the rix mix

Hawaii turns 50 years old as the 50th state Friday, but there will be no grand parades, no dazzling fireworks, no lavish displays of native culture.

Hawaii is marking its 50th anniversary of statehood in a way no other state has commemorated joining the Union; by remembering it was a nation occupied by a foreign power & its legitimate government overthrown by large American corporations in collaboration with the United States military. Its rich & complex indigeneous culture, already suppressed, was simplified & popularized as tourist attractions & for export. I like a lot of Hawaiian pop exotica style in music & clothes. But I also hear Hawaiians singing on many of those charming old records; a popular musician like Sol Hoopii was trying to preserve & be true to something - maybe he wasn't sure what it was - while he made a living in Polynesian-themed nightclubs & on radio in the 1920's. I didn't understand that until small record companies exposed the Hawaiian guitar traditions (a hybrid music) through new artists & historical recordings, the printed song titles & lyrics on the record sleeves strove for some language accuracy, & the liner notes never mentioned "Islands of Paradise."

Reminds me the 500th year anniversary of Columbus discovering America was pretty much a fizzle in 1992. Putting aside subsequent genocidal history, which kept the event from being celebratory anyway, by then we were certain the Norse were the first Europeans to "discover" North America & leave evidence; & the people Columbus found had originally walked here from the continent he was trying to reach.

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