Hawaii 2024 - Part 5

Makapu'u lighthouse from Makapu'u beach

rabbit island from Makapu'u beach

very cool store/ceramics studio/community space called Fishcake in Kakaako and they have different popup kitchens. It happened to be Bing Mi who make great Jian Bing which i used to eat in Beijing all the time. Its hard to find good jian bing outside of china.

Jasper Wong seems like THE art guy to know in Hawaii. he founded and runs the PowWow/World Wide Walls mural festival every year and is friends with Justin Chon and became a studio space subletter when the landlord said he'd give him a really good deal on half the building but its up to him to sublease it out as studios to other artists. So he has figuratively and literally created a community of artists. He took us around to a bunch of the studios in the building and is the nicest and most generous guy.

Cravings, a letterpress studio. Everyone was so friendly and other studio people walked by and everyone knew each other and were so friendly

we walked up some stairs, I had no idea where we were going next and the door opens and a guy is like hi do you want to see some Chuck Jones original animation cells? I'm Chuck's grandson. We're talking Chuck Jones here the guy who created Wile e coyote, marvin the martian, pepe le pew, and co-created bugs bunny etc... There was a show of Chuck's work opening the day after we left but we got to see it all before they hung it. This was Gangway Gallery and Melon showed us around

they had a bunch of artists do officially licensed pieces too.

an interactive piece, it says rabbit season, duck season, rabbit season, duck season etc. There's a cartoon where they keep changing it so elmer fudd will shoot daffy duck instead of bugs bunny instead of daffy instead of bugs etc.

Went to China Walls which jen had never been too. They say only locals should swim there cuz it's dangerous. It looks like really calm waters but there will be swells that come and could smash you on the cliff rocks. It looked awesome and if steven were there we woulda done it cuz there several spots to get in and out and a spot futher down where there were more people looked ok. 

this is not my photo but this is basically it. A giant pool really calm waters but if one of the swells comes when you're trying to get out that's a problem

a Hawaiian lady bug? Yes! this is an Ash Grey Ladybeetle and it says its host plant is papaya. Says it eats psyllids and "occasionally" aphids.

One of Jen's dad's old co-workers from the army corp of engineers days invited us to the Elks club on the water way at the end of Waikiki. Great sunset view.

Afterwards we met up with James and Lisa who's a photographer and does seriously cool stuff like her recent Hawaiian feather artists documentary series. EP bar is a vinyl records bar and could be the coolest bar on the island IMO.

last few hrs in Hawaii

went to the Koko Head botanical garden where the further in you go the crazier the plants get

Bougainvillea close up

so many plants like the Sausage tree that are a movie/game designers dream. Straight out of Scavengers Reign

I was ridin' solo so after this i went to Makapu'u beach and then Sandy beach. We had some beers at the airport and sad SPAM musubis and didn't sleep much on the plane so played like 4 hrs of Civilization 6 as Queen Seondeok of Korea.

gifts from Jasper Wong and Gangway Gallery and Chuck Jones' grandson Craig Kausen gave jen the Pepe Le Pew pin.

In summation it seems like the art community in Hawaii is very small and very tight and very friendly. Again a lot of people say you have to bring your own work to Hawaii cuz there's not a lot and its very low paying. Surfing twice was cool so if we lived there i guess i'd try to surf at the easy lame spots for a few yrs and maybe eventually make it up to like that place btwn diamond head and waikiki. I met a bunch of people and feel like i'd just keep meeting more and more people and be shouting out new friends all the time. The neighbor giving away mangos, Jen's high school pals we had drinks with (one of which she hadn't seen in 20 yrs), the bon dance, Lisa the photographer not being ashamed to say she wants it all (success), the java sparrows, the monarch ferns with the spore bumps, being ok with waikiki, this all has be intrigued. I'm intrigued Hawaii...

 

Hawaii 2024 part 4

Stacy's was gonna pay for surfing lessons for us but then her boss ended up paying for 2 mornings of surf lessons cuz the house they rent is right next door to Ty Gurney. The first day I caught waves with them pushing me but the 2nd day I caught a bunch on my own. This is at waikiki of course so like famously the easiest place to surf.

Jen's dad planted some branches he took off the plumeria tree months ago and it seems like they took root and are living.

a neighbor gave us a bag of Haden mangos and said when its mango season he gets 30-40 per day which sound like it would be a curse. That's like an entire armfull of heavy juicy mangos every day, i don't know how you'd get rid of them all. They were delicious. 

Went to Iolani Palace (royal residence of rulers of the kingdom of Hawaii) by myself cuz they also went here before I arrived. It was the morning and I had no reservation and it was me and one other guy approaching the building. I read online that you can get lucky and get a walk in spot and I knew there was a good chance it could be me or this guy. So luckily it was confusing where to go so I just did the steps of confusion like 10 seconds faster than that guy and I got the last spot and it was a guided tour, which guided tours are the way to go now in my old age. You have an expert telling you stuff and it forces you to slow down and you learn way more than you would on your own in this phone swiping adhd world. Sorry guy. 

There was a whole room full of Kahili at the Bishop museum. Kahili represent a bunch of things including a person, a noble, ali'i chief. Their mana is imbued into each one and passed down through the generations and these Kahili feather stands are even given names. What a cool concept. Also no birds are killed in the making of these.

as Hawaii westernized they held royal dances, here's an invitation.

so Hawaii was highly regarded and recognized as a sovereign nation and then American capitalists like the Dole plantation people wanted Hawaii so they overthrew the Royals and stole Hawaii and america wanted to reinstate the Kingdom of Hawaiia but then realized the strategic military location of the islands in the Pacific and went along with the theft. And fast forward to now where native Hawaiians have the highest poverty rate and have the worst health outcomes and morbidity of anyone now and etc

we saw the room where Queen Kapiolani was held prisoner in 1895 as the American capitalists were stealing Hawaii. Here with her attendants they sewed this quilt telling the history of Hawaii.

I went toodlin' around town, there's a few locations of Harbor's vintage that have some interesting stuff. I can't wear this shirt cuz i'm not from Hawaii but it's a banger.

the famous ripstop bags from foodland with illustrations on them turned into a fanny pack (that's $175!!)

Jen's aunt in Hawaii moved into a retirement home which is really nice. This photo is cuz bob wishes he could live here now. Just doing puzzles and drinking camomile tea (which is NOT tea).

House without a Key again with stacy and emma after floating in the gentle ocean at Waikiki. That's miss Hawaii doing Hula and Kapena the band in the back which is famous. Originally they were 3 dudes I think. The woman with the electric guitar is probably badass. Why House without a Key twice? Cuz its easy to get into as far as i've seen and its right there in Waikiki and its chill and despite being a lame tourist spot it is still nice and it does the job sometimes. Also it's hawaii just chill baby (advice i need to take myself)

Koko Head speed run as morning exercise

The photo doesnt look crazy but it is and towards the top it gets really steep. I had to stop a bunch of times for a minute on the way up because its like taking two or more stairs at a time for half a mile straight up, hitting each rail road tie for over half a mile. It's 1048 steps and 1200 ft elevation gain. Its also very crowded. I did a new personal record, 19 min up and 11 min down (previously it was 20 min up 12 down). My legs muscles were messed up seriously for like 5 days afterwards.

Michele's friend is the former curator of the Honolulu Museum of Art and has been at pretty much all of the big Hawaii art initiatives so we had lunch with them and learned some stuff about the fine art scene in Hawaii which is very very very small compared to the mainland. Hawaii is so small that even illustrators like Jasper and James who's a writer know Allison. I can't see myself having lunch with the curator of the MOMA in nyc. Afterwards we walked over to Antique Alley and jen found a vintage universal monsters type art book for me and we ended up at Hana Koa brewery at the edge of Kakaako which has great branding design by Welcome Stranger

Sandy's at the end of the day, a 5 min drive from the house.