Get out

See a movie

Hawaii Pacific University, the Fort Street Mall Business Improvement District and the Honolulu Art and Culture District are sponsoring a night on the mall tonight.

Following the lead of the city-sponsored Sunset on the Beach, the three groups are facilitating an open-air film event that’ll turn the normally empty-after-dark mall into a veritable street fair, complete with live music, food and of course, a featured film.

The event takes on a Chinese theme with the screening of Shaolin Soccer, a 2001 comedy directed by Stephen Chow in which a band of retired Shaolin monks put their skills to good use playing soccer.

-Kawehi Haug

Dinner and a Movie, Upper Fort Street Mall, Wed. 11/14, entertainment at 5pm, dinner at 6pm, movie at 6:30pm, $5 for dinner.

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Essential things

What we’re into right now

5-hour Energy

You’ve seen the commercials, and now you’ve heard it here: The little shot of treacly energy juice really does pack a punch. And it’s no wonder, with 8,333 percent of your daily vitamin B12 requirement and 2,000 percent of your vitamin B6, the only way the stuff could be more effective is if you injected it. We’re hooked.

Available at Long’s Drugs and GNC stores.

The Economist

The latest issue of the British news mag is one worth picking up and adding to your to-keep pile. An 18-page special report on faith and politics is good reading for any good world citizen.

Pomegranates

It’s the season for the fruit and we’re taking full advantage of it. Local restaurants are also incorporating it into their seasonal menus. Besides its health benefits–it’s ridiculously high in anti-oxidants–it has a reputation for being a sexy fruit. We’re not sure what that means, but bring it on.

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Off the rack

A’ala Park
Boardshop (APB)

As the only strictly skate shop on Oahu, as opposed to other skate supply shops that are usually in tandem with surf shops, Aala Park Boardshop (APB) has the largest selection of skateboards and skate shoes ($40-$70), and the privilege of being the sole carrier of lines such as Altamant. You’ll also be lucky enough to find a wide range of goods from brands such as Lakai, Diamond Clothing, Poetry, and the Nike skater line. After retiring from the pro skateboarding life, manager Rob and owner Chad opened up APB five and-a-half years ago along the river in Chinatown.

APB is serious about skating not only as a sport, but also as a lifestyle. Consequently, its staff is highly knowledgeable and can teach you how to assemble a skateboard ($99-$200) and fix broken wheels. An array of skate DVDs, wallets, belts, T-shirts, pants and backpacks can help in identifying your way of life. Or they can just make you look cool. Even if you’re not practicing ollies and railslides at A’ala Park day and night, it’s okay to want to bask in the coolness of skate gear (ahem, Avril Lavigne). About 70 percent of APB’s Nike skate line shoes are sold to non-skaters. The popular designs of small prints all over, say, a hoodie, for example, derive from skate culture. And of course you can find exactly that at APB.

In addition to the increase in visibility and foot traffic of the new N. King and River Street location, more girls have been patronizing the store within the past year–a plus in the traditionally male-dominated skate world. APB has responded with an increase in skater clothing and other skate paraphernalia geared toward girls. The female skater clothing rack is the biggest it’s ever been, with RCVA’s tailored t-shirts ($19). There is a sizable selection of skate decks by The Girl Skateboard Company ($57) and APB’s large skate shoe collection allows for the inclusion of smaller sizes.

In the upcoming weeks and months, APB will be introducing its own line of Ts, wheels, skate deck designs, as well as releasing a video. –Margot Seeto

A’ala Park Boardshop
185 N. King Street,
585-8538, [downwithapb.com]

What they sell: Skate supplies and the accessories you need to show your allegiance to skater-dom.
Hours: Mon.-Sat. 10am-7pm, Sun. 10am-5pm
Price range: $5-$200
Payment: AmEx, JCB, MC, V.

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Cease To Begin

Back in ‘06, Band of Horses became indie rock’s next big thing with their LP, Everything All The Time, which combined the countrified melancholy of My Morning Jacket with the grandeur of Arcade Fire. Songs like ‘The Funeral’ and ‘The First Song’ grounded lead-singer Ben Bridwell’s quavering falsetto in lush guitars and pounding drums, expanding in tension and sumptuousness over the course of four minutes without ever finding release; it was the sound of a band reaching toward some indefinable beauty and damn near succeeding in finding it. Since the release of that album, Bridwell pulled up stakes from his adopted home, the rock music bastion of Seattle, and headed south, back to his native South Carolina. That move is apparent on the band’s latest release, Cease To Begin. With the exception of the album opener, ‘Is There A Ghost,’ the sweeping wall of sound of their previous effort has all but disappeared, replaced by a laconic country-tinged sweetness. The songs ‘No One’s Gonna Love You,’ ‘Detlef Schrempf,’ and ‘Marry Song’ are slow-burning ballads; ‘The General Specific’ rollicks along, all pretty harmonies, hand claps, and honky-tonk piano; and ‘Window Blues’ is a slow, sad waltz, ready made for bouts of late night reflection. The settled in groove of Cease to Begin might seem like a comedown from the heights of Everything if the songs weren’t so good. Band Of Horses might no longer be chasing after the sublime in their music, but they’ve still managed to produce an album of resonant, laidback beauty. –Matthew Martin

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$10 well spent

The holidays are here, whether we like it or not. It won’t be long before even the most culinarily uninclined of us try our hand (again) at pulling off that Martha-Stewart-perfect dish that will finally convince our mildly neurotic but gastronomically gifted mother that we’ve grown up enough to at least bring a decent offering to the family dinner table on Thanksgiving.

So we’ll try, try again. And with a little help, we might get it right.

Lucky for us, there are things out there designed to make cooking and baking a not-so-dreadful experience for those us for whom it’s a horribly dreadful experience.

If you burn instead of bake (the stoners are giggling Ö and then realizing that it’s precisely that kind of behavior that makes their moms think they’re good for nothing as functioning adults), consider an inexpensive investment in Nordic Ware’s ‘Perfect Cake Testers,’ ($8.95 for 12; available at Executive Chef) which, if you ask us, should just come with the cake mix because we’ll never bake another cake without them.

The toothpick-like spikes change color depending on the inside temperature of the cake, thus telling us exactly when to pull the bugger out. Genius.

-K.H.

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If you only haveÖ

Two minutes and 50 seconds,

listen to ‘Die, Die, Die’ from The Avett Brothers’ latest album, Emotionalism.

Two hours, see HPU Theatre’s production of Moliere’s The Imaginary Invalid.

Nine hours, attend the fifth annual Maohi Native Cultural Festival this weekend at Kapi’olani Park (Sat. 11/17 & Sun. 11/18, 10am-7pm, free).