Al Wood’s Uke Hunt review of The ‘Ukulele: A History, by Jim Tranquada and John King, is full of praise:
“Context Finally! . . . Thought Provoking . . . Great Pictures . . . Well Researched. . . If you care about the history of the ukulele you have to buy [this book]. It’s the definitive book on the subject. There’s no other book that comes close to it.”
For the complete review, go to: http://ukulelehunt.com/2012/06/20/the-ukulele-a-history-by-jim-tranquada-and-john-king-review/.
A big mahalo to Markie, Nicky, and Sean (a.k.a. Ikeda Katsu), who drove all the way from Boston to NYC to perform at UH Press’ booth at Book Expo America! The guys played two songs, “Over the Rainbow” and “Higher and Higher,” to promote Jim Tranquada and John King’s The ‘Ukulele: A History.
Mahalo also to Sue Wilhite of East West Bookshop for the video!
UPDATE: Another video of Ikeda Katsu at BEA performing “Higher and Higher” but this time . . . the guys are sitting down! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6445ONInMpk
Journalist, educator, and author Helen Geracimos Chapin passed away on June 9 in Honolulu. Chapin worked as a news writer at the Honolulu Advertiser and Hilo Herald-Tribune and served as past president of the Honolulu Community-Media Council and the Hawaiian Historical Society. Most recently, she was a professor and vice president at Hawaii Pacific University.
Asian theatre is usually studied from the perspective of the major traditions of China, Japan, India, and Indonesia. Now, in Communities of Imagination: Contemporary Southeast Asian Theatres, a wide-ranging look at the contemporary theatre scene in Southeast Asia, Catherine Diamond shows that performance in some of the lesser known theatre traditions offers a vivid and fascinating picture of the rapidly changing societies in the region. Diamond examines how traditional, modern, and contemporary dramatic works, with their interconnected styles, stories, and ideas, are being presented for local audiences. She not only places performances in their historical and cultural contexts but also connects them to the social, political, linguistic, and religious movements of the last two decades.
“Covering the multifaceted, multicultural, multination swathe of Southeast Asia, Communities of Imagination brings to light changes and theatre innovations over the last twenty-five years by focusing on issues of gender, censorship, and national identity. The book gains its strength by diving into actual productions the author has seen in major urban hubs. Diamond places the work in an informed frame, interviewing major theatre makers. Those interested in Southeast Asia will encounter the themes, innovations, and heated debates that theatre is uniquely suited to amplify, making this book an important contribution.” —Kathy Foley, editor, Asian Theatre Journal
June 2012 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3584-2 / $56.00 (CLOTH)
These and other select UH Press books are also available as eBooks from Amazon’s Kindle Store and Google Play.
Chinese Architecture and Metaphor: Song Culture in the Yingzao Fashi Building Manual, by Jiren Feng, reveals significant and fascinating social and cultural phenomena in the most important primary text for the study of the Chinese building tradition. Unlike previous scholarship, which has reviewed this imperially commissioned architectural manual largely as a technical work, this volume considers the Yingzao Fashi’s unique literary value and explores the rich cultural implications in and behind its technical content.
“This fascinating and erudite study takes a fresh and original approach to the most significant document in Chinese architectural history. Taking the terminology and textual strategies of the Yingzao fashi as his starting point, and drawing both on literature and on the structures and aesthetics of surviving buildings, Jiren Feng develops a complex and sophisticated cultural analysis of the text and of Chinese historical traditions of architectural writing more broadly, demonstrating that matter and metaphor cannot be disentangled in Chinese architectural thinking and practice. As well as being an argument about architecture, this is a study of poetics and of sensibilities, and a history of the meaning of grand buildings in Chinese cosmology and politics.” —Francesca Bray, University of Edinburgh
June 2012 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3363-3 / $53.00 (CLOTH)
Spatial Habitus: Making and Meaning in Asia’s Architecture
Published in association with Hong Kong University Press
I Respectfully Dissent, Tom Coffman’s portrait of Edward Nakamura, is both insightful biography and engrossing political history. The arc of the story may sound familiar (the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the GI Bill, Statehood), but it is strewn with surprise, resulting from Nakamura’s unshakable creed and unique angle of vision. Translating the political gains of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Nakamura played a central role—unpublicized—in devising arguably the most progressive program of legislation in an American state: universal health care, temporary disability insurance, collective bargaining rights for public workers, and more—all of which forever changed the Hawai‘i worker’s landscape.
“Rarely do we encounter someone who not only touches our daily lives but also shapes society for the better. Ed Nakamura was such a person, a visionary who lived simply, who was gentle in manner yet fierce in his life-long devotion to justice.” —Lowell Chun-Hoon, labor lawyer
May 2012 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3572-9 / $14.99 (PAPER)
Plaited Arts from the Borneo Rainforest, edited by Bernard Sellato, is the first comprehensive work of its kind and size. It promotes a “contextual” approach, combining not just botanical and technical, but also economic, social, and ritual elements. The twenty-one contributors are the world’s leading experts on the subject, scholars and artisans who live in Borneo or have spent many years there and have become deeply involved, on a personal and emotional level, with the people of the island and their cultures. They hail from ten different nations, including Malaysia and Indonesia, and from Borneo itself: Sarawak, Sabah, and Kalimantan. This beautifully illustrated, oversize volume includes more than 1,000 photographs, 930 in color.
May 2012 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3619-1 / $70.00 (CLOTH)
This completely revised and updated fourth edition of the award-winning Divorce with Decency: The Complete How-To Handbook and Survivor’s Guide to the Legal, Emotional, Economic, and Social Issues, by Bradley A. Coates, includes the most current research, statistics, and insights on the effects of divorce on spouses, their children, and society overall. Written by a prominent divorce lawyer with more than thirty years of experience, it is the most comprehensive treatment of the legal, emotional, economic, psychological, and social aspects of marital relationships and divorce available anywhere in a single volume.
“This is far more than just a divorce book. It’s an all encompassing survey of love, marriage, and romantic relationships in modern life.” —Judge Michael Town (retired), former Senior Judge of Hawai‘i’s First Circuit Family Court
May 2012 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3659-7 / $21.99 (PAPER)
Victoria Kneubuhl will discuss her two mystery novels, Murder Casts a Shadow and Murder Leaves Its Mark, at the Art Lunch event “The Unfamiliar Familiar, Homegrown Mystery,” hosted by the Hawai‘i State Foundation for Culture and the Arts, on Tuesday, May 29, 12-1 pm. For more information, go to http://www.state.hi.us/sfca/HiSAM_Events.html.
Kneubuhl will also discuss writing historical fiction at the Kapolei Library on Saturday, June 2, at 10:30 am. A drawing will be held for autographed copies of Murder Casts a Shadow and Murder Leaves Its Mark. Call 693-7050 for more information.
Victoria Kneubuhl’s books are available as eBooks at Amazon’s Kindle Store, Apple’s iBooks Store, and Google Play.
Stuart Ball will be participating in a National Trails Day celebration hosted by the Oahu Na Ala Hele Trails and Access Program at the Lyon Arboretum on Saturday, June 2. Ball will be at the gift shop from 1-3pm to sign copies of his latest book, Native Paths to Volunteer Trails: Hiking and Trail Building on O‘ahu, and his ever-popular The Hikers Guide to O‘ahu: Revised Edition. For more information go to http://ntd2012.blogspot.com/2012/05/hiking-expo-at-lyon-arboretum-full.html.
Stuart Ball’s hiking guides are available as eBooks at Amazon’s Kindle Store, Apple’s iBooks Store, and Google Play.
Jim Tranquada, co-author of this month’s The ‘Ukulele: A History, had a few things to say about Kevin Roderick’s post “In praise of Hawaii’s ukulele (via Portugal)” in LA Observed. Read Tranquada’s comments in Roderick’s follow-up post here. In his response, Tranquada specifically mentions errors in The Daily’s recent “Uke Can Do It Too.” Read The ‘Ukulele to get the real story!
Aborigial Art & Culture: An American Eye calls Minoru Hokari’s Gurindji Journey: A Japanese Historian in the Outback, a “wonderful, iconoclastic study.” Reviewer Will Owen recalls Hokari’s discussion of a Gurindji historical event, John F. Kennedy’s visit to Wave Hill Station in 1966, three years after Kennedy’s assassination: “[This] was better than picking up the latest Swedish crime thriller: I had to keep reading until I understood how Hokari was going to resolve this problem.” Owen concludes his review with:
“In writing this short review of Gurindji Journey, I have used the entertaining and perplexing instance of President Kennedy’s visit to Wave Hill to organize some aspects of Hokari’s story telling and analysis. In doing so, I have not done justice to the complexity and subtlety of his arguments, nor the richness of his immersion in Gurindji culture. But I hope that what I have written will entice you to pick up this unlikely entry in the literature of Indigenous studies written by a Japanese historian in the Outback.”
Gabe Baltazar Jr, whose autobiography If It Swings, It’s Music was published this month, was interviewed last March by Tucson jazz radio host Jake Feinberg. For some backstory on the interview, go to http://www.bonhawaii.com/legendary-sax-player-gabe-baltazar-worldwide-radio-show; for the interview, go to http://www.jakefeinbergshow.com/2012/03/jfs-65-the-gabe-baltazar-interview/.
Catch Gabe on YouTube reminiscing at this month’s Hawai‘i Book and Music Festival:
