Aloha, My Friend

Yyyyaaaayyy, nnnn, what’s up Doc?

To which you reply, “July First Friday, of course.”

 Let’s also not forget some of the other July anniversary dates. You know what folks, with just July as a mile marker, our own personal history is full of interesting steps:

July 1^st, 1966 – The ZIP Code was instituted
July 3^rd, 1971 – Jim Morrison died
July 10^th, 1964 – The Beatles released Hard Day’s Night
July 20, 1969, 10:56pm – Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon
July 30^th, 1975 – Jimmy Hoffa disappeared ( You should see the Jack Nickelson movie – HOFFA)

Other big dates:

July 2^nd, 1937 – Amelia Earhart disappeared in the Pacific. (You should listen to Joni Mitchell’s song titled, Amelia. It is one of my favorite of Joni’s)
July 6^th, 1885 – Louis Pasteur treated a child with the first anti-rabies vaccine. And almost 125 years later he saved my sweet Lanie’s life after she was attacked by a rabid bobcat here in Tallahassee.
July 7^th, 1898 – The US annexed Hawaii
July 15^th, 1881 – Pat Garrett shot & killed Billy the Kid. The Kid was just 21 years old.
July 17^th, 1821 – Spain cedes Florida to the US
July 22^nd, 1934 – John Dillinger was shot & killed by FBI Agent Melvin Purvis. (I am looking forward to the Johnny Depp movie)
July 27^th, 1940 – Bugs Bunny debuted.

The beautiful hula dancer on my Hawaiian calendar is confidently looking into the camera while in her pose as if to say, “Can we talk a moment here?”

Noting the Hawaiian annexation earlier it is probably important to her that I mention that there is a strong and legitimate Hawaiian sovereignty movement among the native islanders. One of the organizations has a very clever name, ALOHA – Aboriginal Lands of Hawaiian Ancestry.  After quite a few years of American businessmen shenanigans, over the stanch protests of Queen Liliuokalani, Hawaii was annexed. In 1993 President Bill Clinton, by way of a Public Law, offered an apology to the Hawaiian people. It is sort of fitting that the sweetest voice of the Hawaiian Rights Movement was honored with a huge funeral on July 10^th, 1997, Israel Kamakawiwo’ole, Bruddah Iz. He is most famous for his soft and tender cover of the song, Somewhere “Over the Rainbow.” He was also very vocal about native recognition and Hawaiian pride and in several of his beautiful songs he beseeches his listeners to appreciate the Hawaiian culture and its rich history.

Since First Friday will probably be over by the time that you read this let me jump ahead to what is happen for Second Sunday. On July 12^th Railroad Square will be hosting the LOT – Locally Owned Tallahassee –  members to set up and display their whatevers and introduce themselves to you. There will be dozens of your local business owners out here anxious to let you know why Tallahassee is sassy.  Come on out from noon until 5-pm for the little box people like BALI -HI.

I like June, no other month begins on the same day of the week as June. This year June began on a Monday, there isn’t another month starting on a Monday in 2009. Next year it will be a different day but June will be the sole possessor of that starter day too, and this happens every year on both the regular and the leap-year calendar.  Darn right amazing, you say, and I agree.

Of Hawaiian importance, June 11^th is King Kamehameha (meaning: The Lonely One) Day. It is a public state holiday honoring Kamehameha The Great, the monarch who first established the unified Kingdom of Hawaii in 1810. Kamehameha is often referred to as the Napoleon of the Pacific for his prowess in warfare and achievements in diplomacy. This day is celebrated with a beautiful ceremony of an evening draping of long strands of colorful and scented floral leis on the 8 ½  foot tall statue of the king in downtown Honolulu. This amazing ceremony is repeated in the U.S. Capitol where the king’s statue is displayed. Before 2008, shortly after Hawaii-born Barack Obama was nominated, the statue was moved from the dark, back row of the Statuary Hall to a prominent position in the brand new Visitor’s Center at the Capitol. Now that is a show I would like to see if I am ever in D.C. at the right time.

For hard-core English majors and Irish aficionados, June 16^th is Bloomsday, a commemorative festival held annually in Dublin and around the world to re-live events from James Joyce’s novel, Ulysses, the date that the characters, Leopold Bloom and his wife-to-be, Nora Barnacle, spent the day strolling.  In Mel Brooks’ movie, The Producers, Gene Wilder’s character is named Leo Bloom, an homage to Joyce’s character.

Of course, June 21^st is the Summer Solstice (12:45am EST). It is both the longest and the shortest day of the year depending on your location north or south of the equator.

June 21^st is also Father’s Day so beat the rush and spend lots of money on the grand guy here at BALI HI and while you are at it, take advantage of our Father’s Day Hawaiian Shirt Sale – 20% off.

And what’s not to like about the name, June, I ask you? After all, that is the name of America’s 1950’s pinnacle of a wife and home-keeper and the mother of Beaver Cleaver.

So, what’s happening at BALI HI and around the Square, you ask? Well, let me tell you, Bali-HI Trading Company is proud to welcome a new artist to Tallahassee.  Jon Elliott will be the featured artist for the month of June with an opening reception on 1^st Friday, June 5^th from 6 to 10 PM. 

Jon’s exhibit is called “On the Other Hand”.  The expression has a whole new meaning when it comes to Jon’s art and life.  For the past 12 years, Jon has lived in a wheelchair after falling 21 feet through a roof onto a cement floor.  He spent 4 months in a comma and sustained partial paralysis of his left side.  He has neither walked nor been able to use his dominate left arm since. 

Jon was a student at the University of Miami, Ringling School of Art and a graduate of Pacific Northwest College of Art.  Jon has had to teach himself to paint with his non-dominate right hand, starting with taping the paint brush to his hand.  The past 12 years, through perseverance and self adaptation, Jon has developed a new body of work.

Jon’s art startles with its emotion and intensity.  What appears at first to be just little slices of daily life upon close examination offer a glimpse of much more beneath the surface of the paint.   Be sure to stop by Bali-HI during the month of June to see the work of this emerging young artist.  Bali-HI is open Wednesday through Saturday from 11 AM until 6 PM and Sunday from 12 to 5 PM.

For Second Sunday at the Railroad Square Art Park the 621 Gallery has put together another spectacular Summer Soulstice Festival. It is going to be hotter than anything Al Gore could predict. They have 5 bands lined up and fun stuff for the whole family that I can’t even tell you about for fear of starting a stampede again.

BANDS:   The Windfall,  The Frigidaires,  Aloonaloona,  Jane Jane Pollack, Yellow Dog

So come on out to BALI HI and to Railroad Square and I guarantee you that you will get your summer rolling in greased grooves.

Best Wishes,

Elaine & Bill

Aloha, My Friend,

April is going to be a marvelous month for activities at BALI HI, Railroad Square and for life in general.

Bali-HI Trading Company is heading into spring with a great SALE! Our already unbeatably low priced solid teak outdoor furniture will be on SALE along with many other spring specials.  Also be sure to watch the Tallahassee Extreme Home Makeover on Sunday April 12 at 8 PM to spot décor items donated by Bali-HI.

On 1^st Friday we will be exhibiting the photographic art of the exquisite Kati Schardl.  Kati is assistant features editor for the Tallahassee Democrat. She is a true-blue North Florida native – born in Panama City and raised in Marianna. She is a writer, gardener, cook, reader, music lover, dancer and bona fide tree-hugging dirt-worshipper whose favorite times of the day are dusk and dawn, when the light is so ephemeral and yet so real that you feel you can grasp it like a cobweb and cup it in your palm. That’s what she has tried in a completely unschooled way to capture in the photos featured in this show, which also includes random images from travels that have taken her to Hawaii (twice) and New Zealand, and snaps of fires and sparks she has known and loved. She hopes that before she shuffles off this mortal coil she will get to see the fabled flash of green that comes just after the sun sets. She’s keeping her eye on that twilight horizon.

Join us for an artist reception on 1^st Friday, April 3 from 6 to 10 PM.  Meet Kati and see how she views the world through the eye of her camera.  As always we offer Hawaiian style food and beverages and an opportunity to meet the artist.  Kati’s art will be on display at Bali-HI Trading Company, 617 Industrial Drive, Wednesday through Saturday, 11 AM to 6PM and Sunday noon to 5 PM through Sunday, April 26^th.

Sunday this month, April 12^th, happens to fall on Easter so we are celebrating with a Peeps In The Park  Fun Day.   We will be open along with a few other hearty souls to make Easter 2^nd Sunday fun for adults too.  It is “Peeps in the Park” day.  Search for tiny eggs and stuffed plastic eggs to win gift certificates, prizes, discounts and of course Peeps!

On Sunday, April 19^th, participating Shops & Studios at the Railroad Square Art Park will host an afternoon of Peace & fun beginning at noon and continuing until 5pm and beyond. This event at the Railroad Square Art Park will commemorate the 51^st Anniversary of the design of the Peace Symbol as well as celebrate and honor peaceful practices and programs in Tallahassee. More that 50 civic & service organizations will participate displaying the spirit that volunteerism brings to our community. Throughout the Art Park will face painters, music by several local bands, Italian ice treats and assorted buskers. The Star Sea Café will be serving lunch and various other goodies will be available around the Park. Canned goods and money donations will be collected for the Big Bend Second Harvest to help people in need and to educate and inform the public about the problem of, as well as the solutions to, hunger. Bali-HI is offering for sale a beautiful Peace T-shirt and shopping bag designed by Nate King.  It should be available on 1^st Friday. There are women’s and men’s styles and many choices of colors.  Shopping bags are free with purchases of $100.  We now have a new selection of stained glass peace symbols by Kelly Wood. 

BANDS

 Sarah Mac Band

Moon Dance

Vulpes/Vulpes

SOMA

Yellow Dog

Unsigned Name

Yo Soybean

Yellow Dog

Lean HS Steel Drum Band

Bob Carey

Chris Perry

 PARTICIPANTS (Partial List)

Big Bend Cares

Collie Rescue

Peace Is Possible

2nd Harvest

Tallahassee Resource Group

Big Bend Hospice

Big Brother & Big Sister

Family Literacy

Big Bend Homeless

Aussie Rescue

Animal Service Center

FOOD

Star Sea Café

Peace, Love & Italian Ice

Soul Vegetarian

CHILDREN ACTIVITIES

Face Painting

Henna Artist

Popcorn

Bounce House

Aloha, My Friend,

March always has made me think metaphorically about young lovers, like we all were once. March comes to us sometimes with a warm, soothing embrace and, oh, the promises it makes for the days to come and all the flowers it will bring to us.

Sometimes, too, March comes disheveled and wild, tempestuous & wickedly alluring. And who among us has not been seduced by that combination, asking for no promises, expecting no flowers and accepting whatever tomorrow will bring because we were adventurous, impetuous and so full of life we would not let our heart be corralled?

And, these days, March has become that old friend that I do not see often but each time we do gather we talk and joke and cry about our previous encounters and I listen to the tales of what has filled its days.

Of course there is March 17^th, Saint Pat’s, the day when everyone is Irish for 24 hours. I am among the fortunate, I am an actual citizen of the Irish Nation and I have a passport to prove it. I consider St. Pat’s to be a sort of amateur night for revelers so for you rookie partiers I suggest that you go to Wakulla County to do your drinking.

And, as a hat off to Tri-Eagle Distributors here in Tallahassee, in Hawaii, on March 14^th, is the Kona Brewers Festival. If you have ever wondered what Aloha tastes like you need to get down to Publix and pick up a 6 pack of some delicious Kona Beer.

 A couple of quick bullet points – On March 27^th, 1513 Juan Ponce de Leon sighted Florida and on the 3^rd of March, 1845 Florida joined the US for the first time.

On a personal note, March 21^st is my mother’s 90^th birthday and the ol’ gal is spry and doing well, thanks for asking. Sadly though, my father had the unfortunate timing to pass away on her birthday and 11 years later we all miss him incredibly.

For Laine and me, March 3^rd, 2003 (03-03-03) was the start of our adventure in Paradise. I had been living in Hawaii for about 6 months at that time and she in the Seattle area but on that day we landed together at the Honolulu Airport with our family of two dogs. Not so good for our dogs, it was the beginning of a 30 day rabies quarantine, doggie jail. I will never forgive Hawaii for the damage done to our pups’ health and sanity. It was the dirtiest trick we ever played on them.

Just to mention it because I found it interesting, March 14^th is considered Pi Day and at various universities and museums around the world they celebrated with pie feasts. The beginning series of numbers for the mathematical constant, pi, are 3.14. March 14^th is the day that MIT sends out its letters of acceptance.

Laine told me that I couldn’t tell this joke at the end so, of course, here it is, “Every month people ask me why I write a newsletter and I always have the same answer, “Because I never metaphor I didn’t like.”   Now here’s Laine for what’s happening at the Square.

What can I say? Bill never listens to me anyway!  He failed to tell you that March 3^rd is also “Girl’s Day “.

It is the Peach Blossom Festival in China and the Doll’s Festival in Japan.  It is also widely celebrated in Hawaii and was a good day to arrive.  It has a new special meaning for me as on 3/03/09 I started my 1^st day with Covenant Hospice as a PRN nurse.  I always liked things in 3’s.

Please join us this 1^st Friday for what is expected to be some fabulous weather and a very special performance of Railroad Square’s own “Sauce Boss”, Bill Wharton.  Bali-HI donated some of our great mirrors to the silent auction so come place your bids and help support all the good things “Planet Gumbo” does for our community.

Bali-HI will feature the unique photographic cell phone art of my son Nate King.  You can meet the artist before he heads back to places unknown on the West coast.  Be sure to join us for 2^nd Sunday, March 8 from 12-5 PM when Railroad Square will feature our bi-annual “Artists at Work”.  There will be live music from 2- 4 PM and Bali-HI’s own Jodi Rhea Foster will be on hand demonstrating her hand tied jewelry art.

Bali-HI has 8 local artists represented in the shop and we are proud to welcome E’layne Koenigsberg. Her cool scrabble tile necklaces are a hit and I love her “bone fish” bracelets and get lots of compliments when I wear mine.  Don’t forget we are still having our “Heading into Spring Sale” with sarongs and aloha shirts 15% off and 20% off all tropical and beach scene original art.  We will also give you a free handout on how to tie a sarong with purchase of same. As always, we still give a free energy efficient light bulb with every lamp purchase too.

And to jump ahead a little bit, be sure to highlight April 19^th on your calendar for our Second Annual Circle The Park For Peace Celebration. We will have some 40 community organizations out here introducing themselves to you, 8 bands will be performing throughout the day and throughout the park. We will also have food vendor and entertainment for children of all ages.

Best Wishes & Mahalo Nui Loa.

Elaine & Bill Grace

BALI HI Trading Company

Aloha, My Friend,

You couldn’t guess it by walking around outside scantily clad these days but the word fever has its root word in the month of February. In ancient Roman days, long before the Fellini films, February was associated with a purification ritual called Februa. The Latin word for fever (febris) is associated with the idea of purification or purging, due to the sweating commonly seen in association with fevers.

I know that that is really a bit of useless information but somehow I am comfortable that you will tuck it away someplace in some cluttered mental closet and wow your friends with that knowledge at some future date.

Here is something else for your fun factoid file: If you look at the calendar you will see that February looks like a perfect block. February starts on a Sunday and, exactly 4 weeks later, ends on a Saturday. February is the only month that such a trick is possible and the year 2009 is one of the few years in which it actually happens.

And, of course, February is the month of St. Valentine’s Day. Although there is great debate about who St. Valentine was and his relationship to romance, he is one of my favorite saints, although some have recommended that I should lean a wee bit closer to St. Jude, the patron saint of lost causes. My saintly preference is sort of ironic because Laine will tell anyone who will listen that, mush-mush that I might be, I am not that much of a romantic. I don’t believe in soul-mates, I don’t believe in love at first sight and more than once I have found myself walking down the street thinking, “Oh, so this is what Jimmy Carter meant by lusting in my heart.” 

There is a song by John Hiatt called, Learning How To Love You.  One of the lines in it goes –

From the first kiss in the schoolyard
To the last heart broke in two
I didn’t know that it would be so hard
Learning how to love you.

We all make a lot of mistakes falling in love. Maybe that is why it is called falling-in-love, because it is an ongoing process, when we stop falling is when we crash. So we all keep on trying. And we keep learning. Maybe that is why we need a saint, to comfort us and assure us that our hearts can beat in someone else’s hands

This year, when you tell someone Happy Valentine’s Day let them know that you are still learning and that they are your favorite subject.

Happy Valentine’s Day, Laine.

Things are pretty sweet this month at Railroad Square. Bali-HI has expanded so come see our new space! We are all about the tropics as we get through the winter and head into a beautiful Tally spring. Come find that perfect tropical painting, lamp or Aloha shirt to lift your spirits and remind you of the warmth to come. We have fine handcrafted jewelry from 7 local artists if you are looking for that special ValentineS gift.  Several of our artists have created special Valentines gifts from heart pendants to handcrafted LOVE frames.

 2^nd Sunday (2/8) from 12-5 PM is “Sweet Sunday” and participating Shops and Studios will be having a bake sale with homemade goodies and sweets for sale.  The Cake Shop is donating some goodies too so be sure to get there early because these will go fast!  All proceeds will go to support 2^nd Harvest and Big Bend Homeless Coalition, HOPE Community.  Horse drawn carriage rides will also be offered this year, so it really will be a “sweet” event.

And Thanks for Shopping Locally.

Aloha, My Friend,

You would think that after all the years of dealing with the Holidays as an adult I would finally start getting comfortable with it but each year it sneaks up on me like that annoying person who hides in the closet waiting to jump out and yell, “Boo.”

It isn’t the gift giving aspect of Christmas that bothers me; I worked that angle out many years ago when I married Laine. She is very thoughtful and usually she will have something picked out for everybody by August and this is pretty amazing considering the size of the contingent that she has to deal with. Her side includes her family and friends and that is a large gathering indeed. On my side of the kith & kin line, although it is mostly just family, it is an Irish Catholic family that for almost 20 years went on a breeding spree. For a while there my sisters were human Pez dispensers, popping out little nieces and nephews at an almost preternatural rate. Bless them all, I think that they are the greatest kids in the world, not this world, of course, but certainly one of a galaxy nearby. And Laine is wonderful, she knows all of their names, most of their birthdays and which parent they belong to.

My hang up with Christmas is the family gathering thing. Except for healthcare, police / fire rescue & postal delivery, I don’t think anything should be socialized, especially holidays. Every year starting around January 2^nd I start polishing the memories of the previous Christmas gathering. Gleaming are the stories that my family told about their vacations (points to the sister who doesn’t have pictures), sparkling are the accomplishments of the children in academics, music and sports. As for my brother, he is sort of like Chandler from the sitcom, “Friends”. Nobody knows exactly what he does for a living but it might have something to do with business management and that he dates women prettier than Courtney Cox.

I have been blessed with a wonderful family and most of the time they love and tolerate me. And I am not a pretty package so even from family that is asking a lot. Even the year that I almost set fire to the kitchen one Christmas is a story that isn’t often repeated until after the wine has been flowing freely, which we call lunchtime at a Grace Holiday fete.

And the 2009 year will be fantastic – precious time with family, the gift of friendship continued, the pleasure of meeting and making new friends, the adventures that each dawn brings with it, the generous opportunities to continue to learn from my mistakes and the ability to effect change in Tallahassee.

Recently there was a letter to the editor in the Democrat written by Jeri Bush, the Director of VolunteerLEON (www.floridavolunteercenters.org.) In her appeal she illustrates that your gift of giving to the community can take many forms. “Volunteer opportunities abound in our great community, and thousands quietly do so throughout the year. Volunteers contend that the reward for their work is not money, but is, instead, the satisfaction of helping others, active involvement in our community and the friendships that they form through volunteer work.”

The Belgian playwright and Nobel Prize in Literature winner, Maurice Maeterlinck, put it succinctly, “An act of goodness is of itself an act of happiness. No reward coming after the event can compare with the sweet reward that went with it.”

Here is your chance at happiness for just 5 bucks or five cans of food.

Please join us for Souper Sunday on the Second Sunday of the New Year, January 11^th from Noon – 5pm. This second annual feast is a tasty fundraiser for the Second Harvest of Big Bend. Many of the participating shops and studios here at Railroad Square will be cooking up some of the best homemade soups and chilies you have ever tasted. Bowls will be sold for $5 or five canned food items and you can take your bowl to each shop and sample the warm varieties. We like doing fundraisers for 2^nd Harvest. We strongly believe that their mission to alleviate hunger is marvelous cause and, sadly necessary in every community. These are our neighbors who are hungry and we might not even know of their troubles. Although politicians talk about “poverty in America”, decision-makers avoid specifically mentioning the growing, and often deadly problem of hunger. George McGovern said in 1972, “To admit the existence of hunger in America is to confess that we have failed in meeting the most sensitive and painful of human needs. To admit the existence of widespread hunger is to cast doubt on the efficacy of our whole system.” Three decades later, evidence indicates that the existing system is failing a vast number of Americans. An estimated 36.2 million people lived in households considered to be food insecure and some 13 million children are living in households that are forced to skip meals or eat less due to economic constraints (16.9 percent of all children). It is impossible for me to put a face on these people so I will let you do that yourself. I did a simple Google search of Famous Homeless and came up with these names. Definitely keep in mind though, it isn’t just the homeless that are hungry, from the comfort of my car, with a Starbucks in the cup holder I am sure that I drive past many of the “food insecure” home every day – and so do you.

Please Support us for Souper Sunday. Here is a list that I came up with -   

Halle Berry
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Buddha (Gautama Siddhartha)
Drew Carey
Jim Carrey
Charlie Chaplin
Kurt Cobain
Daniel Craig
Ella Fitzgerald
Kelsey Grammer
Cary Grant
Woody Guthrie
Harry Houdini
Don Imus
Burl Ives
Jesus of Nazareth (Yeshua of Nazareth)
Eartha Kitt
David Letterman
Jim Morrison
John Muir
George Orwell
Gordon Parks
Sally Jessy Raphael
Debbie Reynolds
Joan Rivers
“Colonel” Harland Sanders
Tupac Shakur
William Shatner
Martin Sheen
Hilary Swank
Shania Twain
Whoopi Goldberg is a former welfare mom.
Carol Burnett is a former welfare kid.           

Aloha, My Friend,

One of the first jokes that I learned after I had advanced beyond the infinite pool of Knock-Knock jokes and the pure silliness of riddle jokes such as, “ What time is it when an elephant sits on a chair.”, went something along the lines of, – A man walks up to a farmer and asks, “How far is it into town?”. The farmer replies, “Oh, about 2 miles as the crow flies.” The man then ask, “And how far if the crow has a flat tire?”

Our 40 foot cargo container of goodies from Bali just arrived on November 7^th, First Friday. Our flat tire was the company that we had hired to do the importation paperwork. I swear to you that God first made fools for practice and then he made Customs Brokers. The container was packed, blessed and on the high seas back on August 18^th. It took only 4 weeks to make it all the way to Mobile, Alabama.  It took almost 3 more weeks to get from Mobile to Railroad Square and I had to pilot a 16 foot rental truck to go and fetch the items that U.S. Customs wasn’t able to get back into the container after they performed their Intensive Examination.

 If the cargo was blessed back in Bali it was surely one of the lesser deities they appealed to. No Brahma the creator, nor Vishnu the preserver, nor Shiva the destroyer was invoked to gently guide our Bali Hi goodies. My personal preference would have been Garuda, the winged-monkey, warrior general, the Guardian of Treasures. Vishnu would ride onto the battlefield on Garuda’s back. Garuda’s wingspan was many miles long and he would darken the noon sun as he flew overhead. It is written that Garuda went on a rescue mission during which he grabbed up a hunk of the peak of Mount Sumeru in his talons. As he flew over the Bali Sea he dropped the dirt which became the island of Bali.

I asked Yuli, our friend in Bali, just who she had petitioned to protect our shipment. She explained that in the Hindu religion there are over 330 Million deities and supernatural beings, she thought that the one they gave offerings and lit the incense to was one they call, Larry.

As Elaine mentions below, Bali HI is celebrating our 2^nd Anniversary on this December’s First Friday. It is because Tallahassee is such a wonderful community that we came back here to open the shop but it is because you are so amazing that we are still here. We are blessed to have you as our friend so come on out and help us celebrate.

Also, when you are making out your Christmas card list this year, please include the following:
Holiday Mail for Heroes
PO Box 5456
Capitol Heights, MD 20791-5456

This is a Red Cross program that will deliver your Christmas cards to our military personnel stationed around the world and to those recovering in hospitals around the world as well. They would love to hear from you.

Now let’s let Elaine tell her side of the story -

Happy holidays to all of you and thanks for your patronage and friendship.  We are excited about our 2^nd anniversary and will celebrate the event this 1^st Friday, 12/5 from 6 to 10 PM.  There will be free shell leis for the 1^st 100 customers and we will serve Kona coffee and aloha style pupus too! 

Then join us for our monthly 2^nd Sunday Fair at the Square where we are celebrating the benefits of shopping locally owned.  You can also take the pledge to spend your dollars locally and be entered to win door prizes from participating businesses like us. Just go to www.LocallyOwnedTallahassee.com  to take the pledge and be entered to win.  Also visit us on here at Railroad Square on 2^nd Sunday 12/14, noon to 5PM where participating shops are offering drawings for door prizes.

 This event will be a continuation of Railroad Square’s 12 days of shopping which starts on 12/12. You will find a number of wonderful shops and galleries participating and remaining open every day for your shopping pleasure.  Bali HI will be open on Christmas Eve until 5 PM for you last minute shoppers or those of you who just want to join us for some coffee and goodies. We have some wonderful new items and some great new local artists too. You will find jewelry by Rene Barrett, Jodi Rhea, Alison Schaeffler-Murphy, Nancy Hemphill, Debbi Clifford and Cheryl Sattler.  Cheryl’s beautiful little candle light diffusers are a popular and inexpensive gift.  I am proud to welcome Roxane McGinniss to our family of artists. Her glass work is amazing and one of her charming ornaments has already been claimed by me.  I also have some new porcelain Hawaiian ornaments from Aloha Kine.  I don’t have many, so shop early before they are gone.  For our loyal customers spending $100 or more during 12 days of shopping we have a free gift for you too. As our gift to you please mention this newsletter for 25% off any one item excluding consignment art.  Don’t forget we have gift certificates too. So avoid those crazy crowds at the mall and support your locally owned business at the same time.

Last but not least we wish for you all a peaceful and joyous holiday season.  Bill and I are taking a little rest too and will be closed Thursday 12/25 through Wednesday 12/31.  We will see in the New Year when our doors reopen on Thursday 1/1/2009.

Aloha, My Friend,

Too often my monthly diatribes include the phrase, “A long time ago”, and this is starting to make me feel like I am living in a high school civics class newsreel regarding stuff that happened just back in the ‘70’s. So, I am changing it to the code phrase, “It seems like just yesterday”.

It seems like just yesterday I wiggled out of high school pretty much undamaged and ran away from home for the first time. Because I went for Europe instead of California nobody recognized it for what it truly was. I told my parents that I was just following Mark Twain’s prescription from Innocence Abroad–

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness and many of our people need it sorely on those accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”

I know that it sounded brave and noble and beyond the ordinary wisdom of the teenager crowd I hid among. In a truth that I will share with you now, it was just tasty frosting on the wormy cake that I was afraid that I was doomed to be a land surveyor all of my days.

I wasn’t fortunate enough to have parents who could afford to send me to 6 colleges so I had to work as a land surveyor in the swampy cow pastures we now call Carrollwood in Tampa. Before the strip malls, the restaurants, the gated communities and the country club there was just that endless savannah of grazing grass blowing in smooth waves across the top and snakes of ill temperament slithering below.

I do find it amusing and a brilliant twist of fate that the company which undertook this massive transformation from pastoral to parking lots and rooftops became a victim of insider pillaging to such an extent that it once held the Guinness Record for theft by industrial sabotage. They hold it still for all I know. It was for something like $25 million.

But that was after I got my last paycheck from American Cyanamide. By the first warm breeze of springtime I was aboard an Italian cruise ship from Miami to Cannes, France. For you cruise minded folks, keep this in mind, apparently all of the major cruise lines rotate some of their ships, in this case, the Leonardo DaVinci, spending the winter months in the Caribbean and the summers in the Mediterranean. Instead of leaving Miami empty the lines would fill their cabins with poor students and thrifty travelers. Among these adventurers and vagabonds was a young woman who would go up on the promenade deck after midnight to play her guitar beneath the Milky Way and the wandering constellations. Another was heading to climb the Alps. He was sponsored by some hiking boot company and was supposed to submit an article about searching for the trail of Sherlock Homes and Professor Moriarty on the Matterhorn. One drifter mostly just sat in the 3^rd class bar drinking vodka gimlets and thinking he was The Boxer. He said he was going to discover Spain. He was not amused when I told him that I was pretty sure that had already happened. Yet another one was going to rendezvous with his sister in Florence, Italy. He promised that if I would meet him on the steps of the Santa Croce Church on a certain date he would introduce me to her. I was there at the appointed hour but, of course, they were not. The silver lining to this aside is that I found the best gelato in the world that day, and Laine will testify to the truth of that bold statement.  Besides his trickery, I remember him best for the note that he handed me when he was disembarking the ship.  In the closing was sort of a blessing of his own concoction. I have shared it with others and today I will share it with you and wish it for you.

I happen to think of it now, as I often do, because of the chill in the air. The window to winter is surely open. But, if you should chose to use this humble prayer you needn’t limit it to chilly night well wishes. I have used it as a spice within a note for friends embarking on their adventure and for friends who need a hug that I cannot give them.

So, from BALI HI to you, for today and always – “May the Angels keep you warm and safe in the folds of their wings.”

I’ll turn it over to Elaine to share with you what’s happening around the Square.

This month is all about the pets at Bali-HI and Railroad Square. We will feature the art of Pattie Maney.  For those of you who may have missed Pattie’s art, she has been featured at Kool Beans, De Vine Wine & Tasting Bar, 1123@Midtown, and a multitude of other locations.  Pattie’s portraits of pets are whimsical and charming, disarming you with the intensity of their gaze and their sometimes Mona Lisa smiles. Pattie constantly donates her time and her talent to many causes. Her art and grants have benefited Guardian Ad Litem, Big Bend Cares, Boxer Rescue, the Animal Shelter Foundation and more.  The soft spot in her heart though is to the animals she so lovingly captures in her paintings.  Pattie and Bali-HI will contribute 30% of the sale of her art to ComforTPets, a therapy pet organization.  Come meet Pattie at an artist’s reception on 1st Friday, November 7, from 6-10 PM and then enjoy the amazing adventure of Railroad Square on 1^st Friday.

Then please join us for one of our favorite annual events on Sunday, November 9, 1-5 PM when 2^nd Sunday Fair at the Square will feature, “Pets on Parade”.  The pet parade around Railroad Square Art Park will begin at 3 PM.  After the parade there will be a judging of the costumes by Emma Cornwell of PAWS and Stephanie Bell of The Trained Dog. Prizes will be awarded for the cutest, most original and funniest costume, the pet owner look alike and the crowd favorite. As always live music, food and drink, many open galleries and unique shops. Animal service and rescue agencies will be here with adoptable pets and information on how you can help. Stephanie Bell of The Trained Dog will share some tips on training your dog the compassionate way. This is a benefit for 2nd Harvest so all entrants should bring a non-perishable food item. Pets must be leashed with up to date vaccinations.

We also hope to charm you with our new shipment of wonderful goods from Bali that is if U.S. Customs will set it free.  Wait until you see how easy we can make your holiday shopping, many beautiful and unique gifts selected by us from recycled to Fair Trade.  We have some wonderful new items from Hawaii and finally we have an amazing new selection of bone carvings and Hawaiian hooks from Sami Fevaleaki our favorite Hawaiian artist!  Sami is very selective about who he chooses to sell his art and we are his only Florida gallery, in fact we are probably the only place on the East Coast where you can find Sami’s bone carvings on his hand tied linen cords which will last a lifetime.  There are a few beautiful Honu (turtles) I am trying to keep out of Bill’s hands and off his neck so come early for the best selection as we only have 20 pieces. Avoid the crazy parking problems at the mall and support your locally owned businesses too.  We always offer free layaway too! Bali-HI should also have our expanded space open in November and we have some amazing deals on a few large furniture items.

1866, when he toured the Hawaiian Islands, Mark Twain

The native language is soft and liquid and flexible and in every way efficient and satisfactory–till you get mad; then there you are; there isn’t anything in it to swear with. Good judges all say it is the best Sunday language there is. But then all the other six days in the week it just hangs idle on your hands; it isn’t any good for business

Aloha, My Friend,

It is interesting that October brings us the death month of both Edgar Allen Poe and Harry Houdini.

Taken in the context of the dark, goth lamentations of a husband mourning the death of his young wife, the poem Annabelle Lee is an amazing tribute to the endurance of love. The requiem was written after the death of his young wife, Virginia, a first cousin who was just 13 when she wed the 27 year old unemployed writer and editor. She was barely 19 when she died of consumption, tuberculosis. You can close your eyes and see him laying jackknifed and crying across her grave when you read –

But our love was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we
Of many far wiser than we
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Could ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabelle Lee

That is breathtaking.

Paul Simon once said that his most successful songs all began the same; he found a simple truth and turned it into a song.

And we loved with a love that was more than love
I and by Annabelle Lee

Long ago, on a deserted St. Pete Beach, I was able to recite that poem to someone who let me pass through her life. And it was in October too. The tide was slacking and we walked barefoot in the wet, ebb tide sand. It wasn’t hand-in-hand, I was a bit of a shy boy and a bit afraid of trusting myself with the simple act of touching the cupped palm of a young woman.

So, I walked beside her, mostly facing her. As we strolled the first fall weather cool air began to mix with the lingering warm hurricane waters of the Gulf and a veil of mist came alive and played around us, and clung to us and even softly hushed the rhythm of the breaking waves.

My early dating nervousness wouldn’t allow for the clichéd “comfortable silence” and so I yammered on until I found myself reciting Annabelle Lee to her to honor Poe and to hint that I too could be a brooding romantic. While I spoke the dewlets were sparkling in her raven hair. I had never watched anything like that before, it was like watching a flower awaken and unfold in the sunlight, her hair began to coil and whorl around her face and shoulders. I was amazed. I told her that Houdini had died on Halloween some 50 years before but the curling of her hair  was like watching one of his magic tricks just standing next to her.

I guess that as a joke she asked if I knew any magic tricks and, as the goofy kid I was, I asked that if I could successfully do three tricks would she let me kiss her.

She said yes.

So, I took a folded piece of paper from my shirt pocket and a Bic pen and without letting her see I wrote the numbers 3, 7 and her first name. I then gave her the pen and asked her to pick a number between 1 and 5 and to write it in the sand. She wrote 3. Then I asked her to do the same thing with numbers between 1 and 10. She wrote 7. Finally, I challenged her to write one word in the sand and she wrote her first name.

And there upon I got my first kiss from her. Little did I realize then that it was my boarding ticket to a train wreck.

And maybe by now she has figured out that 90% of the people will give the same answers. You can see this for yourself the next time you are in an office supply store. Look at the white pad of paper where you can test pens and among the doodles you will find mostly first names.

I guess that I was lucky that I got through my teens and early twenties before the terms nerd and geek became popular.

Yet I honestly believe to this very day that if a guy won’t do something bold and goofy for a kiss he might not deserve the sweetness of one. Ask me about a John Prine song sometime. It almost always gets me a Laine kiss.

And I’ll tell you something that I have never told Laine. As I was standing next to her while getting married overlooking the spectacular Snoqualmie Falls, the priest went on muttering stuff and I smiled, repeating to myself –

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabelle Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabelle Lee.

Coincidently, on October 2^nd, 1959, The Twilight Zone premiered on CBS.

You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension: a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You’re moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas; you’ve just crossed over into the BALI HI Zone

This month we will feature the vibrant, bright and bold acrylics of Mershell Sherman. Mershell’s tropical art will brighten your winter walls and fill your home or office with light! He uses many reclaimed materials and is further exploring texture, color and form in his inspired art. As Mershell hung his colorful offerings yesterday in the gallery area all I could do was smile. Hopefully you can take home one of his affordable paintings and it will keep you smiling and warm though the darker days. Come meet Mershell on 1st Friday from 6PM to 10PM. As always we will serve “island style” treats.

Bali-HI is having a special sale on all our clothes this month both new and vintage. All clothes and sarongs are 25% off.  Now is the time to get that real Hawaiian Aloha Shirt you have been longing for, if it is too cold to wear you can hang it on the wall too! Works by other local, Hawaiian and Bali artists are also on display and we still have some of Gianna Mitchell’s matted wave prints and a few framed ones as well.  What a great gift these are for the surfer in your life.

2^nd Sunday, 10/12 from noon to 5 PM is shaping up to be a “sporting event” as Cycle Circus with a costumed bike parade.  We never really know how these “happenings” will turn out but we have learned to expect the unexpected.  As always some live music, food and lots of galleries open and doing their thing.  In light of all the recent cycling deaths in Tallahassee we also hope to offer some bike safety as part of this event.   

And the Hits just keep on coming like AM Radio – On October 18^th the Railroad Square Art Park will be celebrating FALL FEVER. The Park will be overflowing with some 30 community organizations, FSU clubs and Leon County Schools set up to display and explain how they are involved in giving back to Tallahassee and how you can participate. We also have some 8 musical groups performing on two stages throughout the day. FALL FEVER could possibly be the most fun that you can have in public. It will definitely be the most fun that we can jam in between Noon and 5pm on that day.

Aloha, My Friend,

For many and many years I have associated September with changes in my life. Before I incorporated the phases and names of the moon into my own muddled set of beliefs and values, before Thomas Bulfinch’s and Edith Hamilton’s assorted stories of mythology and before the cult favorite, The Golden Bough, blended with my Irish Catholic upbringing, and long before I understood how Irish Catholicism had blended with Irish mythology, my life was defined in a binary cycle – In School / Out of School. From kindergarten through graduate school, September always marked the start of a new adventure and every fall since never has a cool morning breeze, the swirling of brown, fallen leaves or the evening’s soft nip not brought with it some memory of long ago smile new to distant school year or a familiar one renewed after the summer hiatus. Or the chilled flashback of all those summer reading assignments I neglected to fulfill yet somehow slogged on through another year.

Once or twice back I’ve had a late evening-early morning radio show and to flaunt my faux cool I would tell my insomniac listeners stories of news and nonsense – some things haven’t changed, eh? And someplace I might still have a printout of Wiccan lore about the different names and meanings associated with each full moon.

But this I know, September’s moon shines by many names – Harvest Moon, Hunter Moon, Barley Moon among some.  To the Cherokee it was referred to as the Nut Moon. This was a time for gathering the fruits and nuts from the bushes and forests and to celebrate Selu, the First Woman.

But, really, I don’t know all that much about the Cherokee other than the tragic abuse they suffered under President Andrew Jackson and his forced march of the Cherokee from their homesteads in Georgia to a reservation in Oklahoma. This removal was so brutal that over 4,000 Indians died mostly of starvation. Although the U.S. Supreme Court had judged the action was illegal and unconstitutional, Jackson remarked something along the lines of, “The Court has ruled now let them send their army to stop me.”  (Jackson Bluff is named after him in memory of his Tallahassee stay-over while routing the Seminole Indians). So, let me fall back to the old worn shoe of Celtic Mythology.

To the Celts (pronounced as though the C were a K unless you are referring to a basketball team) they referred to the September full moon as “The Singing Moon” to celebrate the end of the harvest and the backbreaking labor that everyone contributed to bring the crops in. This is a time for the exhilaration that comes with rest after your labors. With the balance of light and darkness brought by the Autumnal Equinox on September 22^nd you are able to feel all energies marching resolutely toward completion, acceptance, and mellowing.

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And isn’t it grand and so often the truth that every festival  has some type of moral affixed to it to reinforce the sense of community and joint survival?

According to this legend, the Summer King, mortally wounded by the grain harvests, uses the light of the full moon to make his way deep within the mysterious underworld where all things are bound to travel before they are renewed with the spring. As his final sacrifice he offers to take your deepest fear, your heaviest burden, and your bitterest heartache with him on his journey.

This is a time for forgiving and letting go. With the Summer King’s charitable offer to help you as you clear away your regrets and clean-up physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual clutter he frees you and strengthens  your own thoughts of forgiveness to those around you and opens your heart to their needs to carry themselves through the dark and cold yet to come.

Sounding all touchie-feelie, aren’t I?

And don’t forget, it is also time for Second Sunday – September14th.

Please join us on 2^nd Sunday for the bi-annual “Artists at Work”.  We will again have the privilege of Rene’ Lynch demonstrating her amazing ability to capture the exquisite beauty of the islands in watercolors.  We also will have our newest jewelry artist, Jodi Rhea, here demonstrating her craft.  Though Gianna Mitchell returned home to Maui, you can still see her beautiful wave paintings or buy a matted print for as low as $20! You can find glass and jewelry art from Cheryl Sattler, beaded gems from Rene Barrett, and Debbi Clifford’s ocean inspired jewelry.   We are also having a special sale on all our handcrafted metal hooks from Bali.  These are made by the family of our Balinese friend and shopping partner Yuli, who just had a baby girl on August 15^th!

The Square will be alive with art; many galleries will be open with resident artists and their guests doing what they do best.   So bring your friends, kids, and pets and don’t miss the 2^nd Sunday Fair at the Square, as always from noon to 5 PM.

Aloha, My Friend,

VACATION – from the Latin root word ‘VACATIO’ which, translated, means – “ If I don’t get out of here soon, pal. I will definitely kill someone and walk away smiling.”

Of course it doesn’t mean that in the current sense.

Or does it?

BALI HI WILL BE CLOSED FROM AUGUST 4^th – AUGUST  12^th – We will reopen on AUGUST 13^th.

We have bold plans. We shall fill our station wagon with a change of clothes or two, and some swim attire leaving as much room as possible for our three dogs, two of them males. The alpha-male weighs in at about 150 pounds. The alpha-wanna-be is about 55 pounds (4 stones in Gaelic). Their way of saying, “Dad, he touched me”, has already almost caused several accidents. Our destination is south to the Keys and if that ain’t Margaritaville I am still planting a flag and lying to all who will listen and the tourists covered in oil and swear that it is.

We pick this time for several reasons, first, recently I think that I have been seeing little demons and scary monsters in the un air-conditioned back of the store because this Summer it has been hotter back there than where St. Peter  traditionally sends those miscreants.

As a reason of equal importance according to a calendar but foremost in my life, my raison d’être , the song in my heart is that Elaine and my 10^th wedding anniversary is on August 8^th – 08-08-08. To the Chinese this as a momentous enough date to open the Olympics.

And I believe that it is pretty remarkable too.

If ever that sweet gal o’ mine deserves a margarita this could be it. After 10 years of riding in this rodeo with me she has earned it royally and the silver buckle as well.

Let me tell you, I was a little surprised that she said Yes back then and more than amazed that she hasn’t said good-bye more than once since then.

I have to admit, though, that I tricked her into saying yes with all types of romantic voodoo and I whooped that ju-ju it on her is a spiritual, center of the universe , creation of the world as we know it with all of its little animals and fragrant flowers and the sun and moon to guide sort of place.

That is a story to tell some day.

Or is it?

Instead I’ll move along to what’s happening at BALI HI.

BALI HI Trading Company always strives to share the “Aloha Spirit” with Tallahassee through art and more. This August 1^st Friday we will feature a homegrown artist, Gianna Mitchell, who now lives, surfs and paints on Maui. She is an amazing artist and “paints waves from a surfer’s view of the ocean.’ Gianna grew up here in Tallahassee and graduated from FSU with a Bachelor of Arts in 2000.  She moved to Maui right away and learned to surf on her 3^rd day living in Lahaina. West Maui has been here home ever since. We are fortunate to have Gianna here visiting with her mom, Barbara Mitchell, who teaches at Astoria Park Elementary. Gianna also shares a Bali connection with us as she was the Artist in Residence last September at Spa Village, Tembok, Bali. Come meet Gianna and explore “Capital City Surf” 6-10 PM, Friday, August 1^st. This special exhibit will be on display throughout September, but we will always have Gianna’s small surf prints available.

BALI HI is also having a huge warehouse sale as we close our warehouse and expand our current location.   

Please remember, we will be closed from Monday, August 4 – Tuesday, August 12 as we take our 3 “poi dogs” to get a little “island time” in the Keys!

Best Wishes & Peace

Bill & Elaine
BALI HI Trading Company

Aloha My Friend,

By the time that you receive this newsletter the fuse will already be lit for the 4^th of July.

While getting ready to write this, I ran across an article on what they called “The Redneck Vasectomy.” Apparently, with this procedure, the doctor instructs the patient to put a lit M-80 firecracker into an empty beer can, place the can to his ear and count to ten. A successful operation is concluded when the patient counts, “1, 2, 3, 4, 5,”, pauses, puts the beer can between his legs and starts counting on his other hand, “6, 7, 8…”

What do I know, eh? Funny that you should ask. Did you know that both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, two founding fathers of the U.S. and the only two men  who signed the Declaration of Independence to become President of the United States, died on the same day, July 4^th, 1826,which was America’s 50^th anniversary.

My favorite Declaration of Independence story is about Charles Carroll. He was the last surviving member of those who signed. He was 95 when he passed. He was only 39 when he signed. He wasn’t the first to sign, that honor goes to John Hancock, he wasn’t the youngest, Edward Rutledge was only 26, and he wasn’t the oldest, Ben Franklin was 70 when he scrawled the ink to the parchment. The reason that I pause to mention Carroll is because of the way that he signed his name. And because of the story / moral that my dear mother, Fran, told me when I was just in 5^th or 6^th grade.  What you have to focus on was that the American Revolution was founded on what mathematicians call a zero-sum game, somebody wins everything and somebody loses everything.  America won it all, her independence and the opportunity to become this great country she is today. But, had George Washington and the 56 signers of the Declaration lost that war they would have lost everything, certainly their property and all that they owned and most probably their life. To the British, hanging a traitor and putting his head on a pole was a jolly tradition and all good sport at that time. There is a valid reason that Ben Franklin stated that “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.” Signing the Declaration was a serious commitment, the war had already started 15 months prior and the outcome was truly looking questionable. There was no “do over” or backing out. Britain had refused to treat American soldiers as POWs and treated their prisoners as traitors and terrorist, allowing over 10,000 men to die in seriously inhumane conditions.

So here is where mom and her story comes into play. We had taken a family trip to Washington DC, mom and dad in the front taking turns driving and 5 crabby kids in the back with incredibly short attention spans. One stop in DC was to see the Declaration of Independence. It was there that Fran pointed out Charles Carroll’s signature. It wasn’t particularly ornate and otherwise wouldn’t have stood out from any of the others except for how he had signed –“Charles Carroll of Carrolton”. His was the only signature to include his mailing address. He wanted there to be no mistaking which Charles Carroll had signed the Declaration of Independence, and quite possibly his own death warrant. Fran’s point was that if you believed that something was the right thing to do then let the world never question who you are or where you stand.

On a final 4^th of July note, in 1808 the citizens of Richmond, VA resolved that only liquor produced in that county would be allowed to be drunk on the 4^th.  I am incredibly moved by their sense of supporting locally owned businesses. And you can support locally owned businesses too, by golly. Come on out here to Railroad Square and celebrate “Independents” Day, your 1^st Friday alternative to the Tom Brown Park mayhem. We will have some 50 locally owned, independent businesses and galleries open for your perusal and shopping pleasure. Thousands of your friends will be here and looking forward to seeing you again. The festivities run from 6pm until nearly 10pm. But time shouldn’t matter when you are having fun.

“Tell me some good news, Bill. What else is happening at BALI HI?” Darn good question you ask there, my friend. First, we are having our “Little Cheeper” sale. I stole the idea from a guy in Seattle, Jack Roberts. He would have a “Little Cheeper” appliance sale and give away little chickens. Elaine says that I am just trying to compensate for my failure at an earlier dream of mine. In the 1970’s I went through that hippie stage of grooving with Mother Earth, so I decided to become a chicken farmer. I bought some land at the far edge of a cow pasture and got started trying my luck with a couple hundred chickens. They all died. To this day I haven’t figured out whether it was because I planted them too deep or too close together.

Anyway, that mystery is your gain.

We are emptying our warehouse in order to expand BALI HI. We are on the verge of becoming the biggest small shop in Tallahassee. We have gobs of beautiful solid teak pieces, some of which you have never, ever seen. Now, for you my friend, you can take it home for 25% to 75% off our already ridiculously low every day prices. This sale will begin Friday July 11^th and run through Sunday the 13^th.   Come on down a few days earlier and pick out what you are going to get for your friends, your loved ones and, admit it, you want something too, don’t you. You know our hours, WED – SAT: 11am-6pm and SUN: Noon until 5pm.