I’ve been seeing them. On my friends. On hairdressers. Apparently they’ve been around in Manhattan for a couple of years, but things take a little longer to arrive in Hawaii. Like the mail.

Perhaps I am dating myself, but I once ran around with a bunch of guys from a Kailua punk band called DDT. They had the “ridiculous” ‘do of the 80s, the Mohawk. Yeah, parents everywhere shook their heads as we lived out our rebellious little lives — well, not all of us made it very far — looking for meaning or just escape. We played our guitars, housed any friends who needed a roof, stayed up all night talking about the political state of Ireland (Yeah, I’m Japanese. But Nick was Irish. And he talked more than I did.), & broke bones downhilling St. Louis Heights. We had no money whatsoever, no mommy & daddy to pay for college, no family business to inherit. To go out & buy a tube of gel was something of a luxury. We applied the egg white on special occasions because we needed the eggs for food.

Money was spent on music. A CD, a new amp, new strings. Once I split the cost of a case of Top Ramen with a girlfriend & we lived on that for an entire month.
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It took me three phone calls to get a table at Imanas Tei. In the first two calls, I was told that we could only reserve seats on a central community table, which I am familiar with from many walk-in experiences, but was calling three weeks ahead specifically to avoid. On the second call, I became a little frustrated & was a little snappy, for which I am sorry, but I think I was PMSing. The third call was basically just for kicks & it took the reservationist a few repeats to get me to believe I had actually gotten a table.

Normally I do not call a restaurant three times to ask for the same date, same time. I’m not sure what I was thinking. But… it worked, huh?
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Saw this in Walmart the other day. Heh.

Don’t have plans for Sunday night? Here’s an event you can add to list of options:
February, 19 2006 – WAVE WAIKIKI: DEAD PRESIDENTS PARTY!!!
Featuring Missing Dave, Black Square, Linus and MVA and The Crud
1877 Kalakaua Ave., Honolulu, HI 96815
Cost: $7

This is gonna be a pretty huge show, with some great bands — Come out and party on this President’s Day eve!!!

Hopefully I’ll get some photos to post up later. Should be an interesting night.

Singer songwriter Jack Johnson, a Hawaii resident had his newest album, the soundtrack from the film Curious George debut at #1 on the Billboard Top 200 album charts today. The CD has sold more than 130,000 units on its first week out. It is the first time any Hawaii musician has made a debut at #1 on the Billboard magazine main album charts. The lead off single, “Upside Down” is #1 on Honolulu radio station Star 101.9 FM (KUCD).

As if traffic didn’t already stink.

A few weeks ago, I read this message & I didn’t really give it much thought:

On February 1, the city and county of Honolulu will launch a 30-day speeding ticket frenzy. The city estimates that 9 million dollars will be generated in speeding tickets. 1 million will go to pay police overtime. There will be 50 police on duty at all times patrolling the 9 main thoroughfares!

Now 5 mph above the limit can justify a ticket and every officer is supposed to pull a car over and write a ticket every 10 minutes. They have issued 30 brand new unmarked cruisers and they are bringing all their part timers on full time. It’s up to you how fast you are doing when they do.
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Ok, so it was in the paper today that Joe Moore has decided to stay at KHON TV news. The station was sold recently, and the new owners revealed plans to slash the a huge portion of the news team budget and staff. In response, a number of key personel at KHON TV news resigned in protest. Joe Moore, apparently, decided otherwise. I find this to be somewhat surprising considering Moore’s on-air comments last week. Now I don’t know Joe Moore, but I can’t imagine news in Hawaii without him. I have no doubt that he could easily find work if he decided to split based on moral grounds, but he decided to stay anyway. Ok, cool. It’s his life and everyone’s got to make a living. However Moore’s press release said that the reason for his decision was that he ultimately he works for the viewers. That’s an admirably journalistic thing to say. However I can’t help but feel a tiny bit funny about that. I’ve been increasingly wary of national TV news over the past few years, but I’ve always felt that local news was different; more trustworthy. More than anyone else, Joe Moore was the guy you could trust the most. Joe Moore’s press release felt like “spin” to me in light of everything I’ve heard about the station. Joe Moore isn’t supposed to spin! Maybe he does and I’ve just never noticed it, but I feel like I just took a mental step back from Joe Moore. Geez, I’m becoming more cynical by the day.

Crazy as it may sound, I’ve never been to Wasabi Bistro. But what sounds even crazier is that my 3 friends who have lived here their entire lives have never been there, either. And we all love to eat out so I’m not sure why we’ve never bothered to try this place. I’m sure many of you have been here at least once…shame on you for not telling me how awesome this place is! After eating here I was upset with myself for not coming here sooner. What the hell have I been doing? Anyway…
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