My day started out a mess with a really crappy email …but amazing what a difference a nice email can make in your inbox. I applied last week to attend TEDGlobal and got accepted! I’m thankful for the opportunity to have co-organized the recent TEDxShanghai event as I’m sure that had everything to do with it. I also wrote the equivelant of a novel in answering some of the questions on the application and listed a special someone as my reference that might have helped. I’d like to think it did.

Really proud to be representing TEDxShanghai at this event in July and looking forward to all the amazing smart people I’m going to sit in awe of in the audience.

Financially speaking, I can’t afford to go. Life speaking, I feel I can’t afford not to go. I’m sure many have been in this position before. This only makes me want to work all that much harder at a lot of current projects I have in the works so only good things can happen from here.

Don’t mind me. I’m EXCITED and blogging about it. :) My first time in London. Ever. *yay*

*photo in thumbnail: giuli-o / flickr / creative commons

Going through my Flickr photos from last year and came across this awesome shot of me and my little sister from her wedding. Isn’t she beautiful? We look happy huh? You would never know that I used to beat her up and steal her candy. Not recently. More like when we were little. As you can see, we’re over that phase.

One person is missing from this photo though. My older sister Susie. It sucks. She lost a 2 year battle with depression and took her own life in 2004 – a month after her own wedding. These are the conflicted feelings one goes through when they lose a sister to suicide. Always someone missing from the picture no matter how happy the occassion. Can’t help it. Sometimes happy pictures make me cry. :(

…a preview of things to come. :)

photo: christinelu.china / Flickr / Creative Commons

Every single time I’m in San Francisco — which lately is every other week — I have to stop by Katana-ya. If Chris is in town at the same time I am, we usually eat here for dinner. Otherwise, you’ll catch me here during lunch by myself at the sushi bar tweeting about how awesome the food is.

photo: christinelu.china / Flickr / Creative Commons

Warning, if you go for dinner be prepared to wait. This place is one of those secret noodle shops that everyone knows about. Part of the reason why it’s packed is because it’s tiny. Tiny places with awesome food always do well. Make sure you add your name to the wait list. It’s sometimes easy to miss the little sign in sheet near the door when you’re too busy drooling at everyone eating bowls of awesome noodles in front of you when you’re starving.

photo: christinelu.china / Flickr / Creative Commons

Here’s what I always order. The Cilantro Ramen with soy sauce soup base. I ask for it spicy. Really good. I think they must cut up a whole little batch of cilantro. It’s full of flavor. You must try it if you go. That is, unless you’re of the unfortunate camp that hates cilantro, in which case we can never be friends. I’m sorry, this is the truth. I love cilantro. So much so I named my new company after it.

photo: christinelu.china / Flickr / Creative Commons

Here’s what Chris ordered this time around. Kimchi Ramen with miso soup base. He said it’s really good and there’s no need to ask for it to be spicy because the kimchi already gives it kick.

photo: christinelu.china / Flickr / Creative Commons

Definitely try their spicy tuna rolls when you’re there. They also have spicy hamachi rolls. Both are really super fresh and cut in generous portions.

Here are some more shots of other folks who take pictures of their food at Katanaya. :)

430 Geary St
(at Mason St)
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 771-1280

MAKANA’s music transcends category and trend by integrating elements of folk, rock, ethnic, classical, bluegrass, jazz, traditional, ambient and Hawaiian slack key in gentle to commanding arrangements. The result is innovation and the charting of new sonic frontiers with deep ties to tradition.

Born as Matt Swalinkavich, he started playing at Duke’s Canoe Club in 1993 and took the moniker Ki Ho’alu Kid before finally switching to his Hawaiian name, Makana, which means “gift.” Makana believes that “gift” is what this music is.  “It was given to me and I’m giving it to people. Learning how to give without having to receive is an endless lesson in unconditional giving. Learning to give my music unconditionally is one of the great challenges that I accept in my life to learn. I try my best to pull them into what I’m doing, but I’m here to serve everybody. I try to always give 110 percent whether they’re listening or not.”

Makana’s songs reflect his own style and character, while carrying forward the spirit of Hawai’i. He weaves together a broad spectrum of cultural sounds and lyrical and musical styles, enabling him to explore, conjure and transport – to past and future, familiar and foreign, dream-like to moving. Music lovers and guitar enthusiasts are simultaneously accommodated and enthralled.

Playing both rhythm and melody simultaneously while using intricate right-hand techniques in a buffet of open tunings, slack key players are versatile and evocative. Ki Ho’alu, or “slacked key”, is the indigenous Hawaiian art form that is the foundation upon which Makana creates ground-breaking original music and reanimates classics.

He attributes his command of the guitar to over a decade of soaking up the licks and influence of Hawai’i’s treasured Masters of an art form older than the blues. Tunings were often handed down and are sometimes particular to a single song. He has invented dozens of originals.

Makana shows some of the best in slack key and world-class guitar playing. His singing, in multiple languages, is as unique and versatile as his guitar and a perfect compliment to the many styles. Makana brings all this with heart and soul to each performance, which many consider to be his greatest gift. He delivers to each project and stage of any size more than one would imagine could be contained.

In 2000 his first album Makana was voted “Best CD” by the readers of the Honolulu Weekly and also claimed the honor for Best World Music Album at the Hawai’i Music Awards. He currently has four of his own solo albums, as well as also contributed songs to two Grammy-nominated albums “Hawaiian Slack Key Kings” Volumes I & II.

He has headlined at the historic Hawai’i Theatre, and is regularly featured at Slack Key festivals throughout the Hawaiian Islands. At 24, he has already performed for over 16 years and has opened for Andreas Vollenweider and Sting, shared the stage with No Doubt, Bruddah Iz, Keali’i Reichel and Clay Walker, and performed at the WOMAD Festival in Reading, England.

A strong advocate of community, Makana was also honored with the Artist for Peace Award in 2005.

Makana won 2nd runner-up in this year’s Guitar Player’s 2008 Guitar Superstar Competition!

For more information, visit Makana’s official website: http://www.myspace.com/makanaworld

See and hear Makana perform in The Masters of Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Concert Series at The Napili Kai Beach Resort, Maui on July 29, 2009.

Gadgets are usually purchased out of want, not need. Not this thing. I needed this because I got tired of having to decide between my mouse and my Flip cam …or my mouse and my Verizon USB wifi thingy. I depend on my mouse. I need my mouse. I’m unproductive on a trackpad. I got tired of having to use it whenever I had to plug something bulky into my Macbook that meant having to unplug my mouse.

Putting USB ports side by side is a design flaw imho.

Until Apple comes up with some kind of solution (which I trust that their user-friendly instincts will do) I opted on splurging on a $29.95 Belkin USB 2.0 Plus 4 port hub. There’s a 7 port version but I’m not that geeky …yet.

Anyways, so worth it, I was about to upload some videos from my So Much More Hawaii trip but felt I needed to throw up a blog post on how cool it is that I’m using my mouse and have my flip cam plugged in at the same time. *yay* I am so ready for Geeks On A Plane.

The drive to Hanapepe was about 20 minutes and pretty straight forward thanks to the rental car’s GPS.

Sheila and her son Tommy stopped by the Hanapepe Cafe & Bakery for dinner.

…while Chris made a bee line for the busy street food stand.

…where I think they’re pretty famous for their fish tacos.

…while we were waiting for our food, I struck up a conversation with a super nice local artist named Schar and bought a small painting from her called “Future Is Female”. I forgot my Flipcam but Chris was nice enough to record a short video interview of her that I’ll post later.

After sitting on the steps of a gallery eating our fish tacos and skewers, we met up with Sheila again and took a stroll down Hanapepe Road. So many cute little art galleries and shops!

If you ever need a kiddie sized reason for getting the family to explore Hanapepe, you can say with confidence that it’s the town that Lilo & Stitch was based on. :)

One of our most interesting stops was a little used bookstore called “Talk Story”

…here’s Sheila :)

…as Chris put it, an entire wall of “beach books”

…and plenty of books for little kids to keep busy with too.

…I got a kick out of the Johnny Cash impersonator playing his harmonica and singing just outside the bookstore.

…I continued to do pretty good in the spending money in support of local economy category and bought a nice necklace from this man.

…and there you have it in pictures. Hanapepe, Kauai’s Biggest Little Town. Don’t take my word or iPhone pictures for it. There are some great shots shared on Flickr of Hanapepe in over 2,000+ search results here.

]]> http://blog.christine.lu/2009/05/30/hanapepe-biggest-little-town-in-kauai/feed/ -1 http://blog.christine.lu/2009/05/28/makana-a-gift-given-freely/ http://blog.christine.lu/2009/05/28/makana-a-gift-given-freely/#comments Thu, 28 May 2009 10:38:23 +0000 christine http://blog.christine.lu/?p=299

Special thanks to 2009 Grammy nominated slack key guitar master Makana for the amazing special performance he gave at the Sheraton Waikiki’s Rum Fire to help kick off the So Much More Hawaii tour for our visiting bloggers in style.

All I got to say is, he is an extremely talented artist and amazing person who I absolutely adore.

Apparently, I’m not the only one as noted by National Geographic:

Makana, an acclaimed singer-songwriter from Oahu, whose name means “a gift given freely,” has been called by Esquire magazine the “greatest living player” of Hawaiian slack key guitar. With five albums to his credit, he has taken this centuries-old tradition and blasted it into the 21st century, fusing it with influences from Bob Marley to the Smashing Pumpkins, and opening for Sting and Santana. See why this young guitar hero is poised to break out.

Also a nice shout out to his manager, Yayoi Hara. Super sharp experienced business savvy power woman. I am coming across a lot of amazing women lately. Seriously think I’m going to start a club so we can get started on this world domination thing. No seriously, you think I’m kidding don’t you? Following Makana’s performance this evening, I walked straight up to Yayoi and said “tell me what it’s going to take to bring Makana back to Shanghai for another performance” and she says “let’s do it.”

Don’t think for a second it’s not going to happen. :)

I’ll be sharing more thoughts on Makana over the coming days but wanted to share footage of his performance tonight. The most important part of this song is the end where he dedicates it to me. :D Shameless fangirl. Yes I know.

Stepped off a 5 hour flight from Los Angeles yesterday, dropped off our bags at the hotel and headed to the Ezogiku Ramen right behind the Hyatt Regency for a quick lunch with Chris and my little man.

It’s a cute little hole in the wall looking ramen noodle place that’s easy to walk right by and miss if you’re not the type of person who travels to eat and seeks out little hole in the wall looking places to begin with.

My son was pretty hungry after refusing to eat the airplane meal on the flight over. So given that I always like giving my 3.5 year old son a choice between two things, I asked him if he wanted the fried rice or the noodles. The conversation went something like this:

ME: Do you want the fried rice or the yakisoba noodles?

LITTLE MAN: No! I don’t want to eat YUCKY noodles

ME: Ok fine. No “yucky” noodles. Do you want rice or noodles?

LITTLE MAN: I want noodles.

WAITER: Can I take your order?

ME: (pointing at menu pictures) We’ll have the gyoza, shoyu ramen and the “fried noodles”

WAITER: You mean Yakisoba?

LITTLE MAN: No! I don’t want yucky noodles!

ME: No, I mean the “fried” noodles (pointing at pictures, giving him the “don’t call it Yakisoba” look)

WATER: Ah, ok. The fried noodles.

Anyways, another little story to throw back at my son one day when he’s a teenager and I want to embarrass him in front of all his friends.

The food hit the spot. Just what we needed after a long flight. A bowl of really awesome ramen. Here’s what we had.

Gyoza

Shoyu Ramen

Ezogiku Ramen
2420 Koa Ave. Apt 103
Honolulu, HI 96815

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