When the Light Go Down in the City

So as a little post-Christmas treat, Oahu was gifted an island wide blackout this past Friday night. Here are some of my notes on the same:

KSSK was essentially the only station on air during the blackout and simulcasted on its sister clear channel stations. Thus, KSSK is what I listened to. Specifically, I got through the blackout with Perry on my left and Price on my right. It was my own personal sandwich nightmare. First, Perry and Price, you so need new promo spots. I still can't quite tell if those spots are a joke. Sadly, I get the feeling that they are a joke, but one that Perry and Price may not be in on. On the upside, if I were not forced to listen to KSSK I would have missed out on such jams as Kokomo by the Beach Boys. Sweet.

Throughout the night people were calling into the station offering to translate the information concerning the blackout into other languages. Korean, Japanese, Spanish, and Ilokano were all represented. Only in Hawaii. I kept thinking it would have been awesome if someone like Lee Tonouchi called in to translate the info into Pidgin.

People seemed to be surprisingly understanding during the unexpected loss of electricity. When you think about it the situation was a little inconvenient, but as blackouts go it was not as devastating as it could have been. It did not occur on Christmas day, it stretched through the night when most people are asleep and oblivious to whether they have electricity or not, and it resulted from a minor lightning storm rather than anything really catastrophic.

There were of course some people who felt that HECO was to blame, which I think is fairly ridiculous. How can you blame an act of nature on an electric company? So to that guy who called in complaining, you should prolly be thankful you're not one of the guys who had to brave the wind, rain, and lightning to check on those downed electrical wires. All so you can continue your game of Halo uninterrupted. What I mean to say is eh, brah, cool your jets.

The Curious Case of a Way Too Long Movie

My mom and I usually see a movie on Christmas day and this year we compromised on The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons, which appeared to be the least objectionable movie playing at Ward. I'm not gonna say the movie was bad, but it would have helped if the quality of the movie was proportionate to the length of the movie. Three hours was excessive and completely unnecessary.

Buttons, to me, came across as a lesser version of Big Fish. I got the sense that it was trying to evoke the same feel-good "such is the circle of life" kinda ending. It had the opposite effect on me. By the end of the film I was thinking why doesn't Brad Pitt turn back into a baby and die already. Which then made me feel guilty. Generally, I don't like to leave the theater feeling like a crappy person.

Brad Pitt, Ewan McGregor you are not. In hindsight I wish we had skipped Buttons and maybe stayed home and watched Shallow Grave. On old McGregor movie that I have not seen in years but remember being really good. At the very least I could have paused the movie and taken a nap before the second half.

Lovely Package

I love nifty packaging, so it is no wonder the site Lovely Package is my new obsession. Totally worth a looksee. Although, I must say the site is lacking in the Engrish packaging department. Here is a sample of some packaging I came across that is both lovely and chuckle-worthy.



...And anyone care for some assorted begetables?

Heather ran a WHAT!?!?!?

Guess what Heather ran, I'll even make it easy by giving you some multiple choice answers:

A) A very heated political campaign, the results of which are still pending a recount;

B) Her mouth off again (and guess who had to bail her out over the weekend);

C) The clock at her WBNA tryouts. Unfortunately, they were looking for someone with specific free throw abilities. Better luck next time Heather;

D) THE HONOLULU MARATHON!!!!

Well, if you said C, you're wrong. 'Cause she ran the whole ding dang 26.2 mile Honolulu Marathon. I think everyone can join me in a chorus of whoaaaaa!! I can only speak for myself, and probably Maggie, when I say I am super impressed and super proud of that girl. She said she would run it and she got 'er done. Let it be known here an now that when Heat sets a goal for herself she follows through. Consider it brought.

You can't stop progress people. And when I is say progress I mean Heather.

NewsHour induced head explosion and my Christmas Tree

I just finished watching PBS' NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and the final story of the night was a piece by essayist Richard Rodriguez on multiculturalism. The piece focused on Hawaii, Barack Obama, being Hapa and the book I previously posted about by Kip Fulbeck- Part Asian, 100% Hapa. Whoa, my head completely exploded out of awesomeness. I managed to scrape the remnants together in order to write this blog. I think I'm missing part of my temporal lobe though, so this could have happened days ago. I can't really remember. You can listen for yourself here, if you like. It might be a good idea to have medical attention standing by.

And just in case you are a glutton for punishment, here are some photos of my recently acquired Christmas Tree that may in fact make year heart explode. Check it:

This first one is a view of the tree if you are tall.



This next one is a view of the tree if you are not tall.



This final one is a view of my tree if you are running past it really fast (I was curious :) If you are running past it really fast, I suggest you slow your roll and enjoy the view. Also, why are you running really fast in my tiny apartment?



CHRISTMAS, EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

Old School TV

I was at my mom's house over the weekend and managed to catch two things on television that I had not seen in years. You know, not since I was a lower case g.

The first was the Japanese children's cartoon Ikkyusan. First let me say that I had no idea that the Japanese television station NGN is kind of like MTV now, they have a billion stations. Ikkyusan I believe currently airs locally on either NGN2 or NGN3. When I was younger they would play the cartoon on the original station and I would catch it on occasion at my grandma's house. This was back in the early 80's and even then the cartoon was being re-aired. Looking back it seems quite odd that this cartoon about a young zen monk aired contemporaneously with the likes of My Little Pony and Thundercats. I only caught the second half of this weekend's episode, but I did catch the most memorable part of the cartoon for me, the end credits. Just like I remembered it, a little teru teru bozu hanging in wind and a song about Ikkyusan writing home to his mum. See for yourself:



Now if I could only track down a copy of the old series Oshin, I could really get nostalgic about Japanese television. (Note to Beyonce: if you ever find yourself hard pressed to write yet another independent lady type song, watch this series for inspiration).

The other thing that I caught airing over the weekend is Twilight Zone: The Movie. Since my sister and I used to always manage to catch it on TV when we were younger and I've never seen it on the big screen, I still consider this old school TV. After all these years the movie still manages to freak the heck out of me. Well, most of it does, the exception being the Kick the Can segment. That one is just sadly poignant. The worst tale is It's a Good Life, the one about Anthony, the boy with supernatural powers. The part that really freaks me out is when Anthony sends his sister into cartoonland, where she is supposedly trapped forever. Seems kind of lame, right? Well it is, until you realize that his sister is played by Nancy Cartwright, who became the voice of Bart Simpson for a billion years. See, she really was trapped in cartoonland, 4 eva!!!

You may possibly consider reading (no pressure or anything): The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall

I started reading The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall just before leaving for Boston and finished it up on the return flight home. I kind of have mixed feelings about the book and can't really give it a whole-hearted endorsement (thus the "you may possibly consider reading" post title). It's kind of a mixed bag in that there are parts of the book that I thought were really fantastic and other parts that just fell completely flat for me. But before I get too deep into my review, let me tell you a little about the book itself.

The title of the book, The Raw Shark Texts, is both a play on the Rorschach (Inkblot) Test and a reference to the book's storyline. Steven Hall has commented that one reason he choose the title was because he saw the book in itself as a Rorschach Test. Essentially the story is multilayered, it can been seen in a philosophical or psychological sense, it can be read as a piece of science fiction, a love story or an examination of the use of language (albeit an abstract/metaphorical one). Like the famed inkblot test, you see what you want to in the story. Unfortunately, the book's storyline is one in which if you give too much away then you've kind of ruined the whole thing. I will say that the main character of the novel, Eric Sanderson, awakes one day devoid of any memory of his life. As the plot unfolds, it becomes unclear if Sanderson is suffering from a psychological disorder or if there is some other cause of his faltering memory. He begins receiving cryptic clues from his former self (deemed the first Eric Sanderson) and goes on an eventful journey to piece together who he was and who he now is.

The novel is quite inventive in its use of language and is almost in a genre of its own (the term "genre-defying" is used so frequently nowadays that it seems to have become a genre of its own. Ironic). My problem with the book was that there were points where the story lost cohesion. The novel seemed to be an obvious first effort and I got the sense that Steven Hall thought this might have been his one and only shot at making a literary impact. Thus, he put all of his ideas into the book, with varying effects. There is a well known quote about fashion that is attributed to Coco Chanel, she said before you leave the house, you should always take one thing off. I feel like maybe Hall could have benefited from similar advice.

Here is a short passage from the book as read by Tilda Swinton (it's one of the better passages):



Just a few final points:

1) I am in an obvious minority in my ambivalence over the book, Hall has become somewhat of a literary darling so perhaps this book really is amazing and I'm just not sophisticated enough to appreciate it.

2) As I was reading the novel I kept coming across what seemed to be musical references. Eric Sanderson for instance shares his name with the bassist for the group Pela. There are two cats in the story named Ian and Gavin, you know, like the Sutherland Brothers. And another character goes by the name Mycroft Ward. Or maybe M. Ward? For a awhile I thought it was just my musical leanings creeping up on me, then I came across this article posted on the music blog largehearted boy. Audiophiles, take note. Kind of makes me want to read it again to look for the musical references.

Christmas!!!!

Thus far, I've tried to maintain some restraint regarding my excitement over Christmas. It was a little touch and go there for awhile, however. About a week and a half ago I changed the ringtones on my phone, I now wake up to Merry Christmas Darling by the Carpenters and my incoming calls are signaled by Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas is You. Yes, you read correctly, Mariah Carey. But can I help it if Mimi sings fantastic Christmas songs? Like Heather say...don't hate, congratulate.

In any case, since Thanksgiving is officially over and it is nearly December 1st, all bets are off. It's officially time to start getting into the Christmas spirit. And what better way then a reading of Santaland Diaries by David Sedaris? For me, it's just not Christmas without hearing Sedaris read from Holidays On Ice. Sure you can read the book, but his reading is soooo much better. His vocal intonations and nasally voice make all the difference. Listen here. I will personally guaranty that listening to Sedaris regale you with his stories of being Crumpet the Elf (later to be known as Blisters the Elf) at Macy's Santaland will get you in the holiday spirit.

So far this Christmas is lookin' pretty good. Heather and I are the official game planners for our office Christmas party (it's kind of a twofer in that we don't have to participate in the games and we get to have the partners and staff make fools of themselves. It's kind of like an extra Christmas bonus!). I won't go into detail just yet, but the games should be both ridiculous and fantastic. I will say that we did decide to nix the "guess the bald spot" game. Although, the balding gentlemen in our firm did voluntarily have pictures of their bald spots taken at the last Christmas party (yes, alcohol was served), so I don't think anyone would have taken too much offense.

Kind of bummed that we did not find out about the theme and deadline for the Honolulu Hale Wreath decorating contest until the last minute. The theme this year is Holiday Heroes. Come on, they are just begging for someone to enter a Wreath made of holiday sandwiches. If only I had known sooner, that someone could have been me.

Let the merriment begin!!

PS. If I worked at Santaland my elf name would be Freckles and I would tell people to step on my magic star and see Dog the Bounty Hunter.

Stuffs

So here is a look at some other Boston related stuffs. I'm getting kinda tired of posting about it individually.

The pups:





The foliage:

This totally reminded me of the dead duck day from About a Boy. I was on the lookout for kids with loaves of bread.







Along the Freedom Trail:

Bunker Hill



Took a walk through the North End. My mom was a little slow on the uptake here, at one point she said "so, the North End is predominately Italian, huh?" Yes, yes it is.



Stood in line and got some Cannoli from Modern Pastry. Turns out, I'm not so much of a Cannoli person.



If you ever decide to walk the Freedom Trail, I'd say a good 70% of it is cemeteries. FYI.



Salem:

Took a day trip to Salem, overall it was kind of meh. I did get to be a pirate though. Albeit a pirate who appears to have a shrunken head.



They had a Bewitched statue (Maggie!). I was kind of disappointed that they did not have a Stevie Nicks statute as well. Also, the Salem Wax Museum, not that impressive. The wax figures are on a platform so all you can basically do is look at them. You can't take photos with the figures or anything, which was disappointing. I was hoping to get a candid of me and Goody Proctor, like we was all hanging out at the clubs and stuff. ;)



Visited the Peabody Museum which I had high expectations for, but again turned out to be kind of meh. There were a few things that I enjoyed though.



Say hi to Jizo (Heather!)





We stopped into a bookstore before leaving Salem and I think this is likely to be what my apartment will eventually turn into.



Christmas:

Before we left Boston my sister put up her Christmas decorations. CHRISTMAS!!! EEEEEEEEEEE!!!





Like I said, Stuffs:





They had these chocolates at Ikea, I'm sure it's probably not pronounced this way, but I just love having these around so that when someone does something extraordinary I can say damnnnnn, and hand them one of these candies.



I had to take a photo of these shopping basket/cart things that they have at supermarkets in Boston. I was captivated by them and much to the embarrassment of my family, insisted on using them. They are like little shopping baskets, but with wheels and a long hand so you can pull it after you. I guaranty it will be a long time before shopping basket technology has another breakthrough like this.



Ikea, how I love thee. I have their latest catalog and I just keep looking at it over and over again longingly. I am a complete sucker for mid-century modern Eames style aesthetic. Why we do not have one here, I do not know. I was completely excited when I saw they were adding on a furniture store at Ala Moana called Design Within Reach. I thought great, maybe this will be really great design at an affordable price. No, the within reach part of their name means design that is within an arm's length away from you. Come on, unless you created the Barcelona Chair, you really should not be selling it for that price. And if I ever did scrape up enough money to buy something from your store, I guaranty what I purchase will not be within arms length of my guests. It will be partitioned off behind a velvet rope, perhaps with a little placard. But I digress...



FIN

JFK Library and Museum- Wicked Awesome!!

My favorite thing about this trip to Boston, aside from The Decemberist concert, was visiting the JFK Library and Museum. I can't express to you how amazing it was, I could have spent days in there looking at everything.

The museum moves along chronologically, so the first section showcases pieces that are pre-presidency; family photos of him as a young boy, report cards (he got a D in History as a kid!), college papers, and items related to his military service. There is also a 20 minute documentary of Kennedy's life leading up to the DNC wherein he is officially nominated as the Democratic candidate. The film was made especially for the museum and was put together really well, it was probably my favorite thing about the place.

As you move further along in the museum, you move into a corridor with a series of rooms that showcase some watershed moments in Kennedy's run for President. You can stop and watch his debate with Nixon or, if you move further along, watch his acceptance speech. There is also a room with the old red and blue state map that reflects the state by state returns for the election. I still can't believe that at one time Texas was Democratic and California, Washington and Oregon were Republican! Can that be right?!? Whoa JFK museum, you just blew my mind! My sister and I were both really impressed that along the corridor there were a series of newsstands from the national papers that took you through the chronology of events leading up to the victory. At the end of the hallway were all the headlines generated on inauguration day.

Next were a series of rooms showcasing items and events that occurred during JFK's presidency. They had a rooms devoted to political cartoons of the time, transcripts of his press conferences and one of his to do list (it was amazing how varied and substantive the things on the list were). There were also recreations of both JFK and Robert Kennedy's offices. My sister could not get over all of the gift that visiting dignitary's brought for the Kennedy family- a gold purse encrusted with emeralds and diamonds, or a six foot tall ivory tusk carved with the lineage of ancient African tribes. You know, small trinkets.

I really loved all the pieces dealing with Jackie O- the dresses, her travel journal, her famous white house tour. Did you know she attended the Sorbonne and worked as a photojournalist at the Washington Herald before she met John? She also loved drawing and poetry and would doodle little cartoons. Below is one she did making light of their life on the campaign trail. That's John washing his socks in the sink at their hotel room!



She also corresponded with Ludwig Bemelmans, the author of the Madeline books. Here is a postcard he sent to Carolyn:



There was also a piece of the Berlin wall, here a photo of my mom next to it:



For some reason this place had a lot of scaffolding:



I'm going to kind of glaze over the footage and news releases regarding the assassination because if I think about it too much I will get choked up. So instead, here are a few quotes that I loved:





If anyone watched Ted Kennedy's speech this year at the DNC, you might recognize the quote above. He ended this year's speech with the same words (after promising to continue battling against his brain tumor and to return to the senate floor to cast his vote for a universal health care plan- his lifelong work). Talk about getting choked up...

Anyway, what I can't really put into words is the feeling the museum evokes. I've always imagined that the Kennedy period in history was a time where hope and optimism reigned supreme and civil rights and human decency were paramount. You can't help get a sense of that by walking the halls of the library. I'm hoping that every time I put on my Youth For Kennedy t-shirt I can replicate some of that old Camelot magic.

The New England Holocaust Memorial

One of the stops along Boston's Freedom Trail is the New England Holocaust Memorial. The Memorial consists of six glass pillars atop a granite walkway. The six pillars are of significance and symbolically represent each of the six Nazi camps as well as the six million Jews who lost their lives. Others see the six pillars as a menorah or an eternal candlelight vigil for those who have passed.



The pillars themselves are illuminated at night from top to bottom and a metal grate is located at the bottom of each pillar. The grates release a stream of steam which wafts through the glass column.





If you look at the walls of the pillars, you find numbers etched in the glass. The memorial contains six million numbers which represent each of the victims who lost their lives during the Holocaust.



Contained on the granite walkway that leads through the pillars were factual statement about the Holocaust and on the column walls themselves are personal statements from some of the victims. I found this one to be especially touching:



It reads:

"ILSE, A CHILDHOOD FRIEND OF MINE,
once found a raspberry in the camp
and carried it in her pocket all day
to present to me that night on a leaf.

IMAGINE A WORLD in which
your entire possession is
one raspberry and
you give it to your friend"

Harvard and a NSFW Pooh?

While in Boston, we decided to take a walk around the Harvard campus. I had been there before to check out the Natural History Museum, but never really walked through the campus.



Below is a picture of the Widener Library. Apparently, the library was "built with a gift from Eleanor Elkins Widener, it is a memorial to her son, Harry, Class of 1907, an enthusiastic young bibliophile who perished aboard the Titanic". We also took a quick walk through the law library, which is huge. In comparison, I would approximate that our Supreme Court Law Library would likely fit in one of their bathrooms. It's okay though, I like my law libraries to have a homey feel to it.



While on the campus, we also came across this terrific find. A Pooh house. Awwwwwww.


But wait, it looks like there is something behind the door...


Is that...?!? No, couldn't be?!? Let's take a closer look...


Yup! That's Hasselhoff alright. As Pooh said “You can't stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.”

Pooh knows how to get what he wants.

The Decemberists, in November?

So you may have thought that after the Obama victory I set out on a whirlwind celebratory trip around the world. Or you might have thought I was kidnapped by Don Henley. Perhaps you thought I just went to Boston. If you guessed the later, you are correct. Just got back, I'll fill you in on the trip through the next series of posts.

The day I got into Boston I had the pleasure of seeing The Decemberists in concert (orchestra seats!!). And (tuna fruit goddamn) was it awesome. It was a really high energy show and Colin Meloy has a fantastically dynamic stage presence. I think part of it was that Meloy was basking in the Obama victory, he's been an open supporter of Obama and played a rally in Portland for him previously. The only word to describe him at the show is jubilant. He even brought out a cardboard cutout of the president elect which was thrust into the audience and crowd surfed for most of the show. There was of course the "Yes we did" cheers and Meloy even mentioned that for him many of the songs he has written and frequently performs have taken on a more hopeful meaning since the election. Sixteen Military Wives and Sons and Daughters were the more overt examples of what he meant. They actually performed Sons and Daughters as their encore and Meloy asked people to join him on stage for the chorus. The show closed with Meloy leading a few dozen people in an increasingly hushed chorus of "Hear all the bombs fade away". Like I said before, awesome.

They even played some of my favorites, O Valencia (I think that's everyones favorite) and The Engine Driver. The only downside was that I basically had this chorus playing in my head on a loop the entire trip: And I am a writer, writer of fictions, I am the heart that you call home. And I've written pages upon pages,trying to rid you from my bones.

It's official!!!

The two most powerful American politicians are an African American man (Obama) and a woman (Pelosi). FANTASTIC!

... love train, love train...

Do Your Duty

Far be it from me to tell anyone how to cast their ballot, but while in the voting booth, keep in mind how awesome it would be to have a President running the malasada booth at the next Punahou Carnival. Something to think about...

I wanna rock and roll 'til 11:00 at nite, and party selectively on special occasions following that!!

As promised, here is a Halloween 2008 wrap up.

Just as we did last year, Heather and I had two costumes each this Halloween. The first was for the office. Since Halloween fell on an (Aloha) Friday this year, we thought it would be both timely and hilarious if we dressed up as tutus. The costume assembly actually went pretty smoothly. Although, we did encounter a slight problem with the hairpieces. We had originally bought what we thought to be silver hairspray, but in testing it out a few days before Halloween, I found it only to be a clear spray with silver glitter. It did not give the desired effect. The day before Halloween Heather decided she would buy a white spider web and could make it work as a hairpiece. I think it turned out pretty awesome. I, on the other hand, managed to find a long gray wig that night. Check it out:



Surprisingly, the most popular response we go to our costume was an inquiry as to where we got our mu'umu'u. People seemed to sincerely find them stunning and wanted to own one (Savers, $6.99). I personally enjoyed some of the costume accessories. Specifically, Heather's bus pass lanyard and my TheCAB bag. To all those who enjoyed our costume, mahalo nui loa. I'll be by later with some homemade guava jelly. (Elementary school Hawaiian totally paid off, I can also roll a mean 'ulu maika).

Later that night we changed into our second costume. We opted to do KISS face paint but to dress in Eskimo and French garb, thus being an Eskimo Kiss and a French Kiss.

Here is Heather as an Eskimo KISS ala Paul Stanley:



Here I am as a French KISS ala Gene Simmons:



Initially, I was afraid people would mistake me for a mime with poor face painting abilities. Once dressed, I was afraid that people would think I was Venetian rather than French. The only person who mistook me for someone else, however, was a drunk guy who came up to me and said "Hey, Richard Simmons, alright". To which I responded, sorry I'm neither wearing dove shorts nor sweating to the oldies, I think you mean Gene Simmons. To which he turned to Heather and responded "Hey, another Gene Simmons, alright". At least he got it sort of right. On the whole, Heather and I were pretty disappointed in people's creativity. The one redeeming factor was the girl we saw dressed up as a box of Franzia. Best costume this Halloween, hands down.