After accompanying The Royal Order of King Kamehameha I on their Merrie Monarch Festival Parade and serving as one of the photographers/video documentors for their commemoration ceremony, it was off to Kahenna beach the next day, and then hanging with my hosts from the Order at thier place -I'm feeling kinda at home.
I'll post photos of the parade and ceremony in a few days. Too bad I didn't get good audio for you of Uncles Kaliko and Kahu doing their traditional invocations.
I am so jealous!
I've never been to that part of the world.
I picture you as a sort of Paul Gauguin Skiff.
Chasin' the native girls around.
You better be back in time for Stevie though!
I've never been to that part of the world.
I picture you as a sort of Paul Gauguin Skiff.
Chasin' the native girls around.
You better be back in time for Stevie though!
I will be back for Stevie. Just don't get me started on the local girls.
It's Saturdaynight in Puna.
Two doves are fucking in
the middle of Maku'u Street right
on the double yellow line. Each
would have crossed over for
the other but neither wanted
to have the advantage of
doing a favor for the other so
they met in the middle. Tomorrow
two feathers will collect
the mist and vog before
the trade wind bounces
them into the mango grove.
It's Saturdaynight in Puna.
Two doves are fucking in
the middle of Maku'u Street right
on the double yellow line. Each
would have crossed over for
the other but neither wanted
to have the advantage of
doing a favor for the other so
they met in the middle. Tomorrow
two feathers will collect
the mist and vog before
the trade wind bounces
them into the mango grove.
Well Daddy I think you would have liked the Hawai'ian version of the baths. A traditional swet hut with about 15 people sitting around the stone pit piled with 10 hunks of lavastone all glowing orange from being next to a huge bonfire for about three hours. I felt like I was being roasted. Kaliko did the pre-entry invocation in a driving warm rain. Inside there were numerous rounds of chants and group response calls, a novitiate, suitably the nakedest youngest person, dropping fat grains of salt on the rocks. I probably lost eight pounds. Afterwards it was a dousing with cold water, a huge communal dinner and rounds and rounds of local smoke. Tell Empress they really roll here.
Wow, what an experience!
Goblin is going to die!!!!!
Goblin is going to die!!!!!
Oh thanks darling for the recap - I am BROWN with envy!
The Royal Order of King Kamehameha I start thier parade march. Members of the Order are lineal descendants of Kamehameha who was the guy that united all the islands into one kingdom. They are widely regarded by the locals as being the real government of the Big Island. The guy with the grey beard sort of in the center of the photo had just returned from Washington D.C. where he was lobbying senators to restore Hawai'i's sovereignty and allow the islands to no longer be one of the United States.
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This is local bad boy Billy Kenoi, mayor of Hilo, greeting members of the Royal Court. He's famous for getting calls on his cell just before the cops come to break up the bar fights he's participating in so he can exit the back door. Right now he's under investigation for having his staff members use city government computers to facilitate his election campaigning,the charges to which he replied, "I don't even know how to work a computer." At least not like he knows how to work local politics!
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The volcano was angrier than last year. On top of that there was a 4.5 earthquake last week. It kind of felt like when the building I live in jiggles everytime the trash haulers speed their illegally oversized truck down Houston Street.
more images tomorrow
more images tomorrow
With less tourists, a thinned out total population -there are now only around 175,000 people on the big island according to some sources- the rising soveriegnty push, the increasing swell of cultural practitioners, and a couple of other developments I won't go in to here, all enhancing the liberationzone, this is really getting to be the prime place in the U.S. to not feel like you are in U.S. Now if only the culture and attitudes on the mainland could catch up. Unfortunately, Aloha is still largely recognized erroneously as just being a quaint native way to say goodbye.
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Puna has been a little rainy this month. And quieter. The post '08 crash has been a lengthy period of much lower tourist influx to the Big Island. The plane ride over from L.A. was not even half full.
But prices for a lot of things like food, always pricey on the islands, have softened or stayed the same since I was here last. However, gasoline is close to five a gallon now in a lot of locations. the Mango Tree Network is still up and running. But I've seen several actual real houses have been built along the Red Road, really kind of upsetting to see. A lot of traditional activities at my host's compound as in the past, sweat lodge nights, a ritual naming ceremony for a one year old, and a big native american church event coming up to be presided upon by a particularly legendary road man. And the elders here have recently been granted the status of a chapter in the church which means even more official events in the near future. the compound is quite lively. And of course, I've had some really magic nights up on the volcano, with Pu'u O'o actually seeming to be serene after an August outburst that produced extensive new vents on its western flank which you can see a bit in the photo here. This is probably my only post for this journey, just having too much enjoyment and wanting to stay off grid.
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