|
Spirit
of Aloha | Articles
| Aloha Shorts | March/April
2006
Aloha
Shorts
News
and Notes from Around our World
A Truly Distinguished Class Reunion
When Lahainaluna High School on the island of Maui was founded in 1831, no more than nine free high schools existed in all of America. The first boarders, 32 boys, were admitted in 1836, and legends were born. To this day, the school with the illustrious history rightfully calls itself the “oldest school west of the Rockies.” If you are one of the more than 4,000 known living alumni of Lahainaluna, you have probably received an invitation to the historic 175th anniversary of the school, which will be celebrated on April 7 and 8 in Lahaina with a parade down Front Street on Friday, opening ceremonies at Armory Park and a big celebration lū‘au on Saturday evening. Alumni and friends of the school can learn more about the festivities by calling the Lahainaluna High School Foundation at 661-5332 or going online at www.lahainaluna.com |
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World’s Biggest Luncheon-Meat Festival
Every place seems to have at least one special annual celebration—in Castroville, Calif., it’s the Artichoke Festival; in Utah it’s Traffic Barrel Day; on Shrove Tuesday in many places it’s Pancake Day or else it’s Popcorn Day. But in Hawai‘i, where more Spam is consumed per capita than in any other state, (6.9 million cans a year), it’s time once again for the Waikīkī Spam Jam, to honor the Islands’ favorite luncheon meat. This year, visitors can join locals on April 29 for a six-hour street festival unlike any other on Earth (sponsored by Times Supermarkets and the Waikīkī Improvement Association and co-sponsored by Aloha Airlines). Live entertainment on two stages, Hawaiian music, hula, craft booths, Spam memorabilia and Hawai‘i’s most celebrated chefs serving unique menu items featuring—what else?—Spam. The 2006 Mr. or Ms. Spam will also be crowned. Some 20,000 persons attended the event last year, believe it or not. We can assure you, you’ve never seen anything quite like it. |
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Another Delicious Food Award
These days it is not unusual for a Hawai‘i-based chef to be honored with one supreme culinary award or another. So when Honolulu’s Chef Mavro was recently selected as one of the Top Ten Restaurants in the world by Fodor’s Choice 2006—the reliable big-time guidebook people—chef/owner George Mavrothalassitis told his team that “we’re gong to have to work even harder now.” Fodor’s designation is “reserved for hotels, restaurants, sights and experiences so wonderful and so special that words don’t do them justice—you just have to experience them to know.” The restaurant is at 1969 S. King St., about 10 minutes from Waikīkī. For words that will do your reservations justice, you should call 944-4714. |
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How About Chocolate-Covered Spam?
The Fifth Annual Kona Chocolate Festival, on March 25 at the Outrigger Keauhou Beach
Resort on the Big Island, encourages chocolate decadence in a chocolate taste-off competition, with awards in professional and amateur categories. You’re invited to create an appetizer, entrée or dessert, as long as it’s made with chocolate. To the best of our knowledge, no one has ever paired chocolate with Spam, but this could be the year. More information at www.konachocolatefestival.com |
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Jazz on the Beach
One of Honolulu’s most active jazz venues will host the 13th Annual Hawai‘i International Jazz Festival—Springtime, on April 1. The Halekūlani Hotel event will feature a free morning jazz clinic and follow with an 8 p.m. concert showcasing top musicians, including the Hawai‘i International Jazz Festival All Star Band, directed by Abe Weinstein, who founded and is executive director of the festival. Everything ends with a freeform jam session featuring all of the evening’s performers. Tickets are $75 and $60. Parking is complimentary. More information at 941-9974 or at aewjazz1@aol.com |
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How to See Through Jet Lag
New eyeglasses that block the blue component in white light that causes the suppression of the body’s production of the sleep hormone melatonin—which exacerbates the disruptive effect of jet lag—have been developed by
the Lighting Innovations Institute at John Carroll University in Cleveland. According to news from the university, the traveler, if he’s flying east, should begin adjusting his circadian clock to his new time zone a few days before departure—putting on the glasses an hour before normal bed time the first night, two hours the second night and so forth. For flights west, the traveler puts on the glasses for an hour when he gets up in the morning on the first day, two hours the second, pushing the circadian clock backward. If it sounds more complicated than you like jet lag to be, there’s a Web site with more information at
www.lowbluelights.com |
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MUSIC:
Listen Up
Brickwood Galuteria, Hawaiian 105 KINE’s “Aloha
Morning Show” radio host, chooses this list of recommended
music from the Islands, with all selections widely available
at Island record stores:
• Various Artists—Legends of the Hawaiian Steel Guitar: Invented in 1889 by Hawaiian musician Joseph Kekuku, the steel guitar achieved worldwide familiarity when Hollywood added its distinct sound to multiple South Pacific-themed movie soundtracks. More than a century later, this definitive collection features the legendary players, past, present and future. Listen to the versatile ways that Joe “Steppy” DeRego, Jules Ah See, Barney Isaacs, Sol Ho‘opi‘i and Greg Sardinha kept the tradition alive. One of our favorites: Jerry Byrd’s “How D’ya Do.”
• Aaron J. Salā—Ka ‘Upu Aloha, Alone With My Thoughts: A rising star on the Hawaiian music scene, Aaron J. Salā blends delectable solo piano with lyrical vocal interpretations of new and lingering melodies. Among the best seem to be “Nani Kaluako‘i,” by Randy Kamuela Fong, and “Hanohano Mānoa,” by R. Keawe Lopes. The artist says the intent of his music is to create a thought that never leaves you, an ‘upu aloha.
• Britney Ānelaikalani Jennings: This young woman made her first recording at the age of 12, followed by a second album two years later. Now, at a time of intense emotions, she says, she’s released her third, at age 17, which has received praise from, among others, respected entertainer Nālani Olds, who touted Britney’s “amazing presence, demeanor, technique and voice.” This is a singer to keep an ear on. |
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Books
The Exiles of Moloka‘i
Writer John Tayman’s absorbing story of the 1866 American leprosy settlement on the Hawaiian island of Moloka‘i, The Colony (Scribner, New York, 2006), complete with more than 60 pages of source notes and a detailed bibliography, was called “riveting” by the Detroit Free-Press, “meticulous” by San Francisco magazine, “disturbing” by Booksense, “a noble account” by The New York Times, with “rigorous, tenacious research” by Kirkus Reviews. But the book ran into a storm of controversy in Hawai‘i in January when the Maui News reported that three former leprosy patients at Kalaupapa claimed they “had been duped by the writer’s intentions or never gave him permission to tell their stories in the first place.” Considerable legal activity has followed, with accusations of plagiarism, as well as involvement in the controversy by Gov. Linda Lingle, Sen. Daniel Inouye, and others in the Hawai‘i congressional delegation. But the book’s publishers have defended its contents, and the author, the former deputy editor of Outside magazine, has declared, according to the Maui News, that the book is “an accurate, sensitive and inspirational account of the lives of the people associated with Kalaupapa” and that readers “will share my feelings of respect and admiration for the residents of Kalaupapa, both past and present.”
A Half-Century of Island Rock ’n’ Roll
When Tom Moffatt arrived in Honolulu in 1950 to study at the University of Hawai‘i, fresh off the farm near South Lyon, Michigan, the only thing he knew about the Islands came from listening to “Hawai‘i Calls” on national radio. Fifty-five years later, after promoting hundreds of concerts in the Islands, and helping to create the model for American rock-and-roll radio, the irrepressible impresario has written his memoirs (with music writer Jerry Hopkins). The Showman of the Pacific (Watermark Publishing, Honolulu, 2005) is a breezy, anecdotal book with all the names and stories you love to hear: Sinatra, Presley, Bo Diddley, Aretha Franklin, Mick Jagger, and even the Lipizzander Stallions. Moffatt has promoted them all, and his tales are lots of fun.
Hawai‘i’s Complex Environmental History
How humans have exploited and thoroughly altered the Islands since the first arrival of the Polynesian canoes is dramatically documented in Islands in a Far Sea: The Fate of Nature in Hawai‘i (University of Hawai‘i Press, Honolulu, 2006), by biologist and marine scientist John L. Culliney. This is a complete and beautifully produced revision of the original book, published in 1988. All serious students of the land and natural systems of Hawai‘i should read it. |
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