Support the Weekly

Social Lite

Image: Paper Diamond

TGIHIFF!

by Christa Wittmier | Oct 5, 2011

The countdown to Hawaii International Film Festival has started! It’s in merely weeks! Get excited! It’s exciting! There’s huge anticipation for this year, and not just from me! The Descendants is the closing night film! Academy Award Winning director Alexander Payne will be in Hawaii, and (spoiler alert) he will be receiving the Vision in Film Award presented by the City and County of Honolulu! Based on local writer Kaui Hart Hemmings’s novel, the film already has the word “Oscar” being thrown around at the other festivals! I mean, you had me at “Alexander Payne.” Throw in “George Clooney” and “Matthew Lillard” and I just don’t know how it can be better! I highly recommend downloading the Kindle version of her book from Amazon for $12–you’ll read it in two days!

In keeping with HIFF’s exceptional Sound x Vision standards, music industry enthusiasts get a panel discussion event with industry heavy hitters including Patrick“9th Wonder” Douthit and Lost composer Michael Giacchino, who will probably be talking about what it’s like to win an Oscar. With all these people coming to Hawaii to share their knowledge and passion with us, I’m definitely going to jot questions down before the event for them, to avoid that whole deer in headlights moment when they inevitably say, “Are there any questions?”

This rest of this month is pretty much going to fly by, I’m clinging to each day as it happens. The end of the month we’re going to see what was once a four hour block party turn in to a four day music & arts festival: Hallowbaloo! The best part about watching these events become established is to see them grow. Mark Tarone is taking a lot of risks to expand the event and he’s also going to bat for the sort of artists we would never otherwise get to see here. Making waves on the festival circuit is Pretty Lights protégé Paper Diamond. This DJ/producer is standing tall alongside artists like Thievery Corporation, Common, Little Dragon and Major Lazer as one of the top nine must-see artists at Chicago’s North Coast Festival. That’s huge. It’s huge enough to make me download his Levitate EP to hear for myself. It’s pretty interesting; I can really hear his affection for hip-hop and bass in the music but love how he still focuses on his melodies. I can’t wait to see what he does live.

Happy birthday to Matt Kee this week; he’s having a big party Thursday at Nextdoor. Faust & Shortee (Urban Assault) are turntable masters, and even though I’m more excited to see our own Packo vs. Techmarcher the anticipation is high to see what a real female turntablist (Shortee) can do. Kee’s own triple tag team with Miko Franconi and Miki Mayhem is rounding up what will be a pretty comprehensive music event. Thanks for celebrating everyone else on your own birthday, Matt. I love it when people do that.

[hiff.org]
[hallowbaloo.com]

COMMENTS

We often print online comments in our “Letters to the Editor” section of Honolulu Weekly. While submitted letters are often edited for length and clarity, online comments we use are printed entirely as they are written for the website. If you do not wish for your comment to be used in Honolulu Weekly print issues, please write “Don’t Print” at the end of your comment. For questions, e-mail editorial@honoluluweekly.com. Thank you!

blog comments powered by Disqus

This week

Derelict Downtown

For as long as we can remember, Chinatown has been notorious for drugs, homelessness and filthy streets. Some claim nothing has changed–and that it never will.

Sweet Ride

Bicyclists have long been overlooked by four-wheel riders on Honolulu’s congested streets. In the gleaming, armored pecking order of the road, cyclists are too often dismissed as lane hogs, hand-signaling nuisances and unfortunates who can’t afford cars.

Hoopili miss

The fate of some 1,525 acres of land at Hoopili in ‘Ewa may have been decided last Wednesday in Hawaii’s First Circuit Court. The decision might have gone differently, but the appellant attorneys’ strategy seemed to collapse as Judge Rhonda Nishimura picked it apart based on technical errors.

Housing First $

Last Thursday, May 9, the Caldwell administration revealed its action plan for solving Honolulu’s homeless problem. But at the City Council’s budget meeting the same day, Budget chair Ann Kobayashi wanted to know where the money for “Housing First” (see Cover Story, pg.

Do it Wright

The Mayor Wright Housing project has been slated for major redevelopment by the Hawaii State Housing Authority (HSHA); requests for qualifications will be going out to developers in three to six months. Nonprofit group Faith Action for Community Equity (FACE) wants to make sure the project’s tenants have a say in the redevelopment process, which could include major renovations or a total rebuild.

Street Disconnect

The Honolulu City Council held a special Committee on Transportation meeting on Tuesday, May 7, to go over its Complete Streets initiative with input from the department directors of Design and Construction (DDC), Planning and Permitting (DPP) and Transportation Services (DTS). At prior meetings, including the Moiliili workshop, community members pressed the idea of combining Complete Streets with Caldwell’s repaving projects, which Dan Burden of the Walkable and Livable Communities Institute and some councilmembers have said makes sense.

Stopping Growth

Not much to agree with my friend Doc Berry (“Limits of Growth,” April 17). None of the scenarios he posits will ever materialize.

Get it together

In your Diary of May 8 (“End of the 27th)” you reported on SB 1214, passed by the Legislature. In their nimble way, the Legislature tacked the wheel boot prohibition on a bill that was intended to abolish the Commission on Transportation.

Look both ways

On Friday, May 3, at 3:45 p.m., I was driving town bound through the Wilson tunnel on the Likelike. I was parallel to another car, and there were several other cars following closely behind me.

Thank you!

Congratulations Honolulu Weekly on the recent Pai award for investigative reporting (“Boss GMO,” Jan. 4, 2012).

Truth be told

When the biofuel guys say that costs are “confidential” (“Big-foot Biofuel,” May 8), I reply that since I am the one who is going to end up paying the cost, I have a right to know. Frankly, when everybody tries to hide the costs, I smell rat …

Nature’s beauty

The Foster Botanical Garden never ceases to inspire for an urban setting it is like a step back in time (“See the Flora,” May 8). If Koko Crater Botanical Garden contains the world’s largest plumeria collection as suggested, it may be thanks in part to the Prussian born Dr.