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"Da Book" is now available! Call Kealia Press toll-free at 1-888-710-1100 and get your copy today. It is also available on Amazon.com, or you can pick it up at just about any bookstore in Hawaii. George has lead a truly interesting life. Pulled between two cultures, Western and Hawaiian, he has taken the best from both worlds. Many deeply touching, exciting and above all, hilarious experiences have marked his path. If you enjoy George's story telling at his concerts and workshops, you'll love hearing more about the very strange route he followed to get to where he is today.
"His stories are full of mana
(divine or supernatural power), and they reveal to us intimate details of
the Hawaiian culture of today and of generations past. A great read and a
truly remarkable book." "I loved these stories,
always honest and straightforward, and often hilarious. George is pono,
a good Hawaiian man. These stories take us into his mind and heart." My family was living in Honolulu, this was in the early Sixties, and I was around 12 years old. I had this beat up old guitar I used to carry with me everywhere, and I had learned to play a little bit of slack key music, just one song really. I got a job after school and on Saturdays working for Lippy Espinda. He ran a used car lot on the corner of Kalakua and Kapiolani in Waikiki. Later on, Lippy became kind of famous in Hawaii for his TV ads, and he also appeared on a bunch of Hawaii Five-O TV shows. Anyway, Lippy used to pay me to wash cars. I got 10 cents to clean a car, inside and out. Actually, this was pretty good money for me. I was kind of working under the table, if you know what I mean. I could wash around 10 cars in an evening, so I would make a buck. When things were slow, I used to sit on a cinder block wall at the edge of the lot, playing my guitar. Right next door to the car lot was this sort of a night club. Maybe it was more like a strip joint, I guess. The name of this place was "The Forbidden City". One of the musicians who played there regularly was Kui Lee. He went on to become kind of famous, too. He wrote a lot of great songs, like “I’ll Remember You” and "Ain't No Big Thing". Kui Lee played there from about 5 P.M. to maybe 9 or 10 at night. The musicians took a break at around 7:30, and they used to hang around next to the block wall, smoking. On one of his breaks, Kui Lee heard me playing, and he liked it. So he said to me, “Brah, come inside”. So I came in and played my one song, took me less than three minutes. And the people in there went crazy, they loved it. They threw money onto the stage. I went outside and counted it up. Several times. Twenty-seven dollars and ten cents! This was like two months pay at the car wash. So that was the end of my car washing career and the beginning of my music career. Here is a book review by Wayne Harada in the Honolulu Advertiser. Jamie O'Brien has also written a nice review on the rambles.net website. A recent issue of Hana Hou, the Hawaiian Airlines magazine, carried one of the stories from the book.
George's book, A Hawaiian life,
is available now!
Order yours today, or pick it up at any bookstore in Hawaii.
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