streetlight cadence

for those of you who only show up to first friday late at night, you are missing one of the most precious little gems of the evening.  streetlight cadence is a somewhat allusive ensemble of musicians playing some of the sweetest music on the street.  they aren't rockers, they don't play reggae, they aren't hip hop artists, they don't spin club beats.  in fact i wondered if they were real or just a mirage.  were they a flashback memory of my days wandering around europe soaking in the hipsters busking on the streets of amsterdam?  no!  they were real!  the goosebumps were noticeable, and the excitement in my heart was tangible.  it was classical music on the streets of hawaii!  my old soul was delighted.  the first time i saw them they were playing french love songs from the composer yann tiersen and i melted on the spot.  since then i've seen them a few times, mixing it up with new members, new instruments and trying out vocals, but always an accordion, a stand up bass and a violin.  i wasn't the only one impressed.  nearly everyone who stopped threw a buck or two their way.  they usually play somewhere around the theatre earlier in the evening.  catch them if you can!  ive attached a small clip of them, but it really doesn't do them justice.  to see them in person is like eating a cream puff.  the french equivalent in deliciousness to the local malasada. a treat indeed!
peace, love, and flower power,
the flower girl

riot for $20

apparently twenty bucks can start a riot.  i met the guy who, for a crisp jackson, asked the band at a popular pub to play a rage against the machine tune.  i didn't know that hawaii, with it's peaceful mellow music and island style reggae had any rage fans who would know exactly what to do when they heard zach de la rocha (or the cover band equivalent) thrashing out leftist rants against corporate domination, cultural imperialism and government oppression.  but to my surprise, they did!  they moshed, started punching people, breaking shit, and eventually getting thrown out of the place.   the bouncers stepped in and started tossing people out.  and not in the style where someone is politely asked to leave or told they are no longer going to be served another drink and it was time to call a cab, but in the old school saloon style where the begrudgingly newly uninvited guest was literally thrown out on his ass.  after the chaos was controlled was cleared and the band moved on to a much more somber of a song, the people still danced.  their toes bloodied by broken mugs of guinness and whiskey.  and the flower girl skipped out unscathed. just another day selling flowers at the biker bar.  oh, and the guy who's twenty started it all... three days later he told me his version of the story with mischievous pride.  he showed no signs of battle wounds from the night.  just like zach himself, instigating but safely protected from the crowd.

super freak!

Just in case you weren't downtown last first friday... here's what you missed.  I love this lady.  Let the music (or the booze and whatever else she ingested) take over, kick off your shoes and get funky.  I bet on her days not spent dancing in the street she's wearing a fanny pack and doesn't bother to wash the bird shit off her car.