TOURISTS IN WAIKIKI

OCCUPY TOGETHER FOR A BETTER WORLD

The Occupy Honolulu General Assembly formally announces a demonstration to be held on Saturday, October 15, 2011 in solidarity with the Global Day of Action. All members of the community are welcome to attend and make their voices heard. Sign making will begin at 9:30am on Magic Island near the first restroom. We will then gather at 11:00am at the corner of Ala Moana Blvd and Atkinson Drive. We will march peacefully to Waikiki via Kalakaua Avenue ending near the intersection with Kapahulu Avenue. We will hold a debrief and information session after the march at approximately 3:00pm near the Gandhi statue by the Honolulu Zoo. 

Why We March:  We march in peaceful solidarity with Occupy Wall Street and the Occupy movements in over 1,400 cities worldwide. We march as the 99% who will no longer sit idly by while corporate and special interests run our government. The top 1% of Americans control between 40% and 50% of the nation’s wealth – and more importantly, often use that wealth to undermine the democratic process. When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty. We the people must now rise up together and take our country back. We invite the 99% to speak out for economic and political systems that work for all people, not just a few. We are a new beginning, a global fight on all fronts that will usher in an era of shared prosperity, respect, mutual aid, and dignity.

Why Waikiki?  Waikiki represents the center of corporate greed on O’ahu. It houses mainland banks, hotels, investors, and conglomerates who have come to Hawai’i to control the economy. Waikiki is also the tourist hub of O’ahu where corporations persuade visitors to mindlessly shop and spend, allowing their corporate domination to continue. The 1% have created a global economic system, neoliberalism, that attacks our human rights and destroys our environment. We are the 99% that demand a world that works through democracy, not corporatocracy.

What is Occupy Honolulu?  Occupy Honolulu, in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street, is a leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions. The one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%.  We are using the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic to achieve our ends and encourage the use of nonviolence to maximize the safety of all participants.  We will not be silent.  Join us. 

Occupy Wall Street: What is involved in making a new world?

From Riyana-Rebecca Sang <rebeccasangasong@yahoo.com>

...the Occupy Together groups are starting to have to face the reality that it is downright difficult to reach our ideal of bringing together people from all walks of life, with disparate belief systems, communication styles, education and cultural backgrounds, etc. into one force that can challenge those in power and lead to laws and policies that serve a united majority and our sweet garden planet home rather than the rich minority....

In conversations on the margins of the crowds, people admit sheepishly about feeling left out for being the vegan, the queer, the heterosexual, the anarchist punk, the suburban mom, the elder with decades of experience, the young kid stepping out into the world of activism for the first time.  These moments are the shadows of unity – moments that show us the growing edges of where we need to go and teach us the tools that we need to develop in order to get there....

We all want the deep work of great change but we are never actually prepared for how hard it’s going to be, or how our personal shadows can snake through even the most conscious intentions, to ambush us from behind.  And that’s how it’s supposed to be. We can imagine what it would feel like to be our biggest, brightest selves, and we can envision what this world would be like if we could truly come together to heal, protect, and nourish our communities and ecosystems, but it’s the dirty, difficult work of wading through the shadows that gives us the skills, capacities, and tools to manifest them and get to the next level.  We may have a sense of the what, but the how comes with the journey, developed through the growing pains of evolution.  Part of that growth process is shining a bright light into the shadows, not to dis-spell their darkness, but to see what is there and what we can learn from diving deep into them.

CELEBRATING MY 70TH BIRTHDAY!

Illustrious bodypainter, Ferry Zeeman, sent me these images for my 70th birthday last week.  Ferry is an old (and he'll agree that we are now considered really old!) childhood friend.  We both grew up in Balikpapan, Indonesia and attended the Dutch school there.  After an adventurous career in the Merchant Marines, Ferry settled in Oegstgeest, The Netherlands and launched himself into the art form of painting bodies.  Although indigenous peoples the world over have always adorned themselves with paint and other organic matter, at the time this was a new expression of art for the western developed world.  Now bodypainting has developed into one of the most outstanding, outrageous, fantastic, and futuristic art forms with exhibitions and competitions in Europe and South America.  Ferry Zeeman was one of its pioneers, if not THE pioneer in Europe.  Check out his website: http://www.ferryzeeman.nl/bodypaint.htm

So now that I'm 70, I agree with all the good women who have told me that real life begins at 70.  Consider this: the whole month has been one big celebration!  And I expect it to continue.  It started off with a family reunion in Little Rock, Arkansas, where my youngest sister Paulette lives.  Paulette is a marketing and organizational genius.  No kidding.  She sweetly persuaded our humongous family of 80-85 (exact number?) members to travel to Little Rock to celebrate our 50 years in the USA and then single-handedly organized the event.  If you've ever tried to herd an Indo (Dutch-Indonesian) family together without causing hard feelings, you'll know what a feat she accomplished.  I will devote a whole post, "From Batik to Boots," to our incredible family reunion.
 

Reunion T-shirt shows how far the family has spread

Back to my celebrations.  After the reunion, my AWOL circle of art sisters celebrated by going on a Zipline adventure in Kaneohe.  (AWOL stands for Artist Way Of Life, or as someone's husband joked: Artists WithOut a Life.  He's just jealous.)  Not one to enjoy heights or funky carnival rides, I hoped I wasn't going to puke.  But it turned out to be quite a mild zip, lasting 10 to 15 seconds, just enough to get me out of my comfort zone. Filling out release forms, being weighed, suiting up, walking up to the starting point, and then waiting for your turn took way longer than the actual zip.  Still, it was quite a fun thing to do.  I asked the Zip Master if he’d ever had an older group of women zip and he answered no.  There you have it.  We’re his first.  Older women rule!

In addition to the Zipline birthday present, my AWOL sisters deluged me with more presents, most of them handmade (we’re artists after all) from clothes, jewelry, art and art materials, aphrodiacs, personally harvested lavender, screen-printed kitchen towels, and a Ganesha statue (Hindu god of prosperity and remover of obstacles) to a quirky hand-made stuffed rabbit I named Shoo-Shnookie-Shnook II, after Shoo-Shnookie-Shnook I, the beloved 65-year-old stuffed bear of artist Jahn-Peter, one of my Open Studio friends.

I learned that the Honolulu Branch of the National League of American Pen Women planned to present me with a happy birthday lei at our September meeting.  I had signed up and paid for the meeting, but promptly forgot about going.  They gave my lei to someone else.  Oh well, forgetting is one of the inalienable rights of growing older, right?

The Diamond Head Community Garden celebrated my birthday with a fantastic garden clean up.  Two long-time gardeners assured me that it was the best attended, best organized, and most enjoyable community workday ever in the entire history of the garden.  Even if they might have exaggerated (another right of growing older), it made for a wonderful birthday present.  For photos, see http://diamondheadcommunitygarden.blogspot.com

Garden members gifted me with four lei, an orchid plant, a bouquet of flowers, plant food, a home-made organic pain medicine, and a beautiful Buddha statue.  I decorated my plot with a birthday flag.

After the garden clean up, my fellow gardener and neighbor, Marilyn, took me for my birthday lunch to Uncle’s at Pier 38.  They just happened to have freshly-caught halibut.  It melted on my tongue!  What a treat!

That day was for eating and more eating.  My darling daughter and sweetheart son-in-law, brought us a delicious Thai dinner and a beautiful bouquet of flowers.

The day after my birthday, I celebrated by getting up early and walking to Queen’s Beach for the Na Wahine Festival Triathlon.

 The ocean was cold and very rough. You won't see me do any of this.

Power to these women!

Yesterday was another day of festivities.  It started off with Zumba at the bandstand in Kapiolani Park, made more exciting by a sudden downpour. 

Then a party at the Monarch Room of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Waikiki, hosted by Harry Kasanow, our financial advisor.  As usual, pre-dinner entertainment was by the incomparable Iona Contemporary Dancers. 

This year Harry feasted us with a spectacular concert by the quintet, “Hot Club of Hulaville,” playing in Django Reinhardt-style.  Breathtaking!  I had to have their CD, “Django Would Go!” www.hotclubofhulaville.com

 Fabulous singer Ginai with Sonny Silva on guitar

The biggest surprise of the night was that the City & County of Honolulu threw me a Waikiki Ho’olaulea Happy Birthday bash!  Kalakaua Avenue was closed off to traffic and became one huge party scene. 

 Kalakaua Avenue at 5:00 PM

A bandstand in front of the Moana Hotel around 9:30 PM.

Phil and I caught more music as we walked back home after Harry’s party.

The trio, “Maunaloa,” gave me chicken skin with their haunting songs in falsetto!

An unknown sixties band had a row of enthusiastic women dancing in front

A evangelical Christian duo singing hymns.

A guy on electric guitar with his girlfriend, singing Elvis’, “Y’ain’t Nothin’ But a Hound Dog.”

To the people of Hawaii and the people of the world:

THANK YOU ALL FOR CELEBRATING MY 70^TH BIRTHDAY!

WAIKIKI BUSKERS

 

Busking, or street performing, is a centuries-old tradition going back to times when wandering minstrels and bards traveled from place to place and acted not only as entertainers but also as news reporters and message bearers. The term ’sing for your supper’ could have originated at this time, when it was common practice for inns and stall holders to pay the busker with a meal and/or a bed for the night, instead of money. 

This afternoon I decided to check out the buskers in Waikiki in front of the International Marketplace.  There were the usual "statues."  A hard job, I think, standing still.  The guy in the photo below was smart; he chose to be a "sitting statue."  On the other hand, he did not attract a lot of attention.

This busker was especially entertaining.  Every time someone put money in his can, he would step on the horn that was taped to his podium.  The horn would make the strangest sound, something between a dying pig and a cat in heat.  Very clever.  First of all, it got people's attention and made them curious.  Secondly, it made people want to give him money so that he would make that noise again.  He would then go into a fancy routine of twirling his gun and inviting the donor to stand on the podium with him for a photo op.

Then... I ran into the most magical musical performance!

 

The busking duo of “Tanya & Dorise”!!!  

Dorise Blackmon on guitar and Tanya Huang on violin.  

O. M. G. !!!  

They gave us a virtuoso performance.  They had just arrived from New Orleans (their first day in Hawaii!) and they were drawing the crowds.  I wish I had had a video cam.  Instead I bought two of their CD's and would have bought the third if I had had more cash on me.  Best music I've heard in a long time.  Passionate.

Check out www.tanyandorise.com 

 They said they were here for two weeks.

This darling plastic lei seller started dancing to the music, 

straight-faced and untiring.  Priceless!