APEC conference entertainment: A song about the Occupation!

[rainbow4321]

Wow...imagine what went thru everyone's minds when he got up on stage, opened his outter shirt and what do they see??? A t-shirt with "Occupy with Aloha" written on it. And then the song!


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/13/occupy-apec-makana_n_1091280.html

A musician took a stand at last night's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation gala, which was attended President Obama and a slew of world leaders.

Hawaiian guitarist Makana, who has performed at the White House, wore a shirt that read "Occupy With Aloha" and played a song inspired by the Occupy Wall Street protests.

"We'll occupy the streets, we'll occupy the courts, we'll occupy the offices of you, till you do the bidding of the many, not the few," he sang at the Wakiki event. "The time has come for us to voice our rage."

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Here is a youtube of the song, he had uploaded it prior to the dinner, apparently:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xq3BYw4xjxE&feature=youtu.be


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Betcha there were a few "meetings" afterwards...like "WTF, did no one KNOW what he was going to sing/do/wear"???

[dkf]

1. Geez the guy has no Hawaiian blood.

Makana is so steeped in this Hawaiian cultural heritage that the word ancestors floats by easily despite the fact that he is not of Hawaiian blood. His father is a Minnesotan who migrated to Hawaii with a love of the ocean, his mother Oahu-born of Chinese parentage, which makes Makana one quarter Chinese. Born Matthew Swalinkavich, he was given the name Makana by his high school Hawaiian language teacher. He adopted it as his performing name in the 90s. It means gift, and the word suggests to him the ongoing lesson of learning to give his music unconditionally. He has done so at festivals, in solo gigs, and as opening acts for such music legends as Elvis Costello, Sting, Santana, and Chris Isaak.

http://www.rootsworld.com/interview/makana10.shtml

[girl gone mad]

2. And you think that's relevant because..

?

[dkf]

4. Because his sense of aloha sucks.

Tell me how his verses are welcoming to our guests in any way. More condemning if anything.

This is really embarrassing to our homegrown President. I feel bad for him. All he wanted was to show Hawaii could host a big time event and he gets this instead. Honestly who wants to hire entertainment who spends so much time singing the same song over and over with the purpose of condemning you? Would you?

What if this were your wedding or a special birthday? Would this be a success or a failure?

[xiamiam]

5. your post is a huge fail..makes me lol..nt

[dkf]

6. Well I am embarrassed for us. I'm glad that entertains you.

[rainbow4321]

8. It's more embarrassing that Al-Jazeera is now covering US citizens being beaten and gassed

That is what should be embarrassing to everyone, from the WH on down to us.

And if they were to report "little if any coverage of this is being provided to Americans through their media", it would be an understatement. I've given up clicking through the cable channels as I read reports/see livestreams of the brutality going on each night to the different Occupy locations. Amazing how I can see unrest half a world away in a live breaking news report and cable can get their reporters right in the middle of the protesters there in a heartbeat...yet they can't seem to get any of their field reporters to, oh, Portland, Tulsa, Oakland, or any where else here in our own country.

Now THAT is embarrassing

[xiamiam]

9. +1

lots of things to be embarrassed about..humiliated and ashamed..this young man singing a heartfelt protest song to world leaders just doesn't happen to be one of them

[girl gone mad]

7. Your "homegrown" President "has no Hawaiian blood"

So there's that glaring bit of hypocrisy.

[Remember Me]

3. It's a wonderful song -- I think it's our ANTHEM

here's my thread on the subject, complete with lyrics

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=2300770&mesg_id=2300844