They say bad news travels in threes, sometimes good news does, too. First, I found out late last week that I’m on the final ballot for two N? H?k? Hanohano Awards, along with Kenneth Makuak?ne, and he’s also up for Hawaiian Album of the Year. To top it off, my composition “N? H?k? Pio ‘Ole” was selected as the theme song for the 30th anniversary celebration for the awards. Over the weekend my daughter found out she was one of thirty students who have been accepted to attend the Curie Academy at Cornell University. It is a week-long program in…
You can quote me (and you’d better get it right!)
Dave has had a lot to say about the press, inaccurate and incomplete reporting and how some reporters have acted at his and others recently decisions to decline interview requests. I’m not in Dave or Jason‘s league as far as being in demand for interviews, but do them occasionally in regards to Hawaiian music, language and technology as it pertains to the language and our programs. As with Dave and Jason, I have had a wide range of experience from having my thoughts concisely and accurately reported, to having them completely misrepresented. Wired Magazine did a feature on some of…
Cleaning Up São Paulo….
My friend Rainer in Brazil and I had a long chat online last week about billboards. Here in Hawai‘i they are not allowed, and apparently the São Paulo city council approved a ban on them as well. A friend of Rainer’s posted some pics of the structures that used to hold the board, and mentioned that the structures will need to be removed as well. As it is, the city has the appearance of being economically depressed.
“Where did Paddy go?”
A baggage handler at Dublin airport was locked into the cargo hold of a transatlantic aircraft as it taxied down the runway in 2005. Fortunately he had a cell phone and was able to call a company supervisor who got the tower to pull the plane back before take-off.
Deerfield “Massacre”
My siblings and I have been told about our family connection to the town of Deerfield, Massachussetts many times. I started doing genealogical research on the family and with the help of distant relatives have been able to trace the family tree back to Deerfield and even further to England in the 1500s. There is a great site, Historic Deerfield, with a lot of information on the town’s history and a discussion board. One of the people on that board recommended this book, Captors and Captives: The 1704 French and Indian Raid on Deerfield, and I just picked up a…
No Joy In Mudville
And Hilo certainly is mudville these days. We’ve enjoyed [sarcasm alert] probably the wettest period of the past 5 or 6 years. I actually enjoy the rain, except that it makes it most difficult to mow the lawn or get anything accomplished outside the house. It also makes my wife miserable. My father, who lives in Kihei on Maui (one of the driest spots in the state) actually has a device next to his bed that generates a rain sound which helps him get to sleep. I know the feeling, the pitter-patter of rain on our metal roof is hypnotic…
Mele Kalikimaka and Catching Up
Merry Christmas to the handful of people who actually read this blog. Again, it’s been far too long since my last post. I’ve only been paying attention to this blog as it has been attracting an incredible amount of comment and trackback spam over the past week or so. Thank goodness for Akismet, I finally got around to activating it and I’ve seen none since activating it. My deepest condolences to Conn on the loss of his mother. I lost my maternal grandmother on Thanksgiving day, she was the last of my grandparents. It’s been close to 15 years since…
Woman lights match on plane after passing gas
I can hear the pilot now, “Ladies and gentlemen, we are experiencing severe flatulence and will need to make an emergency landing…”
Manu For OHA
Ho‘okena’s leader Manu Boyd is running for an at-large seat OHA (Office of Hawaiian Affairs) seat. In addition to his work with Ho‘okena, Manu has been Public Information Director at OHA for 14 years, is past president of the statewide Aloha Festivals, the Hawaiian Civic Club of Honolulu, past commissioner for the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, and is a renown kumu hula. For all of the good work his done and his striving for excellence in everything he does, Manu has earned my endoresement endorsement. I mua a loa‘a ka lei o ka lanakila! (Go foward and…
Who Do You Want To Fool Today?
Police on O‘ahu arrested a 51-year-old man with a stolen credit card who tried to pass himself off as a 20-year-old woman. The cashier noticed the card was in a woman’s name and the suspect also flashed the woman’s stolen license.