Honolulu Weekly

First Friday / Turner overdrive

Bethel Street Gallery celebrates one of its own-ers this weekend with a show featuring Mark Turner. The painter and gallery partner’s solo exhibition bursts with the vibrance and power befitting its summertime opening.

“I tried to take the pressure off myself in preparing for this show,” Turner says in his artist’s statement. “No title, no theme…just stuff I wanted to paint. It’s a mix of different work and is representative of what I do all the time. A few abstracts, some florals, a little tapa. I enjoy that wide swing from ultimate freedom in an abstract painting to the intricate and tedious nature of tapa and patternwork. It is that variety that continues to feed my creativity.”

Jumping fleas

Get past the ‘uku factor: Shop, Bop & Grind rocks. The dancing-shopping-eating hub, which convenes in Chaplain Lane (that’s the alley outside Mercury Bar) for the first time this Friday, is equal parts outdoor bazaar, fashion show, club event and social mixer. Miss your favorite KTUH show this week? Veteran DJs Mr. Nick, Trav15, The 5th Columnist and others will keep you dancing in the street. While moving, browse and buy among local DIY vendors such as Olde Ivory, 100% clothing, Catwings Couture, 808 Scene Zine and Black Cat Tattoo. All that bopping-shopping making you hungry? You’re just a few steps away from alleyway favorite Hole in the Wall’s stall and actual eatery. Who knows what the owners would have thought up for First Friday? When you’re refueled, pretty yourself up for posing in front of a moving photo booth for only $5.

Junk and po’

Rock Shop, the monthly art and fashion gathering organized by Honolulu Weekly style columnist Anné Au (see City Wise, page 39), is moving on again this weekend, this time to SoHo Mixed Media Bar (see Hot Picks, page 6). Featured artists this month will be Rob McG and Crystal Thornburgh, with fashion from Blackbird, DORK, Electric, Kisa Kosmos, 1979, Blaine Ashley and others. Come early for the best deals.

Dance high

The Summer Dance Showcase promises about as diverse an experience of human movement-to-music as you’re likely to enjoy, maybe ever. In addition to the familiar bellydancing charms of Willow Chang and her Sangha Dance Theater, performers include breakdance prodigy SkillRoy, the Tau Dance Theater’s keiki corps doing a ballet-kahiko-contemporary hula piece, IONA and–naturally–the Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps, one of the Army’s most celebrated ensembles, with a military salute.

Stay ’mad

After a decade in Chinatown, Frieda Hulse is closing up shop at Urban Nomad and heading off for new adventures in New York. We know, we know, you’ve heard it before, but this time it looks like it really is the last sojourn for the fashion institution–she even showed us her plane ticket. We’re happy for Frieda, who seems excited about the change, and sad for ourselves, but there is a bit of a silver (lamee) lining to all of this: the too-good-to-be-true boutique will go out in style Friday night with the sale of lifetime: Hulse promises that the overwhelming majority of her existing stock will be offered at $5. Five dollars, she swears, for all clothing and accessories, barring a very few exceptions. Crazy.