Spectrum Hawaii; Ramsay, Chinatown, East West Center 25th gala; Susan Hansen, Chinese Puppets, Ukulele

Oh. The following program is a production of kiddie HDTV in one of the low publicly public television. The following program has been funded in part by grants from the Hawaii State foundation on culture and the arts and the people who Chevron in Hawaii are. Today on the spectrum we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the East-West Center with dance and music from three countries. We took a short visit to two historic

sites in CA why with an interlude in Honolulu's Chinatown. But first we visit with Ramsey a woman who draws a world in the black. Where. To describe the world with nothing but black and fascinates me. But the real reason I like it is that you can't make a mistake without or thinking with one. Without one crack at it. And it's. Consistently. Appealing. A little bit of adrenaline. Keeps to excited about her. We have a lot to do an awful lot to do about the New Yorker known for her minute lay detailed pen any drawings. Ramsey approaches her world with unique visions that. Are here with her husband Dr. Norman Goldstein Ramsey selects work for a mainland schol from her

Diamond Head studio. Yes I think. You have enough right now. Yeah. When. She originally came to live and work and Love Hina 10 years ago Henri there she caught the attention of the Alexander involvement company which commissioned her to draw its corporate office in Honolulu. She's gone on to draw other historic buildings ranging from the Chinese temple in Love Hina to the Plaza Hotel in New York. I and. My mom always used to read right after you read me I wouldn't even let you read to me I would go to sleep

unless you read to me and I was always looking at the illustrations and books I saw and I like the detail in trying watercolor washes. They're very still very prevalent in children's books. And when I saw a man who was doing the kind of work that I had seen in books he was like a miracle to me because I never really thought of a human being doing it. They just were there and he showed me a piece of work that he had done and I thought I'd never seen anything as beautiful as that piece of art. And John is now 93 years old in his last letter he wrote to me that he was becoming old but he still works with children still teaches them how to use pen and ink he makes them toys He's a musician. He's a remarkable human being and he's a coal miner. And that was the other lesson I learned that regardless of what you do for a professional life or to earn money it's not the whole picture. It's not the whole person. And he taught me great lessons. I only met him once. We've corresponded now for 27 years.

I was always a solitary person sort of a bookworm. And the drawing. Was that. Way too. And it's sort of an excuse. To commune with nature. And still be. Producing something. One unique attribute that Ramsey brings to her work is so envision it has been described as microscopic. I start looking and I'm seeing each fiber in the paper. And then I can really tell because with this kind of a pen it's so pointed that if I can't see the fire or the paper I just might pick up one of those fibers and the ink will move across it and I'll have a little flaw. So I don't want that. So the more the longer I have to work on the drawing the better off the better I feel about it. Nationally I try never to make mistakes.

But when you use pencil in advance it takes a lot of the spontaneity out of the work. So if I'm sitting down to draw a landscape or something there's no reason to put to use pencil or do a preliminary sketch because I just start with the leaving let the thing grow out. It develops. On its own volition pretty much when I'm drawing. It's important that I have no distractions in my peripheral vision. In a controlled environment like a studio that's easy on a street on the side of the road. That's something else. Ramsay has been commissioned to draw the buildings of the town and travels to go eat. One week every month to sit on location. And I think is the perfect. Medium for all buildings. And one of my first drawings was an all building my parents would drive me driving along. And it's a stop. Turned back. There's a fabulous building back there. And

I sit by the side of the road and draw and they would like it. It takes many long hours. As much as up to 72 hours I work. With no sleep. I just stuck. There my board doing it and I get a very good concentration from doing that one drawing. Took her three months to complete. Your friend appreciates or living in a world of. Plants. Media gratification. And some of the work that I'm doing takes more than a glance to appreciate. It's more like reading a book. Actually sitting down examining. The drug. History. It's hard to see. A little boy stop for a little while ago. We want to know why do you have here. Instead of want to. Go home alone. It's so important to be on

location for this type of work. The detailing can be achieved in any other way. Besides on location. Take a look. Over there honey at that. Satellite coming between the. Cracks of the brick in the bottom. What of the building. When viewing. Things underneath a building. Like the posts that hold up and some trash and do their hours. I didn't see that yesterday. Because the lighting was different yesterday. So here we are. And we can. Put that lighting of this particular time. Right here. Even if. It won't be there. When the next. Cover. Version. It was. The subject of the real world. But I was in London on a bluff which looked across the lake through fields of.

Wheat. Go. Low on. The Hawaiian word for sugar and long a town with 150 long years of history in sugar cultivation sitting on the leeward coast of Hawaii is the birthplace of the sugar plantation in Hawaii. It was here in 1835 that the first plantation was organized for the Latin company of Honolulu. So many of the things that lad and company did at that time are things that continued through the sugar industry for over a century such as they supplied housing for their employees was supplied at that time a noonday meal and medical attendants. They had a doctor on on call for their employees. It was in 1835 so of so many of the things that went through the complete sugar industry including Up until then 1040 used after the war.

Here in the center of Cologne stands the remains of the third sugar mill built in 1841 the first mill was built downstream in 1836. This mill was powered by water heated by the gusts and firewood was used until 1913 when a new mill was constructed outside of town. We do know that in 1880 there was telephone service from quarterly WHOI and I believe 8 subscribers. To the telephone company. That's four years after Alexander Graham Bell invented it. Ten years after the airplane was first flown by the Wright Brothers a Chinese gentleman called Captain Tom Gunn. G u n n bought an airplane here to cool off. And flew in 1013 off of the hilltop appear. Oh so that's you know these are all amazing things that have happened in a little hamlet I guess or a little town this far away off the beaten track of the world. I've been drawing. Painting buildings for twenty seven years

and when I began. It never occurred to me that some of these buildings would not exist anymore. And I'm not. Against progress in Chrome and glass is fine. But not everything. I hope that the generations to come will be able to experience the wide hallways and tall ceilings and. Natural materials the buildings used to be made of and I'm hoping that. The architects of the future think about this and that more go into rehabilitation. Efforts. As well as. You know what has got to be to house the people. Active in I'd say it is Asians and supportive of historical preservation. Ramsey also represents other artists and her downtown and Chinatown galleries of course.

You met her when she gets to Caesar's latest she says. It is a unique situation to be an artist and a business. There. And then again in the business of showing other artists. But I feel that when I speak with the artists I can really understand. Their sensitivities. It's not like dealing with a gallery owner it's like dealing with another artist. Although I always considered myself sort of a private person. Now I'm making friends. And I enjoy that too and working with them to hang their special shows. I'd like to do more than just introduce new artists and display the work of artists I'd like to help create a home community in Chinatown where. Tourists. And. Locals. And. People who. Love the art can congregate. And enjoy the beauties of Hawaii in the historic Chinatown district.

Despite the changing face of the city in which she lives she is confident that there is much yet to render in blackey. There's a lifetime several lifetimes of work to be done. Then less and less I look at at night I think well. What have I done today. It was founded in 1960 by the U.S. Congress. It was set up to establish

better relations with the Asia-Pacific region at a time when the Pacific Age was just starting. And over the years we've engaged in a ride for idea of progress with the region tens of thousands of people have taken part in and now. We work through four institutes to deal with population and environment resources trying to communicate and then a program that deals with the Pacific island countries. This is our 25th year now. We just celebrated our 25th anniversary. A month ago several hundred from all over the region came to see are we this group of people forming the enormously important of the younger people rising in the countries of the region who will be the future bases of a real Pacific community a Pacific group of people who will be working. At the Institute of Culture and communication quite a challenge ahead of us and that is

engaging with colleagues from more than 50 nations and certainly ten times as many cultures to proceed with a program which makes each of us more aware of the cultural diversity among us. And we do this in a variety of ways all of them rather modestly. But we think very important we do research programs and hold seminars where we bring people together looking at issues of mutual concern and importance to one another. But we have a number of programs where even if one isn't a specialist in cross-cultural affairs of one sort or another that one can really learn a great deal. And this is through our Performing Arts Series our artistic exhibitions our International Film Festival and I think increasingly through our major literature project which we also. Where we also involve a writer in residence we have an artist in residence program and a filmmaker in residence program and I think by

bringing very creative people together not just scholars who write about the creative process but those people through whose veins flow the creative energies that make art and cultural performance helps to take each of us a step further and understanding the tremendous diversity of this particular region of the world. In celebration of the East-West Center silver jubilee we decided it would be important to feature some of the cultures present here at the center in a performing arts festival. And the festival was as diverse as including some highly stylized dancing. The Javanese tradition and bluegrass music from the west. And our feeling is that there is such diversity in the region such an enormous amount of talent and tradition that where we can offer it forward for people from various cultures to enjoy. And for people within the culture specific to the

presentation to take full joy and pride in what they're doing that it's a very special moment because it's probably when people sit around a table talking about their own culture that they sit the tallest and the most proud. Good evening. First let on to the past.

That's where the. Main. Man hit the town of St.. Louis. That morning and was called away just hung up the phone this time for handling the. Painting the man's hand the hand of the town the band rang Harriet sang. With. Meeting. Them outside.

That night at the lower house rang you can hear it you could hear it saying. Putting. It In. Didn't. Get any. Spectrum was funded in part by grants from the people of Chevron in Hawaii and the Hawaii State foundation on culture and the arts. The following program is a production of kiddie HDTV in one of the low publicly

public television. The following program has been funded in part by grants from the Hawaii State foundation on culture and the arts and the people are Chevron in Hawaii. Today on the spectrum Hawaii Chinese hand puppets perform fierce battles on horseback and fly through the air. Then we explore the music and lore of Hawaii's most famous instrument the ukulele. The gift of Portuguese immigrants to the island. But first. A visit to the studio of Susan McGovern the Henson creates beauty and watercolor from a fresh perspective.

The only. Artist I chatted to Marius said. I'm attracted to the ticket and a lot of it has to do with the way I see it that I feel like I have to sit for a shift eyes like I garble things up with my eyes. Make mental notes of things all the time. At the market or just under the hood. I could make up all. Shapes and direction in turn. Take care. So I just take my cue from them. And I'm not sure why I like I like you so much I think it's kind of like being in love with somebody and had to. Really explain that. But right now I'm in love with North Korea.

I take a lot of time setting up. It's. Kind of fun to do. I have an idea. And. The more problems I saw my life the less traveled on the painting. So I have my composition in mind. I like to look down on the composition I make it makes. It. More interesting patterns and shapes juxtaposition. Before I draw I'm going to use a viewfinder. It's the same proportion that. Has the paper. And it can give me a clue as to where I place things. If I look at the still life here. The central line. Creating a painting

takes a lot of thought. That's where the little food of an idea becomes sand and maybe it might noodle around in there for years. Or maybe you want to get right to it and work at it in a few hours but it starts in the mind. And often when I'm doing something else that idea will be in my mind and I'm kind of forming it. And. Adjusting it and taking things away and adding things to that idea before I even start putting pencil to paper. I want the paper wet. Because I'm going to do a wet into wet under painting and dew washes over that. Now the words wet into wet the things are going to have soft edges

and kind of blend into one another and be more or less a background on which to paint the rest of the painting. When I was about 9. I started painting in oils. That my teacher at the time had a start out using black and white and tons of gray with still life. And. This was difficult we were all just we couldn't wait until we could start painting and color but she wanted us to get the values down pat and we had to paint him.

In black and white until she found out that we knew how to choose the values of a painting the darks and lights. And then that exciting day when we could start using color came. From getting a lighter tone skin. I can't put lighter over dark. So we go from light to dark. In this wash. I don't have to worry about edges because in this still life the pattern behind the orchids is darker. And it does come in around the edges. And now I'm going to let this dry before I start putting any more washers on it. This is really my second career. I made the decision not to do my art when I had my family when I was. About age 20

and I've had a lot of art education. But I decided that it was important just to raise children and concentrate on that. So my artwork was put aside. But I knew it was there waiting for me. It was like a big Christmas gift just ready 10 tie. And sometimes it scares me it my presumptuousness. How I knew I just knew it would be there whenever I was ready. But luckily it was and when my youngest was. Into school I started just getting back into my art work. And sure one reason I'm particularly interested in doing faces. Is from my childhood. My teacher used to go downstairs his studio was on the second floor. And downtown Santa Barbara. And she would go down and ask one of the. Next. An American has plans to come back and post. And that's. When he started concentrating on.

From here. So when I came to Hawaii. Years ago of course I was immediately attracted to. The face. And big. Of the culture and the dancing. I am interested in the movement of the fake you. And the form and trying to get that motion down. On a two dimensional. Sheet of paper or canvas. Ordinarily I do a little black a thumbnail sketch in my scotch and see how these ideas that have been rolling around my life. Come out on paper. And I have to do several things to work out. And. Then. I transfer it to the paper. I paint in transparent water color which means I don't use white

paint. Adding the two so the right is the white of the paper. And when I planned my painting I plan it in steps so that a painting around the white areas that I want to keep right on light. And generally I'm working light to dark. Once I've painted one area darker I can't get it lighter like in in oil painting. You can see why I put a gray on this before hand I didn't leave it. Clear right. The pattern is going to stand out against the dark green and I don't want it to jump out and get your attention before other things in the painting. I heard. Once that painting you do more painting with the mind than you do with your hands. And I believe that because that's where your concept comes from. So I think a lot about my idea. You discard many of them. I

have hundreds in my mind literally that I haven't gotten to yet so I have more than a lifetime of painting. Four hundred years ago they entertained their audiences with stories of virtue and religious moral or major event. More recently the traditions of puppets continued with a performance at the Honolulu in honor of the center's 25th anniversary. Yes

the size of the group from one. Performs in the fake ones. The pace is fast and the action viable flights are legends of warfare and folklore. For this scene is an excerpt from the Beijing opera. Three warring King the FSO battle on horseback comes alive under the field manipulation of the puppet whose back stays so so. That's stage one finds rose for their moment in front of the

Audi. With the weeks ahead. Oh appropriate for the role they play. Penny's hand puppets mirror and many ways the human theatre of Chinese opera like their human counterparts. They too are dressed in stylized costumes depicting status and role. Their makeup is also characteristic of their qualities such as the red face of this military warrior symbolizing loyalty. The head puppet here is wrong as studied his craft since the age of six. His teacher was his father a leading puppet TIR and founder of this troupe. No puppet performances complete without a demonstration of window jumping.

Chinese acrobatics puppets. Again one hundred and fifty years ago. Pick up a new girlie and people expect to hear Hawaiian music. The

instrument is not endemic to our originally a gift from the Portuguese. It is no musical voice of many cultures capable of reflecting Many Moods can be played simply by a beginner or it can challenge a virtuoso. What you thinking come on was a great fan of the you may have helped to give it the comic nickname buku meaningfully and early to jump nimble fingers crossing its strings still call that image of a jumping fleet to mine. Small and durable with a warm pleasing tone makes a perfect travelling it is no wonder this instrument has met with immediate acceptance on its musical voyage around the world. Portuguese families that help their instrument making in the year we have and

this is the Hawaiian overlay and the reason I'm interested in nuclear waste so much is that my great grandfather is the one that brought it from the Baron to Hawaii and helped build the industry here in Hawaii. My grandfather who was in manufacturing company here in Hawaii started me on my collection. And he told me one day Les would you like to have your own. I said great. So he and I went together and I bought my first instrument for $100. And with that my instrument collection has grown to over 100 instruments since then I've been studying them and collecting them I've gone to Portugal New York California Japan you know even Africa some of my instruments have come from and this is what I'd like to show you. I'd like to show you some of my collection.

This is new. It's from the mainland of Portugal. And it's the popular folk instrument. Portugal. The reason it's popular is because mainly it's inexpensive it's easy to play. There's only four strays and it's very versatile. Although it is used mostly as a strumming instrument as part of a string band. The cover can you. Use the pieces. That. Cost more than a few dollars. This person went to the Ukraine with. The. Accompanying the lively dancers a Portuguese artist. One of the instruments in the String Band is the Portuguese guitar.

And the reason this is a Portuguese guitar mostly is because of the shape and the way that the instrument is strong. You notice that it has an unusual head here in that the machines are different they move up and down rather than the ones that we're familiar with. It has a violin scroll and unusual pigheaded. The shape is heart shaped. And it is a romantic instrument. This is the Portuguese guitar again. And this is my great grandfather's. He started making this in 1879 when almost immediately when he came here to Hawaii he didn't have Portuguese words but he found the chord and the core word is like some of the words from the air and by the way means word. In 1879 mental illness was among the hearty group of immigrants who

left their island home of the day for the unfamiliar shores of boy. Like many of these Portuguese he was a skilled tradesmen. Many were fishermen others farmers. All whose talents were easily put to use. Most came to escape the economic effects of a blight on the bear's wine industry. Wine is still important there today. Unlike newness who paid for his family's passage contract laborers were not brought to the islands for several more years. Yunus was one of three craftsmen who were soon producing elegant instruments from Navy hardware. Particularly coal. This is an Jonah comment I will anyway. And Jonah coma I was the first one that actually started mass producing the ukulele and he made about 300 of them in one month. He was very successful in making instruments. He made them for quite a few years. He also made their own. Hand. Singing teams and musicians that went in there working here yet he

almost monopolized the musical industry in 1915 and Hawaiian music were in great demand. That was the year of the Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. The fair provided mass exposure of Hawaiian bands many of which featured the ukulele. The fledgling recording and radio industries fanned the flames of popularity and soon Hawaiian labels were outselling all others. The world couldn't get enough of the Hawaiian locally strumming along to help a holly melody was. The curious thing about those earliest recordings is that you truly couldn't hear the O'Kelly because the recording techniques at the time. It wasn't until the 1930s that the Ricoh emerged with better recording techniques. Now in the teens and 20s earnest

I was the acknowledged virtual saw and he also came up with the very first overly instructional booklets in the 30s. It was just the feeling I was his rousing rendition of this. Stars and Stripes Forever. When he won the territorial amateur hour after the live. From. The song then became an instant classic and every kid on every corner had to know the Stars and Stripes Forever. Now in the 40s there was a randy on as taking his own will only and performing the Horlicks of the big band swing arrangements and then the old girl eventually emerged as a solo instrument in your fifties. We had people like Nelson Mikey and he can mine and the Sixties Leakey Weiss Barth I'm OK Ali in the 70s. Peter moan on his temple and now today we have the Kelley festival and each year you can appreciate some of the best players of all ages in Hawaii from Portuguese music to Hawaii and to help the home even the instrument shape is

undergoing dramatic evolution at times. This is standard. My great grandfather would make them. Here we have other instruments that would actually make my great grandfather turn over in his grave. This is Camp badge allele. It's got a wooden sound box. Here we have another Vangelis only with animal skin and a metal. Box of banjo and with the O'Kelly fretboard. This is an instrument here. It's a triangle and this is very interesting this is the cigar box and this is one of the markers instruments. Notice that the date on the Oconee is 1886. This is an actual cigar box so clearly. Even the pegs here are a little bit different. And it is stylized. Santa Marcus father also made the pineapple colony and he started the craze

that is still popular today this is the the first of the pineapple. This is a painted model and has it in his store room there on South Street. And you can see that just by coming into their manufacturing has long been a specialty of the family. One that started with the Sam Cammack a senior in 1960. Today Sam Jr. adds another generation of expertise to the shoppes tradition of creating the finest ladies available. As a young man I was fascinated by all of the belts running in every direction and all of these ballots were hooked up to a pulley which activated a certain machine which did have a certain function for that on the assembly line. And my father had four or five workers that I remember and they'd go from one machine to another back and forth putting on belts and taking off belts. And. So it was really a noisy

and interesting place to visit. Just like modern It doesn't look really is there still fashion by discriminating craftsman and each instrument requires three to four weeks to complete. Three to four years if you count the drying of the wood. All of the markers workers bring with them specialized talent. And Sam knows they have all contributed to his success. Now ships over 300 a month to retailers as distant as Japan Sweden and Norway all are manufactured for consistently high quality but occasionally just the right amounts of fine wood and patient craftsmanship. Well fashion this appears on the. Veteran players are always in search of these qualities so you'll never know who will drop into the South Street show room. Far from being a worthless piece of wood as its Portuguese name implies the coven

and its away in cousin the ukulele continue to circle the globe encouraging the sharing of cultures through the gift of music. Sharing the music of Portugal with us this week. Garbage broke a bra and Frenchies go under. Next week.

You. Are not a fool. You. Know where it came. From. And your promise and I tell the truth. And. By and of the people around with you. Cry and you not like them. And. Do.

The trick. You won't be long. If. You. Like you. Spectrum was funded in part by grants from the people who show run in Hawaii and the Hawaii State foundation on culture and the arts.