'O Pao'o!

What did I say last night, that Kumu Mark was funny, snarky, sexy, etc a list of various good things? Scratch all that, he is fully hot and I admit to having one of my juvenile crushes. Don't bother image googling him; he looks so vastly different now from any of those old pics that you would think he wasn't even related to himself. After class, I couldn't think of much else to say to him, but I thanked him for not making us pray and act Christian and all that other stuff that most Kumu make you do, never minding that hey, not all of us are Christian. He said, "Hey, my pleasure. Thank you for being here."

Favorite Hula of this seminar (and destined to be one of my favorite Hulas ever,) 'O Pao'o, about the fish who is not pretty, but clever and quick and jumps from pond to pond, (now he's in the big pond! Ooh, now he jumped into a little one, that bastard!) and nibbles from all the different, *coughcough* seaweed, making all the other fishes jealous. But at the end--'auwe!--he gets caught. BURN!

Tonight is ho'ike and tomorrow is Tahitian. Hey, maybe I can still even walk tomorrow. We'll see!

Anyway, all day I had a funny feeling that something was up back home, so I called Mom and Dad and left a message (Mom is at Zack's birthday party, Dad putting down tiles in my kitchen--very awesome of him.) Da just called me back and said "You have that sixth sense going on; Mom took Trisky to the emergency vets last night." Because her toe got swollen. Her toe. Ahh, that's my Mom, she couldn't stand it if anything happened, especially on her watch. They figured on it being just a traumatic thing, but said it could also be lyme's and if it kept up, get a blood test done on Monday. But Da said that it's better now. She probably just banged it on something.

You know, all last week I was worried about leaving. It's so hard for me to get away, you know, the zoo at home, the unfinished kitchen, the baby birds coming in... And then there's something about getting up at 7:30 to start that first class, which you know is going to be frustrating and hard, and you're going to mess up here and there, and do the same goddamn thing twelve times in a row until you're numb and the words sp making sense, and you find yourself dancing at nothing for a few seconds, about nothing.... At around 2 PM when you're on the last Hula of the day and you're still trying to mentally hold onto the first two or three you already did blah blah, even though your brain is melted on the dirty floor somewhere and the Hula sisters behind you probably stepped on it coming back from lunch, and then your legs lose the numbness they've had for the last hour or so and al of a sudden it hits you, "Hey! This hurts!." When you think of those things it's easy to say, "I'll skip this seminar, maybe." But listening to Mark Keali'i Ho'omalu sing--actually sing after an entire day of his chant/random word/timekeeping sounds thing (which I like, BTW)--you have that moment of going, "That's why I took off work, left my home in chaos and traveled to the midwest."

I know, I know, shut the hell up. I get fascinated with people I like, as those of you who read my f-locked posts already know. I can get effusive, and later on I'll probably read this back and go, "God, get over it!" (Although honestly, I still tend to go on lovingly, and at length, aboud Kumu Sonny Ching and Kumu Keali'i Reichel. But come on. So do most people.) Those of you who know me know that I get my crushes and go all into "OMFG he is AWESOME!" mode. But for his weekend, just deal with it, okay?

You know, or do like normal, and ignore me. ^_^

'O Pao'o!

What did I say last night, that Kumu Mark was funny, snarky, sexy, etc a list of various good things? Scratch all that, he is fully hot and I admit to having one of my juvenile crushes. Don't bother image googling him; he looks so vastly different now from any of those old pics that you would think he wasn't even related to himself. After class, I couldn't think of much else to say to him, but I thanked him for not making us pray and act Christian and all that other stuff that most Kumu make you do, never minding that hey, not all of us are Christian. He said, "Hey, my pleasure. Thank you for being here."

Favorite Hula of this seminar (and destined to be one of my favorite Hulas ever,) 'O Pao'o, about the fish who is not pretty, but clever and quick and jumps from pond to pond, (now he's in the big pond! Ooh, now he jumped into a little one, that bastard!) and nibbles from all the different, *coughcough* seaweed, making all the other fishes jealous. But at the end--'auwe!--he gets caught. BURN!

Tonight is ho'ike and tomorrow is Tahitian. Hey, maybe I can still even walk tomorrow. We'll see!

Anyway, all day I had a funny feeling that something was up back home, so I called Mom and Dad and left a message (Mom is at Zack's birthday party, Dad putting down tiles in my kitchen--very awesome of him.) Da just called me back and said "You have that sixth sense going on; Mom took Trisky to the emergency vets last night." Because her toe got swollen. Her toe. Ahh, that's my Mom, she couldn't stand it if anything happened, especially on her watch. They figured on it being just a traumatic thing, but said it could also be lyme's and if it kept up, get a blood test done on Monday. But Da said that it's better now. She probably just banged it on something.

You know, all last week I was worried about leaving. It's so hard for me to get away, you know, the zoo at home, the unfinished kitchen, the baby birds coming in... And then there's something about getting up at 7:30 to start that first class, which you know is going to be frustrating and hard, and you're going to mess up here and there, and do the same goddamn thing twelve times in a row until you're numb and the words sp making sense, and you find yourself dancing at nothing for a few seconds, about nothing.... At around 2 PM when you're on the last Hula of the day and you're still trying to mentally hold onto the first two or three you already did blah blah, even though your brain is melted on the dirty floor somewhere and the Hula sisters behind you probably stepped on it coming back from lunch, and then your legs lose the numbness they've had for the last hour or so and al of a sudden it hits you, "Hey! This hurts!." When you think of those things it's easy to say, "I'll skip this seminar, maybe." But listening to Mark Keali'i Ho'omalu sing--actually sing after an entire day of his chant/random word/timekeeping sounds thing (which I like, BTW)--you have that moment of going, "That's why I took off work, left my home in chaos and traveled to the midwest."

I know, I know, shut the hell up. I get fascinated with people I like, as those of you who read my f-locked posts already know. I can get effusive, and later on I'll probably read this back and go, "God, get over it!" (Although honestly, I still tend to go on lovingly, and at length, aboud Kumu Sonny Ching and Kumu Keali'i Reichel. But come on. So do most people.) Those of you who know me know that I get my crushes and go all into "OMFG he is AWESOME!" mode. But for his weekend, just deal with it, okay?

You know, or do like normal, and ignore me. ^_^

Dancer's Dream day 2, evening

Going on with more stuff that means nothing to anyone but me. During dinner tonight I finished my notes for two of the Hulas that Kumu mark taught (the two that I fell head over heels with, so that's good.) Tonight's ho'ike was short, and really nice for the most part. I saw a lot of good Hulas, and one or two embarassing ones that made me feel guilty and had me hoping that our Kumu would not judge us all by this nonsense. I'm not talking about beginners or people who don't move too well, but schmalzy, shlocky, haolified full-on nonsense. I was like, My god, folks, you all knew that Mark Keali'i Ho'omalu was going to be in attendance, and this is what you want to show? But as it happens, he didn't stay for the entire ho'ike, although he was there for a little while. (The rumor--from two years ago even--is that he is not, in fact, being a rock star about it, but he truly, honestly doesn't like crowds.)

Before the ho'ike started, he and his alaka'i (the cute and very powerful dancer Eileen,) were hanging around outside, and I was too afraid to approach him, so I went to the bar to get a pina coloda, only they couldn't make me one so I got a white russian instead, and I stood around drinking and being nervous while I waited for Olivia to join me. I wanted to say a lot of stuff to both Kumu Mark and Alaka'i Eileen, but realizing that he doesn't like crowds, I didn't want to, well, crowd him. Even though everyone else was.

So anyway while I was standing around, this woman came up to me and said, "You were in the front row today, and I have to tell you, I watched you the entire time." Me? I got that a few times before, because when my concentration is on, I can remember the moves really well and people will come and ask me for my notes, but I wasn't 100% today, mentally or physically, so I really didn't expect to hear it today. Then she went on, "I watched you because you were so obviously loving every minute, and you had so much joy. Oh," she added as an afterthought, "you were really great." And the technical aspect of that compliment, the "you were really great" really was an afterthought, like a "which is not to say your dancing sucked, but really you were just fun to watch."

That is probably my most received compliment on my dancing, or some variation thereof; but most of them have to to with emotion rather than technical aspects. The first was from ts one official from Hawai'i (I wish I could remember his name) at the Orlando seminar a few years back, when he told me "You are such a joyful dancer." And the second time was after the Brookhaven show for Pacific / Asian cultural celebration, when this woman came up to me and said, "I used to live in Hawai'i, and I could tell when you were dancing that you knew what you were dancing about. You made me feel Hawai'i." And then two Octobers ago after I danced for Keali'i Reichel and totally messed up his Hula, I later admitted it and another dancer came up to me and said, "But you had so much fun, everyone can see your love for Hula."

I can count the compliments I got on technical stuff from my peers and betters, and I remember them word for word, because I treasure them. They came from Auntie Kau'i, Kumu Kawehi, Kumu Sonny after he chanted live for us, ("Thank you for taking care of my Hula,") and his Alaka'i Lopaka on that same night, and Pat (Kaleo) at 'Ohana.

These things mean a lot to me. When no one could seem to get that last damn kahea (that's the call-back,) in 'O Pao'o today, I wanted so badly to be the one to get it, and to "blast it out, piece of cake" like Kumu Mark said, and every freaking time I thought I was going to get the cue, and every freaking time I missed it. So after ho'ike was over, I saw him sitting on the bench surrounded by admirers and autograph seekers, and I decided that, damnit, I wanted to go talk to him anyway. I guess he assumed I was after a picture, and Olivia had my camera anyway, so she snapped one (YAY! And he hugged me and kissed me! Usually I have to sneak up on these people and just kiss them randomly like I to with Kumu Keali'i everytime I see him, and Pese too, of course, so I was just, hurray!) And then I stammered something alone the lines of, "Uhh, uhh, I was right in the front today, and I know that I kept messing up, but I'm going to practice, really practice hard! And I'm going to get it right one of these days! Of course you won't be there to see it, but I promise I won't keep messing up your Hula, I'm determined!" And I realized that I was emphatically pounding my fist into my palm, you know, determined! To not mess up! And he was saying to me, "Okay, that's cool, no panic, no panic, all good!" Determined! Good Hula! Not mess up! Practice hard! >_> I am such a geek. (This is how I was like when I first met Uncle Moon, and he was kind enough to overlook my general moronicness (moronity?) and become a really close friend.)

I am listening right now to his awesome new song, and I can't share it with you ("you" meaning anyone who has made it this far, meaning, NO ONE! :D ) because it's not released yet. It's called "Po Nui" (I think?) and is available on iTunes and I think you can also hear it on his web page (I think, but I'm not sure because my laptop won't play the flash site.) I promise you, it is nothing like what you're expecting. Give it a whirl, O constant non-existant reader.

ETA: This newsletter lists the song as "Po Nui Auwaea" AND had a fairly recent photo, too. Awesome, truly.

Dancer's Dream day 2, evening

Going on with more stuff that means nothing to anyone but me. During dinner tonight I finished my notes for two of the Hulas that Kumu mark taught (the two that I fell head over heels with, so that's good.) Tonight's ho'ike was short, and really nice for the most part. I saw a lot of good Hulas, and one or two embarassing ones that made me feel guilty and had me hoping that our Kumu would not judge us all by this nonsense. I'm not talking about beginners or people who don't move too well, but schmalzy, shlocky, haolified full-on nonsense. I was like, My god, folks, you all knew that Mark Keali'i Ho'omalu was going to be in attendance, and this is what you want to show? But as it happens, he didn't stay for the entire ho'ike, although he was there for a little while. (The rumor--from two years ago even--is that he is not, in fact, being a rock star about it, but he truly, honestly doesn't like crowds.)

Before the ho'ike started, he and his alaka'i (the cute and very powerful dancer Eileen,) were hanging around outside, and I was too afraid to approach him, so I went to the bar to get a pina coloda, only they couldn't make me one so I got a white russian instead, and I stood around drinking and being nervous while I waited for Olivia to join me. I wanted to say a lot of stuff to both Kumu Mark and Alaka'i Eileen, but realizing that he doesn't like crowds, I didn't want to, well, crowd him. Even though everyone else was.

So anyway while I was standing around, this woman came up to me and said, "You were in the front row today, and I have to tell you, I watched you the entire time." Me? I got that a few times before, because when my concentration is on, I can remember the moves really well and people will come and ask me for my notes, but I wasn't 100% today, mentally or physically, so I really didn't expect to hear it today. Then she went on, "I watched you because you were so obviously loving every minute, and you had so much joy. Oh," she added as an afterthought, "you were really great." And the technical aspect of that compliment, the "you were really great" really was an afterthought, like a "which is not to say your dancing sucked, but really you were just fun to watch."

That is probably my most received compliment on my dancing, or some variation thereof; but most of them have to to with emotion rather than technical aspects. The first was from ts one official from Hawai'i (I wish I could remember his name) at the Orlando seminar a few years back, when he told me "You are such a joyful dancer." And the second time was after the Brookhaven show for Pacific / Asian cultural celebration, when this woman came up to me and said, "I used to live in Hawai'i, and I could tell when you were dancing that you knew what you were dancing about. You made me feel Hawai'i." And then two Octobers ago after I danced for Keali'i Reichel and totally messed up his Hula, I later admitted it and another dancer came up to me and said, "But you had so much fun, everyone can see your love for Hula."

I can count the compliments I got on technical stuff from my peers and betters, and I remember them word for word, because I treasure them. They came from Auntie Kau'i, Kumu Kawehi, Kumu Sonny after he chanted live for us, ("Thank you for taking care of my Hula,") and his Alaka'i Lopaka on that same night, and Pat (Kaleo) at 'Ohana.

These things mean a lot to me. When no one could seem to get that last damn kahea (that's the call-back,) in 'O Pao'o today, I wanted so badly to be the one to get it, and to "blast it out, piece of cake" like Kumu Mark said, and every freaking time I thought I was going to get the cue, and every freaking time I missed it. So after ho'ike was over, I saw him sitting on the bench surrounded by admirers and autograph seekers, and I decided that, damnit, I wanted to go talk to him anyway. I guess he assumed I was after a picture, and Olivia had my camera anyway, so she snapped one (YAY! And he hugged me and kissed me! Usually I have to sneak up on these people and just kiss them randomly like I to with Kumu Keali'i everytime I see him, and Pese too, of course, so I was just, hurray!) And then I stammered something alone the lines of, "Uhh, uhh, I was right in the front today, and I know that I kept messing up, but I'm going to practice, really practice hard! And I'm going to get it right one of these days! Of course you won't be there to see it, but I promise I won't keep messing up your Hula, I'm determined!" And I realized that I was emphatically pounding my fist into my palm, you know, determined! To not mess up! And he was saying to me, "Okay, that's cool, no panic, no panic, all good!" Determined! Good Hula! Not mess up! Practice hard! >_> I am such a geek. (This is how I was like when I first met Uncle Moon, and he was kind enough to overlook my general moronicness (moronity?) and become a really close friend.)

I am listening right now to his awesome new song, and I can't share it with you ("you" meaning anyone who has made it this far, meaning, NO ONE! :D ) because it's not released yet. It's called "Po Nui" (I think?) and is available on iTunes and I think you can also hear it on his web page (I think, but I'm not sure because my laptop won't play the flash site.) I promise you, it is nothing like what you're expecting. Give it a whirl, O constant non-existant reader.

ETA: This newsletter lists the song as "Po Nui Auwaea" AND had a fairly recent photo, too. Awesome, truly.