Aloha

On the video I got when I first started playing the uke, Jim Beloff opens by performing a song he wrote called "I Don't Want To Say Aloha."

I too don't want to say "aloha."

When I took a songwriting class four years ago at the Gotham Writers' Workshop in New York City, my teacher talked of a something she called "song high." It's that feeling you have when you've just written a new song and you think, "That's the best song anyone has ever written." When you get that feeling, she says, it's time to put the song aside for a few weeks and come back to it, maybe with a little better perspective. The feeling usually goes away. Well, right now I'm feeling a kind of song high for the whole experience I've just been through, and I really hope it doesn't go away.

It almost seems a shame that I'm leaving now because there is a large annual ukulele festival here this coming Sunday for which people come from all over. The festival is loaded with star performers. But I can't stay forever, and I can leave knowing I've already seen some of the world's finest uke players these last few weeks: Benny Chong, Herb Ohta Jr., David Kamakahi, Jake Shimabukuro and, of course my classmate Taimane Gardner. Today I stopped off at the Ukulele Pua Pua store at the Pacific Beach Hotel to buy a few CDs by each of these great ukers before I go.

On my way back to my room, I stopped at the U.S. Army Museum, which is only a five minute walk away, but I've not been there until now because--between the shop, lessons and performances--I've had so little time to sitesee. I will, in fact, be leaving Honolulu without having visited Pearl Harbor or the Arizona Memorial. A shame, I know, but it does give me an excuse to return soon. Not that I need an excuse.

Finally, as I end this blog, I need to thank a few people. If you have been following my adventures all along, bear with me for a few more paragraphs, as there are several people and organizations without whom this never would have happened:

First of all, thanks to The Fund For Teachers for providing me with the grant that made this trip possible, and to New Visions through whom the grant was made available.

Thanks to everyone at the High School for Public Service, a great group of people to work with who have been full of encouragement. Special thanks to Marisa Boan, my school administrator, who first told me about the Fund For Teachers grants when she learned I was applying for a fellowship to Japan in the fall. It was also Marisa who--when I was having trouble thinking of what to write my grant proposal for--told me to "shoot for the moon." I did and it's been a wonderful ride.

Thanks to Mike and Asa Chock of the Hana Lima 'Ia ukulele building school. They the nicest of people and are the reason the uke-building class felt like "ohana." Mike is a true craftsman, and his guidance throughout the process of building my uke was teaching of the highest order.

My music theory instructor while I've been here, Byron Yasui, is one of a kind. A great uke player, a patient teacher, and always smiling. It will be many months--maybe years--before I will be able to master all that Byron has shown me in just a few short sessions.

Thanks too, to the members of the uke community--many of whom have been jealously following this blog--who provided me with so much help both as I wrote my grant proposal and after I got here. I hope I've encouraged a few of you to follow me here. Extra special thanks to Geoff Davis and MusicGuyMike.

Thanks to my mom and dad who helped me get into guitar all those years ago, and for putting up with noisy garage band jam sessions in our basement when I was a kid.

Most of all, thanks to my perfect wife, Allison, who supports me in every hair-brained scheme I dream up. She's too good to me.

And to you, my readers, thank you for your supportive comments and for indulging me these last two-and-a-half weeks. Don't forget to check back here in October when I will be blogging from Japan.

Aloha.

[view today's photos]