Top Hat Entertainment: 2020

Sunday, July 12, 2020

MASHUP - Donzig - "Bad Mother"

My Letter to the Editor of The Garden Island Newspaper on Kauai

Aloha!

I am a 14 yr returning resident to Kauai and 17 yrs. out here in Hawaii. Having just completed my 14 day quarantine on June 22nd, I was eager to get back to beach life, seeing friends and rejuvenating my life. I had been 2.5 yrs on Maui and 9 months in the bitter cold that is Denver, CO. Having moved back in the midst of COVID hasn't been an easy journey but I had purchased my ticket back on March 8th right before the proverbial doodoo hit the fan. Monitoring everything from Denver, I left on June 8th.

One June 28th, I decided to venture down to Secret's Beach. I had done the looming steep incline up & down a few times but it had been about 10 yrs. It was gorgeous day, can see Kilauea Lighthouse, the ocean was an azure l blue. I was home and I was so incredibly happy!!! I started down the path, doing ok as I approached the last 10 feet or so, I decided to take the part of the path that had some makeshift stepping stones down to the beach. I went one, two, three .... !SNAP! as my foot landed on the sand, my ankle broke and was dangling off my limb. I was at the bottom, under the shade of the tree, my back to the earth. I sat there, taking in the beauty of Secret's, realizing what just happened and I then called for help.

There were folks coming & going from the beach as well as the path so I managed to stop a sweet couple - Travis & Jenny along w their toddler. Travis went to the top of the path as cell phone reception is sketchy there, to call 911 and Jenny stayed with me. About 45 minutes later, the EMTs & AMR guys were there having the paved 911 driveway to come down to. I was relieved this happened at the bottom and not the midway down the path. Jenny talked with me assuring me that it would be all ok. She even knew some of the EMTs. I noticed that where I was at and where the vehicles were, there's a huge gulch that is created by high tide or run off when it rains, luckily is was dry. I wondered how I was to get from where I was sitting to the ambulance. Six incredibly trained, kind and professional men reassured me, told me all the steps they were going to take to help me. They put on a makeshift splint, had me wiggle into this big tarp like gurney they used to carry me across that gulch and up the steep other side without dropping me; while smoothly getting me in that ambulance was a feat of steady and stable assurance that gave me a sense that I was in excellent hands. The gentlemen that were w AMR told me everything that was happening on our drive, what they were doing to me or for me and got me to Wilcox. Many of the EMTs know my landlords and that was the reminder that "I was lucky to live Kauai."

While I am fully aware of what gets said about tourists who end up having to utilize our resources because of bad decisions, I am someone that just had this misfortune of landing on my foot in just the right position with enough of an impact that snapped my ankle proves to me accidents do happen. Mine certainly wasn't life and death but I am grateful that we have these resources. I have 2 pins & a plate holding my right ankle together. The ER doctor, Dr. Johnson, Dr. Rule and the staff of Wilcox Hospital are kind professionals who really are eager to help you and give you quality healthcare or at least that was my experience.

My deepest heartfelt thanks to Travis & Jenny, wherever you are!!!! My undying admiration and deepest aloha to the men of Kauai Fire Dept. and American Medical Response for rescuing me me! My Father was a volunteer fireman back in the 1960s on the mainland and I knew that day, in particular, he was there watching over me.

Mahalo nui loa~

Faith Harding

Kilauea

tophatandscarf@yahoo.com

Monday, May 11, 2020

The Day the Live Concert Returns

By Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters - in The Atlantic:

Where were you planning to be on the Fourth of July this year? Backyard barbecue with your crankiest relatives, fighting over who gets to light the illegal fireworks that your derelict cousin smuggled in from South Carolina? Or maybe out on the Chesapeake Bay, arguing about the amount of mayonnaise in the crab cakes while drinking warm National Bohemian beer? Better yet, tubing down the Shenandoah with a soggy hot dog while blasting Grand Funk Railroad’s “We’re an American Band”?

I know exactly where I was supposed to be: FedExField, outside Washington, D.C., with my band Foo Fighters and roughly 80,000 of our closest friends. We were going to be celebrating the 25th anniversary of our debut album. A red, white, and blue keg party for the ages, it was primed to be an explosive affair shared by throngs of my sunburned hometown brothers and sisters, singing along to more than a quarter century of Foo.

Well, things have changed.

Rest of The Atlantic article here:
https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2020/05/dave-grohl-irreplaceable-thrill-rock-show/611113/