Last fall and spring I collaborated with my dear friend and colleague Kainani Kahaunaele on a series of podcasts intended to assist beginning students of the Hawaiian language using the Nā Kai ‘Ewalu textbook. It took a little longer than we planned, but the podcasts are now online.

Please keep in mind that these podcasts are intended to be used in conjunction with the Nā Kai ‘Ewalu textbook, whether you are learning in the classroom setting, in an online class or learning by yourself at home. There is a link on the podcast page if you need to order the text. While you may find it interesting to listen to even if you are not actively learning the language, students will benefit most if they work through each chapter of Nā Kai ‘Ewalu, have the lessons fresh in your mind, and then listen to the podcast(s) for each mokuna. Be sure to speak when you are told to do so – it is very important! We’re putting the sound of the language in your ears in order to help you get it coming out of your mouth!

Mahalo to Chancellor Rose Tseng at UH-Hilo, the UH-Foundation and the Straube Foundation who provided the funds for developing these podcasts, as well as Kainani for her wonderful work on the project.

There is a pretty amazing tribute to the Hawaiian immersion students and in particular those at Ānuenue School on O‘ahu on Billy V’s HawaiianBroadcast.com. Check it out, very moving.

I’ll be one of the guests speaking with Brickwood and Kimo on Nā ‘Ōiwi ‘Ōlino tomorrow on AM940 radio. Keawe Lopes from UH-Mānoa, Kahikina De Silva from Kīpuka Leo and possibly others will talk about their work in media for the benefit of Hawaiian language and cultural perpetuation programs starting at 7AM. I’ll call in from Hilo a bit after 8AM to talk about the work that we’ve been doing at Ka Haka ‘Ula O Ke‘elikōlani College of Hawaiian Language in those areas. Tune in if you can.

I was thinking today about something that Bill Meyer talked about at several of the music conferences that were held over the past 5 months on O‘ahu, Hawai‘i island and Maui. He talked about a lot of issues regarding copyright. One of them is the compulsory license, that is, once a song has been recorded and released the composer cannot prevent someone else from recording it. However, the performer cannot make substantial changes to the song without permission. Some changes are allowable, such as pronoun gender changes (such as from “he” to “she”). If I recall the discussion correctly, he implied that even changing a place name (such as “West Viginia” to “West Mākaha”) could be a violation of the composer’s rights.

I was thinking – what about doing an instrumental rendition of someone’s song? If someone was to take a mele that Keali‘i Reichel wrote and stripped away the lyrics, to me they’ve stripped away the soul of the song. There is no more substantial change that could be made to a mele. Could they get a compulsory license and just use the melody and chord progression of the song, which in the case of most of his compositions are still clearly identifiable? Of course, K might allow it which would make the point moot, but in principal, what if he didn’t and someone recorded it anyway using the compulsory license mechanism? Hmm. Perhaps Bill Meyer, Mark Bernstein or Darin Leong could chime in with their thoughts.

Nā Leo Pūlama O Maui presents the 20th annual “Ho‘omau” concert to benefit the Pūnana Leo o Maui. Entertainers include Keali‘i Reichel, Aunty Genoa Keawe, Kaumakaiwa Lopaka Kanaka‘ole, No Boundriz, Pomai and Loeka, Kohomua, Nuff Sedd, Zack Kekona, Pi‘ilani Arias, Ikaika Blackburn, hālau hula “Na Lei Kaumaka o Uka” (Kumu hula Napua Greig), hālau hula “Kekuaokala’au’ala’iliahi” and much more. March 17, 2007 (Saturday), 9:00 a.m. until sunset at Keōpūolani Park Amphitheater-near YMCA Kahului, behind Maui Botanical Garden, across War Memorial Park.

My apologies for the lardiness of this post, but the annual Ho‘omau Concert will be held at the Waikiki Shell this evening, Sunday, February 18, 2007. The concert is to benefit Pūnana Leo O Honolulu. Kenneth Makuakāne is one of the performers, but unfortunately I don’t have a complete list.

I’m the substitute DJ on Alana I Kai Hikina on KWXX in Hilo this evening, so feel free to tune in if you can catch the program. Unfortunately the station is not streamed.

The Pūnana Leo O Hilo and Ke Kula ‘O Nāwahīokalani‘ōpu‘u are holding their annual fundraising concert and craft fair, Pūlama Mauli Ola, on the Nāwahīokalani‘ōpu‘u campus in Kea‘au on Hawai‘i island (across from the animal shelter on the Kea‘au-Pāhoa Highway). Admission is free, but here will be food, crafts, and t-shirts available for sale as well as a rummage sale. Entertainers include the students of the schools, UH-Hilo student Bryson Embernate (an amazing falsetto singer), Bruddah Walta, Darlene Ahuna, Pure Pleasure and Kepana Boys.

The gentlemen of Holunape will host “A Tribute To Hawai‘i’s Songbird: Lena Machado” tonight at the Hawai‘i Theatre at 8PM. The Honolulu Advertiser features an article written by her granddaughters, and the Star-Bulletin’s John Berger includes more coverage of Holunape themselves, their motivation for doing such a special show, as well as background information on Lena.

When I was doing the research for my M.A. thesis, I actually considered including Lena and Aunty Alice Nāmakelua, however, I could only find one thirty-second or so clip of her speaking in Hawaiian to compare with her sung Hawaiian; it was a brief telephone conversation she had with Larry Kimura on the old Ka Leo Hawai‘i radio program. In the end I found so many recordings of Almeida, both speaking and singing, that I focused on his music alone.

This story from Midweek Magazine gives a good overview of the development of the Pūnana Leo Hawaiian Language preschools, and how Don Ho came to be selected at this year’s honoree at the organizations’ Ne‘epapa I Ke Ō Mau banquet this year.

Dr. Trey asks the timely question and offers a brief opinion on the matter. Where do I begin? I won’t for now, the topic is just too deep and multi-faceted to do it justice in a short post. It’s something that I’ve actually considered as a topic for my Ph.d. research and dissertation. He is right that it is more than a matter of simply getting the lyrics correct and pronouncing your ‘okina and kahakō properly. Phrasing is important and sung pronunciation is not always the same as spoken pronunciation, a topic I covered in my M.A. thesis. I’ll compose a more compehensive reply and post it here and on his blog as well. I’d like to encourage others with thoughts on the matter to post them on his blog in reply to this post.

Update: I’ve posted a lengthly reply on Dr. Trey’s site.

The iSpeak Hawaiian podcast will officially launch in January of 2007. If learning ʻōlelo Hawai‘i is one of your potential New Year’s resolutions, you might want to bookmark this site.

I’ve received a number of emails from podcast listeners, most of whom I’ve never heard from before. While nearly all expressed some disappointment in this development, they were also supportive of the decision, and stated that they would continue to listen for the music. Mahalo for the kind feedback and compliments from all of you as well.

This wasn’t an easy decision. I was still pondering my decision earlier this week when I was interviewed by a reporter from Midweek magazine on podcasting. In discussing the history of Nahenahe.net and the podcast with her, I was reminded that the main reason I started the podcast in the first place was to explore its potential as an educational tool. The ability to promote the music of Hawai‘i, while significant, was really secondary.

I have really wanted to do a Hawaiian language podcast for a while, to give students and speakers of the language something to listen to, but simply don’t have the time to do two of them. When I subbed for Mākela Bruno-Kidani on the Alana I Kai Hikina program a few years ago, I was amazed at how many people would call the station to say that they loved the show, even though they didn’t understand what we were saying. I’m hoping that the same will occur here.

While English is my native language, Hawaiian my language of choice. At some point I hope that English will fall a distant third to Hawaiian and Irish. I’ve spent the past dozen years trying to find ways to bring technology to the Hawaiian language, and bring the language into technology. This is a natural extension of that work. I think it is important that the language be used in contemporary contexts, such as my friend Conn does with technology and Irish language on An tImeall, and am grateful that his discussion of language on his podcast reminded me of this.

Nothing is final, and I’ll never say never. I may go back to doing English podcasts at some point, alternating them in English in Hawaiian, or using both languages within them. Only time will tell. I’m hoping that those of you who don’t speak Hawaiian will continue to listen, for the music if nothing. If someone becomes inspired to learn the language, then in my eyes this move will be a success.

My Irish friend Conn at an tImeall made his first substantial (as far as I know) English language post on his blog. He discusses his use of Irish and its merits and limitations, and is pondering whether or not to start using English as well so that he can participate more broadly in the tech blogosphere. Being bilingual, he can read everyone else’s posts on issues, but his readership is restricted because relatively few people speak or can read Irish (compared to English at least). I started composing my thoughts to send to him, and hopefully will do it and post it on my other blog tonight. He made mention in his latest podcast of my Hawaiian language podcast, and my agonizing over whether to do my podcasts exclusively in Hawaiian, to alternate English and Hawaiian, or to use both in each podcast. I still haven’t come to a decision on that, but will soon. As soon as I come up with my reply to Conn I’ll link to it here as well.

The Pūlama Mauli Ola fundraiser was an incredible success, one of the best Iʻve experienced since we started doing them jointly several years ago. The Nāwahī students performed a number of chants, songs and hula to open the day, and it was followed by a non-stop lineup of all-star Hawaiian entertainment – the Keli‘iho‘omalu family from Puna, Kaumakaiwa Kanaka‘ole, Kenneth Makuakāne, Raiatea Helm, and Sudden Rush closed the show in grand style. I had a great time chatting with Raiatea’s father Zack, whom I recall meeting during my year on Moloka‘i back in the 80s. What a wonderful family. Raiatea looked a bit bushed from the whirlwind trip to the Grammys and related activities, but certainly didn’t show it on stage. She blew the crowd away, and sold out of all the CDs they brought along to sell. Here’s a shot of (left to right) Keoni Souza (member of Raiatea’s band), Kaumakaiwa, Hale Akaka (also from Raiatea’s band) and Raiatea in the hospitality room.

I had the thrill of a lifetime and got to accompany Kenneth Makuakāne for his set. He was amazing as always, and the stories he told about his songs had the crowd in stitches. It was fun to watch faces light up when he talked about some of his songs. People knew all the songs and didn’t know that he wrote them all. Unfortunately my wife and daughter forgot to take any pictures of that set, so I have no mementos (sob!)

Mahalo to all of the wonderful entertainers who again came through for our immersion schools, and especially to Kenneth for putting up with a scrub bass player.