THE ROYAL HAWAIIAN BAND

The Royal Hawaiian Band came to entertain us at 15 Craigside. Clarke Bright is the Bandmaster, as he has been since 2011. I know him because when he was a student at the University of Hawaii, he worked for the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute, which I directed. His father is the legendary Ronald Bright (photo to the left), who appeared in a range of entertainment venues throughout Hawaii, and seemed to have been in charge of a lot of them.

The Royal Hawaiian Band is the oldest and only full-time municipal band in the USA. Formed in 1836 when these islands were ruled by King Kamehameha III. It started as a military band, but attained global prominence under the leadership of Prussian Heinrich "Henri" Berger, loaned by the Imperial German Army to the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1872. He would later be honored as the "Father of Hawaiian Music." Berger collaborated with King Kalakaua in creating Hawaii Ponói, the official state song. Click on that link to watch a particularly majestic version, music by Berger and lyrics by King Kalakaua.

Did you know he was elected King? His wife was Kapiolani, and they traveled the world. Kalakaua built Iolani Palace and organized the Hawaiian language into a book, Legends and Myths of Hawaii. In 1881 he traveled the world. Took him 281 days, meeting President Chester Arthur in DC, Queen Victoria in London, Pope Leo XIII, Rama V of Siam and the Emperor of Japan, among others. About Iolani Palace, it was completed in 1882 and was wired for electricity and telephones even before the White House in DC.

Finally, the Royal Hawaii Band has 40 full-time members and performs every Friday at noon on the grounds of Iolani Palace in downtown Honolulu, (watch that one hour concert, which occurred last week) and on Sundays at two o'clock at the Kapiolani Park Bandstand in Waikiki. Their concert at 15 Craigside was specifically for the residents, as in additional to Hawaii Ponói and other Hawaiian favorites, they played a lot of old Japanese songs bringing back memories. A particularly touching moment was Karen Keawehawaii singing Misora Hibari's Kawa No Nagare No Youni. I took a video of Karen's version, but could not apply it to this blog. However, watch her singing this song for the Japanese Cultural Center's New Year's Ohana Festival.

First, we have Babs sniffing the Band.

The 15C crowd.

At the end I told Clarke that this was the best concert I've ever enjoyed, and meant it.

Yesterday, we went to Assaggio, and had our typical Opolo wine from Paso Robles with Antipasto and Osso Bucco. Plus three loaves of bread, the best made anywhere.

Our Thursday night table at 15C celebrated our annual birthday party where Bob and I now have a combined age of 178. Knowing that we are both Dragons, and he is 12 years older than me, you should be able to calculate our ages.

Ever tried haupia and ube ice cream? Haupia is Hawaiian coconut pudding, and ube is made from Okinawa purple yam.

I enjoyed one of my favorite meals watching 60 Minutes: Pork Tonkatsu and Chu-Toro Blue Fin Tuna Sashimi, with Kirin Beer and hot sake.

We had a Hawaiian Luau at 15 Craigside, and I will later add a dinner photo with Susan and Steve.

HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

The story of the day is Hurricane Milton, now a Category 4 at 145 MPH, with a track that has moved further south and the eye projected to make landfall just south of Sarasota. Good news for Tampa, which is 73 miles north. Milton will crash into Florida as a Category 4, and is huge, so a lot of problems can still be expected in Tampa Bay with storm surge. If the eye had crossed into the state just north of Tampa, the damage would have been catastrophic. Milton is a fast-moving storm, currently at 17 MPH, so as bad as the rainfall will be over Florida, again, a blessing. The eye will make landfall around 10PM EDT today, and will move into the Atlantic Ocean north of Palm Bay Thursday morning. My first trip to Seattle was in June of 1962 just after I graduated from Stanford University. Caught a bus. Was called the Century 21 Exposition . Also the Seattle World's Fair. 10 million joined me on a six-month run. My first. These a...

WHY YOU SHOULD CONVERT TO A JAPANESE HIGH TECH TOILET

Did you know that Oktoberfest in Germany is mostly in September? The very first day of Oktoberfest 2021 was supposed to be today, September 18, extending into October 3. Well, as in 2020, Oktoberfest was cancelled. So why is it called by that month when it is held mostly in September? The first celebration in 1810 was in October. Did you also know that Oktoberfest is held only in Munich? These days seven million drink more than a liter ( about three typical cans ) of beer each, costing around $11. Except for my wife and I when we followed the crowd to board the S-Bahn to the fairgrounds near Old Town. It was drizzling a bit. We bought a large pretzel outside of a typical barn where beer is served. We did not know that you needed to get this inside the hall. So no one came to serve us beer. After a while we decided to have lunch, and the restaurant we settled on only served wine. Thus, we might have been the ...

THE FIRST 84 YEARS OF MY LIFE

The first half of my life was spent preparing myself for my final 42 years. This was a mostly trying and stressful period involving a less than ideal youth, then struggles to get through school, my first few jobs and accompanying life, ending two months later on a Sunday with Part 15E , so it was a spiritual conclusion to my final transition. I never did count the number of actual postings, but I suspect it was around 25 parts. The ending had to do with golf, the disappearance and re-appearance of an 8-iron cover. That was the final clue to whether the beyond after death would be eternal gloom or Heaven. Today, I provide only one transition, but hint about a final one, for this, after all, is Sunday. I'm 84 years old, so let me summarize what happened during the first phase, from 0-42, and follow with the years 42-84. As this is 2024, that key transition year was 1982. I can't seem to find this photo, but as a one-year old baby, I was fat....

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