Tuesday 28 February 2006

Currently Listening to: Fat Freddy's Drop

live @ the matterhorn

Live at the Matterhorn EP

Fat Freddy's Drop is a group of out Wellington, New Zealand.  Their #1 Best-Selling Album "Based on a True Story" was the top selling NZ album of 2005 and even managed to get the record of most weeks in the #1 spot by any NZ artist/group ever!  I brought back that album from NZ with me (on the recommendation of a friend) and I definitely was not disappointed.  They have a very cool, reggae like sound and their songs have a live, spontaneous quality to them.  After discovering that they are available for download on iTunes, I picked up their first EP, Live at the Matterhorn.  It features just 4 tracks but those 4 tracks total to over an hour's worth of music.  Good stuff even if it's completely different from most of the other songs I've got in my vast iTunes library.  Anyways, I'm just really enjoying their sound right now and I hope some of you will give them a chance and check them out (the same way I took a chance on them just before coming back stateside).  You won't be disappointed.  On that note, does anyone want to go to Sydney (Oz) for Spring Break to see Bic Runga play on St. Patrick's Day?  Let me know.  Peace out!
Click here if you've got iTunes!

*edit* While I'm on the topic of music, you all should check out this group featuring a good friend of mine. Good tunes over here as well (you can even listen to the songs for free)! Hope you're doing well Ryan. Anyways, here's the link to the music of Waking Early.

Tuesday 21 February 2006

2006 HHSAA/Meadow Gold Boys Soccer Championship

Howdy folks. In case you haven't heard, the Punahou Boys Soccer Team won the 2006 Hawaii State Soccer Championship by defeating Iolani 2-0 in the final played at the Waipio Peninsula Soccer Stadium. It was a hard fought and exciting contest which either team was capable of winning throughout. Let's have a look at some of the images from that night:

art7a bilde
Let's start out with two pics from the previous night's semi-final game against Kapolei. My brother managed to punch in the solitary goal in injury time at the end of the game to send the Punahou team to this final. Left shot from the Star-Bulletin and the right shot from the Advertiser.


warmup
Here's the Punahou team warming up, for the final against Iolani, with some basic drills prior to the kick-off.
kickoff
After the National Anthem and the introduction of the teams, they lined up for the opening kick off.
bilde-1
My brother head's a ball towards the Iolani goal during the first half. Photo courtesy of the Honolulu Advertiser.
halftime
The first half was filled with some back and forth action with Iolani having a number of chances to score and Punahou showing some good counterattacking. Neither team could put the ball where they needed to so the scores were locked at 0-0.
2ndhalfaction
This pic here shows you a number of things. At the top, you can see some exciting 2nd half action. Just below that, you can see the Punahou bench watching intently. At the bottom left, you have a section of Punahou students cheering for their team. And finally, on the bottom right, you have Lani Moo (the Meadow Gold mascot) roaming the sidelines representing on of the tournament's sponsors.
deryck
Here's my brother Deryck, #14, getting ready to check into the game in the 2nd half.
aftermath
And at the end of everything, Punahou pulled out a 2-0 victory with one goal going to Will Jensen and the other going to my brother.
bilde-2
A closer pic of the team jumping on top of each other after the final whistle. Hardly original, but well executed nonetheless.
handshake
Here's a pic of the after game handshake. Such good sportsmanship.
winningteam
And, here's an image of the winning team (the trophy is in there somewhere).

honda wai

Here are the star players being interviewed by the major newspaper sportswriters. On the left, Paul Honda of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin talking to the Junior Triumvirate of Deryck, Nick Love (the tournament's Most Outstanding Player) and Will Jensen. On the right, Leila Wai of the Honolulu Advertiser talking with my brother. Links to the respective articles will be at the bottom of this post.
friends
A number of my brother's friends came to support him at the game and they were very proud of their friend. Funny side note, some of them even recognized me. That's quite an accomplishment considering I've probably only seen them a handful of times.
family
A proud family pic. Dad, Bro, Me & Mum after the game all decked out in Punahou gear. It's a shame I couldn't have held the trophy in this pic...
deryck2
And here's a semi-blurry pic of the goal scorer with the aforementioned trophy.
lastshot
Finally, we have a picture of the team before they shut off the lights and started to try and get people out of the stadium. They're all so damn happy!

Anyhow, I must say it was a great game of soccer and a wonderful trip back. I'm glad I was there to support my school and, more importantly, my brother. They pulled it off with a young team chock full of Juniors. Let's hope this is the first of many. I hope everyone out there had an equally enjoyable weekend and I also hope you enjoy the pics. Take care and we'll see you folks later.

Honolulu Star Bulletin Article
Honolulu Advertiser Article

Thursday 16 February 2006

Food & Fun

Hi there everyone. It's been pretty hectic the past couple of weeks with a generous amount of homework sprinkled in between a brace of midterms. I have, however, managed to get in some tasty eats and fun times with various buddies. Observe...

DSC00296
Spanish rice, salad, beans & enchiladas suizas from La Barca. By no means the best Mexican food I've ever had, but it's kinda nice to get some decent stuff after being away for so long. Went to dinner there with 'Cisco, Brad & Laura and we had a grand old time despite waiting forever to get a table (don't believe them when they say "10-15 minutes").
DSC00297
Dinner was followed by some battle of the sexes trivial pursuit action at Laura's apartment. You all should know by now how much I enjoy playing that game. We ended the game tied up by I know without a doubt that the guys would've prevailed in the long run. Anyhow, somehow Brad got a hold of a feather boa and a photo had to be taken. Apologies for the photo quality...my camera phone does have its limitations in low light...
DSC05258.JPG
Finally, I've managed to pop open and use the creme brulee kit that Carie gave me for Xmas (thanks for that!). Here are the ramekins filled with creme-y goodness just after being placed in the oven.
DSC05259.JPG
And, here is a picture of the final product w/torched sugar and all. The creme brulee recipe could use a bit of tweaking but it wasn't bad for a first attempt. It was pretty damn fun getting to use the butane torch to carmelize the sugar and I'm looking forward to more fun with fire.

That, my friends, was the last week or so in a nutshell (at least the fun bits). Not sure what's gonna happen this weekend but it is a long one. Therefore, I hope I'll be able to enjoy it as much as possible. Happy President's Day weekend everyone and I hope you all have great weekends as well.

Friday 10 February 2006

Punahou Carnival '06

Here you are folks! We have pictures from this year's trip back. Nothing too crazy this time around. I got to see several familiar faces (including a surprising number of current USC students), eat lots of good food (oddly enough, not too many food pics) and just take in everything (possibly my last carnival for a while). Anyways, let's get things started...

salmon
The only picture of food from the whole lot, here's a pic of my dinner on the plane ride back. Grilled salmon with a spicy chutney, pasta and roast vegetables. Sadly, Sam Choy no longer creates the meals on United flights to Hawaii but this was a pretty tasty meal nonetheless.
opihi1
Providing entertainment at Hawaiian Plate were the Opihi Pickers. I was a bit late to the show because I had to wait for a new batch of Portuguese Bean Soup, but I got there in time to hear Victim and Old-Fashioned Touch. Look at all those kids skankin' to the beat!
opihi2
The skankers took a long enough break for me to get a clear shot of just the group. They played a good set that lasted just short of an hour with great energy from the crowd. A lot of songs I'm not familiar with, but good sounding music all around.
night1
You get some interesting pics when you flick on the slow shutter. I do enjoy the sharpness of the stationary objects contrasting with the blurred lines of objects in motion. This shot really captures the energy of carnival and the great atmosphere you get on the nights.
vboard
This year, they put up this huge video board in the lobby-esque area of the Science Center (dunno what they've named it since I grad but that's what I'll always call it). They played some interesting pre-made student commercials and also some "video messages" recorded during carnival. I even featured in one of the commercials for the Kiddie land (they used stock footage from the year that I was chair of the wheel booth). I really enjoyed watching the screen, particularly when I had to wait 1/2 hr in line for them to resupply the corn booth (just out of frame of the pic, on the right hand side).
swings
The swings are always a prominent feature of the carnival. Here's another slow shutter pic of the signature ride of carnival (well, a toss up between this and the zipper).
rides
Here we have another pic of the other rides at carnival including the venerable zipper (left), pharaohs fury (background right), glider (right foreground) and swings (background left).
malasadas
It's not a trip to the Punahou Carnival without the obligatory script spending spree at the Malasada booth. I took this photo moments after getting my 2 dozen. I hear they wouldn't let you buy large quantities after 9:30 pm. That sucks quite a bit since the malasada booth is THE place to go to spend the last few script you've got before heading home.
badge
I neglected to mention that this year's theme was Carnivalot (Medieval times...the theme I actually voted for when my class was in charge). My mum was a parent chair at the fishing booth in Kiddie land and I helped her out for the last hour or so of Carnival.
working
Here I am working hard...
fishing
And here I am hardly working. It's good to know I can fish just as well as the little kiddies can.

And that, my friends, was my trip home for Carnival '06. It was great fun being back again and I'm quite glad that I was able to keep the tradition going. It was certainly interesting to observe the differences between going back as an alumnus to how things were when I was still a student. Definitely fewer script spent on rides and more on food. And I'm sure starting feel a bit old. It is, however, just as enjoyable now as it was when I first when as a little kid back in the old days. On that note, enjoy the pics and have a great weekend. Peace out homeys.

Tuesday 7 February 2006

Le Carnaval

ka punahou
Yup, I went back for Punahou Carnival. Again. I've got a lot to do this week so I'm afraid a post (with plenty o' pics) will have to wait till the weekend (or at least friday). Sorry, but there's just too much to do. Sit tight folks...