Year: 2011

My Letter To Recording Academy President Neil Portnow

Several weeks ago, representatives from the Recording Academy visited Hawai‘i and conducted several meetings with members of the Hawai‘i recording industry. While the discussions were wide-ranging, the topic of the “consolidation” of the Grammy Award for Best Hawaiian Album was brought up. I did share my thoughts on the matter, and this past week composed and sent this follow up letter. I am looking forward to working with the Academy on issues that will benefit our local industry, both as an individual member as well as a member of the Hawai‘i Academy of Recording Arts. 8/17/11 Neil Portnow President, The…

Enter Your Release For The Grammys

The period for entering CD releases for the Grammy Awards has opened. For people who are not Recording Academy members but want to enter their releases, the Board of Governors of the Hawai‘i Academy of Recording Arts can help! Check the HARA website for details. This is not just for Hawaiian releases. If you put out a reggae, rock, pop, jazz, Christian, hip-hop, rap, blues, whatever, we can help!

Attacking The Electric Bill, Pt. 1

With electric costs soaring, we started to take steps to reduce our electric bill as best we could. Several years ago we replaced the bulbs in all of our most-used incandescent light fixtures to CFL (compact florescent lights). We also put most of the electrical devices I know use power when they are plugged in – whether or not they are in use. This included my computer equipment and our media system (TV, satellite receiver/DVD, Wii, audio receiver, etc.). When they are not in use, they are all switched off. It helped us cut down on our power use about…

Signs of ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i In The Universe

I always love running into fellow Hawaiian speakers that I haven’t met before. I often wondered how many times I’ve encountered a fellow kanaka ‘ōlelo Hawai‘i, and we used English simply because we each didn’t know that the other could speak Hawaiian. I had an idea a few years ago to set up a directory of Hawaiian speakers in business so that we could seek out each other and know where we could go to order a coffee, get a hair cut, purchase a car, or just about anything using Hawaiian. I had just finished a meeting with folks from The…

Our Mele On “After The Catch”!

Back in 2009, I helped Mailani Makainai write two mele which appeared on her debut solo CD, Mailani. She subsequently won the 2010 Nā Hōkū Hanohano Award for Female Vocalist of the Year for that release. Today Mailani was featured on an episode of “After The Catch”, a sit down discussion among captains and crew members from the Discovery TV show Deadliest Catch. Mailani played both of those songs-“Penei Iho, Penei A‘e, Penei Nō” and “He Mele No Kahalu‘u”–live on the show, leading into and coming back from commercial breaks. Her TV time was far too short, but Mike Rowe…

Kontakt 4/Steve Slate Drums Loading Issues Resolved!

Perhaps one or two people who follow this blog will know what I’m even talking about, but I’d documenting it for the benefit of those who have or will lose hair over this issue. I’ve been using Steve Slate Drums and the Kontakt player for about a year now in my recording. It was great for a long time, but about 7-8 months ago I started having issues with incredibly long load times – sometimes it would take a half-hour or more to load Logic Express projects that contained Kontakt instruments. I crawled the discussion boards, searched Google, deleted .plist…

Redefining Ethnomusicology?

There has be a very vigorous discussion on the email list of the Society of Ethnomusicology during the past week. Some are feeling that the name of the field–ethnomusicology–is no longer valid. It’s come to stand for a diverse set of practices and foci which are clearly difficult to identify as being from the same discipline. A number of names, both serious and humerous, have been offered. Given the “all-over-the-map” nature of the discussion, and the nature of my own interests, I’ve decided to go with this for my next business card: I think this will keep people from asking…

Featured on Indigenous Tweets

Kevin Scannell have corresponded for many years in regards to issues that face indigenous and endangered languages and the use of technology in their revitalization. I was honored that he asked me to do this interview and talk about the work that I’ve done at Ka Haka ‘Ula O Ke‘elikōlani over the years in regards to Hawaiian language and its use in technology. His website, Indigenous Tweets, keeps track of the use of various indigenous languages around the world.

Happy Day Gone Sad Week

This past Tuesday was a pretty good day. It didn’t rank in my Top 10 all-time days–not that I even keep such a list. It doesn’t approach the day I got married, the day our children were born, or when they graduated from high school, or when my son returned home safe from Iraq, or when I watched my daughter bungee jump in New Zealand. But it was still pretty darn good. The final ballot for the 2011 Nā Hōkū Hanohano Awards were announced that day, and I was humbled to learn that I had two nominations, and my dear…

Ireland Blog, Circa 2002

I finally got around to importing my old Ireland trip blog into WordPress. It documents the month long trip my wife and I took to Ireland in 2002, and which was taken to fulfill a research component of the M.A. program in Hawaiian Language and Literature program that I graduated from in 2003.  It is written in Hawaiian.

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