Bu on Da Bus

Bu La‘ia, Hawaiian Su‘paman. False Crack??? CD.

No Mo Shame

Making you way in Hawaii-nei sure
cost a lot,
Catching da bus in downtown Kalihi,
Scared you might get shot!
My welfare check neva come today.
sometimes I feel lolo, dat I don’t even
know my name.
or wea I going be staying,
I wanna go to Wamanalo, chicken fight
and crap game.
I wanna go wea everybody no mo
shame,
Maybe I can take my board on da bus,
Now dat Frank is gone!
We got rid of John “Squid Water”, now
we got Ben manong!
What da Hawaiians gonna do? You gotta
vote for Bu!
Let’s just hope Ben no count da votes,
Cuz das how he wen win, we need one
gov dats one true Hawaiian.

Sweet Home Waimanalo

Bus tires keep on turning,
Booking down da Pali Road.
Sitting next to one Samoan,
I think da bugga let one go.
Somebody please open da window,
hurry up before I die.
Can’t wait to get to Waimanalo,
Please drop him off in Lanikai.
Chorus
Sweet home Waimanalo, where da ocean
is still blue,
Sweet home Waimanalo, dats da home
of bradda Bu.
Yeah Whoo. Hea Doogie!

bus stop pics

metaphor theory reading

This might have to be fascination for a future day, but just in case ...


http://www.conceptualmetaphor.net/resources/introductoryreadingsmetaphor



Kövecses, Zoltán. 2002. Metaphor: a practical introduction . Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Lakoff, George & Johnson, Mark (1980) Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Lakoff, George & Turner, Mark (1989) More than Cool Reason: A Field Guide to Poetic Metaphor. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Visual elements of chapbook

Hey Sean,

Great to see you on the blog. So, Aiko and I were discussing the chapbook a while back, and we both agreed that the visual aspect was equally as important as the literary component. Hopefully you are still interested in helping us out. If so, there were a couple ideas I was wondering if you could start thinking about/playing around with:

1. The Cover. One of my classmates came up with a great title for the chapbook, "Routes," which plays on the pun of routes/roots: I really like this because it captures two contrapuntal ideas about TheBus:
one, of motion--TheBus as vehicle, as 'root metaphor' for how we come together as a community and move in a common direction in confronting common challenges; and two, roots, TheBus as a symbol of local culture, of one's roots/connection to this place. I would like to express this visually in the cover--of bus routes/roots, of movement/plant-edness. Ideas? I'm thinking of your blurred rainbow pics as a visual way of expressing the idea of movement (and the rainbow as a root metaphor for multicultural Hawaii, both in a good and bad way).

2. Using transfers as a way of linking different sections of the chapbook.

3. Layout of chapbook as a bus map. How cool would it be if we were able to distribute these chapbooks alongside actual bus maps? I think this is a great idea in terms of getting the chapbook into the hands of our target readers--actual bus riders.

There's so many possibilities for this project, I feel like we've just started to scratch the (sur(f)ace). I'm sure you also have tons of ideas, and I'm really excited to hear them. This could be a really amazing project.

Ryan

google search results

A Honolulu Advertiser article called "Zen and the Art of Riding TheBus"
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2005/Nov/14/il/FP511140314.html

A weird video clip:
http://www.vimeo.com/clip:763

TheBus Roadeo??? I wish I could find pictures:
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2006612130361

(1) Most of the movie SPEED (sandra bullock and keanu reeves) takes place on a bus. Might be interesting to re-watch and think about what kind of (created) bus community the movie explores.


(2) I like this song by the band Canoe Club. The lyrics are from tropicalstormhawaii.com


Along For The Ride W Corrected Lyrics Chords.txt

Composed By: ?
Performed By: hawaiian canoe club
Submitted By: tehani


D E A
My poppa said fill my pockets with riches
D E A
Buy a big house in Bell Air
D E A
Tie the knot with a supreme court justice
D E A
Raise 2.5 millionaires
D E A
But daddy dear, oh my wallet's half empty
D E A
I rent a shack on the shore
D E A
I know you want just the best for me
D E
But I'm fine, just biding my time

(chorus)
D
I'm just along for the ride
E A A7
and there's no need for me to drive
D A
I'm just along for the ride
D A A7
I'm happy taking in all the sights
D
Oh I'm, just along for the,
E A
I'm just along for the ride
D E A
Doo doo doo doooo


You insist I should have some direction
Take a stand take control
Here's my two cents, Mr. Bus Man drive me away
anywhere please

I'm on the bus going no where fast
I missed my stop but it's OK
My prized possession is my Mickey Mouse watch,
Oh, I like it this way
I tell ya,
(chorus)
('ukulele solo)

You might not approve of this road i'm traveling
My life is like a sunday drive
But thanks for asking about me anyway
I'll be alright
I like it this way

I'm just along for the ride,
And there's no neee-ed for me to drive
I'm just along for the riii-ide
I'm happy taking in all the sights, whoah I'm,
Just along for the.. (5x)
Just along for the ride

Doo doo doo doo
(I'm on the bus going nowhere)
doo doo doo doo
(along for the ride)
Along for the ride
(I'm like the road that I'm travelling,)
doo doo doo doo
(but I'll be all right)
No need to drive
Doo doo doo doo
(I'm on the bus going nowhere,)
doo doo doo doo
(along for the ride)
I'm along for the ride
(I'm like the road that I'm travelling,)
doo do doo doo
(but I'll be all right)
Just taking it all in strides, doo doo doo doo
I'm along for the ride
(I'm on the bus going nowhere,)
doo doo doo doo
(along for the ride)
Mmmm no need to drive
Doo doo doo doo

"The ruling class does not wait at TheBus stop."

--Kamau Brathwaite

Religion and ritual

I'm on TheBus. The idea of religion and TheBus is really stuck in my head right now, in connection with your poem and the Raymond WIlliams essay. RITUAL keeps coming up in the readings I'm doing in my cultural studies class--culture acted out and affirmed through "material practices governed by material rituals" (Althuesser).

I was thinking about this also because I was reading "Aching For Mango Friends," and there is a beautiful poem in which Sa'ili explains to her haole friend that the flight attendant thanks the Lord each time the airplane reaches Samoa. I think it would be interesting to explore the similiraties and differences between TheBus and the airplane (commercial jet)--they are similar in that both are so important to Hawaii and that they are modes of transportation, yet their functions are so different. Or maybe they should be explored in seperate chapbooks? Anyways, I love Jacinta's poem, and maybe I'm just thinking of ways to include it.

I'll make sure to give you the chapbook the next time I see you.

Ryan

root/route metaphors and transfers

From WIKIPEDIA:

A root metaphor is the underlying association that shapes an individual's understanding of a situation. Examples would be understanding life as a dangerous journey, seeing life as a hard test, or thinking of life as a good party. A root metaphor is different from the previous types of metaphor in that it is not necessarily an explicit device in language, but a fundamental, often unconscious, assumption.
Religion provides one common source of root metaphors, since birth, marriage, death and other universal life experiences can convey a very different meaning to different people, based on their level or type of religious conditioning or otherwise. For example, some religions see life as a single arrow pointing toward a future endpoint. Others see it as part of an endlessly repeating cycle. In his book World Hypotheses, the philosopher Stephen Pepper coined the term and proposed a theory of four ultimate root metaphors--formism, mechanism, organicism, contextualism.

-----

And okay, turns out "metaphor" does not mean vehicle. But transport/transfer is pretty good:::

Etymology
Originally, metaphor was a Greek word meaning "transfer". The Greek etymology is from meta, implying "a change" and pherein meaning "to bear, or carry".

In modern Greek, the word metaphor also means transport or transfer.

*** How can we use TRANSFERS as linking devices?