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June 21, 2003 - Saturday
Welcome to the Summer Solstice, although for all practical purposes summer arrived some time back. The solstice is significant to us because it means that the sun reverses course and the sun rises just a bit later every day. Here in Kaaawa, the earliest sunrise of the year was two days ago, on Thursday morning, when it appeared at 5:49 a.m., but this morning will be a minute later, and within a month we'll have gained another 15 minutes. You can check out a full year of sunrise and sunset data for about anywhere in the world at the U.S. Naval Observatory.
A reader yesterday reported getting a chuckle out of the Advertiser's story on the contract between the Hawaii Tourism Authority and the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau.
The HTA has a clause in its contract with the HVCB stating that the HVCB can't criticize the HTA (or face a $25,000 fine). When asked about the clause, the Advertiser reports with a straight face:
"However, HVCB president Tony Vericella did not criticize the tourism authority's decision to put the clause in the contract."
Well, duh.
And for a larger dose of media comment, check out the "Media Patrol" at Curser.org.
June 20, 2003 - Friday
Here's an interesting observation by a local reader:
Over the past several weeks both daily papers posted several articles on who isn't going to be the football coach at St. Louis. I find it interesting that the news is about what's not happening.
But even more interesting is that this is all taking place in a school which has an open position for the job of principal of the middle and high school. It was announced in April that the principal for the past twelve years, Burton Tomita, would not have his contract renewed. The principal's position is still open, there's been no public search, and no one is reporting anything about it. I understand there's an "invitation only" search taking place, but nothing in the public eye.
All the while, of course, the open football spot is daily headline stuff. Would it be cynical here to pose a question about priorities?
I guess the obvious answer is that's what the public is more interested in.
It was a shock to get home last night and hear on the late news that Glen Grant had died. We both had roots back in the first years of the UH Ethnic Studies Program, and bumpbed into each other over the years. A creative talent, always an interesting person, and a real loss.
June 19, 2003 - Thursday
I received several additional advance comments about "Boarding House: North Shore", including an inquiry from the chairman of the Hawaii Tourism Authority.
Washington Post reviewer Tom Shales painted a very sympathetic portrait of Sunny Garcia, calling him "a basically even-tempered guy who nevertheless finds himself getting goaded into altercations."
But comments about Garcia's violent behavior could already be found on various reality show discussion lists. Here's a sample:
I have only seen the previews of this show, but have been repeatedly shocked by the sub-human violence exhibited by one of the "men" on the show. Who is the guy? Why isn't he in prison? What is his criminal record and how did he qualify for this show with a criminal background?
A former islander now living on the mainland added this:
A friend of mine works for Viacom, parent company of MTV. She says there is a definite "Hawaii" factor -- where someone from Hawaii who is on a reality show ends up being a real screw-up. Alcohol, drug abuse, violence, egocentric. As examples she used:
Ruthie from MTV Real World
Ikaika from Making the Band
someone on MTV Road Rules
They act like total idiots and give Hawaii a black eye, literally and figuratively.
So when the program aired last night, I have to admit tuning in. On screen, Garcia was a likeable but violent and somewhat unpredictable man. I'll agree with this comment from another viewer:
Don't know if you watched Boarding House, but I did and thought Garcia came off looking less like a trouble-maker and more like a tough local who seems to attract trouble. Near the start of the show he does pop a guy in the face who's sitting in the cab of a pickup truck, and in a preview of next week's episode, he does knock another surfer right off his feet on the sand with one poke.
But the episode in the restaurant in which Garcia has an altercation with a tourist made him look good. The tourist was an idiot who was making overtures to Garcia's wife. When Garcia demanded an apology, the tourist actually threatened to "whup" Garcia's ass. Garcia invited him to stand up and the guy backed off right away. Tense scene.
But it's clear that if you come to Hawaii, you'd better not cross the "locals." And Garcia, the trouble magnet, is clearly the star of this series. So it will be interesting to see what impression mainland people derive from the series, and whether it affects tourism in a negative or positive way.
Jury's out, I think.
So it is.
June 18, 2003 - Wednesday
A reader poses this query:
I wonder at if anyone at Hawaii Tourism Authority should be concerned about the image Sunny Garcia gives "locals" in the "Boarding House: North Shore" reality series that begins tomorrow (actually, that's tonight,Wednesday, 7 p.m. on KFVE, Channel 5).
Seems Garcia intimidates and actually whacks a few people.
If you're a potential tourist, you're thinking you don't want your kid to run into that guy on vacation.
Good point, since the North Shore has a history of struggling with an image of thuggery.
Another reader cc'd this dart aimed at KITV for running an ad during the early local news that was set up like a news story, reporting with a hand mike in front of a car lot, announcing 'breaking news' about...a car sale.
I am surprised and disappointed that your station management would allow a "pretend" news story to be slipped into an actual newscast timeslot, even during the advertising break. Fooling around with the news is not good public policy; it cheapens your newscast and confuses the public.
I would hope that you would adhere to a little more stringent separation of advertising and news, especially these days, when the differentiation is more difficult to discern everywhere.
| Things are looking up...it's raining! It's been cloudy several mornings in a row, with a little rain each morning. And for the last seven minutes, it's been pouring in Kaaawa. I just finished drying off Ms. Kili, who got caught in the downpour. I hope it continues. It's feels like it's been desert dry for months. (Folo: it's 5:30 a.m. and all that remains of the rain are a few drips falling from the mango tree onto the front deck.) |
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June 17, 2003 - Tuesday
There's a tale making the rounds of a large mystery cat loose on Maui. The Maui News reported on Saturday (this link will only remain valid for a few days) that the cat, weighing in the neighborhood of 100 pounds, had been sighted in lower Olinda. A couple of bits of info caught my eye.
"In the past few years, Duvall said, there have also been reports of big cats in Maliko Gulch and Makena. One turned out to be a “ratty German shepherd” and the other a very large tomcat." It's like that in the search for those pesky weapons of mass destruction, too.
Then this: "The only report, so far, of a possible food source for the big cat came during the most recent sighting when the witnesses said they had noticed a decline in the number of wild chickens in the area." If true, it could set off a search for large cats to release out in our part of the island, where the wild chicken population really needs a good thinning.
The Star-Bulletin picked up an Associated Press version of the cat story on Saturday as well, and S-B Maui reporter Gary Kubota followed up today. The Advertiser ran its own version today.
Here's a symptom of what's going wrong. A Knight-Ridder story by Frank Davies over the weekend reported that an appalling number of Americans have swallowed the propaganda claims of the Bush imagemakers.
A third of the American public believes U.S. forces found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, according to a recent poll. And 22 percent said Iraq actually used chemical or biological weapons in the war.
Before the war, half of those polled in a survey said Iraqis were among the 19 hijackers on Sept. 11, 2001.
Folks in the news business have to read these poll results and weep.
Alex Salkever spotted a story in Online Casino News on the possible local impact of new federal gambling "restrictions", which could have the effect of legalizing certain online gaming.
June 16, 2003 - Monday
Congratulations to winners in the competition sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists, Hawaii Professional Chapter. Winners were announced at an event Saturday night.
The Star-Bulletin's June Watanabe captured a bit of undistilled government ineptness in her Kokua Line column yesterday. She begins with a complaint--why is maintenance at the Hawaii Veterans Cemetery in Kaneohe so shoddy? The problem, they say, is money and has been for well over five years. But reading on, it appears that the problem is really bureaucratic logic. Everyone seems to agree that the place is a wreck, the grass is dead or full of weeds and some families have tried to at least restore areas around their loved ones graves by planting and tending grass on their own.
But then the department in charge says it has complaints about "lack of uniformity". Say what? I guess the little plots of grass among the larger sea of mud was annoying. So what do they do? Prohibit families from planting grass, knowing full well that they don't have the funds to do it right and have no expectations to get them any time soon.
This is classic state government in Hawaii. Enthusiasm about a big idea ("we need to honor our veterans") followed by shoddy and underfunded implementation and long-term maintenance simply missing in action. You can see it in the schools, at the university, and in state offices. It's the same story, again and again.
There's certainly a bigger story here, a tragedy of legislative inattention or worse, bureaucratic bungling, Alice in Wonderland logic, and the pain of those who survive and watch it all happen. Paging through a 2002 report on maintenance needs at the veterans' cemeteries statewide provides a long list of unresolved issues. Auwe!
June 15, 2003 - Sunday
Fathers Day. Or is it Father's Day, or Fathers' Day? Whatever, this is it.
| Leo entered our household on Fathers Day in 1999. Our early morning walk was interrupted by the appearance of an unaccompanied and hungry kitten just a short distance from home.
"Happy Fathers Day, pal." That was the perfect comment from another couple walking past as we stood there on the one-lane road realizing that we had just added another cat to the family.
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Toronto Sun columnist Eric Margolis has a good one today on the American press and Iraq. And I missed this earlier story on the debate over the supposed "mobile biological weapons labs" still being claimed by the Bushites. Note: this story didn't display properly in one browser, but looked fine in Explorer. So be forewarned.
| Truth be told, we took off last weekend for the West Coast, landing in San Francisco mid-afternoon, picking up a car, and driving north for a couple of hours to find Monte Rio, just a few minutes south of Guerneville along the Russian River. Destination: a reunion among the redwoods with Meda's mother, two sisters, and brother. Along with spouses, etc. |
Click on photo for the Monte Rio Report |
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