Aloha!

Our first 24 hours in Honolulu have been a combination of relaxation and exhausting activity!

From Hawaii Day Zero

The flight was pretty pleasant, with a nice gradual ascent out of Seattle that offered absolutely amazing views of the Olympic mountains (unfortunatly no pics, sorry!) I watched the movie Marley and Me with no sound, it was funnier that way as I could make up my own stupid dialog. The movie really irritated me as it was 2 hours of Owen Wilson chasing after some damn dog... then the worst part was when the dog dies at the end I still ended up crying over it like a baby. I even knew what was going to happen and spent the first half of the movie wishing that damn dog would die. eigh.

From Hawaii Day Zero

Once we arrived we were starving, we wandered Waikiki and stumbled into "Cheeseburger in Paradise" right on the beach. They kept the fruity drinks coming, they were deadly on an empty stomach! We proceeded to get a nice buzz on for the afternoon as we shopped and enjoyed the beach. The evening was topped off by a fantastic sunset, that kept changing color for what seemed like forever!

From Hawaii Day Zero

Tuesday morning we rented a car and decided to explore a bit. We drove around the coast, with our goal being the North Shore. However the further north we drove, the colder it got, and eventually started to rain on us (we were working hard to figure out how to get the top back on our Subaru!)

From Hawaii Day One

From Hawaii Day One

From Hawaii Day One

Our drive offered some amazing views, and we scoped out some destinations for tomorrow. I got myself a boogie board, and Laura tried out her mask as we took our first swim in the Pacific ocean... tomorrow we will really hit the beash as it is supposed to be just gorgeous weather, sunny and 81.

Aloha!

From Hawaii Day One

Henry

There is an artist on a personal crusade across my neighborhood in Seattle to spread crazy art. Apparently he is offering to paint murals in areas normally tagged with gang graffiti. I personally love the crazy cartoonish images that I see every day on my way to work, and crusing around Ballard, Fremont and Interbay. Last Saturday I took a Henry tour and wanted to share these photos:

From 2009 04 Henry

From 2009 04 Henry

From 2009 04 Henry

From 2009 04 Henry

From 2009 04 Henry

From 2009 04 Henry

From 2009 04 Henry

From 2009 04 Henry

From 2009 04 Henry

From 2009 04 Henry

From 2009 04 Henry

Rock 'N India

So just for the record... on my last night in India, I saw Iron Maiden. it was rocktacular... took me right back to 1986 man. I was struck by several facts: 1) Iron Maiden still totally rock as hard as they ever did, 2) most of these songs were written before most of the Indian audience were born and 3) that did not stop everyone from enjoying the hell out of themselves.

The best part of the evening for me was discovering a new India rock band that I get a kick out of. Parikrama opened for Maiden, which was both a great opportunity as well as a difficult burden (as we were all chanting 'maiden! maiden!' between all of their songs. You can check them out, including a slew of MP3 downloads, here: http://www.parikrama.com/home.html

also while in India I met quite a few local musicians. One of the PMs at the company I was working with has a great band, MapleReed, with a video available on YouTube. Check it out! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrWuZJ0EsSI

they are trying to get into the top 20 list under www.worldsings.com support local music around the world (is that a contradiction?) and vote for them!


Rock on, brothers and sisters!

Home safe and well

It was quite an adventure. The most difficult part was the 27 hour trip back home... eigh. but now that I'm back it was worth it, as I really missed Seattle.

And for the record, I never contracted any type of disease, or even upset stomach during my trip, despite being warned by everyone that I would. The food was like nothing I have ever had, and my body may take weeks to get back to a normal Seattle diet but other than that I weathered it all better than I expected!

Aero India

I’ve mentioned the huge air show that was going on while I was in Bangalore. But what I came to realize, reading the papers each day, was that this was not just fireworks and celebration of military might like the airshows I have seen in the US. This was actually probably the worlds largest trade show for the military industrial complex, world arms and munitions dealers, and those that purchase such wares. The discussions in the papers were comparisons of the maneouverability and weapons displays of Russian, Chinese, Israli, French, and occasionally American military aircraft. In fact apparently the big hit of the show was the new MiG fighter from Russia, with it’s ‘cobra maneouver’. Also a big controversy here was the US selling a new squadron of F16s to Pakistan. This is a nation in a volatile area of the world, in a new kind of cold war with its own neighbors, where instead of threats and posturing there is actual terror attacks and bombings, and its taken 3 months for the government of Pakistan to admit that the Mumbai attacks were launched from Karachi and actually make any arrests in the case.

On a lighter note: for Valentines day, a large group of Indian peace activists released a fleet of boats onto a river that winds its way from India into Pakistan, with a message of love. After all this IS a country whose founding father was a pacifist ;^)

 George Washington vs Mahatma Gandhi

Indians have a very different sense of history than Americans. Of course they do… for one, it’s a longer history. I can walk down the street from my hotel and see buildings that are 100, 200, or even temples 500+ years old that are still inhabited and in use today.

When we went to Tipu Sultan’s summer palace, there was a museum inside with displays and discussions of the battles between the British and India. There were British tourists there, and one of my friends explained to me that that is common, as it is there history too. What surprised me was that the battles being discussed took place in the early 1800s, and the British generals they were talking about were the same generals that had recently lost to George Washington during the American Revolution. Apparently they came to India to take out their frustration. It amazed me how all things are interconnected, even back then, on a global scale. As they used to say, the sun never sets on the British empire.
The founding father of this nation was Mahatma Gadhi. His face is on all of the paper currency, and his image is painted everywhere. I had to reflect on how our nation was founded in war, and we look up to General George Washington, whereas they admire and strive to emulate one of the greatest pacificts of all time, who led a non-violent revolution against the exact same colonial power that we fought.

Of course my twisted adolescent mind had to imagine the old Celebrity Death Match from MTV in the late 80s where claymation celebrities would duke it out. George Washington vs Mahatma Gandhi anyone? I can totally picture it…

 If you believe in God, then God will believe in you

One of my favorite sentiments from my trip came from our Guide at Mysore Palace. A big part of his tour was to point out the multiculturalism, diversity and intentional integration of arts, crafts, thoughts and beliefs from around the world. Even the architecture of the palace was designed to incorporate traditional Hindu, Muslim and Christian designs, which made for an interesting look. Also on the palace grounds are Hindu temples, Muslim mosques, and a Christian cathedral. The palace incorporated bronze tiger statues and stained glass from Scotland, traditional India carvings in wood and stone (everything was hand-carved, incredibly intricate down to the smallest detail, and patterns were consistent across entire walls and rooms) as well as technology imported from Britain and the US. Apparently Mysore palace was the first location in Asia to use electric lights from General Electric, and they had 100 year old fans in place that still work to this day.

The message was clear: the best (only?) way to overcome diversity was to celebrate it as a strength rather than a liability. Only through diversity can we synthesize new ideas and move forward to create our own history in the future. Traditionalists here (everywhere really) tend to see this as a threat to a pristine culture; I don’t see this as the case and many here seem to agree with me. Learn your history and culture, and celebrate it. Learn the history and culture of others, and celebrate that, too. Take the best parts of all, and make it your own. As the young Indians that are involved in a cultural struggle with fundamentalists here have asserted, no one person is the guardian of culture. They are Indians too, and the culture is THEIRS to do with as they collectively see fit.

Our guide at one point quoted the last reigning king of Mysore, who said to people of different faiths who questioned him about Hinduism: If you believe in God, then God will believe in you. This was what I was thinking when I had a chance to enter and pray in the Hindu temple; it’s a pretty powerful statement, when you really think about it. Makes you wonder, who is doing the pushing around of things in the universe, if the pushee becomes the pusher...