jack johnson

i just got home from five hours of spectacular music at the kokua festival. there was a great mix of music tonight: makana, a slack-key guitarist started off the night followed by michael franti and spearhead. willie k and amy hanaiali'i gilliom were the third set to play before tonight's headliner: jack johnson.

jack played an amazing hour-long set before serenading us with his calmer tunes as his encore. i can't remember all of the songs he played, but he probably performed an album's worth of music by playing half of the songs from his brushfire fairytales cd and half from the on and on cd. the highlight of the night for me was when he played "mudfootball" as the last song in his set followed by "times like these" as the first song in the encore set. my two favorite jack johnson songs played back to back. amazing. simply amazing. i was in awe the entire time he was on stage because i was watching him live, and in hawai'i, his homeland. very few people can say that they've seen him perform in front of his home crowd. and that's what made it even more special. the set he played was geared towards the local audience. he even played the 'ukulele during two of his songs. john cruz played with him during the encore set as his special guest, and he had willie k and uncle boom join him during his main set. i enjoyed every minute of his performance, and after it was all over, i was beaming from ear to ear. tonight made my winter break. i finally got to see jack johnson live in concert, and it was so worth it. jack changes very few things when he performs, but overall, his live performances are simply jack. he plays the guitar and sings and it's wonderful to watch. i am very lucky.

overall, today was an awesome day. the rain stopped, the clouds cleared, and the sun arrived. so, after taking brad to school for soccer practice, i came home, did a few things, and then went to the beach. i went down to waikiki, parked the car at kapi'olani park, ran around kapi'olani park and through waikiki for a bit, and then chilled out on the beach for a few hours. i swam for a bit, read for a bit, and slept for a bit. it was nice to chill out at the beach by myself. i needed that. hooray.

after the beach, i came home, took a shower, and got ready for the concert. ko picked me up at 4:45 and we went to jamba juice to get a smoothie and pretzel for me (since i hadn't eaten all day). then we went to the blaisdell. we met kelly, who is currently in south korea teaching english, but is on her week off vacationing in hawai'i just to see jack johnson play in tonight's concert. she's originally from nova scotia, and she's really cool. she's returning to korea tomorrow morning to go back to work. the three of us had a great time.

once the concert finished, ko and i went to likelike drive inn for our traditional pancakes and fried rice meal. it was so 'ono!!!! i called krystal while we were waiting for our food, and the three of us are planning to hang out tomorrow night. this is going to be quite the weekend for me. i went to the beach, saw jack johnson in concert, and ate at likelike drive inn tonight. and tomorrow night i get to hang out with two of my friends. this has been the best trip home. i'm definitely re-energized to get back to work and school in boston. but i'm not going to think about that until i'm there.

anywho, i'm pooped. i'm going to chat with jenny for a bit before going to sleep. goodnight!

sleeping with a smile on my face.

-me : )