February 16 found us at the 'Imiloa Astronomy Center in Hilo for the first time. It's a big, beautiful new facility that opened its door just about a year ago.
I love the space-age architecture (Metal teepees? Kewl!) and the big, roomy planetarium with six projectors for the dome. The narrator for the introductory show that afternoon invited me to sit next to her, as she ran the control panels, which was a real treat because I got to see a bit about how the show works "from the cockpit." After the show, she led a group of us "backstage" to see the rest.
Now we've become 'Imiloa patrons, complete with photo I.D. cards. So the next time that clerk at Longs Drugs in Hilo wants to refuse my Bank of Hawaii debit card for not having two pieces of photo I.D. to make a seven-dollar purchase, I can flaunt my new 'Imiloa Astronomy Center membership in her face! Damn it, I'll pass for a solid citizen yet.
Maybe she didn't trust me because of my still-valid California driver's license, although when she summoned the manager, he chose not to override her decision. Who knows what's been going on "backstage" at Longs, anyhow. They've probably had a lot of recent rip-offs. Still, a seven-dollar purchase is not too likely to generate a theft. But there I go again, expecting logic where none exists. To them, we are still just haoles at best, and petty crooks at worst.
The more I see of my side of the Big Island, the more I notice the newness of so much of it. There seem to be natural and human elements about equally at play in that regard:
(1) The land itself is so often new — even barren, in the case of recent lava flow. Without romanticizing it too much, I would call that quality emergent. The frequent starkness here evokes a moonscape ambience, so the futuristic architecture of our new Astronomy Center is well aligned with the naturally imposed aesthetic of an island still undergoing development.
(2) Everyone wants to be the last one off the boat, and that is a charming fantasy but not the way things work out. Despite a momentary lull in the price of property here on the East Side, there is a steady influx of newcomers. Lots are being built upon, and commercial areas are undergoing expansion. In fact, the Big Island is home to two of the world's largest private subdivisions: Ocean View Estates (near South Point, the southernmost point in the fifty United States) and Hawaiian Paradise Park (just down the highway from us).
(3) Of course, certain aspects of local culture on this part of the Island are emergent as well, such as this Astronomy Center. You may have noticed that the foreground in some of these photos still show fresh dirt, waiting for the newly planted gardens to grow into it.
Here's a bit of detail from the foyer floor:
Nothing will overcome the suspicion of the folks at the drug store except time. We prove ourselves by showing up in each other's lives and demonstrating character. ("True self you have shown," as the lyrics to one of my favorite R&B songs puts it.)
Living in a place as powerfully alive as the Big Island is a tremendous opportunity for study and growth, and I hope that somehow I can encourage mindful cultivation of its resources, rather than sitting passive in the face of runaway development. Some of the newer homes are particularly ugly, especially the "spec homes" built by real estate speculators who only intend to turn a quick profit, never to live in them. I'm glad we found a beautiful older home to inhabit.
Speaking of which, here we are, just outside the front door. Our February guest does a Vanna White turn, modeling with the big bunch of apple bananas we harvested recently from the front yard. We picked this crop at the beginning of February; they took about two weeks to ripen; and I just finished the last of the bunch this morning. (There were about 70 altogether — smallish, but mighty good eatin'. Glad we had a guest to help us out!) There are plenty more trees, but nothing is blooming yet, so it looks like it'll be a while before we get a new crop of 'nanas.
In other news today:
1. This blog just received its first-ever contribution to the Tip Jar — thank you very much for your support!
2. Both on and off the blog, I've been getting some wonderful and unexpected responses to Friday's impromptu post regarding the Forever Family website and Johnny P. Flashback's Friday-evening oldies show. See the new Google calendar in my sidebar (scroll down on the left) for details.
3. I'm getting more clicks now for older material (which in my case means anything older than last week, since LitBoy is still a wee puppy of a blog). Today it's all about the drugs, and it's all because of my post from the middle of January:
- a. one hit from a Dogpile.com search for "Easi3st Recip3 for Crank M3th" (Don't bother looking cuz it ain't here, and right here I just changed the wording from e's to Leet-style 3's to avoid confusion and dashed hopes, LOL — though now I'm curious to see if this eccentric Leet-code phrasing generates its own Leet-spelled hits.)
- b. one hit from a Blogger.com search for "Anti Narcotics Anonymous"
(Here's the top hit, just in case you're curious:)
John Travolta: Scientology Could Have Saved Anna Nicole!
… so right now, I'm the third hit for that phrase, right under Scientology and something at alt.recovery.na .
4. I am working on lots of new material for this blog. Thanks for tuning in, and please visit again soon!
Wishing you a beautiful day,
—Bill Brent
