Harried Hurry

I been so caught upp in my huzzbin (bf left for Valentine's Weekend, how's that?), I forgot our show was on tonight, again! I suck at this.

But our guest Harry Ramos is such a cutie, I was worried about uppsetting him. You could see how nervous & forcibly sedate I am (we went to Moanalua High School together so I've grown to admire him from afar & upp close when we used to hang out during the time we worked together at Jelly's Market City.
The pic above is after I'd changed for our next guest. Pity during our interview I resemble a old jack o'lantern that you throw out the day before Thanksgiving 'cause you don't want your friends & family to see how lazy & gross you are, when they come over to eat. That's how I look. Yet Harry's adorable, and Edna's a whorable delight. Sometime after this night, I'll once again watch & write what's upp!

Till then, watch 'cause I've been summoned.

ShakaTalk #8 Harry Ramos part 1 of 3


I always assume our techie knows our theme song, as if they have time to watch every show on Olelo. As if they have interest! So the last half of the song goes from our logo to black. But at least it doesn't cut off the poem (about poetry) by Two Warriors (shot downtown at Next Door) that opens the show. Harry was visiting his family in Hawaii en route to the Phillippines, and so since his spoken word duo would be on hiatus while Harry travelled, his partner Marc Habana came to Hawaii as well, and they performed while here. After a shout out to Moanalua High School upp the street from Olelo, Harry lists the places he's taught at. So smart him. Right away we start talking about his zine "Ska-Doodle", that he made with Old Skool Fool Billy Craven. That evolved into "10 27", a zine whose name origin he won't divulge for private reasons, although it does happen to be the station numbers of Radio Free Hawaii, where Harry first became well-known on the air as DJ Ska-rry. We watch a video/manual slideshow narrated by Harry. Harry recalls his days at the station, starting with phone surveys for Kathy with a K, to the day Jus' Kai decided to let Harry take over the last hour of her set. Eventually he took ska to the masses with club gigs, and show promotion.

ShakaTalk #8 Harry Ramos part 2 of 3


Harry shares a historical sidenote about the formation of worldwide hit, local boys Go Jimmy Go. Larry Gordon, one of the founding members, asked Harry to announce on the air that Larry was looking to start a band. Eventually the 9-piece group played their first show at the Waipahu studio, and even wrote the song "Tin Penny" about Harry (first of the chicken-skin moments). Talk turns to "Expressions" the open-mic event Harry used to host on Kapahulu, which would regularly feature actors, musicians, shy girls, Jesus freaks, and mahus, among other performers. Harry is a performer as well, and describes his first role in the play "Katipunan! Cry for Freedom", which also marked a cultural awakening for him. He eventually migrated to New York, where he thinks he acts more Hawaiian, since there he plays in a Hawaiian band, and dances hula, even teaches ukulele & keiki hula! A propos of nothing, I segue to Harry's poem about his boner.

ShakaTalk #8 Harry Ramos part 3 of 3


He tells us how he and Marc began writing and performing together, and explains the difference between slam poetry, and spoken word poetry (which Two Warriors does). Of course we get on the subjects of how Filipinos have saturated the media, and are the second largest Asian population in the US. However, he will be moving to the Philippines, and Edna requests that he asks them to change the way they speak half Flip, half English. Very her. Then I tell a very racist Filipino joke. Very me. By request, Harry performs his poem "My Pidgin", which I think is kinda powerful, but our techie did some kinda cheesy special effect half-way thru, that is purty distracting. I don't think he could tell while it was happening. Sorry Harry. It's only for a brief moment, and the rest of the poem gives us our second chicken skin moment of the show.