McLUHAN v. McLENDON

book name = medium is MASSAGE

 near-top billing went 2 ace art director Fiore

i feel like this moment .. ... .... ..... ......

 rec'd lomilomi & t-shirt with collar

  2 sizes 2 small now.

no sleep for 91 hours

d s 

 lost my

g'nite & good luck

WORTH 1,000 WORDS

Headline from HONOLULU STAR-BULLETIN

Volcanic eruption is fascinating, frightening

PELE with PAOA

D. Varez 2002

WE VIRGOS CELEBRATE EVERYTHING

In answer to requests, all from their relatives, agents and creditors, I present pics of some purveyors of our project, WHODAGUY HAWAII. These hombres, shown on the day we kicked off, July 7, 2007, are (from left) Ed Kanoi, Kevin "Fingers" Gershan and Gus Pearson.

Kanoi first worked with me at KKUA in 1976, when he was one notch above a groupie, called music librarian. Gershan first "met" me when he sneaked into KHJ in 1965, a precocious 11-year-old who was immediately thrown out of the facility.  He kept hustling his way in and kept getting tossed. Now he produces for E. T. INSIDER, PHI, etc.

Kevin went on to produce shows for Robert W. Morgan, Word's Greatest Morning Deejay. Morgan left us ten years ago, but not after leaving his mark on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the Radio HOF.  If you want to hear what a true deejay is, click on the the REEL RADIO link at the right.  It's worth the few bucks (not for profit) to be able to tune into America's greatest deejays in their prime.  We celebrate him on May 22.

Gus Pearson walked into KKUA-Honolulu with his partner Frank Makaawaawa soon after I arrived in July 1976.  Pearson and I have been through mos every high and low imaginable.  He now live right up the road in what he calls Aliamanu but is actually Kaneohe.   He retired from working over and under ground for the telephone company after 30-plus years.  Nowadays he works with kids in a school up the street and lives with his two beautiful daughers and wife (who really runs the operation).  Pearson and Jacobs are partners in LOLOMATICS HAWAII, an operation that exists mainly to allow us to pass out business cards reading, "Hire loco boys."

I originality met Chip Monck when he came down to L. A. from Frisco, where he was staging shows for the legendary Bill Graham at the Filmore and wherever they could draw a crowd. Monck hit it off with my concert partners and we all agreed to his brilliant, albeit preposterous scheme.  The plan was to stage the first ever pop festival on the east coast at the end of 1968.  

Two cohorts, Mitch Fisher and Mel "The Money Man" Lawrence were dispatched to Florida with the mission being to hire the Gulfstream Park racetrack as our venue.  Somehow the two guys pulled it off and we were in business.  And the Mad Monck "Flower Stage" would be erected in the empty field next to the track with another constructed facing the giant grandstand.  Somehow the wild men he rounded up for the chore had it all in place the just before the three-day show extravaganza opened.  What happened thereafter would be a wild movie of the best and worst of the Flower Power 60s. 

A film was made of the project that the Miami Pop Festival hurled Mr. Monck into with the force of what was Hurricane Chip. If you've seen the movie of the original WOODSTOCK, the emcee in the amber-tinted shades who keeps the mob in line with his mellow proclamations is Monck.  The photo above was taken in in 2003 when he was given a Lifetime Achievement Award for doing all his things. Monck's blog is to the right. The man's work has been mind blowing.  I love the man because we share the same middle name, he can deal with my first wife when I can't and Chipper has walked the walk with me since the creation.  How cool is it to be in his spotlight?  

To my left is Ernie Nearman, the best man to have near you, man, if you want anything involving radio tech stuff done Old School, which is to say the correct way. Nearman is not as aged as me but we love the Analog Zone of our little setup here.  Like the old Bake radio as cue speaker.

When the Mackie mixer's toy LED's were driving me nuts I eBought a VU meter. Waited weeks for the simple hookup. Nearman never got it going,  Instead he and Lance Momoki brough tin a totally restored tube-driven 20-channel Autogram mixing board that once ran the #1 radio station in the state.  Working with this man reminds me of when we beefed up The '58 Bonneville and kicked butt when the first quarter-mile stretch of freeway opened in town.  Now it's the H-1.  Then it was called Mauka Arterial. Don't blame you if you doubt it. Check out my story in CAR & DRIVER if you find it. 

If you have scrollled past all the male mugs above, we present one of our wahine announcers. I invited two, both Oahu girls. The Lovely Hula comment that Desiree left at our first blog is modest on her part. I've worked with some of the greatest announcers in broadcast history. The other lady, the akamai. smooth Honolulu Skylark, has accomplished enough to deserve her own story here. That will happen, as well as stories about the many other voice talents listed at the Credits link at our WDG home site.  

Somehow I've landed in an Internet Trifecta.  I've been a blogmeister for a week.  This is almost as difficult as traiing daily for a year to run a Honolulu Marathon.  Been there, ran that, got the finisher's T-shirt, but never again.  PODJOCKEY now offers shows and stuff that you can download, stash and hear where and when you want.  But first and foremost, WDG is all about spreading the culture of our Hawaii.  We all do this for love of the place -- and radio the way it should be.  All profits are assigned to APHO, the Association for the Preservation of Hawaiiana Online.  Our first chairman was Don Ho, who left us before we signed on.   

THAT is the real story.  THAT is how we will help build a "brick and mortar" site for The Hawaiian Music Hall Of Fame.  And that -- when you listen -- is how you will hear sounds from the Most Musical State In The Nation.  Mahalo nui loa to everyone who pushes me daily and carried us this far ... 

1st VIDEO TEST OF 1st MIC TEST

In 1978, my late great friend,  Jack "Big Z" Zukerkorn. whipped out about $3000 -- when you could still buy lots of stuff with that amount of money to -- to get us a computer.  We rode in his new Caddy Coupe De Ville to Radio Shack on South King Street and left with something called a TRS-80.  It has been called many things since, none of them very complimentary. Early nerds (this was before "geek" came into general usage) referred to the thngs as the "Trash Eighty."

From that primal contraption I began to learn about these modern computer devices.  The thing was slightly larger than a toaster, showed only neon letters on a black screen, used a cassette tape for memory storage and came with a 9-pin dot matrix printer.  Or maybe that was extra. 

I refuse to look up any further specs because I have been through way to much hardware and software for a guy whose first radio job was at a station where the accountant used an abacus. Yes!  Lin Hon Au, also known as the notorious Coolidge Nakamura.

In 1982 I bought something on for sale on special at Sears for $349.  It was made by a failed British computer company started by a soccer club owner. He dumped his wretched excess on American idiots like me.  The only person who knew how to run it was ol' Harley Ristad in Hawthorne, CA.  An early IBM engineer, Harley looked and acted just like Christopher Lloyd in BACK TO THE FUTURE. 

With the Internet yet to be invented by Al Gore, Harley and I spoke by long distance phone.  Soon the bills added up to more than the price of the machine.  I think I've deliberately purged the brand name from my brain.  All I know is that it used floppies made in the UK, so they matched nothing available this side of London.

Writing in ASCII and finally adding a 28K dial-up modem, equal now to a 28 horsepower car. I managed to write scores of magazine pieces for which I got paid by the word.  That never happened in radio even though the amounts were manini.

In the mid-80s, Bill Bigelow brought back the legendary HAWAII CALLS radio show and brought me aboard to produce.  I did it because the best Hawaiian musicians comprised our orchestra, playing every Saturday on Waikiki Beach at the Hawaiian Village Hotel. But I was equally motivated because we mixed it down at Dunbar Wakayama's venerable Audio Media Studio on Waimanu Street.  Dunbar's teenage son, Billy, could be called an "IT savant".  He was the fastest keyboarder I've ever known, made the early version of Pro Tools work like NASA and he put up with my total lack of knowledge about what we were doing.  But it sounded great.

Arriving back in Hollywood in 1984 we co-created the follow up to AMERICAN TOP 40.  It is THE WORLD CHART and is still heard globally today.  My justification  to return to the bad air and some bum attitudes was to work with the new technology.  There was this thing called "fax" that allowed us to tabulate hit charts from around the globe.  Tom Rounds, who thought up the show had been prodding me for a while to use something called email.  And 28-year-old Brandon D'Amore, half my age, filled me in on the fine points of digital editing -- in return for my analog tales of Elvis and other people I knew.  The house tech, Randy Massey, issued me an Apple device called a Duo Dock. This was the predecessor of the laptop in many ways. I could yank my Mac out of its slot at work and haul it home where I mostly used it to contact women when AOL was invented.

I returned home in 1997, having accomplished my goals, been mugged in West L. A. and avoiding another earthquake.  How I got into webcasting is covered somewhat in the first blog in this series. About a month after launch we were ready to host our first live musicians.  Roy Sakuma came first, then David Kahiapo and the award winning group Kaukahi.  The sound has only improved.  Except for the one JPG at the top, this is a photo-free entry.  I learned most of this blogosheric stuff in Week One.  Now we can boogie a bit.

Below is Whodavideo One, featuring Ed Kanoi trying to sound like Casey Kasem and Jordan Eceves-Foster doing what interns usually do with nothing assigned them. If the video plays, man, I have stuff in da files that might even be bad enough for My Space.

PLAYING SOON LIVE ON WHODAGUY HAWAII:  The people that showed me that Hawaiian music had grown up when I returned home:  Jerrry Santos (Olomana)May 28 and The Makaha Sons (Moon Kaukahe, John and Jerome Koko) June 4.  Jerry performs Friday nights at the Hawaiian Village.  The Sons will be playing some off-island dates in June. Like June 21 at the David Marr Theater in Redding, CA.

In Memory of William Dain Tsunao Wakayama, 1974-2006

GOT ON MY KNEES, PRETENDED TO PRAY

Prompted by the comment 

from Kelly of Ohio, after 

 yesterday's post:

"I heard you talk a lot about Cass as lot on the radio back in the original Whodagday, Sounds as though she was as sweet as her talent ... never thought she would  be a football fan" 

Left: Robert W. Morgan helps Mama Cass deliver one of her new puppies to the front door of  a lucky listener.

I was the first radio person  to hear "California Dreamin.'"  It was back when when I, Mr. Ego'd-out Golden Ear really believed  that I could "pick the hits".  The Mamas & The Papas had arrived in L. A. where they were unknown other than to the folkies in Laurel Canyon. This included my buddy Henry Diltz, World's Greatest Rock Photographer, who lived up there but was equally broke back in the 60s.

Los Adler, who began as an Every Brothers roadie and then moved in to manage the Beach Boys, finally replacing their father, Murry, the Monster.  Adler signed and was out pushing the first M&P record.  It was a 45 r.p.m. "single".  The record company was not into spending money on this seemingly non-Top 40 sound.  The disc came in a cheap, thin paper sleeve, with a black and white photo of the quarter on the cover, in a bathtub.  (This was before Mr. Diltz became the major album cover shooter, doing artist cover shots for everyone.  Google him if you doubt it). By the time the song had become a monster hit around the world, the record company re-shoot the tub shot in living color.

In '65,  Mr. Adler, who is now seen looking like perhaps the Oldest Hippie On Earth,  sitting next to Jack Nicholson at Lakers' games, was still low on the Haolewood Ladder.  And NO ONE got into Fortress Boss Radio except during assigned hours on Tuesdays.  The promo men were forced to sit in the lobby, shared with KHJ-TV, and often wait hours to see and hype someone in the record library. Our Betty Breneman was queen of the L. A. music directors and didn't take shit from anyone. And the word "hype" was a verb meant to hustle a record any way possible.  (Above right: Adler and Jacobs, half century ago,)

Finally, at a day's end, Adler conned his way into the record library -- at the time larger than most radio stations' complete facilities.  He dragged along Andrew Loog Oldham, then manager of the Rolling Stones.  They had waited it out, progressively pissed off, next door at Nickodell's, Hollywood's greatest hangout dating back to the Twenties.  I wasn't that impressed with either of them, frankly.  I first met the Beach Boys when they played for free on the roof at a promotion for KMAK-Fresno.  In 115-degree temperature.  And KMEN-San Bernardo presented  the Stones' first U. S. show, ever, at the Orange County Showgrounds.  

These events took place in 1962 and 1964, only two years before KHJ conquered L. A. airwaves. But it seemed like ages earlier the day these guys twisted my arm and got me to listen to "California Dreamin'" as sung by the stone freaks on the cover. 

Within 30 seconds I pronounced the song "too MOR" and told the aghast promo men to take the record to KMPC, the top Middle of the Road station in Southern California.  Well, as we all know, the record made it big, big, big. It made overnight stars of Cass, John, Michelle and Denny.  My arrogance and tin ear were soon forgotten.  KHJ put the Stones onstage in Long Beach and then produced their breakout Hollywood Bowl concert,  The Mamas and the Papas came on the First Annual KHJ Appreciation concert, perhaps the most astonishing charity show even seen in Boss Angeles.  The $25,000-plus profits went to the Braille Institute of America, as specified by Sonny Bono.

Cass and the crew appeared on the April 2, 1966 show, which headlined Sonny & Cher (when they had five hits on the BILLBOARD charts).  The Mamas and The Papas appeared on the undercard, along with Otis Redding, Donovan, Jan & Dan, Bob Lind and the Knickerbockers. Each of those acts had at least one Top Ten hit that year, 

Now you know the first of the story.  I could go on with endless name-drooping stories of the Crazy Daze when radio was fun.  If you are interested in madness from the last century, when radio was more fun than it should have been, drop a comment.  

You didn't need YouTube, MTV, SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE and Jeff Apatow flicks in order to laugh your okole off and cruise with your sweetie at the same time.  Using your Necker Knob.

TV NOTES:  How could Gabriel Brynne so spot on sensitive in Showtime's IN THERAPY and so incongruously inane in the PBS attempt at CAMELOT?

Is it possible to watch THE TUDORS without "I'm Henry The Eigth I Am" by Heman's Hermits creeping into your brain, and remaining there for the beheadings, burnings and bustier?

MOTHER'S DAY BRUNCH

Shirley and Miki'ala Jacobs

Mother and Child Reunion, 1979

It was a tradition in our household to go to Sunday brunches at the grand Waikiki hotels whenever it wa justified  This buffet is for all other makuahine to digest and hopefully digest.  Later I'm driving to Oahu Cemetery to vist my mom and "aunties."

• The best buffet is at the Halekulani.  Problem is you must reserve a year in advance. 
  
• As one who has dined on fine Chinese food in big cities known for the finest, such as San Francisco, New York, Beverly Hills, Seattle, San Diego, Chicago. etc.. plus a few in Europe and Asia, besides living for a year in Hong Kong, I can tell you that Pa Ke's right here  in Kaneohe -- unless and until they change cooks -- is the best you will ever visit.  And you will find the relatively inexpensive check sweeter then the deserts.
• Sweetie Moffatt still knows where to buy the best clothes and cool wahine stuff.
• Living on an island without a Jewish mother can be harmful to one's health.
• If you are registering yourchild for kindergarten (and are fairly rich, have generous in-laws or can can swing a loan) sign up for Hanahauoli the nurturing enclave in Makiki, which inculcates Hawaiian culture from day one and nurtures kids on all levels.
• Breast feeding is where it's at for mother and child, although some might argue.
• Do not name your daughter with an Anglo name unless you want her Hawaiian Heirloom jewelry to come out weird with non-existent "names."
• Possibly the most beautiful song written by a Hawaiian matriarch is "Kawohikukapulani."
• God bless Genoa Keawe, who recently passed away.  Her son, Gary Aiko, has been a friend since the 50s,  Genoa was everyone 's Auntie.
• The New York Giants pulled the Mother of all Super Bowl upsets, which made today three months early.
• My surrogate Jewish mother, since 1959, has been Rochelle Gardiner.  
• "Mama" by Country Comfort is a great 30-year-old "contemporary" song.  It was produced by Tom Moffatt and Cyrus Faryar.  They both had great moms whom I had the pleasure to meet.
• Even Barbara Bush has virtues.  Elvis' mom did a fine job considering his twin died at birth.  Angelina Jolies's good genes appear to come mostly from her mother.  Kate Hudson's mother still looks great in jeans.  
• Don't rent the 2003 version of MOTHER'S DAY, not the best one to rent and watch today.
• My mother despised cats more than anything on earth.  Bomber-size Flyin' Hawaiian cockroaches came in a very close second.  She proved, "You can take the woman out of New Jersey but you can't ... etc."
• Both my parents mothers died before they were six years old.  So I never new my grandmas. Some inventions were not born out of necessity.
• There are some households where it might not be cool to play the Ernie K-Doe golden oldie "Mother-In-Law."
• Lamaze is not for the father who is faint at heart.  It does make one appreciate mothers even more, though, that's fir shire.
• God bless the mothers of -- to name some at random --Fats Domino, Picasso, Frank Lloyd Wright, Bill Russell, Jon Stewart, e.e. cummings, the Manning, Kennedy, Varez, Unser, Isley, Wright and Kalima brothers, Steve Jobs, Wolfman Jack, Steve Martin, Cameron Crowe, Nikola Tesla, Sandy Koufax, Daniel Inouye, Albert Camus, King Kamehameha I, Robert W. Morgan, Jesus Christ, Frank Sinatra, Harry S Truman, Harrsion Ford, Vincent Lombardi, Wesley Park, Ledward Kaapana and Ben & Jerry.
• May my dear buddy, the Mama, Cass Elliott, smile down on us all.  Mama Cass was the coolest "superstar" I will ever know. either giving away her extra puppies as a KHJ promo, ridding to Mel's pad in Woodstock (where I made the greatest score of alltime), or sitting next to The Boys in the L. A. Coliseum, cheering for the Baltimore Colts if she and they were in town on a given Sunday.
• And happy Mother's Day minus-one to the lovely and talented Millicent Cummings, whose new baby and CD are due out soon.  

Mother Millicent at Sacred Falls

I PLAYED ARETHA & APAKA FOR OBAMA

I'm cheering for Barack Obama to be our next president for totally personal reasons. He and I were born in Waikiki in different earlier times when there was more space and less space cases.

We attended Hawaii's most prestigious school, Punahou, decades apart but a major difference is that he graduated an went on to an extended, excellent education. In Obama's time Jeff Bezzos and Steve Case studied at the lush Manoa campus before they went off to invent Amazon and AOL, respectively.  After seven years I moved two miles down Nehoa street to a public school, Roosevelt and dropped out in my senior year. 

When I returned home to Honolulu in 1976 I recreated myself as Whodaguy, went back on the radio as KKUA's morning man and finally had time to immerse myself in Island culture.  From 1976 till 1979 Barry was in his high school years. I became the top-rated Top 40 deejay again and "all the kids" listened while riding to school.  In his touching bio "Dreams of My Fathers," Obama recalls listening at night while doing his homework. My friend Bart was in Barry's home room; he says that Hawaii's favorite son listened to yours  truly, truly. 

In March 2007 a top advisor confirmed from their Illinois headquarters that Obama indeed recalled his adolescent listening habits but wouldn't be quoted.  Can't blame a politician for not alienating others.

But I betcha that Boston's Arnie "Woo Wood" Ginsberg was JFK's fave jock,  The Founding Fathers were better off for not having Top 40 prattle and  music to distract from their weighty thoughts.  But hey, it could be another mythical  LIST to assemble: George Washington tuning in Joe Yocam, John Adams digging Joey Adams, Abe Lincoln "freeing the slaves" then enrolling them in the Allen Freed Fan club. And hard-charging Teddy Roosevelt would have dug B. Mitchell Reed. Where was Limbaugh when Nixon needed him? Any ideas along this line of matchups?

(If this were written for radio I would precede the next line with the sound of the infamous Boss Radio tympani roll).  And now -- here's something that you've not heard or read from the pundits. i Hawaii celebrates the 50th anniversary of the 50th State on August 21, 2009,  How cool would it be for a A Local Boy President make that the date of his triumphant homecoming?

On February 16 I attended a caucus for the first time. My intention was to interview folks from the hood for WDG. It took place at an elementary school two blocks away, which I've driven past  a million times in the past eleven years yet never noticed.  But that night Heia School looked like a Rod Stewart Concert was about to happen or they moved the Rose Bowl to Kaneohe. In 1990 the were 12 people on hand.  On Obama Tuesday more than 900 showed up, some of them waiting more than two hours in a drizzle to finally get into the cafeteria.  Inside it was chaos, confusion and caucasians with no idea of what to do or where to do it.

I fit right into that crazed scene, somehow switching from Independent to Democrat while registering without even showing an ID.  Staying through the entire circus, I munched on macaroons, sipped guava punch and watched tormented volunteers do their imitation of sixth grade teachers dealing with paper pandemonium.  By asking the right questions, sometimes four separate times, I set out to learn and follow party rules.  And that is how this malihini Democrat became President of Precinct 42, District 2 of Hawaii.  I do not have time time or money to make a run for a seat at the conventtion in Denver, is certain to be one of our nation's most historic events.

More seriously. I admire Obama for many reasons. Punahou is Protestant. We Jews were as scare at as were Negros, as they were then called. I didn't come from a broken home, but often did my best to make it one. We drank Primo Beer instead of toking on the choice pakalolo available in the 70s.  (In Barry's say it was called "chomming" I am told by high sources). Peer and parent pressure was suffocating to meet the expectations of a school where one was supposed to attend Stanford, Northwestern, University of Chicago, MIT, Yale or Harvard.  Obama did not go there directly, stopping in L A. for two years at Occidental College.

Hawaii is America's most unique state in so many ways.  It was called "The Melting Pot" long before I knew the meaning of the word microcosm. The words "ka punahou" mean "the new sprint."   I still cherish the values taught at chapel in Dillingham Hall.  The Reverend Kenneth O. Rewick influenced and inspired me more than all the rabbis I was forced to listen to at Honolulu's gypsy Temple Emmanuel.  Although I admit to sometimes I singing "Onward Christian Soldiers" while wearing muslin aloha shirts, only 7% of the population believe that.

CNN just headlined that "Obama cuts Clinton's superdelegate lead to one."  As a fan who has seen Super Bowls lost by a field goals at the final gun, I leave you with these reminders -- Between now an the November 7 general election we will witness results of the Indy 500, Summer Olympics, World Series, countless beauty contests, World Pinochle Championship, rodeos, TV show ratings, God-knows-what from the current administration, congress and supreme court and stuff that started when I began typing this.

To my fellow  keiki o ka aina  Barack Obama, I say: Imua and just remember what you screamed at the end of every game: "Strawberry shortcake, huckleberry pie, V-I-C-T-O-R-Y.  Are we in it? Well I guess! Punahou, Punahou, yes, yes, YES!" 

PS:  You'll be better off with the Redskins than the Bears, bra.

RJ