A friend told me about this two hour Hawaiian music show a while ago, but Saturday mornings from 6 to 8 a.m. is a bit early even for me. But I finally listened to it last week, and encourage you to do so as well if you enjoy Hawaiian music. The host is John Putnam, who play a variety of English (plus hapa-haole) and Hawaiian songs for this Mele O Hawai’i show.

KXCI community radio website info: www.kxci.org, 91.3 FM radio. Request line is 520-622-5924.

Last week Putnam played favorites by Raiatea Helm, Israel Kamakawiwio’ole, Cyril Pahinui, Mark Yamanaka, Brothers Cazimero, Cecilio & Kapono, etc. I just heard Cyril, Mark, and Lehua play live a few weeks ago at the Hawaii County “Magic of the Season” events. But the best singer for that holiday event was Henry Kapono (of former Cecilio & Kapono duo) who sang “Danny’s Song” and other favorites to a huge crowd in Hilo, Hawaii.

KXCI even lists their programming playlist (click here for January 5 show).

My favorite Hawaiian music station on the Big Island (when I get to go home) is KAPA 100.3/99.1 FM, where the radio hosts speak Pidgin English and have a Hawaiian word of the day for the listeners. And by the way, one of my favorite singers who plays slack key is Kohala local boy/friend John Keawe, who attended the same high school as me. I think I own all of his CDs.

And save the date: February 21 for George Kahumoku, Jr. at the Fox Theater, 17 W. Congress St.

Then after two hours of Hawaiian music, you can head over to Lani’s Luau for authentic Hawaiian food for lunch. They say they “speak aloha” at that restaurant, located at 2532 S. Harrison Rd. (NW corner of Golf Links Rd).

Listen to Mele O Hawai’i tomorrow morning, and every Saturday morning.

Like many in Hawaii I grew up hearing about the legendary U.S. Senator Daniel K. Inouye, who was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives when Hawaii attained statehood in 1959. He passed away at age 88 on December 17, 2012, the 2nd longest serving U.S. Senator in American history, and President Pro Tempore of the U.S. Senate (third in line of U.S. Presidential succession).

Here are photos (front & back) of the President Pro Tempore commemorative coin he sent me last year:

18 members of my Sugiyama family attended his Big Island memorial service on December 27, 2012 at the Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium in Hilo, Hawaii. Over a thousand people came through that afternoon to say a final “aloha” to this distinguished man. His 2nd wife Irene Hirano Inouye and his only child Kenny Inouye were present to receive condolences from constituents, politicians, veterans, seniors, Native Hawaiians, relatives — all people who knew him and knew his good work over 50 years in the U.S. Senate and three and a half years in the U.S. House of Representatives. Particularly moving was the singing of his favorite songs “Danny Boy” and “Kaimana Hila” sung by local Hilo musicians Mark Yamanaka and Friends. Junior Hawaii Senator Dan Akaka’s son Kahu Daniel “Kaniela” Akaka, Jr. performed the invocation & benediction.
Link to Hawaii Tribune Herald article on this service, with photos (click here).

Memorial services were held for the Senator at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C, Punchbowl National Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu (where his first wife Maggie Awamura Inouye is buried), and on the neighbor islands of Hawaii, Kauai, and Maui. U.S. President Barack Obama spoke at the Washington National Cathedral and attended the service at Punchbowl.

Inouye was also decorated for being a member of the famous & extremely courageous 442nd Regimental Combat team, which served honorably in Europe during WWII. He was a 2nd Lt. who lost his right arm in a battle in 1945 in Italy. That combat team was famous for their motto “Go fo’ broke”, which in Pidgin English means to use all your best to prevail, to “wager everything”.

He was like that, a man who exemplified excellence, competence, and dedication. As a young woman attorney I worked for him for 2 years on Capitol Hill at his Senate office, and we became friends thereafter. He was like an “Uncle” to me and our family. To read my previous tribute on the day he passed away (click here). We Hawaiians will miss him.

Mahalo nui loat (thank you very much) Senator for your decades of public service. You really did “go fo’ broke.”

It is December 12 and I started humming the 12 days of Christmas song (English version about the partridge in a a pear tree)– till the lyrics of the Hawaiian version came to mind.

“12 Days of Christmas Hawaiian Style” was apparently written in 15 minutes as three friends ate Chinese food in the living room of a Diamond Head (Oahu) home. So reported the Honolulu Star Bulletin in December, 1995.

The song was copyrighted in 1959 by Eaton "Bob" Magoon Jr.'s Hawaiian Recording and Publishing Co. Listed as its authors were composer/real estate developer Magoon, actor/singer Ed Kenney, and Gordon Phelps, then Magoon's assistant. (Hawaiian Recording and Publishing Co. is no longer in business, and neither is the Honolulu Star Bulletin, which went out of business recently in June, 2010).

The Hawaiian version starts off:

“Numbah One day of Christmas, my tutu give to me One mynah bird in one papaya tree.” (Tutu is grandmother in Hawaiian)

The hilarious song goes on to list:
Two coconuts
Three dried squid (yum)
Four flower lei
Five big fat pigs (pua’a, the Hawaiian pig)
Six hula lessons
Seven shrimps a-swimming
Eight ukuleles
Nine pounds of poi (that’s a lot of poi!)
Ten cans of beer (more politically correct versions now say “soda”)
Eleven missionaries
Twelve televisions

You can see how times have changed since 1959 (Hawaii’s statehood year) since it’s not politically correct to mention beer with young families anymore (even in Hawaii), nor Christian missionaries who first arrived in Hawaii in 1820. And color televisions were only starting to pop up in people’s homes back then.

Listen online to various different versions of this song, sung in Pidgin English (but I translated it for you readers, as I am fluent in Pidgin, having grown up on the Big Island).

Happy 12 days of Christmas!

Mele Kalikimaka (Merry Christmas in Hawaiian) a bit early too.