The end of an era at Books@Mark's

 Back in 2017, the Friends of the Library of Hawaii (FLH) started a mini-bookstore within an art gallery in Mark's Garage, a building on the border between Honolulu's downtown and Chinatown. 

 The art gallery is named The Arts at Mark's Garage.

And the mini-bookstore inside was named Books@Marks. 

Pablo Wegesend's photo

Books@Mark's 

This was part of FLH's strategy to sell donated used books (and comics, vinyl records, CD's, DVD's, postcards & more) beyond their major annual booksales, as well as promote their brand beyond the usual booksale customers & library patrons. 

The Arts at Mark's Garage usually has a theme every month or so in which displays a certain type of artwork. One month it could watercolors. Another month would focus on photography. Other themes include arts by certain cultural groups (ie, Native Hawaiian, African diaspora, Filipinos) or by the LGBT community. 

And sometimes, The Arts at Mark's Garage would hold events like film screenings, spoken poetry, live theater, live music, and dances.

The fun especially happens on First Fridays, when nightlife lovers can explore the art galleries, bars, restaurants & more every First Friday of the month. 

And that's when I was at the Books@Mark's.  Every First Friday from May 2017 to March 2020, I was at Books@Mark's as a cashier.  From 5pm to 10pm! 

photo from the Arts at Mark's Garage Facebook page

Me (in yellow shirt) talking with FLH Executive Director Nainoa Mau

The first hour was usually slow, but the fun usually starts at 6 or 7pm. That's when they have the opening event for the latest art display. There are speeches, and sometimes music.  People would come in to mingle and enjoy the festivities. Then they start to notice bookshelves. And the records and the CDs and the DVDs and more cool stuff.  And that's when I introduce them to the Friends of the Library of Hawaii and notify them of the upcoming book sales, either at McKinley High School (should be renamed Honolulu High School) or Washington Middle School. 

People are usually amazed at what we got! Classics they have long forgotten about. Books with eye-catching titles. Stuff for people from every walk of life, from the keiki to the kupuna and everyone in between. 

A lot of the customers who came were those in their early 20s who intend to go club-hopping. They come for the festivities and indulge in their intellectual side for a few minutes (and sometimes even buy some books) before they go back out for some club-hopping. 

Sometimes, I would even see old friends from college or work come in. And I also made new friends too. We had our regulars who come in every First Friday. 

Being a cashier at Books@Mark's was much easier than at most mainstream retail chains (I've worked at Macy's and Nordstrom Rack) because I don't have to pressure people to enroll in the company's rewards plan nor do I have to deal with other complex transactions. I just add the prices, add tax, accept payment and give the customer an FLH bookmark listing the upcoming booksales. 

I could've done all this forever.

However, the coronavirus crisis happened.

I remember on the First Friday of March 2020, there was already talk of events being canceled (like the South by Southwest festivities in Austin). I was telling one of the art gallery volunteers that I thought the reactions were out of proportion and I said "remember when FDR said we have nothing to fear but fear itself? Now it's time to fear the fear."

Later that month, everything was shut down. Everything was closed except for essentials. 

Time to take the coronavirus crisis seriously! 

No more First Fridays. 

FLH also canceled their major booksales, including their big summer booksale at  McKinley High School (should be renamed Honolulu High School).

FLH pivoted to focusing on online booksales.

FLH did reopen Books@Mark's later in 2020, but only in the daytime. No more First Friday festivities.

Plus, First Fridays at Books@Mark's meant not much space for social distancing. 

Then earlier this year, FLH did open another used bookstore (Village Books & Music), this time at Ward Villages, at the former site for Pier 1 Imports.  There is much more space for social distancing there. As well as much more space for more books and other formats. 

I visited Village Books & Music one time, but haven't had time to do volunteering for FLH due to my work schedule 

(I currently work for a fashion retail store whose work schedule changes every week. At least I'm not cashiering there, otherwise, I have to do complex transactions with impatient customers).

But I get an email from FLH earlier this week noting that Books@Mark's is being shut down and that they want volunteers to come in to pack up all the inventory. The scheduled date (today) happened to be my day off. So I was able to come in, help them pack, and express my gratitude for the great times I had at Books@Mark's.

Pablo Wegesend's photo

The shelves are about to be cleared (07/22/2021 circa 9:15 am)

Pablo Wegesend's photo

The shelves have been cleared (07/22/2021 circa 10:15 am)

Books@Mark's is now a thing of the past. It is a part of my past that I will always treasure :)

2021: a cruel year for old-school rappers

 (note: due to time constraints, I haven't been able to blog on some of the deaths that occurred earlier this year)

2021 is not even over, and it's been a cruel year for some of the old-school rappers who died in their 50's.

It's like a piece of my childhood and early adulthood is fading away with these deaths. 

Back in April, two hardcore rappers who peaked in the early 2000's, DMX and Black Rob, died from illnesses. Both were in their early 50's.

DMX was known for his aggressive, threatening songs, but he also had some sensitive & spiritual tracks too! He was also known as one of the most captivating stage performers in hip-hop! 

Black Rob, had a grimy image that contrasted with his fellow members of Bad Boy Records (ie Diddy, Ma$e, Lox)  known for flashy outfits. He was mostly known for the track "Whoah", but my favorites were "Dame Espacio" (w/Lil Kim) and "Spanish Fly" (w/J. Lo)

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On the opposite spectrum of hip-hop, eccentric humorous rappers who peaked in the early 90s,  Shock G (of Digital Underground) and Biz Markie both died at the age of 57.

Shock G was mostly known for his funny outfits he wore in the videos for the "Humpty Dance". The video for "The Same Song" introduced the world his back up dancer who later became the thug-life/black-power legend: Tupac Shakur! 

Biz Markie was known for his various vocal talents, from beat-boxing, freestyling and singing! His most famous track was "Just A Friend",  a son that can still get people singing along in unison 3 decades later! 

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I'm sorry if my write-ups are very brief (my time is limited), but here's some interesting articles to increase your knowledge on these hip-hop legends

Scott Woods, “Hip-Hop Is Old but Your Favorite Rapper Is Too Young to Die: Reckoning with the Mortality of Music Gods,” Medium, May 6, 2021, https://level.medium.com/hip-hop-is-old-but-your-favorite-rapper-is-too-young-to-die-cc38fb2d3a90.

Lyndsey Parker, “Grammy-Nominated Rapper DMX Dead at Age 50,” Yahoo, April 9, 2021, https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/grammy-nominated-rapper-dmx-dead-at-age-50-161809834.html.

David Drake, “DMX, Rapper Who Blended Aggressive Menace With Emotional Sincerity, Dead at 50,” Rolling Stone, April 9, 2021, https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/dmx-rapper-dead-175779/.

Elise Brisco, “'He will rest in peace': Nas, Eve, Swizz Beatz, More Honor DMX at Emotional Memorial Service,” Yahoo, April 24, 2021, https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/family-fans-friends-gather-remember-233555471.html.

Rosemary Rossi, “Black Rob, Rapper Best Known for Hit Single ‘Whoa!,’ Dies at 51,” Yahoo, April 17, 2021, https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/black-rob-rapper-best-known-220039780.html.

Nexstar Media Wire, “Digital Underground Leader Shock G, of ‘humpty Dance’ Fame, Dead at 57,” KHON, April 23, 2021, https://www.khon2.com/news/national/digital-underground-leader-shock-g-of-humpty-dance-fame-dead-at-57/.

Rob Sheffield, “Farewell, Biz Markie: Remembering the Wild-Style Chaos and Diabolical Genius of Hip-Hop’s Old-School Joker King,” Rolling Stone, July 16, 2021, https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/biz-markie-hip-hop-pioneer-1192098/.

Matthew Ismael Ruiz, “Remembering Biz Markie, the Uninhibited Spirit of Hip-Hop’s Golden Age,” Pitchfork, July 16, 2021, https://pitchfork.com/features/afterword/biz-markie-obituary/

Libertarians & Maturity in 2021

I got interested in the libertarian philosophy in my early 20's (that would be in the early 2000's) because it offered an alternative to the right-wing/left-wing, Democrat/Republican binaries, and it emphasizes a less intrusive government. 

As with any movement, there's a mix of sane people with great ideas & insane people who repulse people away. 

I was fascinated by the ideas expressed by Harry Browne (1996 & 2000 presidential candidate), wasn't impressed by Micheal Badnarik (2004) and was totally repulsed by Bob Barr (2008). 

 
Then in 2012, I wrote a classic blog post titled "Libertarian Movement gaining maturity" back when Gary Johnson was running as the Libertarian Party candidate for president.

https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2012/11/libertarian-movement-gaining-maturity.html

Gary Johnson was a former governor of New Mexico. He had a real track record when it came to dealing with emergencies and enacting policies with a legislature that don't always agree with him.

When you're a governor (or mayor or president), you have to pick your battles wisely. On some issues, you have to go hard. On other issues, it is best to compromise and take the "half a loaf". 

Gary Johnson was willing to take "half a loaf" if it meant some of his ideas get implemented.

The problem with too many libertarians is that they view every compromise as a betrayal.  They view 80% agreement as "not good enough".

And in the case of the 2004 presidential candidate Michael Badnarik, once he stated that we shouldn't need government-issued driver's licenses, that became all the press wanted to focus on.  That is an example of Badnarik not picking his battles wisely.

Not only do you want to pick your battles wisely, you want to chose your allies wisely. 

Some libertarians try to make alliance with the progressives due to the common interest on criminal justice reform & a less militarized foreign policy. They are known as the "cool libertarians"

However, some libertarians try to make alliance with the Alt-Right due to the shared suspicion towards political correctness & socialism. They are known as the "paleo-libertarians"

The problem with the paleo-libertarians is that they don't understand the serious harm of racism, misogyny, xenophobia or homophobia. They think that too much focus on that is "political correctness".  

Some libertarians may want a big tent, but there's no tent big enough to hold white supremacists &  people of non-European ancestries together. There's no tent big enough to hold homophobes and gender non-conforming people together. 

 But yet, we have the paleo-libertarians, who want to make common cause with the Alt-Right in the name of "fighting political correctness and socialism".

And now we have the Mises Caucus, an organization of paleo-libertarians who are attempting to take over the Libertarian Party.  They have already taken over the state party for New Hampshire. While New Hampshire is a small state out of 50 states, what happens there doesn't always stay there. 

 https://reason.com/2021/06/23/inside-the-battle-over-the-soul-of-the-libertarian-party/

 A "toxic culture has recently been harnessed in the service of a grouping with a declared goal of taking over the party and making it as repulsive as possible to everyone except themselves," Bishop-Henchman wrote in his resignation letter, referring to the party's ascendant Mises Caucus, which for the past few years has been advertising its intentions to launch a "takeover" of the L.P. to realign it more with the policy and messaging associated with Ron Paul and the Ludwig von Mises Institute. "I will not chair a party that knowingly and has now affirmatively chosen to stay affiliated with the toxic garbage that was being spewed by the New Hampshire party and similar bad actors in other states, the violent threats emanating from these people, and the deliberate destruction of the party's ability to appeal to voters and win elections."

One of those people in the Mises Caucus is Jeremy Kauffman, a totally repulsive troll who said things like this

(from https://twitter.com/jeremykauffman/status/1368700538825637893)

if 1,000 transpeople were murdered every year but there were no taxes, we'd live in a substantially more moral world for reference about 40 people transgender people are murdered in the US per year 

Now imagine a young gender nonconforming person reading that tweet. Imagine that same person still learning which political philosophies are the best one. Imagine the same person learning that Jeremy Kauffman claims to be a "libertarian".  Do you think the same person would ever want to ever be aligned with libertarianism if that is the first encounter with a so-called libertarian?  HELL NO! 

The Libertarian Party has been supporting same-sex marriage since the 1970s, long before the Democrats joined the bandwagon.

But someone who is a college freshman may not know that.  The college freshman whose first encounter with "libertarianism" is the Jeremy Kauffman tweet isn't going to pursue further interest in libertarianism.  Why be interested in joining a movement with someone who thinks you being dead is OK as long as everyone else pays no tax?

 

But there's even more from Jeremy Kauffman

Among the controversial LPNH tweets attributed to Kauffman was a call to "legalize child labor" because "children will learn more on a job site than in public school," another to keep Gitmo open "so that Anthony Fauci and every governor that locked their state down can be sent there, never again to be allowed inside of the United States," and still another to "Repeal the Civil Rights Act."

Really? This is the hill that paleo-libertarians want to die on? Really? 

This is an extreme lack of maturity!

This isn't a serious attempt to teach people the values of liberty!

This is just "Hey Look at Me Everybody, I'm Being Politically Incorrect".

But that is the main driver for Jeremy Kauffman and the Mises Caucus.

And the sad thing is that this is all a major step backward from when Gary Johnson was running for president in 2012 & 2016. Johnson attracted record-breaking support for a Libertarian candidate. He attracted support from former conservatives disgusted by Donald Trump, as well as former progressives becoming skeptical of socialism. Despite his sometimes goofy moments, Johnson showed way more maturity than Donald Trump.

But sadly, the Mises Caucus want the Libertarian Party to be more like Donald Trump, nevermind that the appeal of Gary Johnson was to say "F*** Donald Trump".

The drama of Jeremy Kauffman and his goons from the Mises Caucus has caused an exodus of Gary Johnson supporters away from the Libertarian Party. In other words, an exodus of supporters who helped the Libertarian Party break records in getting votes.

Alexander DiBenedetto, who ran the Pragmatist Caucus until its post–New Hampshire dissolution, warned in a phone interview Sunday that a Mises takeover would likely mean "the majority of the people from the Gary Johnson days leaving the party." (Those campaigns got the party its highest ever national vote totals and percentages.) The L.P. should spend less time and energy perfecting the most polarizing tweet to attract the most hate-retweets, DiBenedetto said, and more time organizing such initiatives as the door-knocking Frontier Project, which actually won a state legislative seat for Libertarian Marshall Burt in Wyoming last year. If a Mises Caucus–style candidate wins the party's presidential nomination in 2024, he said, state parties unhappy with that approach might disaffiliate from the national party.

Francis Wendt, the Region 1 LNC member who resigned June 19, wrote in his farewell letter, "I will give the [Mises Caucus] credit, they have a very active base….However, activists are only part of the equation. You also need candidates, leaders, staff, and donors. Twitter trolls don't do that. Email blasts don't do that. Regurgitated messages from people that only show up for a day (convention) don't do that. Knocking doors does that. Writing checks does that. Making calls does that. Sitting up till 3 AM pouring over research does that."

In his resignation letter, Bishop-Henchman sounded a warning of his own. "Toxic people exhaust or drive out good people," he said. "Our mechanisms for removing such individuals and addressing such bad behavior are designed to be effectively impossible, and culturally, too many people who should know better passively tolerate it rather than confront it. It turns off donors, repulses allies, and makes team projects unviable."

 

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And the thing is that even though I'm not a full-on libertarian (I believe in having a safety net, and I do believe in some covid-era restrictions), I value much from the cool libertarians, from their emphasis 

• on legalizing a lot of things
•  on entrepreneurship
•  on a less militaristic foreign policy
• de-escalating the police 
• justice for gender nonconforming people
• treating people as individuals rather than members of groups
• a lenient immigration policy

 

 But the paleo-libertarians like Jeremy Kauffman and the rest of the Mises Caucus are lowlife scum! I want nothing to do with them!

Haunani-Kay Trask

 Earlier this month,  Haunani-Kay Trask, a Hawaiian sovereignty activist and a Hawaiian Studies professor, has died at the age of 71.

Her passionate speeches have inspired many Native Hawaiians and other indigenous people to stand up for the culture and against imperialism.

Her most famous quote, spoken at the 100th anniversary of the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy, stated "We Are Not Americans, We are Hawaiians", the most legendary statement of defiance against American imperialism in Hawaii.

Since her death, many of the younger generation of Hawaiian activists noted her as an inspiration.

But what if Trask could've been more effective?

The younger generation of activists were too young to remember when Trask was speaking to the public in real time and she was in the front page of the papers and the top story in TV news.

So they don't realize that the real reason Trask was controversial was

• NOT because she said "We are Not Americans"
• NOT because she wanted Hawaii to be independent from the US

We had plenty of Hawaiian sovereignty activists like Bumpy Kanahele and Keanu Sai who didn't even get even nearly the same level of pushback that Trask got.

The pushback is because Trask openly expressed hostility towards people of non-Hawaiian ancestries, and loudly accused anyone who didn't kiss her ass of being "anti-Hawaiian". 

I noted this back in a blog post from 2018.

https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2018/01/hawaiian-independence-movement-venting.html

The problem with the Hawaiian independence movement is that too much attention has been given to those who vent recklessly. The prime example is Haunani-Kay Trask, a Hawaiian Studies instructor who is notorious for her anti-haole rants and calling non-natives "uninvited guests".

Does anyone really think you can gain support from non-natives by calling them "uninvited guests" and saying "Hawaii can benefit from one less haole"?

 Remember, about 75% of Hawaii's population are of non-native ancestry! That's the majority!  Native Hawaiians are outnumbered by European-Americans, Japanese and Filipinos.

That means in order to gain support for Hawaiian independence, you have to convince enough Europeans, Japanese, Filipinos, and other non-natives to support the cause!  

I noted that back in 2000 when I was an opinions writer at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa's student newspaper Ka Leo O Hawaii (usually referred to its shortened name  Ka Leo).  

The article I wrote was an Open-Letter to Haunani-Kay Trask in response to her book "From a Native Daughter".

While the Ka Leo O Hawaii's website doesn't currently archive anything from the year 2000 or before

(note: on the blog post, I put a link to a geocities site that reposted my open letter, but the site is no longer active) 

However, here is a scanned copy of the article as printed in the Ka Leo on 09/14/2000

(note: you may want to click on the scanned images to read it better. I apologize if it's still hard to read.  If you want my retype the editorial in a format that is easier to read, let me know, but it will take time before I send it to you)

 

 

 

note: for the Ka Leo article title & sub-heading, the editors are in charge of that. But I did write the content of the article. 

 

and 

Trask herself didn't respond (this was around the same time Trask had a public dispute with then-governor Ben Cayetano, a Filipino descendant who said he was "Hawaiian at heart". Trask responded by holding a  sign saying "f*** Ben").

However, her cronies posted angry letters to Ka Leo, claiming I "didn't know Hawaii history" and calling me "racist" (ironically for questioning Trask's racism).  Luckily, I wasn't physically confronted by anyone. (also lucky that my photo didn't appear in the Ka Leo. Also lucky that this was before the age of social media, where people can find out what I look like.).

The following year, Trask got controversy again when she commented that the 9/11 attacks were "chicken coming home to roost" which was interpreted as "Americans got what they deserved".


Since then, Trask has been out of the public spotlight! Either she decided her rants were poison for the movement, or the local media stopped giving her attention.

(note: I didn't know at the time that Trask was suffering from Alzheimer's  in the last years of her life. That surely has more to do with why she wasn't in the public eye in the last decade of her life) 

As for the article itself, if I was to rewrite it now, I most likely would tone down the aggression of the questioning a bit. In others, a little more self-tone-policing. But I still stand by most of what I wrote. 

But there was one interesting point made in one of the criticisms about that article. It was in reference about my mentions of the Nene goose in the editorial. This from Lance Collins, who later became my editor at Ka Leo 

https://www.manoanow.org/trask-media-clash-again/article_c7a47924-6eff-5bd9-a79a-6c079fd7e168.html

Then, he argued that the claims for social justice of the Kanaka Maoli are the same as claims made by animals. Equating human beings with animals is a very classic example of racism in language

It was never my intention to "equate human beings to animals", but Collins is correct that I should never had used the example of the Nene Goose (and other indigenous species) in that article. 

About a year after Collins' critique, he did become the editor of the opinion section, but we never had a discussion of his critique of my editorial.  Maybe both of us were trying to avoid an awkward moment. We did have a good working relations, though I did object to how one of my editorials got titled. 

However, another person did respond to Collin's article. It was Grant Crowell, a former comic artist at Ka Leo. He was there before I was at UH, but I did meet him in person years later. We are still connected on social media.  Here's what he wrote about his encounter with Trask

https://www.manoanow.org/letters-to-the-editor-11-01-01/article_4ac6d2c0-8887-5567-86f9-13ea720cac3c.html

Lance is right to say that there were no "witch-hunts" of Trask then, but that is because it was Trask herself who was leading the witch-hunt. Several Ka Leo editors and I were at a Board of Publications meeting (the organization that oversees the Ka Leo newspaper) back in 1994, when Trask brought her tiny mob demanding my firing from Ka Leo for the cartoon I drew.

She screamed to the Board that I was "vermin," that I was responsible for bomb threats in her building, and that I should suffer the same fate as an unknown cartoonist who was executed and dismembered during the Nuremburg Trials.

Infuriated that my editor-in-chief, a Filipino woman, defended me, Trask called her to her face a "fucking stupid bitch!" What Lance would call "refusing to engage in colonial morality" — for a professor to yell the word "fuck" over and over again at another — others would call it running out of intelligent things to say (and if Trask and Lance really believed that line, then why don't they use another term besides the Western word, "fuck?").

and also this

Lance and Trask say "demand accountability." Yet they accept no accountability for their attacks on others. This is evident in how they single out people for their race (including other Hawaiians, who they label "Uncle Toms") and then hide behind the ideas of "an attack on me is an attack on all Hawaiians!," or the much-maligned "I can't be a racist because I'm not in power!"

Shibai! Saying one ethnic group has less perceived power than another doesn't mean they have no power at all, and it certainly doesn't mean that individuals such as Trask don't carry a wealth of power themselves.

How silly would it be to say that former Hawaiian governor John Waihee had no power, even when being governor? How incredulous would it be to say that Trask had no power when she was director of the Hawaiian Studies department, being able to hire and fire whomever she pleased? And how despicable to say somebody has no power while they're punching you in the face?

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Now back to me! 

 before anyone start accusing me of "settler colonialism" (I'm not a settler, I'm a descendant of settlers), let me post a few facts about myself

• I may not be of Native Hawaiian ancestry, but some members of my extended family are
• I always had friendly relations with Native Hawaiian peers in school and in work
• I was once in support of Hawaii being part of the US but that has changed as noted in   

https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2018/05/personal-evolution-on-my-thoughts-on-us.html

• I am now in support of Hawaii being an Independent Nation as noted in

  https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2019/08/6-decades-of-statehood.html
https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2016/12/my-letter-to-newspaper-hawaii.html
https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2016/11/its-time-for-hawaii-to-declare.html

• I strongly supporting renaming my high school alma mater from its current name "McKinley High School" to its former name "Honolulu High School"

 https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2018/05/put-tiger-statue-on-oval.html

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urMaL-gWuhc

• I have lost MULTIPLE friendships from my fellow alumni over my support of the name change of my high school

But also know this, I don't need to be Native Hawaiian to express disagreement with Haunani-Kay Trask!

Just like it doesn't automatically make you anti-Latino to express disagreement with me, even on Latino-related issues. 

I want the Native Hawaiians to regain the sense of nationhood that they lost in 1898.

But I also know that the Hawaiian monarchy welcomed immigrants from around the world, and attempted alliances with other island nations of Polynesia, Melanesia & Micronesia. 

I want an Independent Hawaii that is of respecting of diversity (Even among non-native residents) just like it was when the Hawaiian monarchy was in power.

Thoughts on the Lindani Myeni case

Lindani Myeni, a Zulu male from South Africa, moved to Hawaii earlier this year.  His wife, Lindsay grew up in Hawaii, but she met him in South Africa when she was visiting as part of a church mission. They had 2 sons.

It was only a few months after moving to Hawaii when Lindani Myeni was shot & killed by Honolulu police. Initial reports claimed that the police were responding to a 911 call about a burglary and that Myeni attacked and injured 3 officers, and he didn't feel the effects of the taser.

People who knew Lindani Myeni had a different portrayal of him. He was seen as a gentle giant who had a great sense of humor.  He had no criminal record. There are no reported incidents before this one. 

Being that Myeni is African, there are assumptions that the police shooting is racially motivated. The identity of the officers still hasn't been made public. 

It was in the same month when Honolulu police shot & killed a 16-year old Iremamber Sykap after a car chase. Sykap was Micronesian (more specifically, Chuukese), and this incident was seen as a sign of racism against Micronesians. 

(note: Sykap and the other suspect involved in the case, Kealii Fernandez, were my former students when I used to be a substitute teacher. I blogged about it at https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2021/04/former-students-and-tragedy-on-kalakaua.html )

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Myeni's wife mentioned that the last time she talked with him, he said he was going to take a short drive to a nearby interfaith temple.

It was night-time in a suburb-like community.

The building he went to look like the temple, was near the temple, but it was actually an Airbnb vacation rental.

Myeni didn't know that, he thought he was at the temple, which was open to the public.

However, the couple (Dexter & Sabine Wang) staying at the Airbnb vacation rental just saw him walk into the building they were staying in without permission. They didn't know who he was or what his real intentions were.

The security camera showed Myeni walking up to the building, and was told that this wasn't the temple, left and apologized.

The couple was visiting from New Jersey. They were Chinese immigrants for whom English was a new language. They didn't know there was an interfaith temple nearby.  They didn't know who Myeni was.  

Within that couple, Dexter was calm, but Sabine wasn't. She was very afraid and called 911.  The panic in her voice was very obvious in the 911 call. She said there was a "break-in" (giving an impression somebody violently intruded the building), though to be fair, it's hard to come up with the right words under stress when speaking in a language you're still learning. 

If she was calmer, she could've explained a stranger walked in & left, but that she's still worried because she doesn't know his true intentions.

The police arrived and asked the woman "where he went?" and she pointed him out in a panicked voice.

The police then yelled to Myeni "GET ON THE GROUND".

Myeni walked up to the officer, asked "who are you" and punched the officer. Another officer, who just arrived when the fight started rushed in, yelled "TASER", tased Myeni, who didn't even fall, he lunged at him instead.

Shots were fired. After that, one of the cops yelled: "POLICE" (yeah, kinda late for that).

There are many ways to analyze all this. 

It was night-time, a time of limited visibility. The 1st officer was wearing a dark uniform and shined a blinding light at Myeni. He didn't announce that he was a police officer. He just yelled "GET ON THE GROUND"

It is possible that Myeni thought he was getting robbed by street criminals. That could be why he chose to attack in what he thought was self-defense. Lord knows what could happen to you if just lie on the ground in a robbery. 

It is possible that the police officer could've de-escalated the situation by calmly approaching Myeni by saying "sir, this is the police, we need to talk with you". 

Whether that might've worked, we will never know. But at least it could've given Myeni a chance to respond in a calm manner. Myeni might've explained the situation, that he was lost and went to the wrong building. 

But given the reality that Myeni attacked the officers, I don't think the officers will get convicted in this case.

Some will claim it's a racial thing. But I think that if someone who looked like Arnold Schwarzenegger lunged at the cops, I don't think the cops would be like "he's a white guy, we'll just let him beat the crap out of us". 

I'm not sure if pepper spray is an option. You need some distance but not too much distance. But if used effectively, it could've temporarily stopped Myeni without killing him. He might still file a lawsuit over being sprayed, but even that is preferable over his family filing a suit for shooting & killing. 

If Myeni had decided to fight the issue in court instead of on the streets, he would probably be alive today. Traumatized, but alive! 

To those that knew Lindani Myeni, he was a nice, loving person.

However, the couple at the Airbnb rental wouldn't know that. They just saw a stranger walking in without permission. 

The police wouldn't know that, since they heard a report of burglary and thought someone was in danger. And they sure wouldn't know that when Myeni lunged at them. 

=====

And the sad thing about is that Myeni children will live with the trauma that their father was killed.  

And that all this started because someone was lost and went to the wrong building by accident due to the limited visibility of night. 

And so much bad things happened due to panic. Fear of a stranger. A cop whose first instinct is to yell orders instead of using a calm approach.  

There are no easy answers to any of this. I don't even know if there are right answers.

Admittedly, all of this is based on limited information.

learn more at 

https://www.staradvertiser.com/2021/06/15/hawaii-news/security-camera-footage-shows-exchange-before-honolulu-police-shooting-of-lindani-myeni/

Augie T, blackface, and local ethnic humor

 Augie Tulba (aka Augie T) is a Hawaii-based comedian who was recently elected to the Honolulu City Council.

In recent years, he has toned down his act, noting that some of his past comedy has been offensive. 

After all, most of us have matured over the years.

However, this past week, his social media manager posted an old clip of Augie T's comedy skit in which he was in blackface and playing a judge in a drag queen contest. 

The comedy skit was seen as racially offensive and homophobic. 

Augie T, who is of Filipino & Puerto Rican ancestries, has an openly gay son whom he remains close to.  

Until recently, I don't think most people in Hawaii knew that painting oneself black is considered offensive to many African-Americans. Yes, we were taught in school about the civil rights movement. Most of us know that the N-word is offensive (though many wannabe gangstas of non-African-ancestries say it because they want to be 2pac or 50 Cent)! But most of us weren't taught about "blackface" and its history & controversy. The issue, while commonly discussed in activist & academic spaces, wasn't really talked about in the US mainstream media until only a few years ago.

When local media outlets in Hawaii report on these kinds of controversy, not only do we have people complaining about "political correctness", some local people claim that is "only mainland people" who complain about local ethnic humor, but they forget some important facts.

All the comedians they listed (Augie T, Frank DeLima, Andy Bumatai, Mel Cabang, the 98.5 Wake Up Crew, etc) ARE ALL OLDER THAN ME! And i'm 40 years old! I'm middle-aged!

I don't know a single popular local comedian that is younger than me that specializes in ethnic humor!

What does that tell you? It tells me it is not about "local vs outsider", it's more of a generation thing! The Wake-Up Crew style of humor is no longer popular in Hawaii like it used to be!

The younger generation don't even get involved with it! Times have changed! Hawaii has moved on!

This is not to claim "racism is over in Hawaii". When I was working at a public middle school, I reported to school admin about 2 staff members of Asian ancestries who made negative comments about Micronesians. And there are much more of those deplorable comments on social media.

But the fact remains that ethnic humor is no longer as popular in Hawaii as it was a few decades ago.

I can name you prominent local musicians who are younger than me (ie Bruno Mars, Raiatea Helm, Josh Tatofi). I can name you local athletes who made it to the pros who are younger than me (ie Marcus Mariota, Tua Tagovailoa). I can even name you local politicians who are younger than me (ie Jeanné Kapela, Adrian Tam).

But I can't even name one local comedian who specializes in ethnic humor that is younger than me.

So don't give me this crap about "it's only the people from the mainland who complain about local ethnic humor".

The younger local people may not engage in battle with those trolls, they're just not interested in that type of humor, and the fact is that not one has risen up to take the place of older local comedians who specialize in ethnic humor. That shows you the interest is just not there anymore.

The old defenders of local ethnic humor claim that their generation was less sensitive and more thick-skinned. But what they don't realize is that many of their generation PRETENDED they weren't offended because they didn't want to get the abuse of "ha ha you can't take a joke! The younger generation is not afraid to openly cringe at such jokes! Plus I know many older folks who once openly laughed at such jokes but realize how wrong it was. That's NOT "becoming a snowflake", that's becoming mature!

It is the trolls who claim that "it's only the people from the mainland who complain about local ethnic humor" that are truly out of touch with modern Hawaii.

Now selling illustrations

 Drawing was an occasional side hobby for me, but I never really thought about selling illustrations. I never won any art contests in school, and the last time I took an art class that involved illustrations was in middle school. I did occasionally draw pictures since then, but I never really took it as an all-the-time hobby.  It was a once-in-a-while thing. 

 I spent more time doing other hobbies like reading,  doing online research, writing blogs, and riding bikes (note to self: get back on the bike already, you've been away too long).

All of my computer work was done in a library or an internet cafe (sadly, most went out of business even before the pandemic) until I finally got my own computer back in 2015. (note: I had one that broke down in 2003, and even then, it wasn't connected to the internet). 

With my computer, I finally started what I really dreamed of, making my own electronic music.

So in 2016, I started making & selling instrumental tracks under my nickname Pablo the Mad Tiger Warrior. 

Because I didn't have any money for big-budget videos, I had to rely on still images for my music videos. Some of the images were photographs (usually my own, or those I found online in the Public Domain or Creative Commons).

But other images were my own illustrations. So yes, drawing became part of my business.

Time to get some coloring pencils and construction paper.

I also had to look at photographs and other images while doing my drawings to make my illustrations look a little more realistic and a little less awkward. 

I also did some scratch art (See my official logo) as well as used Microsoft Paint for some graphic arts.

You can find some of the illustrations that made it in my music videos at Pablo The Mad Tiger Warrior - YouTube

Around the end of 2016 &  2017, I did get some unsolicited emails from a vendor that offer artists a chance to get their designs on the clothing they manufactured. I looked at their website and noticed the designs on their apparel didn't match the type of illustrations I was doing.

Afterward, I totally forgot about the idea of having my illustrations appear on clothing and accessories.

Yes, my music distributor CD Baby has a partnership with Merchly, a merchandise manufacturer. The problem is you have to order in bulk, and I don't have room in my apartment for more items ordered in bulk. 

But earlier, this year, a friend posted on Facebook that you can order merchandise with his illustration via RedBubble, a print-on-demand service/vendor specializing in novelty shirts, stickers, and other accessories.

here's my friend's illustrations and the merchandise you can buy featuring his illustrations.

Be the Mutant Walking Fish That You Want in the World by StuartFanciful | Redbubble

 Dammit, I wish I started doing this earlier.

I mean, I've been making music videos featuring my illustrations for 5 years, that means I have 5 years' worth of illustrations that I already made that I can monetize via novelty merchandise. 

So now I started my RedBubble account and started offering a few images that can be featured on merchandise customers might be interested in. 

You can check it out at https://www.redbubble.com/people/madtigerwarrior/explore

Let's look at, for example, this image of a tiger cub taking a nap. 

This image was originally featured in Pablo the Mad Tiger Warrior's "Naptime Music" album,  which is available on iTunes, Amazon, eBay, and wherever else music is sold or streamed. 

But now you can buy shirts, pillows, laptop covers, phone cases, clocks, framed art, mugs, bags, masks and more with that image.

find it all at  tiger cub taking a nap by madtigerwarrior | Redbubble

And I'm just getting started.

So far, 3 of my images are available on RedBubble.

I'll definitely add more when time permits

(note: it takes about 15 to 30 minutes to not only upload one image but also approve of how the image will appear on each of the merchandise you're interested in having it appear on!)

I'm excited about this because it adds one more revenue stream for me.

My music can only bring in so much money when I have a super-tiny promotion budget and most people consume music by streaming these days.

But if someone wants an item with my image, I'll get circa $3 per item sold (note: it depends on what item, being that I get 20% of the price, and obviously, some items are more expensive than others).

Being that RedBubble is print-on-demand, there is no need to order or manufacture in bulk, it's only printed when someone orders it.  No need to waste space on unsold items. 

I also indicate on RedBubble if that image appears on my album or music video, bringing additional awareness to my music. Hopefully, customers will check out the video or album it appears on, and this will bring additional revenue for my music.  It's all about the synergy!

So check out my images at RedBubble https://www.redbubble.com/people/madtigerwarrior/explore