Hello everyone! Welcome to the latest edition of “where has Nick been?” Since my last blog, life has been very interesting. And while these photos highlight only a small percentage of my life, I do enjoy sharing the highlights from ManoaDNA over the last couple of weeks. So, let’s get started, and thank you for supporting ManoaDNA!
First, a little congratulatory “pat” on the back! For those that follow me on Instagram and Twitter, you saw my friends and I participate in the first-annual “Challenge Nation” scavenger hunt. It’s a nationwide competition that stops in each major city, allowing teams to compete against each other to solve clues the fastest. The Honolulu version featured 190 teams from various walks of life, including my team, “Team Red Rod.” After an hour and a half solving the clues from Chinatown to Blaisdell (on foot no less), we ended up in 22nd place! Not only that, we qualified as on of the top 25 teams for the national competition in Las Vegas in November!
I also want to remind you guys that our latest compilation release, “Pineapple Express” is now available at the Dole Plantation in Wahiawa! It features 9 re-released songs from various other albums and one brand-new song called “Pineapple Express.” It is the theme song for the train tour up at the Dole Plantation and was written by Alx! Unfortunately, since it is a promotion for the Dole Plantation, we cannot offer it here on our website, but hopefully they will offer it online soon! Or…you could just head out to Wahiawa and pick one up yourself!
The next story comes from Waikiki! Last week, we were asked to perform for a HUGE Japanese fashion show at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel called “Hawaiian May.” It featured all of the latest fashion from Japan and was a really high-class event! Unfortunately for us, the soundcheck that day happened to be right as the sun was the hottest! Even though we were only on stage for a short 10 minute soundcheck, it felt like an eternity and I swear Mark (our bass player) was melting! Lucky for us, the actual event was later in the evening and so we were able to avoid the heat for the actual show!
Finally, I want to share a story from our night at Hyatt last week. It was a VERY slow Wednesday down at the SWIM bar, and we were already kind of bummed at the size of the crowd. Then, during our second set, a lady came up and started talking to Dad. She was middle-aged, from Australia, and looked like she and her friend might have had one too many Fosters in celebration of her birthday. Well, thanks to some liquid courage and feeling “in the moment” she started dancing on stage with us (not in front of us, behind us)! At first, I thought “harmless fun,” just let it go and she’ll leave the stage with some good pictures… Well, that didn’t happen. She started going into this trance, grinding on Alex during his solo, and really distracting us from what we were trying to do. I understand she was having fun, but I think it’s very disrespectful to distract the band, embarrass Alex by grinding on him, and take away from the rest of the audience, just for your enjoyment. I told her to stop grinding Alex, and she ended up leaving the bar after that song. What do you guys think? Should I have just bit my tongue and let her enjoy herself, regardless of how it affected the performance?
That’s all for now, let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
Have a happy Kamehameha Day on Tuesday! ALOHA!
Nick