Saturday Showdown...

[photo by rich kim]

...it IS, after all, the second Saturday. I got the text for this competition's theme but totally forgot what it was. I know that brilliantairre Maui artist Joe Pa'a'hana is participating, and since the LOST people are back on island working they might have whipped something up too. Shane Cross? You in? Who else... Gerard? Rob? Well, in any case I always enjoy these. Get there early to get a good spot-- this thing fills up.

Also tonight-- Terren Zorne and Chris Cano are debuting their new party at Longhi's. Very posh stuff. Body painting, bottle service (recommended-- the booths at Longhi's are rad), checkered floor. Should be right.... and you always want to be at the first anything, right? Always always always the best one.

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First Friday. You know the Deal.

Some special events are happening though. Mainly the "official" launch of Alex and Corey's site that you've heard me mention here and there. It's called "DoSomethingTonight" and it's pretty good. Most times the faces behind anything web or technology driven are NOT like this:


I don't know how they get anything done with it since they're always out partying but whatever man. It's the best resource that I've seen and totally unbiased. If you do any events and you haven't sent them the info go ahead and do that. Come by their launch party tonight too. They're really nice guys. They probably won't be sober tho. Just saying.


Later you can see the first ever MC battle at O Lounge at FLOW. Or see the portrait thing at Thirtyninehotel that I mentioned earlier this week. Or just stay at Next Door and check out Doc Martin. That's always a nice crowd.


Enjoy!

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Portraits!

Ok. So you may or may not know that I have a bit of a thing for portraits. Portraits and trees. If I was any good at photography you can bet that I would be chasing all of you down to sit for a cw-style portrait. Look for my faves one day, but for now you can look forward to the new exhibit at Thirtyninehotel this Friday. I know, right. First Friday. A.k.a. When-Downtown-turns-into-ZOO day.

date: Friday, September 7
event: First Friday Opening Reception
time: 6pm-9pm & 9pm-2am
admission: FREE (21+ w/valid ID)
6pm-9pm, opening reception for Portraiture Revisited: thirtyninehotel's First Annual Juried Exhibition.
Artists: Mandell Andres, Dana Forsberg, Jaqueline Hegarty, Erika Johnson, Wendy Kawabata, April Lee, Mark Maresca, Lori Ohtani, Jessica Oshita, Ryan Kerns.
Juror: Gaye Chan, Artist and Chair, Department of Art and Art History at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
After the reception, stick around for DJ Harvey and Chittom. Global cult hero DJ Harvey joins Double Joy’s Mark Chittom for an evening of left-field classics, nu-disco, and wall-to-wall revelry.

Sounds SUPER exciting to me. I won't miss this for the world. TONIGHT you can actually head over there for some chill music and yummy fruit drinks. It's also Kaleidoscope so tonight is Around the World w/Cherry Blossom Cabaret, Black Square, Malcognitas, & Scrabbel (from SF!). Wait. Cherry Blossom?! I'll go around the world with YOU! HAWT.

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Labor Day Weekend, day POOL

Woah. Nice evening. Let's relax today. Drive to the Sheraton Waikiki. Park in the garage. Walk outside to the pool. Validate your ticket. Buy a mojito. Lurk all the skin. Enjoy Sunday. For three dollars and free parking.

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Labor Day Weekend, day one

Saturday. I know there's something I'm supposed to be doing. Can't. Quite. Figure it out.

Either way! Tonight is the GROUNDUP movement. The last one was dopedopedope so make sure you get to chinatown. It's right across from Little Village and there is no age requirement whatsoever.

Later tonight at E&O there is a monthly happening from the Downtowne ladies Ruby and Kayko. If you don't know about these parties, I'm not sure I really want to tell you. They are for women who love women and they go OFF on the themes. Tonight is fashion week and I'm not missing this for the world.


More soon, these are the picks tho. Check my boys at DoSomethingTonight.com for a more intensive list. I know Adam Saaks is back-- I saw him at the Smart mag party. So get a shirt at Skyline!

OOOOOh and Nicole Scherzinger is back home to host da kine at the Monkey Bar with the Vertial Junkies at the Hyatt. Don't not go! She's single now and hothothot.

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Stuff to Do, starting now.

SO ya ya ya summer is over. Come on you guys. Is it REALLY that bad? Maybe I'm just clueless since I live alone and have no associations with anything seasonal (including the weather-- it's always nice here) or educational (unfortunately), but I REALLY could care less that it's Labor Day. You shouldn't either. The year is winding down, that's sort of odd. It went by fast. I'm not sure what makes time go by fast anyway. I mean-- it's always going at the same pace, it's just when we actually stick our head up and notice it.
Well whatever. It's just Labor Day. Not like the craziest milestone. Let's talk more about time and legacies at the end of December, K?

Meanwhile-- DON'T get overwhelmed for this weekends activities!!! Let's just take it one day at a time. It's always better to have 7 things on your plate that way when you only make it to 4 or 5 it's still a very successful weekend. I'll take it one day at a time for your weekend suggestions on here anyway. With the exception of Skin, because you need to plan for that one. The rest? Eh. Just do what I do and have one drink at each event. I swear one day I'll make a party hopping pop-up book. For now, here:

Lunch at the Contemporary Museum today would be a good idea. Get up there! They are debuting the new exhibit and it's supposed to be HELLA dope. All smoke and mirrors. I already mentioned something about this. I'm hella excited to see the Phantasmagoria.... and eat an avacado wrap. [photo by c. russell -sb]


Whirl away from the office and right into the lovely property of the Honolulu Academy of Arts for "Endless Summer" and see Keoki make surfboards. These are always fun and overflowing with interesting people. Lurk the photo galleries from past events to see what I mean on their website.


Go to Art After Dark early. Like, right at 6pm. Do a whizz-through-whirlwind tour of everything and then get your ass over to UH for Jake's Onthe1. He does these regularly and knows what he's doing. ALLLLL college students are free so get there before its over at 10:30


NEXT!! More Hip Hop because that's the best stuff to dance to. Let's just dance dance dance tonight ok? Check out the Nomasterbacks album release at Tropics over by Ward:


If, for some reason, you aren't down with that then you can't go wrong at Soul Clap. That's Esake's deal so you know it goes off, and when I say "off" I mean very good vibe, you can dance if you want to, you can chat if you want to, and guaranteed there will be a nice chill place to kick it if you want to. Nocturnal Sound CREEEW!

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Anything you can do SHE can do better...

Nadine Kam is blogging! I'm hyped. It's called Fashion Tribe but trust me, I'm sure there will be tid bits from all sorts of arts and nightlife stuff in addition to the fashion scene. I see her everywhere and she is definitely one of my faves. Bookmark that ish!


Also this week, it's going to be a pretty jam packed weekend you guys. Get ready. The big ones? Downtowne, GroundUP, Skyline, and Russell Tanoue's finale for that model search thingie. I'll give you more details soon. As for TONIGHT! Hedwig, Commando, & Lyle Matsuura are all playing live at Next Door and it's 18nup so all you college kids (welcome back!) make sure you check it out.


Next door to Next Door at Bar 35 is their usual B rated classic sci-fi, monster/horror, Kung Fu night. Have a drink!


So last night's moon! I didn't know you could see it all the way in Vegas. Rad.

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Two times Thirty Five...

...equals two years of Bar35.

Remember when Gelareh opened her spot? She just called it the address...only a cooler way. Thirtyninehotel. 39 Hotel Street. Well Dave Stewart knows a good idea when he sees one, and along comes even more options for the scensters that dwell in Chinatown with the addition of Bar35. TWO years we're celebrating that venture. Tonight. I'll be there at 7pm to gulp down those yummy raspberry beers before the opening night of the Honolulu Symphony. Sarah Chang is gonna KILL it on that Sibelius, but I have to admit I'm really looking forward to the Wagner. He knows what's up as far as brass and percussion. I totally remember actually getting numb from so much chicken skin playing his that damn Tannhauser Overture. Ya, his full operas were pretty cool too. If you're in to that. I mean. The Flying Dutchman. Come on.

Here's some other Saturday picks, paying special attention to the barely legals. They gotta party too.

First, a special guest DJ at Thirtyninehotel. Saturdays there are fun.


Some barely legal options:

WHAT!? A myspace party here again? Interesting. It won't be as fun as the ones I got to help host. But I'm sure there's still people out there that are stoked on Tom.


And finally, Miss Lisa Shaw is at Lotus tonight. That's worth trying to stay up.

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OH! It's Friday.

Here's my picks:

Lip Gloss at Che Pasta:


Wormwood at Anna Banana's:


King Brit at Next Door:


And of course, as Kalima puts it, every good local band on the island at one venue:

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Phantom Orgasm...

...or something like that. I'm actually looking forward to the new show up at the contemporary. It's a traveling show and they've been working hard to put it together. Lots of smoke and mirrors, but like, art.

Michel Delacroix, Lisetta, Ferdinand, Saverio, Edward, 1995

The shadow—literally, the absence of light—represents something that is beyond the object yet inseparable from it. In many of the works included in Phantasmagoria, shadows are used to allude to death, the obscure, and the unnamable, and to construct allegories of loss and disappearance. In several of these pieces, the artists evoke the history of the shadow theater, as in wall drawings by Danish artist Julie Nord, in a video animation by South African artist William Kentridge, and in French artist Christian Boltanski’s shadows from a rotating figure, recalling imagery from the carnival as well as figurines used to celebrate the Mexican day of the dead.

Mist, breath, and fog are often associated with mystery; in their double status as perceptible
yet almost nonexistent phenomena, they suggest evanescence or absence. In the work by French artist Michel Delacroix, pans of water are elevated on tripod bases, casting shadows of their silhouettes on the walls while eerie patterns of light reflected from the water’s surface dance above the shadows, activated by viewers walking past. Throughout the installations presented here, artists’ use of shadows and/or actual fog and mist evokes the alluring enigma and magic of Phantasmagoria.

So ya. Totally looking forward to this. I'm going up for lunch on Friday the 31st and then again on Sunday the 2nd so drop a line if you want to join.

TONIGHT! King Brit is at Next Door for a special 80s sesh. Those have been going extremely well by the way. I can't think of a better way to get through the hump of a week than with a sunset drink at the Hanohano Room then sweating it all off at Next Door. Whatchoothink?

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Free Gwen Stefani Tickets and Friday

So if you go to Kahala Mall tomorrow between noon and 8pm you can enter to win a pair of Gwen tickets. It's at In My Closet and I'm not even going to talk about how rad that place is. Serious. Well... maybe ONE pic....


ALSO TONIGHT:
[from Melissa at Fashion Incubator]

Why not send the summer off in style?
Hold on the hottest season with an end-of-summer party that celebrates a cool cause!
Who:
WeSellThings4u & QUEENS Candy Shop
Sponsored by Stoli, Malibu, Red Bull and Fiji Water
What:
Non-Profit Program Launch Party
Debut of Two Hot Designers: LEAH EVANS and LIEZEL PAGALA
Performances by NOMASTERBACKS, SOUL PACIFIC, RED-EYE JEDI
Emcee Sean D
Shoes by The Street Society
When:
Friday, August 17, 7pm-12am
Where:
WST4U & QUEENS, 831 & 839 Queen Street, b/t Ward and Cooke
Why:
From this date on, a portion of every sale will be donated to a local non-profit of your choice.
Theme:
Neon -- If you got it, wear it!
Offer:
20% off clothing and accessories. 10% off shoes.

THEN later later:

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Thursday will be....

...great! I think?



ALSO: Prepare for this if you so wish:

Tau Dance Theater
Deca Dance Remix
A fundraiser celebrating over a decade of art featuring
an evening of dance, music, food and fashion.
Saturday, August 18th
6:30pm -10pm
Honolulu Design Center
1221 Kapiolani Blvd.
$20 General Admission
$100 VIP Table Service, Pupu’s and a $20 Amuse Wine Bar Card
Exclusive Fendi Fashion Show
$250 Ultra VIP – Le Chef’s Feast, private dining room with four-course
dinner and wine pairings. Valet Parking, $20 Amuse Wine Bar card
and exclusive Fendi fashion show.

Tickets: Call 227-7718 or on-line at: www.taudance.org
featuring dance performances by Tau Dance Theater, 24-VII Dance Force, Shakti Dance Movement, Cocoa Chandelier, Derek Daniels and Poi Licious. Dance to the music of DJ Jedi.

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Modern Love

see you there

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Not like...

...next door like the place next to your place. Like, Next Door the spot at 43 N Hotel Street in the heart of Chinatown. It's made a huge impact in this little town since it first opened and a major impact in my little world. Just a quick nosing around and i found that a lot lot LOT of memories have already been created and archived since its opening in 2005. Some of the best underground hip hop acts I've ever seen and even some major ones like Blackaliscous and Kool Herc. Matt Costa TWICE. Local people that I can't get enough of like Paula Fuga and the delicious Makana. Stuff like Cinema Paradise. Skate video premieres. Make outs. Private parties. Public parties. Urban Pacific. Smart bar. Discussions. Acid Wash.... I mean DAMN. Hard to even believe it's just TWO years old. Well, we're obviously going to join in the celebration all through this weekend.






So ya, come join the celebration. Tonight is a special fashion show by Dan and there's stuff happening all weekend.


Thank you for existing. Serious.
Love, Christa

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ONLY If you have a minute....

....or twelve. You can go ahead and see what the hell I got up to this weekend. Trying to stay busy. Distracted. It's fun coming to work on Monday and getting the e-mails. Word.

Highlights.... well. First Friday art walk and the photo issue at Mercury bar


house party for grown ups meaning valet, bartenders, go go dancers, and cops that are invited


a very naughty and nice show by the birthday girls at cherry blossom


a very naughty and nice skyline


and of course... kiesha's jello shot eye shadow


It's going to be another one of those weeks, by the way. Sarah Honda's birthday week, Next Door's birthday week. Leos galore.

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