Oct. 15th 2006

Oct. 15th 2006, originally uploaded by Dark Sevier.

Hello.

So, there was an earthquake on Sunday. We were supposed to film the pilot of the show last night. It didn't happen.

I was shaken from a dream @ seven am by this world. I got up, went to the living room. Jason was on the couch from a gathering the night before. It woke him up too. He said that was the biggest eathquake he'd ever felt, then pulled the blanket back over his head. I'm California trained in eathquake survival. I grabbed my laptop from the glass table in the kitchen, my cell phone, and my camera , and took them back to bed.

And here is where the survival story of the Great Quake of '06 begins.

The power had been knocked out. Due to the outage my land line would not ring and I was forced to sleep soundly for several hours after the shocking events of the morning. Upon awakening I was faced with the undeniable reality of having no wireless internet service. I was cut off from the outside world. Except for my cell phone, and it only had four bars of charge left, barely enough to get me through the next day and a half. What was the damage? How many had died? Where was the epicenter? Was there a Tsunami after? How much toilet paper is in the house?

With these questions languidly osciliating through my un caffienated head I dialed Carson in Chicago.

"Hey Boo"
Good morning. We had an eathquake.
"I heard something about that. Is everything ok?"

I was hoping she could tell me. I told her that I was ok, and the house was fine ( though I think I did hear a beer bottle fall, and it might have had some backwash that spilled somewhere, but I didn't want to worry her with speculation when uncertainty was so high). She had to go and promised to call later .

I called Maddog in LA. He was just trying to get to sleep. It was about 2pm LA time. At a party the night before, someone had stolen his bag, which had his cell in it as well as the key to the Club on his steering wheel. He had just returned from securing an emergency replacement phone and hacksawing the Club off of his car. To lose both phone and wheels in Los Angeles is enough to crush the spirit of any Angelino, but Maddog rallied and overcame the obsticles, and still retained the energy to look for earthquake damage reports for his friend. He wasn't impressed with the results. Nor was I.

No deaths, not much damage, No tsunami.

TJ and Nick and I left for the rRed Elephant earlier than usual to help prep the studio for the filming. We managed to make the journey from Waimanalo to ChinaTown without the aid of traffic signals. We were left to our own judgement to decide when to cross an intersection. It was harrowing, yet, at the heart of the anxiety of being personally responsible swelled an undertone of empowerment.

Almost all the radio stations were simulcasting the same broadcast. Though the material infrastructure was spared, the illusion of diversity in mainstream media was shattered by the earth itself. One company, seven radio stations of varied demographics. A media gill net for consumers. Indra's doppleganger revealed.

This realization was not new for me, but sitting in the car at unregulated intersections and pushing the various presets of the car sterio only to find the same unmasked media monster stuttering with one uninspired rhetoric: it was almost too much for me. I thought of all those people out there, that listened to Power 106, or Island 98 or any other of Cox Communications tentacles. They were now going to have to listen to the speach patterns of air personalities that did not fit their specific stations demographic. Oh the humanity.

At the Elephant sat a handfull of regulars and a few I didn't recognise having ice coffees. Joey tells me that we won't be taping tonight, even if the power comes on.

But the show must go on. It keeps ringing in my head. The show must go on. A block party. yes. We'll have an all acoustic Dark Night @ the rRed Elephant. On a dark night. I went to the China Town precinct to inquire about the idea of a spontaneous block party on Bethel St. The police didn't like the idea. They seemed to think that it would be OK if we did it in the garage of the Marks Building., as long as it was ok with the owners. But really they thought people should just stay at home and wait for the power to come back on.

My cell phone had power, but the lines were overloaded with Hawai'i/Mainland are-you-ok phone traffic. I couldn't contact people very well. Amy fired up her camera and documented my attempt to rally the denizens of China Town to party in one particular spot on this particular evening. We had little to offer. I said that we would get Hibatchis for coffee and Tiki torches for stage lights.

But we didn't do that. When the ice coffee ran out and the ice cream was no longer frozen, Joey pulled the plug on the acoustic idea. Oh the dairy.

Amy had called Robin to come down from the North Shore to help document this block party. Now the Elephant was locked and we were hungry. And we couldn't get through to Robin.

So we abandoned the scene and converged at Amy's place near Monsarat, we foud a line extending from a darkened L&L . They were serving yesterdays beef curry, no rice, no mac salad. The curry ran out when I was three away from the counter. Two doors down there was a line streaming out of Diamond Head Pantry. Actually the line was inside the store. No light. The counter was run with a calculator and a flashlight. The people shopped by the light of their cell phones, and on the honor system. I decided to conserve my cell power and just grabbed the first bottle of wine that I could find. Then someone pointed me to the cheap wine and I grabbed two. and some protene bars. and some chocolate.

With the sun setting soon, we dicided that it would be best to find shelter from the inordinant amount of starlight radiating from an undiluted sky. Back at the Hale, neighbors rallied to our aid and found board shorts for us to use in the apartment pool. The good will I experienced from total strangers humbled me. I pulled out my stash of wine and showed them the bargain price, then told them where they could go get some of their own.

Power came back on after 10:00pm. Then went back off an hour later. It was spotty, but at last, the stars began to retreat. Amy finally reached Robin. He rallied and came with a friend to the site of the proposed block party. They were the only ones there.

I called Jonathan. He was at the Kauai airport catching a plane back, and would open up Ong King. He said two dudes from Ozomotli were in town and stopping by.

So TJ and I left Nick in the car to rest from the days events, while we went up to see the Ozo dudes at Ong King. Ten people tops in the joint. Johnathan on traps, Uly on guitar, and Shep on bass. I read a couple of peices and ranted on another. A dude on Sax whose name I don't know. So much fun on such a tragic day. There was another poet that was moved to walk on those grooves. Angry written rants on THEM, those people that don't get it, Don't get it like HE gets it.

So much more than all that took place within my perceptive field. Some of what I wrote may not have.

Stay Tuned...


Yes, so there was no show this last Sunday due to Earthquake related events.

I think there is another event preempting us next week as well. See you in two weeks...

No, See you on November 5th. No show for the next two Sundays. Ok.