DJ Training on KTUH FM

Well, it's official - I'm training to be a new DJ on KTUH Honolulu, 90.3 FM. If you haven't heard of it, KTUH is the student radio station at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. It broadcasts on three frequencies on the island of Oahu (with almost 100% coverage), a digital cable channel, and streams live on their website, http://www.ktuh.org.

I'm really excited about the opportunity to become a DJ on KTUH and I consider it a great honor and privilege to be a part of the station. As far as I'm concerned, KTUH rules the airwaves and there's not a single other channel on the radio worth listening to. I've always had a deep love and appreciation for college radio that stems back toward my preteen years when I'd scour the lower bands of the FM dial in search of sounds that would alleviate the banal mind warp of commercial stations. By seeking out college radio, independent radio, and public radio I gained an appreciation for Blues, Jazz, Reggae, World Music, Punk, and most importantly, underground and indie rock. These stations provide a valuable public service by sharing alternative sounds and opinions with the public and I'm certain that many people, young and old are turned on to new music on a regular basis because of such stations.

When I first moved to Hawaii in 2004, I was static to find out about KTUH. I worked long hours driving around in circles, often in the middle of the night, and I would always have KTUH on the radio. I became a big fan of many great shows that have come and gone over the years and my love and appreciation for the station has grown steadily. I never thought that there would come a day when I would become a part of the station and its history, with my own musical selections and my voice transmitting from its airwaves, but here I am.
Ladies and gentlemen, I am thrilled beyond belief.

I'm doing DJ training with two other guys. We're being taught the wonderful ways of the station by the knowledgeable and talented DJ Mr. Nick. I think that we're all doing really well.Our training iteration is Wednesday morning from 12:00-3:00 AM. This morning was our second week's training. Last week we had a sort of crash coarse and this week we got a bit more in depth and each of us took a full hour playing music and familiarizing ourselves with the equipment, talking on the air, and station procedures. Life is pretty damn good.

We'll be on again next week Tuesday night/Wednesday morning from 12-3 AM so tune on the radio or on the web and give us a listen. If you're feeling really ambitious you can even call in a request at (808) 956-7289.

Here's my playlist from the show; I was on from 2-3 AM:

Artist       Song          Album            Label

Tom Waits – Hoist that Rag – Real Gone – Anti

June of 44 – Sharks and Sailors – Anatomy of Sharks EP – Quarterstick

Against Me! – Baby I’m An Anarchist – Reinventing Axle Rose – Fat

Sexpod – Pretty Thing – Goddess Blues – Slab Recordings

Warpaint – Set Your Arms Down – The Fool – Rough Trade

The Folk Implosion - Insinuation – Dare to Be Surprised – The Communion Label

Mogwai – With Portfoli – Young Team – Jetset

Fuck – Compromise – Pardon My French – Matador

Astronautalis – Thomas Jefferson – This Is Our Science – Fake Four, Inc

The Jim Jones Revue – Shoot First – Burning Your House Down – Punk Rock Blues Records

Black Square – Black Square – Black Square – self released

Fu Manchu – Mongoose – California Crossing – Mammoth

The other guys' playlists are under the "Read More" cut.

Kaho'olawe Bound

I'm soon to officially become a published photographer. One of my shots of Kaniakapupu Palace is going to be featured in the November/December 2011 issue of Innov8 Magazine! It's the inflight magazine for Go! Airlines. I've never flown with them before, but I've flown a lot of other airlines and I have NEVER seen an airplane magazine that's this snazzy. I get photo credit, a voucher for a one way ticket, and a copy of the magazine as payment. Bam! I'll take it. Check out the magazine, it's rather nifty (also, you can view the complete magazine when it comes out so you can see my picture there when it prints). Also, check out my Kaniakapupu Palace set on flickr, the image that will be posted is in there. They narrowed it down to 6 possibilities, but didn't tell me which. And speaking of flickr, my account is now over 75,000 views!

In other news, tomorrow I'm leaving Oahu to do something rare and take part in something special. I'm going to Kaho'olawe! Kaho'olawe is the smallest of the 8 main Hawaiian islands. It is a sacred place to Hawaiians, as it is considered to be the earthly form of the god Kanaloa, the god of the ocean. It was once used as a training site for Hawaiian seafaring navigators. There's very little groundwater on the island and it has been periodically populated and uninhabited through out history depending upon availability of water or lack there of.  In modern times, the island was pretty much destroyed. After the arrival of Europeans and Americans the island was used for a penal colony and then various ranching enterprises took over. The island was systematically deforested and stripped of much of its flora by feral goats. The deforestation lead to a further lack of precipitation which made the island more or less uninhabitable. During World War II the island was used for training and it was subject to constant bombings until 1990. The Navy did a cleanup of unexploded ordinance on the island, but the millions of pounds of scrap that they removed from the island was only a fraction of the unexploded ordinance left behind by decades of military target practice, and the clean up was only on the surface level. As a result, the island remains extremely hazardous. Local interest in Kaho'olawe was sparked in the 1970s as part of the Hawaiian cultural and spiritual renaissance. After a long fight to stop the bombings and military control of the island, Kaho'olawe is now held by a trust under the state government of Hawaii and it is to be used cultural and spiritual purposes only. The island is still extremely dangerous and only a few organizations staffed by a number of intrepid volunteers are allowed to travel to the island. I'll be going as a volunteer for the Kaho'olawe Island Reserve Commission from 3-6 October and we'll be working on things like erosion control and reforestation. I am extremely privileged to be taking part in this project. Now I'd better go pack. I have to go to bed early, my flight to Maui is dreadfully early in the morning.