Tomorrow (and next Monday) on Foreword

I'll be filling in for the vacationing host of "Foreword," a 1-hour morning show on Hawaii Public Radio, tomorrow and next Monday. So if anybody is interested (and live on Oahu, Maui, and the Big Island where the signal can reach), listen in from 8am - 9am on KIPO 89.3 FM.

A New Hope

Nothing to post today, except that tomorrow, there's this:

Star Wars Trilogy.

Quilts

Well, here it is: the world broadcast premiere of my "Hawaiian Quilts" news story that never aired on Hawaii Public Radio. It was a spec, or audition, piece that was going to be used to try and get me a part-time (once a week) news gig at the local public radio station.

Read the opening intro paragraph below aloud (it's the part the on-air news announcer would read before playing my report), then click on the link that follows to hear my report. After it's done, read the closing line aloud as well (and voila, your very own news show!). Enjoy!

A Hawaiian Quilt exhibit is celebrating the traditional relationship between flowers and quilters, while also raising environmental awareness. Hawaii Public Radio's Ryan Campuspos reports.

Quilts 2:14 (mp3, 2mb)

'The Nature of Hawaiian Quilts' exhibit will be on display at the Mission Houses Museum through September 18.

Election Day & the Orinoco Flow

Hard to believe it, but after 13 years of being an adult (or of voting age), today was the first time I've ever voted in an election. Aren't you proud of me? And it looks like I'll be voting as well in the General come November.

Anyway, enough politics: after lunch today, I had to take a crap. So we were at the mall getting some shopping done and I went to one of the mall's public restrooms and while I did my business, the piped in mall-wide muzak blared Enya's Orinoco Flow.

How fitting.

Average customer rating

Hilarious: My Beard, Reviewed by Chris Bachelder.

Art scene

Jessica and I went to an art exhibit opening earlier this afternoon at Windward Community College; we went because our good friend is a part of the show, with some of her artwork on display.

One of the highlights of the evening (besides the free pupus) was a Butoh dance performance by one of the exhibit's contributors. I've never seen a Butoh dance performance before (and from the looks of others at the gallery that night, I wasn't the only one) and it was, to say the least, intense.

Tattoo You

Can't wait to design one of my own:

HP iPod Tattoos.

They have a bunch of pre-made "artist-driven" tattoos, but I'll kindly pass on the Vanessa Carlton design. Just give me the template and blank "tattoo sheets" and I'll do fine thank you very much (I might even get my wife to design something, or maybe even use one of her existing pieces or art).

In any case, I hear HP will be selling the "print your own iPod tattoo" package later this month. And for those who still read Rolling Stone, apparently you can get a sample.

Update: Okay, maybe I can wait...

Onward

I've decided to pass on an opportunity to do a once-a-week news story on Hawaii Public Radio. I talked to the news director about my decision earlier this afternoon, and after I gave my reasons, it seemed her manner and tone of voice (we spoke on the phone) indicated that she really wanted to have me on the news staff (albeit on a very, very small part-time basis).

I'll still be around the station doing my once-a-week overnight gig and helping out on a few shifts when needed, so I'll still have the gas money coming in. In fact, the host of Foreword (a morning show on KHPR's sister station KIPO) gave me a call and asked if I could fill in for him two days in October. Too bad they stopped streaming, so those of you who may have had an inkling of interest can tune in.

But to those who can catch the station (either through traditional radio waves and digital cable) and do have an interest, I'll post more info later!

Now the question is: why have I really decided to pass on this opportunity? Hmmm... I'm not quite ready to share that information just yet.

Manifesto

Do you know what feature I want (besides crossfading on the iPod) in a future version of iTunes?

Well, it's more like a revision of an existing feature. Forgive me if you're not familiar with iTunes or don't know what the hell I'm talking about (if that's the case, I'm sorry, you'll find the following totally boring. You may continue watching Father of the Pride or Hawaii now).

Anyway, you play a song in iTunes (or on your iPod) and one cool thing it does is it keeps track of when that song has played.

The problem is that iTunes doesn't count the song as "played" until the whole song has played. Now that's all fine and dandy, but take this scenario for example: you're listening to your iPod (or again, iTunes on your computer) in Shuffle Mode, and some random song pops up. But you don't really feel like listening to Andy Gibb's Shadow Dancing right at the moment, so after a few seconds, you skip to the next track, Charlene's I've Never Been To Me.

What this means: iTunes doesn't consider the song you just skipped as "played" because you didn't play Shadow Dancing all the way through.

This messes up my system of hearing new and fresh songs on my iPod. I created a playlist on my iPod called Haven't Heards. It's a smart playlist feature in iTunes that chooses all the songs on my iPod that haven't been played in over a month (this time amount is programmable). Can you see where this is going? Let's get back to Andy...

While the Haven't Heards smart playlist picks all the songs that I haven't played on my iPod in over a month, along comes Shadow Dancing so I skip the song 'cause like I said, I didn't feel in the mood. So I skip it to the next random track but get this: to the iTunes brain, the song isn't considered "played" because it didn't play all the way through 'till the end. What that means is that the song (as well as others that I've skipped along the way) would more than likely pop up again due to the randomness of the "Shuffle Mode" and the universe. Shadow Dancing will, dammit, WILL, somehow show up again in Shuffle Mode.

So what I propose is a slight modification in the "song played" parameter within the iTunes program, say maybe mark a song as "played" after its first 5-10 seconds instead of having it play all the way through until the end.

Okay. Alright. Now that I got that out of my system, back to Father of the Pride.

In "Motion"

So I'm learning how to use Apple's new Motion program and it looks pretty cool. There aren't any books out yet, so I'll still have to feel my way around its interface more.

It's basically a motion graphics program that helps you produce openings, closings, and interstitials (or bumpers) for television shows. Of course, that's just a basic scenario -- you can use the program for any type of motion-related graphics for audio-visual media.

Speaking of motion, some plans are in motion for that dream I mentioned a few posts ago.

Getting closer everyday.

"Did you ever know that you're my..."

Hero is an enjoyable martial arts drama that sometimes tries too hard to be different than other martial arts dramas. But the twists and turns in its plot (as well as the strong acting) does indeed raise Hero to near-Crouching Tiger status, but not quite.

I have a dream...

...actually, I've had it for a while now, ever since high school when my buddies and I made music videos and short films. Now, coupled with me being between jobs and a few other opportunities popping up, I might just realize that dream in the next few months.

I just might.

Holding Pattern

Nothing much happening on the news front at the public radio station. My first spec story on a Hawaiian quilt exhibit hasn't run yet (and I don't know if it will considering the exhibit ends on the 18th of this month), and after explaining my predicament to the news director, she understood my problem and asked me what I wanted to do about it. I told her I guessed there was still a story, but nothing as interesting as one with some actual ambient sound from the last lunchtime concert in question. On top of that, the contact who first informed the station of the story still hasn't returned my calls. In any case, I told the news director I was still holding out for some word from another job opportunity (another news organization, this time in television) and that doing a news story once a week for public radio might not be worth the time and effort.

Today's schedule

6:45am - woke up & took a shower.

7:45am - left the house to take Jessica to work.

8:20am - dropped Jessica off at work.

8:30am - dropped the truck off for regular servicing.

8:40am - walked over to a nearby Starbucks, got a cup of coffee and read the morning paper.

9:30am - walked over to a nearby Borders, sat in the cafe section and used their Wi-Fi hotspot (alas, not free) to do various things: send/receive emails, surf the net, do some writing, etc.

11:30am - walked over to Kua`aina and had a burger for lunch.

12:30pm - walked back to the service center to pick up my truck. Headed to my parents' house to hang out and wait for Jessica to pick up. She had an appointment near my parents' neighborhood.

2:45pm - picked up Jessica. We go back to my parents' house. Feeling a little Star Wars-y (in anticipation of the upcoming release of the original trilogy on DVD), I pop in Phantom Menace into my parents' DVD player. We both fall asleep about 45 minutes in.

4:45pm - my mother comes home from work early.

5:15pm - the three of us drive to Kapolei and have dinner at Jurison's Restaurant.

7:00pm - we get back to my parents' house and watch the season premiere of Joey. Most of it is funny.

8:15pm - we drive home.

9:24pm - I finish writing this.

Snake Plisken or the guy from Riptide as Han Solo?

Some food for thought to munch on until September 21 when the original Star Wars trilogy bows on DVD:

Time magazine talks about the upcoming DVD box.

USA Today talks about a new cameo at the end of Return of the Jedi.

Me? I can't wait to watch these films again. I caught each of the three special editions when they were re-released in theaters sequentially back in 1997, and that was the last time I sat through them all the way through.

Hangin' Out

My friend Eugene and I hung out earlier this afternoon. We both hadn't eaten pizza in while (as opposed to our friend Eddy, who usually likes to partake in a couple slices of pizza before he has dinner, what we all affectionately call "pre-eating"), so we went to Pizza Hut and had their lunch buffet.

After lunch, Eugene had some bills to pay, so we went to Sears Ala Moana. Then we went to Toys N Joys in Waialae to snoop and browse.

After Toys N Joys we went to Kahala Mall. There at K-B Toys, Eugene found a limited edition "Phoenix" for $9. He was happy.

We went home after that.

Cousin Day

For the Labor Day holiday yesterday, Jessica and I picked up my three kid cousins and went over to Jessica's cousin's place in Mililani to hang out at the nearby pool.

While we're totally looking forward to having kids of our own someday soon, taking care of my cousins for about six hours (at the pool, natch) can really take a lot out of you. The sun, the water, the kids, the food; by the time we got home, we were exhausted.

But seriously, it turned out that we were exhausted from all the fun we had. It was a hot day, and while the saltwater pool was warm, it still felt refreshing just wading in the water. All of the kids just loved going to the pool as well (even my 12-month-old cousin!) and to top it off, there was hot dogs and hamburgers galore.

Goodbye Summer...

Happy Labor Day!

Playlist magazine and the attitude behind buying songs off of iTunes

The publishers of Macworld (U.S.) just printed up a new rag focusing on the whole iPod/iTunes phenomena. Most of it is actually a good read, with some good music reviews, musician features and iPod accessory write-ups.

While reading through some of the articles on how to do certain functions in iTunes, what struck me is my attitude towards buying music from the iTunes Music Store. Since it reminds me of buying 45 rpm singles in the 70s & 80s, I don't mind the concept of buying songs for $0.99. I even find myself buying stuff there once in a while (it's especially a good place to get exclusive content and pre-release material). But if given the option, I'd just as well get up off my ass and book it on down to the nearest music store to casually browse all the wonderful music at my fingertips and actually buy the CD I want to get. Then I'd take it home, pop the CD into a player and listen to it while leafing through the CD case and inner booklet. Maybe I'll read along with the lyrics. Or maybe I'll just stare at the CD's artwork as the music plays. I guess what I'm saying is that there's no comparison to actually browsing through a music shop's wares and actually buying and taking home a living, breathing, CD. Okay, the disc isn't alive in the usual terms, but at least it'll make you feel alive, scooting your chair away from the computer, taking a hit of that cold (or warm) air, interacting with other human beings in a public place and validating that with some music to play, part of the ongoing soundtrack to your life.

Happy B-day...

...to ol' buddy ol' pal Eugene. Thirty-one years have never looked so good on a person. May you get ever so closer to completing your G.I. Joe collection. Or your Star Wars Lego collection. Or your Marvel and DC action figure collection. Or your Transformers...

Garden State

Do yourself a favor and go see Zach "Scrubs" Braff's Garden State. It's a deliriously funny and touching movie that's one of the best I've seen in a long time. I loved every minute of it, and while some critics are calling it "a modern-day 'The Graduate,'" it's more than that. Trust me, if you're a fan of Woody Allen, Wes Anderson and, of course, Mike Nichols' The Graduate, then check out Garden.

So...yeah.

Got my haircut yesterday.

Got my overnight shift tonight at the radio station, so I'll be catching up on a lot of reading.

And if you're in the mood for some good ramen, check out Tai Sei Ramen in downtown Honolulu. They've got this killer crispy gyoza.

That is all.

Predicament

The basic gist of my second "spec" story for Hawaii Public Radio is "Why did the city and county of Honolulu stop the music?"

The Mayor's office of Culture and the Arts has decided to stop putting on these "Aloha Lunchtime Concerts" at Tamarind Square in downtown Honolulu. I got the assignment last Thursday after completing my first news spec piece (on Hawaiian quilts). I was given two contacts: the first was a spokesman from the Mayor's office and the second was a concerned citizen who called the radio station to complain about the city and county ending these lunchtime concerts. So why did the city and county stop these concerts?

My first roadblock was that after two attempts, the concerned citizen hadn't returned my phone calls. The second –and I feel most important –roadblock was that the last lunchtime concert at Tamarind Park already took place the day before I got the assignment. I was supposed to go down and record some ambient sound and maybe get some interviews with business folk who were enjoying the free entertainment at the park, but now I won't be able to do that.

On top of that, I'm realizing that maybe doing these news stories aren't feasible for me in the long run. I'd only be doing one piece a week and my compensation wouldn't really justify all of the effort I'd be putting into it. Maybe if I was a freelancer who had a bunch of things on the side could I see myself doing these arts and cultural news pieces once a week, but I'm leaning towards getting some full-time work with either a local newspaper or television station, which wouldn't leave that much time to research, interview, write, voice, edit, and produce a news story once a week.

Oh, I did manage to talk to someone at the Mayor's office and I pretty much got a bureaucratic and diplomatic answer: budget cuts.

"Hawaii" questions

For those of you who saw tonight's premiere of Hawaii, tell me: is it true that to become a detective, one thing you'd have to do is date and possibly even sleep with one?

Another question: why are there hardly any sympathetic characters in the show? Not that you can't make something good with unsympathetic characters (see: Taxi Driver, it's a character piece and the story is enthralling) but most, if not all, of Hawaii's characters are loathsome. And don't get me started on the so-called "story."

Finally, yes, the cops here in Hawaii really do call Kalanianaole Highway "Kalani Highway" for short.

Mahalo to our friend "J" who's going back to work after a week-long Hawaii vacation. He'll be back anyway in a couple of months for the film festival, so we won't be too sad.