Many people dig reruns of Hawaii Five-O. Myself included.The over-the-top line readings. The ham-fisted dialogue. Square-jawed Jack Lord’s studied, emotion-free imagining of Det. Steve McGarrett. His solid team of creatively-named partners in Hawaii crime-fighting Kono Kalakaua, Chin Ho Kelly, Duke Lukela, Ben Kokua and, of course, Danny “Danno” Williams.What’s not to love?The best part about watching Hawaii Five-O as a…
Did you notice I wasn’t posting on HawaiiMagazine.com last Friday?That’s partly because I was hurtling at more than 50 mph, 300 feet above the floor of a West Maui gulch.For the May/June issue of HAWAII Magazine, I’ll be writing a story about my morning of ziplining with the great instructors at Kapalua Adventures.Until then, check out the YouTube video below…
Planning a visit to Pearl Harbor this summer?The Battleship Missouri Memorial has scheduled a series of special tours and ceremonies in June, commemorating the 67-year-old battleship’s 10th anniversary in Pearl Harbor.Special guided tours of the historic vessel will be offered throughout June:Tour guides will share stories of crewmember experiences on the “Mighty Mo”—from World War II through Operation Desert Storm—on…
Here’s HAWAII Magazine’s list of the eight most romantic songs ever to come out of our Islands. Many of the compositions that made the final cut were pretty obvious, but if we missed your favorite, feel free to let us know. Be sure to click on each of the song titles to hear them. 1. “Ke Kali Nei Au” (The Hawaiian…
Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, and it’ll be common to see couples enjoying a romantic time in Hawaii. But we won’t be the only ones. As many as 10,000 humpback whales travel from Alaska to Hawaii every year to “honeymoon” in Hawaiian waters. Besides being the perfect time for humpback whales to mate, Hawaii’s mild winters are also…
Check out the YouTube video below of Hexanchus griseus.Talk about living large. It’s an 18-foot six-gill shark that University of Hawaii professors Jeff Drazen and Craig Smith caught on video off the coast of Molokai in 2006. After it hit their submersible!The duo was on a research dive, anchored more than 3,000 feet below the ocean surface in pitch-black waters, when Hex…
29 inches.That’s the amount of rain that fell on Hilo, my former hometown, between Friday evening and yesterday. Overloaded streams flooded more than a hundred homes in the Waiakea Uka suburb upslope of town. Flood control channels overflowed into Hilo’s picturesque bayfront area. Landslides closed highways and roads along the Big Island’s Hamakua Coast. Schools closed on Monday.A usually dry mini-ditch between…
If you’re on Oahu, it’s multicultural party time.Get yourself to downtown Honolulu’s Chinatown Arts District today. It’s First Friday, with all the galleries open, bars packed, the young and trendy packing the sidewalks, and serious revelry.Not enough? Tonight’s also the official Chinese New Years street party. There will be firecrackers and lion dancers up and down the streets of Chinatown, food…
World famous North Shore of Oahu singer/songwriter Jack Johnson’s fifth CD Sleep Through the Static goes on sale Feb. 5.It’s the follow-up to Johnson’s chart-topping 2006 soundtrack for the animated featureCurious George and his two-million-plus-selling 2005 CD In Between Dreams.But do the new tunes on Static match up with the signature low-key surf-folk charm Johnson displayed on In Between Dreams and his 2001 debut Brushfire Fairytales? Has Johnson switched…
Before Elvis Presley sang the title song in the 1961 movie Blue Hawaii, Bing Crosby sang the tune in the 1937 film Waikiki Wedding.In 1950, Famous Studios (Paramount Pictures’ animation division) used “Blue Hawaii” in a cartoon. The cartoon’s culturally and historically outrageous. Still, we couldn’t help but giggle at the monkeys pounding poi and the dancing palm trees. How about you? Amused? Offended…
The Halona Blowhole is closing for renovations this spring. Actually, there’ll be no renovation to the Halona Blowhole itself—it’s a natural phenomenon. Changes are being made to its scenic lookout. For those of you who don’t know, the Halona Blowhole is a popular tourist attraction on Oahu’s south shore, near world-famous snorkeling spot Hanauma Bay. The blowhole is an oceanside underground lava tube…
Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama is a pretty good comedy writer.Or maybe he should just be thankful that his—or David Letterman’s—joke writers aren’t on strike with other television scribes. The former Hawaii-resident and graduate of Honolulu’s prestigious Punahou Schools rattled off a humorous Top 10 list on tonight’s Late Show with David Letterman.Obama’s contribution to Letterman’s fertile collection of Top 10…
For pau hana entertainment purposes only, here’s a vintage clip of an animated-but-still-very-‘70s ABBA, singing their original song called “Happy Hawaii.”Trust me, the track is no “Dancing Queen.” It also annoys me to no end that they mispronounce the name of our Island home … over and over. But it’s kind of fun. It’s kind of Swedish. It’s kind of cheesy….
Look at this vintage film I found—eruptions at Kilauea volcano in 1959 and 1960.Both eruptions were significant. The first half of the video shows the Nov. 1959 eruption at Kilauea Iki crater, which produced fountains of lava up to 1,400 feet high. Because of its convenient location near Kilauea’s summit, near the visitor center and volcano observatory, the month-long eruption drew thousands of…
This 1960 Kodak commercial kept us giddy all morning: It features Ozzie, Harriet, David and Ricky Nelson—in Hawaii.We dug listening to Ozzie showing off his knowledge of Island folklore, and Ricky surfing off Waikiki.Anybody out there ever own a Brownie Automatic movie camera? Was it as sweet as Ozzie promised? Categories: Culture
Mahalo to HAWAII Today reader Joel Muraoka of Tokyo for his diligence.Muraoka dropped us a thank you e-mail for posting a truncated YouTube clip of Israel Kamakawiwoole’s “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” playing over Times Square just after 2008 began. Better yet, he found us a full version of the clip.Sadly, someone (Dick Clark Productions?) had already removed it from YouTube by…
Yes, that was Hawaii’s own Israel “Iz” Kamakawiwoole’s singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” as the ball dropped in New York City’s Times Square for the 100th year in a row.The million-plus revelers in midtown Manhattan and millions more watching on TV around the world got to hear the late great vocalist about 8 minutes after midnight from massive loudspeakers set…
New York City drops a glowing ball down a flagpole above Time Square. London launches fireworks over the Thames. Here in Hawaii — local permits and ordinances be damned — most residents follow the longtime New Year’s Eve tradition: Turning their streets into mini versions of the Do Long bridge scene in “Apocalypse Now” with fireworks. Here’s how one local street welcomed in 2008. …
The Islands of Hawaii are special in so many different ways, and we want to see you create a video of Hawaii that inspires others to travel to the Islands and learn about its people, places and cultures. Be creative, tell a story, and capture the island’s beautiful scenery, whether it’s a dramatic sunset at a beach, an open-ocean adventure…
