My sister June Donaghy Kramin (AKA, Aunty Bug) and her husband Thomas Kramin live in Minnesota. He liked my little TSA Christmas Carol, and challenged me to come up with one for him. He’s an avid hunter, and once I got rolling on this I couldn’t stop. Took all of 10 minutes: (Sung to the melody of “A Christmas Song”) Tom’s nuts roasting on a barbeque ‘Cause he pissed off Aunty Bug He shot at a deer but his aim was untrue Now there’s one less cat for her to hug The ground’s too hard for him to dig a…
Call For Help With Hawaiian Braille!
Aloha kākou. Ka Haka ‘Ula O Ke‘elikōlani, our College of Hawaiian Language at UH-Hilo, is having a new building constructed on the UH-Hilo campus. Some of the foundations and concrete columns are already done, and we are anticipating the building’s completion in December of next year. We are having one issue that I would like to get out there and seek some advice and/or help. As our college functions in Hawaiian, we are very picky about language use in the new building. Most of the office and other signs in the complex will be either Hawaiian-only or perhaps Hawaiian and…
Setting The Record Straight Regarding The Nā Hōkū Hanohano Awards
Aloha kākou. My esteemed colleague and friend Dr. Amy Ku‘uleialoha Stillman writes eloquently and passionately about Hawaiian music on her blog “Hawaiian Music for Listening Pleasure”, and I encourage artists, labels, producers, engineers, other industry professionals and fans to check it regularly. I owe much to Amy in my development as an ethomusicologist and budding academic, and for adding clarity to my thinking regarding many issues that surround the culture of music, but this does not mean we agree on everything. While we differ on many of the issues surrounding the Grammy Awards, their legitimacy when it comes to recognizing…
More Details on iOS 5’s Hawaiian Language Support
Last week Apple released iOS 5, the latest version of their operating system for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. There has always been some support for Hawaiian language in iOS. Since it shares some core software with OS X, and OS X has supported Hawaiian since 2002, iOS has had the ability to display the ‘okina and kahakō since it first shipped, and we were delighted when some of our translated strings showed up in that first version as well. With version 3, iOS has been able to generate the ʻokina and kahakō by pressing and holding the vowels…
My Post on Grammy365.com
For those who are not members of The Recording Academy, you may not know about the Academy’s social networking system, Grammy365.com. It’s an interesting tool, kind of a Facebook for Academy members. While there is great potential for good things out of it, there are also issues. Some may argue that it can potentially level the playing field for lesser-known members and releases, it also facilitates back-door shenanigans such as vote swapping–an activity that the Academy forbids, but is difficult to prove. Over the past month or so I’ve received a number of connection requests, many in fields that I…
Steve Jobs, Rest In Peace
Some people leave us with only memories, others leave us legacies. Steve left the latter. Mahalo Steve, for everything.
I Love It When A Plan Comes Together: More ‘Ōlelo Support in iOS
A new iPhone was announced today, the iPhone 4S, and the response to Apple’s press conference was a bit lukewarm. Many were expecting the iPhone 5 and/or iOS5 today. But one of the more exiting developments for us was found on the specification sheet for the phones (tip o’ the cap to Joseph Erb for the heads up): there will be a Hawaiian keyboard and spell-check document included. Yes, we’ve had support for the ‘okina and kahakō in the iPhone and iPad for a while; however, while you can generate them from the soft keyboard by long-holding your finger on…
New Journal Publication
I was happy that my first peer-reviewed journal article (and first article of any type in several years) was published in Language Documentation and Conservation. I’ve had interactions with the National Foreign Language Resource Center at UH-Mānoa for many years, presented at their conferences, and have had a strong admiration for their work. The paper is entitled “Puana ‘Ia me ka ‘Oko‘a: A Comparative Analysis of Hawaiian Language Pronunciation as Spoken and Sung”, and it is a translation, distillation, and revision of my MA thesis, which was originally written in Hawaiian. It is a comparative analysis that uses recordings and…
My Relationship With Beer? It’s Complicated
For all of the comments and jokes I post about Guinness on Facebook, I never was much of a beer drinker. When I turned 18 (back when the drinking age was still 18), my best friend bought me a six pack of Heineken. On my 21st birthday, I gave the last four bottles away. Didn’t care for it at. Over the years I tried a number of different beers, mostly of the mass-produced variety, and didn’t care for any of them either. I recall a conversation I had with a bartender in Ireland during our 2002 trip there. He asked…
Using ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i On Your Computer or Mobile Device
With the start of the school semester and the flow of questions coming in about the support available for ‘ōlelo Hawai‘i in various computer operating systems and mobile devices, this is a good time for me to pimp the ‘Ōlelo-Tech portion of my blog (see the menu under the masthead). There you’ll find links that describe the extent of keyboard, font and other support for Macintosh, iOS, Windows, and Android, as well as tricks to using ‘ōlelo Hawai‘i on the web and with Microsoft Word. As always, a caveat that I don’t provide tech support for any of these (unless…