The last Orange Blossom Festival?

Ken's band, "The Klones", have been playing at Riverside's annual Orange Blossom Festival for years. I've played with them every year for the last 3 years. Two years ago, it rained and the turnout was quite small. We played on the "Budweiser Stage," a large portable stage set up at the corner of 7th and Market. It had a large PA system, with two sound men, one for the stage monitors and one for the front of house (FOH) sound. They also provided backline guitar and bass amps, and direct inputs (DI) for the keyboards. It was fun to play there, with all the trappings of a pro show. The sound was great, and we rocked out.

The next year was hot, with a big turnout, and all the trappings again. We rocked again; quite fun.

This year they moved all the "classic rock" bands to the smaller "Microbrew Stage" at the corner of Fifth and Main, right in front of that great soul food BBQ restaurant. At first I was disappointed with the smaller stage, but it turned out to be a boon. Instead of looking down at the audience from a 9-foot height, the 3-foot stage allowed us easier and better interaction with the audience. Although predictions were for rain by the time we started, it was a really nice day and the weather held until hours later. As usual, we rocked the crowd, and had great interactions. Tim (bass), Ricky (lead guitar) and Ken (my brother, mostly rhythm guitar) were all wireless, and the low stage allowed them to jump down and play from within the audience. Ken went inside the BBQ and played (to the staff's delight), and Tim rode a mechanical bull across the street while we played the closing song, "Born To Be Wild." Then the audience started shouting for more, and we came back for two encores! Very nice. We only had one soundman at the stage, but the PA was high quality, and the soundman did a great job. I had a blast. I look forward to this gig every year; the Klones are at home with folks who really appreciate them, and really play their best, and having professional sound controls the levels so that, even though they are loud, they are well-mixed.

So I was disappointed to hear that the Riverside City Council is expected to vote to discontinue the Orange Blossom Festival. You can read more about it here (while the PE has it up, anyway). A couple of the council members think it attracts the wrong element, and there were a few incidents, mostly involving drunks and officials. None of them sounded too serious to me, though. I've never seen any real problems while I've been there, but I didn't spend a lot of time away from the stages, and I have never been there after sundown. Nevertheless, I would expect some incidents in a festival like this. Santa Rosa hosted the Sonoma County Fair, with plenty of "incidents" each year, but the show is generally considered to be a net plus for the community, and I don't think anyone ever seriously considered shutting it down. I think Riverside needs to deal with its problems and keep this little bit of character that remains for this community. The article makes it sound almost certain that they'll delete the Festival, but I really hope they don't. (Interestingly, the PE invited comments on serving beer at the OBF, and the comments were almost unanimously against it).

The Hawaiian War Chant: a personal dichotomy

First, let me say that I mean no disrespect to the Hawaiian culture. I think that it's terrible what the invading Westerners did to the Hawaiian culture (along with the rest of the indigenous peoples of the world). In a sense, the "Hawaiian War Chant" can be held as symbolic of the cultural damage done.

Why is the Hawaiian War Chant called the Hawaiian War Chant? Western marketing.

Originally, it was called "Kaua i ka Huahua'i" ("We Two in the Spray"). It's really a beautiful love song.
Here is what I understand to be a literal translation of the first verse of the original song:

We two in the spray
Oh joy two together
Embracing tightly in the coolness
Breathing deep of palai fern.

Beautiful, even efter translation. Ahhhh....

I really do like the unique feel of the song, taken free of historical context. I mean, wow, Hawaiian has got to be the most beautiful language in the world, as this song really demonstrates. And the song's carefree atmosphere reminds me of African High Life music (as well as other Hawaiian songs, of course).

I recently was reminded of the Hawaiian War Chant when I saw this crazy video of a satellite radio spot featuring King Kukulele. I think it's quite cool in its madness.

And somehow it resonated with Doni and I to learn the Hawaiian War Chant. I don't have it totally memorized, I guess because it's kind of hard to memorize something in a completely foreign language. I have to learn it entirely phonetically. But it's a beautiful song when sang slowly, fun at a moderate speed, and can be really pretty wild when sung fast, as King Kukulele demonstrates. Most of my generation probably remember it best as the big sendoff in Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room. There, the song starts out beautiful and slow, then moves to a moderate tempo, and then the chanting totem poles take over and somehow make it feel more war-like. I imagine that this was inspired by Hilo Hattie's version.

Here are the Hawaiian words to the Hawaiian War Chant, which we're learning:

Tahuwai la a tahuwai wai la
Ehu hene la a pili koo lua la
Pututui lu a ite toe la
Hanu lipo ita paalai

Tahuwai la a tahuwai wai la
Ehu hene la a pili koo lua la
Pututui lu a ite toe la
Hanu lipo ita paalai

Au we ta huala
Au we ta huala

See? It's simple! Just five lines repeated twice. Easy! Well, let me know when you have it memorized, huh?
I'll keep working on it...



After the english-speaking writers got done with the song around 1950, it went something like this:

here's a sunny little, funny little melody
That was started by a native down in Waikiki
He would gather a crowd down beside the sea
And together they'd play his gay Hawaiian Chant

Soon the other little natives started singin' it
And the hula hula maidens starting swingin' it
Like a tropical storm that's the way it hit
Funny little gay Hawaiian chant

Ow way
tah Tualan
Me big
bad Fightin' man

Tho it started on an island down Hawaii way
It's as popular in Tennessee or Ioway
If you wander into any cabaret
You will hear this gay Hawaiian chant

Ow way
tah Tualan
Me big
bad Fightin' man

Tahuwai la a tahuwai wai la
Ehu hene la a pili koo lua la
Pututui lu a ite toe la
Hanu lipo ita paalai

Tahuwai la a tahuwai wai la
Ehu hene la a pili koo lua la
Pututui lu a ite toe la
Hanu lipo ita paalai

Au we ta huala
Au we ta huala

Tahuwai la a tahuwai wai la
Ehu hene la a pili koo lua la
Pututui lu a ite toe la
Hanu lipo ita paalai

Tahuwai la a tahuwai wai la
Ehu hene la a pili koo lua la
Pututui lu a ite toe la
Hanu lipo ita paalai

Au we ta huala
Au we ta huala

Here's some more information from the Wikipedia entry for the song:
"Hawaiian War Chant was an American popular song whose original melody was written in 1860 by Prince Leleiohaku as Kaua i ka Huahua'i or "We Two in the Spray."
English lyrics by Ralph Freed were added in 1936 and the melody changed somewhat at that time by Johnny Noble.
The song was later featured in the 1942 film Ship Ahoy starring Eleanor Powell, Red Skelton and the Tommy Dorsey Band.
A huge success and a crowd favorite in Hawaiian resorts even today, singer Hilo Hattie used it extensively in her own shows, singing it at three different speeds with the claim that Leleiohaku wrote it about two palace lovers who met in secret.
She also credited comedy bandleader Spike Jones for popularizing an uptempo comedic version of the song. Since 1963, the
Hawaiian War Chant has served as the finale in the Enchanted Tiki Room attraction at Disneyland.
In 1957, Bill Haley & His Comets recorded the comedic "Me Rock-a-Hula" which was based upon the "Hawaiian War Chant" melody."

Except for this snippet from Amazon, I haven't heard "Me Rock-a-Hula" yet. Judging from that snippet, I think I'm fortunate.

Anyway, like I said, the song's history is a microcosm of Western assimilation. It's a wonderful song, intrinsically beautiful, yet tragic in its transformation.

So why do I love it even in its fast, comedic form? It just hits me like a ton of bricks, like fireworks.
It's a wacky rock-a-roo.

Mahalo.

Casual Sunday with TV's Kyle Live at Worthington's

I'm writing this on May 21, two weeks after the event I'm talking about.
This is the first time I've re-written a post so long after I originally posted it. The first eight comments were responses to that post. All later comments (if any) will be after I changed the post. Originally, this was an enthusiastic announcement of our first gig with Casual Sunday, May 5 2006.. After the gig, it seemed wrong to me. We were really looking forward to that gig, but,...

Well, that gig was a disappointment. We were under-rehearsed, the venue was a difficult shape, we didn't do a proper sound check, and the regulars weren't generally too keen on novelty music. Casual Sunday did okay, but Kyle's band didn't do too well, to put it mildly. Kyle was a trooper, though. Casual Sunday and TV's Kyle Live are unlikely to play together again, except maybe at a party of our own device.

The week after the gig, Ken realized that playing with Kyle is a bigger commitment than he's able to make. Although all the other guys in the band were willing to proceed for now, Kyle and Lindsay and Doni and I decided to just go forward with the four of us and hook up with a pro drummer to be chosen from folks Kyle knows in L.A.

The rest of this month, I'm just overloaded with gigs and schoolwork; we're re-tooling with PA gear and electrifying Doni's uke. Next month, we return to learning Kyle's music with the new lineup.

Worthington's Tavern will probably become Casual Sunday's new Sunday venue, though; the clientele fits us, and we like to use those gigs as live practice.

Here's the link to Kyle's myspace page about his album and our live efforts.

Now, I'm off to play with the Klones...

... I'm back from the Orange Blosom Festival. The Klones gig went well. We were on a smaller stage than in previous years, which at first I felt disappointed about. But as we performed, I discovered that the lower stage allowed us to relate better to the audience. The old Budweiser stage was a nine-foot-tall stage, which meant we were really looking down at the audience This stage was more like three feet high, and so you could really boogie with the dancers, nice. The sound was good, everyone had a good time, the vendors and staff liked us, and, well, a good time was had by all.