Spirit of Aloha | Articles | Aloha Shorts | September/October 2005

Aloha Shorts

News and Notes from Around our World

A Timeshare to Remember

Are freshing kind of sense of the complex vacation and timeshare market is made on a regular basis by the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based magazine Hiatus, which goes to great lengths each year to rate hundreds of resorts and timeshare properties, comparing them, as they say, “side-by-side.” David Wood, the publisher and editor of Hiatus, has written with a certain frankness that “although the industry has made dramatic changes for the better, many people are still confused by the timeshare product and the process of buying the product, which includes attending a presentation.” It was thus welcome news for several Hawai‘i-based properties in the magazine’s current “Buyer’s Guide” issue when ratings for 2005 were announced. Eight of these sun-dappled vacation resorts were selected as the Editor’s Choice, and the Westin Kā‘anapali Ocean Resort Villas on the island of Maui was named “the best timeshare resort in Hawai‘i” and among the top 10 resorts worldwide. Publisher Wood told Spirit of Aloha, “The Westin is a real favorite among our subscribers, and we have awarded the resort our Editor’s Choice award the last two years.” Three Hawai‘i-based Marriott properties were also highly honored by the magazine as Editor’s Choices. They were included in a special group with Fairfield Kona Hawai‘i Resort at Kailua-Kona on the Big Island, Embassy Vacation Resort at Po‘ipūPoint and Marriott’s Waiohai Beach Club on Kaua‘i, Marriott’s Maui Ocean Club and Worldmark Kīhei on Maui, and the HGVC at Hawaiian Village and Marriott’s Ko Olina Beach Club on O‘ahu. If you’re a timeshare enthusiast, but don’t know how t he system really works, visit gohiatus.com





New Galleries of Fine Art

Everybody in the community and visitors alike are invited to the Honolulu Academy of Arts on Saturday, Dec. 3, for an open house that celebrates the opening of 10 renovated and reinstalled galleries devoted to the display of the academy’s significant collection of European painting, sculpture and decorative arts. The event marks the end of the final phase of a seven-year expansion program, which began in 1998. The suite of 10 galleries is dedicated to the presentation of Western antiquities from Greek and Roman times, as well as from Egypt and the ancient Near East; Italian Renaissance paintings and sculpture; 17th- and 18th-century European art; a suite of three galleries devoted to cross-cultural influences in East-West arts; and the acclaimed collection of European masterpieces by artists such as van Gogh, Monet and Picasso. “Since 1988, more than $15 million has been invested into creating a world-class museum experience in Hawai‘i, which will both attract more tourists and support the community’s need for art education and cultural enrichment,” says its director, Stephen Little. The open house is free, from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Live entertainment will be featured throughout the day. Come one, come all




Speed Sailing to Molokini

The windy afternoons of Mā‘alaea are perfect for real sailing, which is the idea behind a new “Extreme Molokini” sailing adventure from Trilogy Excursions of Lahaina, Maui. Offered for groups on a reservation basis, the “extreme” trip leaves Mā‘alaea Harbor at 1:45 p.m. and returns by 5:15. Chris Walsh, director of operations, says, “We named the trip Extreme, because there is a lot of sailing involved in this trip. The weather is more extreme and better for speed sailing and ocean adventures.” On the way to Molokini, lunch is served. At the beautiful crescent-shaped island, snorkel equipment is provided and scuba dive upgrades are available. The One-Tank Certified Dive upgrade, which explores the marine life of Molokini crater, requires a certification card. More information at 661-4743 or toll free at 888-MAUI-800. Also visit www.sailtrilogy.com

Big Surf Money on Monster Waves

Once again, big-time surf money comes to the North Shore of O‘ahu. The Vans Triple Crown of Surfing—three premier big-wave series of events—will be held in three sites, beginning with the Op Pro Hawai‘i on Nov. 12 to 23 at Hale‘iwa, followed by the O’Neill World Cup of Surfing at Sunset Beach Nov. 25 to Dec.7, and concluding with the Rip Curl Pro Pipeline Masters at Banzai Pipeline Dec. 8-20. Total prize money: $670,000. Most surfers consider these three events to be the sport’s most coveted titles. This is surfing at its most glorious: At Pipeline, waves reach five stories high and then march shoreward before exploding upon a barely submerged coral reef. You’d better drive out and watch this one!









Save Gas! Wear Aloha Shirts

Although winter weather has now arrived on the shivery shores of Japan, we could not resist reporting how one Hawai‘i-based company has warmed the cockles of Japanese hearts by participating with aloha spirit in a campaign to help Japan save more than 80 billion gallons of oil. Last summer, the Japanese government suggested that all private and public office workers, including “big wigs,” discard suits and ties for the hot, humid summer. The nationwide directive was called “Cool Biz.” It was thought that by raising the temperature of office air conditioners from 77 degrees to 82 degrees, the 80 billion gallons would be saved. Since the aloha shirt is perfect hot-weather attire, Hawai‘i-based Hilo Hattie, the state’s largest manufacturer of Hawaiian resort and casual fashions, leaped into the fray with colorful enthusiasm, advertising “Earth friendly” ways to dress down in a special advertising program in Japanese co-sponsored by the Hawai‘i tourism Japan office. Surely, Island prints and colors make any office more relaxing and productive. Let’s take “Cool Biz” worldwide!








Hot Magma in a Cool Setting

Adventure will become more user-friendly with the opening on Nov. 19 of the new Science Adventure Center at Honolulu’s Bishop Museum. Indeed, this may be the only time of your life when you can walk through an “erupting” volcano, modeled after Kīlauea’s active vent, and actually explore the infrastructure of a volcanic lava plume by pumping hot magma. The $17 million, 16,500-square-foot science wonderland spotlights Hawai‘i’s natural environment. The exhibits also feature a deep-sea ocean tank where you can observe a diorama of Hawai‘i’s youngest volcano, Lo‘ihi; a 160-foot Origins Tunnel, with glowing artwork created by local schoolchildren; and a Living Islands Gallery, where adventurers simulate the work of Bishop Museum research scientists. Visitors will have opportunities to learn about oceanography, geology, entomology, botany, volcanology and seismology. Bill Brown, president and CEO of Bishop Museum, says: “No other science center in the United States has state-of-the-art, extremely interactive exhibits that focus on an environmental theme. It helps take education to a whole new level for this generation.” Admission to the museum is $14.95 for adults and $11.95 for youth 4 to 12 years old. It is open from 9 to 5 daily.









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:

• Sonny Lim—Slack Key Guitar, the Artistry of Sonny Lim: One of the finest practitioners of the Hawaiian slack key style, Sonny “Kohala” Lim grew up immersed in the sounds of the famous musical Lim family, who were among the Kohala region’s originators of the ki ho‘alu (slack key) style. One of our favorites is the “Punahoa Special,” a pleasing complement to traditional standards such as “How D’Ya Do” and “Mauna Loa Slack Key.”

Linda Dela Cruz—Hawai‘i’s Canary: Inspired by “Hawai‘i’s Songbird,” Lena Machado, Dela Cruz takes us back to the days of our Tutu Man (grandfather), when we listened to 1950s radio characters like Lucky Luck. “Kūhiō Beach” is a paean to the old-time beachboys of Waikīkī and “Come My House” is a pidgin classic that embodies our aloha spirit of sharing.

• Sean Na‘auao—Ka ‘Eha ke Aloha: One of the Islands’ favorite contemporary artists offers up a wonderful selection of standards (including “Papalina Lahilahi”), as well as the romantic title cut, “Ka ‘Eha ke Aloha,” written by kumu hula Frank Hewitt. With this album, Na‘auao returns to his traditional Hawaiian roots, saying aloha to “Jawaiian” music, for the time being. Like what you hear? Then head down to Waikīkī for one of Na‘auao’s live performances at the Sheraton Moana Surfrider, en plein air under the historic banyan tree (call for his rotating schedule at various Sheraton hotels during Starwood Hawai‘i’s current “Flavors of Island Music” campaign, showcasing the Islands’ top entertainers).



Books

A Multitude of Dreams
On page 58 of this issue we explore the trials and tribulations and inevitable complexities of learning the Hawaiian language. But this book describes in nine dream stories from Hawai‘i’s past how, having no written language, Hawaiians passed their history and life lessons down in the form of legends, which were committed to memory and then told again and again. Hawaiian Legends of Dreams (University of Hawai‘i Press, Honolulu, 2005), retold and illuminated by Caren Loebel-Fried, with a foreword by Keola Beamer, tells, among other things, how Hawaiians of old believed they communicated with ‘aumākua, their ancestral guardians, while sleeping. During sleep, people received lessons of guidance from the gods.



Diminishing Dreams
America’s economic future and place in the global community may well lie in the nation’s ability to continue to attract talented immigrants—and keep them here. David Heenan, a trustee for the Estate of James Campbell in Honolulu, one of the nation’s largest landowners, believes that a multitude of innovative reforms are required to prevent the exodus of valuable human capital that is, in his studied opinion, a threat to the country’s future prosperity. This “reverse brain drain” may well tip the balance between America’s technological and scientific preeminence and a slow, withering decline into mediocrity. Sound gloomy? Read his proposals and wake-up calls in Flight Capital (Davies-Black Publishing, Mountain View, Calif., 2005). “History,” writes Heenan, “offers many examples of great countries that came to a catastrophic end because of their unwillingness to respond to change.”


Island Dreams
For a place of its small size and population, Hawai‘i has always inspired fiction of large ambition and sprawling canvases. Two recent novels by long-time residents continue the tradition. The Braid, by Ian MacMillan (Mutual Publishing, Honolulu, 2005) continues the author’s dramatic stories of complex, dysfunctional families who struggle to find redemption in idyllic settings. MacMillan, who won the 1992 Hawai‘i Award for Literature, teaches fiction writing at the University of Hawai‘i. Web of Islands, by John Griffin (Xlibris Corp., 2005), is a Michenerlike sequel (but far fewer pages) to the author’s 2002 novel about Hawai‘i in the years after World War II up to statehood in 1959. In these new chronicles of modern Hawai‘i, multiracial peoples inhabit a world of struggle, dreams and the inevitability of generational misunderstanding, as the Islands come to grips with momentous social change and the arrival of another century. Griffin was the editorial page editor of The Honolulu Advertiser for many years.                                                                                                                                                                     

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