Leslie Wilcox Blogs

Upfront and Backstage with Slack Key and 'Ukulele Masters

Likely it'll be another rainy night in Hawaii, with palm branches tossing in the winds. A perfect night to cocoon in your home and watch PBS Hawaii's special  NA MELE presentation bringing together some of the world's greatest slack key guitar and 'ukulele players. In this show, they play together in small informal groups, comfortably, easily, spectacularly. The show starts at 7:30 tonight, Monday, Nov. 30, 2009.

Underwritten by Hawaiian Airlines, the high-definition program was shot in and around a gem of a community theatre--Kahilu Theatre--in Waimea on the island of Hawaii. I was surprised to see how large the backstage area is--and that it contains a kitchen and small dining table!  All the better to enjoy the beef stew and other potluck treats that family members and friends bring in for the talented musicians.

Performers include Cyril Pahinui, Ledward Ka'apana, Mike Ka'awa, Sonny Lim, Aaron Mahi, father-and-son players Dennis and David Kamakahi and Richard and Kalai Ho'opi'i, Jeff Peterson, Benny Chong, Bobby Ingano, Chino Montero, 19-year-old Danny Carvalho and more. The falsetto singing is fabulous as well.  The annual concert series and musical outreach are organized by Jay Junker.

You'll see 'ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro teach at an intimate workshop and you'll soak up the feeling of what it's like, upfront and backstage, when these world-class musicians get together to play.

Singer and hula dancer Debbie Nakanelua-Richards and I will host a live pledge presentation of this NA MELE and other taped musical performances. Benny Chong and Jeff Peterson, and Dennis and David Kamakahi will join us live in studio as well.

We've offering a DVD of the Waimea Slack Key and 'Ukulele event,  as a thank-you for a donation to our nonprofit organization at www.pbshawaii.org  Makes a great holiday gift and it's a dream to mail to friends.

It's a privilege to document Hawaii music in HD and preserve it for future generations.

Thanksgiving Day #2

We couldn't see all of our Hawaii family members on Thanksgiving Day because some had other commitments involving in-laws or work.

 So today Jeff and I hosted a second Thanksgiving celebration, with daughters Lisa and Kaikea, son-in-law Ben, and two young grandkids.

  This time, the turkey meat was kalua'd--cooked for five hours in a crockpot with Liquid Smoke and Hawaiian salt, and served with poi and lomi salmon. After lunch, three-year-old Anuhea had fun decorating a gingerbread house with jellybeans and peppermints. Then she and her nine-month-old brother Evan played in a favorite pink plastic tub filled with warm water, in the backyard.

  When the keiki fell asleep, on the laps of the closest adults, we grown-ups envied their peace. We talked about the disquieting economy--the furloughs which are affecting Lisa, a public school teacher, and other people we know well, and what may be two, three, or more years of economic challenges.

  But for all of our troubled conversation, we were mindful of the abundance around us. We have more than enough, especially the priceless gift of being together. 

Big Island TV Transmission Update

  PBS Hawaii's over-the-air TV signal is reported to be "very viewable" in the east and southeast parts of the island of Hawaii, even though a key element of our Big Island system serving the region remains under repair.

  Recent high winds damaged our Hilo translator, knocking us off the air for a bit in mid-November. The translator was fixed just fine, restoring reception. But at the same time our Maunaloa relay station, which picks up our Maui transmitter signal and gets it to Hilo for Big Island viewing,  started acting up. At times it delivered pixilated images.

Equipment from Maunaloa has been sent to specialists in North America for tweaking--and we're "making do" in the meantime. Our terrific "boots on the ground" technicians have found a way to keep going, with good picture quality.

 If you're watching us on the island of Hawaii via over-the-air transmission and you very occasionally see pixilation, likely that's from our relay system and it's not a problem with your TV set.  No word yet on when our Maunaloa set-up will be back to 100%.

  But I haven't received any reception complaints from east Hawaii since our Hilo translator was restored Nov. 19.

 The majority of Hawaii Island viewers, those who watch PBS Hawaii by cable or satellite, aren't affected at all.

Mary Bitterman on PBS Hawaii Tonight

When I joined the ranks of public broadcasters a few years ago,  a PBS official in Washington D.C. surprised me by saying,"We know all about 'ohana  here."

'Ohana is the  Hawaiian value of family, and it was Dr. Mary Bitterman who made the word familiar to those at PBS headquarters offices and other places where she has worked.

Mary, raised in Northern California and educated at Ivy League schools, says that what she learned in Hawaii became an important foundation for the rest of her life. "Okage sama de," she told a group in Dallas a couple of years ago after winning public broadcasting's prestigious award for lifetime achievement. By his example, Hawaii's Governor in the 1970s, George Ariyoshi,  had taught her the meaning of the  Japanese saying, translating to "I am what I am because of you."

 Mary moved to Hawaii when she was in her 20s, when her professor-husband, Dr. Jeff Bitterman, took a post here.

What was to be a one-year Hawaii stay proved to be permanent residency. Mary and Jeff live in their Honolulu home for at least a week a month. But for decades, she has traveled elsewhere to work, leading the Voice of America, San Francisco public broadcasting station KQED, and the Bernard Osher Foundation, a major private funder of education.

Mary's  first job in public broadcasting was the job I currently hold in Hawaii, directing the islands' only public television station. It was a pleasure to see her back at PBS Hawaii recently to tape a show. She continues to support the station and stops by from time to time,  never failing to wow several studio staffers with whom she worked in the '70s by easily remembering experiences she's had with them. 

You'll hear more about how Hawaii has influenced  her life and career,  at 7:30  tonight (Tues., Nov. 24, 2009), when she appears on Long Story Short on PBS Hawaii.

Why Do We Dream?

It's a question that drives scientists: Why? 

The question being asked in sleep laboratories is "Why do we dream?"  The search to answer this basic but confounding unknown is featured tomorrow night on NOVA (Tues., Nov. 24, 2009, 8 pm) on PBS Hawaii.

Here are other programs coming up this week:

--LONG STORY SHORT (Tues., Nov. 24, 2009, 7:30 pm) is a conversation with Dr. Mary Bitterman, who was the youngest PBS station chief in the country when she headed this public TV station at age 27. She went on to turn around then-troubled San Francisco station KQED, and served as Board Chair of PBS nationally. Now she heads the PBS Foundation and she leads the Bernard Osher Foundation, a major private  funder of education. She says life in Hawaii gave her much of the understanding that helped her along the way.

--FRONTLINE (Tues., Nov. 24, 2009,  9 pm) points out another threat to our fragile economy---something we carry around with us. Credit cards are part of the gigantic consumer loan industry, which is re-adjusting to keep profits high under new rules of finance.

--Ever watch people trying out a sofa in a showroom, or examining cellphones at a store? What product features will move them? And how will the design of consumer objects affect their lives? That's what INDEPENDENT LENS (Tues., Nov. 24, 2009, 10 pm) will consider on "Objectified."

--SECRETS OF THE DEAD (Wed., Nov. 25, 2009, 8 pm) takes on a subject that's a bit unusual for this show---last year's Mumbai massacre at the hotel managed by former Hawaii resident Raymond Bickson. Told from the perspective of victims in their own words, the program takes viewers inside the dreadful experience. And it shows how social media tools were used by terrorists to coordinate their attacks.

--AMERICAN MASTERS (Wed., Nov. 25, 2009, 9 pm) is a profile of a man who joined music with traditional oral history and became the nation's signature folk singer/songwriter, Woody Guthrie.

--GREAT PERFORMANCES (Thurs., Nov. 26, 2009, 9 pm) presents Sting, one of my favorite rock singers, in a holiday concert at the Durham Cathedral near his hometown in northern England. (By the way, performer Gordon Sumner is said to have picked up the nickname Sting after wearing a black-and-yellow striped sweater onstage that gave him the look of a bee.)

--“Brain Fitness Frontiers” (Sat., Nov. 28, 2009, 6:30 pm) is another in a series of popular Brain Fitness shows. This one shows how ordinary people are using their brain plasticity to create lasting positive changes.

 --"Sinatra at Carnegie Hall" (Sat., Nov. 28, 2009, 8 pm) takes us back to a sold-out engagement in June, 1980, following Ol' Blue Eyes' triple-album comeback.

--"Rock and Roll Hall of Fame" (Sat., Nov. 28, 2009, 9:30 pm) is anything but a boring awards show. You'll see one-of-a-kind performances from induction ceremonies and no-boundaries acceptance speeches by rock's alltime stars.

December is a month in which PBS Hawaii makes TV appeals for your pledge of support. We appreciate your understanding of  our nonprofit organization's need to raise funds to keep providing quality programming. Thank you!

 www.pbshawaii.org/support

Online Discussion of Pidgin

I enjoyed hearing a thought-provoking discussion of Hawaii's Pidgin so much that I listened to it twice. I just caught this afternoon's re-run of Thursday's live program on INSIGHTS ON PBS HAWAII.

This discussion was a conversation among peers. It flowed, including around some sharp corners.

  Our former Governor Ben Cayetano was characteristically blunt.  He disagreed with Laiana Wong of the University of Hawaii Center for Hawaiian Studies, who believes employers should not discriminate against job applicants who speak Pidgin.

   "What world are you talking about?" Cayetano lashed out. To the others, he said, "I think his world is very small. I'm talking about the bigger world, where people have to go out and compete."

If you're interested, you can watch the program online at www.pbshawaii.org/ourproductions/insight.php

 One point made, by Prof. Kurt Sakoda, is that Hawaii's Pidgin is not "broken English" or "bad English," but a language of its own with its own grammatical structure.

 

Newlywed Shane Victorino is Back in Hawaii

    "What do you hear from our boy, Shane?" "How about that, Shane? We're so proud of him!" 

    That's what people kept stopping by the table to say to Maui County Councilmember Michael P. Victorino at an event that both of us attended last summer, honoring volunteers on the Valley Island.

Shane Victorino, the Philadelphia Phillies star, has been seeing his father in the bleachers at his games, supporting him,  since he was a little kid. Mike Victorino and his wife still travel to as many of Shane's games as they can. "We finally got the hang of dressing (warmly enough) for the East Coast," he says.

 During that lunch, the well-known Wailuku office-holder graciously accepted many good wishes for his son from Maui residents, and said  to me with a smile: "Yeah, Shane used to be known as Mike Victorino's son. Now I'm Shane Victorino's father."

    Shane, who turns 29 at the end of the month, is back in Hawaii,  fresh from the World Series,  his second straight National League Golden Glove Award, and his wedding vows!  Tonight  he  appeared on the "Leahey & Leahey" TV show in Honolulu and talked about his dad. He said he's always mindful of what his father told him as a kid: "It don't hurt to hustle. It don't hurt to play hard..."

  Shane Victorino's conversation with father and son Jim and Kanoa Leahey will repeat on Sunday, Nov. 22, 2009, at 4:30 pm on PBS Hawaii. www.pbshawaii.org/ourproductions/leahey.php

 

Still Working on Hilo TV Transmission

Hawaii County has the highest percentage of households in the state watching "free TV," television via over-the-air signals.  

And wouldn't you know it? The island of Hawaii is the only place in the state where high winds have disabled PBS Hawaii transmission equipment. ...

The winds caused electrical trouble in Hilo. And what happens in Hilo doesn't necessarily stay in Hilo. The outage is affecting other places as well.

That's because our Hilo translator picks up our public television signal from a transmitter on the slopes of Maui's Haleakala, and sends the signal through a series of sibling translators down the east coast of Hawaii Island. When Hilo is out of service, Naalehu, South Point and other places are left out of luck as well. This especially hurts in South Point, where we're the only broadcaster serving the area.

PBS Hawaii is working to fix the wind-related damage and we apologize to Big Islanders for the temporary outage. Our chief broadcast engineer, Steve Komori, expects us to be back in living color in east Hawaii in a couple of days.

Satellite and cable carriage of PBS Hawaii are not affected.

"Spraypainting" My Face

When I looked up from my seat, here's what PBS Hawaii make-up stylist Chris Jose was pointing my way.  

 

Not to worry. It's a  only a cartridge of high-definition make-up, which Chris proceeded to apply to  my face in an ultra-fine spray.

It felt nice and cool and delicate, but with my eyes closed, I imagined myself as a car in the shop for a new coat of paint. This is a new make-up tool for Chris and her colleague, Debbie Nishimoto--a $225 electrically-driven Temptu applicator. The make-up cartridges are called air pods.

High-definition make-up is different from conventional spackle-like TV foundation. It's meant to be applied sparingly. There's no hiding from high-def cameras.  Chris' sprayer worked daintily and evenly. My face felt light and airy. Didn't even feel like I had make-up on.

But the technology, in Chris' hand, did the job. I know it did, because when I took a seat  in front of studio chief Glenn Yamamoto's camera, he  gave the make-up verdict to Chris:  "Looks good."  

Chris does  the make-up on "Long Story Short," which was the first weekly TV show in Hawaii to be shot, edited and broadcast in HD. She tries out new things on me, as the next-generation of HD products comes on line.

At PBS Hawaii, we like that she keeps up with trends in her field. But that's not why she's so treasured at the station. Not only does she bring us high-caliber skills and a good work ethic, her easy-going disposition and empathy make even the most nervous guests feel at ease.

Listen for the Hawaiian-Language Pronunications!

I promised to let you know when PBS Hawaii will air the national show which granted our request to

amend its wayward pronunciations of Hawaiian place-names.  It's an interesting and enlightening program.

I encourage you to view CHEFS A'FIELD, with Honolulu Chef Alan Wong prominently featured, on Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2009, at 5 pm. The show repeats on Saturday, Nov. 21, 2009, at 6:30 pm.

CHEFS A'FIELD  also gives national exposure to these Big Island residents: visionary farmer Richard Ha, fishponds caretaker Chris Keeling, and the children of Keaukaha School, on Hawaiian Homestead land in Hilo.

You'll see nutritious food being grown in island soil and waters, before it gets to Chef Wong's restaurant kitchen. You'll see how easily he puts together imaginative and creative local dishes.  At the same time, he comfortably shares how Hawaii plantation days brought together many food customs.

(The need for plantation labor is the reason my own family forbears arrived on the island of Hawaii six generations ago.)

By phone from east Hawaii to the east coast of the continent, Keola Donaghy from the University of Hawaii at Hilo coached the show's narrator in pronouncing four Hawaiian place-names in the pre-distribution episode of "Sustainable Hawaii" on CHEFS A'FIELD.  Keola says the narrator was a true professional and picked up the phonetics easily. Working on a pretty tight deadline, the show did the edits on those four place names and fed the show by satellite around the country.

However, they apparently forgot to change one of the names, Hualalai, when it came up a second time in the audio track.  PBS Hawaii made the correction for Hawaii viewers, but the rest of the national audience is hearing "Hualalai" pronounced something like "Hula Lolly."

We're thankful to the producers that they went to the effort and expense of an additional studio session, to do the right thing.

For those who wonder why Hawaii's only public television station, guests on the show, and other people who posted comments on my blog,  made an issue of the pronunciation, this is why: The revered names, centuries old and tied to the land, have meaning. When you change the pronunciation, you change the meaning. It's a matter of meaning, respect, and accuracy.

Thank you, CHEFS A'FIELD, presenting public broadcaster KCTS in Seattle, Keola Donaghy and UH Hilo colleagues, and the people of Hawaii for caring about this.

CHEFS A'FIELD also merits kudos for going far afield for its viewers, traveling  to the Hawaiian island that's most eastward, a beautiful, varied place. This fascinating island is sometimes overlooked not only by national media, but  by Honolulu TV news crews.