Honolulu Downtown

click on photos to enlarge!Honolulu Hale (Hah-lay) "City Hall"

"Home is a name, a word, it is a strong one; stronger than magician ever spoke, or spirit ever answered to, in the strongest conjuration."

Dickens

Downtown Honolulu, to the right of photo above

(State Capitol in foreground)

"Where we love is home,Home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts."Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Kamehameha IV & Queen Emma 1859

"He is the happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home." Goethe

"Home, the spot of earth supremely blest,A dearer, sweeter spot than all the rest." Robert Montgomery

Did you know that our Hawaii State Archives contains several letters signed by President Abraham Lincoln? In one dated February 2, 1864 the US president offers condolences to Kamehameha V from “Your Majesties Good Friend.” This year we celebrate Lincoln’s 200th birthday. What would the “Great Emancipator” think of a Hawaii-born man of color ascending to his office, being sworn in on Lincoln’s own bible, and the Kingdom of Hawaii a US state? It boggles my mind! Incidentally, when Hawaii became a U.S. Territory the grand pooh bahs in Washington sent along a seemingly innocuous order that our archives be sent east immediately. Fortunately, quiet resistance garbed in governmental inertia prevailed so scholars and nosey types can read, touch, and smell historical documents and objects right here in Honolulu. Throw in all the historical buildings (including America’s only Royal Palace and oldest Chinatown) and it’s easy to see why Congress may name Downtown Honolulu a National Heritage area later this year. The nation’s 41st such designated area might even be announced in time for the 50th observance of Hawaii statehood on August 21st. In my dear downtown, ancient shades of Hawaiians and their gods prowl the shadows of night alongside gallery hoppers and chic nightlife habitués. Sacred rocks (Pohaku) lie beside ballast stones that traveled here in the hulls of sailing ships that carried away the last of our sandalwood trees. (Though Chinese immigrants continued to call our islands the “Sandalwood Mountain.” America: the “Gold Mountain.”). A king’s carriage way is now a high tech fiber optic channel. Torches have morphed into streetlights, Kahuna Kapu (taboos) all replaced by the Hawaii Revised Statutes. But on moonlit nights the old power and perfumes remain. The chiefs and chiefesses of old still love to laugh beneath the huddled mountains. Can you hear them whispering?



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Hawaiian Superman

click on photos to enlarge! Gabe

"True friendship is like sound health; the value of it is seldom known until it be lost." - Charles Caleb Colton

"Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born."- Anais Nin

"My friends are my estate."- Emily Dickinson

Hawaiian Superman: The Big Man, Gabe, has vacated his usual place of honor at the Harbor Pub to live with his grandchildren and family in Georgia. This full-blooded Hawaiian gentleman leaves a giant empty space in the lives of his many friends around the island. Grown men wiped away tears the other eve as everybody’s favorite band, Simplicity played his Aloha Party. “This pure Hawaiian, not to many left, is leaving us to move away to Georgia – where he will instantly become. . . MEXICAN!” Teased Andy the lead singer before launching into ‘Maui the Hawaiian Superman.’” “Gaaaabe, the Hawaiian superman.” They sang. Next verse: “Gaaaabe, the Mexican superman.” One time Gabe told us the story of his first childhood visit to downtown Honolulu. Young Gabe, a boy from the country of maybe 5 or 6, watched as the double doors inside da department store opened to admit the people. When the door opened again – the people were gone! “Don’t make me go in there! I don’t want to disappear!” He wailed. Gabe was walking history, a lot of mine included, come to think of it. Aloha, Big Man, Aloha `Oe. Parting is bitter; but you’ve always been really sweet. . . . You see Hawaii is not paradise because it is perfect. Rather, it is a paradise because we choose to greet life’s changes not with regret or despair, but with deep appreciation, acceptance, and aloha. . . Paradise is what you make of it, and where you find it. . . when you’re walking in Waikiki . . . .
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Royal Hawaiian

click on photos to enlarge! "And kind as kings upon their coronation day." John Dryden

"The gates of monarchs Are arched so high that giants may jet through And keep their impious turbans on without Good morrow to the sun." Shakespeare



"I'd like to be a queen in people's hearts but I don't see myself being Queen of this country." Diana, Princess of Wales

Perhaps I should run around in circles yelling like a 5 year old on a sugar rush: The Pink Palace a.k.a. The Royal Hawaiian Hotel will have a beyond-grand opening on Saturday March 7.th All orchestrated by event planning wizard David Beahm (a reformed High School drum major) credited with making Catherine Zeta-Jones / Michael Douglas nuptials the “wedding of the century.” Saturday’s gala is to be a benefit for the excellent Rehabilitation Hospital of the Pacific – so let the excess pour like it’s 1999! For a mere $5,000 USD you and three of your pals can repair to your own private poolside cabana for concierge pampering. Multiple venues will offer entertainment and atmosphere to suit any well heeled demographic: Chris Botti holding court in the Monarch Room with his band, local jazz chanteuse Ginai scatting on the lawn, and slack key guitar wonder Makana will initiate the new oceanside restaurant, Azure. 101-year-old Bill Tapia who played at the Royal’s FIRST opening bash, the first of February 1927, will beguile a new generation with his ukulele in the Coconut Grove. And yes, he still “gigs” regularly with real virtuosity! No word on whether Oprah will attend. I’ll be peering from behind the beach hedges. . .

Friday Skies

click on photos to enlarge!

"Life is something that everyone should try at least once."
Henry J. Tillman

Sunblock by the truckload!

"Life is a zoo in a jungle."
Peter De Vries

"Life is like playing a violin in public and learning the instrument as one goes on."
Samuel Butler


Visitors

Aloha and thank you for visiting today! Cloudia

Window Ways

Click on photos to enlarge!
"A beautiful soul has no other merit than its own existence."

Schiller




"Truth is the cry of all, but the game of few."
Berkeley

Koko Head Crater

"He lei poina 'ole ke keiki."

"A lei never forgotten is the beloved child."

Hawaiian Wisdom

A window is a lens, a frame. It focuses attention nicely. The entirety of sky, sea and mountains can overwhelm the reduced senses of us modern "screen dwellers." But the clouds above still move at their own glandular pace. Or as today, several layers of cloud traffic play a stately tableau in corps de ballet and chorus lines. . .

If a window is a framing device, then the port hole above my key board is an even better, for the eye ever loves a plump and pleasing roundness. Especially one bringing light, like the oculis concave-crowning the Pantheon and other such ancient magnificenses (magnificent edifices - preferable?).

Like the tiny muses resident in my own head, I peer out of the port-hole eyes of the skull which is my boat; or retreating deeper within it I cook up the next lettered souffle` to serve to all y`all. Like Santa-nibbled cookies on Christmas morning, you leave me comments like a profusion of gifts! The isolated, bookworm kid is thrilled to have such jolly friends! And just like Father Christmas, I know all your profiles and blogs. Who's naughty (Akelamalu, Bubble Wench, Daryl) who's nice (Ralph Neckman, Junosmom, English Girl, River Poet, Gran, and about a thousand others) and who is simply a singular gem, a joy, a pal (Chris "your scribe" of Cuneiform Scratchings) or a writing coach, a teacher, a treasure (Travis, Charles Gramlich, Brother T, Dave King, Barbara M, Carmi, Gemma, Braja, Magic Eye, Abraham Lincoln). . .

Seems I've gotten off track - and left out some of the best - my apologies if you are one of them - it's my melted brain, and this profusion of webby butterflies that befuddles me. But back to windows. . . .

A prisoner, or a writer chained to a lap top, who has but a piece of a view possesses a magic carpet on which imagination may take it's cliche`d (but no less true) flight. The scribbled notes brought back might contain gibberish - or literature (small "l"). But aren't those flights always worth taking?

I have sat in the wild, the woods; quietly in a single spot for ages - or ten minutes. And only at length noticed a glittering treasure (stick, stone, or creature) near enough to touch. . . .

Like that deer, years ago - but present in my memory - closer than I realized, who suddenly stamped and snorted a mighty blast of visible breath. . . before disappearing through the darkening glade. And so home to dinner. It was a school day tomorrow.

Thank you for coming! I shall have recovered my reason by tomorrow (more's the pity) So enjoy the view through your window, your eyes. It is always changing. So capture the deer in your living room against the day when it may be but a memory.
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Your Appearance

Click on photos to enlarge! "Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when the do it from religious conviction." Blaise Pascal

"Our own pulse beats in every stranger's throat." Barbara Deming

"We are, all of us , ordinary people. Liberation begins when we know that."

K.D. Singh

When I worked with adolescents they were, of course, obsessed with their appearance. That is their job after all: to display their feathers, to show their skills and their fitness in dancing. This is how young humans choose partners, at least it is until we learn to look beneath & beyond appearances.

"There will always be someone cuter than you, and there will always be somebody less attractive," I told them, "but when you meet someone who touches your heart, you see so much more than their 'looks.' They are beautiful to you because they are special to you. Looks only go so far - other qualities become much more important."

Also, I have learned that people don't even look at us they way we scrutinize ourselves in the mirror. While we focus on our hair, features, or perceived "blemishes" the world takes us all in at once. Mere appearance actually is secondary, I believe, to the behavioral cues and energetic emanations which we all carry around. Remember the conventionally pretty girl who couldn't get a date, or the "plain" Jane who was always popular? Clearly there is more at play than appearances.

Yes, I have learned that 90% of our appearance is determined by posture, our facial expression, and most importantly our attitudes. When we enter a room others see a movie start. And they hear our unmistakable overture begin to play. . .

A L O H A, Cloudia

Bird's View

Click on photos to enlarge! Koko Head crater, East Oahu

"Three things in human life are important: the first is to be kind; the second is to be kind; and the third is to be kind." Henry James

"There's never been a statue erected to a critic." Les Brown

Duke Kahanamoku, pure Hawaiian, Olympic champion, father of modern surfing, ambassador of aloha. When he died in 1968 a wailing went up for days across the islands as local people mourned.

"To be proud and inaccessible is to be timid and weak."

Jean Baptiste Massilon


"Debriefing the Bird"

Based on a true incident

"It was the worst day of my life.

I love my neighborhood, the wild patch behind the businesses on Kahu street. Me, I'm a human watcher. All their activities are fascinating to observe, and I love their pretty colors. Anyway, it was a beautiful dawn, lots of grubs. Then the cat came out of nowhere! Claw in my head, broken wing, a messed up leg. Funny how one second can change your whole life. But I don't believe in giving up - especially not to some cat! And damned if I didn't get away!

Just then, as I was hopping about in a rage, the early guy at the Harley shop came in; and the fool actually wanted to play! Eventually I hobbled under his truck where he couldn't reach me, so he got bored and went away.

Later his human friend came with a long branch and they put me into a nice, quiet square. Now I'm at the "Bird Hale" at someplace called the ASPCA. It's not that bad. This lady here speaks a little bird, and all the cats are safely locked up. (Throw away the key!) Some sparrow on the cell block told me that when I can fly and my leg mends that I can go home. So tell all the feathered folk over by Kahu Street to save some grubs for me.

And you know, I'd like to drop a blessing on that early guy at the Harley shop. Seems like he did me a good turn after all. I'll make sure to really thank him; not on his windshield, not on his hat, but right in his curly fur to let him know who grateful I am!

I love watching the humans. It's almost as if you can here them actually thinking!

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