Concerts & Clubs / Back in our 2012 Fall Arts issue on the topic of why it’s so hard to get mainland groups to play in Hawaii, promoter Philip Pendleton of BAMP Project said, “A band like Spoon can sell 3,000 tickets on the mainland, but we would be lucky to sell 300 here. Not sure if it’s a lack of [public] knowledge or just apathy” (“Music: Da Skinny on ND,” Sept.
Stage / Anybody who’s followed Margaret Cho’s career since her early days in the mid-’90s knows that her mom provides an eternal wealth of material. The feminist comedian has so many jokes about Seun-Hoon Cho that she’s pooled them together in a tour called, aptly, Mother.
‘Ohana / Like Disneyland’s Indiana Jones ride and renewing your driver’s license, there are just some things you have to wait in line for, no matter how early you get there. Malasadas and mango chutney from the Punahou Carnival?
Concerts & Clubs / In a city without a symphony, maybe this will ease Honolulu’s withdrawals. The China National Orchestra ranks among the world’s top orchestras, despite the fact that its 80-plus members play almost none of the instruments usually heard in the Blaisdell.
Concerts & Clubs / There are bands that fit neatly into genres and there are bands that create their own. Toubab Krewe’s sound blurs any label.
Galleries / In this world of knock-offs and imitations, Zen Buddhist Phuong Tran is focused on authenticity. As the proprietor of Art Treasures Gallery on Nuuanu Avenue for more than 30 years, Tran is a veteran of Honolulu’s Chinatown and has seen enough fake stuff to flood Fort Street.
Galleries / Yes, it’s possible to get cultured while you do your chores. First Hawaiian Center’s partnership with the Honolulu Museum of Art continues their efforts to bring inspiration to everyday places.
Stage / One of the best Bill Burr jokes is about the mystery of cruise ships: “I don’t get how something that big and metal can float. It’s got a smoke stack; it’s got an anchor.
Concerts & Clubs / John “Shellhead” + Jennifer Shagawat = Shellshag. That’s the punk rock equation behind this indie duo from Brooklyn. If you have a Pandora station for The Breeders, Pavement or Sonic Youth, you may have already heard of Shellshag.
Concerts & Clubs / “I’ve traveled all over the world,” singer-songwriter David Choi says nonchalantly. “Hawaii is still at the top of the list.” He should know.
Concerts & Clubs / Schuyler Tsuda has a thing for secret shows. He used to throw them in Minneapolis and loved those he attended in Hawaii.
Galleries / Emily Sewell wears her heart on her artsy sleeve. In the upcoming exhibition Emily Sewell: Embodied, this young artist showcases a largely comprehensive look at the aesthetic that keeps her own blood pumping–a composite body of work that’s both raw and organic, but also delicate and extremely fragile.
‘Ohana / Just when you thought Cirque du Soleil was so 2012, there’s a new circus rolling into town. The New Shanghai Circus may be smaller in comparison than the internationally touring Cirque, but the troupe of 30 Shanghai performers promises a show that’s just as exciting and death-defying.
Learning / “Our islands are currently the world’s most significant center of biotechnology seed experiments,” according to Jeri Di Pietro, president of Hawaii SEED, a nonprofit organization that aims to educate islanders about the threat posed by GMO agriculture, and one of the organizers for Dr. Vandana Shiva’s anticipated upcoming visit to Hawaii.
Festivals / There’s a reason people retreat to the country for refuge from the feverish city life. Besides providing leisure, the country has also long been a hub for those who practice sustainable agricultural methods.
Stage / Dance performances can leave an audience asking itself, “Was that a story, or was that guy just showing off the whole time?” With Keigwin + Company, it’s a mixture of both. The dance group, founded in 2003 in New York by Artistic Director Larry Keigwin, balances physical strength and prowess with cohesive storylines that take admirable skill to execute.
If she hadn’t joined the 27 club in 1970, Janis Joplin would’ve turned 70 this Saturday. Though she’s been gone longer than she lived, her legacy has continued to inspire generations of blues, rock and soul performers worldwide.
Stage / Nerds alert! Uniting fans of both comics and theater, The Intergalactic Nemesis Live-Action Graphic Novel Book One: Target Earth is a stage show that mixes the Orson Welles radio drama The War of the Worlds with an Indiana Jones sense of energy .
Stage / Manoa Valley Theatre flies audiences back to the mile-high era, when air travel and highballs were mixed at the highest altitudes of glamour, with the opening of a terrifically funny 1960s French farce, Boeing, Boeing, by Marc Camoletti. “The script was originally translated from French into British English and now we are performing it as Americans, so there are some fun translations that we are working with,” says Dusty Behner, who doubles as Boeing’s costume designer and Janet, the American in the play.
Concerts & Clubs / Hawaii loves Elvis, whether cool these days or not. This year, we celebrate the 40th anniversary of his unsurpassed Aloha from Hawaii concert in style, with a reprise via huge screens and upgraded sound and picture.
Films / Liz Schwartz, owner of Coffee Talk, had noticed how many talented people, especially of the film industry variety, were drinking her coffee while laboring over their Apples. To give them a chance to showcase their work, she has organized a new monthly event, Film Fridays at Coffee Talk, beginning this week with Break Through, a black-and-white film that tells the stories of five different women as they each try to break out of some sort of urban Honolulu trap.
Concerts & Clubs / Think you’re in for another humdrum post-New Year’s Eve burnt out Saturday night? Not if you put some Luda in it!
Fashion / When Caleb Shinobi says, “I consider fashion a form of standing out and being unique,” the creative director wins the award for understatement of the year. An Abstract Noir Fashion Show by Caleb Shinobi turns the volume up on his talents with an avant-garde catwalk presentation that seeks to tilt the perspective on the local fashion scene with personal creations Shinobi calls “conceptualized prototypes of wearable art.” It’s a descriptor immediately titillating to anyone already accustomed to his au courant style.
Art / Whatever Underground is an element of Honolulu’s DIY punk scene that’s ten bands strong and growing. What’s different about this group than its predecessors?
Art / The Bridge Gallery, within the Hamilton Library at the University of Hawaii’s Manoa campus, will exhibit photos chronicling the bloom of The White Rose, a gentle, nonviolent resistance movement during Nazi Germany. In 1942, a group of young college students and their philosophy professor stood up against Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Not much to agree with my friend Doc Berry (“Limits of Growth,” April 17). None of the scenarios he posits will ever materialize.
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.
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.
Congratulations Honolulu Weekly on the recent Pai award for investigative reporting (“Boss GMO,” Jan. 4, 2012).
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 …
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.
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