SOUNDTRACK: BOB ATCHER AND THE DINNING SISTERS-“Christmas Island” (1950).
There is something so charming and wonderful about white people co-opting Hawaiian music in the 50s. I know fully well that there is nothing ‘authentic” about the whole AH-LOH-HA-AY business and that they have made it smooth and “sexy” for “bachelor pads” and all of that. I know that I should be offended on everyone’s behalf. And yet I can’t be.
I find bachelor pad kitsch to be fun (Esquivel’s Christmas Album is a perennial favorite), and so I was delighted to be introduced to this song from the 2007 NPR Holiday show. I actually don’t know anything about Bob Atcher or the Dinning Sisters, but this song is a delightful trip through faux Hawaiian music–slide guitars and a very hula-feeling rhythm.
It even features Santa arriving on a canoe. Yup, the whole simplification of Hawaiian/island culture is in poor taste, but man, it’s such a swinging and trippy take on a Christmas song. And I’m sure no islanders were hurt in the making of the recording. Aloha-ay.
[READ: December 15, 2013] Kawaii!
I’m fascinated by manga and the whole, as the subtitle says, Japanese culture of “cute.” I don’t really get it. I mean, I get it, that cute things are cute, but the whole cultural love of cute is so peculiar to me–especially when reading this book and seeing that it is a cultural explosion of cuteness. This book was a great introduction to so many different aspects of this culture. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 