Checkin' it out at Bishop Museum...

So today I went to check things out at Bishop Museum,

For  a poshy by invite only reception that I went to for a television station where we aired commercials for where I work.  I got there about an hour early, so I casually walked past the reception area and snuck my way into the museum's displays, lol.  Very recently the Bishop Museum had redone Hawai'i Hall, where a number of artifacts are currently up for display.  In the past the stuff they had for display were pretty drabby, and it remained like that from when I was a lil kid until my adulthood.  The museum made the smart move of bringing in a group of Hawaiian artists, educators (like my boss), and cultural practitioners to give Hawai'i Hall a facelift, and it sure paid off.  You gotta just see it for yourself, there's art done by Hawaiians, and the displays tell what I feel is a true story of our people.

The museum does come with its share of controversy, where they have in storage bones of our ancestors.  Why the controversy?  Well, many Hawaiians (like myself) believe that the bones (along with their noho pu or sacred belongings) of our ancestors or kupuna belong in the ground where they were buried.  That's why, when I'm long gone, I want my body to be cremated and thrown into the ocean, so that I can drift about and feed a school of fish which will feed a family.  I know, it's pretty profound and deep stuff, but I figure I share.

I then walked over to the exhibit museum area, and met up with this dude, for an upcoming dinosaur exhibit.

So after some "site exploration" at the museum's premises, I walked back over to the reception area.  I got my table # and walked over to sit down.  When I sat down, there was this guy and his wife sitting there.  So I sat down and started rappin' and jokin' around with 'em.  They were hella cool, and I introduced mysef.  To my surprise, he introduced himself as Kim Taylor Reece.  I was humbly blown away, cuz of the mere fact that he's a pretty popular photographer who's known (but not limited to) for his photos of Hawaiian women dancing hula, super cool guy.  You didn't hear this from me but I overheard a phone convo he was having with his agent about a lil camio appearance in Hawai'i 5-0 as a...photographer, lol.

Came time for lunch, I was hella happy, good old Hawaiian food from one of my favorite eateries, Highway Inn.  If you want some good Hawaiian food, that's the place to go to.  But ya, they catered this posh event I attended.  So for those of you who never had Hawaiian food before, here's your intro lesson.  At the back left of the plate is squid lu'au, which is made up of lu'au leaves which come from the leaves of the kalo or taro plant, mixed with coconut milk and squid, mmm, good stuff.  To the right of that is lomilomi salmon, which is made up of chopped tomatoes, salmon, onion and green onion.  Then there's a slice of pineapple.  To the front left is chicken long rice, which is made up of long rice, green onion, chicken and chicken broth.  To the right of that is kalua pig which is an underground smoked pork and next to that a healthy heaping of rice, no poi this time, but that's okay, it was still good.