Summary

1941 is a time of increasing confusion for Tomi Nakaji, 13, who lives on the island of Oahu. As if his gruff, stroke-slowed grandfather, who insists on waving his Japanese flag around the yard, isn’t enough, he has to contend with Keet Wilson, the bully next door. From a treetop, Tomi and his haole (white) best friend, Billy, witness in disbelief the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Tomi finds the horrors personalized as his father, a poor fisherman, and later his grandfather, are arrested and his father’s fishing partner is killed. Tomi assumes responsibility for the family honor and katana, or samurai sword.  He faces his fears and becomes assertive enough to stand up to Keet without besmirching his family’s honor and risks his life to see his imprisoned father.

Writer

Graham Salisbury/Under the Blood-Red Sun won the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction, the Oregon Book Award, Hawaii’s Nene Award, and the California Young Reader Medal. UNDER THE BLOOD-RED SUN is required reading in middle school curriculum across the United States.

Total sales of UNDER THE BLOOD-RED SUN: 601,933
Total sales of all Graham Salisbury books combined: 943,898

Links

Summary

Life soon turns on its head, landing her in the one place she didn’t want to be, back home in Hawaii. With no money, no job, and now no boyfriend, Lily is forced to work in her family’s wedding planning business, “Tying the Knot.” Run by Lily’s mother Miriam, an intense overachiever who believes marriage is for everyone else (just not for her), Lily’s older sister Twinny, who is the true mother of the family, and their younger sister Mia, who craves attention in the worst possible way. Brides and grooms from all over the world place their special wedding day in the hands of this crazy family of women, even though they can’t find a way to put their own love lives in order.

Summary

Over 420 different artists have recorded this song since the first recording in 1923.

Margaret Walker and James Baldwin wrote poems from the song. It’s been refashioned as a musical, two novels, a short story, an award-winning graphic novel, Ph.D. dissertations and, in 2008, a pornographic feature film.

The song has lived as Ragtime, a Broadway showtune, Blues, Jazz, Honky Tonk, Country, 50s Rock and Roll, Ska, Folk, Surf, 70s punk, Heavy Metal, 90s punk, Rap. Even Hawaiian. Listen to it and we hear the evolution of modern music.

The song is “Stagger Lee.”

The song tells the story of a murder. On Christmas Eve, 1895, in a St. Louis saloon, “Stag” Lee Shelton, a black pimp, shot William “Billy” Lyons. Eyewitnesses say Billy snatched Stag’s Stetson hat. Boom, boom, boom, boom went Stag’s forty-four. You don’t mess with a man’s hat.

The events of that night were immediately cast into song. Like a game of Chinese Whispers it swept through the South, following railway lines and paddle steamers of the Mississippi. Told and retold. Sung and re-sung. Changing a little bit each time. Reality slipped away and the myth was created.

The history of the song tells many stories. It is an anthem of the dispossessed. It expresses fear of the scary black man, the evolution of modern music, culture theft from black to white, hero worship of the outlaw, the origins of a legendary character and the writing of a Myth. No other song has so transcended its humble beginnings and been re-invented in so many genres, in so many media and by so many artists.

There has never been a documentary about this song. This is a documentary you can dance to.

We will stylishly recreate the events of the Bill Curtis saloon. We will go on the road from St Louis, down through Mississippi to New Orleans. Through the cotton fields and the levees that are the cradle of Blues and Jazz. We will sit with a musician who will demonstrate to us how this song has moved through time. In a single arrangement we will hear the differences as it moves from Ragtime to Blues to Country to Rock and Roll and Rockabilly to RnB and Soul to Ska to Heavy Metal and back to the modern lo-fi sound of roots blues.

Visit www.staggerlee.com for more information.

Summary

Semu Fatutoa was once a highly ranked Samoan Chief. Technically, he still is; the tattoos shrouding his legs are immutable proof of the pain he endured to earn his title. But those tattoos cost him something else: His daughter, nine year old Aveolela, drowned in the ocean on the day Semu received the tattoos. Weakened by the grueling ceremony, he lacked the strength to swim out to save her. No one blamed him for her death, but Semu blamed the tattoos. Rather than assume his chiefly duties, he fled.

Two years later and thousands of miles from home, Semu is the only cab driver in Honolulu with the rank of Chief. He ferries tourists and Japanese businessmen to and from the airport. He drives in circles, keeps his legs covered, and slowly forgets his old life. But his old life wants him back. First, there is the mysterious Samoan staking out his apartment in Waikiki, calling him on the phone, following him home from the beach. Then there are the news reports: An earthquake on the Big Island threatens to unleash a tsunami on the city of Honolulu; anyone with any sense is heading for higher ground. Probably the Chief would go, too, except for the eight year-old Hawaiian girl wandering the city in her bathing suit. She has crossed his path twice today, and both times he let her go. But now the girl’s intrusion into his sequestered life begins to feel to Semu like a message. A calling. Any minute now, these streets will be silenced by a wall of water. Semu begins to realize that it’s high time he started living up to his title.

Full details for Chief are available at http://www.chief-movie.com

Summary

Sexism, sabotage, hatred, love, and the greatest story of courage and endurance never told.

“Suddenly, deliciously at her back, she felt the lifting current that would sweep her ashore. The pale cliffs of England blazed with light. Bonfires flamed there and people pranced on the beach… they waded into the surf and tried to help her out. The plucky young woman pushed them aside. Smiling, she reached down, and felt the sand under her feet… this, in my opinion, is the greatest sports story in the world.”

She was an American superstar, voted more popular than Babe Ruth, and the most famous person on the planet. She broke through barriers of strength, culture and sex, like no one before her. Her crossing was equated to those of Moses, Caesar and Washington. Her name was Trudy, she was 19, and this is her incredible true story.

Summary

Based on the vibrant and textured award-winning book by Dale Hope, The Aloha Shirt: Spirit of the Islands is a rich, storied collection about a unique time and place. This is the history of the Aloha Shirt, not only in Hawaii, but throughout universal culture, from its serendipitous and much debated creation, to its place today as an icon for the free and indepen-dent spirit in all of us.

The Aloha Shirt is the Ambassador of Aloha; it is the story of the adventure and romance of Hawaii for the past seventy years. These colorful, magical shirts had supporting roles to play in the modern day history of the islands. During World War II, out of the darkness of Pearl Harbor, Aloha Shirts were the prized gifts servicemen brought home for their wives, friends, and families. They were worn by Presidents and royalty, and made famous by the biggest movie stars in Hollywood.

Just as the spirit of the hippie generation was defined by denim, the disco generation defined by its John Travolta white polyester suit, and the wild ride of the early 80s by Bo Derek and her corn-row braids, the Aloha Shirt conveys a wealth of attitude. In the turbulent 60s, they became a symbol for, if not a surfer’s life, then a surfer’s kick-back style.

From the charm of the coconut buttons to the wild, fanciful colors to the enchanting scenes of island life, the authentic Aloha Shirt can be considered a work of art in its ability to imitate life and elicit emotion.

Executive Producer/Writer

Dale Hope grew up running between school, surfing, and his father’s garment manufacturing business, choosing the aloha shirt division as his own when he later joined the company. His warm memories of the people involved in the early days of the industry led him to write and design The Aloha Shirt: Spirit Of The Islands.  Widely recognized as an authority on aloha shirts, he consults with curators and historians around the world. Dale says he has too many favorite shirts to name just one. “Aloha shirts are like old friends. You want to keep and cherish them, along with the memories that go with them.”