Arts & Culture

John Cage once said, “The first question I ask myself when something doesn’t seem to be beautiful is, why do I think it’s not beautiful. and very shortly you discover that there is no reason.” Contemporary classical music is an acquired taste for most people. I spoke with two composers, (Robert Yamasato and Peter Askim)both with local ties and international promise, for insights on appreciating the music of living composers.

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Educator and Writer Leroy Robinson offers thoughtful comments on his experiences moving to Hawai’i and we get an inside look at goings on at Flava and Da Wig Shop. Not fancy, but there’s something marvelous going on there thanks to Duke and King. Check it out on Kalakaua above Kapi’olani.

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UH professor, dancer and choreographer Betsy Fisher became part of Germany’s unique dance lineage by studying with emigre Hanna Holms at Julliard. Born out of a musical gymnastics culture, the taut, muscley dance forms pioneered by Mary Wigman and Rudolph von Laban were spread from Israel to Argentina to Finland to Korea and the U.S. in the Diaspora around WWII. Fisher is the first to chronical the international lineage in solo dance pieces.

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Jason Teraoka has curated the final art show under the direction of Keiko Bonk, former Executive Director at the Japanese Cultural Center. Her abrupt and unexplained firing clouded festivities at the opening of “The Sacred Order of the Esteemed Brotherhood”, but the brotherhood has put together one of the year’s most important shows. Majorly amped Solomon Enos is showing fabulous drawings at workspace based on listening to NPR!

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Kathan Brown is the founder and driving force behind Crown Point Press, a legend in the printing world for unwavering quality. Crown Point made its name by inviting reknown visual artists to work, many for the first time, in the print medium. Book lovers, Kathan Brown brings a most discerning esthetic to her “secret work of art”, The North Pole, layering narrative and visual elements in a handsome, contemporary book. Brown is in Honolulu to judge the Honolulu Printmakers’ Annual Exhibition which opens February 23rd and runs through March 18th at the Academy Art Center at Linekona. Brown’s booksigning is set for Feb. 25th, 7:30 at Barnes and Noble.

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Wang has been called “fearless and phenomenal” for her work exploring, among other things, the relationship between beauty and violence. Born in Shanghai, examination of her cultural history began as a student at NYU, when she addressed the topic of footbinding, practiced for 1,000 years in Imperial China. Check in her newest book, The Magic Whip, a piece entitled Aching for Beauty exposes delicately, relentlessly, bravely, the horror and allure of that practice.

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Oh yes, after 20 years of effort, it’s finally happening. the Hawai’i Academy of Recording Artists stepped up their efforts 8 years ago, getting members to join the national Recording Academy to gang up and lobby for a Hawaiian Grammy. Voila! Nominees are “Some Call It Aloha … Don’t Tell” by The Brothers Cazimero* “Amy & Willie Live” by Amy Hanaiali’i Gilliom & Willie K.* “Cool Elevation” by Ho’okena* “Ke’alaokamaile” by Keali’i Reichel* “Slack Key Guitar, Volume 2,” a multiartist compilation; Charles Michael Brotman, producer.

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Ukulele legend Bill Tapia was a child prodigy, famous around town by the time he was 12, pioneering jazz ukulele with steel guitar virtuoso Sol Ho’opi’i, composer Johnny Noble and others by the time he was 14. Now 97, he’s returning to the stage, ukulele in hand, and a new cd out this week. Caught him sitting in at Studio 6 last year, he was cool. Check www.billtapia.com.

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Architect Gilman Hu has been teaching the classical Chinese art of crab claw narcissus bulb carving for twenty years at the Academy of Arts. Narcissus are quarter-sized flowers, white petals surround a yellow fringed cup in the center, much like small daffodils. They have a light jasmine-like scent and are often seen in Chinatown this time of year, as they symbolize health, good fortune, and wealth–the golden cup in a silver saucer.

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One of America’s premier environmental writers, Lopez is best known for ” Of Wolves and Men” and “Arctic Dreams”, National Book Award Winner. His methods are an organic outgrowth of his interests in field observation: he said he prefers to talk with locals of a place, asking them what they see. He has travelled extensively around the globe bringing a unique sensibility into our national consciousness. He reads in Honolulu’s Orvis Auditorium February 17th, 7pm. Free.

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