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Spirit
of Aloha | Articles
| Aloha Shorts | March/April
2006
Aloha
Shorts
News
and Notes from Around our World
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Fragrances and Formulas
of the Month
Natural Hawai‘i ingredients make for nice scents and soothing, invigorating lifestyles. Our aromatic, feel-good products of the month exemplify this in any number of ways. There’s plumeria, jasmine and white ginger in the air. The Island Essence line of body care and spa products, created by Denise Diamond (who also wrote The Complete Book of Flowers) includes things like lotions, body washes, massage oils, scrubs and colognes.
She also makes numerous
private-label products
for Hawai‘i’s premier spas.
Learn more at www.islandessence.com or call toll free at 888-878-3800.
Some of the luxurious soaps from the Kona Natural Soap Co. combine coffee and cacao grown on the company’s Big Island estate. The 27 varieties of all-natural, handmade soaps, made from unique formulas, essential oil scents and organic exfoliants, include ingredients such as bitter orange and lavender. Find them at select boutiques on the Big Island and O‘ahu, and each Wednesday at the Ali‘i Gardens Marketplace at 75-6129 Ali‘i Drive in Kailua-Kona. More info at www.KonaNaturalSoapCompany.com |
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Tooting Our Own Horn Department
For the second straight year, the Hawai‘i Publishers Association has honored this magazine by selecting it as the first-place award-winner in the category of Visitor Publication Excellence, over 500,000 copies per year. In other words, SPIRIT OF ALOHA has, once again, been named the best big travel magazine in Hawai‘i. Announcing the award, the Mainland judges said: “SPIRIT OF ALOHA has an overall excellence. The publication covers everything Hawaiian ... The design and layout are clean and elegant. The use of graphics and artwork is bright, colorful and original. The photos enrich the publication and complement the overall fun, clean, informative feel of the publication. The presentation of SPIRIT OF ALOHA is top-notch, with great stories.” We are gratified, and this is as good a place and time as any to thank all the writers, photographers, illustrators, advertisers and readers who make these significant awards possible. Read on!
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May Art and Culture Reign
Artists, civic leaders and educators gather in Honolulu May 11 through 13 to examine Hawai‘i’s cultural heritage at the Hawai‘i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts 2006 International Cultural Summit. Music, dance and cultural experiences are part of the big event. The public is welcome to explore authentic Hawaiian culture. |
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Two Whale Tales
Whales are singing on the Internet these days. Go to www.jupiterfoundation.org to hear the haunting sounds of male humpbacks, recorded off of the Big island, where the big mammals—up to 45 feet long—are in residence from the end of November to mid-April. According to the foundation, the purpose of the singing isn’t fully understood, but it may be to attract a mate. The songs are composed of a complex series of sounds that form a clearly identifiable pattern, with each song about eight to 15 minutes in length. At the Jupiter Web site, if supplies last, you can get a free whale-logo flyswatter by registering. While you’re at it, contact the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary offices at http://hawaiihumpbackwhale.noaa.gov
for a copy of its handsome and informative brochure on the humpback whale. Learn how the sanctuary supports research and education to increase our whale understanding. And everything else you should know about this amazing and endangered species. |
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| Illustration: Nathalie Boutin |
Two Fun,
Free Events
Visitors, take note: Among the things you won’t want to miss on the island of O‘ahu on successive May weekends are “Waikīkī by Moonlight—Vintage Meets Vogue” from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m., Saturday, May 13, and the third annual Wahiawā Pineapple Festival, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, May 20.
The Waikīkī event, a first, will showcase “the very best of Waikīkī’s (and Hawai‘i’s) alluring past and ever popular present.” It will be held on Kalākaua Avenue, the main thoroughfare, with a fashion show, music, great food, arts and crafts and hula. All sponsored by the Waikīkī Improvement Association.
In Wahiawa, the rich history of the pineapple in Hawai‘i is cause for celebration. Good food from two of Hawai‘i’s favorite restaurants—Roy’s and Alan Wong’s, free, narrated trolley tours of the area, prize giveaways, a pineapple parade, a pineapple dessert contest, music, arts, crafts and many special events should keep you busy all day long. Everything is centered at the Wahiawā District Park on California Avenue. |
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A Drip-Dry Guide
to Reef Fish
Identifying Hawai‘i’s many beautiful reef fish would be a lot easier and more convenient if someone would invent a waterproof guide. Now somebody has. In April, Mutual Publishing of Honolulu introduced its pocket-size, useful Reef Fish Hawai‘i guide for snorkelers and divers, with photography and text by John P. Hoover. You can leave the book wet for days. When you come out of the water, rinse it with tap water and wipe each page dry. But don’t leave it in the sun. Photos include the 150 most commonly observed fishes in Hawai‘i. Is it a forktail snapper? A bigeye emperor? A pearly soldierfish? Next time, take your book with you. |
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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:
• Abe Lagrimas, Jr.—Dimensions: Abe, who was born in Guam and grew up in Waipahu, started playing drums at age 4, was the grand-prize winner in an international drumming competition at age 13, spent time studying jazz theory at the famed Berklee College of Music and with trumpeter Tiger Okoshi, and wound up at Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead Residency Program. To call him a prodigy would be understating his talent. Now an awesome multitasker, Abe composed and arranged virtually all the music on this CD, which he also produced. Don’t miss “Boondoggle Goggles,” among many other outstanding takes.
• Bruce Shimabukuro and the BS Band—Incognito: Brother of famous Jake, Bruce, on ‘ukulele and guitar, gets it on with his talented group, which performs 11 gutsy tunes that are sure to remind you of a series of hot days in the romance of summer and the blue divinities of the ocean.
• Sonny Lim—Slack Key Guitar: One of the great
masters of the kī hō‘alu (slack key) universe and a member of the famous musical Kim family in Hawai‘i, Sonny learned to play in the Kohala region of the Big Island, where cowboys roam and this beloved guitar style
originated. His performances on Hawai‘i’s first Grammy CD, “Slack Key Guitar Volume 2,” were highly acclaimed. This, his first solo CD, picks up from there big time. |
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Books
Dark Days, Revisited
The tumultuous events in the late 1990s in Hawai‘i, when the powerful Bishop Estate’s trustees were publicly charged with gross incompetence and massive trust abuse by four kūpuna revered in the Native Hawaiian community and a professor of trust law, are vividly and painstakingly documented in Broken Trust: Greed, Mismanagement Political Manipulation at America’s Largest Charitable Trust (University of Hawai‘i Press, Honolulu, 2006), by Samuel P. King and Randall W. Roth. The two-year, emotionally charged crisis, which made headlines almost every day in the Islands, and was called “the biggest story in Hawai‘i since Pearl Harbor” by 60 Minutes, is an arguably more absorbing story in book form, with new details and accounts of secret meetings, than it was in the slow-developing daily newspaper drama. Almost certainly Hawai‘i’s book of the year, a morality tale for each and every one of us. Available in hardcover or paperback.
Guide to the Wild
The new Hawai‘i Wildlife Viewing Guide (Adventure Publications Inc., Cambridge, Minn., 2006), written by Jeanne L. Clark, is a venture between Native Books/Nā Mea Hawai‘i and the Hawai‘i Watchable Wildlife Project, a nonprofit group formed in 1990 to support state wildlife programs. Here are documented 31 sites in the Islands known for their wildlife, scenery, cultural values or water-oriented recreation. Especially valuable are the simplified maps of each site, wildlife viewing tips and all the other necessary information for visitors and motorists looking for the wild. A combination of solid advice, color photography and fresh, basic information.
Eating Through Honolulu
Honolulu has a restaurant for almost every taste, every price range and every ethnic longing. Joan Namkoong, one of the city’s foremost observers of the culinary scene, has compiled this practical, pocket-size guide for foodies that describes the best places to eat and shop for food. With its careful attention to detail, the book also rounds things off with suggestions of food festivals and cooking classes. If you want to
eat where the locals eat—and what the locals eat—this is probably the book to have. |
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