Review: 1001 Inventions Exhibition. (It's about Islamic Science!)

Me and my girl just had the opportunity to check out the "1001 Inventions - Discover The Muslim Heritage In Our World" (that is a mouthful) exhibition in the Bation House, Melaka. (It is near Kota A'Fomosa.) This is my review of it, but it has no original pictures of my own because I was too cheap to pay extra for photography privileges *sigh*.

The exhibition is not free, the fee is RM15 + (some few cents because GST) for adults, and RM 8 + (some few cents because GST) for students. I gotta say, it is money well spent! The exhibition is really well done, what with interactive booths, games, and superbly costumed actors who act as Islamic scholars. This is the best educational exhibition I have seen so far; I spent about 1.5 hours mesmerised by the entire show.

Emphasize 'United Kingdom', because everyone knows all things that come from Europe is good. Like TESCO

What the exhibition is trying to show is:

• Dark Ages = Very Bright from the Islamic perspective
• Islam contributed to modern science DON'T FORGET IT! (and I will keep repeating that in the exhibition just to make sure.) 

To built the theme for the exhibition, they showed us a nice video of a librarian (who is secretly a scholar from 1000 years ago because, duh, magic) leads a group of students to a secret vault and opens a magic book that summons spirits of the past Islamic scholars to educate these students.

The librarian Badi'al-Zaman Abū al-'Izz ibn Ismā'īl ibn al-Razāz al-Jazarī. Too long, Imma call you Buddy..... Buddy bin Kingsley.

 

Then, we were directed to the exhibition which was about the size of two badminton courts with interactive booths arranged into a few circles. Each booth has a TV screen with an Islamic scholar behind it telling us his/her achievements, and there are plenty of scholars dying to brag to us.

These people with complex names gave me a big headache during high school history back in the days. Except Zheng He, he cool. (Yes he was originally Muslim)

 

Ay girl, of course I will pick up that call.

 

The booths also contained exhibitions to explain in detail what they have discovered or built when they were alive. Some of them might even ask you to participate in their demonstrations. The coolest one I played was the one where 3 scholars behind TV screens asked me to "assist" their surgery.

 

 Yes, I'll help you cut open some bodies.

Ibn Zuhr teaching me how to perform cataract removal surgery! Er... I wouldn't place that scalpel there if I were you.

I was amazed then I finally get to see a model of the "Magnificent Elephant Clock" that Buddy bin Kingsley was bragging so much about. It was large and beautiful but sadly, does not work.

Okay, It looks magnificent. But I stood there 10 minuets like an idiot waiting for it to do something cool.

In summary, this place is very cool and well worth a visit especially if you have kids. This only thing I wished was for this place to have a hangar full of those Arabic costume for some awesome seflies! The exhibition will end in May 2015, but it was in Kuala Lumpur, then Trengganu, then Melaka, so who knows? It might come to your state very soon.

"The Empire's Edge" is now for sale!

My book is finally out! And I having an imaginary digital celebration!

 Yay!

The book titled "The Empire's Edge" is out on April 2015.

Grab your dice and chracter sheet and Taste Penang and Malaysia like you have never tasted before!

This is a gamebook and that means that you, the reader, are the main character and get decide how to react to situations. Will you talk your way out of trouble, or will you smash your way out of trouble? You decide!

"The Empire's Edge" is a historical gamebook that captures life in the Edge of the British Empire; more specifically, Penang under the British East India Company. Step into the the time portal and emerge into a time of British naval dominance, sail boats, prejudice, coolies, kapitans, secret societies, and perhaps opium. I guarantee, this book is so special that you ahve never seen before!

Go get yours today at Google Play (preview available free) at an amazing launching promotion of RM5.00 only! (offer lasts until 11 June 2015) or you can get it at Pegasus Yield.

As always, comments and critiques are mist welcome; it helps to shape my plans for "The Empire's Edge 2"

Penang World Music Festival 2015

Just yesterday I attended the Penang World Music Festival held in Esplanade. It was raining at that time and all the crowd (which numbered 100) hid under the tent's shelter. Although some were crazy enough to dance under the rain with umbrellas. But fortunately by mid-show, the rain stopped and that means I gets to boogey close to the stage.

The festival was 6 hours long and was packed with performances with a good mix of contemporary, urban, fusion style, and......... pffffffft, okay I don't know what all those words mean because my artistic vocabulary is very limited, so I will describe the performers in one sentence to the best of my abilities:

1) Nanding Rhapsody (Sarawak, Malaysia)

"Iban Akademi Fantasia"

2) Tarabband (Sweden/Egypt)

"I'm in Sweden but I missed the spices and camels"

3) Ajinai (Inner Mongolia, China)

"Heavy Metal horsemen that are tired but had a shot of cocaine in the end"

4) Prem Joshua & Band (India.... well one of the band members is Indian)

"Curry-flavored-marijuana"

5) Annuluk (Germany)

"Yodeling Jazz"

6) Dizu Plaatjies & Ibuyambo (South Africa)

"How I imagine African music to be like after watching The Lion King"

I had a real blast that night. The only thing that saddens me the low attendance. All these musicians are really fantastic! And to be able to listen to 6 bands for RM80 is pretty cool! I really hope this event gets another green light for next year because I'm going again for sure!

So, please click on the links and check out their music while I go download some of that sweet sweet marijuana curry.