every midnight is the start of a new day

Wrote about a great spot that Rowen has been telling me about for over a year, The Dragon Upstairs. The piece came out okay. But the place itself is very cool and a must-do in Honolulu, if you appreciate jazz even a little bit.

I submitted one more story to HI Luxury, and I’ve enjoyed working with them. The staff I’ve talked to seem like fun, intelligent people. Hopefully someone as sparkly-prosed, literate and in-the-know as myself ;~j takes the nightlife entertainment writer position and that door will close for me.

I’m also resigning quadmag.com, my pet project of the last ten years. I will always represent for that site, but I’m officially retired. (I’m living the dream! retire by 30 haha.) We’d love to see it keep going, but with TeN in San Francisco and Lance in Portland, it’s been hard to keep the momentum and these technical lumps are demoralizing. I’m just done.

Continue reading »

Moomin and Lost: the revelation

I forgot I had this in my queue of things I might blog about. Very funny and astute. From Matt Madden’s blog, Moomin and Lost: the revelation.

However, Lost is now on season four (I only watch because it is filmed in Hawaii…), and there has been an incident where a helicopter(!) has left the island and completely disappeared! Crash landed? We don’t know. Presumably the characters are not dead.

I’m not ready to make more Moomin-Lost connections but if anyone wants to go ahead and do so, I’m all ears.

huge shark deep under waters near Molokai

Says one of the University of Hawai’i researchers who captured this footage: "It’s not the biggest shark ever seen, nor is it a new species. It captures a moment when an experienced pro meets that kid he was when he started out so many years ago."

get up, a-get, get, get down

Updated the list of articles to include the October/November issue of HI Luxury magazine, which has a piece by yours truly called “Get Up & Get Down: Happy hour and more at the Hanohano Room.”

This magazine impresses me more and more with each issue. Unfortunately the band was not correctly identified in the caption; Maria Ramos and Deshannon Higa of grOOve.imProV.arTiSts are decidedly not Son Caribe(!). I’ll have to try to make that up to them. The photos again are by Chris McDonough, and those are my unmanicured fingers holding the electric blue cocktail on the main page.

Sheriff Norm sledgehammers his television live on Radio Free Hawaii

If you recall, Radio Free Hawaii was conceptualized and piloted by Sheriff Norm. Below is some classic audio of Sheriff Norm calmly ranting about the corrupting influences of television and superiority of radio as a broadcast medium. Then he smashes his television set with a sledgehammer, in the studio. Because that is the kind of man Sheriff Norm is.

Considering it is over 10 years old, the battered cassette tape this came from is lucky to be alive! Quality is poor, there is Hawaiian music running underneath and all kinds of strange distortions and static, but that just gives it a way-back feeling. Hope you enjoy?!

This bit of violence against consumer goods was recorded from a rebroadcast on the late-night talk show of the inimitable Mad Mohammad, a popular and controversial dj. The topic that evening was violence on television and “do you agree with Sheriff Norm’s decision to sledgehammer his tv?”

Because he cares about the kids, Mohammad also offers some helpful safety tips for listeners who might decide to sledgehammer their own television.

These snippets came from cassette recordings by Shawn Speedy Lopes, former production director at Radio Free Hawaii and current owner of Stylus Music and Clothing Exchange.

short article in the UH alum mag, Malamalama

A short piece in Malamalama this month called “Athletes Gain from Academic Strength Training.” What? You wanted more? LoL.

The article on Spiritual Ecology is the one I wish I had written, tho athletics was a fun topic given the recent Once a Warrior commotion. The people I spoke with for the story are really committed to helping athletes learn how to learn, whereas the book’s angle is apparently more in line with the athletes getting their work done for them. How shocking!

My story next issue (January) should be fun! I got to go to the Big Island and ramble around old kalo (taro) terraces and Volcanoes National Park.

total eclipse of the moon

The clouds came in after we saw a brilliant, full, manapua moon get ate by the shadow of the earth. We experienced the “totality” but missed the orange effect. It was still amazing, really hypnotic. And thanks to this (mostly) steady-handed youtube user, we got an idea of what we missed.

hurricane weather

articles published summer 2007

These are the articles that kept me busy and having fun this summer. The Hana Hou ones should eventually be online, I’ll link em up when they are. I dont think HI Luxury has a website.

August/September 2007

HI Luxury

• “A Whole New Light: ARTafterDARK events bring an eclectic crowd to the Honolulu Academy of Arts,” my first article for a new magazine! Photos by Chris McDonough.

June/July 2007

Hana Hou: The Magazine of Hawaiian Airlines

• “Sonic Room,” late night impressions from Lotus Soundbar in Waikiki. Part of a larger article called “After 10: ‘Awa, kilts and coco puffs: excursions into Honolulu’s late-night latitudes.” Photos by Sergio Goes.
• “Get Your Kicks,” round-up of specialty sneakers with Hawaii designers collaborating on styles including the Aloha Dunk, Sig Zane Converse and shoes for Gravis and Run Athletics. Photo by Dana Edmonds.
• “Funkify Yourself,” profile of an off-beat Chinatown boutique. Photo by Sergio Goes.

May 2007

Malamalama

• “Room for a View: Projects influence how we see Waikiki,” cover story for the University of Hawaii alumni magazine. Photos by Rowen Tabusa, plus historical photographs recast by visual artist Gaye Chan.