No Finder’s Fees

Thursday, Sep 8th, 2005 by Andy | Leave a Comment
Filed under: Blogging

Like many bloggers, I read other blogs and pass on the interesting links with my own comments. Unlike other blogs, I will not be referencing them as sources in my articles.

For example, I read about Jake’s video on one blog which referenced it from another that linked to a third, while the original video was served by a fourth website. Also, I don’t feel I am chronicling nifty things on the web, I am trying to give a feel for life on Kauai. So I tried to link to the original copy of the video, but I don’t feel the need to credit everyone in the process, unless someone added some commentary that I find compelling enough to quote and link to. Feel free to treat me the same way for any links that you “discover” here.

Of course, original content and photos that I republish here will always be attributed and linked.

Once I figure out how to, I’ll create permanent links to my favorite blogs and sources of links in the sidebar.

Ukulele to da max

Thursday, Sep 8th, 2005 by Andy | Leave a Comment
Filed under: Music

Most non-Hawaiians think of ukuleles as cheesy accompaniment to staged hula shows for tourists. But locally, the ukulele is a genuine art, appreciated by most. Of course, the repertoire of songs is mostly traditional and folksy, but some of it is really good.

Then along came Jake Shimabukuro from Honolulu, and he infused new life into the instrument. Aside from plugging it in and amplifying it and distorting it, he has also explored new melodies acoustically. He is obviously very talented and can pull off some incredible pieces of music. We missed him last year when he performed in the Hawaiian composer’s contest at the Lihue Marriott Resort. The contest and concert is held every year as part of the Mokihana Festival.

In this video, he plays “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” by the Beatles, arranging George Harrison’s electric guitar solo for an acoustic ukulele:

P.S. The title is Hawaiian pidgin for “extreme ukulele.”

Updated Aug 22, 2018:

Jason contacted me to let me know about the broken links in this article. This old article was published “before youtube” when the video was hosted on an ukulele website (for the record: ukuleledisco.com). So I found the video on youtube now and embedded it. I also fixed all the other links that aged badly. Jake Shimabukuro has continued performing and releasing albums, also worth checking out.

Jason is also promoting his own ukulele website, the Chord Genome Project, showing beginners how to play thousands of songs by transposing them to simple chords. It’s free, but you can pay to access additional content, which seems fair. I am not affiliated or compensated, but because he contacted me politely by email, I thought I’d provide the link if any ukulele players are interested.

Island of the Apes

Wednesday, Sep 7th, 2005 by Andy | Leave a Comment
Filed under: Blogging, Environment, Fauna, Tourism

I recently discoverd Monkeywire.org, which has lots of interesting articles about primates in their archives. Many articles report on the latest behavioral research, wherein we learn that primates mourn their dead, understand money, steal only when others are not watching, try to fit in, and pick up
human habits such as smoking.

With more research, we might even find some primates have legends that deny they evolved from lemurs. Now that I’ve said that, I need to make a new blog rule forbidding religious discussions here.

What’s the connection to Kauai? Well, the plans for a Maui Ape Center seems to be falling through, and though it is pure speculation on my part, I wonder if they considered relocating to Kauai. Which leads me to ponder whether a primate sanctuary is compatible with a Hawaiian island. It would definitely be out of place culturally, but so is much of the tourism here. And I assume there is little chance of the primates escaping, so we shouldn’t have to worry about another invasive species.

In the end, I think an environmentally oriented research center would help reinforce Kauai’s image as a protected place. So, I think someone should invite the preserve to Kauai.

More Celebrities

Wednesday, Sep 7th, 2005 by Andy | Leave a Comment
Filed under: Journalism

Like every small town, Kauai plays up any connections it has to famous people. Since I can’t recognize these people, I usually just read about them in the newspaper. Time for some more name dropping:

  • Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the basketball player only slightly less famous than Michael Jordan, apparently owns a house on the north shore of Kaua’i.
  • J.K. Rowling, the slightly more famous author of the Harry Potter series, has visited here all the way from England, and had direct ancestors living here back in the early plantation days before 1900. According to the newspaper, her maternal great-grandfather was a Scottish physician who lived in Kilauea then Waimea for 15 years before moving back to London.

Another Map

Wednesday, Sep 7th, 2005 by Andy | Leave a Comment
Filed under: Maps

The cool thing about this one is that I made it. Rather, I used freely available software and data from the State of Hawaii, and then I tinkered with the settings.

What’s even more interesting is that I figured out how to customize the map by importing locations from my GPS. So this map shows the exact location of the swimming hole pictured earlier.

Map of Kauai with elevation shading, roads, rivers and a red box near the center.

I must admit that I cheated and used a photo editor to create the ocean. The map had a solid background, and I thought the island looked better with an outline “halo” and gradient ocean shading. The land portion, however, is exactly the output of the map utility.

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