Some time ago I decided to go to Pamplona and run with the bulls.  You know, one of those things a guy’s gotta do once in his life.  I like to draw animals and figured I’d come back with  a lot of neat sketches.  I did a lot of research including watching old movies.  Time was running short.  I had to make my reservations.  But you have to book at least two years in advance.  As a member of AARP I tried to get some special consideration.  Unfortunately, they wouldn’t take me seriously.  I could get a flight but would have to sleep in the park with a million drunken  students and hippies.  Then I began to ponder how much drawing I could do dodging a lot of bulls and crazy hippies.  I had already bought new running shoes and practiced zig-zagging up and down the street every morning.  To be honest, I got cold feet.  But I continued to practice drawing bulls.  Not in Spain but in North Shore cow pastures.

The original of the picture above was done in Japanese ink sumie style 24″ by 36″.  I don’t us a brush.  I draw from the bottle.  Kind of tricky.  You can’t hesitate.  I do the whole thing in seconds and use a lot of paper till I get it right.  And it takes forever to dry.  But I have time.  I’m not going anywhere.

It was a personal and professional privilege to have met John Keolamaka’ainana Lake, a gentleman in the fullest sense of that word, during his fruitful life as a steward of Hawaiian culture.

Oddly enough, my husband knew him, too — but as a Spanish teacher at St. Louis High School. That was back in the ’60’s, before the Hawaiian cultural renaissance, when a renewed appreciation for the native arts was just beginning. Keola Lake helped to drive what Hawaiian cultural activities there were on the Crusader campus (and the late George Helm was one of his featured students), but there weren’t too many full-time Hawaiian teachers around, and teaching Spanish became his gig.

Perhaps it’s not so odd, considering what a man of the world this kumu really was. What was so admirable about him was his embrace of all religions and cultures. Spiritually he was both Catholic and a practitioner of the Hawaiian religion and he saw absolutely no  conflict there. While covering one of his ‘uniki (graduation) ceremonies for his students of  the hula, chant and kahuna arts, I noted that the ancient Hawaiian rites took place at the Catholic Marianist retreat in ‘Ewa Beach. How cool was that?

There was also his delightful personality. Another admirer once told me that Lake personified the definition of the word ‘olu’olu: pleasant, nice, amiable, satisfied, contented, happy, affable, agreeable, congenial, cordial, gracious. He was all those things.

But today I looked up the literal meaning of his middle name — the life of the people who attend the land — and am struck by how well that suited him.

– Vicki Viotti 

The editorial board here has long supported what’s known as a shield law for journalists. Now the Legislature has passed one, and suddenly we’re conflicted about it.

Why? Because the whole nature of the journalism profession has changed. Mainly, it’s a good change: Anyone who has access to a blog — and that would be everyone, right? — can be a journalist. They can post articles on sites that look reasonably professional and, with some low- to no-cost promotion, get the word out. THEIR words.

A shield law essentially protects the journalist from a court order that they turn over their sources and notes. Journalists often cannot get information critical to investigative or other controversial pieces without a promise of anonymity, so there are cases in which sources need protection or they simply won’t come forward.

Many news organizations have rules in place to prevent abuse. Otherwise, we’d be running stories with anonymous accusations from sources that have nothing to lose and probably something to gain.

The problem is, independent bloggers have no gatekeepers to enforce similar standards. Should they have the same protections in court?

To make a long discussion short, I think there’s more to be gained from the new Hawai’i law than to be lost. There is a risk of abuse, but there are established news organizations that don’t abide by their own rules, either. And the media is self-policing, anyway, so who can tell which standards are being met?

We could come to no resolution. I’d be interested in what the readers think.

– Vicki Viotti 

I used to wear a wig. Sometimes referred to as a “piece” but never anymore as a toupee since that always conjures up those silly images of men having having theirs lifted by a slide trombone or getting dropped into the party punch. The hairpiece of today is quite secure thanks to strong glue and tape. But I must admit to having survived some hairy situations.

No one really plans to go bald. Consequently when the time comes we hairless must resort to wearing the harvested crop of an anonymous donor.

Windy days in Honolulu are a nuisance and it means making a lot of stops to comb and restyle. This is why many men wearing hairpieces are accused of having kidney problems.

Another hazard in the daily routine is the temptation to look at your reflection in every store window as you walk down the street. I bought my first hairpiece in New York and I didn’t have ten minutes when I got tangled up with an organ grinder’s monkey. I was so engrossed in my new image in the windows I failed to notice any obstacles below my knees. I also failed failed to focus on whatever was really behind the glass. I was once accused of flirting with a window washer. I was so involved with tousling with my forelock that I hadn’t noticed that he was making obscene gestures toward me with his squeegee.

There is a period just after acquiring your first hairpiece when you often feel giddy , especially toward strangers. This can really be a problem when traveling and sitting for long periods with total strangers. The temptation is to turn to your seat mate and say, “You may not believe this but but I’m wearing a rug!” Unfortunately what usually happens is that most people don’t consider this as a cosmetic improvement if they’ve never seen you without the wig. Instead they consider this as a confession to an affliction. Like having a glass eye. I remember once mentioning my piece to a fellow traveler after we both had a few drinks. His reaction was wanting to share my confidence by showing me his colostomy bag. I told him I’d take his word for it. Neither of us spoke for the rest of the trip.

So if you’re tired of having people tell you your head would make an excellent temple rubbing for the Phrenology Society, then it’s time you got a wig. It will change your life. You will become more sociable and outgoing. If you are fat you will lose weight. You’ll get a new wardrobe and probably buy a sports car. Statistics show that the next thing you’ll probably get is a divorce.

Can renewable energy lower our electricity bills? After all, there are so many sources out there that are cheap or essentially free — the sun, the volcano, the deep waters offshore, marine algae, hydrogen, wind. But from Hawaiian Electric Company’s point of view, renewable energy isn’t cheap. In fact, in the near future, it will cost more.

HECO, which received a $70 million rate increase six months ago, says it may seek another one to help pay for its new biofuel-run power plant at Campbell Industrial Park. It is also proposing a ratepayer surcharge — estimated at $1 per month — to recover costs for renewable energy projects it develops in conjunction with third parties, as well as other projects such as smart meters in homes to improve monitoring and control of household electricity use.

It won’t help HECO’s public relations that its most recent earnings report shows it making more money: it reported 2008 first-quarter profits of $34 million, up from $6.8 million it made in the first quarter of last year.

Nonetheless, HECO makes the argument that the transition from a fossil fuel-based electricity grid to a renewable-fuels one will require a significant investment. No doubt this is true.

It’s clear that the big-idea solutions, such as marine algae for fuel, large-scale wind farms, photovoltaics with battery storage for cloudy days, are not yet ready for prime time. Developing them on a scale that will provide reliable electricity for all the islands remains a challenge.

HECO makes the point, through its advertising and via the news media, that it intends to wean itself from its 90-percent dependency on fossil fuels and adopt clean renewable energy sources as soon as it’s practical. HECO’s critics will argue that the company’s quasi-monopoly status gives it little incentive to significantly change the way it generates and distributes electricity. If you depend on HECO, it’s argued, change will come, but it will be slow and expensive.

The truth no doubt lies somewhere in between. HECO and the affiliated Neighbor Island companies must deliver electricity reliably to the 1.2 million people on an isolated archipelago. A wholesale change in how that electricity is generated is no small challenge. How that change will be managed remains a question; for many of us, how we will pay for it remains a question as well.