Honolulu Weekly

So there’s really going to be a reality show about a bunch of people in Honolulu. I wasn’t completely buying it until Emmy Award-winning LOST Director of Photography John Bartley brought it up when we were talking Saturday night. It was pretty much the talk of the entire weekend, with a lot of the preliminary casting meetings happening at hot spots all over town. The buzz is that it’s for real, and a there’s lot of money behind it. As far as the premise and general idea, it’s been referred to by its producers as The Hills meets Sex and the City. I don’t see any of that around here, but I know the casting people are talking to some of the best looking people I know; highly coveted models Brigitte Patton and Rita Blais, wine rep Maggie Beach, morning show host Flash Hansen, Apartm3nt General Manager Maria Burke, and even Daniel Gray. I’m definitely going to be sitting back and watching this. How fun to be a fly on the wall for the lives of all these beautiful people. One might worry about the twists and turns an editing room can create in what I would consider a pretty low-drama neighborhood. Honestly, I can’t even imagine how it could be bad if they cast the right people. Stretch the circle beyond one or two groups of friends and you got pretty much all of us on the show. Look! We’re famous. Anyway, I’m excited and hoping it will just be funny and lighthearted, lord knows we don’t need anymore drama on television.

Spending Saturday night rushing out of the Black on Black party early to see James Murphy from LCD Soundsystem at thirtyninehotel was so worth it. Just when I think I know what good music is, some guy comes in and takes that to a whole new level. With a smoke machine. They don’t do that too often in that tiny gallery space but when they do it’s like, instant dream-state. Smoke machines for life! I was thrilled to see Daniel Dae Kim there, lurking late like me, telling me what it was like to be on stage for 5,000 people at the Royal Albert Hall in London, where he played the King of Siam in The King and I over the summer break. Nice. Most of us just go to the Sandbar. It was nice to talk to him though, we were both excited to see Mae and Owl City this month after being knocked on our butts at that Band of Horses show. I try not to ask him or John Bartley about life after LOST when I see them, it’s just too sad to think about. Confirmation that Jerry Bruckheimer’s Cooler Kings TV project is set to start shooting in early 2010 does make me feel a little bit better. When we’re talking about the guy that did CSI, we’re talking about possibly a long, long, long time in the islands. Hopefully they cast some actors as rad as DDK. I’ll be handcuffing myself to Tim Ryan’s Reel Hawaii blog for all the developments there.Then this one time, at Band Camp, all you have to do to make it amazing is get a giant grand piano. Back in the VIP, I got to meet Maui-based pop punk reggae sensation The Throwdowns. Looking at its EP, an expensive looking four-panel UV coated gem of a thing, you can tell the band is really going for it in a big way. Set to head over to front woman Erin Smith’s stomping grounds of Canada to shoot a video and tour, I have a feeling you’ll be seeing a lot more of them this coming year.

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