It was a glorious weekend. We had sunshine every day. In fact, we hadn't had a drop of rain for four days and were just marveling at that today. This afternoon, however, the skies opened up and are now dumping what may very well be the entire contents of the Pacific Ocean. Guess we're back to normal.
I drug Ron to see a show this weekend. Hapa, my favorite musicians from Hawaii, played in Hilo Saturday night. Hapa, which means "half" in Hawaiian, is Nathan Aweau and Barry Flanagan; a Hawaiian guy and a haoli guy. They were joined by Charles Ka'upu. Charles is their chanter and the guy who talks story in between songs. He steals the show at times, chatting up the audience with great humor. What a character. Nathan has one of the most beautiful voices I I've ever heard and is a master of Hawaiian falsetto. He also plays a killer, seven string bass. Barry doesn't sing solo on many tracks, but he has a very nice voice in his own right and blends beautifully with Nathan. Barry plays guitar like no one I've ever seen or heard. It's slack key on steroids and caffeine. He even holds the instrument differently than anyone else; upright, on his knee, like you might address a very small cello. His fingers fly at both ends of the guitar, which he wiggle fore and aft to create cool wah wah sounds. He stuffs picks into the strings and strums it in a way to make it sound like a steel drum. They really are awesome and they almost never play the Big Island, let alone Hilo. You'd have better luck catching their act on the mainland. I know Hapa will draw the entire Hawaii contingent of Sin City when they play Las Vegas in a couple of weeks.
While Hapa was the star of the show, the warm up acts were not too shabby either. There were some lovely hula performances by a local halau (hula school) and a group called the Brown Trio from Hilo. They are a locally renowned musical family, made famous by their father, Bunny Brown, (of Bunny Brown and the Hilo Hawaiians) who sings in a rich deep voice evoking an earlier, simpler time. His sons are continuing the family tradition. Each plays well and has a beautiful voice. They were great, playing both classic Hawaiian standards and some 50s doo wop just for a little variety. In fact, the Browns brought their famous, 87 year old father out on stage for a few songs. He received a standing ovation. We plan to catch the Brown family again soon at the Hilo Hawaiian Hotel where they play on Saturday nights.
Ron had been ambivalent about the show before we went; even a little reluctant to go. Afterward, he couldn't say enough about the performers, using words like "great" and "amazing" and even "unbelievable." It should make it easier to drag him to future performances.
We planted a couple more coffee trees over the weekend and learned that changing the oil and cleaning filters on a tractor is not as easy as it looks in the manual. In fact, the manual sucks.
Tonight, we tried a new Thai restaurant in town. It's called The New Chang Mai. Excellent!
Back to the subject of rain. North Glenwood, the area where we have settled, is the second rainiest place in all Hawaii and the rainiest on this island. Only Mt. Waialeale on Kauai is wetter. Waialeale is one of the wettest places on earth, averaging some 460 inches per year. We average a mere smidgen of that amount but still get well over 200 inches a year. That's plenty. Yes, it's wet. But when the sun shines, there's no place better. When the sun shines, East Hawaii Island no ka oi!
That's all I have for now. Sorry it's been so long since my last post. I'll try to be more frequent in the future and will definitely get to work on another podcast this week, even with my spotty sound electronics.
A hui hou! Aloha!
I drug Ron to see a show this weekend. Hapa, my favorite musicians from Hawaii, played in Hilo Saturday night. Hapa, which means "half" in Hawaiian, is Nathan Aweau and Barry Flanagan; a Hawaiian guy and a haoli guy. They were joined by Charles Ka'upu. Charles is their chanter and the guy who talks story in between songs. He steals the show at times, chatting up the audience with great humor. What a character. Nathan has one of the most beautiful voices I I've ever heard and is a master of Hawaiian falsetto. He also plays a killer, seven string bass. Barry doesn't sing solo on many tracks, but he has a very nice voice in his own right and blends beautifully with Nathan. Barry plays guitar like no one I've ever seen or heard. It's slack key on steroids and caffeine. He even holds the instrument differently than anyone else; upright, on his knee, like you might address a very small cello. His fingers fly at both ends of the guitar, which he wiggle fore and aft to create cool wah wah sounds. He stuffs picks into the strings and strums it in a way to make it sound like a steel drum. They really are awesome and they almost never play the Big Island, let alone Hilo. You'd have better luck catching their act on the mainland. I know Hapa will draw the entire Hawaii contingent of Sin City when they play Las Vegas in a couple of weeks.
While Hapa was the star of the show, the warm up acts were not too shabby either. There were some lovely hula performances by a local halau (hula school) and a group called the Brown Trio from Hilo. They are a locally renowned musical family, made famous by their father, Bunny Brown, (of Bunny Brown and the Hilo Hawaiians) who sings in a rich deep voice evoking an earlier, simpler time. His sons are continuing the family tradition. Each plays well and has a beautiful voice. They were great, playing both classic Hawaiian standards and some 50s doo wop just for a little variety. In fact, the Browns brought their famous, 87 year old father out on stage for a few songs. He received a standing ovation. We plan to catch the Brown family again soon at the Hilo Hawaiian Hotel where they play on Saturday nights.
Ron had been ambivalent about the show before we went; even a little reluctant to go. Afterward, he couldn't say enough about the performers, using words like "great" and "amazing" and even "unbelievable." It should make it easier to drag him to future performances.
We planted a couple more coffee trees over the weekend and learned that changing the oil and cleaning filters on a tractor is not as easy as it looks in the manual. In fact, the manual sucks.
Tonight, we tried a new Thai restaurant in town. It's called The New Chang Mai. Excellent!
Back to the subject of rain. North Glenwood, the area where we have settled, is the second rainiest place in all Hawaii and the rainiest on this island. Only Mt. Waialeale on Kauai is wetter. Waialeale is one of the wettest places on earth, averaging some 460 inches per year. We average a mere smidgen of that amount but still get well over 200 inches a year. That's plenty. Yes, it's wet. But when the sun shines, there's no place better. When the sun shines, East Hawaii Island no ka oi!
That's all I have for now. Sorry it's been so long since my last post. I'll try to be more frequent in the future and will definitely get to work on another podcast this week, even with my spotty sound electronics.
A hui hou! Aloha!
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