Honolulu Weekly

Don’t look at me for anything fun to report to you this week. I had to move, and it was the worst weekend ever to do it. I mean really, the day after Halloween? Halloween in Honolulu, even? Horrid. What’s cool is the place I moved in to belongs to Meghan Mayhem, founder of the Cherry Blossom Cabaret, and it was already giving me good burlesque karma. Three current members of the sexy dance troupe had energizer bunny sexy dancing shoes on the night before and danced with me way past closing at SoHo. For some reason nobody tried to make us leave, and Ross Jackson was more than happy to continue with his usual anomalous indie-rock selections. There were only a few of us, and I have no idea why it was so fun to just dance and dance and be silly so late when I knew I had to pack and move my entire apartment the next day, in one day, but, man, it was great. I was trying to light on fire the mummy dummy that had been on the stage all night and the girls were swirling around me in lingerie. Two of my favorite bands, The Deadbeats and Girlfriends, absolutely murdered it earlier in the evening. All the indie kids were dressed like cute furry animals and chasing each other around on the dancefloor. Justin Nicholson told me there are even more improvements at the underground Asterisk spot. I happened to walk up to The Manifest during the only 30 seconds there wasn’t a Bar 35-esque line outside and I managed to catch the street performance of that group of 34 zombies that had memorized the “Thriller” act. It was just the best Halloween ever. I was walking home from Chinatown trying to beat the sunrise, not really worried about looking like a walk of shame since my costume was Robert Campbell, which basically is a guy in a hoodie and an Eclia hat. It just came together perfectly. Until the next morning, that is.

So yes, worst day to have to be out of your apartment ever, but wow how many people actually live in this town? Waikiki was packed, Chinatown was packed, ARTafterDARK was packed, even Restaurant Row was totally packed. When does that ever happen? Where do all of those people go normally? Is there like a tons-of-people portal somewhere like in The Dragon Upstairs that everyone disappears to 364 days of the year? Or do you all just work that hard that it’s only fun to go that crazy on one night, when you’re among hundreds of other people completely indisposed? Really, what other day this year has been even close to as nuts? St. Patrick’s Day? Mardi Gras? Bars downtown made as much as they do on a First Friday, so look for some cool structural improvements in the newer places, and hopefully some really awesome shows in the more established places. ESKAE just took over First Fridays at Indigo, and if he opts for the beat mixing sort of entertainment he was throwing down during the Halloween block party, I would expect that venue to get back in the up-and-up extremely quickly. I don’t see him going that nuts as often, and I see him playing at least seven or eight times a month. There was just something special about the energy he had, not to mention the energy the rest of us had. Mine is actually still festering. Oh wait! It’s First Friday this week. Perfect.