Talking to the people of Kalihi & Waikiki was an insight into the slum vs  city/tourist spots of Honolulu. I soon got answers ranging from good to okay of civilians opinions of things that stood out for them. Its like when this man in a market store on the district of Kahlili would say that people from the city were scared of Kalihi scene and frame. It gives Kahili this unsafe and hard feeling of violence even though it not necessarily like that. The city in itself was pretty bent out of shape, with old market stores that had mold on the side of the walls, Houses looked kinda charcoal burnt, bars which look more like tavern on the outside (No inside for me sadly), and just a environment that looks destructive but a community of loving people.

Allow me to enlighten you on a spot of time where this perception was happening right in front of me. One day we were greeted by a elderly woman who was clearly homeless and drugged out  no offense to the woman, but Gordie and I saw her on our way to pick up snacks for our first journey in Hawaii. We say her fidget and mumble things from afar. As we approached the counter when in the store this woman turns to me and Gordie as she belts out “Step off the gas man!” At first I took it as a threat and gave a confused gesture back that said “No you step on the gas…”. The clerk then says to me as aI turn and comfirm my confusing to “pay her no mind she’s talking to her friend” I then am even more puzzled at what friend the clerk meant. Very shortly I found out with just a few seconds though and was even more curious if this is normal in Hawaii or anywhere else for that manner. As I left “Step off the gas man!” became a inside joke between me and Gordie, if you ever want me to tell you a story I got a few of Hawaii and all of them extreme and pretty funny events.

In the beautiful city of Kahlua I ventured around from day to night asking others of people they listen to in Hawaii and which influential artist on the island. Iz and Mike Love both occurring mentioned artist. I began obsessed with these two both because both of them. I then began to talk with Gordie over Iz a man people constantly said they missed. He explained to me that the person they were talking about was a local who sung a song of familiarity which is “Over the rainbow. I was surprised to find that out and it made me want to find out more about IzI found His full name was Israel Ka’ano’i Kamakawiwo’ole aka Iz. His last name in Hawaiian translates to  “the fearless eye, the bold face.”  Iz was also a native & a rare breed, with him almost being a pure Hawaiian of unusual lineage. His ancestral roots are still within the island itself some would mention to me as I asked about Iz. He remains the most Hawaiian of all, the so-called “forbidden” island of Ni’ihau was a phrase mentioned in our book. Now these were some basics but Iz was known through many things such as soundtrack of movies that have Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler with 30 dates nights and many other film featuring Sean Connery, Brad Pitt and many more. I enjoyed everything until I read the part of Iz death to know such a great individual was long gone made me feel very sad because I never really knew the identity of the man behind over the rainbow. RIP to Iz and good wishes to those who carry his memory. 

My stepping stones of my research began from constant reminders when interviewing people in across Honolulu, Hawaii. The first day of exploring/interviewing consisted of people listing the same people in a seeming similar pattern when I asked the question “Who are local or favored artist in Honolulu?” People absolutely answered with good an precisely what I needed giving me a good bit of mentioned locals along with some like Mike Love, Ron Artis and Iz. An some alternative. The bands that occurred the most were through the roots & Rebelution. They are known in Hawaii  and they aren’t even Hawaii Natives, but are respected like so, why is that is what I wondered?  It was all the buzz during that day they were preforming and it was exciting. When I interviewed around briefly with the people of Honolulu they commented mostly with suggestive places where artist would preform. This is where I found the venue ‘The Republik’ and the people who performed at it.

Now ‘The Republik’ is a general admission bar that allows 18+ up age venue with a bar, which meant no drinking, but then again I wouldn’t wanna really want to have drunk anything alcoholic anyway. It’s stage was nice, wide and big enough for the crowd to see an the performer to resonant sound along the space. This venue truly had sound resonating from it! I mean you could hear the music from five blocks away.  The bouncers were as tall giant troll’s off of some magical/fantasy genre like Lord of the Rings or something similar in that manner. I ended up in the middle of this big venue with young adults and adults of mostly the descent of White, Asian & Pacific Islander. To put it in perspective I was one of of few black individuals in the room. Although that’s not a major part of this it should be noted that most of the people in the club were older Asian/Pacific Islanders, but I gotta say this concert was neat.

I didn’t only observe the people in the club, but the music and how it affected them, how it moved them, what it meant to the crowd to hear this music. From what I gathered the crowd generally and excitingly loved ‘Through the roots & Rebelution’ with the same screeches and howlers which each song they played. To be apart of this was  epic because the music moved the musicians & the crowd in a way where they were so comfortable enough to produce a natural emotion of presentation to give a good show while bringing in their own flavor of the indigenous roots. You can see the audience in the video above is feeling the beat & reacting in a calm moving flowing manner to the beat of the music. This came as a clear distinction that the citizen in Hawaii prefer this musical genre more than most. I’m not saying they predominantly listen to reggae and calming music its just seems like a preferred musical taste. Well maybe for just city standards, I believe the indigenous music of Hawaii would have a different take on this. I wouldn’t know enough of that to back anything up to form a opinion about it.

Now looking back on that concert experience, I actually miss it because as I was there I was talking to people left and right hearing things like “these band is so awesome” or “these guys need to just live in Hawaii and preform forever” with this I came to my own realization that these guys & girls are all different genders uniting over experimental indigenous music. It made me think does the type of music that Hawaii like cater to outside musicians the same way it caters to local musicians?  Through the roots is from San Diego, California and Rebelution is from Santa Barbara, California which are outside of Hawaii, but both have treated Hawaii as a home. Hawaii has accepted them, and was also told by many of the adults that they tour and that they absolutely love the cultural aspect of Hawaii and all its inhabitants. They get when preforming in Hawaii. I absolutely would agree by just being in the energy you can sympathize with the musician on stage, his resonate sound becomes your resonate sound is what was thought as I confronted the dance and jig of the music moving through me.

I still think about it from this day…How wonderful it was…

I wrote this cartoon to one appeal to the audience for those who may find my explanation hard to read or can are bored by it. I assure though that it won’t! An second the cartoons conversation is a believable and truthful one, we find beauty in those things we like to do and after reading the last chapter it seems we as humans are innate to using travel as a worthwhile and life changing thing. Which gave me the thought of we think of travel as a beautiful thing.

For example in my last paper I explained how travel is taken as a median of our lives and is need for further growth in life. I agreed with the books jargon for it spoke truth because we do journeys and travel to use the experience to then reflect and give lessons to others for who may visit in the future. It also explained the journeys experiences as having a different impacts on different human beings. Point is I sure did enjoy the fact that with the other half of the book I began to see that the concepts in page 105 concepts were being represented in pages 157 through 176 as a very in depth thought about your environment and what it means to you.

It gave me the same perspective after reading over the description of beauty by De Botton and I soon found that the travel descriptions were all related to teaching us this learning environment of traveling being used as a tool. A tool that is used to gather information to discover the unknown for all its possibilities and to come back learning something new about yourself through prosperous life learning. Thats what this book has been speaking to me for the past two weeks of reading over it. I’ve gained insight and knowledge beyond my own comprehension.

This paper focuses on the thought of the quote more through what I say in De Botton’s work, and the observe what I came across while going over the art of travel, I came up with quotes I felt are related to the  prompt at hand which is “Journey’s are the midwife of thought. Which gave me more of a perspective to read the book in a more enhancing way. Although this focuses less on the PDF, I still found the PDF to be enlightening to what I currently have written in my paper.

“if we are surprised by the power of one sulk to destroy the beneficial effects of an entire hotel, it is because we misunderstand what holds up our moods we are glad at home and blame the weather…the state of the skies and the appearance of our dwelling can never an their own either underwriter our joy or condemn us to misery.” (The art of travel, De Botton, 2007 pg.25 )

To me it seems the author displays this sarcastic value to his writing, its as if I see the quote more as a question to the reader, where it is displayed as such to be a very vague, but noticeable question to the people who appeal to it. For example “If were surprised by the power of one sulk to destroy the beneficial effects of an entire hotel” with those odds its a analogy to maybe symbolize that you gain benefit from certain rewards or achievements. I believe that is determined by the reader whether they choose which way to go. Therefore this quote allows myself to think of this as a personal opinion and a look on my own characteristics within yourself. It then goes on to say “[Its is because what holds up our mood, we are at home and blame the weather…]” The art of travel, De Botton, 2007 pg. 25). Through characteristics it can be a abundant of things, such as sadness, depression and etc.  Going over this then gave me into a perspective that displayed denial,  I mean if actually gives us this quote of one affecting others experience for the sake of yours, then what harm could denial of ones control not go anywhere?

“Anything I learn’t would have to be justified by private benefit rather than by the interest of others. My discoveries would have to enliven the, they would have in some way to prove life – enhancing” (The art of travel, De Botton, 2007, pg 109)

This reminded me of a learning curve will experience with ourselves when on our own journeys, and in order to achieve or even just progress through that learning curve. You have to learn what justifies your work? Does your work have interest in a private benefit or for the benefit of others?  These are then discovered through ours travels through a journey on different perspective to give you a life living lesson. I thought of these as checkpoints within your life that you can capture for the later future as mementos and or milestones if you would prefer it more as rewards and pleasure out of knowing you’ve experienced such a thing.

“There was another problem: the explorers who had come before and discovered facts had at the same time laid down distinctions between what was significant and what was not distinctions that had, overtime, hardened into almost immutable truths about value in Malay.” The art of travel, De Botton, 2007 pg. 111)

This was seen to me as the after effect, this effect is what we discover through the confrontation of a new way of life opening your brain to different knowledge but through a personal perspective of consciousness. What would happen if we gathered this evidence of the current research place as we approach, we then cover up on everything and know as much as we possibly can to be informed, but when it comes to the real life experience you then start to realize the experiences. The hands on look and feel of the experience of being in a different perspective than what you’re use to excites and even frightens you. thats why this is considered still another problem to me, at this current point and time.

This is not to appoint you to say that De Botton is crazy or anything, this is just stating my opinion on what I interpret what he’s saying, to only compromise with myself to make sense of his text to enlighten and enrich my experience going into my own journey. The feeling of reading this was to be more emphatic about my experience and to look over or reflect on it as if this will be a life resolving thing. Its insight to look upon for inspiration, but as a cohesive book was referenced guide to observe, look, listen,respect and achieve ultimate enlightenment so far, talking about the process one goes through when traveling to replore, to explain it’s basic probabilities and accept them and act to ones best as a representative of research for your cause.

To add a personal opinion to my paper, I also feel reading this has enlightened my mind of what to expect, vs my experience when I spet upon honolulu’s sands. I have given myself this mindset through the data I’ve collected, guilty of it too.

My destination is Honolulu, Hawaii, ever since I first got the idea to go to Honolulu, Hawaii I was nervous and scared almost because it’d be my first flight out of state, I would be going to visit a new environment, and I’d be going alone. Not being a regular traveling individual, I was quite unsure about this decision. I believed its the right thing to investigate but at the time I was unorganized, had a slight fear of traveling in the spring quarter. As I further worked on this, Gordie and me had found out we were doing a similar location and field study, so we united to work on the following field research/work together in our wordpress. Which turned my nerves into fuel of excitement. I then started thinking that I don’t know what to expect as a researcher in general, questions like what should I expect as a researcher? What should I do first? Progressing into those questions I thought of what I should be looking forward to and I’m going to learn from Honolulu that I can bring back. What I hope for is by the end of this project that me and Gordie will have a database of knowledge and both musically and visually to our show our interest/observation while there at Hawaii to give everyone a highlight reel, but to also show the value of Hawaiian culture. Other then that I wouldn’t know of any more preconceptions of Honolulu, maybe other then that what are more musical or artistic locations in the city? Honestly the best question was this one because scouting out for content when you’re not familiar with the place is difficult indeed, but not only that. It will require speaking with the natives which will also leave us to, how we should communicate with the natives of the Honolulu, and how to approach them for help or guidance to a certain place in Honolulu? I am interested in the culture of a Hawaiian native along with the exploration. I wouldn’t be able to anticipate a totally different culture because its going be a unnoticeable soundscape for my learning until I’ve soaked up the sun. So I thought of personal questions like what music do they use for certain celebrations or main events? Where is the influence of the music/architectural industry? Which prepare me with this preconception of maybe very rural environments and very happy uplifting music which many variations of odd music. As I’ve prepare for this though, I still find myself from time to time wondering what will happen, What me and Gordie will accomplish, observe and learn from Honolulu? We could come across many things from oceanic parts to bustling city street environments to find the truth. I’m taking the time to coordinate with Gordie on our expenses for Honolulu, we’ve talked about tickets to living arrangements from back to back conversation. Through these conversations I grown expectations, of gorgeous weather, a beautiful soundscape, plenty of record able evidence/data for our wordpress and enjoyment throughout this whole experience. This experience I hope will change us for the better, and give us perspective on the value of Hawaiian life and what they’re musical/architectural means to them. In which it does I believe that will have some really fun and exciting things to present to my fellow classmates, I wonder what they’re all thinking as well, what could we all be feeling? what is our process of taking a step forward as an active member of musical cities? Touching more on this idea of Hawaii though, personally it’s an exciting thing because having this chance to explore another culture and setting while exploring your own I think is wicked. It teaches you a perspective and new way of life as a possibility to yourself as the observer, it breathes creativity and new life, which leads me to thinking, when I come back will I have a new perspective on my own musical craft, I have a double-edge sword on this question because the more I learn the more I can enhance my own style, but I can totally disregard this and just work on data collecting without actual reflection of self. I would say that I’d take the right side of the sword. I am definitely excited to depart for Hawaii soon.

I will be departing from Evergreen to study a city of my choose in the spring, thing is I don’t know where to go, or what is really affordable. I am very nervous and unsure of where to go. If I had all the money & knowledge in the world my chose would be Seoul, South Korea, Tokyo, Japan, New Orleans, Louisiana.

Before I get to that city I have to first talk to my professors about the topic and bring up my worries and questions. I would then begin to research more in-depth of the city & work more towards understanding what form of music/architecture I would want to study. Becoming more familiar with the cities environment/life.