Falling Slowly

Last Spring I attended a music recital at an academy for musically gifted young students in Denver.

The program offered everything from opera to jazz and culminated with a poignant rendition of a song called "Falling Slowly".

The piece was beautifully preformed as a duet by two of the academy's faculty members and was accompanied by the sweet sound of a tenor ukulele.

I was so impressed by the sound the came out of that ukulele that I promised myself I'd learn to play that music or die trying.  Well, it's been 5 months now and I'm dying trying.  Being a novice ukuleleist, this project has proven to be challenging to say the least.

But isn't it strangely unexplainable how there are certain songs which come along every so often and just blow your mind with their perfect combination of lyrics and melody? Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" is one of those songs, along with several of Adele's creations, and I can't leave Tim Hardin's "Reason to Believe" of my list.

So now I've included "Falling Slowly" to my list, for it is a song that has compelled me to joyfully work far beyond my abilities.

Of course - you may already know all this - but after I first heard the music in Denver, I did some research and found that the song came out of a low budget, foreign indie film called Once - a movie that took around 3 weeks to film on a $100,000 budget about an street musician working in Dublin, Ireland. Along the way the movie and the song have won myriad awards on the international scene and in particular, the song won the 2008 Academy Award for Best Achievement in Music Written for a Motion Picture, Original Song.

Wow, "Falling Slowly" came out of nowhere and won an Oscar!

Now recall this was a really low budget, small time, foreign, independent film. Basically one of hundreds produced and distributed every year.

But there was evidently something very special about this story for in 2012 it was transformed into a musical production on Broadway (yes-Broadway) and was nominated for 11 Tony Awards, winning 8 of those nominations including Best Musical.

Now that's an amazing rags to riches story. Should I say "only in America"? (Although it was written and produced in Ireland)

Check out the video below of the song "Falling Slowly" written and preformed in harmonious collaboration by Glen Hasard and Marketa Irglova.  After hearing it you too may want to include it in your musical repertoire if you haven't already!

But for now - enjoy. . . . .

My Dog Has Fleas (GCEA)

ukulele, kona, Hulihue'e Palace, Kona Town, Kahaluu Beach Park, Kona Trolley
You've never truly had the Hawaiian experience until you take a ukulele lesson from Kumu Lale on the grounds of the Hulihue'e Palace on Kona Bay.  This happens every Friday morning from 10 - 12 and all you have to do is just "show up".  Some call her "Kumu" (teacher) and some call her "Auntie", whatever you call her, she is a gracious, patient teacher who enjoys introducing Hawaiian music to anyone willing to learn.


So this is how I've been passing some of my time during the last two weeks - improving my uke skills and basking at the playgrounds of Hawaiian Royalty.

Actually as far as palaces go, Hulihue'e is not terribly grand. But it is a lovely Hawaiian style building fronted by a wrought iron gate decorated with the royal crest. The palace is now a museum showcasing Victorian artifacts from the era of King Kalakaua and Queen Kapi'olani.

It was considered the summer vacation home to the royals.  I don't know why - every place is a vacation palace in the islands.  But there could be some historical significance to the location with Makuaikaua Church (Hawaii's earliest Christian Church built in 1820) directly across the street and Ahuena Heiau (the last royal residence of the great King Kamehameha l) within view.

And King Kamehameha l is a big deal here.  Highly regarded as a warrior, diplomat, and leader, he holds a place of great esteem in every Hawaiian heart, almost to a spiritual level. Legend has it that he was born in 1736, the year Haley's Comet passed over the islands. He is credited with uniting the islands and was the first ruler of this island nation. Ironically he spent his later years at his compound in Kailua-Kona, now the site of the King Kamehameha Beach Hotel, the starting and finishing points for the Ironman World Coampionship Triathlon.

I've spent my entire time here in Kona without a car. This has been a valuable experience for me as I've had to be organized and follow a schedule if I wanted be at my destinations on time.  I have done a lot of walking and I have found that the public transportation, that is, the city bus, is a bit confusing and actually spent several hours on it one afternoon because I missed my stop (actually I got confused).  I hate thinking this, but at times I felt like I was in a third world country riding on that rickety bus. This could be because I usually don't ride city buses (although this bus was different from the ones I've seen in the WV).

Lucky for me, I found another form of transportation which is very reliable, and fun, and stops by my condo complex every two hours, and the driver is always nice to you.  It's a delightful green open-air trolley which is contracted by the Sheraton Resort at the far south end of the Kona coastline and is used to shuttle their guests and anyone else with $2 into and around Kona Town.  One afternoon, when the trolley didn't have a lot of passengers, the driver (who was an Hawaiian) actually gave me the grand tour from one end of the line to the other (from the Sheraton Resort to the Kona Brewing Company) and explained all about how and where the Hawaiians lived on the coastline before the Westerners arrived.  It was quite a story - amazingly the islands are  loaded with existing old historic and sacred sites - and being a haole, I was a little uncomfortable at times about how the story ended.

So today I'm going to catch the trolley and go to a really great snorkel beach called Kahaluu Beach Park.  Some say it's the best snorkel beach on the island.  It has quite a bit of historical significance and is considered by many Hawaiians to be a sacred place.

All I know is there a tons of wonderful  reef fish (all colors of the rainbow) to be seen, and abundant sightings of the Green Sea Turtle swimming throughout the bay.  It's a calm and safe place to snorkel - there's a life guard, and it's beautiful. It was here that I saw my first Yellow Tang that was not in an aquarium and they were huge.  So you see quite large fish (all the fish you see in a marine aquarium and some you haven't), and if you carefully look around you can find little nursery sites in the Brain Coral with tiny little fish that look exactly like the big ones.

It's so compelling out in the bay that it's difficult to pull yourself away from looking down into the water at the sea life.  But you need to be watchful, for even though it's a safe place to snorkel, there are currents that can take you out or down the coast farther than you'd like to go.

Well it's time to get my snorkel gear read and get out of here -  before I miss the trolley again!

I couldn't resist putting in another picture of a sunset.  The sunsets on the Kona side of the Big Island are so spectacular -  you cannot take a bad picture. The one below is totally untouched or enhanced.  I will be leaving Kona in a day, going on to visit Hilo - the other side of the island - the side with no sunsets! So aloha a hui hou kakoui Kona.

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