To me, pidgin English, the cadence, the intonation, and the words sounds like home. While some tourist books will tout pidgin like a tourist attraction, pidgin is the language my dad speaks when he's drunk. And when he's drunk, he's the most expressive, honest, humorous, and open.
As part of the Crossing East project, Dmae aired her audio postcard on pidgin English on Day to Day.
Through a hangover haze I read the subject line to an email, "Director Kayo Hatta's Passing," and I wanted to sleep away the news, which worked so well on fixing my headache.
But that kind of magical realism only works in dreams and yesterday, her obituary ran in the Star Bulletin.
Her film Picture Bride shared the Asian immigration story to Hawaii with a mainstream audience via a compelling storyy and support from Sundance and Mirimax. The DVD release has supplements that shares the appreciation local people had for this effort as they contributed food, props, costumes, and services so that their story could be told by a local girl.
With Fishbowl, which premiered at NAATA's film fest this year, Kayo returned to Hawaii and adapted Lois-Ann Yamanaka's book to share a story about coming-of-age, class, language, and cultural hegemony.
As I'm working on a segment about picture brides for the big doc, I'm short on female "expert" voices. I asked Kayo if I could interview her back at the beginning of the year, but she was busy with Fishbowl.
This kind of news always makes me re-assess my priorities, call my family to tell them I love them, and makes those every day annoyances reveal themselves to what they really are, minor.
I have a hard time with electronic music. The knob twisting, laptop carrying dj who stands on stage just doesn't get me grooving like rock 'n'roll. But while the bass and snare of rock'n'roll get me nodding my head, SOUL MUSIC, rock's musical parent makes me GET DOWN. And thankfully, some Bay Area folks have made that easier to do with a club called Soulness.
I first met English Steve when he spun at my first Sanchez houseparty. I think Soulness was born out of one quiet night at the Hush Hush when Steve decided to go home, grab some records, and get the groove thing flowing. Him and Goldmyne have done Soulness at Mad Dog, Rooky's, 26Mix, and are helping to close out Hush Hush this Friday.
No links for Soulness so I offer up O-dub's Soul Sides instead.
I'm back to thinking about living in Oakland as my Hawaii tanned skin forms goosebumps in San Francisco's foggy/windy summer. But this well-written Perspective by Jennifer Lee reminds me what kind of isolation I may face by crossing to the "other side."
Robynn Takayama is a community artist whose work has been presented through video, web, and gallery installation in San Francisco, Berkeley, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
A graduate of the KPFA First Voice Apprenticeship, she has contributed to national and local public radio programs and the Peabody-awarded documentary on Asian American history, Crossing East.
Robynn is a board member of the Association of Independents in Radio and served on the CPB-funded Makers Quest Talent Committee, charged with finding the most imaginative producers, reporters, and sound artists and urging them to take public radio beyond its traditional airwaves.
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