Earlier this week we had visitors from Hawai`i. Our old friend and hula sister Judy, who used to live in Forestville, came with her friends Led & Sharon Ka`apana and Mike & Malissa Ka`awa. Led & Mike were doing a West Coast tour. They'd just played Freight & Salvage in Berkeley on Sunday night (great show!) and had a couple of days off before their next gig, so they came up to Sonoma County. We went over to the Napa Valley on Monday and toured the new Castello di Amorosa; a winery in Calistoga. Apparently the winery owner is a Medieval Architecture fanatic, and had this castle built exactly as the castles in Tuscany were built. The architect and the artists who painted the frescoes all came over from Italy, and it took 14 years to build. You can't see it from the highway, which is good, because it is pretty extreme. Something like 107 rooms, 7 levels, even a torture chamber (yuk) Although flamboyant, it is authentic and artfully done. Under the castle are 35,000 square feet of tunnels for wine barrel storage. Yeah, they really make wine there, and it's good. The acoustics alone are amazing in these rooms made of stone with arched ceilings. Something to see if you're in the area.
Then ... Then!
On Tuesday night we had a party for Judy with all her old hula friends. We had it at a great little English Pub in Railroad square called "Toad in the Hole." We had hula class that night only a block away, so after hula everyone walked over to the pub. Led & Mike got up and played music and we got to dance. After 15 years of studying hula, I can honestly say that dancing to Led live doing "Ikona" was my hula hightlight. By far, bar none. I don't usually like to perform, but this felt comfortable because it was mainly just us, the lighting was low, and there were probably 10 or so of us who jumped up to dance. There was very little room, so we were dancing all over the place. They took a short break and then invited Amelia and a couple of guitar players up to play with them. Oh Wow. Now that's what I'm talkin' about! Dave & I must have been beaming! (Although, if Dave were writing this, he'd mention how they didn't have the sound right.) She just jumped in and knew what to do. I asked her later if it was hard, and she said it was pretty easy. The worst part was the nervousness before going up. She did so great, and I know that it meant the world to Judy too, to see Amelia up there with her buddies Led & Mike. I was a lame photographer that night, because I just didn't want to miss the experience, and besides our friend Peter was shooting left and right. I don't have pics from Peter yet, but here's one I took, just to prove it really happened - oh, and a few from the Castello too.
--click to view larger--
1 comment:
Oh man, that sounds like so much fun! Of course Amelia knew what to do. She's an amazing young woman.
Way cool, Nancy.
Post a Comment