Page 2 - MidWeek - Feb 15, 2023

2 MIDWEEK FEBRUARY 15, 2023
What piqued my interest initially was the song called Hawaii that is dedicated to Lydon’s wife of almost a half-century, Nora. You see, Nora is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, and Lydon believes this song is “going to melt her, Alzheimer’s or not.” The tune represents a moment when, according to Lydon, “we spent a magnificent holiday in Hawai‘i after a tour once and it was just the greatest week of our lives. Now, her memories are fading, I wanted to bring something like that back to her. I get broke up even thinking about it.”
The author learned that there are many parallels between running and music.
trying to accomplish and what my body is capable of. In preparation for a recit- al, I bear in mind the advice of legendary piano teacher Ellen Masaki: “The slower you practice, the faster you learn.” I practice one hand at a time, one measure at a time, one phrase at a time. In preparation for a race, I build endurance and mile-
KELLEY
What a beautiful sentiment from someone not often associated (publicly) with beauty, love and warmth. After all, this is the guy who penned such moral shock- ers as God Save the Queen and Anarchy in the U.K., and whose band brought us the startling Who Killed Bambi in the late 1970s (though he was very upset at the Bambi crime in that song). Lydon/Rotten once gave his bandmate a renowned nickname that stuck: “Sid Vicious.” While many were indignant and repulsed by the Sex Pistols’ look (dynamic progenitors of piercings and spiked hair), sound and antics, the group helped birth the punk rock movement and questioned British social mores.
Running, I discovered, has many parallels to mu- sic. I run at high speed with my dog, Pickles, a shep-
age one step at a time. The slower and more gradually I learn, the faster I acquire the skill.
Fast-forward 45 years, and Lydon, who still makes statements as controversial and outlandish as ever, con- siders himself his wife’s full-time caretaker. “For me, the real person is still there. That person I love is still there every minute of every day and that is my life. It’s unfortunate that she forgets things, well, don’t we all?”
We sure do. The song Hawaii has lines like “Remem- ber me, I remember you”; “All journeys end, some begin again”; and “Falling in our hearts, here again, Hawai‘i.”
Perhaps we’re all invariably accountable as the sum of what we say and do, but most of us have shades and textures. To hear Lydon gift a beautiful song about Hawai‘i and express verbal sentiments about his ailing wife in 2023 reminds me to look for often unseen nu- ances in everyone and everything.
Think about it.
Changing Tempo, Keeping Pace
“Musical rest notes ... keep the other notes from stringing together in a breathless and chaotic way.” — Julie J. Exline
THere Again Hawai‘i
Iwanted to run away, take time off, lock out the world. While I love being busy, and fortunately also love my profession as a music professor, I some- times overcommit and be- come overwhelmed, which is exactly where I found myself in March 2020.
he words “Johnny Rotten” and “love song” seem so diametrically opposed, that it is down- right inconceivable to think of them meshing
so the oil coats and flavors the rice, and use MSG!).
well. Rotten, aka John Lydon, originally fronted sem- inal ’70s punk band Sex Pistols, and he’s now written a poignant modern love song with his band of the past 40-plus years, Public Image Ltd., or PiL.
When the world actual- ly did shut down, my mind frantically raced to another kind of activity: What was the next step, how do I adapt my instruction, how long will this last, and how do I keep my family safe? To ease tension, I turned to ex- ercise. Institutions and busi- nesses were closed, but the roads were open for running.
A pre-pandemic focus on making a living had ob- scured the fact that in the midst of activity, “Dr. Yee” is first and foremost “Tom- my.” As we return to nor- malcy, I ponder the lessons learned: Slow down, savor the moment, and give full honor to the rest note.
Thomas Yee is Professor of Music (piano) and Asso- ciate Chair at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. Win- ner of over 20 International and National Piano Compe- titions, Dr. Yee has been on faculty at UHM since 2002.
Chasing The Light is pro- duced by Lynne Johnson and Robin Stephens Rohr.
herd-chow. Alone, I may gently lope or merely trot. As in a musical score, the pace must match what I am
Being forced to slow down the last couple of years during lockdown blessed me with slowly acquired skills, including swimming, baking rum cakes, and mastery of my parents’ fried rice recipe (render the lup cheong first
New Century Schoolbook bold (scaled H 73.6)
with Thomas Yee
john@thinkaboutithawaii.com