Poi Dog Pondering - Perfect Music (Hyde Park “Ecstasy” mix)

Funny the small coincidences in life. Like an old friend in Chicago directing music videos for a band formerly of Honolulu. What are the chances?

Marco Giovanni Ferrari
poidogpondering.com

I want to ride my bicycle

Yesterday there were two serious accidents involving bicyclists on Oʻahu, both before dawn, one a fatal hit and run. With bikes sales increasing as people try to work around the laughable rise in gas prices, this is definitely a cause for concern and perhaps the start of a disturbing new trend.

Last year, I gave up my parking pass and have been biking to and from work. I live about 10 minutes away from my job so it’s not like a Herculean feat, tho I do sometimes do it in a skirt and heels. And then it starts to rain! But for the most part, I think it’s actually easier than driving. Plus it’s fun, good exercise and there is no sticker shock at the pump, cuz air is still free. But commuting by bike has given me a perspective on how bike-unfriendly the city can be.

For example, the ridiculous bike lanes that put cyclists in glass-strewn gutters alongside cars rushing on and off the freeway, like on University Ave. going up to UH. I don’t go that route. It sucks. The lower part of University is better, but even still, a line on the ground demarcating a narrow path between a row of parked cars on one side and careless drivers on the other is kinda sketchy. Luckily I don’t have to go that way too often; day to day I ride side streets instead.

The problem there is that some drivers don’t seem to think that the rules of the road apply between them and bicyclists. They often don’t bother to signal, and if it is a narrow street where two cars would have to squeeze to get by, they just stay right in the middle if I’m coming towards them on a bike. Not cool!

There are definitely more people of all ages biking around town these days. Yes, some of them are inconsiderate and stupid. But in the end, more bikes = less cars on the road. We all agree that’s a good thing, right?

Queen - Bicycle Race

The Cool Kids - Black Mags

music and life

An Alan Watts animation produced by Trey Parker and Matt Stone.

[mahaloz@Brave New Traveler]

Nirvana live at Pink’s Garage in Honolulu 1992

I was always kinda sick I missed this show. What you can see of the crowd in the flashes of light looks crazy. This is “Negative Creep” off their first album, Bleach.

fashion styles for people who seem to like being naked

So I never knew about Current TV til anasarca posted the Wax Poetics bit the other day. It’s really neat. I dig the interface, and I keep finding great little clips from all over the world.

Here’s a funny, honest look at fashion in Finnish Lapland. Love it! hahahaha

Nicole Willis and The Soul Investigators

Anasarca at Asita Recordings points out that the closing music on a Current TV show featuring the inimitable Wax Poetics magazine(!) is a funk band from Finland called Nicole Willis and The Soul Investigators. She messaged me:

“I just thought you might be interested in this band, if you haven’t heard of them already. They bring a brand of Finnish funk that is both joyous and soulful. It’s really easy for these new funk bands to sound cheesy but they definitely overcome that. Also look for Didier Sound Spectrum it was an older release from the 90’s that recently saw a reissue. More amazing funky Finnish music.”

No I hadn’t heard of them, thank you for the recommendation, girl!

Here goes the video for “If this ain’t love (don’t know what is).” Yea it’s a few years old, but this can bump all summer long.

Turns out Nicole Willis is originally from Brooklyn (with a solid musical resume), but has apparently studied in Lahti, Finland and blogged about her schoolwork, including philosophy essays and paintings she’s done?! I’m listing to the songs on their myspace and it is enticing me to order their album for real… oh look, here’s a link!

make it rain on your parade

Peace parades in Waikiki vary greatly in goals, turnout, funding

It caught my eye right away on Friday night as we’re driving into Waikiki to catch Johnny Fiasco at Lotus. There is a giant, blinking, orange sign right where Kuhio and Kalakaua split, a changing display that looked like: PEACE MARCH SUNDAY 6 PM ROAD CLOSED PEACE MARCH SUNDAY 6PM. Peace March? WTH? It struck me so odd that I twittered it.

Immediately conjured in my mind are earnest hippies in tank tops (armpit hair) and face paint playing drums and leading a small group in a tinny anti-war chant while sailors on leave curse and give them the finger. Some punk activists would probably be in the mix, cute revolutionaries with shaved heads and low-slung fatigues. But I’m thinking, isn’t the anniversary of the Iraq war past already? I put it out of mind, went to the club and danced the night away.

So Sunday around 6:20 PM, I bike into Waikiki expecting to see some hippies and home-made signs. I notice a fairly heavy police presence, with lots of the main roadways blocked. This must be some big-ass peace protest. It’s overcast and my hair is already wet from the swim I took earlier; I figure if I look a little bedraggled, I’ll blend. I picture myself riding alongside the protesters, easily mistaken for one of them, yet not slow to laugh if the street theatre gets too ridiculous.

As I head towards Kalakaua Ave, a red-bearded bum smiles and says “nice dreads.” Great, I guess I do blend. Just then surreality slaps me upside the head. A day-glo troupe comes dancing down the street, rows and rows of them, singing and smiling, looking like Falun Gong meets Up With People.

I’m a little frightened as I capture these short video clips. Focus!

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Finnish Ducktales lost in translation

This is the Ducktales theme song, Finnish version. The joker who posted it on youtube offers a, erm, unique transcription of the lyrics in English; I’ve included them below. Silly yes, but made me laugh, which is always good on a Monday.

Morphine makes the holy known
Uncle Lina!
Eyein’ up/down that sappy nun
Uncle Lina!
I’m going to stroke it
Your arms are BROKEN!
Uncut! Ohh!
Hoot all you and an anus, aha!
Uncut! Ohh!
Your school’s stupid! Your school’s BaHa!
Uncut! Ohh!
If I’m not avail you, taco nazi!
Look around and count on Lassie!
Knit and dance and BAKE A CAKE!
Oh, Uncut! Ohh!
Hoot all you and an anus, aha!
Uncut! Ohh!
Your school’s stupid! Your school’s BaHa!
Uncut! Ohh!
And sanskrit ain’t got hoot to say ’bout
Uncut! Ohh!

Real lyrics follow, courtesy of another youtube poster.
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Coppé at Next Door in Honolulu

Coppé of Mango and Sweet Rice records played in January at The Next Movement at Next Door in Honolulu. It was wonderful to catch her live again, only the second time I’ve seen her in Honolulu. A former island resident, Coppé passes through on occasion, though clearly(?!) not nearly often enough.

To my ears, much of what Coppé does has a trippy underwater electronic hallucinatory feel to it, but she’s prolific and collaborates often, so no single description (no matter how packed with adjectives) does her music justice. That night at Next Door, for example, it was her glitchy, part-Japanese take on the jazz-pop standard “Fly Me to the Moon” that had me swooning.

In this clip she talks about her performance, new album, influences and being well-received in Europe. The video (and the interviewer!* ugh) are not the greatest but… well, whatever… Coppe’s spark still shines.

As I’m loading this on youtube, I see that Dark has uploaded some videos he did for her songs and I’m reminded that he was supposed to do visuals for her show. For whatever reason, his work didn’t make it on to the screen that night. It’s too bad, they would have added a lot.

Dark’s videos to two of Coppé’s song are included below.

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Happy 2008!*

* yea, I back-dated this blog post, so what? :~j

supreme master moomin vision and the muumibuumi

Not everyone will find the “funky little moomin” clip I posted a link the other day entertaining–or even explicable, so I would like to offer a little background to those deprived souls not familiar with the stories that inspired the Moomin funk-phenomenon worldwide.

Saving me hours of typing is this 16 minute program from a series called A Journey through Aesthetic Realms, an episode entitled: “Moomin Stories, the World Seen through the Eyes of a Child.” Presented by a large-nostriled, Finnish-speaking host and captioned in 12(!) languages, the program heavily features the Japanese-Finnish animation but also includes some of the original artwork by their Finnish creator/author/illustrator Tove Jansson.

The show is a production of “Supreme Master Television,” which turns out to be a spiritually motivated channel that supports peace, the environment and vegetarianism, not some Orwellian master race propaganda (whew!).

The two styles of illustration–print and animation–are quite different, which is understandable given the different intended media. I was hoping for some commentary on these differences, but they don’t go to that particular aesthetic realm. The Jansson drawings (top - click to enlarge) are very precise with lots of quirky details. In contrast, the ones for television (2nd and 3rd) are simpler and more cuddly-looking, from what I’ve seen at least, which admittedly isn’t much actually voiced and animated as a real cartoon.

I grew up on the books and I study and buy select products from Europe and Japan. Most recently I’ve started collecting the bound volumes of the Moomin comic strip that are coming out, they are lovely! The old-school illustrations are the BEST! But I’m not the only one with my collection of Moomin goods.

“The Moomin Boom (muumibuumi in Finnish) started in the 1990s, when Dennis Livson and Lars Jansson produced a 104-part animation series in Japan. . . .

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new Amazon mp3 store is nice (DRM-free!)

Just downloaded my first bought album in mp3 format, using Amazon.com: Manu Chao’s La Radiolina. The service worked like a charm, way better than the recent black eye left by the Amazon Unbox video download service, which was even a hassle to uninstall.

Unlike iTunes, the Amazon mp3 downloads are DRM-free, so you can burn, copy and save to your heart’s content. You do need to install a small bit of software, but it’s a painless, 1-minute process. Then the program manages and organizes your downloads and imports them into iTunes or Windows Media Player, automatically. Very slick.

I don’t think the library is that huge yet, but I will shop there again. Besides the ease, I am really pleased to support Manu Chao.

This was the first video off the album, “Rainin’ in Paradize.”