the soldiers back together again and it is expected that it will take another 200 years, more or less, to complete the excavation. So, if your children's children's children's children's children teleport, or however they'll get around in those days, to Xian, they'll get to see the whole site unearthed. It seems like a long time, but, hey, they finished the Big Dig in our lifetime right?

Right?

Well, it's easier to get to Logan, anyway...

Xian is the former capitol city of China and is a tourist destination for many world travelers as well as for China's own citizens. Some other sights are the Drum Tower, Bell Tower(guess what those are?) and the Xian City Wall, which is the only one of its kind in China to have survived the destruction of war, be it ancient or modern.

Don't it feel like yer here with me? Don't it!? Well, maybe not, but I'll keep trying to paint mental pictures through this here blog and maybe someday, I'll be reading one of your blogs about the wilds of Africa...or sumthin' like that.

I'll be in Xian for about 3 weeks, then to another city or two for about 2 weeks, then on to Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. It's funny, but every time I come back to Asia, I keep hearing people say, including myself, "Well, when will I ever be here again?" To which I silently say "Probably next year!"

Thank you for you attention. We now return you to your regularly scheduled goofing off from work, or whatever do on your computer to make it look like you are accomplishing something.

Til next time,

Gags