On Wednesday night Dan & I went to the "Hawaiian Christmas Concert" at Town Hall, featuring Amy Hanaiali'i as headliner. Amy has become famous for bringing back the ha'i (falsetto) in Hawaiian music. She just released a Christmas album and her current tour is to celebrate and promote its success.
This was my first time in Town Hall. It's a very impressive space and made for a beautiful setting for the night's festivities. The edifice was constructed in two stages between 1916 and 1922, at the peak of the Christian Science movement. It remained in use by the 4th Church of Christ until it became Town Hall in 1998.
There were two opening acts, first Kalae Bobo Miles performed with his band.
They were very good, and it was really moving to hear the response from the crowd when a song from Hawaiian past began. It was instant recognition and praise and you could just feel the history in the room.
Then came John Peterson, a slack-key guitarist who also performed with Amy. He is an amazing guitarist and all-around sweet guy. He recorded Amy's Christmas album with her on Oahu.
After a brief intermission came the "the Island's top songstress" as she is commonly referred to in the media. Amy has garnered much praise, including multiple Grammy nominations. She will be performing at the Aloha Bowl this year and her album is currently #4 on the World Music charts.
I am not sure why, but I was expecting someone more demure, when in fact she is quite the Bette Midler!
One might even go as far as to say she's a bit of a gay icon! She performed many songs from her Christmas album as well as some old favorites and some jazz and latin stuff for variety. The range this woman has is phenomenal and her presence is grand.
You can learn more about Amy and her music/tour dates at her website.
Eat
Before the concert, I met Dan at McCormick & Schmick's down at the bottom of the Columbia Tower for dinner. Since Dan works in that building, it's a convenient place to meet up. This was only my second meal at the chain, after eating at the Lake Union restaurant a few years back.
Of course I had to start with a cup of their famous seafood-corn chowder. Very good, though a bit thin for my taste.
The menu is printed daily, to incorporate the freshest seafood and ingredients available. I decided to try the Arctic Char, grilled and topped with a sundried tomato-basil butter and served with mashed potatoes and broccoli.
From Wikipedia:
Arctic char or Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus(L.)) is both a freshwater and saltwater fish in the Salmonidae family, native to Arctic, sub-Arctic and alpine lakes and coastal waters. No other freshwater fish is found as far north. It is the only species of fish in Lake Hazen. It is one of the rarest fish species in Britain, found only in deep, cold, glacial lakes, mostly in Scotland and is at risk from acidification. In other parts of its range, such as Scandinavia, it is much more common, and is fished extensively. In Siberia, it is known as golets (from the Russian голец).
The Arctic char is closely related to both salmon and trout and has many characteristics of both. Individual char fish can weigh 20 lb (9 kilograms) or more with record sized fish having been taken by angling in Northern Canada. Generally, whole market sized fish are between 2 and 5 lb in weight (900 g and 2.3 kilograms). The flesh colour of char varies; it can range from a bright red to a pale pink.
It did taste a lot like salmon, but maybe a little milder? Meltier? Anyway, it was excellent and I will definitely order it again. Incidentally, it also appears on Monterey Aquarium's list of fish to eat and not feel guilty about!
Drink
Last weekend as we were decorating and become all-around Christmas-fied, I went searching for hot buttered rum mix at QFC to kick-start the season's cheer. I searched and searched, and finally had to ask someone in the bakery section. They keep it in the freezer section with the ice cream cakes in case you shop at the one on Rainier and McClellan.
We are out of rum so I've been using equal parts Maker's Mark and Brandy.
I love the way a hot alcoholic beverage goes down and immediately begins to warm you up. Kind of like red wine on meth. Hard to stop at 1, but dangerous to keep going. All that sugar can lead to a nasty headache the next day.
Read
I get a lot of email. I'm on several yahoo groups, many having to do with Hawaii. I recently joined one for gay professionals in Hawaii. A few days later my inbox was full of forwards to incite action, concern or, in some cases, inspiration. I tend to not read these, and honestly I still have yet to read the whole story.
However, in skimming to the end I came to this old quote that the emailer put in with his salutation:
Good friends are like stars....You don't always see them, but you know they are always there.
Since I recently moved away from the neighborhood where many of my friends live, and due to the course of life often don't see many of my closest friends more than a few times a year, this really spoke to me. A good reminder of the old cliche: quality, not quantity.
Remember
Today marks the 66-year anniversary of Pearl Harbor.
While it was an elegiac time for the country, perhaps nowhere was the fear more palpable than on the Islands of Hawaii. In this month's issue of the Northwest Hawaiian Times,
you can read an account of that fateful Sunday morning in December from Elliott Manning, whose parents passed down the story to him. He wrote the account as a letter to his kids Heather and Blake so that they, too, can keep the memories alive.
Worry
It being Pearl Harbor Day, I keep thinking about some of the recent history I've read surrounding WWII and the Hawaiian people. Taking a snip from our friends over at unconstitution.net:
Though not a state at the time, Hawaii was placed under martial law in 1941, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Many of the residents of Hawaii were, and are, of Asian descent, and the loyalty of these people was called into question. After the war, the federal judge for the islands condemned the conduct of martial law, saying, "Gov. Poindexter declared lawfully martial law but the Army went beyond the governor and set up that which was lawful only in conquered enemy territory namely, military government which is not bound by the Constitution. And they ... threw the Constitution into the discard and set up a military dictatorship."
In fact, Martial Law was only supposed to remain while there was an imminent threat of land invasion by the Japanese. However, it did not go away for the duration of the war.
They say know your history or it will...that's right.
After 9/11, it seems that this same type of fear-play has been most dominant, allowing power to reign and individual liberties to be stricken for long past any sort of "imminent threat." Let's hope that we can look out for each other and not be taken advantage of in times of peril.
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