“Oooh this is gonna look so good on the Internet!”
Whenever I catch myself saying that too much, I tend to withdraw. I’ll go experience more things that you can really only hear, do more things that only make sense to me, bury more free time in work (and my phone in my bag) and sort of delight at a mini-vacation from the scene. It’s kind of a return to the early ’90s moment because, in a sense, that’s how I did it then. All I ever wanted to do my whole life was to share experiences. Before the Internet, it just took a lot longer. I kept journals on every trip, making my friends read them when I returned. It was like they were there with me instead of me trying to remember everything. Even though I’m thankful for the quicker, easier methods for sharing now, those days force me not to gloss over everything all the time. To take some time with people and events and don’t just enter, click, exit, post.

After spending a recent weekend running around lurking and snapping scenesters dressed out in bright colors and crawling all over red carpets, I was delighted to get a seat next to Hawaii International Film Festival program director Anderson Le at the Hawaii premiere of A Song For Ourselves to set me straight. Sure, he was right there on the crazy neon-splashed dance floor with me the week prior (hey, everyone needs to get nuts once in a while) but he’s also been really, really busy working on the selections for this year’s film festival that’s literally right around the corner. I was getting super excited hearing about the program this year, and delighted to learn they’ve incorporated not only the final season of LOST, but rogue short-film competition favorite Showdown in Chinatown into the festival events. Hearing about some of the program and events then watching Tadashi Nakamura’s beautifully edited glimpse into the life of Asian American activist, musician, and former University of Hawaii law professor Chris Iijima, I was starting to feel a lot better. The room was full of interesting locals and talented visitors that gave me an espresso-like boost back to where I belong…out there compiling and sharing.

If that wasn’t enough, New Day Kids President Eric Rulona was able to bring together visions and sounds from his experiences in Africa at The Manifest this past weekend to create a meaningful and thorough fundraising event. The people involved are actually hands-on involved, and the money contributed can go toward any number of projects. There were beautiful artistic portraits and photographs from Ying Ang that would put National Geographic to shame, but guests who were lucky enough to catch a conversation with Rulona actually learned the names and stories behind the photographs, while allowing the visual effects of The Dropshadows’ video installation to crawl in their brains. I was so impressed with the event that it further knocked me out of my scene slump, and even though work is going into the busiest three-month period of the year, I’m charging. Watch out. Nobody’s safe. And come on, everything looks good on the Internet.

tadashi nakamura ~at h.p.deco