Social Lite

Pretty Pecha

by Christa Wittmier | Jul 29, 2009

Pecha Kucha / It’s hard to excitedly explain something that sounds so weird to say. But I definitely kept trying all week. Pecha Kucha! Pecha Kucha! “What?” PECHA KUCHA! “OK….”

What can I say? The event is amazing. There’s been like five of them in Honolulu and it’s basically an assortment of creative minds sharing stories or methods or works or anything really to the beat of 20 slides, 20 seconds per slide. I love how there are the ground rules but then nothing else is off limits. If you can put together 20 slides, you’re in. So many great talents have presented at these and Friday night was no exception. Omer Kursat had a stunning presentation of photographs shot with a Russian-made rotating-lens panoramic camera that he’s had since high school. His clever quips and adorably warm personality made the award-winning photographer’s work very approachable. “I don’t even know what I was doing here,” he would say with his heavy accent, making everyone laugh. Technology great Burt Lum put together a collection of the Top 20 Social Media Geeks in Hawaii. Everyone loved him (how can you not? It’s Burt Lum). Graphic designer Matt Yee better known as Evilgenius got up and told us he was drunk, then went on to share his letterforms and early artwork. As the slides rolled through his passion for the craft was evident to all of us and that’s really what it’s all about. I wouldn’t even be able to pick my favorite because they were all really, really fun to listen to, but I especially adored Shaka Zine creator Doug Upp. He revealed scenes from his new show Shaka Talk on ‘Olelo, making sure we all knew that you can talk about whatever you want after midnight. Anything. If you know Doug you know he dips in to some very interesting underworlds and keeps probably one of the juiciest blogs in town, so it shouldn’t be a huge surprise that he did the presentation in drag. It’s a super interesting crowd of young and old and it’s pretty much impossible to get bored. The idle chit chat during the intermission at an event like this is like nothing else I’ve seen. Everyone is doing something amazing that they’re passionate about and it’s just a great place to be at sunset on a Friday night. They only happen once in a while so I would suggest signing up for the e-mail list. Like, now.

The scene was also shaking this weekend from what I remember. I just learned what a Wu Tang shot is so most of it was fuzzy. That blonde blob posted up at V Lounge after 2am all weekend? Me. I did make a point to welcome back Ravi Drums at The Lotus since he’s all famous now. Want to know how far back we go? I’m the one who made his MySpace page. His drum set rig is bananas and the energy he has is super infectious. It gave all the dance floor lurkers something to gawk at besides former professional dancer Summer Jensen. She’s back in town for a while so if you see her congratulate her on all that poshy modern interior design she did at the new Apartm3nt. It truly made the place what it is. I kind of already gushed about them last week but, damn if it wasn’t the talk of pretty much everyone all day Sunday. Well, that and all those football players that are in town. Hi guys. I spent the entire day Sunday with some of the crew from One Kine Day as they wrapped Ecila. Reds, technocranes, steadicams and the coolest artsy fartsies on the island, as Renegade film maker Brandon Spencer would say. So true. I can’t believe Eclia is finally in post production. Hurry up guys! We’re dying to see your film.

[www.pecha-kucha.org]

Learn how to pronounce Pecha Kucha

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