I celebrated life last night because my friend and I had a rough day out in the waves yesterday haha! So a big south swell has been on and off the last week or so and my friend and I decided to try our hand at surfing in the windy, choppy, big waves. Well, he forgot his leash and lost his board on a big wave I was riding and I had to retrieve his board for him and try and make it out through the waves with two boards without him drowning. Making a long story short, I couldn’t find him for awhile, the waves were knocking me around, and it was the longest 15 minutes of my life trying to stay alive and try to find my friend. We laugh about it now, but at the time it was scary and tiring haha! *Note to self – never go paddling alone because you might die haha*
Other than that, nothing really new is going on since the last time I blogged (yesterday), but today I’m going to get some work done for m.DNA and maybe record some demos for our new CD. Maybe a little preview will be coming? Keep on checking my Twitter because I update it allllll the time with different updates about life.
Check out the picture below, our friend from HTJ sent me this one…it looks I’m trying not to throw up haha or I’m sleeping or something. GREAT PICTURE!! *Another note to self – smile when singing or else you look dumb haha*

Enjoy life everyone!
AK

Happy April Everyone, just giving you a little heads-up on what we’re doing this month. As we move into spring and begin the summer tours, keep checking back for updates as we got a lot of things in the works.

25th: University of Washington Lu’au Delicious and authentic Hawaiian food, an exhilarating hula performance, two great concerts by recording artists Koa’uka and our own club band, live music by award winning Hawaiian contemporary artists Manoa DNA, a country store where Hawaiian snacks and crafts can be purchased, a raffle prize giveaway and most importantly a once a year opportunity to experience Hawai’i in Seattle! Visit the website online

10th: Fridays at Lulus We continue our Friday night gig down at Lulus every Friday this month. Check out the 27th for a special solo night by Alex

4th, 11th & 18th: Saturdays at Kani Ka Pila Continuing our Saturday night gig down at the Outrigger Reef hotel, we invite you to join us every Saturday night as we jam under the stars. Located at the end of the Beachwalk, in the heart of beautiful Waikiki, it is a great venue. Hope to see you down there!

Tis the month of love and we here at Manoa DNA headquarters would like to wish everyone a very happy February! Now I know many of you are preparing for Valentine’s day on the 14th and wondering what you could possibly do to make the day as special as possible? Well I’m here to let you in on a couple of special events we have planned for this month, that you could include in your festivities!

2/6: Punahou Carnival Keeping alive the annual tradition, Manoa DNA will once again be performing for our alma mater at the Hawaiian Plate Booth of the Punahou Carnival. Always surrounded by our friends and family, we look forward to this gig every year as it gives us a chance to give back to the place that gave us so much. Friday, 2/6/09, 7pm, Hawaiian Plate Booth of the Punahou Carnival

2/7: Twilight at Kalahuipua’a For those of you on the Big Island, or planning to take a trip there, we will be performing for the February installment of “Talk Story” with Danny Akaka. Set on the porch of the Eva Parker Woods house at the Mauna Lani resort, it is a completely free event hosted every month under lantern and full moonlight. Saturday, 2/7/09, 5:30pm, Eva Parker Woods House on the grounds of the Mauna Lani Resort on the Big Island

2/14: Ukulele Picnic Alongside great entertainers from both Hawai’i & Japan, Manoa DNA will be celebrating Valentine’s Day in style!

2/16: Great Aloha Run Entertaining the runners and their guests, Manoa DNA will be jammin’ up the Great Aloha Run party between 9 & 10 A.M. If you are running at this event, we’ll see you down there!

Other than that, we will of course have our usual monthly installment of Gordon Biersch on the 4th, and down at Lulu’s Waikiki on the 13th & 27th. For a full list of events, including the ones mentioned above, see our schedule.

Happy New Year Everyone!

My, my how time flies. It seems like only yesterday it was 1999, but here we are 10 years later and boy what a year it is going to be. Thank you all for your love and support for the 2008 year, and we look forward to entertaining you in 2009. I have some updates for you… Read more…

We just recorded a live show, from Hawaii, on the Japanese radio show “Island Breeze”. We had lots of fun with DJs Reiko & Sarah, and thank them very much for their hospitality. If you want to catch the show in Japan, tune into FM Northwave 82.5, September 7th (Sun), from 2000-2200.

Listen for Nick’s solo appearance on FM Salus in Yokohama, Japan. Appearing on DJ Takashi’s show, “Salus Beat Press,” at 6:30pm, he will be discussing Manoa DNA’s recent trip up to Yokohama and plans for future adventures in Japan. All part of the weekly broadcast from downtown Honolulu!

Listen to the show, then leave comments here on the blog for Nick!

We were featured in the Honolulu Advertiser yesterday, for our performance at the Books & Music Festival at City Hall.

Full Article

Since we started our YouTube video channel, we have been racing to get up more and more content. Here is the latest installment:

Hawaii Tourism Japan Commercial

Gramma’s Birthday

I will also be updating both calendars today, so check back for that update.
Nick

Well, I have been so busy with the newsletters, that I forgot to update all you fans out there in web-land! You have Susan Gordon to thank for setting me straight and getting my butt moving again! Thanks Susan, it was great to meet you last night at Gordon Biersch!

First of all, HAPPY 2008 EVERYONE!

We hope that you and your family are enjoying a great start to 2008, and that you all had a safe holiday season!

Anyway, sorry again that I have been slacking, but the holidays got a little nuts. Here’s the latest 411 for all of you:
2008 Hawaii Music Awards: We were nominated for the “Adult Contemporary Album of the Year” category for the awards. I will post an update on that as soon as I can.
MySpace Updated: Our schedule has been updated, so go check that out and come down to one of our upcoming events.
Upcoming Events: We have a couple of major events coming up including Punahou Carnival & Twilight @ Kalahuipua’a on the Big Island. Check back as we finalize those details for more information.

Other than that, we are keeping busy at Gordon Biersch & Lulu’s weekly, so if you are in either of those neighborhoods, come and check us out!

That’s all for now. I will work on more detailed updates of those special events as I get to them

Aloha,
Nick

Dateline: December 12th, 2007. Manoa DNA finishes HTJ Promo message & music video. That’s right ladies and gentlemen, we completed the raw shooting for our upcoming campaign with Hawaii Tourism Japan!

Thanks to the crew, Ron Ogi & Shogo Kubo, for their outstandin work yesterday. We hope you guys had as much fun as we did! Check back here for updates on the music video and promo video, as we should have it posted up here once it has been completed.

Happy Holidays everyone!