May 2002 Archives

I'm Not A Girl...

Truth be told, I'm no feminist, I'm not a parent, and I shouldn't even be on my high horse on this subject after posting so much about my celebrity crushes. But between that recent post from the Eminem fan, the saga of R. Kelly videotaping sex with a teenager, and some alarming statistics about sexuality among teenagers, I have to admit that I'm a little too worried about what we've been teaching our young people about sexuality... and other matters of the heart.

Breaking News?

Via e-mail a few minutes ago: "Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris is expected to announce Thursday afternoon that he will no longer seek the office of the governor."

KITV 4 News and TheHawaiiChannel.com will have a live report on his announcement at 4 p.m.

Huh?

Hawaii-based comic books?

I guess this ostensibly belongs in books. =)

I've recently plunged head-first (or maybe wallet-first) back into the world of comic books, and I was wondering if anyone knows of any Hawaii-based comic books out there? I'm mostly interested in comics that are either based in Hawaii or have Hawaiian characters. Anyone know of anything like this?

Hedwig

Hey, have any of you seen the stage production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch being played back home (performed by Otto the baker)? Kat told me it was great and was wondering if any of the Hawaii Stories Ohana had seen it. I had seen the original production here in NYC (13 times!) and to this day it remains one of my favorites (the movie version didn't disappoint me at all, go John Cameron Mitchell). It was a surprize that someone actually decided to produce the show back home...well ok, maybe I'm not surprized, the show took on quite a cult following when it was still off broadway. I'll be interested to see your takes on the show (if you saw it/will see it), and if you also saw the show in NYC, how different is it? I hear there was/is a Hawai`i take on it. Wish I was there to see it.

According to the Honolulu Advertiser online there is a final show at the Pink Cadillac tonight and two more shows at the Honolulu Academy of Arts, May 31-June 1. If it's anything like the NYC production, I suggest you folks go out and see it. The music (all in the film) is great live.

Sign Waving

Well, you may have seen scattered pockets already, but I'm wondering if today marks the official launch of "sign waving season" in local politics. I saw an army of perhaps 100 Mazie Hirono sign wavers deployed along South King, from Ward to Piikoi.

Though I sometimes forget to mention the phenomenon when "Hawaii: So Weird" lists are thrown about, sign waving is certainly one of our more distinctive campaign quirks. What do you think about the practice? Is it done just to be done, or do you think it actually affects how people vote?

No Spiders, No Clones

Now that we've gotten our obligatory Star Wars posts aside, I think it's a good time to talk about some of the other movies coming out this summer that don't involve Jedis, spiders, talking stoner dogs, or British secret agents.

(Though if you do want to post about Austin Powers or Scooby Doo, feel free.)

Union ads

Has anyone got a clue as to why we keep seeing 1-minute ads for HGEA all over the TV screen, particularly in very expensive time slots like the evening local news? It's not like they need to advertise for members, surely? If I were a member of the union, I'd sure as hell be asking why they're spending dues money on such vague feel-good stuff. And they're not plumping for any particular candidate, either.

Signed,
Confused

Na Hoku Hanohano Awards

I watched just enough of the ceremony to finally figure out the name of a song that's been haunting me forever. The singer's name is Ku'uipo Kumukahi and she apparently swept the awards back in 1995.

Are we ready?

'Hurricane preparedness urged,' reads a Sunday headline. Seems our chances are better than usual this hurricane season (June 1 to Nov. 30) for a good set of storms.

We discussed our memories of Iniki at the shindig, and I've mentioned before that my sense is that Honolulu urbanites are particularly unprepared and feeling unjustifiably secure in their safety. If O'ahu ever got nailed head on, we'd be paralyzed for weeks.

So how'd it go?

You all are probably having fun in the sun right now down at Magic Island, sigh. Currently, NYC is rainy, dreary and cold. Let me know how the Hawai`i Stories picnic went: who showed up and most importantly, what was there to EAT?!

Cityscape

Honolulu is certainly no Hong Kong, or Sydney, and from five miles out you probably wouldn't know our skyline from that of any other city without including the Ko`olau mountain range. But I think Honolulu has a fair bit of personality, and its urban architecture - although a bit confused - often worth a second look.

What are your favorite buildings - be they skyscrapers or historic estates? What are your least favorite structures? One thing I've learned, in any group, the two lists often include the same places.

Honolulu Hale: The Election

This was inspired by a comment I made on a previous thread about Jeremy Harris and his "old job" at Honolulu Hale...

This year's race for Mayor of Honolulu has gotten quite interesting for the most part, especially with two city councilmen and a former Lieutenant Governor kicking off their campaigns throughout the community.

Who am us?

Yet another batch of census figures were released today, these incorporating wage and employment stats from 403,572 island households. Even though we're making more than we were ten years ago (at least before inflation adjustments), more of us are living below the poverty level — 7.6 percent more, in fact.

Some additional numbers...

Top Traffic Tangles

It's hard to believe the traffic headaches we have, living on an island with less than a million residents. So from the "Zipper Lane" to the ridiculous new BRT proposal (bus-only surface lanes), the problem inspires a lot of dreaming and plotting.

The latest to surface is actually an old idea: reversing Pensacola and Piikoi street traffic. I agree that Piikoi at rush-hour is about the worst you can get in this state, but I doubt a flip-flop would do more than move the problem over a block.

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope all of us either wished or were wished a very Happy Mother's Day today. Anyone have any memorable experiences?

Since my sister works at a restaurant, we celebrated yesterday. Much to my surprise, what I said here about restaurants I missed was in part wrong; The Willows has reopened. (Don't blame the restaurant for the looks of the website; I did that myself with the handouts they give you at the cashier's desk, mostly because I'd never worked with tables, and wanted to try it with a four-column layout).

My Weblog

I knew it was going to happen sooner or later, the link to my weblog is no longer available on my mainpage. This is because, as far as I know, I have the only images on the internet for Joss Whedon's upcoming Sci-Fi series, Firefly.

I guess it's a scoop and my site is going to get pounded pretty hard once word gets around. I don't want to get into some sort of legal fight with FOX (maybe they sent the stuff to me, who knows) so it's best that they not know who I am.

If you care to know, go to my site if you wanna see the images.

Blogger BBQ

I nominate that the Hawaiistories.com ohana throw a shindig with food and fun at the beach. A Blogger BBQ starring us! I think it'd be a great way to meet everyone! Who else thinks this is a great idea?

Weather tales

I was browsing somewhere and saw a story about tornadoes in the author's neighborhood. It reminded me of Hurricane Iniki. Thought I'd see if there were any mentions of it on the web, and lo and behold: Google found 3,400 hits (although most were almost surely for "hurricane" as opposed to "Iniki." Here's the first one that came up.

Here we go again

Once again, Forbes has studied Honolulu and found it wanting as a place to do business. Prepare for another round of gnashing of teeth on the part of the State and City and another round of "I told you so" from the Republicans.

Starring... Hawaii!

Last night I, along with millions, watched ER. While it was a fine episode that evoked many tears, I particularly enjoyed the fact that it was filmed in Hawaii. I often like watching shows that feature Hawaii in either its scenery or its storyline. I miss the islands and anytime I have the chance to see a television show or a movie that has scenery from Hawaii, I do.

bink

It's so quiet here that you can hear two gnats "k.i.s.s.i.n.g." Oh, yeah, baby.

Nat'l media attention

Recently the national news has picked up two stories from Hawai'i: the stranded pooch and, just today, the frog invasion. Unfortunately, my dingbat dog chose the time it aired on NPR's All Things Considered to return from a lovely muddy foray into the backyard, so I missed the segment while cleaning her paws. Rats. That link will provide another link to an audio clip of the critters, if you want to hear them!

Syndication Problems

I just discovered something that you all should be aware of. If you're syndicating Hawaii Stories, and the Hawaii Stories site is down, or there's a problem with your site communicating with it, your own site might get messed up.

My solution is if my site doesn't get a response from Hawaii Stories in a couple of seconds, I'll display the last good syndicated listing. Seems to work.

Got Comics?

Saturday was Free Comic Book Day and I knew I should have gotten up earlier so that I could get my grubby hands on a copy of Top Cow’s Tomb Raider or DC’s Justice League, but no…I had to stay up late the night before to putzs around on the web.

We didn't get out to Collectors Maniac, over in Kaimuki on Waialae Ave., till about noon, which was really too late to get free anything, at least not anything good. The only comic they had left was Marvel’s Ultimate Spiderman, which I already have. But Dwayne, part owner of the place, told me I should take it anyway.

Dwayne is cool like that. I'll tell you more about him, his place, and his love for anything Kikaida in another entry.

You would think that...

UH Wins!

Hawaii Wins 1st NCAA Volleyball Title

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) — Costas Theocharidis had 19 kills as Hawaii won its first NCAA men's volleyball title Saturday night, beating Pepperdine 29-31, 31-29, 30-21, 30-24.

Hawaii beat Pepperdine for the first time in four matches this year, including the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation championship last week.

The Warriors (24-8) had never won an NCAA championship in any men's sport, and had only reached the men's volleyball final once. Pepperdine (29-5) is 4-5 in championship matches.

Theocharidis, selected the outstanding player, nailed the winning kill in the fourth game.

Sean Rooney led the Waves with 18 kills.

Home Sweet Humidity

You don't know what you've got until it's gone. I never would have thought that I would be saying that about Hawaii's humid climate, but I found myself wishing for it all the while I was in Vegas this past week.

Free comics!

May 4th is Free Comic Book Day. This is the day after Spider-man opens in movie theaters, and the public's interest in comic books will be high. It's meant to encourage the public to visit their local comic book store and discover (or re-discover) this American art form.

Free Plate Lunch

This Saturday, May 4, I am moving 2 miles (from Kailua Town to Maunawili). Unfortunately, the friends who promised to help have either gotten ill or gone out of town, so I am in need of assistance.

I need a couple reasonably strong people from about 10am-noon to help load and unload the truck. I will gladly pay you for your time and include a plate lunch of your choice.

Decisions, decisions

Consolidated Amusement Co., the largest theater chain in the islands, has announced a price hike for tickets at 13 of their 15 locations.

With ticket prices in other major cities in the U.S. topping 10 dollars each, is the experience of moviegoing still worth the price of a stub?

We're In The Paper!

Okay, so the online edition doesn't have it yet, but if you pick up this week's edition of Honolulu Weekly, the front-page story is about the blogging community - and if you read closely, there's a short article by a certain Ryan Kawailani Ozawa mentioning both IsleTies and this "talkstory" site. Pretty nifty, eh?