Thursday, December 18, 2008

Hawaii Writer's Itch

" Good Morning Waikiki!"



(Click on photos to enlarge)


"Local Bananas in Chinatown"


















"Kwan Yin Altar"


"Want some BUMP-lings?"
or
"Won't you be my honey-tripe?"





"It's better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation."
- Melville



"The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously." - Hubert Humphrey


"Most of the writers I know work everyday in obscurity and close to poverty, trying to say one thing well and true. Day in, day out, they labor to find their voice, to learn their trade, to understand nuance and pace. And then, facing a sea of rejections, they hear about something like Barbara Bush's dog getting a book deal.
Writing is hard even for the best wordsmiths. Ernest Hemingway said the most frightening thing he ever encountered was 'a blank sheet of paper.' And Winston Churchill called the act of writing a book 'a horrible, exhaustive struggle like a long bout of painful illness.'" - Timothy Egan, in the New York Times

Today I felt well and truly blank, like a wall or like Hemingway's sheet of paper. After completing my early chores, I escaped to Chinatown. The busy streets, the currents of people and traffic, always make me feel good. Investing your years and memories in a place is what makes it home. The gritty streets of Honolulu's Chinatown say "Home" to me. Come, let's walk along for a bit. We can even stop for dim sum! And when I'm ready to move on to my next home, you can spread my ashes at Maunakea & Pauahi Streets. . . . A L O H A! Cloudia