Kimo West shares Warm Christmas Aloha

Kimo in Hana

Christmas aloha filled the cozy Coffee Gallery last night. James Kimo West and friends spread good cheer with a range of tunes from a Here Comes the Sun makeover, to classic slack-key. Kimo held center stage with tender renditions of Hawaiian favorites. Taught by the legendary masters of slack-key, Kimo is carrying on the fine tradition of soulful guitar. Often slipping into a jazz-like riff he takes you on a lovely ride. Quoted has having a “soft, sweet, or gentle voice” his music is a fusion of old and new rooted deeply in tradition. When the violinist, Dave, and local boy guitarist Kapo Ku, joined in the place got jumping. A sensual hula dancer, along with a fine vocalist added to the brew.

Kimo sharing aloha at Coffee Gallery

Kimo is making several stops on the mainland this holiday season. You can find him in Santa Barbara, Redondo Beach at the annual Slack-key fest, and back at the Coffee Gallery where seating is limited and gets sold out early with another slack-key artist in January. You can get full details of upcoming venues on his website Jim Kimo West

If you can’t make it, his Christmas CD and other more classic renderings are available at most online distribution sites.

One Writer's Journey interviews author Linda Ballou

As the celebration of Aloha Festival Month comes to a close for another year in Hawaii and on this blog, the book Wai-nani High Chiefess of Hawaii, Her Epic Journey remains to tell the story of an ancient people and the Hawaiian woman Wai-nani the forerunner to the modern woman. You can find out more about Wai-nani in this interview I did with One Writer’s Journey.


Q: Tell me a little about your book.

A: Wai-nani, High Chiefess of Hawai’i- Her Epic Journey is fabled history couched in magical realism set in primal Hawaii. Precocious Wai-nani’s character is inspired by the powerful personage of Ka’ahumanu, the favorite wife of Kamehameha the Great. This was no small accomplishment as he had thirty-one wives. Kamehameha fulfilled the prophecy at the time of his birth to unite the Islands and gave Hawaii a golden age. Upon his death, he bestowed rank upon Ka’ahumanu that made her the most powerful woman in old Hawaii. She used that power put an end to the 2000-year-old Polynesian “kapu system” that called for harsh penalties for law breakers and human sacrifice to the gods.

Wai-nani’s mythological journey that is woven throughout the actual historical events that led to Kamehameha’s rise to power is the bigger story.

Q: What gave you the idea for this particular story?

A: While I was living on the north shore of Kauai a special issue in the local paper about Captain James Cook caught my attention. The fact that Captain Cook was killed by the Hawaiians in 1779 intrigued me. I wanted to know why and became curious about what was happening in the Islands when Cook arrived. Most accounts depict the Hawaiians as blood- thirsty savages who ganged up on the world’s greatest explorer. I learned this was not an accurate picture. It looked like justifiable homicide to me and that the Hawaiians had gotten a bum rap. I wanted to tell the story from the Hawaiian point of view. In my research I ran into Ka’ahumanu, a childless royal, who faced down death-dealing priests and the common beliefs of her day. She struck me as a brave figure in history that had been over-looked.

Q: Are you a full-time writer, or part-time, and how do you organize your writing time?

A: I have been writing all my adult life, but have incorporated my writing life into the full time job of selling real estate. Real estate is demanding, but it does afford me more personal freedom than a nine-to-five job. When I am working on a project, be it a novel, travel essay or article, I read the night before writing on a given subject and enlist my subconscious to provide me with ideas and answers to writing questions. I rise early and re-read what I have written before and think about what I am attempting to do and allow the night time thoughts to filter through my mind. The results are often exciting and surprising. Then I go immediately to the keyboard. I work on the given project for the first two hours of the day before the phone starts ringing. This schedule has allowed me to write two novels a screenplay, numerous travel articles and essays and a few short stories.

You can read more here at One Writer’s Journey.

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I walk in beauty on the good red road.

Linda Ballou

http://www.lindaballouauthor.com/

Lessons from the People of Old Hawaii

No matter what your relationship with the person who brought you into this world –be it good, bad or indifferent—it is always complicated. My Mother’s passing left me with my energies low, immune system weakened and spirits sagging. The Hawaiian Islands have always been a source of solace and sustenance for me. Memories of crescent white sand wrapping azure seas would not let me go. I had to go back to the Islands.

The Big Island of Hawai’i is known

to be a power place, a vortex where energy funnels up from the core of the earth. The Hawaiian Islands are still being born. New life flows down the flank of Kilaeau and pours into the sea with a hiss and steam rising for miles. Since the seventies there has been a resurgence of traditional Hawaiian healing techniques that went underground 200-hundred years ago when the missionaries arrived in the Islands to spread the “good news.” Today, the Big Island is the nexus of the plexus where new age and traditional Hawaiian healing and eastern and western methods converge.

Ho’oponopono, the Hawaiian way of talking things out is about forgiveness. You must come to the session with a clear heart actively throwing stones of anger, disappointment, jealousy, revenge, from your bowl so that they do not block the light, or pure energy that the Hawaiians call mana. You must also bring an attitude of forgiveness with you and a desire to achieve harmony with yourself and others.

In the end dealing with the death of a parent requires forgiveness. You must forgive yourself and them for not being perfect. Maybe they sent you in a wrong direction that took you many years to turn around. Perhaps, they were not demonstrative and you felt unloved. Forgiveness for their failings is required, but you must forgive yourself for not having been the perfect child that was always well-behaved. Ultimately, what you must achieve is acceptances for the frailties of the human condition. That, my friends, is what ho’oponopono is all about.

 Research for Wai-nani, A Voice from Old Hawai’i became a beautiful obsession that called for numerous trips to the Islands. I visited sacred sites, interviewed elders, spent nights in Waipio Valley where the bones of ancient chiefs are hidden in caves in steep walls framing the canyon. 

http://www.lindaballouauthor.com/

Baby Boomer Woman: Linda Ballou featured at The Voices of Baby Boomer Women

Baby Boomer Woman: Linda Ballou

by Anne Holmes on September 13, 2010

Welcome to NABBW member and adventure travel writer Linda Ballou, who calls Haines, Alaska her hometown. I find that intriguing, since Linda’s debut novel, Wai-nani, High Chiefess of Hawaii-Her Epic Journey grew out of her long-standing love affair with the Hawaiian Islands. Fire and ice, she’s seen it all!

These days she bases in Los Angeles, where she has just published her second book, Lost Angel Walkabout-One Traveler’s Tales. This collection of short travel stories will fill you with thrills, chills, giggles, squeaks — and the desire to get yourself in great physical shape so you can join her for the next trek…

What qualities do you have that speak of our generation of women?
We are the first generation to have the choice to have children, or not to have children. I think the birth control pill was single most liberating component of my generation. I made the conscious decision to strive for self-actualization—that is to live up to my fullest potential as an artist and human being.

Blessed with what is being called the “Golden Age of America”, in terms of the economic history of our country, I was able obtain a degree in English Literature and subsequently to take a year off to consider my future before entering the work force in earnest.

I chose the north shore of Kauai to be my thinking place. It was there that I experienced a spiritual awakening and met Ka’ahumanu, the inspiration of my historical novel, Wai-nani, High Chiefess of Hawaii. She was a childless chiefess who remained the confident and favorite wife of Kamehameha the Great for forty years.


She was also a “healing kumu” dubbed the “Loving Mother of the People.” She remained true to herself, including her sexual appetites, even upon the threat of death. She was a wonderful surfer and reputedly swam 18 miles a day in her youth.

When Kamehameha died he made her the most powerful woman in old Hawai’i. She used this power to put an end to the 2,000 year old Polynesian kapu system that called for human sacrifice.

WOW… as in “What a Woman “is all I can say! She was independent, brave, athletic, compassionate, and caring for those who were less fortunate. These are qualities I hope people see in me and others of my generation.

Read the rest of the article here;
http://www.nabbw.com/blog/2010/09/baby-boomer-woman-linda-ballou/




I walk in beauty on the good red road
Linda Ballou
www.lindaballouauthor.com