Amp Live

DJ/producer Amp Live

DJ/producer Amp Live / Outside of his stellar work as one-half of Bay Area hip-hop duo Zion-I, Amp Live is known to drop tunes outside of the boom-bap box that many hip-hoppers are confined to. The beats will undoubtedly be in abundance with the crafty Oakland DJ/producer at the helm but most fans are well aware of his creative clarity when he’s in his electro, dub-step or drum ‘n’ bass zone.


Editor’s note

This week we begin our two-part preview of the special election to fill the remainder of Neil Abercrombie’s term in Congress. On May 5, we’ll focus on the three best-known and most heavily-funded candidates.


Local

Steel horses

The Hawaii Buffalo Soldiers

The Hawaii Buffalo Soldiers / There’s an assumption that motorcycle clubs are reckless, rowdy and full of outlaws. Just listen to a dozen Fat Boys screaming by, and the assumption seems fair enough.


No loss

The Losers
Comes with video

The Losers / The A-Team and The Expendables are exploding into theaters this summer, but the first mercenary team out of the gates are The Losers. Based on a Vertigo comic book, the Losers are a rag tag bunch of soldiers that get double-crossed by a mysterious villain named Max and left for dead.


Stink-eye

The Joneses
Comes with video

The Joneses / [Editor’s note: Bob Green spoils the plot this week, which usually means he really, really hated it. Read on at your own pleasure, risk, etc.] Lifeless and flat as a pancake, The Joneses, equipped with a great hook and being billed as a satirical comedy, is an unfunny fiasco wading in the muck of its own making, but pretending to take the moral high ground.


4-28-2010

At a recent gathering, former Congressman Neil Abercrombie said he’d learned “the hard way” that you can’t say “Kona coffee” and leave it that anymore. To wit: If you’re on the Big Island this weekend, stop by the Kau Coffee Festival and find out why Kau is the hottest terroir in the business.


Concerts

Hyperbole alert

Telephoned
Comes with video

Telephoned / Put your hands together for the return of this month’s much-anticipated Soul Clap and DJ Sammy Bananas of Fool’s Gold who, when soaring solo, is no stranger to the Chinatown nightlife party line. Paired with singer/determined Brooklyn dance-diva-in-the-making, Maggie Horn, their electro-pop act Telephoned is someone you may not recognize, but definitely want to meet.


Whatevas

Lei it on

Lei Day 2010
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Lei Day 2010 / Lei Day fell on a Friday last year, the perfect day for the annual explosion of aloha in which everyone gives everyone else lei and we’re all happy and we smell good. Or so you’d think.


Film

Arte tranquilla

Comes with video

Caos Calmo / Slip out of your crazy schedule for a calm evening of culture. The ARTS at Marks Garage has added another flick to its Cinematografia series of Contemporary Italian Art House Films.


Concerts

Throwdown in Kihei Town

The Throwdowns
Comes with video

The Throwdowns / It looks like the Valley Isle has another export to claim, besides cream puffs and guri-guri ice cream. The Throwdowns have been based on Maui for almost a year now and have no plans of slowing down.


Whatevas

Mixed Martial Ass-kickers

Galaxy MMA’s Worlds Collide
Comes with video

Galaxy MMA’s Worlds Collide / Fighter’s Corner presents the upcoming Galaxy MMA’s Worlds Collide held at the Blaisdell Arena this May 1st. Scott “Punk Haole” Junk, UFC veteran repping Kailua, returns to the Islands to face Fabiano “Pega-Leve” Scherner in a battle of skill and size for the Heavyweight division.


Learning

The joy of Harjo

Joy Harjo
Comes with video

Joy Harjo / Say the word stallion this week and a horse fanatic will probably tell you that the Kentucky Derby is this weekend. But bring up the word horse to a few literary folks and they will remind you that Native American writer Joy Harjo is coming to Hawaii to perform a reading of her critically acclaimed book of poetry.


Theater

The Brechtfest club….

BERTOLT BRECHT’S THE JUDITH OF SHIMODA

BERTOLT BRECHT’S THE JUDITH OF SHIMODA / Except for The Threepenny Opera, the plays of Bertolt Brecht don’t get much stage time in Honolulu. Could it be because Brecht was an unrepentant Marxist?


This aggression will not stand

I can be a dick. I’ll admit that.


Here kitty

Just wanted to take the time to compliment the writer of the 4/21/10 Sanrio Café article [“Kitty Chow,” 4/21], Ryan Senaga. I loved that it was written by a guy, but he had a large amount of knowledge of the Sanrio characters.


Apo-no

John Pritchett’s cartoon on March 31 missed the target. It was not Mayor Mufi Hannemann, but City Council Chairman Todd Apo who insisted the city administration look at shipping our waste out of state, which we felt was not pono.


Work less, governor!

Why is it the media never mentions that the day before the Department of Education furloughs began, Gov. Lingle issued Executive Order 09-06, which canceled the furloughs for Gov.


Look out for your neighbor

If Senate Bill 2650, CD1 becomes law, the State Legislature will permit an unjust system that treats Neighbor Island residents as second-class citizens when they apply for Medicaid, welfare, nutrition benefits and other forms of public assistance. The Democratic legislators who voted for this misguided bill would allow the Department of Human Services (DHS) to use modern processing methods–including a call center, online applications and a streamlined workflow–to help Oahu residents receive public aid as quickly, conveniently and accurately as possible.


A Calvin-izing force?

Props to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, whose leaders will no longer just talk the talk of acceptance, but are now walking it. On April 11, 2010, the ELCA Church Council unanimously voted to abolish its anti-gay policies.


Save the cigarettes

I have always been a supporter of legislators, yet I have never really participated in the legislative process. This changed when senators started to talk about another increase in cigarette taxes.


Tam I am

It takes a thick skin to be a politician and this is especially so in an election year, when popular candidates who are running for office will find themselves the target of unrelenting defamation of one’s character, constant criticism and outright fabrications. Rod Tam is running for mayor and as usual, the “darts are flying.” The reason that Rod Tam is always elected to office is because he is a “man of the people” who cares deeply for people.


Chefs–they’re just like us!

You have agreed you want to get a bite, but then your brains freeze up and you spend an hour driving around going, “Well, what do you feel like eating?” There’s an app for that. What Chefs Eat is the new, free iPhone way to find out where Alan Wong likes to go for sushi (Sushi Izakaya Gaku, yay) or where D.K.


Finger-lickin’ good

Asagi Hatchery

Asagi Hatchery / The folks at Asagi Hatchery see the growing trend in raising chickens as a throwback to the the 1930s, when Asagi Hatchery first opened and almost everybody had a chicken in their backyard. Stepping into the Kalihi hatchery is like stepping back in time: from the clicking of typewriter keys to the peeping of fuzz balls in a cardboard box.


Non-Celebrity Weekend

Inever know what to say at an artist meet-and-greet. It’s so hard to think you’re anything but cattle to them.


Sheriff Dicus


This week

Still on Board

Given the city’s crumbling infrastructure and rail controversy, it’s hard to believe anyone would want to be the next mayor of Honolulu. But a few do want the job, including the incumbent, Mayor Peter Carlisle, the former Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney who won a 2010 special election to fill the remainder of Mufi Hannemann’s term.

City Council 101

I’d never been to a Honolulu City Council meeting until a few weeks ago. Features, not politics, was my beat.

Nurturing a living culture

Victoria Holt Takamine is a kumu hula, a cultural activist and a teacher and has an impeccable pedigree to back up all these titles. Born of an alii family whose kuleana was in Moanalua, she graduated as a hula teacher under the legendary Auntie Maiki Aiu Lake and taught hundreds of students in her own halau (Pua Alii ‘Ilima) and at the University of Hawaii.

Public access

On April 25, a state judge dismissed trespassing charges against a Kauai man after finding that he had been exercising traditional native Hawaiian rights hunting wild pigs on private land. Kui Palama, 28, was arrested on Jan.

transitional Housing

The city plans to dish out $3.5 million from its Affordable Housing Fund and either purchase or renovate a structure to provide transitional housing for Honolulu’s special needs homeless population. “Our community has invested considerable effort and resources in addressing homelessness,” Mayor Peter Carlisle said in a statement, “but there remains a population whose disabilities or chronic conditions make it difficult for them to participate in traditional shelter programs.” Carlisle is referring to those homeless with mental illnesses, addictions and physical disabilities.

Poi Mill shut

Makaweli Poi faces an uncertain future after its owner, a corporate subsidiary of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) ordered the West Kauai mill to suspend operations May 23. Mona Bernardino, chief operating officer of the corporation, Hiipoi LLC, says the move to shut down Makaweli Poi was prompted mainly by financial concerns.

Sewage study

A resolution adopted by the City Council will solidify an agreement between the City and County of Honolulu and the University of Hawaii Water Resources Research Center (UH-WRRC) to conduct an analysis of impacts from ocean sewer outfalls on the marine environments off of Oahu. The city will pay UH-WRRC as much as $2.5 million for biological and sediment studies in portions between now and June 30, 2017 .

pedaling 9-5

Along with the deep, verdant growth of spring sprouts an unyielding desire to spend more time in the open air. That’s why it should come as no surprise that National Bike Month falls in the sun-drenched time of May.

Billions of …

Of the many letters you publish against rail, how many offer an alternative that won’t send us into further economic demise? Billions of gallons of oil are imported for us from every oil-producing nation on this planet so that we can buy billions of gallons of gasoline.

Goodbye bus, hello rail?

TheBus is taking a back seat to rail. At the May 3 Downtown Neighborhood Board meeting, an audience member asked city Transportation Director Wayne Yoshioka when we could expect the bus route cancellations and changes to be reversed.