pressurizing the local
The band was in-between songs and there were still tables open when I walked in to the Dragon Upstairs last Saturday, just behind a group of retiree-aged hipsters. “C’mon in,” boomed a voice from a dimly-lit corner; the band gestured for us to do the same. I gamely follow a white-haired man in a pin-stripped fedora into the intimate, match-box sized club.
Ideas from the class reading bopped around inside my head:*
Stressing and pressurizing the local as a site of “critical resistance” posits a more dynamic way of imagining the relationship of a region, nation, and globe in which difference is not subsumed nor reified but circulated and affirmed” (Wilson 14).
I side-stepped the bell of a trumpet held close and low, nodding to the band while snaking past the potentially expectoration-flecked front line, to the raised seating area where Rowen, Miki and Hank sat holding court at the best table in the house.
It was only the second time I’d met Hank, the owner of both the Dragon Upstairs and Hank’s Cafe, another live music venue downstairs in the same Nuuanu Street building. Last year was the first time we’d met, I’d interviewed him for an article for Hawaii Luxury magazine. He’d impressed me with his charisma and passion for music. I’d sat at the bar drinking chardonnay, asking questions and scribbling notes for my story. Eventually he leaned in and spelled it out: “I want Hawaiian jazz.”
Filed under Hawaii, music | Comments (8)Nirvana live at Pink’s Garage in Honolulu 1992
I was always kinda sick I missed this show. What you can see of the crowd in the flashes of light looks crazy. This is “Negative Creep” off their first album, Bleach.
Filed under Hawaii, music | Comments (4)Helsinki nightlife, fisu and sisu
From ice bar to sauna bar plus communist kitsch in Cuban and Russian flavors, Helsinki drinking establishments are not lacking in novelty. This of course means they are slightly corny and very expensive! A recent travel-section article in USA Today confirms that this trend of theme bars is on the upswing.
After reading the article, I can’t say I’m sad that we didn’t actually make it to the Arctic Ice Bar when we tried a couple years ago, at my insistence. The hours were all messed up and then our party of eight balked at the cover charge. Didn’t even know at the time that the room only seats 12 and has an average visit length of 20 minutes! Sheeeeeeeeeit.
As my charming cousins had already shown us, there are much better places to have a drink in Helsinki. This sounds good tho:
“The most intriguing offering is the $7.25 Fisu shot, found throughout the city. It’s a blender drink made by mixing chilled vodka with pastilles of Fisherman’s Friend, a menthol-flavored cough drop. The result looks filthy brown-black, but the taste is all fresh, Arctic icy burn. It has supplanted in popularity the similar but far more vile [lies!] salmiakki shot, made from vodka and salty licorice candies.”
IDK about “Arctic, icy burn” but it sounds yummy to me, like mentholated Jägermeister, maybe? Or maybe not. This blogger Cracker Lilo from whom I, ahem, borrowed the “fisu and sisu” line (but who is wrong about fisu meaning fish; I think it’s probably based on the name Fisherman’s Friend?), tried it at home after reading the article, even going so far as to try other kinds of cough drops like Sucrets and Halls. LoL!
Another blogger at Necroblogicon was less inspired but equally LoL-able. “The body of a Finn seems to be immune to the nigh-magical hangover inducing quality of this concoction. As a weak American, I spent the next two days dancing on the razor’s edge of vomiting and contemplating suicide. I didn’t cough at all, though, although that may have been because of the acid reflux ripping my esophagus to tiny mentholated pieces.”
In related news, the stereotype of Finland as a nation of alcoholics remains undiminished.
Filed under finnish ish, travel | Comments (2)Coppé at Next Door in Honolulu
Coppé of Mango and Sweet Rice records played in January at The Next Movement at Next Door in Honolulu. It was wonderful to catch her live again, only the second time I’ve seen her in Honolulu. A former island resident, Coppé passes through on occasion, though clearly(?!) not nearly often enough.
To my ears, much of what Coppé does has a trippy underwater electronic hallucinatory feel to it, but she’s prolific and collaborates often, so no single description (no matter how packed with adjectives) does her music justice. That night at Next Door, for example, it was her glitchy, part-Japanese take on the jazz-pop standard “Fly Me to the Moon” that had me swooning.
In this clip she talks about her performance, new album, influences and being well-received in Europe. The video (and the interviewer!* ugh) are not the greatest but… well, whatever… Coppe’s spark still shines.
As I’m loading this on youtube, I see that Dark has uploaded some videos he did for her songs and I’m reminded that he was supposed to do visuals for her show. For whatever reason, his work didn’t make it on to the screen that night. It’s too bad, they would have added a lot.
Dark’s videos to two of Coppé’s song are included below.
Filed under Hawaii, media consumption, music | Comment (0)two recently published articles and some earlier work
Updated the list of articles for December and January to include a New Year’s Eve piece for HI Luxury and a story on UH summer programs in historical preservation and archeology on the Big Island of Hawaii for Malamalama.
Also added is the list of my Malamalama stories from Feb. 04 - Jan. 07. These are on subjects I usually wouldnt even think to write about (except the one on KTUH radio). I learn a lot writing about such diverse topics in history, the environment, tourism and the arts, as well as the interests of the institution behind the curtain.
The layout on the website doesnt do much justice to the photos and illustrations. The PDFs of Malamalama that are available for download are much better.
Finally, managed to get together links for some early Hana Hou stories. That’s the inflight magazine for Hawaiian Airlines. I need to write more for them, they do a really good job.
Filed under published writing | Comment (0)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.
Filed under Hawaii, music, published writing | Comment (0)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.
