Saturday, December 22, 2007 0108 EST (0608 UT), marked the Winter Solstice. Here is the photo as the solstice sun set in front of my house in Honolulu at 1758 Hawaii Standard Time.


Keep warm on this darkest night of the year.

My friend Brian plays his mandolin to a very appreciative feline friend...

Keep your eyes on this guy!

and Part 2:

I love winter, period.

It's my favorite season, with autumn a close second.

Never cared for spring or summer much. I grew up in very hot and humid summer climes (Nebraska and Georgia) and welcomed autumn and winter each year and breaks from the heat.

That's probably why I enjoyed San Francisco so much - there's not much of a Summer there.

These are shots taken from the front steps of my house in Honolulu - that's Waikiki on the left, and downtown on the right. Beyond the skyscrapers is the ocean.

My friend Geo now demonstrates some odd soda drinks produced by the Jones company and the Seattle Seahawks...

His facial expressions are priceless. Way to go, Geo! You are the intrepid one!

I'll stick to Talking Rain, thx!

k-bai.

This particular topic has been churning in my head for many months, likely years.

It's the word that many people (often visitors) use in a sentence to describe Hawaii, as in

"Hawaii is P-r-d-s-."

Every time I hear that, I shudder. I compare it to when people call San Francisco "Francisco" without the "anc" - I can't even write THAT down, it's so objectionable to me (it rhymes with a particular type of vegetable shortening, if you need help on this one). I've always advised, "If you don't want to say the entire two words, just call SF "the City."

The "P" word is too loaded, misused and overused - it also has too many religious overtones.

But why is Hawaii considered a P-------?

Is it the weather? The beaches? The mountains? The tropical fruit? Is an average 75-degree sandy, palm-tree jungle the epitome of what everyone envisions as the ideal place to live on this planet, or the mythical place to "live" when one dies?

I'm strange. I like cold weather. In the words of Rhoda Morgenstern from the old Mary Tyler Moore show "I moved to Minneaspolis because I figured I'd keep better." Uh-huh.

The newly landed gentry ("new island residents")  use the P word a lot in conversations, as do quite a few of the state's 6 million visitors each year. When they find out I'm a resident, they get this moony look on their faces and ask "What's it like to live in P--------?"

I try to be nice. Yes, I really try, because they are sincere and honest with this question, no matter how distasteful I find it. These folks often hail from places I'd love to visit and maybe live for a year or two - London, Amsterdam, New York City, Seattle, Minneapolis. Places where you can find plenty of P examples.

I explain to them gently. "Paradise" (arrgh, I've written it!) to me anyway, is not a specific place on the planet, but rather a state of mind. I believe that San Francisco is ideal in many ways. One could call it a paradise too. I loved living there, and wouldn't mind living there again. I think Boston is a really neat place. There's so much going on there. Lots to do in New York City too."

Calling one place a "paradise" in an insult to the cities, towns, villages, and hamlets of in the rest of the world. As if Hawaii is any better than other places.

No, it's not.

"Paradise" is where you are the happiest at this moment of your life right now. Needs change as you get older. Your priorities change. Tastes change. What you want from life now is probably radically different than what you wanted 5 years ago, 15 years ago. People who live in rural areas may relocate to cities. People who live in cities may relocate to rural areas. I lived on the Big Island for 10 years, and saw this a lot. Parts of your life slow down, while other parts speed up.

Here's a quick "What I like, and what I don't like" about O'ahu:

Nine things I love about O'ahu.

1. the guy I'm involved with lives here
2. an eclectic circle of friends
3. clean water
4. clean air
5. access to fresh healthy food
6. my colleagues at work
7. the view from our house
8. a very enviable commute
9 an 8-minute walk to a beautiful ridge behind our house where I can walk for hours in the  jungle

Eight things I don't like about O'ahu:

1. the drivers
2. the noise - geez, this is a NOISY place!
3. road conditions - for a city this size, the roads are deplorable
4. the lack of true cultural and ethnic diversity (few Jews, South Americans, Eastern Europeans, North Africans, African Americans, Indians)
5. provincial local cultural attitudes about  sexuality
6. American Idol participants, the Lost TV show being filmed here, and Dog Chapman are considered the best Hawaii has to offer, because they're always being talked about in local newspapers, speaking of which
7. there are no good local newspapers here
8. and no good radio or TV stations (excluding Hawaii Public Radio/National Public Radio and KTUH (the University of Hawaii radio station)

So there you have it.

But you choose what you want out of life - no one place offers everything.

So you enjoy the positives, and deal with the negatives.

Paradise is in your mind.

For those who have considered suicide...put down the agents of self-destruction and get some help, because

You NEVER know what each new day will bring.

I live on an island with much bounty and a fair degree of cultural famine.

I accompanied my friend D to a party in Manoa Valley a few days ago.

I knew no one. There were some musical folks there, and we sang and danced a bit.

And to my astonishment, one of the revelers whipped out...

I kid you NOT...

A Roland V-Accordion!




OMG! These honeys have every single possible accordion tuning known to man available to the player! The latest from Roland, maker of my Juno-G synth. The V-7 has french musette, zydeco, Cajun, Slovenian, Tex-Mex, Polka, Irish, French Canadian...and you can even create your own tunings. I LOVE a nice wet musette!

From the Roland site...

"Because it doesn’t depend on moving parts for sound generation, the V-Accordion is always in tune, and both keyboards can be transposed to play across a wide range of octaves. For sound output, the V-Accordions can plug directly into a sound system, recording device, or plug in a pair of headphones for silent practice. These amazing new instruments must be squeezed to be believed."

These are expensive pieces of technology, but worth every penny.

I'm a weird guy. I'd love to be able to play my accordion at 0400 in da am, but it wouldn't make my partner all that happy (or the neighbors). F is mostly amused by my accordion, though he can't resist making jokes about it all the time. But to be able to play in the morning...mit der headphonen on...

Anyway, this guy plays all my favorites. I'm sitting on the floor, looking up at him like an enthralled 5-year old as his fingers literally tickles the keys. Good accordion players make it look so easy.

They he says "Do you want to play it?"

Gulp. "Uh....SURE!" I said, and I strapped it on. It's about the same weight as my 120 bass Hohner, but the feel of the bass keys (the little black rounded ones) is decidedly different. Less valve like, although Roland has added valve sounds to mimic an acoustic accordion. Neat.

I played for awhile to get a feel for the instrument. There are like, 3 accordion players on this island, and I've met them all. One I ran across playing in a restaurant, another somewhere in Aloha Tower at Oktoberfest, and now this fellow.

I asked him - "Do you teach?" And he said "Yes."

Whee! I just so happen to love an instrument that few people play here, and noone teaches. I never expected that this party would introduce me to a potential accordion teacher. I had just about given up.

Life is good.

For eleven months of the year, I'm a good boy.

I only drink two percent milk in my coffee.

But for the Holidays, I pull out all the stops.

And drink half-n-half.

I recently went to the new Safeway store on Kapahulu Avenue. It's the biggest Safeway in the state. It's also pretty expensive. But it's the only supermarket I've ever seen with tiki torches lit at night.


I shop around in Honolulu - Foodland, Times Supermarket, Star Market occasionally.

But I was jonesing for some half and half, so I ducked in at the Safeway. The parking lot is pretty busy with traffic - guys backing up their too-big trucks in tiny spaces so they don't have to back out of the space when leaving, women walking out to their cars with cell phones in hand, making that all-too-important call to...whomever.

The new Safeway has a KILLER VIEW of Diamond Head from the rooftop parking lot which I'll share soon.

I ran as fast as my little feet could carry me to the dairy section where I viewed the object of my desire:

The title of this entry is from Oprah Winfrey's speech in Iowa campaigning for Obama.

You know if Obama truly messes up, she'll give him the same tongue-lashing she did with the author of A Million Little Pieces. In front of a world-wide audience.

Oprah demands accountability. You make her look dishonest or stupid for your own fabrications of reality, and she will call you on it.

As it should be - where the accountability for bad or unethical behavior these days? Confined to kindergarten classes or what?

Oprah's not perfect. She's made mistakes, but she's REAL in a way that most politicians are not. She can relate to all kinds of people that most politicians cannot. This is the biggest gamble she's ever done, and she knows it.

If Oprah's in your court, you have a huge advantage, and Obama must know that.

I will not have many things to say about the 2008 election. I was tired of it last year, and we still have 11 months to go.

I will not slam any politician - there are hundreds, thousands of blogs that do that already, many much better than I could ever do. This is not a negative blog.

I will be positive and forward thinking about who will govern the United States after Bush has left office.




Even Oprah detractors are admitting she did a great job at the rally.

You go, girl!

Think you know the meaning or the origin of the idiom "Straight from the horse's mouth?"

My friend Adrian found out what it really means...