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.