Why Celebrate Anywhere Else?

I turned 39 this year... At least I think I did. I keep loosing track. It's easy to remember how old my dad is, he was born on a decade (I won't say which one), so you just minus that decade from the year and you get his age... more or less. In 39 years, I have never missed a Christmas in Hawai'i. Never. I've gotten close, where I had to fly out on Christmas day, or the day after. When that happened, I was doing a gig somewhere to celebrate New Years Eve. But I've stopped that now. Why would I want to celebrate New Years Eve anywhere else? Hawai'i is the place.

Twice in recent memory have I not been home in Hawai'i for New Years Eve. For New Years Eve 1998, I did a Luther Vandross show in Atlantic City. At midnight, they stopped the show, brought us champagne and everyone sang "Auld Lang Syne". Then cheered, and then Luther finished the set. New Years Eve 2000 found me sitting at a console on Long Island, New York with Andrea Bocelli. The show ended by 10PM so everyone could get to the real parties, so at midnight, they handed out flashlights and we all held our breath and waited to see if all the computers would fail. They didn't.

New Years Eve in Hawai'i is almost as fun a Christmas, it just involves a lot of fireworks. Every year, at my dad's house we have a barbecue and fireworks. It originally wasn't a big deal. I just wanted to cook some meat and blow up some stuff, and had friends come over if they had nothing better to do. But now, it's sort of an institution. We have a regular crowd that shows up, including all the brothers and family.

These are my brothers wives and kids. On the left is Jackie, and Lina, my brother Ray's wife and daughter. On the right is Susan and Dylan, my brother Matt's wife and son. This is the beginning of the evening, when we're barbecuing and chatting. By 10 PM they usually retire inside until midnight, the reason will be explained later.

This is my brother Matt and his son Dylan. Behind him is the cook, our cousin Jay. He comes in the evening and helps with the food, he's a chef by trade, you see. By 9PM he disappears to go to his fiance's families house for their New Years party (he cooks there too).

Here's my brother Ray and his daughter Lina. She's unbeleivably cute and smart as a whip. She gets the cute part from her dad and her smarts from her mom.

This is Calvin, "King of Salsa." He and his family are regulars at our New Years party. He's been my best friend since high school. Good people.

This is my brother Matt on the left and his friend Keith, another regular. He's one of those quiet types that you have to watch out for. He may not say much, but when he speaks, he doesn't say much.

Here's me and Sean Patrick holding his first firework, your standard Morning Glory. Mainlanders have sparklers, we've got Morning Glories. They're kind of lame, but great for kids to hold. They also serve as great fuses, as you will see in a moment.

Every year we spend more and more money on fireworks.

This was this years stash. The big purple box standing up behind the makeshift shelf we call the "boogie board", because that's how big it is. They also sell ones we call "surf boards", you can imagine how big those are. By the way, we bought two "boogie boards" this year.

Normally, it would be the brothers and the adult male friends who would set off the bulk of the fireworks. There were some kids around, and they set off some, but more often than not they would be fast asleep when midnight rolled around. This year was a bit of a changing of the guards.

This is KR. He's the grandson of my dad's wife, Nilda. They adopted him this past year so this was his first time celebrating New Years in Hawai'i. So he took over setting off most of the fireworks for us. He was joined by a partner in crime.

This is KR on the left and Inoa on the right. Inoa is Calvin's son. Together they set off every single firework we had. Often lighting stuff and then walking away to get other stuff, without even watching the fireworks display. We had to correct them and slow them down a bit. That's why there's only one "boogie board" in the pictures. We hid the second one so they wouldn't set everything off before midnight. Which we were dangerously close to doing the year before.

We were missing one regular this year. Our friend Brian and his wife Jenn alternate years between Hawai'i, where Brian is from, and New Mexico where Jenn is from. This year was New Mexico, but that didn't stop us from getting the phone call from Brian being sad about missing the fun. This next video is for you Brian.



Every year Brian is with us, he brings his own "boogie board". But instead of lighting each piece separately, he goes in my dads kitchen, tears out a big sheet of tinfoil and wraps all the fireworks up in that, then throws a lit pack of Morning Glories on top. This year, Ray took on the challenge of "The Bomb". I told you Morning Glories make great fuses.

A few years back, people complained about the dangers of aerial fireworks, so the government banned them. Which was fine, they were pretty dangerous because they embers often landed on houses and what not and sometime started fires. But within the last 3 or 4 years, the black market has made a real killing on aerial fireworks, especially on the neighbors who live in the house on the hill behind my dad.



The above video was shot at midnight, hence the sustained aerial bursts. But from about 7PM when it get's dark until midnight, there is a constant barrage of aerials exploding behind my dad's house. And it's not just them, they're all over. I've had people come from all over the island tell us the same thing, the aerials and fireworks in general are the worst in Kane'ohe (my hometown). In the video you can also hear our neighbors across the street setting off strings of firecrackers.

By midnight the air is acrid with the stench of gun powder and sulfur. There is a smoke so dense you can barely see across the street. The only safe haven is in the house, where the wives and children recess to by 10PM when the smoke starts to build. I joked this year that when I die, you'll be able to tell my age by cutting my lung open and counting the smoke rings imbedded in there from each New Years Eve.

New Year Eve has always been like this in Hawai'i. My dad has pictures of us boys holding sparklers and were not more than 5 or 6 years old. I've always known New Years Eve like this. And I always want to know New Years Eve like this. I want Sean Patrick to know it too, at least for a few years of his young life, before he finds his own traditions.

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