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 the next few weeks. Overhead video from a news helicopter, photos, witness statements and the confirmation of not just one, but two notary publics will be sent to the book’s British publisher.

“When that helicopter is flying overhead, I want you to wave because that image is going to be seen around the world,” Mayor Hannemann instructed the crowd. The lei—which encircled much of Waikiki’s Kapiolani Park, at the foot of Diamond Head—was comprised of hundreds of yard-long segments of strung-together plumeria, orchid, hibiscus and other flowers.

Hannemann, the event’s de facto head cheerleader, seemed elated. “I’m very happy we’re going to be in the Guinness Book of World Records,” he said. “It’s another great cultural achievement for the people of Honolulu.”

After documentation, the crowd was allowed to take segments of the record-breaking lei with them as souvenirs.

Check out a video report on the event from Honolulu TV station KHNL here.
 

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 sixth-annual appearance Saturday, from 4 to 10 p.m. A good-sized portion of Waikiki’s main drag, Kalakaua Avenue, will shut down for the street festival. There’ll be a couple of entertainment stages. Merchandise booths will sell Spam T-shirts, sunglasses, dolls, straw hats and other paraphernalia. The winner of a Mr.-or-Ms. Spam beauty contest will get a year's supply of salty pork goodness.

And yes, Virginia, a dozen or so Honolulu restaurants are setting up food booths to sell Spam-enhanced culinary creations to the famished multitudes bound to show up.

You might ask, “Derek, I'm staying in Waikiki this weekend, should I go?” To that, I might answer, “If you’re not a vegan or on a low-cholesterol diet … why not?”

Spam folklore has it that Hawaii residents were introduced to the stuff during World War II when fresh meat was hard to come by in our isolated archipelago. Apparently, it was love at first bite. These days, it’s said we consume 7 percent of all Spam sold in the United States annually, and 16 times more Spam per capita than any other state. Pretty scary for a state with just a half-percent of the U.S. population.

Spam cookbooks abound, giving credence to fans who wax lyrical about the canned meat product’s limitless culinary applications. But most local folks—present company included—dig it most in a Spam musubi: a tasty, extremely portable snack consisting of a marinated slice of fried Spam snuggled in a block of sticky rice wrapped with dried seaweed.

(That’s a Spam musubi I enjoyed this morning, in the top photo.)

We’ve got more information on this weekend’s Waikiki Spam Jam here. But if you need a good laugh or proof that Spam-maker Hormel Food Corporation has a sense of humor about its much-maligned “mystery meat,” click here, and toss a query at the all-knowing “Book of Spam.”

And click here for a "How to Make a Spam Musubi" video we found on YouTube.

 

Perhaps you’ve heard the old hapa haole hula anthem, “May Day is ‘Lei Day’ in Hawaii.”

The song is still largely true. Each year on May 1, many residents statewide celebrate Hawaiian culture and island culture by attending music and hula shows, sporting their best aloha wear and wearing colorful floral lei.

But Honolulu politicos—Mayor Mufi Hannemann, most prominently—are hoping to prove May Day is indeed Lei Day this year with the construction of Guinness world-record-breaking floral lei in Waikiki’s Kapiolani Park. Minimum length? One mile when the string of flowers is finally tied together. 

Thousands of fresh flowers, hundreds of volunteers and two full days will be necessary to accomplish the task. And if you’re in town on May 1, you could participate in the world-record attempt as one of many residents and visitors holding the lei when the mayor connects the ends.

We’re thinking seriously cool photo op for the mayor (and you) here.

The city’s 81st annual Lei Day celebration in Kapiolani Park will also feature live music and hula, demonstrations and exhibits of Hawaiian craftmaking, and lots of colorful and fragrant lei for sale.

You’ll find a complete schedule of Lei Day celebration events here. More information about the city’s Lei Day celebration and Guinness world-record attempt is here.
  

Hawaii singer-songwriter Jack Johnson is Billboard Magazine's most environmentally conscious musician of 2008.

Johnson topped the music industry trade publication’s “Green 10” list, which honors musicians raising awareness of environmental issues, applying earth-friendly actions to their recording and touring, and inspiring peers to do likewise. Billboard editors selected the musicians on the list, released today to coincide with Earth Day.

The "Green 10" was part of an Earth Day-related “Music Goes Green” section in Billboard’s current print and online issues.

Billboard praised Johnson for his annual Kokua Festival concerts—its fifth year of sold-out shows happened this past weekend. All proceeds from the concerts have gone to Johnson’s non-profit Kokua Hawaii Foundation, which sponsors environmental education programs in Hawaii schools.

Johnson also got kudos from Billboard for keeping his touring life green. All concert venues on his upcoming world tour are required to have waste reducing and recycling programs in place. His tour trucks and buses will run entirely on biodiesel.

The magazine also praised Johnson for his Solar Power Plastic Plant recording studio in Los Angeles, which is insulated with used denim, and partially powered by solar energy. Johnson recorded the entirety of his recent chart-topping CD Sleep Through the Static at the studio.

Other musicians on Billboard’s green Top 10 included Kokua Festival alumni Willie Nelson (No. 2), Dave Matthews (No. 4, with his Dave Matthews Band) and Eddie Vedder (No. 6, with Pearl Jam).
 
 

The cover feature of the new issue of HAWAII Magazine is all about the “15 Things We Love About Hawaii” right now.

Among them, you’ll find the Big Island-made chocolate we’d fly from our Oahu offices to savor. The Hilo designer whose Hawaii-inspired fashions and prints we’d pick up while we’re there. And the hula dancer whose graceful movements we’d most want to accompany an oceanside mai tai and Waikiki sunset when we return home.

We've already clued you in about our love for Lost actor Michael Emerson in a previous “15 Things We Love About Hawaii” post. The love currently quenching our thirst for a carbonated beverage like no other, though? Artisanal sodas from Waialua Soda Works.

Trust us. You haven’t had a great vanilla cream soda until you’ve had a Waialua Soda Works vanilla cream soda. HAWAII editor John Heckathorn and I emptied a small office supply of the stuff in an afternoon binge session. (Our original plan was to share a single bottle.) And I’m still unsure whether associate editor Sherie Char got to enjoy any at all. (Burp.)

Here’s an excerpt:

Waialua Soda Works is all about homegrown Hawaii ingredients. There’s Big Island vanilla and Kauai honey in its vanilla cream soda. Island-grown fruits, when available, infuse its pineapple and mango sodas. Maui sugar cane sweetens its root beer. … The contents are handmade and hand-bottled by Jason and Karen Campbell (who) make old-fashioned artisanal soda in the former plantation village of Waialua on Oahu’s North Shore.

Read the full text of our Waialua Soda Works write-up and the 14 other things we love about Hawaii in the May/June 2008 issue of HAWAII Magazine, on newsstands now.

  

Jack Johnson’s Kokua Festival wrapped up its second day of music Sunday night in Waikiki. As promised, here’s writer and Jack fan Jessica Ferracane’s fifth-row-from-the-stage view of Saturday’s sold-out show.

I’m at the Waikiki Shell for the first night of Kokua Festival 2008, standing in a line with about 150 people, trying to buy a $20 festival T-shirt.

The beer lines are far shorter, populated mainly by the boyfriends and husbands of the countless women in line with me. We’re missing Go Jimmy Go on stage. Tragic. But we boogie in place, inching our way towards the 100-percent-organic-cotton proof that we were here. 

Hawaiian singer and ukulele player Paula Fuga goes on stage next. There’s no way I’m missing Paula. So I take a last sip of my husband Steve’s $7.75 beer, leave him in the T-shirt line, and try to find our seats—just five rows back from the stage.

Paula’s soulful lyrics and rich vocals set the late afternoon vibrating with melody. At the end of her set, I scream, “Hana hou!” (Hawaiian for “one more time”) at the top of my lungs.

Steve, like Jack Johnson, is so far nowhere in sight.

When Dave Matthews walks out on stage, shrieking females rush back to their seats with full beers in one hand, veggie burritos in the other, purses bouncing off backsides.

The fans erupt in adulation when Dave opens with “Crazy." Tim Reynolds—his longtime friend and fellow musician extraordinaire—joins him. Dave’s raucous vocals, contagious energy and the duo’s genius guitar riffs soon have everyone on their feet.

It’s Matthews’ first gig at the Waikiki Shell (and in Hawaii), and he’s obviously moved.

“Everything about this festival has a great vibe. It’s beautiful,” Matthews says solemnly to the masses, his normally sarcastic humor put aside.

The crowd erupts again, flashing shaka signs and cameras. Even guys previously content to politely move their heads from side-to-side while their women shake it, shout back, “Aloha Dave!”

It’s all pretty cool.

Steve finally shows up—two T-shirts in hand, with another full beer. It’s too loud to ask where he’s been. And when Jack takes the stage I’m so star-struck I just grab Steve and sing every word to every song— “Better Together,” “Banana Pancakes,” and all those Jack tunes Steve likens to chick flicks. Still, I catch him singing from time to time, too.

Jack’s set stretches into the night for a gloriously long time. He eventually calls his friends on stage: Dave, Tim, Go Jimmy Go, Mason Jennings. But first, Paula Fuga takes the mike again and she and Jack sing “Country Road”—my personal anthem to drive with both hands on the wheel, and keep an eye on the other guy.

At the end of the show, there are more shaka signs and waves of applause. Everyone takes some time to pick up discarded biodegradable plastic beer cups and trash, and put it in the appropriate receptacle on the way out.

Mahalo for your "Kokua," Jack. See you next year!

  

Hawaii singer-songwriter-musician Jack Johnson’s Kokua Festival is happening today and Sunday in Waikiki. Our friend, writer and Jack fan Jessica Ferracane, will be at tonight’s sold-out show. She’s promised us a post-concert report and photos. Until then, we’re happy to share her view from the ground of Friday’s pre-Kokua Festival press conference.

Pinch me. I’m in a crowded lunch tent at the Waikiki Shell, and there’s Jack Johnson and his wife Kim noshing on Mexican food with one of their sons. Seated next to them is Dave Matthews with his wife Ashley and their twin daughters. Hawaiian songstress Paula Fuga is standing in line behind me. I try to get her to cut but she’s all “no need, thanks though” with a wide smile.

There’s a casual vibe I’ve never experienced at a press conference. The atmosphere is more baby luau, minus the Heineken.

It’s a good vibe. And it’s for a good cause, too.

The Kokua Festival is a benefit for the Kokua Hawaii Foundation, which supports environmental education in Hawaii schools. And festival and foundation co-founders Jack and Kim Johnson, and their eco-conscious dream team, take their commitment to the cause seriously. The festival is as environmentally responsible as it can be.

There are water stations throughout the Waikiki Shell grounds so concertgoers can refill their water bottles. Recycling, food waste and composting stations are also set up. Generators are powered by bio-diesel. Organic cotton concert tees—and other sustainable products—will be on sale in a Kokua Village concertgoers pass through on the way to their seats.

After lunch, the press conference begins. There are reporters representing everything from Sunset Magazine, to BBC Radio, Surfer’s Path Magazine, Honolulu TV stations and print publications, and Australian and Japanese media.

Jack is center stage, seated at a long table. He is sandwiched by Kim on his left; and fest musicians Matthews, Fuga, Tim Reynolds, Mason Jennings and members of local reggae-ska band Go Jimmy Go to his right.

They tell us that Kokua Festival, now in its fifth year, is striving to be the first zero waste music festival in Hawaii. They hope to inspire organizers of other music festivals to do the same.

Kim Johnson can clearly articulate the educational and environmental impact of the festival she helped create. But most questions from the press are directed at Jack. One “reporter” in short surf trunks and a bikini top exposing well-sculpted silicone enhancements, gets the rest of us snickering after asking Jack a breathy question that’s already been asked and answered by Kim.

No time to ponder that, though. I’ve got to pull out my organic cotton outfit and get ready for Saturday’s show.

  

You ask. We answer.

A couple of readers wrote, lamenting that they couldn’t attend Jack Johnson's Kokua Festival shows in Waikiki this weekend.

This is the fifth-annual go-round of Johnson’s music festival, happening this Saturday and Sunday at the Waikiki Shell. Johnson, Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds  headline, with Mason Jennings and Hawaii acts Paula Fuga and Go Jimmy Go as support.

Tickets for the fest sold out mere hours after going on sale in February. We’re sad for our readers that, unlike previous years, this year’s concerts won’t be streamed live on the Web.

Ally Estrada of Wichita, Kansas, asked which music acts had played each Kokua Festival, and whether we thought attending next year was worth a trip to Hawaii.

Let's answer those two questions in reverse order, Ally.

We think exploring the scenic wonders, cultures, food, activities and everything else we have to offer in Hawaii is always worth a visit, period. However, as long-term residents, we may be biased.

You might also be swayed by the fact that all the cash (minus Ticketmaster fees) goes to the Kokua Hawaii Foundation—the nonprofit founded by Johnson and his wife Kim to support Hawaii-based environmental education programs.

Hope that helps, Ally.

The four words of advice you really need if you want to go to Kokua Festival 2009, tho?  BUY. TICKETS. RIGHT. AWAY. We're talking the-minute-they-go-on-sale.

We'll post the date as soon as we know.

And here’s the answer to your first question, Ally. Jack, no surprise, played every one of the fests.

Kokua Festival 2007
April 21 & 22 @ The Waikiki Shell
Eddie Vedder, Ernie Cruz Jr., Matt Costa, The Girlas

Kokua Festival 2006
April 19 @ Maui Arts & Cultural Center, April 22 @ The Waikiki Shell
Willie Nelson & The Planetary Bandits, Ben Harper, Henry Kapono, Paula Fuga & The One Love Ohana Band, Animal Liberation Orchestra

Kokua Festival 2005
April 13 @ Maui Arts & Cultural Center, April 16 @ The Waikiki Shell
Jackson Browne, John Cruz, Ozomatli, G. Love & The Special Sauce, Kawika Kahiapo & Kaukahi

Kokua Festival 2004
January 3 @ Blaisdell Arena (original location at Kualoa Ranch was rained out)
Amy Hanaialii Gilliom & Willie K, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Makana, DJ Logic

For more Kokua Festival information, click here.
 
 

After watching Anthony Bourdain eat at Puka Dog Waikiki during his food travelogue No Reservations on the Travel Network, I had to have a Puka Dog.

But “What is a Puka Dog?” you might ask.

A Puka Dog is like a hot dog, except with an unusual bun. A mini loaf of bread is toasted on a cylinder (pictured below), creating a puka (“hole” in Hawaiian), just the right size for the Polish sausage and condiments.

The menu is printed on a surfboard.


You chose a Polish sausage or veggie hot dog (veggie?). Then you select one of the four garlic lemon secret sauces. Finally, you choose from seven tropical relishes, and, if you want, you can add the traditional condiments such as ketchup and mustard.

My Puka Dog was delicious, with original garlic lemon secret sauce topped with papaya relish and lilikoi mustard—fruit-flavors I’d never tasted before on a hot dog. Surprisingly, it wasnʻt as fruity as I was afraid it was going to be. The grilled polish sausage was juicy and almost as long as the bun. It made me wish I could make lunches like this at home.


The best thing to drink after eating a Puka Dog is their fresh lemonade. Unlike lemonade from a carton, this one is squeezed and made right in front of you.

Besides the restaurant in the Waikiki Town Center on Oahu, there is a Puka Dog restaurant in the Poipu Shopping Village on Kauai.

Caution: Hold the Puka Dog straight up. Do not turn it sideways like you would a normal hot dog. The mustard slides off easily if you tilt it the wrong way.

I learned this the hard way after taking a photo of my lunch.
  

Today, we’re celebrating Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaole Piikoi’s birthday in the Islands.

Much of the Hawaii the world sees today can be traced to the work of Prince Kuhio. His determination and passion for the Islands and its people led him into a life of public service. He served as Hawaii’s second congressional delegate from 1903 until his death in 1922.

There’s a more complete story on Prince Kuhio’s life and the impact he had on Hawaii in the March/April 2007 issue of HAWAII Magazine. 

Across the state, schools are closed, city transportation operates on a holiday schedule and many people have the day off today to honor Hawaii’s beloved prince. Services were held early this morning at Oahu’s Royal Mausoleum, the Prince’s final resting place.

If you’re on Oahu this weekend, activities include the annual Prince Kuhio parade on Saturday in Waikiki, which starts at 4 p.m., followed by a moonlight concert at 6 p.m.

If you’re on Kauai, there are many Prince Kuhio celebrations scheduled throughout the weekend.

Another reason to honor Prince Kuhio? Without him, we wouldn’t have King Kamehameha Day—the only other state holiday dedicated to Hawaii’s royalty.