Best
of Honolulu 2001
Readers'
& Editors' Picks
Chad Blair, Robb Bonnell, Joanne Fujita, Bob Green, Anne Keala Kelly, Marcia Morse, Robert M. Rees, Curt Sanburn, Ryan Senaga, elle simple, Ric Valdez, Li Wang
August 15, 2001
Writer
Francine Du Plessix Gray once described a bodysurfer at Makapu‘u
scrambling back out to the lineup after his umpteenth ride. He stood in
the shallows facing the incoming sets with his arms up-raised in loving
embrace of the sea then dove headlong into the exploding barrels, with
the exhausted passion of a man "about to make love to his woman for
the sixth time." That’s how we feel after an hour in the water
— and after a lifetime in Honolulu.
Every year, in the Best of Honolulu poll, Weekly
editors seek to focus and stir readers’ passion for the city by asking
questions and provoking argument about the answers (this is our ninth
edition). We like to think it’s one way the city fine-tunes itself
and matures.
Readers came up with reasons to hang out in Chinatown,
their favorite bus driver; chose June Jones as the most admired person
in the city and Duke’s as the best place to hear slack key. There’s
more, lots more, a cornucopia of good things about Honolulu.
CIVIC
AFFAIRS
Best way to make politics fun
Vote
Best gubernatorial candidate to run against Jeremy
Harris in ’02
Linda Lingle
Best local scandal
Bishop Estate
Best future for Ala Wai Golf Course
Golf
Best candidate for mayor in 2002, with reasons
Duke Bainum
Most admired person in Honolulu
June Jones
Best union
Hawai‘i State Teachers Association
Worst union
Hawai‘i Government Employees Association
Best person you love to hate
Ben Cayetano
Best local political pundit
Robert Rees
Best grassroots activist or group
The ACLU, Save Sandy Beach
Best local political cause
Hawaiian Sovereignty
Best use of taxpayer dollars
Education
Worst use of taxpayer dollars
Asian Development Bank
Civic affairs … sounds kinda quaint, like they don’t really
exist anymore. Kind of like the old Civic Auditorium on King Street in
Mö‘ili‘ili, where everyone came together to watch rock
’n’ roll concerts, roller derbys and boxing matches.
Civic duty. Civic affairs. Civic responsibility.
Civic-minded. Say it too much, and meaning dissolves away. ("Civic":
of a city, citizens or citizenship.)
"Vote," "sign wave"
and "get involved" were the 1-2-3 winning notions when we asked
for the best way to make politics fun. Ya gotta hand it to Weekly
readers — when it comes to civics, you guys are nobody’s fool.
The answers remind us of our favorite rhetorical question: If you don’t
vote, who will?
Other nominated ideas and comments: "You
mean MORE fun?" "Elect nothing but Democrats and listen to Rick
Hamada fly off the handle about it." "More fistfights."
"Fire all politicians and start over."
"Politics is not fun," one alien wrote.
We put out a fishing pole and asked for best
gubernatorial candidate to run against Jeremy Harris in ’02 .
You said it’s Republican Linda Lingle. She of the hefty campaign
chest, reportedly double the funds other wannabe governors like Harris
... and Mazie Hirono, who, in our polling, came in second. Yeah, Lingle
could shake things up … hell, she’s from Maui …
maybe seed the DOT with bicycling enthusiasts, or stick a bunch of Mäkena
nudists on the bench, or give Dana Naone Hall the reins at DLNR, but probably
not. She doesn’t think that different, but different enough
to, we suspect, shake up the state’s bureaucracy, which might just
change everything.
The Bishop Estate/Kamehameha Schools scandals
hang in the mind like bad sex. Readers voted its rapidly subsiding travails
best local scandal — that’s so 1999. Other ideas:
Rene Mansho, the Ehime Maru, Mirikitani and the HSTA/UHPA strikes. Big
news stories, big scandals — what’s the diff?
Best future for the Ala Wai Golf Course?
We have to humbly disagree with readers’ winning opinion on this,
which is golf; i.e., keep it as it is.
"Oh, my goodness! Ho, cannot do dat! What
about da golfers?!" the meek and the fearful cry, unaware that the
central city is moribund, is dying from a lack of boldness and —
dare we say it? — vision.
Cayetano’s evolving idea for a major watershed
restoration area-cum-park on the state-owned, golf-course site might very
well transform East Honolulu and Waikïkï — for the better.
In a nutshell, two basic ideas: 1) Constructing a system of wetlands restoration
for the three channelized streams that drain the Pälolo/ Mänoa/Makiki
watershed into the Ala Wai Canal will effect a natural cleansing system
for the streams — and the canal. 2) Integrating some kind of park
into the wetlands system (whose size remains undetermined) could very
easily revitalize the Date Street corridor (imagine a park with waterways
across the street rather than a fence), the Kapahulu corridor (ditto)
— as well as give Waikïkï some mauka breathing space. A
preliminary study of the watershed restoration plan is due to be completed
this fall. By the way, the second-place answer to the questions was "park."
Best candidate for mayor in 2002, with reasons:
Winner: Duke Bainum. Some reasons: "only a doctor can cure,"
"sincere," "honest," "smart," "integrity,"
"already rich," "in touch with public," "down
to earth," "not an asshole," "who else is there?"
"dedication and honesty," "the rest look like idiots."
Second place: Mufi Hannemann. Some reasons: "he wants it," "he’s
da best" and "I like say Mufi."
UH football coach June Jones is a god
who walks among us, and the most admired person in Honolulu, according
to pollees. Last year, Jones was the person who one wished was running
for elective office but wasn’t. Clearly, he can do no wrong even
when he speeds on H-1 in his Lincoln and runs into a concrete pillar.
Jones, a devout Christian, thinks God was his co-pilot that day. He even
told The Honolulu Advertiser that his life was spared for a purpose:
to lead the Rainbows — damn! We did it again. Strike that. It’s
Warriors, of course — to victory. God will be watching, and
maybe even a few fans.
Runners up in the worship category: Jeremy Harris,
Dan Inouye, Ben Cayetano. (We note, for the record, that polling occurred
before Evan Dobelle came to town.)
Best union? It was a tough call, because
Hawai‘i has SO MANY good unions. The Hawai‘i State Teachers
Association beat out the ILWU, the IBEW, Local 5, UHPA, HGEA and the
Teamsters; we’re guessing because the HSTA is the lowest-paid among
them. By the time you read this article, the strike-weary HSTA and the
state will have settled their salary bonus dispute with a thumb-wrestling
contest. "HSTA — they got balls," wrote one reader, even
though most public school teachers don’t. "They are all horrible"
and "they all suck" were mentioned too.
Worst union? The Hawai‘i Government
Employees Association, the state’s largest and most influential
labor union, has earned your disgust, followed by Local 5, the HSTA and
UHPA. We can only surmise that tax-paying residents are getting tired
of supporting the largest state bureaucracy in the nation (according to
recent published reports). What we can say for sure is that Mazie, Jeremy,
Linda, Mufi, Duke et al. will be begging for HGEA’s endorsement by
next spring. The HGEA has lots of sign-wavers
Speaking of politics and ass-kissing, it was
no surprise at all that Ben Cayetano is your pick for best person
you love to hate. (Amazingly, there were no signs of ballot-stuffing
for this category.) History will be the judge of Cayetano’s daring
administration, so we’ll hold our tongues … for now.
Following Cayetano in the voting were Frank Fasi,
the Trask sisters, Mike Gabbard, Mufi Hannemann and Jeremy Harris.
Best political pundit: Regular Weekly
contributor Bob Rees wins as best squawker, followed by Dan Boylan
and Rick Hamada. A contributor since 1993, Rees, a former Marine (if that
tells you anything), has earned his stripes not only in print but on TV
and radio, too. He sticks to his principles in all three media, and he
works very hard. In our make-nice, hanabata world, Rees slices and dices,
exposing the cruel, jagged edges of our collective banality and complacence.
Many people hate him, but they all read him.
’Twas Rees who first reported on the local
American Civil Liberties Union’s muddled hypocrisy in refusing to
invite U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to Honolulu for a First
Amendment debate. Our poll was conducted well before that story broke,
and so reader selection of the ACLU as best grassroots or activist
group gives a perhaps inaccurate picture of the group’s standing
among readers today … but we hope not. In this bewilderingly market-driven,
atomized world we find ourselves in, full of subtle brutalities and brutal
sensitivities, free speech seems such a messy, inefficient, potentially
profit-harming thing — such an erode-able, disposable thing
— that we’re glad readers acknowledged the importance of the
ACLU.
The East Honolulu activists once known loosely
as the Save Sandy Beach gang, tied with the ACLU for the first-place
vote, even though the group disbanded in the mid-’90s. However, newsy
events along the Ka Iwi coast have led to permanent protection of the
entire coastline. At the forefront of these activities is the Ka Iwi Action
Council, a group which grew, in large part, out the original posse of
Sandy Beach vigilantes. This might explain the good will of our readers.
Or perhaps the coastline itself stays in the mind as a constant reminder
of the power of committed people.
RETAIL
& SERVICE
Best orthodontist for Adults
Scott Masunaga
Best open market
Chinatown
Best hair cut
Sanctuary Salon
Best antique store
Ming’s Antiques
Best musical-instrument store
Harry’s Music Store
Best Wine Selection
Fujioka’s Wine and Spirits
Best Tattoo
All About Faces, Rene Ane
Best place to work out
24 Hour Fitness Center
Best kitchen supplies
William Sonoma Inc.
Best place to buy cut flowers
Watanabe Floral Inc.
Best cellular-phone service
VoiceStream Wireless
Best Language classes
University of Hawai‘i at Mänoa
Best expensive place to buy trendy clothes
Neiman Marcus
Best inexpensive place to buy trendy clothes
Ross
As the wave of breathtaking retail consolidation and aggressive franchising
rolls across the continent, wiping out every last free-standing merchant
or service in the name of efficiency and delivering the same-old, same-old
to every corner of the land of the free, Honolulu feels the backwash:
Wal-Mart, Home Depot, The Gap/Old Navy/Banana Republic, Starbucks, Papa
John’s, Checkers — now Macy’s.
Still, reader responses in this category reflect
a continued, perhaps nostalgic, preference for good service from local
establishments. Mom-and-pop stores thrive, giving us something —
or, more importantly, someone — to look forward to when we
need to get that special item or service. Talking to local merchants about
being selected as a Best of Honolulu winner, most are humble, saying things
like "I guess we just give people what they want" or "we
should be the best, we work very hard."
Sanctuary Salon (415 Kapahulu Ave.; Apt.
1; 735-4247) owner Renee Oliveira has coiffed Matt Damon, Baywatch
babes and countless others rolling through town. Besides styling hair,
Oliveira and her staff also decorate the W hotel for its club nights.
Although the artsy salon won as the place to get the best haircut
with our readers, followed by Paul Brown, Aquaria Salon and SuperCuts,
the fifth-place runner-up was the actual best style of haircut:
the reemergent mullet — short on top, long everywhere else. Isn’t
is odd that a ’70s hairstyle which went into hibernation with hockey
players and that achy-breaky guy is actually back in vogue? We’re
coming to the conclusion that life is a Möbius strip.
Former real estate consultant Ming Chew has found
a new calling with his wife Shirleyanne. The couple owns reader’s
favorite antique store, Ming’s Antiques (1144 Bethel St.;
585-8877), specializing in furniture, lamps and other household goods
from Beijing and the surrounding region. Chew credits former owner, the
late Greg Wong, with developing the connections in the countryside that
continue to supply the store with wonderful crafts.
"Our pieces are not overtreated," Chew
notes. "We preserve a much softer, timeworn look. You won’t
find any hard, shiny lacquers, or pieces covered in polyurethane."
Best musical-instrument store: Since 1946,
Harry’s Music Store (3457 Wai‘alae Ave.; 735-2866) has been
serving O‘ahu’s amateur and professional music lovers. With
all kinds of musical instruments, lessons programs, a noted drum selection,
local CDs and a huge collection of sheet music — all packed in 7,000
square feet — Harry’s has endured. Manager Clay Yoshioka joked,
"They probably chose us because we’ve been here so long, and
they’ve seen the name time and time again. But, I must say we do
carry everything related to music."
An immediate sign that Neiman Marcus (Ala
Moana Center) is from the old-school is its retro-looking logo. Its seasonal
displays set the tone for a purposeful look at what’s just coming
off the runways of Paris — the ready-to-wear versions at least. Fastidious,
almost daunting attention to each customer and full lines of Dolce and
Gabbana, Moschino, DKNY, Jean Paul Gaultier and Polo Ralph Lauren are
some of the reasons readers chose it as the best expensive place to
buy trendy clothes. After maxing out your credit card, have a sandwich
and iced-tea at the sleek little Mermaid Café or at the view-stoked
Mariposa restaurant.
Runners-up include Bebe, Prada, Liberty House,
Diesel and Hot Topic.
For the legions of thrifty shoppers who can’t
afford lunch at Neiman Marcus much less a $250 silk bra, Ross Dress
for Less (eight locations islandwide) was voted best inexpensive
place to buy trendy clothes. So what if that Calvin Klein top has
a misplaced stitch, you gotta grab it for $20. No one will ever know.
Also-rans: Goodwill, Saver’s, Old Navy and Wet Seal.
For that sauté pan that lasts a lifetime,
plan to spend 80 bucks for an All-Clad at Williams Sonoma (1350
Ala Moana Blvd.; 951-5006), chosen by readers as the source for best
kitchen supplies. With the best stainless-steel tea pots and the best
selection of serious cookware, this place is for the Ming Tsai in all
of us. Check out the outdoor tin lanterns, the Henckels steak-knife sets,
or the various, labor-saving doodads. Other places to trick out your cuisine
include the reader-recommended Executive Chef, Complete Kitchen and Liberty
House.
If you’ve ever been embarrassed because
those bargain roses wilted the next day, Weekly readers would direct
you to any of the five locations of Watanabe Floral Inc. (headquarters
1607 Hart St.; 848-1206) for the best place to buy cut flowers.
Its roses and tropical arrangements are not cheap, but dependable, and
for poor Romeos, there are bouquets for less than $10.
The coolest 24-Hour Fitness branch is
on Bishop Street. Built inside a former bank vault, the industrial atmosphere
makes you feel like a factory worker who’s job it is to pump iron.
Have the patience to listen to pushy sales reps and their logarithmic
options, and you might find a suitable deal at any of seven locations
on O‘ahu, including a big new one in Hawai‘i Kai. With on-site
nutritionists and enough spinning cycles to start a team, these gyms are
loaded with purposeful schwag. Readers like convenience and chose the
fitness chain as the best place to work out. Besides, who knows
when the urge might strike to crank out a set?
Some readers preferred the outdoors and chose
Kapi‘olani Park. We must plug the Richards Street YWCA and the Nu‘uanu
YMCA as two of the best values for exercise in an aesthetically pleasing
environment.
We figure the hard-core inked crowd was just
too cool to put a pen to paper to vote for their favorite tattoo artist,
so the loyal customers of Renee Ane gave her the honor of best
tattoo. The thing is, Ane’s business About Face (1293
S. King St.; 591-0234) does eyebrows; that is, cosmetic tattooing. "My
work is very, very natural looking," says beauty-industry veteran
Ane. She mentioned several people who benefit the most from her art, including
athletes who sweat a lot, older folks with shaky hands who can’t
apply makeup and cancer patients who have lost much of their eyebrows.
For those looking for just the right design to adorn the body, runners
up include China Sea, Aloha Tattoo, Hawaiian Tattoo company (with artist
Black Cat) and Bonzai Tattoo.
Best open market: Chinatown. It’s
the only place you can justify buying red bell peppers and an entire sack
of onions. After the cashier rings up it up and even throws in an extra
batch of green onions, the total is about one-third of what one would
pay at Foodland. While you’re at it, stop over at a fish market to
get the freshest catch for dinner. Take a break with some dim sum or pho
and make the trip to Chinatown a day.
Other notable markets, as deemed by readers,
include Mänoa, Aloha Stadium and Pälolo.
And if you want to order that dish in Chinese,
register for language classes. UH-Mänoa won for best language
classes. With its range of offerings from ESL, French, Italian, Spanish,
Hawaiian to Japanese, the University is an exceptional resource. With
language classes also offered at Kapi‘olani Community College, Hawai‘i
Pacific University and Kaimukï High School’s adult-education
classes, there is no excuse not to pick up a new tongue.
We don’t quite understand what makes VoiceStream
Wireless (1100 Alakea Suite 101; 234-1397) the readers’ choice
for best cellular-phone service, and we’re too tired to try
to figure out if 600 minutes plus free long distance on weekends is better
than 1,000 minutes and a free, tiny Nokia, but we know VoiceStream has
good marketing and that Jamie Leigh Curtis is hot … in that androgynous
way. It’s a bewildering world out there in cellville. We just know
these companies are always looking to snare new customers who, once aboard,
will be too lazy to leave.
"Can you hear me, can you hear me now? Now?
Can you hear me now? Okay, I’ll call you when I get closer to town."
CITY LIFE
Best building to restore:
Pumping
station on
Ala
Moana Boulevard
Best city trend:
More
green spaces, trees, parks
Best city street: overall funkiness
Kapahulu Avenue
Best city street: overall attractiveness
Kaläkaua
Avenue
Best city street: shopping
Ala
Moana Boulevard
Best reason to hang out in Chinatown
Cheap food
Best place to volunteer your time
Hospitals
Best -kept secret on O'ahu
Won’t tell
Best reason to become a Honolulu police officer
Cool car
Best thing about the humidity
Good skin
Best TheBus driver
Rex Freitas
Ah, Honolulu life! A mix of the beach and King Street, of urbanity, suburbanity
and wilderness, separated by as little as Kamehameha Highway. We asked
for best streets (Kapahulu, Kaläkaua, Ala Moana), best trends (more
greenery) and best places to volunteer (hospitals). A plurality refused
to say what’s the best-kept secret on the Island, but others blurted
out the two-buck beer at Magoo’s and the beach at Ka‘a‘awa,
but we won’t tell.
Best building to restore? Voters chose
the Kaka‘ako Pumping Station, looking forlorn on Ala Moana
Boulevard, its stolid, "Industrial Romanesque" bulk rendered
in Hawaiian-cut blue stone with green roof tiles and big, broken windows.
It’s been there since 1900, designed by O.G. Traphagen (designer
of the Moana Hotel) when the city developed its first serious sewer system,
still in use. It’s now in the hands of Kaka‘ako master developer,
the Hawai‘i Community Development Authority, a state agency whose
officials assure us the pumping station won’t be torn down —
as a structure on the National Register of Historic Places, it would be
extremely difficult to do anyway. The plan is to "eventually"
put the property out for "Request for Proposals" to private
developers, so it could become anything.
Best city trend: Readers said more
green space, more trees, parks. This, just as ‘A‘ala Park
is getting sodded and sidewalked across the street from Weekly
offices (and how about that skating rink!); and on the heals of Mayor
Jeremy Harris’ second "visioning" fest at the Hawai‘i
Convention Center, in which the endlessly repetitious mantra of parks,
bikeways, jogging paths, promenades, tree-lined streets, etc., covering
O‘ahu came across as the mantra of the vision teams’ collective
aspiration, as the key to the mayor’s gubernatorial aspirations.
Kapahulu Avenue won as best city street:
overall funkiness. Why? We’re not sure, but figure it won because
of the relatively intact postwar storefronts full of interesting stuff:
restaurants, antiques and the best collection of sporting goods stores
in the city. If only our city fathers could figure out some way to slow
the kamikaze traffic and encourage new development on the avenue to respect
the modest simplicity of the street’s past.
"Who needs a reason?" one reader responded
when we asked best reason to hang out in Chinatown. It’s the
miraculously intact old city, where Honolulu began — as a fishing
settlement on the banks of Nu‘uanu stream called Kou. Now, 200 years
later, Kou might reemerge as a real alternative to Waikïkï,
the other ancient settlement in the O‘ahu moku of Kona. Two
weeks ago, members of the Downtown/Chinatown Task Force asked the city
Liquor Commission to allow late-night cabaret licenses in the neighborhood,
which would mean bars could stay open till 4 a.m., just like Waikïkï.
Otherwise, a winning number of readers said the
best reason to hang out in Chinatown was the (cheap) food.
Hospitals won best place to volunteer
your time. Yeah, but haven’t hospitals become for-profit, HMO-owned
moneymakers anyway? Just asking. We suggest you inquire with the still-charity-based
Shriners Hospital for Children about volunteering there.
Cool car was the winning answer when we
asked for best reason to become a Honolulu police officer. Well,
what’s so cool about a souped-up Crown Victoria, we ask? The gist
of the second-place answer was "Helping people … making a difference
… fighting crime." Other thoughts were all over the place: "to
get out of a DUI," "free coffee," "less dangerous
than being one on the Mainland," "security and sadism,"
"all that cool riot gear," "bootie," "free drugs,"
"great benefits" and "courtesies."
If you want to become a Honolulu cop, pick up
an application from any police substation or download one from HPD’s
Web site at www.honolulupd.org, and send it in. The next step, passing
a written test, puts you on a Police Recruit eligibility list, and you’ll
be contacted for a eight-hour orientation thing, at which time the process
get hairy, with screenings for, among other things, credit history ...
uh-oh.
We asked Rex Freitas of TheBus’ Pauoa-Woodlawn
Route 6 why readers might have voted him the best TheBus driver.
"I don’t know," he answered by phone from his house in
Pauoa valley. "I lost both parents last year. … I guess it’s
because my dad told me, ‘Treat everybody as if it were your mom.’
He was a union man, truck driver."
Freitas does three hour-long round-trips on the
No. 6 daily, followed by three trips from Pauoa to Ala Moana Shopping
Center between 9:30 p.m. and midnight. Favorite part of the job? "The
everyday challenges," says the Local 996 Teamsters member, "the
people. It’s like an office job, except my office moves."
NIGHT LIFE
Best place to hear slack key
Duke’s Canoe Club Waikïkï
Best beer selection
Gordon Biersch
Best bartender
Nancy Manchester
Best place to hear blues/jazz
Anna Bannanas
Best dance club
The Pipeline Café
Best pupu
Restaurant: Indigo
Food: Poke
Best concert venue
Waikïkï Shell
Best weekly club event
Wave Waikïkï’s Pussy Cat Lounge
Best new bar/nightclub
Blue Tropix
Best local DJ
KSM
The Weekly staff works too hard and too long to go out more than once,
maybe twice a week, so we can relate to some of the things you had to
say about night life in Honolulu, like, "don’t do night life"
and "never get out." Plus, we’re in Hawai‘i, where,
we’ve always said, the best things happen during the day and are
free.
In the Night Life category, we detected a spirited
campaign of ballot-stuffing (a big no-no) between partisans of Wave
Waikïkï (1877 Kaläkaua Ave; 941-0424) and Pipeline
Cafe (805 Pohukaina St .; 589-1999), which, like Bush v. Gore,
sadly clouds some of the results. These two titans on the scene may indeed
qualify for either best weekly club event or best dance club,
but we’ll never know for sure.
We feel pretty comfortable validating a clean
vote for Duke’s Canoe Club Waikïkï (2335 Kaläkaua
Ave.; 922-2268) as the best place to hear slack key. Duke’s
has already got the sweetest location at Waikïkï, front-and-center
on the beach in the Outrigger Waikïkï, sandwiched between the
Moana and the Royal. But we’re talking slack-key guitar, here, and
Duke’s has got that covered in spades: Makana, traveling the European
continent, returns in late August to his Sunday 10 p.m. to midnight gig.
Get there at 4 p.m. that same day and you can catch Henry Kapono and his
soothing tenor and Island style. Kapena plays Duke’s as well, and
so do the unheralded Liliko‘i Sisters, who perform nightly from 7
to 9:30 p.m.
Duke’s manager, Ross Anderson, wants entertainment
seekers to know about Ku‘uipo Kumukahi, too, who holds down the Friday
afternoon slot.
At Aloha Tower Marketplace, Gordon Biersch
(1 Aloha Tower Dr. #1123; 599-4877) is readers’ choice for best
beer selection, followed by Magoo’s Pizza in Mö‘ili‘ili,
Ryan’s at Ward Centre and Brew Moon at Ward Centre. At pau hana time,
nothing’s as good as a frosty marzen in a swanky beer hall on Honolulu
Harbor — it’s how Honolulu should be. A Brew Moon partisan wrote
"not the largest, just the best."
"Just the best" applies to Nancy
Manchester of Indigo Eurasian Cuisine (1121 Nu‘uanu Ave., Suite
105; 521-2900). Once this best bartender has poured you a Cosmo
martini (vodka, triple sec, fresh lime, cranberry juice and a "secret
ingredient"), she’s won your heart and wallet for good. Manchester,
a New Jersey native who has manned the counter at Indigo since it opened
eight years ago, also has deft people skills, as all barkeeps must. Here’s
one of her best (if not original) lines: "I love a martini, two at
the most; three, I’m under the table; four, I’m under the host."
Slack key, beer, martinis … what about the
best place to hear blues/jazz? It’s that comfortable den of
grad students and bikers; the hippest live-music venue Honolulu has: Anna
Bannanas (2440 S. Beretania St.; 946-5190), followed by Lewers Lounge
and Wild Mushroom at the Richards Street YWCA, Sunday brunch.
Good jazz at Bannanas, like jazz in Hawai‘i,
is tough to come by, but blues is definitely on the playlist at Anna’s.
In addition to the occasional weekly blues performances, on the last Saturday
of every month Hawai‘i Public Radio sponsors "KIPO Blues Night."
They’ve been doing it for a year now, and Anna’s is marking
the one-year anniversary with a "Blues Marathon" featuring every
single band that every played the KIPO gig. Anna regulars including the
Eric Petersen Band, Bluzilla, Third Degree, Bob Jones and Hard Drive,
with special guest Keahi Conjugacion, are set to play Saturday, Aug. 25,
4 p.m. to 2 a.m. Come early and the cover charge is cheaper. HPR members
get a discount.
Best püpü? It’s Indigo,
readers, say. No doubt they’ve washed back a few martinis while noshing
on Goat Cheese Wontons ($6), Lumpia-Wrapped Shrimp ($9), ‘Ahi Tempura
Rolls ($9.75) and Lobster Potstickers ($8). Indigo, by the way, has a
complimentary buffet during martini happy hour (about 5-ish) Tuesdays
through Saturdays.
Ocean Club and Sansei at Da Row are popular püpü
pads as well, readers say.
Then there’s best new bar/nightclub.
Blue Tropix (1700 Kapi‘olani Blvd.; 944-0001) has garnered
more notoriety for displaying live, caged monkeys. People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals have protested in front of Tropix, but it hasn’t
stopped scenesters from packing the club, especially the first Sunday
of every month when the Del Courtney Band heads a swing-jazz revue, and
the all-ages crowd is rocking. The four monkey’s at Tropix are doing
just fine, thank you.
MEDIA
Best local, non-news TV show
Hawaiian Moving Company; Local Kine Grindz
Best way to use the Web at work
E-mail
Best idea to improve Honolulu Weekly
No improvement needed. Keep as is. Do more of
the same.
Best drive-time radio show
Perry & Price, KSSK
Best way to counteract media monopolization
Support and read Honolulu Weekly
Best local newspaper columnist
Lee Cataluna
Best explanation for Wayne Harada
Who? What? Don’t know. There is none. No
comment.
Most ignored local story
Environmental issues
Best Hawai‘i reference book
Handy Hawaiian Dictionary
Ever insecure and self-involved in our 10th year of operation, we took
advantage of the Media section of the Readers Poll to ask what readers
think of the Weekly and how we could improve the product. Current
trends toward media consolidation and Web use begged our attention this
year as well; but so too did evergreen survey questions on who readers
like to read, listen to and watch. We also duly note a nugget of advice
for future polls: "You are too prejudiced in your questions,"
commented one reader.
The winner for best local, non-news TV show
was a tie: The Hawaiian Moving Company and Local Kine Grindz.
Hawaiian Moving Company has been on KGMB-TV in Hawai‘i for
over 20 years, and around the world in syndication. Michael W. Perry became
host-with-the-most a year after Moving Company premiered. Recent
shows include such irresistible topics as Barbie Benton’s
mansion and helicopter weddings.
As for Grindz, rarely (or never) has a
TV show been as dizzyingly in-your-face local. Lina Girl and Bruddah Sam
have concocted the most effective promotional gimmick for local-style,
hole-in-the-wall dining ever. It’s sheer genius: It’s an every-time
surprise when, after the commercial, the two tondros have polished off
a whole tableful of food.
The problem with your No. 1 answer to the best
way to use the Web at work is that a heck of a lot of you don’t
understand that e-mail isn’t really the Web (aka the
Internet, aka cyberspace). Many of you do use the Web at work,
however, and for these reasons: "Porn," "games," "look
for a new job," "eBay," "find other people’s
work to print out and look busy" and — whaddaya know —
"do the job you were paid to do."
What’s the best idea to improve Honolulu
Weekly? A majority thinks we’re doing just fine as is, but
there was advice galore. "Drop Bob Rees," wrote some, but even
more people wrote something to the effect of "let Bob Rees write
more stink." Other answers: "more short articles," "more
restaurant coupons," "expand distribution," "print
on thinner paper — Charmin," "more positive, optimistic
stories," "more dissing dirt stories," "improve your
Web site," "strike the liberal use of profanity," "restore
personals," "less hippie stories," "less Mainland
stuff," "get a real Clubbed writer," "Delete Clubbed
to Death," "eliminate environmental issues" and "get
rid of it."
KSSK AM/FM’s Perry & Price, the
long-running, Dumb-and-Dumber routine, is your choice for best drive-time
radio show. What we can tell you is that, in the latest Arbitron ratings
(late March to late June), P&P ruled the 6 to 10 a.m. drive-time —
indeed, they lead their nearest rival by a 3-to-1 margin. Is it because
of — or in spite of — Perry’s delirious efforts to convince
listeners to buy whatever it is he’s selling? A few days ago, he
urged listeners out in radioland to "go out and buy, buy, buy for
the health of the economy." Thirty seconds later he was telling his
mic to "Beep, beep, beep your way into a wonderful future,"
plugging Oceanic Cable’s RoadRunner cable internet service. We don’t
think it was a paid ad, just Perry’s mouth on automatic pilot.
The best way to counteract media monopolization,
according to our readers, is to "support and read Honolulu
Weekly." We blush. "Support and buy local" was
the second-place finisher. There are more tips, too: "Use private
smoke-signal fires in hibachi," "read The Nation,"
freak out on the roadside," "corporate terrorism," "more
pages" and, ahem, "make Honolulu Weekly a daily."
Lee Cataluna of The Honolulu Advertiser
is your pick for best local newspaper columnist. (See our Editors’
Pick.) Runners-up were the usual suspects, including Cataluna’s fellow
Advertisers Wayne Harada, Bob Krauss ("The old guy,"
wrote one voter) and Mike Leidemann. Charles Memminger of the Honolulu
Star-Bulletin and Honolulu Weekly’s own Bob Rees. The
big loser this year: MidWeek, whose Bob Jones, Rick Hamada and
Dan Boylan rated barely a mention by our readers.
We pissed off some folks with our query on the
best explanation for Wayne Harada. The Advertiser’s
perennial "Show Biz" scribe, who bolds more names than Dave
Donnelly and Eddie Sherman combined, has legions of admirers. While a
majority of readers answered, vaguely, "Who?" "What?"
"don’t know," "there is none" and "no
comment," Harada’s defenders fired off these missives: "lay
off Wayne" and "he’s become a fixture in the local entertainment
field."
That he has. Harada, who first began working
for the Advertiser in 1858 and who only recently cut his hair and
donned eyeglasses for his column’s mug shot, is the one to go to
for celebrity sightings (e.g., Hoku Ho, Lisa Marie Presley, Jennifer Love
Hewitt and Rip Taylor). He’s also never penned a critical word about
anyone or anything — but then, he works for Gannett.
One thing Harada never writes about — unless
Ralph Nader is spotted munching bean sprouts at Down to Earth — is
environmental issues, your pick for most ignored local story.
Well, gosh, the Weekly has reported at length … oh, never
mind. For the reader who wondered why there wasn’t more coverage
of Hapa’s breakup, our response is, "You just haven’t been
reading Wayne Harada!"
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Best novel, set in or about Hawai‘i,
to make into a film
Hawaii, James A. Michener
Most admired person in Honolulu arts scene
Matt Catingub
Best live theater performance
Mänoa Valley Theatre
Best film critic
Bob Green
Best Community theater
Diamond Head Theatre
Best Local CD
Keali‘i Reichel
Best free entertainment
Royal Hawaiian Bandstand
Most locals have a love/hate relationship with Honolulu’s A&E
scene. Sure, there are bright spots, but when one of the best-selling
CDs right now is by Justin, a young man whose claim to fame is a cover
of "More Than Words," well, we just thank our lucky stars for
bands like Colón. In the literary arts Native Books in Kapälama
brews an underground of politics and poetry while on stage malihini like
Tim Bostock bust their asses bringing us performance that makes the brain
buzz. And visiting jurors for the annual Artists of Hawai‘i
show stir the complacency right out of the melting pot.
We asked for best novel about Hawai‘i
to make into a film, and the big winner was James Michener’s
Hawai‘i … OK, so it was a stupid question (for
those not in the know, Max von Sydow, Richard Harris and Julie Andrews
starred in a 1966 version). But one suggestion was fresh: How about Paul
Theroux’s brand new Hotel Honolulu, with George Clooney starring?
Matt Catingub brings a lot of deep talent
this way, people like Diane Krall, Rosemary Clooney, Michael Feinstein
and Lou Rawls, to perform with his "band," the Honolulu Pops.
In just a few years he and Sam Wong, the Honolulu Symphony’s music
director, have energized Blaisdell Concert Hall. Versatile Catingub, son
of Samoan-born jazz singer Mavis Rivers, wrecks the room when he moonlights
as frontman (alto sax) for swing band Big Kahuna and the Copa Cat Pack.
Weekly readers voted him most admired person in the Honolulu
arts scene. Among those who follow Catingub’s lead in enriching
art and life in Honolulu were nominees Rich Richardson, Wyland, Ramsay,
Stephanie Young Hee, George Ellis, John Young, Meleana Meyer and Lois-Ann
Yamanaka.
Readers voted the Weekly’s own Bob
Green as best movie critic (Congrats, Bob!). The man’s
movie reviews don’t read like Roger Ebert’s or anyone else’s,
and we love him for it. Green understands the B-movie fun of Jurassic
Park III and will wax poetic about the noir elements of a film like
Memento. His reviews often take on two personalities — one
voice gives readers the lowdown, which a proper movie review should; while
an underlying voice mutters things keen and insightful, as if he’s
just whispered something smart to a friend sitting next to him in the
theater. We think it’s those revelations that make him the readers’
choice critic.
Mänoa Valley Theatre (2833 E. Mänoa
Rd.; 988-6131) received the most nods for best live theater performance.
In intimate productions such as I Love You You’re Perfect, Now
Change or The Last Night of Ballyhoo, MVT’s solid performers
continue to churn out seriously wacky productions with flair. See our
Editors Pick on Page 29 to see why Sideshow was the production
that set Mänoa apart from the pack.
Weekly readers stayed on the safe side
by choosing win-every-award songster/kumu Keali‘i Reichel’s
Melelana as best local CD and the Royal Hawaiian
Bandstand (‘Iolani Palace grounds; 538-1471) as the best free
entertainment.
Although the choices are conservative, we can’t
deny that Reichel’s soulful and heartfelt songs are moving and that
the colorful and energetic musicians of the Royal Hawaiian Bandstand continue
to draw the downtown hordes on a regular basis. But this is Honolulu,
and there’s no shortage of free things to take advantage of —
such as sitting under a big banyan tree or visiting the giraffes Wednesday
nights at the Honolulu Zoo. Some other nominees include "those old
guys in those coffee cafes in Kaimukï," "little Filipino
men in big baseball hats playing ‘ukulele on Fort Street" and
"girl-watching along Waikïkï beach."
From Chess, Steel Magnolias, Carousel
to Cinderella, there’s always something musical happening
at Diamond Head Theater (520 Makapu‘u Ave.; 734-0274). Although
the theater tends to choose safe, pre-tested productions, it has a devoted
following that comes for the magnificent stage, sets, lighting, costumes
and sound. Always nominated for multiple Po‘okela Awards, DHT was
voted best community theater with Mänoa Valley Theater, Kumu
Kahua and Hawai‘i Theatre as runner-ups.
FOOD
Best place for outside dining
Hau Tree Länai
Best saimin/ramen
Zippy’s
Best vegetarian fare
Down to Earth Natural Foods & Lifestyle
Best major splurge restaurant
Alan Wong’s
Best gourmet takeout
Kaka‘ako Kitchen
Best plate lunch
L&L Drive-Inn
Best Thai
Keo’s
Best kälua pig
‘Ono Hawaiian Foods
Most overpriced, overrated restaurant
John Dominis
Best breakfast
Eggs ’n’ Things
Best neighbor island restaurant
Mama’s Fish House
Best new restaurant
C&C Pasta Co.
Best city street for dining
Wai‘alae Avenue
Best restaurant ‘Ewa of Red Hill
Bravo Restaurant
Favorite restaurants and feed troughs are the ones that make us feel good
— old, familiar places, rubbed smooth from use. That’s what
Weekly readers spelled out in the poll. Again this year, familiar
institutions find their way to that off-the-top-of-my-head, special place
in Honolulu’s conscience. We like our grinds, and we like our well-worn
paths.
Kaimana Beach’s placid water and clear swimming
channel attract great scenery (swimmers, kayakers, strippers, moms ’n’
babies) any day of the week. The beach is eye candy to go with a meal
by the beach. The Hau Tree Länai (2863 Kaläkaua Ave.;
921-7066), voted best outdoor dining by akamai voters, is the only
shaded place to take it all in. Did we mention the sunsets? With low-key
live music and a pricey, but worth-it, menu, the Diamond Head end of Waikïkï
doesn’t get any better than this.
Readers voted Zippy’s Zip Min the
best saimin in town. The hot bowl of noodles with the usual saimin
stuffs is possibly Zippy’s best-looking dish. Nice touch: The scallions
are served separately.
Okay, so if you can bear the trust-fund hippies
who frequent this mysteriously owned and managed store with an unsavory,
homophobic past, Down to Earth Natural Foods and Lifestyle (2525
S. King St.; 947-7678) is the place to go for best vegetarian fare.
Looking for a cheaper way to a belly full of beans and brown rice, some
Weekly readers simply opt for the Sunday night meals served up
at the Hare Krishna house in Nu‘uanu.
"We are always clean and fresh," says
‘Ono Hawaiian Foods (726 Kapahulu Ave.; 737-2275) manager
Toyo on why his restaurant’s kälua pig was voted best kälua
pig. "We’ve been at this for more than 40 years, so it should
be good."
C & C Pasta Company (3605 Wai‘alae
Ave.; 732-5999) is 2 years old, but a loyal clientele voted it best
new restaurant in Honolulu. The little storefront at the top of Wai‘alae
hill serves up wonderfully fresh Italian dinners. Menu highlights include
a warm shrimp and ricotta salad, seasoned antipasto meats, linguine with
clams, capellini with mixed vegetables — and specials everyday. The
pasta is homemade. The mouth-watering selection of Italian cheeses and
olives, sold out of a case at the back of the restaurant, is about the
best to be found in the state. For home dining, wrap up some of the ultra-fresh
pasta, a tub of pommodoro sauce, a wedge of Percorino Romano, add
salad and wine, and you’re there.
Bravo Restaurant-Bar (at Pearlridge Center,
in the round building across from Starbucks; 487-5544) was voted best
restaurant ‘Ewa of Red Hill. It’s been operating for a dozen
years downstairs from its sister, Anna Miller’s 24 Hour Coffee Shop.
Assistant manager Greg Duldulao has been working at Bravo since the beginning.
When we called to tell him about the Readers’ Poll and Bravo’s
win, he told us the restaurant had already won two Honolulu
Advertiser ‘Ilima awards, one for best Italian food on the Leeward
Side and one for best Leeward restaurant. In any case, he was pleased
with the news from the Weekly and took the trouble to fax us his
gourmet-pizza, meatball-sandwich and pasta-dinner menu. Before we got
Duldulao’s name, we asked him if he was Italian. He laughed, heartily.
John Dominis (43 Ahui St.; 523-0955) won
the most overpriced and overrated restaurant by a wide margin.
Burnt-steak and flavorless-seafood horror stories float around and around.
Its reputation is, at this point, legendary. "It’s a fanciful
illusion," remarked one reader. Just like Andy Anderson’s quest
to be governor.
Readers’ comments also indicated that the
EuroAsian ways of Indigo rub them the wrong way: "Indigo … man,
are they arrogant!" a reader penned. "Indigo … love the
door," said another.
Keo’s serves up the best Thai
food, according to our readers for the nth time. With one restaurant
in Waikïkï and one in Ward Centre, Keo Sananikone’s long-lived
empire also includes little Keoni’s in the Outrigger East. At the
busy corner of Kühiö and Ka‘iulani, it’s a cool spot
for open-air dining and people-watching.
The 24-hour factory Eggs ’n’ Things
(1911B Kaläkaua Ave.; 949-0820) was voted best breakfast —
and who doesn’t love pancakes and bacon at, like, 4:20 a.m. after
a bruising night out?
After a couple of hours in the water, few things
taste better than a big, nasty (in a good way) plate lunch. And nothing
is more available than the omnipresent L & L Drive Inn, voted
best plate lunch. We like the fact that L&L’s owner once
bragged that his product is "greasier" than Zippy’s —
a shrewd bit of honest marketing. Speaking of grease, Rainbow Drive-In
on Kapahulu, came in second, but it’s tops with a preponderance of
editors here. One of us just likes to smell the happily odiferous Rainbow
Rose as he drives by the corner of Kapahulu and Winam.
ROMANCE
Best place for a last date
Zippy’s
Best cafe for chance encounters
Starbucks
Best place for a first date
Beach
Best place for a wedding
Kähala Mandarin Oriental Hawai‘i
Best romantic beach
Lanikai
Chances are (Hey, that’s another song!), most people will agree with
at least one of the statements above. No matter which side they come down
on, our readers weighed in with their choice spots in the ritual of romance.
Zippy’s serves chili with everything.
Burritos? Fine. Hot dogs? Fine … but with noodles? If Zippy’s
ever sells waffles, you know what’s going to be in that fourth jar
of syrup, behind the maple, strawberry and boysenberry. Chili is a crucial
ingredient in just about everything at Zippy’s. (For more on the
local eatery, see our Editors’ Picks.)
Best place for a last date? All-purpose
Zippy’s takes that inauspicious honor. How does that happy feed trough
merit such ignobility? The place to say good-bye. Maybe, with more
than 20 restaurants on the island, it’s the most convenient place
to look down at the floor and a broken heart. Yes, it‘s Zippy’s
inescapable presence, both comforting and suffocating, that put it ahead
of vote-getters that have only one location, like the airport and the
zoo. With enough votes to earn fifth-place honors: massage parlors, which
makes us think that if this many people in relationships frequent these
places, there’s a lot more dumping to come.
Once that ho has been heaved, it’s time
to start anew. But first you’ve got to meet that special someone.
Never mind the Web (too many crazies), and never mind the nightclubs (too
many floozies). The best places nowadays to find a sure bet to take home
to mom are cafes, and readers said the best cafe for chance encounters
is Starbucks. Let’s riff: Whereas the orange of Zippy’s
décor represented a relationship’s autumnal season, the abundant
green of Starbucks conveys spring and rebirth of life and love …
or something so wet as to make us think of Seattle. Other places without
the meat-market mentality are Bogart’s Café on Monsarrat (tied
for second) and Borders Books & Music Café at Ward Centre.
What’s nice about these places is that they are casual and quiet
— no yelling over a band. Plus, you don’t ever come out of them
at 2 a.m., ears ringing and reeking of beer and cigarettes. Maybe the
best part about meeting someone at a cafe is that the pressure is off
to ask them if they want to have coffee sometime since, hey, you already
are.
Once the digits have been scored via a caffeine
encounter, lovers-to-be need someplace to go. Having a first date at a
place that requires people to be half-naked seems like a risky choice
to us, one that can backfire with more modest guys and gals, but the people
have spoken. The best place for a first date is the beach,
with the best romantic beach being Lanikai. Perhaps the
public knows more sexy and secure people than those with whom the Weekly
is forced to associate. The movies are another baffling choice, coming
in second. It is a standard choice, a safe choice, but it is a boring
choice. With only one chance to make a first impression, do you really
want to sit in the dark for two hours not getting to know each other?
Rounding out this illogical trio of first date
choices is Wave Waikïkï in third place. While a fine venue for
music and dancing, a club full of people looking to hook up doesn’t
seem like a wise choice for a first date either. (Doesn’t anybody
have porch swings anymore?)
But readers, in their wisdom, must be doing something
right because now there are wedding bells in the air. Talk has moved to
spending eternity together, and a plain civil ceremony at City Hall is
so out. Romance is in, baby, especially if it’s going to make up
for that earlier trauma at Zippy’s. The site of more than 500 ceremonies
last year alone, the Kähala Mandarin Oriental Hawai‘i
has a handle on romance, making it the best place for a wedding.
Dianna K. Shitanishi, the director of weddings there (739-8711), attributes
the hotel’s popularity in part to the spectacular grounds ("a
beautiful property, secluded and out of Waikïkï") and an
ability to meet its clients’ needs, whatever they may be. Kähala
Mandarin Oriental Hawai‘i must be doing something right — most
of its business comes from referrals. Meanwhile, Zippy’s did not
earn a single vote.
RECREATION
Best place for a weekend getaway
Maui
Best O‘ahu attraction
Diamond Head
Best annual-benefit event
Taste of Honolulu
Best isolated beach
Lanikai
Best tennis courts
Ala Moana
Best place to put a kayak in the water
Kailua Beach
Best sport for meeting people
Paddling
People who have spent any length of time in Honolulu have been faced with
one inescapable question: What is there to do around here? The answer
is — not a whole lot. At least, not by way of variety. Rather, what
a gorgeous place like Honolulu offers are variations on well, a water
theme: surfing, bodysurfing, snorkling, windsurfing, kayaking, paddling,
etc., etc. While there is a segment of the population that forgoes the
sunshine for more nocturnal pastimes, the Best of Recreation awards focused
instead this year on everything, everything under the sun.
By Honolulu standards the other side of the island
is sooo faaar. This is one of the Aloha State’s peculiar idiosyncrasies.
Along with driving 40 mph on the freeway at the first sign of rain, most
kama‘äina consider drives of 20 miles or more as treks to the
ends of the Earth. Thus, O‘ahu’s northern and western extremes
are sufficiently remote to qualify as three of the best places for
a weekend getaway. Maui is the top vote-getter overall, but
nothing further is specified, leaving us to wonder: Is it the resorts
and waterfront shopping of Lahaina? The break-ass road to Häna? Maybe
it’s just the sum totality of the Maui experience.
There’s pretty much nothing break-ass about
Diamond Head, but perhaps that’s precisely the quality people
want in the best O‘ahu attraction. When people aren’t
looking to get away, it’s DH’s serene, outdoor quality that
they’re looking for. Most votes went to the more picturesque, natural
parts of the island, while manmade attractions such as the Polynesian
Cultural Center came in far behind. Some stray votes went to "me"
and "my wife." Sir, are your intentions noble?
By definition, the best annual-benefit event
has noble intentions, and this year’s winner is no exception. The
10th annual Taste of Honolulu raised more than $260,000 out in
the open air for Easter Seals Hawai‘i this past June. But with live
music by such local favorites as Robi Kahakalau, Kapena and Natural Vibrations,
as well as food from close to 30 restaurants at this three-day festival,
surely there’s a little bit of hedonism to go along with the altruism.
That altruism was a little harder to find when
we asked our readers for the best isolated beach, with comments
like "won’t say" and "secret." But enough of
you were willing to help a brother out with your expressed choice: Lanikai.
Voters were easier about the best place to
put a kayak in the water, picking Kailua Beach, not too far
down the road from Lanikai. And why not? Except for those masochists who
voted for the Ala Wai Canal, who wouldn’t want to drop a boat in
such a bay?
Obviously the healthy-bod sport, paddling
has staying power as readers’ choice as the best sport for meeting
people. Surfing tied for second along tennis, which, by the way, can
be played at the best tennis courts: Ala Moana Park. Hiking, with
its pulse-raising exertions in canopied seclusion, tied for a surprising
fifth. From the peanut gallery were votes for "Drinking" and
the bargain T-shirt-inspired "Nude Volleyball." "Puppy-kicking
and baby-crushing" was disqualified because respondents aren’t
supposed to write two answers for one question.
The
Weekly doesn’t have editorials, because, well, the
whole paper is an editorial … ahem, has a voice. But blatant opinion
is something we try to save for the Editors’ Picks. So, we four editors,
plus freelancers, friends and fans, got together and conspired to come
up with what we thought were highlight-able notions worth some ink and
some argument.
Most significant developments in state politics
A lot has changed on the political front during the past 12 months.
For example, a new core group of high-potential leaders emerged. Preeminent
among these are Rep. Ed Case in the House and Sen. Colleen Hanabusa in
the Senate.
Case plans to run for governor in the Democratic
primary, where he is considered a long shot. Hanabusa is mulling over
a run for Congress, but many hope that she stays where she is for the
time being, as the untitled — and undisputed — leader of the
state Legislature.
Another notable political development has been
the strengthening of what its members refer to as "the fellowship."
The fellowship is a group of 24 state legislators who meet periodically
to discuss their faith-based approach to politics, or what Rep. William
Stonebraker calls "Government From the Bible." Stonebraker,
an assistant pastor at the Calvary Chapel, and a graduate of Calvary Church’s
two-year Bible College in California, notes that the group already has
concluded "that murder, theft and perjury [are] incongruent with
good government."
The single most significant, and in this instance
encouraging, political development of late has to be the emergence of
the Republican Party of Hawai‘i as a viable second party. With the
election of 19 Republicans to the House last November, the Republicans
suddenly possess the power to force debates and recall bills from committee.
On Feb. 13, the Republicans flexed their new
muscle, and moved to recall from committee one of 14 stalled age-of-consent
bills. The Democrats, including House Vice-Speaker Sylvia Luke, fought
the sheer effrontery of this, and for a while the Democrats actually considered
acting as if the Republicans weren’t even present. The battle ended
with an eight-point treaty on Feb. 20. It was clear that the days of Democratic
dictatorship were over.
As we might have expected, both parties quickly
blew opportunities to make the two-party system meaningful. The Republicans,
after years of lamenting the lack of reform, split right down the middle
on reforming the health insurance program for public workers. Lobbying
by the Hawai‘i State Teachers Association persuaded 11 Republicans,
two in the Senate and nine in the House, to vote against reform. That
is, in a reversal of roles, it was the Republicans who caved in to union
pressure.
However, the two-party system is but a fledgling
in Hawai‘i, and there will be a period of adjustment for both sides.
In the meantime, it’s good for our politicians to know that there
is an opposition ready to pounce at the drop of a hat.
The Top 10 political shifts are:
1. Emergence of two-party system in Hawai‘i.
2. New legislative leadership,most notably Sen. Colleen Hanabusa, Rep.
Scott Saiki and House Speaker Calvin Say.
3. Finally, Senate-House Investigations into the state’s non-compliance
with the Felix consent decree.
4. The beginnings of civil service reform.
5. The further decline of the Attorney General’s Office under Earl
Anzai.
6. The decline of neighborhood boards.
7. The increased willingness of the Honolulu City Council to step on the
First Amendment just to make the tourist industry happy.
8. The new importance of "faith-based" legislators in the state.
9. Complete changes, made while excluding all but about 100 Hawaiians
from the process, in the new Akaka federal recognition bill after we were
told last year that the original had to be rushed through Congress.
10. The Hawai‘i Tourism Authority’s newfound freedom to revert
to what it was supposed to prevent: cronyism, waste and personal payoffs.
Most important paradigm shift: Honolulu vs. Hawai‘i
We can’t count the times we’ve had to replace the imprecise
place name "Hawai‘i" with the place name "Honolulu"
in the course of editing Weekly articles prior to publication.
It got us to thinking. Why do smart writers refer
vaguely to "Hawai‘i" when what they’re talking about
is Honolulu/O‘ahu? The problem might be that we’ve all bought
into this myth called Hawai‘i, the same simplistic myth that energizes
millions of vacationers to come to the Islands every year. It’s warm
and fuzzy, multicultural, pretty, sunny — and about as meaningful
as a tourist brochure.
The fact is, the disparate islands of Hawai‘i
are heading off in all sorts of different directions at different speeds;
and "Hawai‘i" is rapidly losing its collective meaning.
Here on O‘ahu, we cling to the vague unreality of the myth, wherein
the actual city of Honolulu is an aberration, an embarrassing tangle
of freeways and high-rises that doesn’t really belong here. It’s
an immature mindset, we submit, that doesn’t help the city in its
continuing evolution from a suburban mess to (dare we say it) 21st century
metropolis. For Honolulu to work as a city, its residents must embrace
it as a city, as a spectacular tropical metropolis, as a power center
for pan-Pacific affairs, as the capital of Oceania. Think big; think Honolulu.
Best new voice: Lee Cataluna
From three-dot dishing to op-ed opining (or whining, as the case
may be), newspaper columnists play a curious role. It’s as if those
who are otherwise intent on impartial reportage also want to hedge their
bets: Columnists can say things that news writers can’t; columnists
can also write about things that aren’t "news" but may
be vital to the fabric of life in a community. Columnists make us think
about how we read and process the constant deluge of news, both local
and global.
Over the years, we’ve been fortunate to
have columnists like Bud Smyser, something of a moving target in terms
of his politics but always a voice of integrity; and Bob Krauss, whose
sense of the island community has done much to ground us in the importance
of the everyday.
Enter Lee Cataluna, who debuted this year with
a thrice-weekly column in The Honolulu Advertiser. She’s taken
on a wide variety of topics, from the recent meeting of the Asian Development
Bank to a felonious elected official, to the subtleties of local vocabulary
and Portagee jokes. Tough issues like the age-of-consent fracas
or penalties for hate crimes don’t escape her attention.
We don’t expect high-level intellectual
analysis when we read her, but more often than not, Cataluna’s take
on issues is insightful. Viewing the world through the lens of locality,
she melds the voice of personal conviction with the pulse and sensibility
of her (our) community, somehow both echoing and clarifying. Playwright
Cataluna, adept at scripting on-stage personalities, cultivates an engaging
rhetoric of her own: occasionally a bit of a scold, sometimes a bit too
cute, but mostly just right. She clearly enjoys the play of language and
the demure lilt of the local; strong points of view are often mediated
by the complacent tones and syntax of our mild, no-make-ass milieu. Covering
her bases with a deft fairness and a cagey kind of inclusion, Cataluna
can (and often does) deploy her column as the last word. Sometimes, there’s
no way around her.
Most provocative notion in Hawaiian affairs
The issues of Native Hawaiian rights, sovereignty and potential models
for Hawaiian self-governance have recently come to include more and more
dialogue about a model of independence based not on ethnicity, but on
the Hawaiian Kingdom’s already existent/never-extinguished sovereignty
and the actual laws of the kingdom. Two things are compelling about this
idea: It’s fueled by international laws that govern occupation; and
two, the notion of an already existent sovereignty might affect dialogue
about the relationship between Native Hawaiian people and the U.S. government.
Eight months ago, self-appointed representatives
from the Hawaiian Kingdom appeared at the World Court’s Permanent
Court of Arbitration (Dec. 7, 2000), to defend themselves in a noncontentious
case between Lance Paul Larsen and the Hawaiian Kingdom. In the body of
the award handed down by the arbitrators in February, the independence
of the Hawaiian Kingdom during the 19th century was acknowledged. This,
combined with the fact that no known record of the Hawaiian Kingdom ever
relinquishing its sovereignty exists, calls into question the legitimacy
of "statehood."
Since that appearance at the World Court, international
laws that govern rules of occupation and America’s own domestic policies
have become common topics in discussions between Hawaiians.
Spurred on by his visit to The Hague, this past
July 5, David Keanu Sai, Acting Minister of the Hawaiian Kingdom, submitted
a complaint at the United Nation’s Security Council that, like the
above-mentioned case, stipulates that the Hawaiian Kingdom is still in
existence. Entitled "Complaint Against the United States of America
— Concerning the American Occupation of the Hawaiian Kingdom,"
the 139-page document includes a list of every nation the Hawaiian Kingdom
had/has treaties with, as well as the international laws that still govern
and protect those treaties. The document also spells out America’s
abuse of power, sometimes reading like a laundry list of how America has
deceived and manipulated its way into occupying Hawai‘i both militarily
and economically. And now, by virtue of having accepted the complaint,
the UN Security Counsel must take up the issue of America’s occupation
of Hawai‘i.
Best inevitable dining: Zippy’s
At one point or another, everyone living on O‘ahu ends up at
Zippy’s. Even people who hate Zippy’s end up there. At 3 in
the morning, not too many places are still serving, but there’s always
one joint that can be relied upon. No matter where you are, no matter
what time, there’s a Zippy’s. Its inevitability, its hours,
its canny food service, its predictability and its parking trump all other
options.
Some locations are cruising sites for kids with
rice mobiles who wanna act like they’re in The Fast and The Furious
(McCully, Waimalu). Some are just takeout sites with the dank, deserted,
depressed aura of a local-style Edward Hopper painting (Kaimukï,
Kapahulu, Waiau). Some are not-bad Japanese restaurants, with sushi and
sashimi, hidden in the guise of a 24-hour diner (Kähala, Pearl City).
Some are rest stops for female nocturnal-service professionals (Vineyard).
And others exist as someplace to have a cup of coffee and just talk the
long journey into the night. Hell, you can even drink and smoke at certain
Zippy’s locations.
Bright, shiny franchise or not, Zippy’s
defines eating "local." Chili franks, Zip Pacs, Zip Mins, Shintani’s
tasteless hippie cuisine, Apple Naples from Napoleon’s. Most likely,
most people are sick to death of this stuff, but then a craving hits.
It’s as if Rainbow Drive-In was available everywhere, all the time.
Best new arrivals
It’s estimated that, over the past several years, more than
4,000 Micronesians have relocated to O‘ahu. In the wake of the U.S.
government’s ongoing renegotiations for financial aid, pursuant to
the Compact of Free Association with the Federated States of Micronesia
(Chuuk, Yap, Kosrae, Pohnpei) and the Republic of the Marshall Islands,
these island immigrants are seeking new opportunities — as well as
the social and medical support from state and federal agencies to which
their long wardship under the U.S. government entitles them. Like most
immigrants, their first steps into American society have been in low-paying
but essential service jobs: behind mini-mart counters, on groundskeeping
crews, as parking-lot attendants, etc. It may be a generalization, but,
in our experience, Micronesians’ trademark gentleness and warmth
have enlivened and enriched our increasingly cosmopolitan city …
and their choral voices have brought some magic back to Sunday beach parks
everywhere.
E komo mai!
Best local DJ and club breakdown
When Weekly readers voted KSM as top local DJ, the editors said,
"Who?" Long a favorite of Honolulu club goers and DJs, KSM —
aka Keith S. Medina, 35 — has been on the scene since his first gig
at the Wave Waikïkï in 1990. He is still a resident DJ at the
Wave, filling the weeknights with smoothly mixed music, mostly house and
two-step. KSM also spins regularly at Hula’s, Kids Klub (Fusions),
and the Spy Bar (John Dominis), and deftly feeds into the never-get-old
mentality that takes the scene to the next level.
Weekly readers may have been turned on
to KSM at the infamous Pussycat Lounge, voted "best weekly party,"
Tuesday nights at the Wave, featuring house and hip hop until 4 in the
morning.
Best lunchtime escapes from the hurly-burly
o At midday, beauty is balm for the jangled nerves, whether art or nature
— and The Contemporary Museum in Makiki Heights, a short drive from
downtown, has both. It also has a handy, well-run, outdoor cafe. Freshness
and seasonality mark the light, great-tasting food, and the desserts are
terrific. A walk through the gardens is a grounding and inspirational
detour back to the car.
o A pair of fins and a mild south swell suffice at Point Panic for a quick
session of bodysurfing. Parking is easy, and nothing reorients the brain
and body like 30 minutes of jockeying in the lineup. According to news
reports, tough new state rules banning the use of boogie boards and maybe
paipo boards (but allowing the use of hand-boards) go into effect this
fall at Point Panic, rules that will give bodysurfers, the least slippery
class of surf maniacs, first crack at the break’s best peaks.
o Sometimes you just need an afternoon quiet time, a chance to talk it
out with a friend or cement a new one. Afternoon tea is a disarming thing
to an American; the social ritual, laden with the English propensity for
chatter, finds a home in Honolulu in two serene tearooms in the most hectic
of the city’s districts: one downtown, Tea at 1024 on Nu‘uanu
Avenue; and one in Waikïkï, at the Sheraton Moana Surfrider
Hotel. Tea at 1024 is presented within a sea of frilly, feminine niceties.
Sorting through and selecting just the right tea on the verandah of the
Moana qualifies as a civilized form of aromatherapy.
Best theater event: Side Show at MVT
Our readers selected Mänoa Valley Theatre (2833 E. Mänoa
Rd.; 988-6131) for best live theater performance, and the Hawai‘i
State Theatre Council’s 18th Annual Po‘okela Awards ceremony,
honoring the best of local theater, confirmed that just last month. MVT
garnered the most awards (eight), with its musical I Love You, You’re
Perfect, Now Change leading the pack. That’s no surprise, as
MVT was up for 35 awards in all, including two nominations in both the
"Overall Musical" and "Overall Play" categories.
While Side Show tied I Love
You, You’re Perfect, Now Change with eight nominations, the former
production ended up taking home zero Po‘okela (Hawaiian for foremost,
best, superior, superlative). And that’s a shame, for Side Show
was a rare treat, even in a city brimming with top-notch theater productions.
Maybe it was the lack of name-recognition: Side
Show opened on Broadway in October of 1997 but, despite critical acclaim
and enthusiastic audiences, it closed three months later. It was also
challenging to contend with a plot that centered around a love quadrangle
involving conjoined twins Daisy and Violet Hilton.
In fact, the twins, played to perfection by Yvonne
Iverson-Filius and Katie Leiva Shriver, were the best part of this exceptional
production. Faced with the near impossible task of singing and dancing
on stage while "joined" at the hip, the "twins" mesmerized
audiences. Points also go to Emerson Green for his supporting role as
a circus he-man.
The real overall winners were MVT theater-goers,
seduced by guest director/choreographer John Rampage’s deft production
and musical director Melina Lillios sparse, yet poignant, accompaniment.
The show created such a buzz last March that performances were extended
— until the a death in the family of a major cast member brought
Side Show to an abrupt halt.
Best urban planning news
Good news: Ke‘eaumoku Street’s giant vacant lot, bounded
by Rycroft, Sheridan and Makaloa streets, remains vacant. For a while
there, it looked like Wal-Mart was going to plop down a giant, traffic-busting,
mom-and-pop-store-killing Wal-Mart/Sam’s Club combo store on the
lot, with six decks of parking for 1,500 cars. In April, Wal-Mart let
its option on the land lapse and effectively withdrew. In a flash, Home
Depot was on the scene, sniffing out the block for one of its big-box
stores-cum-parking lots. A week later, they too pulled out.
Why did they chicken out? It’s our suspicion
that the Harris administration, in the shape of Director of Planning and
Permitting Randy Fujiki, held both retailers’ feet to the fire, demanding
budget-busting, street-friendly amenities (cafes, landscaping, windows,
etc.) from the retailers in exchange for city cooperation on critical
street-traffic realignments. But these retailers only make money when
they build bare-bones warehouse stores and plenty of parking: frills don’t
fit in their formulas. Well, traditionally suburban big-box stores don’t
fit in the middle of Honolulu, either. Landowner Wichman Family Trust
now has a chance to do something good for the city. How about a dense,
mixed-use residential and retail complex — maybe even a hotel —
that might set the tone for Honolulu redevelopment for years to come?
Best waterman
At first, veteran paddlers chuckled at the "Kid" on his one-man
outrigger canoe — paddling on the left down the beach at Lanikai
with his ama in the air; playing in swells, doing floaters, getting the
boat sideways and skipping it down the face of the wave, the whitewater
pushing. Eventually fellow paddlers figured out his antics were not merely
youthful tricks but serious innovations that won him races, but by then
it was too late. Now paddlers young and old are imitating the kid’s
tricks, hoping to catch up.
Outside the relatively small circle of outrigger
canoe paddlers, the name Karel Tresnak Jr. may have little significance.
But within the sport the name Kid Karel is as recognizable as Tiger Woods.
Tresnak, named after his dad, well-known Kailua canoe builder Karel Tresnak
Sr., has nearly as many major victories, including at least three solo
Moloka‘i-O‘ahu races. Maybe he’s a freak of nature, and
maybe it’s a fluke that the lanky, 20-year-old phenom is dominating
the sport, wresting the glory from muscled watermen twice his age. But
like Woods, Tresnak’s success opens up the sport to barely pubescent
kids, training their hearts out on the Ala Wai, dreaming of blue-water
glory.
Best hiking trail
For a dry, wildflower-blessed jaunt, Kuli‘ou‘ou
trail in East O‘ahu delivers. From the trailhead off Kuli‘ou‘ou
Road, switchbacks ascend into a pine needle-covered forest. At the first
"summit," a picnic table sits beneath an open shed in the middle
of a moonscape of red dirt. At the trail’s upper reach, near the
Ko‘olau ridge, multiple paths allow for extended treks.
The Old Pali trail or Maunawili
trail is long (10 miles each way), wet and immersed in the smells and
solitude of nature. Beginning at the Nu‘uanu Pali lookout, the trail
descends to Kumuhau Street in Waimänalo, clinging to the spectacular
pali the whole way. Start early and bring plenty of food, or else you’ll
be starving. Nestled deep in the Ko‘olau, this twisty adventure shows
off the Windward Side’s finest views, mauka to makai.
Best place to bone up on new media
When it began over 15 years ago, Pacific New Media, a comprehensive
program of seminars and short, intensive workshops, was a summer affair,
connecting students and Hawai‘i professionals with world-class filmmakers
and videographers. Now, however, it’s a year-round series of offerings,
outside the box of conventional semester-oriented academics: some workshops
are as short as one or two days: others range up to five weeks.
Newest innovation at PNM is a certificate program
Internet l Web design, with 19 courses of various length, ranging from
basic design to intaw and beyond. The workshops, all hands-on, are taught
by working professionals, from Honolulu and elsewhere, who take time out
to share expertise. Last week, for instance, Jon Magnussen, winner of
the Lincoln Center of Performing Arts achievement award and currently
Princeton artist-in-residence, presented a two-day workshop on digital
audio production.
While PNM’s typical offerings (such as the
one taught by Joseph Lowery, author of the Dreamweaver Bible) are
cutting-edge tech, overseer Susan Horowitz, on the job for a decade and
a half, also brings in film-industry professionals: in the fall, USC screenwriting
professor Richard Krevolin (Screenwriting from the Soul). Next
spring, producer Christine Vachon (Boys Don’t Cry, Hedwig and
the Angry Inch) returns to teach writing and production courses. Part
of the Outreach College Programs, PNM is supported by tuition, Hawai‘i
community Television and the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts.
Fees range from $45 - $240. Web site: www.outreach.hawaii.edu/pnm.
Best reasons to stay and fight
The rest of the world grew closer to Honolulu and Hawai‘i these
past 12 months, mainly because of negative publicity. The Pearl Harbor
premiere in May, hyped as a celebration of history, patriotism, heroism
and old-fashioned romance, was a chance for the national mainstream media
to lick the Prada shoes of Hollywood from the deck of the John C. Stennis.
The film turned out to be so bad that the subject itself, the attack on
Pearl Harbor, lost currency. In hindsight, O‘ahu’s invisibility
in the flick was a godsend.
Then there was the sinking of the Ehime Maru
in February. The subsequent failure on the part of the U.S. navy to inflict
any serious punishment on Cmdr. Scott Waddle gave black eyes not only
to the armed forces, but to the Aloha State as well. Even Jake Shimabukuro’s
sweet ‘ukulele couldn’t heal the wounds.
O‘ahu’s rising profile as the accident-prone
Fortress of the Pacific was cemented further with the collision, a week
after the sea tragedy, of two Black Hawk helicopters, killing six men.
On the civilian side, a handful of negative incidents
made national, and sometimes international, headlines: the debilitating,
history-making labor-union strikes that shut down the state’s already
crippled public-education system; the very expensive red carpet rolled
out for the Asian Development Bank meetings in May; the embarrassing ACLU
fracas regarding Clarence Thomas’s suitability as a First Amendment
debater; the Vieques-like situation at Mäkua valley; the sovereignty
activist telling Canadians to stay away from our (or her) ‘äina;
controversial CO2 sequestration experiments that supposedly will ease
global warming but might in fact cause an ecological disaster; the automobile
crash of a football coach, which, amazingly, made front-page news here
for weeks and continues to do so; and a dinosaur power-utility monopoly
that delivers to consumers electricity costing twice as much as the national
average, at the same time that it shamelessly obstructs state-sponsored
energy reform.
There’s more: heated debate over the Navy’s
low-frequency sonar tests designed to detect quiet submarines and whether
it harms marine mammals; a mayor who has discovered the Politics of Pretty
and just might win the governorship because of it; the craven passage
of a flawed age-of-sexual consent law by the state Legislature; the state
Board of Education’s bizarre flirtation with the teaching of creationism;
and, most ominously (think globally for a moment), missile-defense testing
on Kaua‘i and in the Marshall Islands, which is part-and-parcel of
the Cheney/Rumsfeld administration’s unilateral plan to erect a missile-defense
system — and, quite possibly, ignite a whole new arms race.
It’s been a tough 12 months, to say nothing
of the scary, narrow-minded rightward drift of the body politic and a
tourist industry that thinks higher hotel-room rates and skin-deep Waikïkï
beautification will offset drops in visitor arrivals.
Sorry to dwell on the grim and the negative,
but now is not the time to stick our heads in the sand. What to do? We
offer no quick solutions, but do suggest this: Get mad as hell, figure
out a better way, vote and stay and fight. Write to state reps, councilmembers,
mayoral, gubernatorial and congressional hopefuls; remind them that nearly
every elective office, save for the U.S. Senate and Big Isle mayor, is
up for grabs only a year from now. Remind them that they work for us —
all of us, not just Walter Dods, Bert Kobayashi, Matson Navigation,
Gary Rodrigues, Servco, HECO, David Murdoch et al.
Be, to echo a patriot’s words, eternally
vigilant. As we celebrate our state’s 42nd anniversary this week,
dust off our state motto and make it your command: E Mau Ke Ea O Ka ‘Äina
I Ka Pono! (If you don’t understand this profoundly moral, profoundly
Hawaiian imperative, find someone who does.)
