A few odds and ends to share.

First, a follow-up to yesterday’s post about the journal of my great-great-grandmother (on my mom’s side), Eleanor Knowlton. I finally got a look at the first volume, which my sister has transcribed and is now annotating.

It begins:

JUNE 19, 1902

About three years ago, I was earnestly requested by my son-in-law, Theo Madsen to tell him something of my ancestors in my own biography. Owing to my age, sixty eight years, I deferred the task, as it seemed to me, it would be a tedious one, and furthermore I had never interrogated him on the subject of his family. My remarks may be brief but I will show by relating what I know of them that I am not ashamed of any of my ancestors or of my own life.

So it’s looking like what appears to be a diary is really a memoir written when she was around 70 years of age. But her references to specific dates and incidents that took place decades before suggest he must have been working from a diary or notes from those earlier journeys.

In any case, I’ll try to share more of her great storytelling.

Next–Sandy Hall, a friend of my dad’s and author of a biography of Duke Kahanamoku, asked for help in spreading the word about a short film contest to celebrate Duke’s Centenary of Surfing in Australia. It’s kind of a last minute thing, with a December 15 deadline, but there may be aspiring or accomplished filmmakers here who would want to submit an entry.

Here’s part of a writeup from The Australian (“Duke Kahanamoku short film contest aims to capture the spirit of aloha“).

NEVER mind Tropfest — the coolest short film contest this summer is much lower key.

It is the Duke’s Shorts contest, a part of the Duke’s Day celebrations, which will commemorate the centenary of Duke Kahanamoku’s famous surfing demonstration at Freshwater Beach, Sydney, in January 1915.

The film contest is open to all filmmakers around the world, amateur or professional. The entries must be no longer than five minutes and, in the words of judge Jack McCoy, himself one of the great living surf filmmakers, “something about the Duke”. This could be a moral, a story or “something you want to make up”.

The prize for the winner is a $3000 Panasonic GH4 camera. A selection of the best entries will be screened at the festival’s closing ceremony in front of a crowd of surfing luminaries, former world champions and former friends of the late Kahanamoku.

For more information, visit the Duke’s Day website.

It didn’t take Governor-elect David Ige and his people very long to get right back into the fundraising saddle. Email invites have gone out for the “GOVERNOR DAVID IGE INAUGURATION CELEBRATION 2014,” scheduled for December 5, 2014 at the Hawaii Convention Center. Just $2,500 to reserve a table for ten, or $75 per ticket for open seating.

The event is being put on by the David Ige Inauguration Organization, which filed its incorporation papers with the state last Friday, November 21. Serving as the incorporator was attorney Keith Hiraoka, chairman of Ige’s campaign committee, a named partner in the firm of Roeca Luria Hiraoka.