J is for Jake Shimabukuro

Jake Shimabukuro

My J-day is for Jake Shimabukuru. Born in Honalulu on November 3rd 1976, this young guy has brought the ukulele a new respectability. No longer is the ukulele a joke instrument. Along with The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, Jake has helped to make the instrument seem 'cool' and 'current.'. There are groups in small towns, big town, schools, colleges, old folks homes all over the world. It's easy to learn to play and it's lost it vaudeville or George Formby image, unless that's what you're into. In New Zealand, schools are teaching ukulele instead of the recorder.

Listen to Jake play George Harrison's 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' and you will be amazed that this is being played on a humble ukulele and not a classical guitar.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puSkP3uym5k

Hear more of Jake and be inspired, as I was, to pick up a uke and start strumming.

Let's Dance:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqaYmQZgrB4

Michael Jackson's Thriller:    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02-gXysqDo8&feature=related

Enjoy!



(Photo: Wikipedia)

I is for Intolerance

O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us
To see oursels as others see us!
It wad frae monie a blunder free us
And foolish notion:

(Robert Burns: 1759-1796)

I wonder if Robbie Burns had 'intolerance' in mind when he wrote those lines? Was he thinking of the pumped up self congratulatory state of mind that allows people to think they are more important than others? That their history and culture, their religion, their sexual orientation, their race,  language,  literature and art is more important and worthy than anyone else's? Or worse still, the solipsistic attitude that cannot see anyone else's reality at all. Ignorance is bliss until someone points out to you what you've overlooked.

Maya Angelou, in an interview, once spoke of how she welcomed guests to her home and garden, but how she would not tolerate intolerance. Any conversation leaning towards sexism or racism immediately resulted in the person being asked to leave. Such negative thoughts and vibes tainted her home, she said. Infiltrated the structure, the walls, the fabrics, the furniture. She could not abide them in her home and so they were banished. I wish I could be as brave.

I think 'political correctness' is a term that has been hi-jacked by the intolerance brigade. Okay, there are some ridiculous examples and these, with the help of the media,  have trivialized the basic concept so that people bristle at the expression itself. But in general the term denotes no more than 'tolerance and respect'.

Walk a mile in someone else's shoes, I say. History reads differently when written from a different point of view.


  

H is for Harbour

                                                   across the harbour

                                                   the distant moon

                                                   lights the fastest route

                                                   from your door

                                                   to mine

G is for Guns

I came across this sign outside a shop a few doors along from a large liquor store. Get your discount wines and spirits then pop along and get your discount guns. Sounds like a lethal mix to me.

In New Zealand hunting, fishing and shooting are part of the national stereotype and still marketed as a tourist attraction in much the same way as the big white hunter was in Africa. The macho man image is still more predominant than the new man image. The government still employs hunters to cull deer and other mammals (introduced species that have outlived their usefulness) and fishing is very definitely a major family sport... although most people fish to put something on the table rather than to count and throw it back.

Trophy hunters sicken me. Living by the water's edge, we regularly have to endure the sight of magnificent sea creatures strung up for the photo shoot. Why don't we learn from past experience? We know what happened to the Tiger and Rhino populations. What is it about
this sort of battle against nature that is so attractive?

In rural areas, the sight of four wheel drives and utility trucks with pig dogs in the trailer is common. Deer and wild pig are still popular prey. Skilled marksmen will be in the minority and most hunters will lack the knowledge and skill to ensure a clean and quick kill. Guns in homes is not an uncommon reality. And from homes, they somehow manage to migrate into the hands of people who have other prey in mind. The pro-gun lobby will never admit that they are unable to police all registered gun holders and will never know how many guns and rifles are used in rural areas with no control at all.

Recently a school teacher out on a group camping trip was shot and killed while cleaning her teeth. A mistake.  Another recent case, young lads out in a truck at night with searchlights to dazzle the fleeing animals.... a tourist attraction this. Fast, high adrenalin sport from the back of a small truck bouncing along over rough pastures. A recipe for disaster. And it was.

Big boys toys? Come on guys. Grow up. We share this planet, remember?

   

F is for Funeral Director

I picked up my brother today. They gave him to me in a shoe-box size container inside a nice blue carrier bag, bio-degradable, of course. He felt surprisingly heavy considering that when he went into hospital on November 3rd, after a fall, he'd weighed only 38kg. I wonder if there's someone else in there with him. Maybe it's the metal pins and rods that held his hip together. They were the source of the septicaemia that eventually took him, over a period of just five days, despite him having made a good recovery from the fall.

I remember the day he was born in the front bedroom of a tiny house in outer Manchester. I was four years old and I'd run all the way home from school as my grandmother had walked up the hill to tell me that I had a baby brother. On the sideboard was a large brown paper bag and I was convinced that he'd arrived in that. Now, here he is again, in a 21st century bag this time. And a lifetime has been and gone.

The emotions associated with mourning are confusing. Guilt, anger, sadness, regret, frustration -  but also a host of happy memories. I know from experience that these feelings will settle down in time, and the painful images that keep me awake at night, of his last days in hospital, will eventually fade. It's not good to try to rush the process. I will be gentle with myself. 'For I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep...'   (Robert Frost)


  

E is for Evacuation Route

We hope we never need to use it. And we think of those who never got the chance because events overtook them.

Here in New Zealand we are part of what is known as The Pacific Rim. Countries around this rim live with the knowledge that earthquakes and tsunami are part of the geological makeup of the region. The earthquake in Christchurch and the one that followed in Japan force us to acknowledge our vulnerability.

These tsunami evacuation route signs dotted along the coastline are constant reminders.

dawn

                                            sunrise

                                            

                                            a boy and his dog

                                            walk the length of the jetty

                                            beneath the surface

                                            between the poles

                                            a stingray glides 

                                            searching for bottom feeders

                                            kingfishers wait and watch

                                            high stepping herons patrol in silence

                                            a gull shrieks

                                            and the first logging truck of the day

                                            rumbles over the bridge

                                            that crosses the estuary