Each day of the staycation has been filled with activity as we host family from China and New York. Dad and Su-Su, his younger brother from Tian Jing, haven’t seen each other in over fifteen years! Everyone is a little grayer and although their senses are much blurrier, we all just talk a little louder and make time for afternoon naps. When there’s time to chill, my pets get spoiled by all the extra attention and I’ve enjoyed impromptu cooking and knitting lessons from my aunt, a well-known and respected pediatrician.

Even before vacation started, I’d been contemplating how much time I can devote to the world wide web. It would seem I’m a throwback to a different era… not only have I existed happily without cable… but also *gasp* have no internet connection at home either. I’m sure the truly connected social media person would be shuddering at the thought. The only a twinge of regret I experience is whenever I think about all the tracks I’m missing out on thesixtyone.com. Life is good, but I know I’ve missed out on a whole lot… not only because I’m not tweeting or surfing Yahoo, but because I’m not hearing the local and international news stories that I normally do on a daily basis. To top it all off, I’ve misplaced the phone charger and haven’t been able to check messages since Friday… adding even more to feeling disconnected from the rest of the world.

This was one of the many scenic spots we visited along the eastern shores of Oahu, near Sunset Beach. Each sun-soaked day is a blessing and I’ve come to realize that paradise is just outside my door… I really should stop and spend more time smelling the plumeria.

Fourteen days have whizzed by and work once again beckons… Episode 15 of the podcast has been brewing on the back burner, but will probably feature music that I dug up after a mad rush of housekeeping. Was happy to rediscover Festivalbar 2000 and the Sirenes compilation, which are going to get radio play in the upcoming weeks. Still digging through old messages to find contact info on Miss Willow so I can schedule an interview about the upcoming PUJA dance project. And after only a couple of hours in the A/C, already missing the warmth of the sun but I’ll be sure to catch some rays when I grab lunch from DonQi.

Sometimes there are little hiccups, like when we’re in a pitch break and I realize that no music has been set up … thank goodness for the TalkBack button and Gene’s quick thinking on the fly.  My classical vocabulary has grown quite a bit after playing cuts from the same few CDs this past week. I can pick out chamber music in a sec and can even discern the difference between Vivaldi’s Four  Seasons and Piazzolla’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires.  Gene and Joan are wonderful mentors and my classical lexicon is getting a workout this week. Another premium that has caught my eye is Sharon Isbin’s Journey to the New World… she’s transcribed Renaissance and English folksongs for guitar and Joan Baez lends vocals to a couple of tracks. 

Yesterday the update board showed we had less than $80,000 to go on the overall goal of $741,000. Update watchers are happily anticipating the end of the Challenge 2009. Overnight the numbers have dwindled away and we are only $21,000 away from putting this puppy to bed. Once that happens, the champagne will flow and we will segue out of fundraising mode and back to regular programming.  Life will settle into normalcy in just a few hours, YIPEE,thesixtyone.com here I come!

With the craziness of fundraising, I haven’t been able to record another episode of the podcast… I’m kicking around the idea of bringing on another voice to the Planet and going to a bi-monthly production schedule instead of a weekly one.  The cold that came back with a vengence illustrated the fact I need to take better care of my health especially with swine flu scaring everyone. Can’t wait to get my desk back and not having to don Michael’s sweater that looks more like an afghan blanket whenever I swim in its folds.  The talented folk at Hawaii Public Radio have been doing a wonderful job of drumming up support… at last glance, the board says we only need $18K more to go!

Instead of tip-tapping away in the News/Traffic/Ops departments, my responsibilities have shifted to being the daytime sound engineer for Gene Schiller and the classical pitching staff.   I’ve been stationed in CR5 for the past two days, monitoring levels in the Atherton Studio, depressing buttons, watching the clock and running the knobs to play CD premiums, which include Jonathan Cohler & the Claremont Trio, violinists Lara St. John and Anne Akiko Meyers and conductors Paavo Jarvi and JoAnn Falletta.  Sol Gabetta’s album is my favorite of the drive so far… each track showcases the beautiful sound of the cello, accompanied by the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra.

Another indicator that we are in fund raising mode is the cacophony of ringing phones… music to our ears and a sign that people understand the value of having two public radio streams here in the middle of the Pacific.  This spirit of community is the foundation upon which HPR is built and continues to grow.  Thanks to @bytemarks for rounding up his wonderful friends to work the phones tomorrow.

I’ve managed to catch another cold and am drowning in Vitamin C in the hopes of being healthy for the rest of Challenge 2009.  I’ll also be emerging from behind the board to do a couple of shifts in front of the mic with Ray Cruz.  Due to this week’s topsy turvy schedule, I’ve had to postpone the recording of episode 13.   Tune in to the pledge drive edition of Playlist International, Saturday at 4 pm on FM89, via the worldwide web http://tiny.cc/qpv74, or as @exbor pointed out there’s even an app on the iPhone too.

It’s fun to sit and observe Jason and Gene banter and attempt to outdo each other, using words like propinquity, deleterious, or inveigling.  The latest addition to the wall is prescient, found while adding the Honolulu Academy of Art’s Goya exhibition to the community calendar. The list doesn’t trip off the tongue easily, but boondoggle did come to mind after the fiasco that was Episode 11 of the podcast.

Unfortunately I tend to keep pushing onward when editing, never considering the “what if” factors of working on a computer.  Which is why when Cool Edit crashed as I was mixing Bering Strait and oreka tx, I had to go back to square 1… due in large part because I’d ignored the save button. Without having a file to post at that point, the thought that came to mind was that the recording session was a boondoggle.

Here’s the online definition: -noun. Work of little or no value done merely to keep or look busy.  Is it still a boondoggle if no one is around to observe the busywork? And is it a boondoggle if the work that you’d been busily working on disappears in the blink of an eye? Chalked up the non-existent recording to experience and attempted to recreate everything as best as I could.

I’m still not the best calendar checker and was glad to have found my misplaced W2 on Tuesday night and posted my taxes by the 15th…  Next big thing coming up is Challenge 2009. HPR’s semi-annual fund drive kicks off on Wednesday, April 22, and the goal is to raise $741,000 in ten days. Since I’ll be riding the sound board in CR5, maybe I’ll find some time to focus on writing about the new music making a splash on Planet of Sound’s CD deck.  Here are this week’s adds:

Anuhea – Anuhea (One Hawaii)
Derek Bermel – Voices (BMOP Sound)
Pascal Bokar – Savanna Jazz Club (City Hall Records)
Neil Jacobs – 12 String Guitar (Adena Productions)
Terry Riley – In C (Sony Music)
Tom Teasley – Painting Time (T&T Music)
Word-Beat – The Soul Dances (Word-Beat)
Yanni – Yanni Voices (Yanni Wake/Disney Pearl)

Just as I was set to fire up the airboard and record an hour of new music for the podcast, family responsibility called… wiping out any chance of staying an extra hour.  Hopefully I’ll be able to snag some time on Sunday.  This hasty post will account for two out of three on the list and my finishing percentage jumps up 33%. I’m still waiting for my aircheck to finish burning, so I’m multi-tasking and typing as quickly as the brain neurons will allow.

It was another great month in music adds, with these artists officially joining the KIPO world library:
Rahim Alhaj & Amjad Ali Khan – Ancient Sounds (UR Music)
Buju Banton – Rasta Got Soul (Gargamel Music)
Craig Enright – La Belleza (Craig Enright Music)
Gianmaria Testa- Solo Dal Vivo (Le Chant du Monde)
oreka tx – nomadak tx (World Village)
Ivo Papasov – Dance of the Falcon (World Village)
Liz Carroll & John Doyle – Double Play (Compass Records)

If you’re a fan of Bollywood films, this one doesn’t disappoint. The music was fun and upbeat, each scene was swathed in rich colors and texture, and the love story was sweet (unbelievable to my skeptical outlook, but sweet).  I’ve never given Indian architecture any thought before but in this film, it featured prominently and deepened my appreciation of Indian culture. Too bad the next showing of Rab Ne Bana was on a Monday afternoon, otherwise I’d have gone back to watch Surinder and Taani’s romance unfold a second time.  The soundtrack was very catchy and the first thing I did was to look it up on amazon.com.  It’s available, but with only six tracks, I’m still sitting on the fence whether or not to add it to my collection.

HIFF’s Spring Showcase has once again impressed with its wide array of films imported from Japan, Korea, Europe, India, and Israel… there’s no way I can watch them all, but I can wish.  I love steeping myself in foreign languages and seeing the world through the lense of a camera. Making time to get away to the cinema allows me to escape from reality for a little while… and I don’t need to dig up my passport to go on these inexpensive getaways.

There are so many things going on, I have yet to share what a great time I had at the Alison Brown concert.  I’ll save that for a future post, because right now my gatekeeping skills are calling me away from the computer.  Sadly I won’t be going to Wushu: The Young Generation, but I do have tickets to see Gu-Gu the Cat… can’t wait to visit Japan on closing night!

There seems to be no end to the musical gems I keep adding to the mp3 player. In the past few weeks an indie band from Cardiff and a North American singer have made a big splash on my radar.  Subconsciously I’d featured both artists on my homepage and while listening to the mix, it dawned on me that I was hearing my favorite island instrument, the ukulele, on the 61! Who woulda thunk?

TOY HORSES is an indie duo from Wales in the United Kingdom.  Formed in late 2007, both Adam and Tom are songwriters and singers whose music are fueled by the uke. They’ve received airplay on BBC Radio One, BBC Radio Six Music, XFM London (featured band) BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru. They’ve recently been featured on myspace, so I’m sure this dynamic group is getting a lot of buzz.  They’ve even gotten a nod of approval from KCRW’s Nic Harcourt.

CARACOL from Montreal, Canada, presents her first solo release “L’arbre aux parfums.” It features the sounds of the ukulele, the autoharp and acoustic guitar. Using surrealistic imagery inspired by films such as ‘’Oh Brother Where Art Thou?’’ the songs evoke a Hawaiian ballroom and take listeners back to the feel of vinyl records of days gone by. The lyrical French makes no sense to me, but the beauty of Caracol’s song enraptures my ears nonetheless.

Thank goodness for wordy bios, otherwise I wouldn’t know how to describe these latest additions to the playlist. Still figuring out how to share embeded pages, but in the meanwhile click on the artists’ photos to hear their tunes.  I’m pretty excited because Tom answered my email saying,

The uke is getting to be quite a trendy instrument over here in the UK, it is starting to be used by a lot of young indie bands. Will definitely send you a CD. Thanks for all those hearts/bumps.

Now there’s something stellar to look forward to as the new month gets underway. Once I get my hands on Toy Horses, you too can enjoy their uke infused tunes on FM89.  There are a lot of new CDs converging in my mailbox, who knows what Mr. Postman will be delivering tomorrow.

A lot has been happening offline and the battle to whittle away the piles of music on my desk continues with no apparent winner.  Thinking of doing a Spring Cleaning giveaway on twitter or maybe I should just donate the extras to the Record Sale. Is it Friday yet? Excited and looking forward to being in the audience for the Alison Brown Quartet with Joe Craven concert at the Paliku Theatre.  If you can’t wait to hear their dynamic music featuring the banjo, Alison and Joe are teaming up to give a free performance on April 2nd. Showtime is 5:30 pm at the Salt Lake-Moanalua Public Library and you can call 831-6831 for more information. The tour then continues to the Big Island, Kauai and then Maui.

Thanks to Chris, I got a HIFF ticket while mingling with the tech crowd at Manoa Geeks.  I’ve been eyeing the Spring Showcase lineup ever since and think I’ve narrowed my choices down to Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi and Gu-Gu the Cat.  It’s still early and I may instead end up going to Wushu: The Young Generation or The Sky Crawlers.  And this just in from hiff.org:

GOMORRAH canceled;
BURMA VJ screening added!

We unfortunately had to cancel our 2 screenings of GOMORRAH, because of a schedule overlap, the print will not be available. We’re looking for a replacement for the two show times that GOMORRAH occupied. GOMMORAH will be opening in Honolulu in early May, so you will be able to see the film then. We have added a new film called BURMA VJ, details about it are listed below.

BURMA VJ (DENMARK – 85min.)
TUE. April 7th | 9:15pm

Hmm, keep this in mind as  you thumb through the beautifully printed film guide.  Currently vibing to BFI by The Dragons. Joan Canfield, host of Evening Concert, clued me in on this recording as she waited for over a week for the box of CDs to travel from Maui to Oahu.  However if you read the backstory to BFI, one week is small potatoes in comparison to how long it’s taken for this album to get printed and distributed.  I go into more detail on Episode 9 of the podcast, which starts off with the track “Cosmosis.”

Google the Dragon brothers (Doug, Dennis, and Daryl) and you too may be drawn into their intriguing family history and music careers.  In the meantime, if you’re in a  HIFF frame of mind, tune in to Playlist International this Saturday on FM89… I’ve got goodies to share! And as always feel free to contact me with requests or comments.  I’m keeping my eyes peeled for exciting world music artists to play on the radio!

Eventually escaped the parking lot and found Jack in the Box on the way to the station. My burger with extra pickles worked to calm the rumblings in my tummy, but I then had to figure out what I was going to feature on Playlist International.  Editing took a lot out of the afternoon… but the music portion of the show was jam packed, due to Alison’s interview filling the second half of the hour.  With tickets to giveaway to the Alison Brown Quartet w/ Joe Craven performance on April 3, the phone bank lit up quickly and I found winners #1,2,3, and 4 easily… all they had to do was answer the question, “How many strings are there on a five string banjo?”  Very remiss of me not to have mentioned that the whole interview and ticket giveaway wouldn’t have been possible without UHM’s Outreach College.  Click here for more details about the concert and ticket information.  Mucho maholos to Outreach College and Phyllis!

The rest of the evening was spent editing and post-producing episode #8 of the POS podcast, click here to listen in to the latest,  including new music sent in from Harmonia Mundi, Jake Shimabukuro’s latest LIVE album, and my interview with banjo virtuoso Alison Brown.  Spring is here and I’m ready to head out into the night air to enjoy what’s left of Saturday.

Initially I fretted over this interview.  I’ve never questioned a Pandit face to face before and I’d be talking to tap phenom Jason Samuels Scott as well!  As masters of their craft, what they do is so visual… wasn’t sure how this could be conveyed over the radio.  My fears were unfounded because as soon as these gents were settled in behind the mic, the conversation just flowed.  It was fun hearing their stories and I learned a lot in the half hour spent in their company.  Although Pandit Das and Jason come from such different backgrounds, one classical Indian (thousands of years old) and the other American contemporary (only a few hundred), their bodies and spirit engage in rhythmic dialogue, which is truly impressive to witness…

Persevered through the pouring rain and although running late, made it in time to see the jazz band’s first set of India Jazz Suites at Leeward Theatre.  This is another performance that I’m filing in the stellar category.  To listen back to the interview, click on episode 7 of the podcast.  The Indian Jazz Suites continue touring through Hawaii, first on Maui: Thursday, March 19, at MACC’s Castle Theatre (7:30 pm), and then on the Big Island: Saturday, March 21, at the Kahilu Theatre (8 pm).

Before I sign off, here’s a project that has been sitting in digital limbo since February.  The Six Degrees label has released another exciting world music project and I figured if you knew of it’s existence it might get loaded to the vault sooner.

Lal Meri is comprised of Nancy Kaye, Ireesh Lal and Carmen Rizzo.  They chose to name their groundbreaking collaboration after the ancient Sufi folk song.  I’m a fan of Carmen Rizzo from his work with Niyaz and his solo work as an electronic wizard and producer so it was a no-brainer that this new project would be perfect to add to the playlist… captivating vocals meld seamlessly with instruments such as the trumpet, oud, bouzouki, saz and jumbush, over a solid foundation of trip-hop beats.