Hawaiimagazine.com | HAWAII Today

Hawaii actress gets Tony Award nomination for "South Pacific"

HAWAII Today — Tue, 13 May 2008 11:54:18 GMT

Hawaii actress gets Tony Award nomination for "South Pacific"

Hawaii actress and entertainer Loretta Ables Sayre received a Tony Award nomination today for her portrayal of Bloody Mary in the hit Broadway revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific.

Ables Sayre’s nomination for best featured actress in a musical was one of 11 nominations earned by the critically-acclaimed revival of the pioneering Broadway musical. It’s Ables Sayre’s first-ever Tony nomination for her first-ever Broadway role.

“She called me from New York this morning at 3 a.m. (Hawaii time) to tell me. It’s amazing! We&...

Kilauea volcano update: It only seems oh so quiet

HAWAII Today — Mon, 12 May 2008 13:14:00 GMT

Kilauea volcano update: It only seems oh so quiet

HawaiiMagazine.com readers have been asking for an update on events at the Big Island’s Kilauea volcano.

After a flurry of summit activity in the last couple of months—steam vent explosions, vog, evacuations, two temporary closures of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park—life there has seemed a bit quiet the last three weeks.

So we caught up with park ranger Mardie Lane to see if life for scientists and rangers at Kilauea had quieted down, too. Not a chance, said Lane.

&ldquo...

Gladys Knight at Hawaii’s Romance Festival

HAWAII Today — Mon, 12 May 2008 12:16:18 GMT

Gladys Knight at Hawaii’s Romance Festival

Gladys Knight loves Hawaii. And Hawaii loves her.

Knight rocked the Neal Blaisdell Arena this past Saturday at “The Rhythm of Romance 2” concert. As part of the second annual Hawaii Romance Festival, HAWAII Magazine was invited to hear the R&B superstar perform with the Matt Catingub Orchestra of Hawaii.

AAA wrong about Honolulu visitor costs

HAWAII Today — Sat, 10 May 2008 10:52:47 GMT

AAA wrong about Honolulu visitor costs

A new survey from the American Automobile Association lists Honolulu as the most expensive city in the United States for vacationers.

The average price for meals and lodging for two adults per day, at least according to AAA’s 2008 Annual Vacation Costs Survey? $673.

That’s more than second place New York City, which AAA estimates at $606 per couple, per day; and third place Miami at $370 a day.

Of that $673 per day spent in Honolulu, AAA says $546 goes to lodging and $127 on meals....

Hawaii retailer Hilo Hattie sold

HAWAII Today — Fri, 09 May 2008 18:21:46 GMT

Hawaii retailer Hilo Hattie sold

Longtime Honolulu-based Hawaiian fashion, gift and souvenir retailer Hilo Hattie was sold today to a California company.

Hilo Hattie’s seven stores on Oahu, Kauai, Maui and the Big Island—as well as its online retail store—will continue business as usual.

The 45-year-old company—and self-prolaimed “Store of Hawaii”—was purchased for an undisclosed sum by TOC Inc., which also owns the Hawaii franchise of Fantastic Sams hair salons.

"I have the utmost confidence in TOC Inc's ability to successfully ...

Ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro plays Chicago

HAWAII Today — Fri, 09 May 2008 16:28:36 GMT

Ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro plays Chicago

On a cold spring evening last month, Chicago warmly welcomed Hawaii ukulele phenomenon Jake Shimabukuro to the stage of the Old Town School of Folk Music.

Shimabukuro, 31, played two shows at the renowned music school—one sold out, the one I attended a near sell out. I couldn’t see any flip-flops. But the audience was full of aloha shirts. I felt as if I were back in Hawaii.

Shimabukuro became legendary early in his career for his ukulele “fireworks”—rapid-fire strumming inspi...

Dim sum at Mei Sum in Honolulu’s Chinatown district

HAWAII Today — Fri, 09 May 2008 14:07:22 GMT

Dim sum at Mei Sum in Honolulu’s Chinatown district

I love getting dim sum. If you like seeing food before you order it, there’s no better way to dine out.

And Mei Sum Chinese Dim Sum Restaurant is the place to have it when you’re in downtown Honolulu’s Chinatown district.

Carts of Hong-Kong-style dim sum are rolled around the restaurant right to your table. If you like what you see on the cart, just ask your server for it. Don’t like what you see? Wait for the next cart to come around. Instant gratification!

Kapalua Wine & Food Festival 2008

HAWAII Today — Thu, 08 May 2008 13:54:11 GMT

Kapalua Wine & Food Festival 2008

Here’s something we're looking forward to.

The 27th Annual Kapalua Wine & Food Festival will work its Maui magic from June 26-29 this year.

The three-day festival is presided over by Master Sommelier Fred Dame—who we enjoy for his genial wit, as well as his palate.

It kicks off Friday with chef demonstrations and a grand tasting with 100 wines, exceptional pupu and a Kapalua beachfront sunset.

It ends Sunday with the Seafood Festival, a bounty of Island seafood, pr...

Watch Jack Johnson's Kokua Festival 2008 performance

HAWAII Today — Thu, 08 May 2008 11:08:14 GMT

Watch Jack Johnson's Kokua Festival 2008 performance

Couldn’t make it to Kokua Festival last month?

The entirety of festival co-founder and headliner Jack Johnson’s performance is now online at MSN Music’s IN CONCERT site.

Free.

The bad news? None of the much-buzzed-about set by Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds, nor any other acts are included.

But you won’t have to endure long waits in line for organic cotton Kokua Fest shirts, pricey beer or veggie wraps. And Matthews and Reynolds make an appearance late in Johnson’s set on a cover of Jimmy Buffett’s “A Pirate Looks at 40.&...

"Ripley's Believe It or Not!" in Hawaii

HAWAII Today — Wed, 07 May 2008 18:02:34 GMT

"Ripley's Believe It or Not!" in Hawaii

The May/June 2008 issue of HAWAII Magazine features a story on cartoonist Robert Ripley’s fascination with our Islands. Ripley created Ripley’s Believe It or Not! —the strange-but-true trivia-filled newspaper cartoon series. And, reports writer Greg Daugherty, he visited Hawaii four or five times during his brief, illustrious life.

The “believe it or not” Ripley nuggets you’ll find in our story include:

• How the amateur anthropologist—portrayed as a hardy world adventurer—actually preferred to travel in the lap of luxury.

Hawaii music legend Buddy Fo found

HAWAII Today — Wed, 07 May 2008 17:58:55 GMT

Hawaii music legend Buddy Fo found

You ask. We answer.

HAWAII Magazine reader Dorci Whittington writes:

In the early part of the ’90s, I went to see a dinner show at the Maui Tropical Plantation starring Buddy Fo. It was the most fun show I have ever been to. We went every time we were on Maui. When we came back and the show was no longer going, I only got blank stares when I asked about Buddy. I hope you can find some information. Is he still going strong and entertaining people?

At 75, Buddy Fo is still going strong. We just talked to him on the phone. He sounds great, and he and wife Sammi per...

"24" actress Elisha Cuthbert takes on Maui surf

HAWAII Today — Tue, 06 May 2008 17:53:30 GMT

"24" actress Elisha Cuthbert takes on Maui surf

And now, today’s moment of zen.

24 actress Elisha Cuthbert was snapped frolicking in the waters off of Maui’s Wailea resort area on Monday with her boyfriend Dion Phaneuf.

Phaneuf—whose bare-chested-ness we’ve included here, you know, for gender balance—is a defenseman for the National Hockey League's Calgary Flames. Cuthbert was taking a per...

Will Big Island highway construction project ever end?

HAWAII Today — Tue, 06 May 2008 16:34:03 GMT

Will Big Island highway construction project ever end?

You ask. We answer.

We got a question from HAWAII reader Lisa Marie McCormick about road construction on the Queen Kaahumanu Highway on the Big Island.

My husband and I come back each year for a week or three. We stay at our time share in Waikoloa and travel into Kailua-Kona early to dive. On our January visit, the last eight miles between the airport and Kailua-Kona took over an hour. And that was at 6:30 a.m.!

I was told by some local friends that they already built a section wrong, and had to rip it up and start over. What is the timeline for co...

Poipu Beach Hotel reborn

HAWAII Today — Mon, 05 May 2008 16:53:08 GMT

Poipu Beach Hotel reborn
You ask. We answer.

HAWAII Magazine reader Charles Eldon wrote:

“Can you tell me when (or if) the former Poipu Beach Hotel will open? It was, before Iniki, my favorite place to stay.”

In 1992, three Poipu hotels—the Sheraton, the Poipu Beach Hotel and the Stouffer Waiohai—suffered the most from Hurricane Iniki.

It took nearly five years for the Sheraton Kauai Resort to reopen. In 2004, the site of the old Stouffer Waiohai site was transformed into Marriott's new

Announcing a marriage in Hawaiian

HAWAII Today — Mon, 05 May 2008 14:42:22 GMT

Announcing a marriage in Hawaiian
You ask. We answer.

HAWAII Magazine reader David Sand had a question about announcing a marriage in Hawaiian.

How do I write "I am pleased to announce the marriage of my daughter, (girl’s name), to (boy’s name)" in the Hawaiian language?

Of course, we queried one of the best authorities we know on the matter: Hawaiian language expert Puakea Nogelmeier. Frequent HawaiiMagazine.com visitors might be familiar with Nogelmeier’s voice. He’s the voice on our Web site’s “How Hawaiian Should Sound” page.
...

It's Boys' Day in Hawaii

HAWAII Today — Mon, 05 May 2008 07:38:45 GMT

It's Boys' Day in Hawaii
Today is Childrens’ Day in Japan—a day replacing Boys’ Day (which once claimed May 5) and Girls' Day in that country.

Here in Hawaii, though, we still believe a single shared day is far too brief to celebrate the many wonderful things about BOTH genders. Plus, we love a good party.

And so we celebrate Girls’ Day on March 3 (3/3), and Boys’ Day today (5/5).

Drive through neighborhoods and suburbs in Hawaii today and you’ll see koinobori—colorful carp streamers “swimming” the tradewinds on bamboo poles outside homes. Count the number of carp on the poles and you’ll know how many bo...

It’s not a bird. It’s a gecko.

HAWAII Today — Fri, 02 May 2008 14:11:26 GMT

It’s not a bird. It’s a gecko.
You ask. We answer.

We got an e-mail from a reader who forgot to sign his name.

“On all my trips to Hawaii I heard one sound that I love and have never heard anywhere else. I assume it’s a bird. I have looked up all kinds of birds and listened to their sounds and have not heard this particular bird anywhere in my research.
It makes two sounds, kind of high pitched. Nobody seems to know what it is! Any ideas?”

Yes, we thought about it a minute—and realized it’s probably a gecko, the sticky-footed lizard that’s everywhere in Hawaii.

The gecko sound is usually described as a clicking noise, but it of...

Oils of Aloha celebrates its 20th birthday

HAWAII Today — Fri, 02 May 2008 14:06:29 GMT

Oils of Aloha celebrates its 20th birthday
Hawaii’s largest producer of macadamia and kukui nut oil products turns 20 years old this year. As part of Oils of Aloha’s birthday celebrations, HAWAII Magazine was invited to take a tour of its production facility in Whitmore Village on Oahu.

Their expeller-pressed process is a complex multi-step procedure that extracts and purifies the macadamia and kukui nut oils. It also turns the nuts into a “press cake” that can be ground into a natural exfoliant, which is used in scrubs and facial c...

Honolulu gets its world-record mile-long lei

HAWAII Today — Fri, 02 May 2008 10:59:35 GMT

Honolulu gets its world-record mile-long lei
It’s not official just yet.

But Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann, a couple of corporate sponsors and a whole lot of volunteers donating and stringing flowers crafted the world’s longest lei yesterday at May Day festivities in Waikiki.

The final length? 5,336 feet—or 56 feet over the mile-long goal the Mayor had set.

The event was documented for the folks at Guinness Book of World Records, who will, hopefully, make the world record official within th...

Aloha Airlines Cargo saved by new buyer, same as the old buyer

HAWAII Today — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:35:35 GMT

Aloha Airlines Cargo saved by new buyer, same as the old buyer
Aloha Airlines cargo division, shut down abruptly two days ago, is expected to be saved.

Seattle-based Saltchuk Resources, Inc. had previously announced it would buy the company, then backed away on April 24. But Saltchuck said today it had obtained financing and was again moving to buy the company. The contract to purchase Aloha’s cargo division could be approved as early as Thursday morning in U.S. Bankruptcy court in Honolulu, after which service could begin again.

Hawaii suppliers have been for...

Hawaii's Polihua Beach (Lanai)

HAWAII Today — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:34:39 GMT

Hawaii's Polihua Beach (Lanai)
I’ve never experienced a Hawaii beach quite like Polihua, on the island of Lanai.

One-and-a-half miles of white sand. Completely devoid of people.

The latter has a lot to do with the 11 miles of unpaved road—half of it accessible only to four-wheel-drive vehicles—one must negotiate down Lanai’s dry, rocky, steep and scrub-brush filled north shore to get to Polihua.

Once we guided our Jeep through a final canopy of kiawe trees hugging Polihua, skittered across the warm sand and dipped our feet in the cool Pacific waters, though? Check out the video below for a 360 degree view of what we experienced.

I’ll be writing about my tour of Lanai’s beaches in a future issue of HAWAII Magazine.

Sending Mochi Ice Cream to Hawaii

HAWAII Today — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:54:20 GMT

Sending Mochi Ice Cream to Hawaii
A mysterious package arrived for me at front desk. I felt like a mad scientist when I opened it and a fog rose from the Styrofoam box packed with dry ice. When the fog cleared, I saw five whole boxes of Mikawaya’s Mochi Ice Cream.

Mikawaya is based in Los Angeles, but mochi ice cream is a Hawaii favorite. It’s a perfect combination of textures: ice cream, still hard despite its journey across the Pacific, wrapped in soft mochi (Japanese sweet rice cake).

Whole lotta Spam love in Waikiki

HAWAII Today — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 16:47:34 GMT

Whole lotta Spam love in Waikiki
You may have heard that many of us here in Hawaii eat Spam.

Fried Spam, eggs and rice for breakfast. A Spam musubi before lunch. A spam musubi FOR lunch.

Guilty as charged.

In a state where every McDonald’s restaurant has a Spam breakfast platter on the menu, is it any wonder we put aside a day each year to celebrate our obsession with the canned pink luncheon meat from Austin, Minnesota?

Hawaii’s largest Spam festival, the Waikiki Spam Jam, makes its si...

Beer. It's what's for dinner at Koele

HAWAII Today — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 11:01:27 GMT

Beer. It's what's for dinner at Koele
Many of you asked. Some of you guessed after my weekend post. Now, I can finally answer.

Yes, after some none-too-subtle campaigning on my part, I attended the Four Seasons Lodge at Koele Kona beer dinner on Saturday.

It was departing executive sous chef Thomas Bellec’s grand finale at the Lodge—a five-course dinner menu, paired with craft beers from Kona Brewing Co. He’d done ...

Aloha Airlines shuts down cargo operations

HAWAII Today — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 18:29:57 GMT

Aloha Airlines shuts down cargo operations
Another unit of Aloha Airlines lost its fight to stay alive this afternoon as the company announced it was shutting down cargo operations immediately.

Attorneys for the company informed a bankruptcy court judge that two companies interested in buying the cargo operation had pulled their offers today, leaving Aloha’s primary lender GMAC unwilling to continue financing the company. The decision to shut down was announced at a bankruptcy court hearing determining whether Aloha cargo pilots could strike over a continuing contract dispute.

The impact of the company’s demise...

Hawaiimagazine.com | HAWAII Today

Hawaii actress gets Tony Award nomination for "South Pacific"

Hawaii actress gets Tony Award nomination for "South Pacific"

Kilauea volcano update: It only seems oh so quiet

Kilauea volcano update: It only seems oh so quiet

Gladys Knight at Hawaii’s Romance Festival

Gladys Knight at Hawaii&rsquo;s Romance Festival

AAA wrong about Honolulu visitor costs

AAA wrong about Honolulu visitor costs

Hawaii retailer Hilo Hattie sold

Hawaii retailer Hilo Hattie sold

Ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro plays Chicago

Ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro plays Chicago

Dim sum at Mei Sum in Honolulu’s Chinatown district

Dim sum at Mei Sum in Honolulu&rsquo;s Chinatown district

Kapalua Wine & Food Festival 2008

Kapalua Wine & Food Festival 2008

Watch Jack Johnson's Kokua Festival 2008 performance

Watch Jack Johnson's Kokua Festival 2008 performance

"Ripley's Believe It or Not!" in Hawaii

"Ripley's Believe It or Not!" in Hawaii

Hawaii music legend Buddy Fo found

Hawaii music legend Buddy Fo found

"24" actress Elisha Cuthbert takes on Maui surf

"24" actress Elisha Cuthbert takes on Maui surf

Will Big Island highway construction project ever end?

Will Big Island highway construction project ever end?

Poipu Beach Hotel reborn

Poipu Beach Hotel reborn

Announcing a marriage in Hawaiian

Announcing a marriage in Hawaiian

It's Boys' Day in Hawaii

It's Boys' Day in Hawaii

It’s not a bird. It’s a gecko.

It&rsquo;s not a bird. It&rsquo;s a gecko.

Oils of Aloha celebrates its 20th birthday

Oils of Aloha celebrates its 20th birthday

Honolulu gets its world-record mile-long lei

Honolulu gets its world-record mile-long lei

Aloha Airlines Cargo saved by new buyer, same as the old buyer

Aloha Airlines Cargo saved by new buyer, same as the old buyer

Hawaii's Polihua Beach (Lanai)

Hawaii's Polihua Beach (Lanai)

Sending Mochi Ice Cream to Hawaii

Sending Mochi Ice Cream to Hawaii

Whole lotta Spam love in Waikiki

Whole lotta Spam love in Waikiki

Beer. It's what's for dinner at Koele

Beer. It's what's for dinner at Koele

Aloha Airlines shuts down cargo operations

Aloha Airlines shuts down cargo operations

Gladys Knight at Hawaii’s Romance Festival

Dim sum at Mei Sum in Honolulu’s Chinatown district

It’s not a bird. It’s a gecko.