THE BEACH BOYS

I'll continue my entertainment mode today, but first, some troublesome matters around the world.

• The Los Angeles disturbance is the most inconsequential as a public event, since nothing much is happening.  The fearful sense is that this is just another step towards Donald Trump's quest to become a dictator.  Today, California Senator Alex Padilla, who was trying ask Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem a question at her press conference was manhandled by her security agents.
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  The USA has evacuated embassy staff from Iraq.  Embassies in striking distance of Iran, as far away as Europe and North Africa, were ordered to convene emergency measures. Why?  Israeli seems likely to strike Iran's nuclear facilities.  Trump himself has said their nuclear weapon discussions with Iran have deteriorated.  But perhaps some of this is to spur talks, for the next round of these negotiations are schedule for Sunday in Muscat, Oman.
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  Peace discussions between Ukraine and Russia are failing.  Putin seems preoccupied with revenge for the embarrassing bomber destructions from Ukraine drones.

Brian Wilson passed away yesterday at the age of 82. He was the leader and chief songwriter for the Beach Boys, but struggled throughout his professional career from drugs and mental illness.  Wrote more than three dozen top 40 hits.  Smile?  He began tinkering with it 60 years ago, and finally had it published in 2004.  Watch this entire album.

For months, Wilson tinkered in the studio on an album with the working title “Smile” as anticipation built for what it might be and in what direction it might take rock, already shifting quickly in the dawn of the psychedelic era — music, drugs, lifestyle and all. Wilson said the album would be a “teenage symphony to God,” a piece of music so audacious it would unlock the straitjacket he felt was keeping pop music bland and predictable.

From left, Al Jardine, Brian Wilson, Blondie Chaplin, Mike Love and Bruce Johnston at the 2024 world premiere of the Disney+ documentary “The Beach Boys” in Hollywood.  

(Alberto E. Rodriguez / Getty Images)

His father, Murry, was a musician and a machinist; his mother, Audree, a homemaker. Wilson went to Hawthorne High, where he played football and baseball. He earned an F for a composition he submitted in his music class, though decades later the school changed his grade to an A when administrators discovered the composition had become the Beach Boys’ first hit song, “Surfing.” School officials invited him to campus to accept their apology.

Brian's two brothers, Dennis and Carl, are also dead.  Counting all the originals, still alive and some still touring, are Mike Love, Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston and David Marks.  I went to see them at the Hawaii Theater last year.  Really enjoyed the nostalgia.

The Beach Boys' first hit was Surfin' USA in 1963.   By the end of the year they had seven songs that charted within the Top 40.  I actually went to their Honolulu Concert that year. 62 years ago!!!  They were on one of Tom Moffat's Show of Stars extravaganza.  

Then more than half a century later, in 2014, another concert:

• I was alone, my wife had passed away five years previously.

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  Went alone to Chai's, located across the street from the Neil Blaisdell Arena.  I mentioned in that posting that when I was in my early youth growing up in Kakaako, the area on which the Arena sits was a fenced-in estate of the Ward Sisters, which, of course is on Ward Avenue.  There were seven sisters.  Here is how it looked then.

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  I had Chai's $40 special with a Conundrum Chardonnay and some Junmai Ginjo sake, plus a Sterling Meritage.

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  As I was having my dessert, some of my Chaine des Rottiseurs friends came in.  So I joined them.  To the left is Bruce Liebert, a colleague of mine at the University Hawaii, who has forever served as the leader of his group.  His wife, Judy, was also a member of the UH faculty.  He is the one who persuaded me to join this oldest eating club in the world, which it is said, had an original beginning in 1248 under Saint Louis, King of France.  The reality is that this organization as currently named was founded in Paris in 1950.

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  They also were going to the Beach Boys concert, and they had an extra ticket, good location in the fourth row.  Mine was way on the side for $81.  So theirs cost a lot more.  And, incidentally, in that 1963 concert I went to, the cost was around $2.

But back to this latest Beachboys concert last year, just about the time of this performance, Disney released a documentary on The Beach Boys.  Good Rotten Tomatoes ratings:  89/80.  Listen to their top 12.  Or an hour of their best 20 hits.

This latest Kilauea Volcano eruption has been unusual.  In my whole life, I have never experienced one where there are regular episodes.  Yesterday was chapter 25, where fountains shot up more than 1000 feet high.  But only was active for several hours, and went quite.  Episode 26?  Maybe next week.

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