At good ole Washington Middle School for a Zumbathon fundraiser for a local volleyball club. Man, it was hella fun. Many of you have been keeping up with my blog, but "Street Jamz Werkout" is slowly leaking out into the general public. It's the latest dance fitness craze that's goin on, and I'm pretty stoked to be a part of it. There's much to say about it, but if you need more 411 about it, check out their blog at: http://streetjamzwerkout.blogspot.com/
But yup yup, while we were there waiting for our set to go, I snapped this pic, way coolidge...
My celly blew up, and it was another one of my good friends from college. "What you up to? I'm gonna kidnap you and we're gonna hit it to Kalapana." My reply was a simple, "We're on!" Haha, so that's exactly what we did. So we headed on over to the country side of Kalapana, a nice and calm place, we're talking no huge buildings, no cars, no traffic, which was nice for a change. For those of you unfamiliar with the area, Kalapana is famous for the huge lava flow that took over the area. Jus' a side note, through foreigner eyes, one would call that devistation, through Native eyes, we call it creation, word.
My friend showed me around, crib n all, which is very simplistic. My friend also lives a pretty clean and earth friendly life out there in Kalapana, with electricity generating solar panels, ice packed coolers (versus refrigerators), and a personal garden where fresh veggies are grown and harvested as needed. I was hella impressed. We went walking around the area, and I snapped a few more pics.
Old Kalapana lava flow...
Red 'ohi'a lehua tree...
On the way to the beach...
Black (yes black) sand beach...
After coming from the beach, my friend and I met up with another good friend of ours, now a college lecturer, who conicidentally was bringing her students to Kalapanaas part of their class. So her students went to the beach with some guest speakers (also friends of mine) and she stayed back at the main gathering area, being that she's expecting. So that gave us a good window to catch up and talk story at the Kalapana bar/pub.
So after that was all done, her students came back and my friend had them do their speeches as part of her class, entirely in Hawaiian. Man, it was so good to be immersed in that. After that was done, everyone left, and I wished my friend a safe journey back to Hilo with her students.
So by then it was dinner, and my friend and I along with yet another one of my friends (haha) jumped in my friend's truck and headed on over to Pahoa Town for some Thai food. Oh man, their food was so super good, I'm craving it now as we speak.
After dinner was done it was pretty late and it was time to head back home to my friend's place. So I hopped in the back of her truck and back to Hilo we went. Man, I can't remember when was the last time I rode in back of a truck, but it was super good to be breathing fresh clean crisp air with the wind breezing by, with the moon glowing over Pahoa Town as we were departing there, hella awesome.
When we got home, my friend's husband (also my friend haha) had just gotten home from work in his new Nissan Leaf car, which runs entirely on electricity. I got to ride in that bad boy, and it's unreal how super quiet it is. But ya, if you look in the front of the car, there's an area where you plug in and charge, super sick.
So came Sunday, it was time for me to head back to reality, after one awesome weekend on Hawai'i Island. Man I can't wait to go back again.
My friend, her daughter and I went to hit Downtown Hilo, something I haven't done in ages to check it all out. First on the list...eat, haha. I had me a kalbi plate at Pa'ina's which was hella good and I sampled my friend's seared ahi, which was jus' as delish. At Pa'ina's there's a mural, so I went ahead and snapped this pic.
After that, we went and explored Downtown Hilo. I was drawn to this one store Sugar Coast Candy. Man, they way they had it set up inside was hella cool, with lots of vivid colors from the candies and what not, we're talking major visual stimulation along with the sweet smells of confections of every sort, hot diggity. But I had to bust out my camera and snap away.
Then we went on over to a mini ocean conservation museum nearby, and I snapped this, see the fishy in the background?
After that was over, we headed on over to an art gallery, and I snapped this pic of my fig with a glass sculpture of a wave.
And after that was all done, we headed home. My friend and her daughter went to a baby shower and I stayed back and crashed out.
I was on the Big Isle for work, and I stayed a few extra days and chilled with some of my good friends. Came Friday, I was dropped off by my boss at my good friends' place and had a nap. After a lil recharge action we headed on to the Hilo Carnival. When we got there, there was a whole bunch of old friends from the area which was pretty cool.
In true carnival action, it was all about the food for me. I know it's the recipe for one mean stomach ache but I had me a shrimp and garlic plate, funnel cake, lemonade and my latest friggen addiction...Bradda Pops. Bradda Pops is the local version of Otter Pops, but they're bigger and more 'ono (delicous) in my opinion.
They come in a bunch of different flavors, but my ultimate fav is Li Hing Mui Strawberry and Li Hing Mui Blueberry, oh man, super delish. Li hing mui is a Chinese-based plum preserve that has both a nice salty and sweet taste at the same time. But ya, the people who make 'em are from Hilo, and they're super find on O'ahu, so whenever I fly to the Big Isle, I always have at least one. But what I was especially stoked about was that there was a booth at the carnival that wasn't only selling 'em, but also selling packs of 'em to take home, oh man I was such a happy camper, so I snatched up a box to take back home with me. And ya, I had me one right then and there at the carnival too, haha.
So while I was relaxin the idea of "Gummy Bear Kings" popped in my mind, lol. So I grabbed my camera and started blastin away at my Angry Woebots Stealth Panda King while playing with colored lighting, which was pretty fun.
Gave me a ring to let me know that they were gonna be taking me along to Kahala Hotel and Resort for my belated birthday gift on Labor Day, damn, who woulda thunk. Seizing the opportunity of a lifetime, I packed my bag and headed on out with them.
Not too long after we got there, my friend's son was hooked up from my friend's professional partner with some lessons with the dolphins there, I swear that's one lucky kid. Shortly after, we headed to the beach side and lounged in the little cabanas there until sunset, while my friends munched on a late lunch.
My friend had her a cobb salad, which looked pretty good, but I just wasn't hungry enough to even try it. But it had all kind of goodies in it, yumz.
We then headed back to the room and kicked up our feet for a bit, which was nice. A few hours later, we all showered and freshened up and it was time for dinner, so we headed on over to the resort's restaurant.
My friends had steamed fish and chicken while my friend's son and I had steamed seafood. While waiitng for our order I had me a plantation iced tea, my latest beverage addiction, a nice refreshing blennd of iced tea, pineapple juice and liquid sugar, mmm, delish.
In the meantime, my friend had him a blue Hawai'i, a sweet concoction of rum and fruit flavors. It's the kind of drink that sneaks up to you from nowhere, and sweep you right off of your feet, which it did for my friend haha.
Our dinner arrived and it was super delish. A nice steamed bake of clams, shrimp, potatoes, corn, mussels and crab, I was a happy camper.
And what's dinner without dessert? My friend's son had him guava and haupia cake...
And I had me a hot fudge sundae with Kona coffee icecream, hold the whipped cream...
After dinner it was all about belly up on the bed and crashage. The following morning we headed back to the restaurant for their brunch buffet, again I was a happy camper. All in all it was super cool of my friends to treat me on a very unexpected staycation, and ya, I gotta humbly admit, that I'm super lucky to have the belated birthday opportunity of a lifetime.
So along with my Saturday adventure of attending a game show and a graff battle,
I was piggin out big time, lol. After the game show was done, I met up with my friends and chow downed at CPK, with some artichoke dip, guacamole dip, hummus dip and shrimp and chicken pesto pasta, and I was super full after that...well, temporarily full, haha.
So if you're following my trails closely, after the game show, I hit it on over to the graff battle, and after we left that, we met up with some friends for an early dinner before heading on out to a dance concert.
So ya, we headed on out to 12th Avenue grill and all I gotta say is, hot diggity. My friend and I ordered the pork chops that they have there, another guy got a seafood dish, which looked super yummy, another girl had, gnudi dumplings and then another two people had their famous mac n cheese.
Before...
After...
(Fyi, the reason why I'm showing off both plates is because I helped polish off my friend's plate too, haha.)
And then for dessert I had these chocolate beignets and Tahitian vanilla bean gelato, oh man, it was friggen beauty in my mouth, hahahaha.
Before...
After...
I gotta put it out there that 12th Avenue Grill did an awesome job of hosting us. They had to reconfigure their restaurant's seating to accommodate our party of six. When we got there, we had a superb awesome waiter, and their staff was really good about keeping our water glasses full (a little personal pet peeve of mine that's also how good of a tip one gets, lol) and everyone was super friendly there.
So after we headed on over to Dance Central's (where I too shake my booty) concert, being that I got a buncha tickets for doing the music videos and video mixes for their show. It was super hard to stay up, being that my bootay was super full, but it was a pretty good concert. After that, as if all of that food wasn't enough, we headed on over to Frostcity after the performance was over hahaha. But ya, if you ever want some good "semi-poshy" food, be sure to check out 12th City Grill at http://www.12thavegrill.com.
And that was hella cool to start my Saturday adventure by attending this. My friend's son was selected to be on the "Quiz Bowl" team for his all Hawaiian Immersion speaking school so his mom asked if I could make it, being that she had a meeting to go to and her husband was still at work. So being the cool dude that I am, I went to check things out.
I must say it was pretty cool. It was hella cool that one, my friend's son was selected to be a part of a team of academic greats, I know in my hay day I didn't meet the qualifications, lol, oh well but that's another story. I also didn't realize that the "Quiz Bowls" has changed over time, lol. From questions being pulled from a glass bowl, the game show "Play Smart Hawai'i" is all in the electronic area, where the questions were all posted on Smart boards, kinda like Jeopardy.
To my surprise, I also knew who the game show host was, who did an awesome job of hosting the show, and in between taping, he'd made sure everyone was comfortable by joking around and talking story with everyone.
The sponsors and planners did a good job though of hosting the contestants. In the green room separate from where the taping took place, they had food, snacks and drinks. Also in the "green" room they had my dream home theater system, with a huge movie screen and speakers...drool. When the game show was over, all of the contestants were given a prize bag which had a whole bunch of stuff in it, super cool. In the end, my friend's son's team did a great job, but they were unable to take the win. I was still proud of the guy, because they did give the other school some competition. But it was a very cool thing to check out indeed.
FLASH: Graff crew seizes the Honolulu Academy of Arts,
And for one hella good cause. The Estria Foundation coordinated one huge event here in Hawai'i, the "Estria Invitational Graffiti Battle" which took place on Saturday. The event was sponsored by a conglamorate of foundations and organizations here in the 808 and beyond: Estria Foundation, Honolulu Academy of Arts, 808 Urban, Montana Colors, Undermyumbrrella, Sunetric, Fatcar, Graffiti Paper, Fresh Cafe, Angry Woebots, Pow Wow Hawai'i, Elena's, Honolulu Printmakers and Lightsleepers. The event was hosted by the one and only Jason Mateo, who did an awesome job of keeping the masses informed and entertained.
This was one full force event which included workshops on calligraphy, logo design, graffiti history, t-shirt stenciling, screen printing, and artist business and survival. Along with the workshops there was break dancing, spoken word, freestyle vocal cypher, Hawaiian story telling, beatboxing and...a graff battle, which was hella unreal.
At the event there was some exhibitors and information tables. I bought a shirt from 808urban and I really liked this one tent that had some Hawaiian art.
When I got there, I got to meet up with a bunch of 808 peopz: Woes, the Lightsleepers crew, JRR Tokin, Pancho, CKaweeks, etc., etc. which is always good to see.
While I was there I attended one of the workshops, which was the the vision behind "Ola ka Wai, Ola Ka Honua" collab project at Honolulu Community College, which is a part of Estria's Water Writes artistic voyage and social mission on water. (For those of you who may remember, I blogged about it in an earlier post http://haynmade.blogspot.com/2011/07/huge-graff-collab-hits-honolulu.html) It was a pretty good session I must say, and the Honolulu video was shot super well, which again I was super proud of our talented 808 video crew. Lucky for all of you peopz, the vid is on Youtube, so here you go for your viewing pleasure:
We were able to not only view the Honolulu project, but the projects that were held thus far in LA and Oakland, and these videos have been posted on YouTube as well...
After attending this workshop, I have a greater (not that I didn't before) respect for Estria, and his aggressive vision of taking graffiti on a respectful platform at a global level, it's mega mind blowing to me. In the workshop there was a mother who said a quote that I really really liked, "Estria allowed my son to take his graffiti talent from aiming it at the community to aiming it with the community." Unfriggen real.
After the workshop was done, my friend and I went back outside to check out the graff competition. This year, Estria took his graff competitions on three legs thus far, New York, Los Angeles and Honolulu. The finals will be taking place in Oakland on October 8.
But back to the Hawai'i graff battle, the theme for this year's battle was "Hanau" which is Hawaiian for "birth". All I know is I'm happy I wasn't a judge for the battle, because there was some wicked talent.
And then, the highlight of the day, was the judges' collab canvases which were not judged, but were hella ridiculous...
It was one awesome event, and if you wasn't there, you totally missed out. To Estria everyone who was a part of the event, a job well done.
