Hawaii General Election 2020

 Another general election is now in the history books. 

(note: to learn about the primaries, check out this blog post

https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2020/08/hawaii-primary-election-2020.html)

Being that I'm on Oahu, this blog post will be Oahu-centric, so all apologies for those who live on the other islands. 

All-mail election and still long lines

This year was planned to be the first all-mail election even before the coronavirus crisis changed everything. 

I was part of the team that inspected ballots being printed before they were mailed to every registered voter. We finished by the end of September, and the ballot was mailed out early October, weeks ahead of the November 3rd, the general election day.

The all-mail election has been proven to increase voter turnout, as noted by Honolulu Civil Beat

https://www.civilbeat.org/2020/11/hawaii-casts-record-number-of-ballots-as-election-day-gets-underway/

Voters could mail back their ballots or drop them off at the collection boxes in various areas of the islands. The good news is that there were more collection boxes available as compared to the primaries. 

The not so good news is that we still had only 2 voter service centers on Oahu.

I mentioned the problems with having so few voter service centers in my primary blog post

 https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2020/08/hawaii-primary-election-2020.html

 

On Oahu, there was only Honolulu Hale and Kapolei Hale. That doesn't work well with voters who live in Wahiawa, North Shore, or the Windward side.  

 

This proved to be a major problem on Election Day! 

Yes, the 2 voter service centers were open for 2 weeks, but the election officials TOTALLY UNDER-ESTIMATED how many would line up on the final day! 

Ronen Zilberman/Civil Beat

Long lines on Election Day in Honolulu

The polls were supposed to close at 7pm on Election Day, but anyone who was already in line had the legal right to vote. The last voter was finished 4 hours later. 

That's how long the lines were, people were in line for at least 4 hours.

Granted, there are some people who LOVE being in long lines. To them, this is fun. Some people also enjoy the rush of doing everything last minute.

Lee Cataluna explains more on those who love to be in long lines in this article https://www.civilbeat.org/2020/11/lee-cataluna-we-dont-mind-standing-in-line-in-hawaii-if-we-want-to/

But this also showed the failure to plan!

Having so many people congregate in one place is a disaster during the coronavirus crisis. Case numbers will definitely increase, and I fear we will have to shut down nearly everything again because of this (plus, we just had Halloween, another popular gathering time)

2 voter service centers aren't enough, especially since Honolulu Hale and Kapolei Hale aren't easily accessible to those who live on Windward Oahu, Central Oahu, and the North Shore.

I would definitely open up a voter service center in those 3 areas, and for Election Day, open up some school cafeterias to be voter service centers. Maybe not as much as the old days before all-mail elections, but at least enough so that no place has to deal with 4-hour lines at closing time.  I'll just go as far as saying all public high schools should be voter service centers on Election Day, that way each district can handle their share of the slack. 

Honolulu Mayor

As mentioned in my blog post about the primaries, the 2 top candidates for mayor were 2 businessmen who never held political office: Keith Amemiya & Rick Blangiardi.

Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Keith Amemiya & Rick Blangiardi

Keith Amemiya was mostly known for once heading the Hawaii High School Athletics Association (HHSAA), but was also an insurance executive and a member of the University of Hawaii Board of Regents.

Rick Blangiardi was a recently retired media executive of Hawaii News Now (HNN). As you may tell, his media connections went a long way in helping him in this campaign. 

For city & county offices here, the offices are nonpartisan! (I wish that could be true for every election for every political office)

When you actually compare their proposals, Amemiya & Blangiardi aren't really that different. Their proposals weren't even that detailed, they were just general statements meant to avoid offending anyone.  

However, Hawaii being a mostly Democrat state, Keith Amemiya decided to emphasize that he was a Democrat and to call Blangiardi a Republican, even though Blangiardi said he was a political independent.  To top it off, Amemiya's ads compared  Blangiardi to Donald Trump, even though Blangiardi never campaigned as a Trump-like politician. 

Yes, Blangiardi had the support of Linda Lingle (the only Republican governor in my lifetime), but also had the support of Democrats like Ben Cayetano and Colleen Hanabusa!

Almost everyone saw Amemiya's comparison of Blangiardi to Trump as pure desperation.

If Amemiya wanted to emphasize his opposition to Trump, he should've run for federal office.

But the mayor is a city & county office, where people are more interested in how the leaders will manage transit, homelessness, potholes, parks, and the re-opening of the local economy during the coronavirus crisis. Amemiya should've just focused on that, and let his allies who are running for federal office deal with Trump. 

Here is Lee Cataluna's analysis on Amemiya vs Blangiardi

https://www.civilbeat.org/2020/10/lee-cataluna-the-honolulu-mayoral-race-has-devolved-into-ugly-tactics/

Even though Blangiardi won this time (he did have an advantage as a long-time media executive after all), I think Amemiya does have a good chance of getting elected to another political office, as long as he stays on topic! 

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On Twitter, former state legislator Kaniela Ing noted that every mayor of Honolulu, except for Mufi Hanneman (who is Samoan & German) was a "white man".

People don't like to talk seriously about race in Hawaii. When they do, it's all about reverse racism. But I need to say this. Honolulu, the least white city in the nation, has only elected one non-white man since even before statehood: Mufi Hanneman. Wtf is going on?

— Kaniela Ing (@KanielaIng) November 4, 2020

I responded with the following

But if you're born in Hawaii in 1980 (like me) you never lived under white governor until adulthood!

Hawaii racial politics just isn't clear cut as you make it out to be

— Pablo the Mad Tiger Warrior (@PabloTheMdTgrWr) November 4, 2020

But if you're born in Hawaii in 1980 (like me) you never lived under white governor until adulthood! 

Hawaii racial politics just isn't clear cut as you make it out to be

— Pablo the Mad Tiger Warrior (@PabloTheMdTgrWr) November 4, 2020

I also mentioned 

 Also depends on who is running. Many of the same people who vote for David Ige (Okinawan) also voted for Blangiardi (Italian). Also Frank Fasi also Italian! so 2 Italian mayors in my lifetime even Hawaii doesn't have nearly as many Italians as NY or NJ 

 Jeremy Harris had many voters who also voted Cayetano! Fasi had many voters who also voted for Waihee and Ariyoshi! 

 Maybe because Oahu residents of non-European ancestries set their goals higher than the mayor and run for governor or Congress instead

Other local races

Big Island also has a new mayor: Mitch Roth,  a former prosecutor. 

For Honolulu prosecutor, the top 2 candidates were Steve Alm and Megan Kau. Kau was one of those people who only has a hammer and therefore thinks everything is a nail! Steve Alm is a more center-left candidate. Hawaii usually favors the center-left and therefore Alm is the winner. 

President

Hawaii being mostly Democrat, voted overwhelmingly for Joe Biden with circa 65% of the vote!

Most of us here view Trump as even more repulsive than your average Republican.

But even here, Trump has a share of loudmouth supporters, who drove in long caravans with big flags on their big pickup trucks. They were also loud & obnoxious! Most of them thought they were part of a winning bandwagon. It turned out this backfired big time.

https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2020/11/06/hawaii-trump-campaign-chair-says-roving-caravans-worked-against-president/?s=09

“The Trump flag waving that occurred throughout the state, the enthusiasm there, which wasn’t part of the Hawaii Trump Victory Campaign, that was spontaneous ongoings by people who love the president, that I think worked against us,” said Al Frenzel.

Frenzel said he believes the caravans upset and annoyed people, motivating them to vote blue.

That's exactly what happened. All these caravans accomplished was that they irritated the silent majority who didn't engage with these idiots and instead filled out a ballot and turned it in! The secret ballot is the silent majority's middle finger to those bozos!

It isn't just the "mainland haoles" (European-Americans who moved here from the continent) in the Trump caravans, there were some Polynesians too! National Public Radio did note that many Pacific Islanders did support Trump. 

https://www.npr.org/2020/11/03/929478378/understanding-the-2020-electorate-ap-votecast-survey

screenshot by Adam Keawe Manolo-Camp

as noted on

 https://www.facebook.com/adamkmanalocamp/posts/3289793521138187

So according to NPR, Trump's biggest support actually came from Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islands, Native Americans and...

Posted by Adam Keawe Manalo-Camp on Wednesday, November 4, 2020

I did mention this on facebook

those Pacific Islanders who support Trump probably think "Trump don't talk s** about us like he talk s*** about Mexicans & Muslims, therefore Trump likes us"

 

NO, FOOL! To Trump, you're all out of sight, out of mind, not that many Pacific Islander in New York for Trump to notice they exist!

 

But remember this, if someone is racist to someone else, sooner or later, they'll be racist to you too! 

Much of his most rabid supporters in the continent would assume the next Pacific Islander they see as either "black" or "Mexican" and therefore don't even want them in their suburbs and will act as if their lives don't matter!

Some people mentioned religion as a motivator being that LDS (Latter Day Saints) were very successful in recruiting Polynesians. They basically own Laie in the North Shore of Oahu.  I did notice some of their enthusiasm for fellow LDS Mitt Romney back in 2012, but I don't think religion that was the main motivator for the Trump caravan, I think those guys just love Trump's pro-wrestling persona! 

I also wonder how much of it was also xenophobia, especially being that there are tensions between Polynesians vs Micronesians, which replaced the used to be more common tension between Polynesians vs Filipinos & other Asians.

But most of the Native Hawaiian activists that I know lean very left and therefore HATE Donald Trump, as they see him as just another racist imperialist misogynist! They were very happy to see Trump voted out, and many of them really loved Kamala Harris who they see as a symbol of progress for racial & gender justice. 

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The slight increase in Trump votes in Hawaii did almost nothing for the Republicans in the state legislature. Still a tiny minority. It seems as whoever supported Trump loved his pro-wrestling persona more than they love conservative Republican ideals.  

learn more at https://www.civilbeat.org/2020/11/biden-easily-won-hawaii-but-data-shows-support-for-trump-has-grown/

brief statement on presidential election results!

 Anybody who knows me for a long time (including all my blog readers) knows that I always have been criticizing politicians no matter their political affiliation. So once Joe Biden starts his presidency, I will express disagreement with any of his policies I don't like!

But for now, I will celebrate the fact that Donald Trump will soon no longer be the president! He was the worst person to be president in my lifetime. He was a racist, a rapist, a fascist, and a con artist! Good riddance and be gone!

coming soon: election analysis

 Busy with multiple responsibilities, but my analysis on the recent elections will be coming soon! I can't guarantee exactly when! 

let the Tigers play at the home field

 My alma mater McKinley High School (aka Honolulu High School)

always played their "home" football games at our rival's campus Roosevelt High School. 

This even though the school has renovated its field with new turf a few years back! The field is used for practices. 

photo copyright to McKinley High School

practice at the new turf of

McKinley High School (aka Honolulu High School)

However, the bleachers and the night-lights needed to host football games weren't installed due to complaints by residents of nearby condos (buildings that weren't even there yet when I was a student at the school) who worry about the noise from the games.

learn more from 

Denby Fawcett, “Mckinley Students Still Unable to Play Football On New $5m Field,” Honolulu Civil Beat, October 27, 2020

https://www.civilbeat.org/2020/10/denby-fawcett-mckinley-students-still-unable-to-play-football-on-new-5m-field/

Here's a quote from a complainer

Residents of the nearby Moana Pacific, Pacifica Honolulu and 909 Kapiolani condominiums say if there are night games at McKinley, then besides glare from the lighting and noise, there also will be traffic jams, illegal parking and strangers walking through the neighborhood.

Look, I live near UH-Mānoa's lower campus which has Stan Sherriff Center, the home arena for the university's basketball and volleyball teams.

Being that UH-Mānoa is a state university, it will obviously have a larger fan base than a public high school!

I've been able to adjust to the dealing noise of fans going to & from the games at Stan Sherriff Center. Sometimes, I even join in and watch the games.

Strangers walking by your building after the games? I get WAY MORE STRANGERS walking by my apartment building after a UH game than will EVER pass by your condo after a high school game!

Because after all, a state university has a larger fan base than a high school!

If I could adjust to the noise & the craziness of UH fans leaving the arena, then the people living near McKinley High School (aka Honolulu High School) could easily adjust to the lesser amount of people at a high school game! 

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And I love the school administration's response

Principal Okamura says nearby residents should be more realistic: “When you buy property close to a high school you should expect there are going to be changes and activities might be noisy.”

McKinley athletic director Bob Morikuni says, “There has to be some give and take here. It’s not like football games at McKinley will be year round and inconvenience everybody for the rest of their lives.”

I will also add that living near Stan Sherrif Center, that arena hosts basketball & volleyball games for both genders, means that it hosts WAY WAY WAY MORE games than a stadium that hosting a football game! 

And the UH games has WAY WAY WAY MORE fans than a high school game!

So those whining losers in the condos near the high school campus need to suck it up and learn to embrace it all! 

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* on an unrelated note, being that the high school is named after a controversial figure, I will from now on, on my blog posts, refer to my alma mater as McKinley High School (aka Honolulu High School) to emphasize that the school should revert to the original name of Honolulu High School.

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

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

new music: "The Spooky Abandoned House"

 Today,  Pablo the Mad Tiger Warrior  has a new single now available on various online platforms (ie iTunes, Spotify, YouTube & wherever else music is sold or streamed!

That single is titled "The Spooky Abandoned House"

A creepy dark ambient instrumental track that  sounds like a horror movie or video game score  where the characters are walking around an  abandoned house on a Halloween night.   Perfect track to play at Halloween haunted house activities!

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If Halloween music is your thing, don't forget to check out another dark ambient instrumental track that Pablo the Mad Tiger Warrior released as a single back in 2018........."Slow Walking Through a Haunted Castle"

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In other music news, Pablo the Mad Tiger Warrior  has another album of instrumental tracks coming soon. This time, it will be an electronic music album with a science fiction vibe!

The tracks are all completed, but I have not yet settled on a release date! 

Stay tuned!

I'm 4 decades old

 I'm now 4 decades old! 

That's right, I'm now 40 years old!

So much for the big 4-0 party plans

This was supposed to be my big year.  This is 2020! Being born in 1980, that means I have lived 20 years in the 20th century, and 20 years in this century!

From last year, I was looking forward to having a big celebration for my 40th birthday. Maybe a karaoke party, then dancing at the nightclubs. I did something like that for my 30th birthday, but I wanted something like that on a bigger scale for the 40th. 

 

I was also looking forward to Halloween this year since it would be on a Saturday! Partying on a Halloween Saturday would've been epic!

However, everything changed with the pandemic!  All large scale gatherings are canceled for the rest of the year!  No big parties for me this time around 😢

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Remembering my 30's

Off my top of my head, my favorite things about being in my 30's

• My time as a graduate student at UH-Manoa from 2013-2015 working on my degree in Library & Information Science (LIS). Not only taking classes, but also joining student organizations, and enjoying all the perks of being in college again. Also, spending hours at the library is like heaven to me!

• I joined Friends of the Library of Hawaii (FLH) during my time in the LIS program and I'm still a member. I mostly volunteered with their annual booksales as well at their mini-bookstore Books@Mark's on First Fridays. Sadly, much of that has been canceled by the pandemic

• I had plenty of adventures at the nightclubs during my 30's. Though some people had their best nightclub adventures in their 20's, mines were in my 30's.  During that time I experienced Rumours, Villa, Rumfire, SkyWaikiki, Tiki's, District, Moose, Oceans808, Haus, Heart Moon, and more. Being that nightclubs are a fickle business, many of what I listed already shut down ever before the pandemic, and some might not even survive the pandemic.  It might be years before the club scene will ever go back to what it was. But I can say I was blessed with some wonderful experiences during my 30's.   I'm proud to say that it did all sober!  Great music and great people is all you need!

• I did become more proficient with computer technology during my 30's. Don't get wrong, I already was blogging in my 20's.  I was on social media since the myspace days. However, I relied on libraries & internet cafes to do my computer work. My time as a student in UHM's LIS program helped me in learning to do more with the computer including power-points, spreadsheets, databases, websites, digitization & more. I finally joined the smartphone era in 2013, and I finally got a desktop computer & internet access at home in 2015.  And with my desktop, I learned to use music-making & video editing software to expand my multi-media outreach beyond just writing blogs. 

• I finally got around to becoming a music maker in my 30's. I did some talent shows in high school & college.  I was seriously considering becoming a rapper/singer/producer but didn't want to be signed to a label because I wanted to do my own thing.  But starting a label was too expensive and I spent most of my later 20's and early 30's focusing on getting steady work to pay for my immediate needs. It was only when I was 35 when I got a desktop computer that I started making music on the computer. Had I been born 20 years later, I would've been able to do this in my teens but this technology wasn't available to the general public when I was a teen.  Anyways, in the 2nd half of my 30's, I  started working on & selling instrumental tracks under my alias Pablo the Mad Tiger Warrior.  I did make some money on it, but not enough to pay my rent. But you can always help by going to iTunes  😉!   I do have some new music coming out in the near future.

• Reconciliation with family. Whatever grievances I had were dealt with. I wrote letters, I had discussions. We had a greater understanding of each other.

Mid-life crisis

Some people tend to be insecure about their age, reluctant to share information  like "what year you grad from high school?"

As for me, I have no shame to admit I was born in 1980, grad from high school in 1999.

What's the point of hiding that fact? You are what you are!  It's useless to pretend you're still in your 20's when you're 40!

There's already a generation gap between me and the new generation of young adults. Our life experiences are different!  That's not to say one is better than the other, it's just different.

I'll admit, I am facing a mid-life crisis. 

 I expected to be richer than I really am! I expected my career to be at a higher level than it really is.

I had a lot of dreams earlier in my life to be a musician & record label executive. That got put on the side as I focused on getting steady work to pay for immediate needs. I did reconnect with that dream when I started making & selling instrumental tracks back in 2016, but I'm nowhere near the opulent lifestyle you see in rap videos.  It's made harder by the chump change in the streaming era! And let's forget being a teen idol at my age! 

I did finally got a full-time library job last year, but I left due to knowing that I didn't have a compatible partnership with the head librarian.  The drama just wasn't worth my time!  Why waste my time putting my mental health at risk in that situation?  

I did some temp jobs recently and I'm now between temp jobs at this point. I don't like talking about job searches because every single time I tell anyone "I'm applying here" or "I'm interviewing there", I never get the job. It's only when I keep it a secret from everyone else that I get the job! 

And for me (and many people my age), it's hard not to feel outdated. Libraries and music work was already in the decline before the pandemic, and it's gotten even worse with the pandemic. 

I did gain some weight recently and I do get more tired than before when going up hills. And I sprained my ankle 2 months ago. I can walk unaided for now, but I have to remind myself to walk slower to avoid accidents that causes sprains. 

I already know people my age who have either died from health problems or have become disabled due to health ailments! 

I think that's about all the pessimism I want to express for now. I just needed to get it out of my system.

Room for Optimism

However, not everything has to go downhill from here! 

People have accomplished things after dealing with various struggles. People have accomplished things in their 40's. 

Who knows, some wonderful opportunities and adventures might come my way!

Hopefully, the world can eliminate (or at least greatly reduce) the coronavirus pandemic!

And hopefully, I can not only survive but also thrive in my 40's! 

My goal is to have more bragging rights when I write my 50th birthday blog post. And more importantly, to be able to express pride in my accomplishments with humility by then!

Eddie Van Halen

 Last week, on 10/06/2020, rock & roll legendary guitar player Eddie Van Halen passed away due to throat cancer. He was 65 years old.

Associated Press
Eddie Van Halen

Because his band's name is also his last name (Van Halen), he will be referred to as Eddie for the rest of this past.

Eddie & his brother Alex were born in the Netherlands to a Dutch father and an Indonesian mother.  The family immigrated to California when the brothers were still children. 

(note: it would be interesting how many Trump supporters who yell "build the wall" and other racist chants are fans of Van Halen's music without knowing about Eddie's mother)

Eddie & Alex inherited their interest in playing musical instruments from his father, who played clarinet, saxophone  & drums.  The brothers experimented with various instruments, with Alex settling on the drums and Eddie with the guitar. Eddie occasionally played piano & synthesizers for the band too! 

Eddie & Alex recruited Micheal Anthony for bass and David Lee Roth as lead singer for the band Van Halen! 

Starting in the late '70s into the early '90s, Van Halen made hit record after hit record playing some loud, hard rock with a party vibe. 

Eddie was the real star of the band with his legendary guitar solos. He can do many things with the guitar that many try to imitate but very few could come close.

When Micheal Jackson, who usually did soul/R&B songs, wanted to make a hard rock track, he recruited Eddie to play the guitar solo. That track was "Beat It", a mega-hit that transcended genres. Eddie actually did his part of the song for free, though he could've made millions from royalties.

Eddie's music was also sampled by hip-hop artists like 2 Live Crew.

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In 1985, David Lee Roth left the band to pursue a solo career. Some people predicted that would be the end of the band's popularity. However, the band found a new lead singer Sammy Hagar, who had some hits as both a solo artist & as a singer from Montrose.

The band had a different vibe with Hagar.  David Lee Roth was more of a pop/showtunes kind of guy. Sammy Hagar had a more serious personality and the band went in a heavier direction. 

In my opinion, the band's best work was with Hagar for the 1991's album "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge" with featured the hits "Poundcake", "Right Now", "Top of the World" and my favorite "Runaround".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKFp0QTGF8M

Van Halen's "Runaround"

In 1996, Hagar left the band. Van Halen recruited Gary Cherone who was the lead singer for Extreme, a hair metal band that gained the most popularity for the very non-extreme acoustic ballad "More than Words". However, at that point, the music world has changed with more fans embracing alternative rock and leaving the 80's hard rock behind.  The one album featuring Cherone didn't sell so well. 

Since then Van Halen did reunion tours with David Lee Roth and/or Sammy Hagar.  While the ticket sales did well, the band's relations with the singers didn't always go so well. The camaraderie wasn't there, it was just "go on stage and get it over with".

Meanwhile. Eddie's health was declining for years. He had hip replacement surgery and had cancer on his tongue and throat. It was believed that decades of drug use, drinking, and smoking contributed to his cancers.

Eddie did reconcile with the band members before his death.

Though Eddie Van Halen has passed way, his music will live on for generations.

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Great articles on Eddie Van Halen

Jim Farber, “Eddie van Halen, Virtuoso of the Rock Guitar, Dies at 65,” New York Times, October 7, 2020 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/06/arts/music/eddie-van-halen-dead.html

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Harrison Smith, “Eddie van Halen, Guitar Virtuoso with a Shimmering Sound, Dies at 65,” Washington Post, October 6, 2020,

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/eddie-van-halen-guitar-virtuoso-with-a-shimmering-sound-dies-at-65/2020/10/06/33ca1c22-ee8f-11e9-8693-f487e46784aa_story.html.

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On Eddie & Alex Van Halen dealing with racism as biracial kids

Kimmy Yam, “Eddie van Halen Endured a 'horrifying Racist environment' Before Becoming a Rock Legend,” Yahoo, October 9, 2020,

 https://www.yahoo.com/news/eddie-van-halen-endured-horrifying-132736945.html

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Popular Mechanics republished a 2015 article by Eddie Van Halen all the ways he adjusted his guitars and amps to make new sounds for his music

Eddie Van Halen, “How the Late Rock God Eddie Van Halen Hacked His Guitar,” Popular Mechanics, October 6, 2020, https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/a15615/how-eddie-van-halen-hacks-a-guitar/.

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Tributes from other musicians

 Metallica's Kirk Hammet

Ben Sisario, “Metallica’s Kirk Hammett: Eddie van Halen ‘blew Open Everyone’s Minds’,” New York Times, October 7, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/07/arts/music/eddie-van-halen-metallica-kirk-hammett.html.

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Tom Morello (of Rage Against the Machine, Prophets of Rage, Audioslave)

Tom Morello, “Tom Morello: Eddie van Halen Was ‘our Generation’s Mozart’
,” Rolling Stone, October 6, 2020, https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/tom-morello-eddie-van-halen-tribute-1071947/.

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from other Van Halen's bandmates

Jem Aswad, “Alex van Halen Posts Touching Tribute to His Brother, Eddie,” Variety, October 8, 2020, https://variety.com/2020/music/news/alex-van-halen-eddie-tribute-1234797355/.

Liz Calvario, “Sammy Hagar Shares He Reconnected with Eddie van Halen Before His Death,” ET Online, October 8, 2020, https://www.etonline.com/sammy-hagar-shares-he-reconnected-with-eddie-van-halen-before-his-death-154464.

Kory Grow, “Gary Cherone Remembers Eddie van Halen: ‘he Was Truly One with the Guitar,” Rolling Stone, October 7, 2020, https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/gary-cherone-eddie-van-halen-interview-1072436/.