Leslie Wilcox Blogs

PBS Hawaii Weekly Highlights: Jan. 15 - 21

2012-01-14T18:13:18-10:00

Public television welcomes back one of America's most thoughtful interviewers, Bill Moyers (pictured left), in a new weekly program. Many of you have missed him these last 20 months and asked us to let you know when you can see him again. Here you go: His new show is MOYERS & COMPANY and it'll air on Sundays at 5:00 pm, starting this coming Sunday, January 15, 2012.

I heard Bill speak at a recent conference, where he received a standing ovation. He's fired up to serve citizens "who rely more on reason than rant, and who appreciate a place where conventional wisdom and misleading rhetoric are challenged." A key area of interest for him is the growing economic inequality in our country - and why it's growing.

One of public television's specialties is revealing untold stories—and we have one for you coming up on NOVA (Wed., Jan. 18, 2012, 9:00 pm), in an episode called 3D Spies of WWII. It's about a previously hidden and vital role in defeating Hitler. Allied intelligence recruited a team of brilliant minds from British universities and Hollywood studios to analyze millions of air photos through 3D stereoscopes. They found clues revealing hidden Nazi rocket bases, leading to the successful execution of Allied bombing raids and D-Day landings. Using 3D graphics, NOVA recreates the findings of the intelligence team.

A familiar face in Hawaii philanthropy, Dr. Lawrence Tseu (pictured right), may look beatific, as though he's never known a tough day in his life. But he wasn't born to comfort and wealth. As my guest on LONG STORY SHORT (Tues., Jan. 17, 2012, 7:30 pm, encores on Wed., Jan. 18, 11:00 pm and Sun. Jan. 22, 4:00 pm), he recalls growing up in a shack in Kalihi, a small kid who learned at an early age that in his neighborhood, you didn't duck a fist fight just because the odds were against you. To help his family, he went out looking for work while still in grade school. He shined shoes, sold newspapers and did errands downtown. That's where he met another poor kid, from Papakolea, who would become a lifelong friend and a fellow overachiever, businessman Dr. John Henry Felix. Not only did Dr. Tseu's childhood industriousness boost his family's income, he made enough as a pre-teenager to send himself to private St. Louis School! Dr. Tseu shares his journey from a vocation in dentistry to his avocation of giving.

Long Story Short is now available online as well, at www.pbshawaii.org/ourproductions/longstory.php

The nation's first and only statewide student news network is in its second year of newscasts. HIKI NŌ (Thurs., Jan. 19, 2012, 7:30 pm; encores Sat., Jan. 21, 12:30 pm and Sun., Jan. 22, 3:00 pm) started last year with 54 schools; we're up to 73 schools now! The latest to join is Leilehua High in Wahiawa, Central Oahu. Hosted by students from Waimea High School on Kauai, the upcoming week's encore edition has a fresh update from Kamehameha Schools - Maui. You'll visit an animal sanctuary established by a Haiku couple. Also, in Honolulu, Mid-Pacific Institute students show how local graffiti artists are turning a symbol of urban blight into a culturally relevant art form.

This newscast also carries reports from Hawaii Academy of Arts & Science (Hawaii Island); Kihei Charter School (Maui); and Campbell High, Le Jardin Academy, Nanakuli High and Intermediate and Waipahu Intermediate (Oahu).

This newscast and other episodes are also posted for viewing on our website, www.pbshawaii.org/hikino

State lawmakers are heading into a new session with budget concerns uppermost on their minds. In advance of opening session, INSIGHTS ON PBS HAWAII (Thurs., Jan. 19, 8:00 pm; encores Sat., Jan. 21, 2012, 1:00 pm) offers a 2012 Legislative Preview. Dan Boylan's scheduled guests for a live discussion of the challenges and possible fixes are: Blake Oshiro, Deputy Chief of Staff to Gov. Neil Abercrombie; State House Speaker Calvin Say; State Senate President Shan Tsutsui; and Gene Ward, State House Minority Leader.

We want to hear from you! Your questions and comments are welcome via phone, email, Twitter or live blogging. You may also email your questions ahead of time to insights@pbshawaii.org

It's a full and fascinating week in the arts, travel and history on PBS Hawaii! More highlights:

See naval aviation history from post-WWII to the present in ANGLE OF ATTACK Part 2 of 2 (Sun., Jan. 15, 2012, 7:00 pm; encores Mon. Jan. 16, 11:00 pm). The program depicts naval aviation's role in the Korean and Vietnam conflicts, explores technological evolutions such as GPS-guided weapons and shows archival footage from Afghanistan and Iraq.

MASTERPIECE CLASSIC Downton Abbey, Season 2, Part 2 of 7 (Sun., Jan. 15, 2012, 8:00 pm) reveals that the Grantham estate has become a convalescent home with Thomas in charge. Other revelations uncover Lavinia and Sir Richard's secret, Anna's tracking of Bates and Branson seizing the opportunity to strike a blow for Ireland.

ANTIQUES ROADSHOW concludes its visit to our nation's oil capital in Tulsa, OK, Part 3 of 3 (Mon., Jan. 16, 2012, 8:00 pm). Host Mark L. Walberg and appraiser Eric Silver visit the Philbrook Museum of Art to look at housewares transformed into art. Among the appraised items are an 1826 English gadget cane, a 1931 Oscar Mayer in-store display and a circa 1600 Ming Dynasty cast-bronze guardian figure.

AMERICAN EXPERIENCE (Tues., Jan. 17, 2012, 8:00 pm) profiles a 19th-century general whose place in history was marked at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Custer's Last Stand takes viewers on a journey from Custer's charge at Gettysburg during the Civil War to his lonely death fighting the Great Sioux War on the Western plains.

Last year's earthquake and tsunami in Japan crippled its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex. FRONTLINE (Tues., Jan. 17, 2012,10:00 pm) examines the implications of the Fukushima accident for U.S. nuclear safety, and asks how this disaster will affect the future of nuclear energy around the world. In Nuclear Aftershocks, correspondent Miles O'Brien visits the controversial Indian Point nuclear plant, located only 38 miles from Manhattan.

INSIDE NATURE'S GIANTS (Wed., Jan. 18, 2012,10:00 pm) is a new four-part miniseries that explores what the insides of a creature can tell us about its outside world. The secrets of the Sperm Whale are revealed by anatomists dissecting a 45-foot deep-sea giant after it stranded itself and died. Watch for episodes every Wednesday for the next four weeks.

INDEPENDENT LENS mini-series on South African apartheid continues this week with Parts 3 and 4:

-- On Thursday, January 19, 2012, at 10:00 pm, Have You Heard from Johannesburg?: Selma to Soweto goes to the heart of the South in the U.S., where African Americans led a grassroots movement to force America to reverse its policies toward South Africa.

-- On Thursday, January 19, 2012, at 11:00 pm, Have You Heard from Johannesburg?: The Bottom Line looks at the grassroots boycott and divestment campaign that targeted Western corporations doing business with the South African regime.

GREAT PERFORMANCES AT THE MET (Fri. Jan. 20, 2012, 9:00 pm) opens a new season with David McVicar's production of Anna Bolena, featuring Anna Netrebko (pictured left) in the title role, with Ekaterina Gubanova and Ildar Abdrazakov in supporting roles. Marco Armiliato conducts.

BURT WOLF: TRAVELS & TRADITIONS (Sat., Jan. 21, 2012,7:00 pm) takes us sailing along the Rhine in Cruising the Rivers of Europe: Amsterdam to Cologne.

Part 2 of the three-part INTERNATIONAL DANCESPORT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2010 (Sat., Jan. 21, 2012, 8:00 pm) has top dancers competing in The World Ten Championships, comprised of the waltz, slow foxtrot, tango, Viennese waltz, quickstep, cha-cha, samba, rumba, paso doble and jive.

An American adventurer and a self-taught Mexican artist become unlikely partners in reviving an art form in The Renaissance of Mata Ortiz (Sat., Jan. 21, 2012, 9:00 pm). Spencer MacCallum and Juan Quezada together transformed a Mexican desert village by creating industry demand for a centuries-old style of ceramics. The program features innovative works by Quezada, his brother Nicolas (pictured right) and younger artists such as Diego Valles.

Julia Robinson and Hilbert's Tenth Problem (Sat., Jan. 21, 2012, 10:00 pm) tells the life story of pioneering American mathematician Robinson and her contribution in solving H10, one of the 20th-century's most vexing mathematical questions.

Indie rock hits the stage of AUSTIN CITY LIMITS (Sat., Jan. 21, 2012, 11:00 pm) with two groups. Seattle-based The Head and The Heart (pictured left) performs tunes from its self-titled debut LP, followed by British rockers Gomez.

For more program listings by genre, click here.

Thank you for your aloha for Hawaii's only public television station, evolving on-air and online to serve our islands' 21st-century needs and interests. Learning and discovery are at the heart of this viewer-supported station.

Click here to visit our Support page now!

73 HIKI NO Schools!

2012-01-08T22:12:22-10:00

In only its second year, HIKI NO, Hawaii's statewide student news network at PBS Hawaii, has grown to 73 schools! That's 10 more than in the last season, which just ended last month.

The new participants include our second elementary school, Holuloa El in Kona, Hawaii Island. (First grade school to join was Kainalu in Windward Oahu.)

The latest school to sign on with HIKI NO is Leilehua High in Wahiawa, Central Oahu.

Welcome aboard!

HIKI NO is open to public, private and charter schools throughout the state. It's a weekly newscast, seen in primetime on Thursday nights at 7:30 pm, and online at http://www.pbshawaii.org/hikino/index.php

We'd also like to welcome a new on-air and online underwriter--the Hawaii Medical Service Association (HMSA)!

Women Who Rock...and Other Highlights

2012-01-08T22:03:03-10:00

When we experienced a major fire at PBS Hawaii last November,
we lost some of the TV programs in our servers, which had been ready to air. Now we've recouped this nuch-anticipated one: PBS Arts from Cleveland: Women Who Rock (Sat., Jan. 14, 2012,9:00 pm). From Bessie Smith to Janis Joplin to Lady Gaga, this performance documentary reveals insights into what it means to be female in the male-dominated world of rock and roll. Among those performing are Hall of Fame inductees Darlene Love, Mavis Staples and Cyndi Lauper.

Students from Aliamanu Middle School (pictured left) in Honolulu will host the next new episode of HIKI NŌ (Thurs., Jan. 12, 2012, 7:30 pm; encores Sat., Jan. 14, 12:30 pm and Sun., Jan. 15, 3:00 pm). In this newscast, the Aliamanu team introduces correspondents from Moanalua High School with a report on how four students and alumni are financing their college educations. Also, in their first contribution to HIKI NŌ, students from Hālau Kū Māna Public Charter School in Honolulu demonstrate how to make pa'i'ai, the traditionally hand-pounded taro paste. This week's other featured schools are: Hilo High (Hawaii Island); Kapa'a High (Kauai); Lahainaluna High (Maui); and Ka Waihona o ka Na'auao, Punahou and Waianae High School (Oahu).

We tend to hear more about under-equipped, underperforming students, so let's balance that with a look at the other end of the school spectrum. This week's INSIGHTS ON PBS HAWAII (Thurs., Jan. 12, 2012, 8:00 pm; encores Sat., Jan. 14, 1:00 pm) calls attention to students in Gifted and Talented Education. We'll find out how students are designated as "gifted" and what's being done by the DOE, private schools and organizations to meet their needs. Host Dan Boylan's guests are Robyn McMullin, Gifted and Talented Curriculum Specialist, Assets School; Rod Todorovich, Lecturer, UH College of Education and Board Member, Hawaii Gifted Association; and Anna Viggiano, Program Manager, Hawaii Department of Education's Gifted and Talented Program.

More highlights of the upcoming week on PBS Hawaii:

ANGLE OF ATTACK Part 1 of 2 (Sun., Jan. 8, 2012, 7:00 pm; encores Mon. Jan. 9, 11:00 pm) is a two-part series airing on consecutive Sundays beginning this weekend. This first episode follows young recruits training for lift-off and landing a supersonic aircraft on an aircraft carrier deck at sea. The program also looks back at World War II and the U.S. victory in the Pacific.

ANTIQUES ROADSHOW (Mon., Jan. 9, 2012, 8:00 pm) continues a visit to the oil capital of the world in Tulsa, OK, Part 2 of 3. Appraiser Noel Barrett of the Woolaroc Museum and Wildlife Preserve takes a look at a 1960 first-edition To Kill a Mockingbird inscribed by Harper Lee; a collection of possible Remingtons and Russells bronzes; and a 1924 Gibson F-5 "Lloyd Loar" mandolin stored in a closet since the Great Depression.

The real story of a notorious Old West gunshooter is revealed on AMERICAN EXPERIENCE (Tues., Jan. 10, 2012,9:00 pm). Capturing widespread attention with his reckless violence, Billy the Kid (pictured right) was a poor Irish immigrant whose real name was Henry McCarty. His fascination with Mexican culture, his flair for Spanish and his disdain for Anglo authorities made him a hero to the Hispanic community, who hid him from the law and mourned him when he was gone.

The upcoming week's subjects on NATURE (Wed., Jan. 11, 2012,8:00 pm) are the Kangaroo Mob, a family of street-smart kangaroos making themselves at home in Australia's capital city during a drought-stricken year.

A team of experts come together in a NOVA (Wed., Jan. 11, 2012,9:00 pm) special that recreates the bouncing bomb used during World War II. Bombing Hitler's Dams looks at the pilots of Lancaster Squadron 617 who destroyed two dams in Germany's industrial heartland with the revolutionary invention of British engineer Barnes Wallis.

We're airing the first and second parts of a must-see five-part INDEPENDENT LENS miniseries on South African apartheid and the global movement that changed the world.

-- On Thursday, January 12, 2012, at 10:00 pm, Have You Heard from Johannesburg?: Road to Resistance looks at South Africa's racist laws against non-whites at a time when the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Part One also covers the imprisonment of opposition leader Nelson Mandela.

-- On Thursday, January 12, 2012, at 11:00 pm, Have You Heard from Johannesburg?: The New Generation shows young people in the West joining an international movement to sanction South Africa, following the suppression of a youth uprising in Soweto and the murder of resistance leader Steven Biko.

Actor and performer Anna Deavere Smith (pictured right) explores the human body in a GREAT PERFORMANCES (Fri. Jan. 13, 2012, 9:00 pm) special. In Let Me Down Easy, Deavere Smith first interviews a wide range of people and then portrays them onstage using their own words. She portrays cyclist Lance Armstrong, supermodel Lauren Hutton, Texas Governor Ann Richards, a rodeo bull rider, a hospital doctor and an orphanage director.

To mark the 100th anniversary of his grandmother and mother's immigration to the U.S., Burt Wolf and his family sail to Europe on a cruise ship, Cunard's Queen Mary. BURT WOLF: TRAVELS & TRADITIONS Atlantic Crossing (Sat., Jan. 14, 2012, 7:00 pm) shows the history of transatlantic passenger ships and what they're like today.

The INTERNATIONAL DANCESPORT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2010 (Sat., Jan. 14, 2012, 8:00 pm) brings us top dancers from all over the world, performing the cha-cha, samba, rumba, paso doble and jive, as they compete in The Latin Championships. This is the first of a three-part series airing over the next three Saturdays.

Boston Globe reporter Geoff Edgers (pictured right) wasn't even born when the British rock group The Kinks first rose to the top of the record charts. That didn't stop him from developing a lifelong love for their music. The offbeat documentary Do It Again (Sat., Jan. 14, 2012,10:00 pm) follows Edgers on a cross-country and cross-Atlantic quest to reunite the band members long after the group split.

For more program listings by genre, click here.

Tsunami Impact and More on PBS Hawaii

2012-01-02T15:46:01-10:00

Here's a look at TV highlights in the first week of this New Year on PBS Hawaii. To kick things off, we're featuring a young man from Hilo who's doing extremely well in a career field that never existed before. If you're a 20-something, you likely already know who 21-year-old Ryan Higa is. The rest of us can meet him on LONG STORY SHORT (Tues., Jan. 3, 2012, 7:30 pm; encore on Sun., Jan. 8, 2012,4:00 pm). As a YouTube phenom, he's breaking new ground in the 21st-century without forsaking where he came from. While he lives in Las Vegas and travels to Los Angeles for business, he tells us that his mother, residing at the family home in Hilo, is his "mom-ager."

Ryan started playing around with his family's video camera when he was growing up in the Waiakea neighborhood of Hilo. He and his friends posted their comedy videos on YouTube and caught the attention of YouTube viewers around the world. Ryan's amazing fan base and meteoric rise to online fame have brought him to the attention of Hollywood. In our conversation, Ryan shares his thoughts on the changing entertainment business, his strategy in maintaining his online success and a deal that tested his integrity.

On HIKI NŌ (Thurs., Jan. 5, 2012, 7:30 pm), the new week's host school is Iao Intermediate on Maui. Iao students will introduce student correspondents from Waianae Intermediate (West Oahu), sharing a poignant story about a classmate's struggle for life. From Central Oahu, Waipahu High School student journalists show how a transfer student was able to come out of his shell by discovering his passion. Other participating schools in this episode are Hawaii Preparatory Academy (Hawaii Island); Ke Kula Niihau O Kekaha (Kauai); Kaimuki Middle, Kamehameha Schools - Kapalama, Kawananakoa Middle, Mililani Middle and St. Andrew's Priory (Oahu).

This HIKI NŌ newscast encores Saturday, Jan. 7, 2012, at 12:30 pm and Sunday, Jan. 8, 2012, at 3:00 pm. You may also view this newscast and all past episodes on our website, www.pbshawaii.org/hikino

Adult education offered by the 11 statewide community schools is on the line. INSIGHTS ON PBS HAWAII (Thurs., Jan. 5, 2012, 8:00 pm) looks at a proposed $5 million budget cut for Community Schools for Adults. Host Dan Boylan moderates a discussion with scheduled guests: Bebi Davis, 2005 Milken National Educator and former community school student; Rose Galera, small business owner and former community school student; Gordon Lum, Vice Principal, Waipahu Community School for Adults; and Calvin Shimomura, Principal, Moanalua/Aiea Community School for Adults.

We want to hear from you! Your questions and comments are welcome via phone, email, Twitter or live blogging. You may also email your questions ahead of time to insights@pbshawaii.org

Here are more highlights of the upcoming week on PBS Hawaii:

I'd like to call your attention to continuing NHK WORLD SPECIAL reports on the impact of last year's Japan earthquake and tsunami, airing at a special time on PBS Hawaii.

-- On Tuesday, January 3, 2012, at 11:00 pm, Doctors Facing the Tsunami looks at the only hospital to remain open and functioning after the earthquake struck Ishinomaki, population 200,000. This program shows vivid footage of doctors at the Japanese Red Cross Hospital struggling to provide disaster medicine to survivors.

-- On Wednesday, January 4, 2012, at 11:00 pm Can You See Our Lights?: First Festival After the Tsunami shows how cultural traditions are being kept alive in the cities of Rikuzen-Takada, Soma, Minami-Soma and others in the aftermath of the tsunami as organizers hold colorful, centuries-old festivals.

FRONTLINE (Tues., Jan. 3, 2012, 10:00 pm) exposes a new class of victims in Afghanistan's illicit opium trade - young farm girls given to drug-traffickers to repay farmers' debts. In Opium Brides, award-winning Afghan journalist Najibullah Quraishi reports on the harrowing story of families torn apart and the collateral damage of the counter-narcotics effort in Afghanistan.

From Japan's Mount Fuji to the Sleeping Giant below Naples, Italy to Yellowstone National Park's supervolcano in the U.S., NOVA (Wed., Jan. 4, 2012, 9:00 pm) travels with scientists to the Deadliest Volcanoes, attempting to discover how likely these volcanoes are to erupt, when eruptions might happen and how deadly they could prove to be.

Through a simple act of planting trees, Nobel Peace prize laureate Wangari Maathai (pictured left) helped to change Kenya's political history. INDEPENDENT LENS (Thurs., Jan. 5, 2012, 10:00 pm) looks at this woman's life in Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai. The late activist fostered community solidarity and environmental literacy which brought an end to a 24-year dictatorship.

The LA Philharmonic, with music director Gustavo Dudamel, presents its opening night gala on GREAT PERFORMANCES (Fri. Jan. 6, 2012,9:00 pm), featuring the music of George Gershwin. Highlights from Herbie Hancock, Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Phil Celebrate Gershwin include An American in Paris, Rhapsody in Blue and a solo performance of Someone to Watch Over Me by virtuoso jazz pianist Hancock (pictured right).

Opera lovers will enjoy this presentation from GREAT PERFORMANCES AT THE MET (Sat., Jan. 7, 2012, 7:00 pm) -- Verdi's Il Trovatore, starring Marcelo Álvarez, Sondra Radvanovsky (both pictured left), Dolora Zajick and Dmitri Hvorostovsky, with James Levine conducting.

For more program listings by genre, click here.

Click here to visit our Support page now!

YouTube Phenom Ryan Higa Tomorrow!

2012-01-02T15:20:06-10:00

Do you know who Ryan Higa is? Of course you do, if you're 20-something. Or you're a Hollywood talent scout. Or you plan to watch PBS Hawaii's Long Story Short tomorrow night (Tues., Jan. 3, 2012, 7:30 pm).

Ryan Higa. newly turned 21, hails from Waiakea in the Hilo area of Hawaii Island, and he's a smash hit on YouTube. The comedic videos he posts have attracted more than a billion viewers! On Long Story Short, Ryan will talk about what it's like living wth the passion and the uncertainty of forging a career that never existed before. Ryan lives in Las Vegas now and his massive fan base has attracted the attention of Hollywood producers. He doesn't take the attention, or impressive earnings, for granted, and he works, works works, knowing that frequency and authenticitiy are keys to keeping and building his online audience. P.S. Ryan is not quite a one-man business. He explains that his mother back in Hilo serves as his "mom-ager."And his dad is a source of uncommon common sense. We'll post my conversation with Ryan online at pbshawaii.org

When Such Friends Part...

2012-01-02T15:05:58-10:00

"When such friends part, 'tis the survivor dies." --Inscription on a tombstone in rural Vermont

These words were supplied by the husband of a 43-year-old woman who passed away back in 1849. I can only imagine what it's like to suffer like that. But many widows and widowers do know what it's like to have had such a rich earthly bond.

To everyone experiencing sorrow and loss, here's a wish for comfort at the start of the new year.

"...You Look Like One Lau Lau"

2011-12-24T10:49:46-10:00

An instant classic proverb in Hawaii: Too much kau kau going make you look like one lau lau.

Perfect reminder during this season of food excess! I saw it on a refrigerator magnet by PIDGIN Products of Maui, sold at Maile Meyer's Na Mea Books and Beautiful Things.

Other local-style expressions captured on these magnets:

...Too many square meals going make you look round.

The early boy gets the poi.

Eh, nuff all ready.

And the one I have on my fridge:

No go too fast, try stop and smell the limu.

Oh Oh. Mother-Daughter Role Reversal

2011-12-23T12:56:11-10:00

I used to be the one telling my youngest daughter how to do things and how the world works. Now I'm getting used to her showing me the ropes.

Over the holidays, she's going to teach me to SCUBA dive. Descending into the deep off Waikiki, Waianae, and Haleiwa, I'll have to trust her as much as she trusted me when I delivered her many years ago to the confusing world of school, with strange symbols on the blackboard, and a couple of classmates who liked to gang up on her and fight for no reason.

Kai's a new Dive Master. But it's not just SCUBA. My daughter nonchalantly, without checking any written instructions, set up my Wii to bring in Netflix; she created all kinds computer shortcuts for me; she made quick work of fixing an overhead light that hadn't worked in years; she drops dry, droll comments that lighten and brighten my outlook. She does it all and explains without making a big deal of anything, and I find myself admiring how easily and organically she does things. She didn't inherit any of this from me.

At first it felt really odd, learning from my "kid." Now I just feel fortunate and proud.

I always used to tell her it's important to truly listen. That's just what I'm doing...

Movie Treasures on PBS Hawaii...

2011-12-23T12:14:32-10:00

Here's hoping that these busy days preparing for the holidays will soon turn into free time! We have just the ticket for you.

A movie ticket of sorts! Find out the backstory of some cinematic treasures that reflect the American experience. Coming up on INDEPENDENT LENS (Thurs., Dec. 29, 10:00 pm), a documentary titled These Amazing Shadows looks at films like Casablanca, Blazing Saddles and West Side Story, singled out as significant by the Library of Congress. This program includes interviews with directors Christopher Nolan, John Lasseter, Rob Reiner, John Singleton, Barbara Kopple and John Waters as well as members of the National Film Preservation Board.

Lessons learned in the disastrous March 11 tsunami that struck Japan are the subject of special programming by NHK World. You'll see some amazing images and hear of devastating scenarios in which lives hung in the balance of citizens' personal choices.

The first NHK WORLD SPECIAL (Mon., Dec. 26, 11:00 pm) is Mega Tsunami: Hidden Perils, sharing real-time images, eyewitness reports and expert analysis to provide an overall picture of that fateful day. The program also looks for preventive measures that could offset future tsunamis.

The next evening, NHK WORLD SPECIAL: The Line Between Life and Death (Tue., Dec. 27, 11:00 pm) goes to the town of Yuriage, where the tsunami claimed 800 of 4,500 residents. Why did some neighbors die and some survive?

The newest edition of HIKI NŌ (Thurs., Dec. 29, 7:30 pm) covers an historic change in a longtime all-boys school in Kalihi. Young correspondents from Damien Memorial report on going co-ed. It's just one of the stories you'll see in the next episode, hosted by students from Nanakuli High and Intermediate School in West Oahu.

Meanwhile, Waimea High students on Kauai capture a community's feelings and memories surrounding an old sugar mill that is facing demolition. Other schools reporting on their school communities in the upcoming week: Hawaii Academy of Arts & Science Public Charter School on Hawaii Island; Kamehameha Schools Maui; and Campbell High School, Mid-Pacific Institute and Waipahu Intermediate School on Oahu.

This HIKI NŌ newscast encores Saturday, Dec. 31 at 12:30 pm and Sunday, Jan. 1 at 3:00 pm. You may also view this newscast and past episodes on our website, www.pbshawaii.org/hikino

Here are more highlights of the holiday week ahead on PBS Hawaii:

The music of celebrated 20th-century composers Leonard Bernstein and George Gershwin takes us into the New Year with a LIVE FROM LINCOLN CENTER special (Sat. Dec. 31, 8:00 pm). Music Director Alan Gilbert (pictured right) conducts The New York Philharmonic's Bernstein and Gershwin program, featuring Bernstein's overture from Candide and Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue.

A Grammy award-winning band leads the 10-second countdown to 2012 in Coldplay New Year's Eve: An Austin City Limits Special (Sat. Dec. 31, 11:00 pm), featuring mega-hits and songs from their newest LP, Mylo Xyloto.

Encore pick of the week:

Author Michael Pollan explores our relationship with the plant world in The Botany of Desire (Tue. Dec. 27, 8:00 pm). The program looks at four plant species - the apple, the tulip, marijuana and the potato - and shows us how each evolved to satisfy human cravings.

We Admit It. We Cried.

2011-12-20T07:49:05-10:00

What a day it was in our borrowed TV studio yesterday! We were enthralled at old Hawaiian wisdom, shared by a man in his 40s, applied to today's polarized politics. And we shed tears, repeatedly, in hearing of the extreme deprivation and pain that marked the childhood of another man, who became a distinguished educator in our community.

We were taping two Long Story Short shows, conversations with:

--Enterprise Honolulu CEO Pono Shim, raised by political strategists and visionaries Alvin and Marion Heen Shim in a comfortable home in Honolulu

--And with Mid-Pacific Institute President Joe Rice, who grew up in a station wagon and tents in farms up and down several Western states.

Pono shared amazing stories passed on to him by wise elders including the late Pilahi Paki, known as a Hawaiian keeper of secrets. These stories amount to parables. Old knowledge that we've forgotten but which works for today's issues. These stories don't tell you what to think, they make you think. You find yourself having an epiphany and your world shifts.

Joe spoke openly and matter-of-factly about his deeply troubling childhood as the oldest kid in a large family of migrant farm workers traveling routinely between lower California and Canada to pick crops. The family was routinely hungry, living in poverty, and he and his siblings were exposed to alcoholism and physical, verbal and sexual abuse. After a bloody tangle with his stepfather, Joe ran away from home at 17 and worked multiple jobs to put himself through college. He wouldn't borrow money or do anything that reminded him of his stepfather. Education was the gateway to his current life as a caring husband and father, and the leader (16 years now) of a respected private school in Honolulu.

As Joe spoke, tears welled up in his eyes. Mine too. Other members of our crew blinked back tears or cried openly. Staffer Terrence Quinsaat crawled on the floor, out of sight of the camera, to make sure that Joe had enough tissues. Tissues were in use, all around. In fact, we need to buy more. Joe's is a story of perseverance, resilience, survival, achievement.

I think you'll want to see these Long Story Short shows for broadcast in the new year. We'll let you know the air dates when the schedule is set.