Upcoming Author Events

Victoria Kneubuhl will discuss her two mystery novels, Murder Casts a Shadow and Murder Leaves Its Mark, at the Art Lunch event “The Unfamiliar Familiar, Homegrown Mystery,” hosted by the Hawai‘i State Foundation for Culture and the Arts, on Tuesday, May 29, 12-1 pm. For more information, go to http://www.state.hi.us/sfca/HiSAM_Events.html.

Kneubuhl will also discuss writing historical fiction at the Kapolei Library on Saturday, June 2, at 10:30 am. A drawing will be held for autographed copies of Murder Casts a Shadow and Murder Leaves Its Mark. Call 693-7050 for more information.

Victoria Kneubuhl’s books are available as eBooks at Amazon’s Kindle Store, Apple’s iBooks Store, and Google Play.

Stuart Ball will be participating in a National Trails Day celebration hosted by the Oahu Na Ala Hele Trails and Access Program at the Lyon Arboretum on Saturday, June 2. Ball will be at the gift shop from 1-3pm to sign copies of his latest book, Native Paths to Volunteer Trails: Hiking and Trail Building on O‘ahu, and his ever-popular The Hikers Guide to O‘ahu: Revised Edition. For more information go to http://ntd2012.blogspot.com/2012/05/hiking-expo-at-lyon-arboretum-full.html.

Stuart Ball’s hiking guides are available as eBooks at Amazon’s Kindle Store, Apple’s iBooks Store, and Google Play.

UH Press Around the Web

Jim Tranquada, co-author of this month’s The ‘Ukulele: A History, had a few things to say about Kevin Roderick’s post “In praise of Hawaii’s ukulele (via Portugal)” in LA Observed. Read Tranquada’s comments in Roderick’s follow-up post here. In his response, Tranquada specifically mentions errors in The Daily’s recent “Uke Can Do It Too.” Read The ‘Ukulele to get the real story!

Aborigial Art & Culture: An American Eye calls Minoru Hokari’s Gurindji Journey: A Japanese Historian in the Outback, a “wonderful, iconoclastic study.” Reviewer Will Owen recalls Hokari’s discussion of a Gurindji historical event, John F. Kennedy’s visit to Wave Hill Station in 1966, three years after Kennedy’s assassination: “[This] was better than picking up the latest Swedish crime thriller: I had to keep reading until I understood how Hokari was going to resolve this problem.” Owen concludes his review with:

“In writing this short review of Gurindji Journey, I have used the entertaining and perplexing instance of President Kennedy’s visit to Wave Hill to organize some aspects of Hokari’s story telling and analysis. In doing so, I have not done justice to the complexity and subtlety of his arguments, nor the richness of his immersion in Gurindji culture. But I hope that what I have written will entice you to pick up this unlikely entry in the literature of Indigenous studies written by a Japanese historian in the Outback.”

Gabe Baltazar Radio Interview and at the Hawaii Book and Music Festival

Gabe Baltazar Jr, whose autobiography If It Swings, It’s Music was published this month, was interviewed last March by Tucson jazz radio host Jake Feinberg. For some backstory on the interview, go to http://www.bonhawaii.com/legendary-sax-player-gabe-baltazar-worldwide-radio-show; for the interview, go to http://www.jakefeinbergshow.com/2012/03/jfs-65-the-gabe-baltazar-interview/.

Catch Gabe on YouTube reminiscing at this month’s Hawai‘i Book and Music Festival:

• On meeting his idol, Charlie Parker: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XcdFbilqfs
• On joining the Stan Kenton Orchestra: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agxiO2Gd19c

New Books in Buddhist Studies Podcasts

Listen to New Books Network podcasts featuring interviews with Press authors Hank Glassman, Bryan Cuevas, Lori Meeks, and Daniel Veidlinger: http://newbooksinbuddhiststudies.com/list/. New Books in Buddhist Studies presents discussions with scholars of Buddhism about their new books.

The New Books Network “is a consortium of podcasts dedicated to raising the level of public discourse by introducing serious authors to serious audiences.”

Hyperallergic on The Painted King and the Aim of Public Art

The Painted King: Art, Activism, and Authenticity in Hawai‘i is Glenn Wharton’s account of his efforts to conserve the Big Island’s Kamehameha statue, but it is also the story of his journey to understand the statue’s meaning for the residents of Kapa‘au. The book was the subject of a panel discussion at NYU last March, which was covered by Ben Valentine of the art blog Hyperallergic.

Wharton spoke briefly at the event, followed by invited experts of whom Valentine notes: “One speaker I especially enjoyed was Harriet Senie [professor of art history at CUNY Graduate Center]. Senie reminded the audience that the Lincoln Memorial was made to celebrate Lincoln uniting the union, but now has become a memorial for the end of slavery. A work’s meaning changes with context, and she celebrated Wharton for recognizing this in his conservation of the statue.”

In his book, Wharton sums up the experience: “[It] offered an opportunity for people who had never participated in public dialogue to express their opinions. Some suggested that this gave them experience and confidence to take civic action on issues such as unplanned development.” Valentine concludes: “I think this gets at the core of what much of public art aims to do—to remind us of history, to become a place for community to gather, remember the past and inspire the onlookers of today.”

Read the Hyperallergic post here: http://hyperallergic.com/48103/glenn-wharton-re-painting-a-king/

Japanese Cinema in the Digital Age

Digital technology has transformed cinema’s production, distribution, and consumption patterns and pushed contemporary cinema toward increasingly global markets. In the case of Japanese cinema, a once moribund industry has been revitalized as regional genres such as anime and Japanese horror now challenge Hollywood’s preeminence in global cinema. In Japanese Cinema in the Digital Age, a rigorous investigation of J-horror, personal documentary, anime, and ethnic cinema, Mitsuyo Wada-Marciano deliberates on the role of the transnational in bringing to the mainstream what were formerly marginal B-movie genres. She argues persuasively that convergence culture, which these films represent, constitutes Japan’s response to the variegated flows of global economics and culture.

May 2012 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3594-1 / $47.00 (CLOTH)