This is the Honolulu Public Library.
To get you into an Aloha frame of mind, here’s one of my favorite Hawai’ian music groups, Kalapana, and their song, “Black Sand.”
I saw those guys play live in Waimea, and I have an autographed CD from them. Great bunch of guys. Hawai’ian music is so much more than Don Ho and “Tiny Bubbles.” 🙂
You pick the topics today. What do you want to talk about?
Bonus: Here’s more IZ. You’ve no doubt heard this song in more than one Hollywood movie. If you’re a fan of the TV show, “ER,” you heard it at the end of the episode in which [spoiler alert] Mark Green [played by Anthony Edwards] died.
Student of the American Civil War 
Thanks very much for this musical treat! Lovely stuff. I am learning a lot from my visits here. Regards from Thom at the immortal jukebox (give it a spin!)
Oh yeah! I know I’ve heard that IZ song, and think I recall hearing it in 50 First Dates. Looked him up on IMDB and now realize that I also heard his stuff in movies like Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Finding Forrester, and Meet Joe Black. Good stuff.
Since we recently passed its sesquicentennial, what do you think of Chamberlain and his First Brigade’s performance at Five Forks? I did quickly abandon the myth of Colonel don’t-call-me-Lawrence saving the entire army on G2, but think he put in a solid performance during the endgame of the siege of Petersburg. And, if things had gone better for the ANV that day, how long would it have postponed the inevitable (if at all)?
Chamberlain is tough for me to get my arms around because so much of what we believe we know about him comes from him. I don’t think there’s any doubt he was a fine officer who showed much courage, but beyond that what do we really know about his actions in the war that comes from what others said about him? I’m not sure we’ve had a real, objective biography of him yet.
Let’s say the ANV gets to cross the Appomattox River and move south. It seems to me the AotP’s pursuit still would catch them on the road. They’d at least harass the rear guard, causing more attrition, making sure the ANV couldn’t stop to rest, picking up stragglers along the way, so it’s difficult to say how many would make it to link up with Johnston, if any at all, and then “Army Group Grant” is close to and links up with “Army Group Sherman” and finishes the job in North Carolina. That’s my view anyway.
What you say is true – a lot of the information about his performance does come from him. However, a good amount of the information about Chamberlain late in the war does come from others like Warren. I must admit I formed that opinion from reading mostly secondary (but well-footnoted) sources like Trulock. Anyway, that’s why I tend to believe more of what I read about Chamberlain in the last months of the war.
I agree with your “if any at all” part. I’m not sure they’d have made it to NC at all. It wouldn’t take much longer for the number of ANV effectives to dwindle to where Federal Cavalry alone might be able to block and stop them.
Ellis Spear is another source, but he and Chamberlain seem to have had a falling out.
Grant may finally have kicked the AotP in gear. Since you mentioned Warren, Sheridan’s sacking Warren might possibly have helped. A good, aggressive pursuit of a fleeing ANV that had been able to turn south would mean the ANV’s days were numbered anyway.
I’m disappointed in Appomattox coverage … and bored because none of the most, for me, thought-provoking speakers are out there free on the internet. Ed Ayers at Appomattox was wonderful as always, but the rest needed some Zip or better content. Also, I was looking for a giant screen outside at the McLean house with visuals of inside business. Education/Information always benefits from a bit of show biz.
I thought the NPS commemoration was really well done. Education really isn’t the primary goal in something like that, though.
Rosemary, I think you might find Sunday’s programs on C-SPAN III more to your liking, based on the descriptions I’ve read.
The following (which I saw on TPM) is not the National Park Service’s strongest interpretive effort:
“Beginning Peace and Reunion. On Palm Sunday (April 9), 1865, Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House, Virginia signaled the end of the Southern States attempt to create a separate nation. It set the stage for the emergence of an expanded and more powerful Federal government. In a sense the struggle over how much power the central government would hold had finally been settled.”
http://www.nps.gov/apco/index.htm
Running an institutional web site is not easy, and while I think that it’s worth calling out, there’s no reason to be too hard on whoever let this go through. Josh Marshall’s comment seems apt to me.
“I’m not sure I’d say I’m outraged. Outrage is a cheap emotion anyway. But this is a pretty odd way for the federal government to sum up the curtain call of the Civil War at Appomattox 150 years ago.” http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/yep-that-is-weird
That’s pretty bad. I forwarded it to a few contacts and commented I didn’t realize the NPS hired Thomas DiLorenzo & the Kennedy Brothers as webmasters.
I was probably too hard on Appomattox program. I’m pretty new to Civil War history and when I began there was so very much available that I had not seen before and of such high quality. I did think, however, that more programming tech-wise could have been incorporated into 150th at Appomattox and at other battlefields as well – it is a 21st century commemoration, after all. Also, I am disappointed that there was no media coverage, at least that I’ve seen, of Ed Ayers speech. Still, I’m grateful for what I have been able to find re progams and talks.
Oh, the media aren’t going to give it much coverage at all. We’re lucky to get a 30-second spot on the nightly news.