Debuting Sunday on Public Access, the community broadcasting platform created by Public Records NYC, is a new archival project we've embarked on: Islands Reflected.
The concept is to compile archival and found footage that reflects life and music in Hawaii.
Vinyl Don and I have spent a lot of time nerding out over YouTube finds and VHS discoveries. But that's been the extent of it so far — nerding out. He'd text me a link, "Check this out!!" at 1 in the morning (which, remember, there's a 3 hour difference between Hawaii and LA). Collectively, we've amassed a bulky playlist of documentaries, commercials, music videos, television broadcasts and archival films about Hawaii. Where or how to share these exciting "finds" with others was never really a question for us. We just enjoyed watching them.
When the pandemic hit earlier this year, it hit New York hard. Public Records NYC is a relatively new venue that puts high fidelity sounds and quality curation at the core of its ethos. We've been fortunate enough to play records in their cafe a few times, including a release party for From These Shores in autumn 2019. Like most businesses in New York, PR has had to come up with create ways to maintain the community they've created around their venue. With that, Public Access was born.
"Public Access is a community broadcasting platform built to serve as a means for communication and expression in response to the current state of the world. Its goal is to showcase diverse, inspiring programming and to provide others with an outlet to experiment and create." — www.publicrecords.tv.
PR's shop manager, Tal Silberstein, reached out on behalf of the team to see if we'd be interested in contributing to the platform.
Then the idea hit us: let's compile our discoveries from YouTube, Laser Discs, film archives, toss in a few AGS-related videos, and present these to the world as an hour-long broadcast reflecting on life, times, and music in Hawaii.
Islands Reflected broadcasts new episodes weekly:
Sunday, 12pm HST → publicrecords.tv (initial stream)
Monday, 12pm HST → youtube.com/alohagotsoul (re-stream)
Our first episode is dedicated to Robert ÆOLUS Myers, who passed away on April 18, 2020.