FLUX No. 10 Fellas

Fellas ISSUE

Pig Hunting Through Kualoa Ranch

The Modern Man

Justice Reinvestment, Just Reimagined

Da Hunt, A Fashion Editorial

life is a puzzle, piece it together

Mr. Ox is as strong as they come, dressed in a stripe shirt by Publish from KICK/HI, pants by J.Crew, and bowtie and suspenders by Barrio Vintage. Digital illustration by Jessica Hook.

Of Styli S h ChampiO n S | 32

As popular as pig hunting is with locals, much of what happens on the hunt remains unfamiliar for most. Trekking alongside the Defend Hawaii crew and the official “eradicator” of the invasive porkers, Chas Smith takes us into Kualoa Ranch for a pig hunt. Photography by John Hook.

t he mO dern m an | 37

What defines the modern man today? Featuring a man with heart, a champion dog breeder and a kustom car builder. By Jeff Mull and Margot Seeto, with photography by John Hook and Aaron Van Bokhoven.

Ju StiC e r einve Stment,

Ju StiC e r eimagined | 46

The faults of the previous three decades have left Hawai‘i burdened with massive jailing bills that have not made the community any safer. Sonny Ganaden explores how a confluence of activism, smart government and morality are changing the way we see incarceration.

Zuma Ball Blit Z | 52

Has technology afforded us video games too much like the world outside? Ryan Senaga discusses the way technology is changing the gaming world and one in which we live. Art by Shawn Andrews.

da h unt | 56

Beasts hunting their prey in the woods of Honolulu. Photographed by senior contributing photographer John Hook. Styled by A + A.

Kaliq Rashad is keeping Hawai‘i’s men handsome one hairoglyph at a time. Mojo Barbershop in Chinatown.

editO r ’S letter ma Sthead letter S tO the editO r CO ntri B utO r S W hat the flu X?! | 14

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J IU - JITSU I NST r U c TO r K AYL e Q UINN

n Ota B le WO r KS | 18 fIND Ar T

f LUX f IL e S : art | 20

M OJO B A r B er S h OP, K ALIQ rAS h AD f LUX f IL e S : art | 22 ‘Ah IU hAwAI ‘ I TAXID er MY f LUX f IL e S : art | 24 Ke IT h O UY e K NI ve S f LUX f IL e S : mu S iC | 26 S LAPP SYMP h ONY f LUX f IL e S : mu S iC | 28 DJ cOMPOS e

te C hn O lO gy | 30 3D Pr INTING

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h OL e OX De LI | 68 in the K itC hen | 70 I SAMU AND M O cO K UBOTA , Y U z U the flyOver | 80

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Listen Here

In honor of another sweaty summer in hawai‘i we are offering a free download of our fLUX hawaii Summer Mixtape. featuring: Stephen Agustin and the fourth wall, clones of the Queen, Gnarwhal, Pink Mist, welwing, GrLfrNDS, Slapp Symphony, and many more local artists.

visit fluxhawaii.com/mixtape to grab it now.

g OO d time S

Jay Ablan, aka DJ Compose, is one loquacious Filipino. The music director for Addiction Nightclub at The Modern Honolulu and recent Hawai‘i regional winner of the Red Bull Thre3style, has got lots more to say.

Check out fluxhawaii.com for our full interview with Ablan.

When I was in kindergarten, I knew a superhero.

Yes, a real-life superhero, who could fly and everything. His name was Zero the Hero. Every month, on days with a zero in it, like 10, 20 or 30, Zero the Hero would swoop in to our class and teach us about numbers and give us candy. Then in a flash, he’d swoop back out, his red cape flying in the wind. On one particular zero day, I noticed something peculiar: Zero wore the same shoes as my dad! When I got home that day, I asked dad if he knew he wore the same shoes as a superhero. Shhhh, he whispered with a wink, it was our little secret.

Over the years, my dad has faced his share of adversaries. Some have slowed him, like when he got 56 stitches in his head after a surfer dropped in on him at Ali‘i Beach Park; some have knocked him down, like when he was forced to declare bankruptcy – twice – as a result of some bad business decisions; and some have crippled him, like the drugs and alcohol that plagued him for the first half of his life. But, as in any superhero plot line, dad prevailed, and showed his family how to live with humility, lead by example, and love without condition.

The fellas featured in this, our 10th issue, are heroic in their own right, everyday men doing extraordinary things. Like Zero did for one kindergarten class, they fill us with delight and teach us how to be better.

Enjoy.

Lisa Yamada Publisher/Editor

A NEW TRADITION

Mahalo for sharing your article on food and family traditions with our community. I’m celebrating the wrap of Mardi Gras by starting a new tradition – cooking a St. Joseph’s Day dinner. St. Joseph’s Day is a major holiday for many in New Orleans (mostly Italians). For me, it’s an excuse to gather friends, cook and celebrate a city that I love and my Italian heritage. My Dad is just about 100 percent Italian; his parents came to the US on boats. My grandfather, who was born in 1898, came around 1905. I, of course, thought of your beautiful article. For our St. Joseph’s menu, my housemate is helping with cooking and house prep. She lit into me about my menu being boring/odd. My response: “This is not about wowing with creativity and eye-popping flavors. It’s about the process, celebrating my heritage, celebrating a place I love dearly and sharing smiles with friends.” So for me, celebrating St. Joseph’s Day is a new tradition, but tradition is still part of it, right from the get-go.

Cheers, Mark Tarone

AN UPHILL HOG BATTLE

My name is Glenn Shinsato of Shinsato Farm, and I just read your article in Flux. I would like to clarify one point in your article and that is I am not monopolizing the gourmet market. I have been trying for years to get others in the industry to target the high-end market. It has been like trying to push a car uphill with a rope. You keep on running into the back end of car so often that you start to feel like an ass. I have sold pigs from other farms to my buyer to try and get them interested but the only farmer that was willing passed away and the farm was closed. The information you were given and presented was accurate but you were not given all of the facts.

Hi Glenn,

By “monopolize,” I didn’t mean that you’ve dominated this outlet intentionally; however, the unique quality of having your own slaughterhouse, makes you prime choice for small, gourmet outlets. I know that the struggle to get a few pigs to the high-end market for select cuts just doesn’t make sense for a farmer who needs a much larger demand; your farm is able to supply a niche, but a niche is far from what an entire island of hogs need. Needless to say, after having looked into the meat market on O‘ahu, I do appreciate the hard work you put in to make local hogs accessible to the general public.

Anna Harmon Managing Editor

g Lunch available all day, 11:30am-4:00pm

g Wine by the glass, carafe and bottle

g Artisan cheese, cured meats, steaks, chops and seafood

g Half off happy hour, 4:00-6:00pm daily

g Free Wi-Fi

chAS SMITh

Men are … Fun, but totally dumb animals.

Men are not … Very sexy, by and large. Especially that Armie Hammer. He ain’t sexy at all.

A male figure you respect most: My papa. He works and works and works and has the most fun out of anyone I know.

An important lesson you were taught by … Derek Rielly, editor of Stab Magazine, taught me that the writer is always tricking the reader into listening to his dream.

Chas Smith loves high-end loafers. And fancy watches. Beloved as much as he’s hated in the surf world, Chas is an editor at Stab Magazine, an editor-at-large at Surfing Magazine and has been published in Vice, GQ, Blackbook and Anthem. His book, Welcome to Paradise, Now Go to Hell, comes out next year.

Jeff MULL

Men are … Vastly different than women. Except when they are not.

Men are not …

From what I understand, capable of child birth.

A male figure you respect most: To say that my dad has run the gauntlet of human experiences would be a huge understatement. He grew up working class, played football at Vanderbilt (on an academic scholarship), was sent to Vietnam, became an assistant district attorney in New Orleans, then a public defender, then opened up his own practice and battled big pharmaceutical companies who infected hemophiliacs with HIV … all the while making it to most of my soccer/baseball/surf contests.

An important lesson you were taught by … My dad told me 10 years ago, “Be yourself, tell the truth, and win with love.”

Jeff is currently the Hawai‘i editor of SURFER and founder of creative agency NOML. He was the editor in chief at Freesurf Magazine and has been published in The Associated Press, ESPN, The Surfer’s Journal, Hana Hou and Hemispheres Magazine.

JeSSIcA hOOK

Men are … Task-oriented as boys, and purpose driven as men.

Men are not … As rough as they seem.

A male figure you respect most: The Lord is my Shepherd, my father is a Sheepdog, and my brother is my best friend. But the thing I respect the most in this world, is Chris Costa’s beard. It’s a Kevlar brush of tactical over penetration, a deep black maelstrom of Mandingo proportions. Every time God kills a kitten, Chris Costa’s beard grows a hair.

An important lesson you were taught by … So last week at church, a very elderly lady hit the back of my parked car. She was nervous and bewildered. I was mad and conflicted. I called my dad to ask him what I should do. He said, “Always be the first to apologize, in any relationship – especially in marriage –even if it’s not your fault. Your apology will disarm the other person, and shields will be lowered. Be fearless in your effort to resolve an issue in a tactful and caring way.”

Jessica is a fine artist and illustrator currently working in the video games industry as a senior texture artist at Sledgehammer Games, an Activision Studio. She most recently shipped Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

FLUX HAWAII

Lisa Yamada EDITOR / PUBLISHER

Ara Laylo CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Jason cutinella BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

CONTRIBUTORS

Jade eckardt

erika forberg

Kyle foyle

Sonny Ganaden

chris Kam

Jeff Mull

Blaise Sato

Margot Seeto

ryan Senaga

chas Smith

Naomi Taga

catherine e. Toth

Kristine wada

COPY EDITORS

Anna harmon

Andrew Scott

AD DESIGNER

Joel Gaspar

COVER PHOTO

Jun Jo

SENIOR CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

John hook

IMAGES

Shawn Andrews

Jessica hook

Geoff Mau

Marina Miller

Dallas Nagata white

Aaron van Bokhoven

Aaron Yoshino

CREATIVE

ryan Jacobie Salon, ryan camacho

Timeless classic

Beauty, Dulce felipe & royal Silver

Aly Ishikuni

MULTIMEDIA

Director of Digital Marketing

Michael Pooley

WEB DEVELOPER

Matthew Mcvickar

ADVERTISING

Scott hager DIRECTOR OF MARKETING & ADVERTISING scott@fLUXhawaii.com

erika forberg ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE erika@fLUXhawaii.com

FLUX Hawaii, P.O. Box 30927, Honolulu, HI 96820. Contents of FLUX Hawaii are protected by copyright and may not be reproduced without the expressed written consent of the publisher. FLUX Hawaii accepts no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts and/or photographs and assumes no liability for products or services advertised herein. FLUX Hawaii reserves the right to edit, rewrite, refuse or reuse material, is not responsible for errors and omissions and may feature same on fluxhawaii.com, as well as other mediums for any and all purposes.

FLUX Hawaii is a quarterly lifestyle publication.

WHAT THE FLUX ?!

Ocean Safety

Hawai‘i’s world-renowned beaches can be an idyllic paradise or a beachgoer’s worst nightmare.

f LUX talked with Kyle foyle, who is a lifeguard at three of h awai‘i’s most dangerous beaches - Pipeline, waimea Bay and Sunset - and is certified to teach community members what to do if caught in life-threatening ocean situations. “The biggest thing to remember in the ocean is to stay calm,” he says. “I’ve had people die on me because they panicked and sucked in too much water through their snorkel or didn’t realize they could touch the bottom and stand up – not because they were necessarily in a life-threatening situation.”

SITUATION: CAUGHT IN A RIPTIDE

Solution: Stay calm. Do not swim against the rip. Instead, look which way it is taking you, and swim perpendicular to that direction (cut a 90-degree angle toward shore if possible) until you no longer feel the pull of the rip. Keep swimming in that direction and breathing calmly until you feel the pull lessen. If too tired to swim, stay afloat by calmly treading water and wave to a lifeguard for help.

SITUATION: BROKEN LEASH AND CAUGHT IN THE IMPACT ZONE OF WAVES

Solution: Stay calm. Stay in the white water. Do not swim to the channel, which is where the rip current starts and will suck you out to sea. Let the waves push you to shore. The waves will do most of the work if you allow yourself to go with their flow.

SITUATION: CAUGHT IN WIND LINE (GETTING BLOWN OUT TO SEA) WHILE STAND-UP PADDLING

Solution: Stay calm. Your body is acting as a sail

in the wrong direction, so lie down to a prone position, placing the paddle under your chest and stomach along the line of your SUP board. Angle the board and paddle straight towards shore. Don’t paddle upwind.

SITUATION: CAUGHT IN LARGE SHORE BREAK

Solution: Stay calm. If a large shore break wave is coming at you, take a deep breath, and just as the wave breaks in front of you, dive under the white water with your eyes open so you can swim underneath it. You will be able to see underwater once it passes over you and come up for air. e ither let the waves push you to shore or swim out a little beyond the waves until the set stops, then swim in when a lull occurs (which, it will, you just have to relax and wait for the right moment). If the sets do not stop, get the attention (waving and screaming) of the lifeguards.

SITUATION: SUCKED INTO A BLOWHOLE

Solution: remain calm. If there’s something to grab on to, like a ledge or rock, grab it to

prevent from going deeper into the hole. Tread water with relaxed breathing, and wait for the water to fill back up as high as possible on the next surge before you try to climb up and out.

SITUATION: YOUR FISHERMAN BUDDY IS KNOCKED OFF THE ROCKS BY ROUGH WAVES

Solution: e mpty out your plastic cooler and throw it to your friend. Tell him to hold on to the cooler as a flotation device and try to stay out far from the rocks, swimming away from the area if needed. Immediately call 911. Keep your eyesight on him, and maintain calm communication with him until Ocean Safety or the fire department arrives.

The BASIcS

Of cPr:

c heck the patient for response. Ask, “Sir/Miss, are you OK?” while tapping his or her shoulder.

IF THEY DON’T RESPOND:

1) c all 911, and get an automated external defibrillator (A e D) if available.

2) Immediately start compressions on the middle of the chest, holding one hand on top of the other (palms down) over the sternum.

3) Straighten your arms, and position your body over the person, pumping hard and fast for 30 compressions.

4) After 30 compressions, give two solid breaths into the person’s mouth.

5) continue compression and breaths at the ratio of 30:2 until advanced care (eMS or hfD) arrives.

6) Never stop c P r Only stop c P r if advanced care arrives, patient wakes up, or the scene becomes unsafe.

LOcAL MOcO: JIU-JITSU INSTrUcTOr

Kayle Quinn, Relson Gracie Waterfront

TEXT BY LISA YAMADA | IMAGE COURTESY OF JOHN HOOK

“First and foremost, jiu-jitsu is about selfdefense,” says Kayle Quinn. “Not that you’re going to beat up every guy that walks up to you, but we want anyone that trains with us to have the confidence that if something happens, they’ll be safe.”

Quinn, along with Drake Fujimoto, is coowner of Relson Gracie Waterfront Jiu-Jitsu. It is the newest martial arts academy associated and backed by Relson Gracie, who, in 1988, first introduced Brazilian jiu-jitsu to Hawai‘i, effectively making the islands home to one of the first Gracie jiu-jitsu schools in America. Relson comes from a famous line of fighters: His father is the legendary Helio Gracie, who innovated Kodokan judo into what is now known as Gracie or Brazilian jiu-jitsu; his older brother is Rorion Gracie, founder of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, and his younger brother is Royce Gracie, considered one of the most influential fighters in MMA history.

Bred from the same cloth, Quinn trained at Relson’s main academy on Queen Street. Between grappling sessions, Quinn was working as a graphic designer at Midweek and The Honolulu Star-Bulletin, but when the Queen Street studio closed in 2010, Quinn and Fujimoto saw an opportunity to open an academy that would be easily accessible to people working in the downtown area.

Though jiu-jitsu has elements of stand-up fighting, it’s predominantly a ground-fighting tactic, predicated on the odds that the fight will end up on the ground. “I’m not the guy out there making trouble,” Quinn says, “but things happen. I actually have a mark here where a guy bit me on the leg. He came at me, so I put him in a choke and put him to sleep. I was walking away when he rushes me again. I did a standing self-defense move where you knee the guy in the face

when he’s trying to take you down. Well, he fell, grabbed my leg and bit me. I’m very glad that I did have this type of training, and luckily, that I was wearing pants.”

At Relson Gracie Waterfront, there are classes offered nearly every day, from the fast-paced gi jiu-jitsu to the more methodical no-gi jiu-jitsu, as well as classes on mixed martial arts and yoga. Quinn offers this freebie: “If someone is trying to guillotine you, your first objective is to make sure you don’t get choked out. So if the person had their right arm wrapped around my throat trying to choke me, my left hand would control their wrist and pull it down, while my chin tucks in. Then my right hand would reach over their far shoulder, over their back, to make it hard for them to arch their back and apply leverage to actually choke me out. So it may still be uncomfortable while they’re holding my neck, but I’m not in danger of going to sleep.”

Though self-defense is a big part of jiu-jitsu, many people practice it for fitness and health reasons. Members are of all ages and walks of life, from high-school students all the way up to a 69-year-old doctor. “Jiu-jitsu builds up endurance. It’s hard for people to stick to a fitness goal if it’s not fun. This is good fun, and will help you stay in shape, or get you in shape if you’re not.

“There’s also a bit of a creative aspect to it too,” Quinn continues, “which maybe goes back to me being an artist and a designer, in that there’s infinite choices you can make on the mat. I think that part of jiu-jitsu is what keeps it fresh for me. I’ve been doing this for over 11 years and it’s still fun to me every day.”

Visit Relson Gracie Waterfront at 16 Merchant St., 2nd floor, or call 808-284-4114 for more information.

200 BEERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

PREMIUM COCKTAILS AND SPIRITS

HANDMADE GOURMET PIZZA AND EUROFRIES DJS, LIVE MUSIC AND ENTERTAINMENT

DAILY HAPPY HOUR 4:00 TO 8:00PM

BAR 35 35 N. Hotel Street www.bar35.com Monday - Saturday 4:00pm to 2:00am

Kayle Quinn, once a graphic designer for The Honolulu Star-Bulletin, is now a “grapple” designer, recently opening the Relson Gracie Waterfront Jiu-Jitsu studio with co-owner Drake Fujimoto.

NOTABLe wOrKS

FIND ART: Celebrating Community + Creativity

Presented by Casio G-Shock

JUNE 28TH-30TH

This summer, Honolulu’s hive of art, food, retail and nightlife – Chinatown – becomes the site of FIND ART: Celebrating Community + Creativity.

Over three days, FIND ART will reconfigure Chinatown into a wonderland of family, music and art and craftivism. The festival will feature live music, art workshops, gallery openings, an educational panel with artists and community members, and a daylong fair in Smith-Beretania Urban Park.

FIND ART will bring visiting established artists and musicians into a creative mash-up with their local peers and the public. The mix includes four contemporary visual artists and collectives from the mainland who emphasize community involvement in their work. In addition, four local artists will engage with and “play” with public space and the public in general.

“It all started with a group of friends talking story,” says festival co-organizer and curator, Trisha Lagaso Goldberg. “We all work in Chinatown, play in Chinatown. We wanted to found an event to share the vibrancy of this area with everyone on the island, from our parents and their generation, to our ‘non-Chinatown’ friends, to family members and kids.” According to Lagaso Goldberg, the impetus for the event arose as a result of growing up in a time when “social network was built on a foundation of face-to-face connections with family, friends and mentors.” At the same time, Lagaso Goldberg has seen relationships with like minds from around the world flourish, crossing cultures and generations.

Harnessing this thought, as well as the generative energies of the burgeoning neighborhood that is Chinatown, Find Art is meant to connect the community, bringing together people of all ages and from all walks of life.

FEATURED SCHEDULE AND PROGRAMMING

Thursday, JUNE 28:

Day one begins with a panel discussion with visiting artists Carolyn Castaño,Fallen Fruit, Magda Sayeg and Stephanie Sujuco at The ARTS at Marks. The fun continues with live music showcases at The Manifest and Nextdoor.

Friday, JUNE 29:

Mill through art galleries throughout Chinatown, featuring a local juried exhibition “Amalgamate.” Participating galleries include: Pegge Hopper Gallery, Mojo Barbershop & Social Club, thirtyninehotel and The Manifest. Public Fruit Wallpaper, Honolulu, Hawaii by Fallen Fruit and The Counterfeit Crochet Project by Stephanie Syjuco opens at The Human Imagination.

Saturday, JUNE 30:

A daytime festival of art, food, music and celebration at Smith-Beretania Urban Park, visitors can take part in hands-on workshops like screening a T-shirt, making fruit jam, crocheting a clutch bag, while listening to a host of local indie bands and eating some of the best food that Chinatown has to offer.

For the full schedule, visit findartfestival.com.

Hand-crafted cocktails, wine and beer Tapas by Brasserie Du Vin

music and DJs

Hours: Daily, 2pm to 7pm Mon - Thurs, 10pm to 2am.

- Saturday 2:00pm to 2:00am

First experimenting on his own hair, Kaliq

is now highly sought-after for his clean fades and artistic hair carvings at

Rashad

Mojo Barbershop.

THE BARBER

Kaliq Rashad

Up close, a hair carving resembles a hedge maze of labyrinthine twists neatly trimmed into the scalp. For a better look at how his work is coming along, Kaliq Rashad takes a step back. It’s a Wednesday afternoon at Chinatown’s Mojo Barbershop, and a forest of curves is emerging across the head of his client, who is draped in black and texting in silence on his phone. Rashad pauses to study a photo of the man’s tattoos, the inspiration for today’s design. He picks up a comb in one hand, an electric razor in the other, and returns to moving the blade across the scalp in short, decisive strokes.

Every once in awhile, he brushes away stray hairs and switches out the current razor with one of many others hanging in a tidy row under his counter. The blades get hot and can burn the skin, he explains. Rashad’s razors are his paintbrushes – some fat for wide lines, some thin for delicate ones – all aiding him in the art of hair carving.

Growing up in a New York neighborhood where being style-savvy was key to survival, Rashad experimented with cutting his own hair in the bathroom mirror. A barber noticed his talent and offered him a chair in his shop. The then-19-year-old Rashad preferred to spend his money on Gucci sneakers over start-up clippers, but he invested the necessary $300, and 22 years later, he maintains the tools of his trade with fastidious care and the respect of an artist.

“I care about cleanliness like I’m a dentist,”

Rashad says with a laugh. He unwraps a new blade for each beard shave and ritualistically oils his razors. This professionalism, coupled with his unique skills as a sculptor of hair, has made Rashad the go-to guy for one-of-a-kind looks. “Hairoglyphics,” Rashad’s Egyptianinspired brand name for his hair carvings (his mother often wandered through the Egyptian wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art while pregnant with Rashad), allows him to share the story of each person he works on through images.

Rashad has carved wings for football players seeking spiritual speed. For an ocean lover, he replicated the image of a surfer from a magazine photo. Rashad even sculpted a Transformers Decepticon on the back of a 4-year-old’s head. His creations can take hours to complete, but fade away in the time it takes for hair to grow back. “That’s what keeps me in business,” Rashad teases. “Somebody always needs a haircut.”

Rashad’s temperament reflects the duality of his hard and soft Chinatown environs. As he works, he laughs loudly at his jokes with a kolohe gleam in his eye and sounds boyishly cocky when he shouts, “That’s my jam!” to the song on the shop’s airwaves. Yet at other times, he leans in, hushed and apologetic for steering our conversation from barbering to topics of spirituality, nature and his mother. He chats happily with clients but cherishes his retreats to the Mojo man cave, a candle-

filled nook occupied by a solitary leather chair. “I can be very despondent and antisocial,” he says, looking at his hands. “Not because I want to be. I can be standoffish, but I’m not being conceited. People ask, ‘Why are you so quiet?’ and I say, ‘I’m thinking!’”

This introspective side reflects Rashad’s belief that above all, a barber should be humble. Although Rashad enjoys a wide following, he finds value not in the numbers of his clientele, but in the depth of each relationship he creates through his art. He appreciates the physical connection required of working intimately with an individual in a barber’s chair during a time when technology can separate us from other human beings. Remarks Rashad, “I love art and I love people, so barbering is the perfect fit for me.”

Find Rashad at Mojo Barbershop, located at 1157 Bethel St., or at mojobarbershop.com.

For Orion Enocencio, taxidermy is a tedious process that involves welding, carpentry, science and sculpting. Shown in his workshop on the Big Island.

THE TAXIDERMIST

Orion Enocencio, ‘Ahiu Hawai‘i

From sea level to the slopes of Mauna Kea, wild boars roam the Big Island, destroying native plants and pakalolo patches. Gangs of turkeys scurry through the forests of Ka‘u. Hybrid sheep call lava flows and dry scrubland on Saddle Road home. Wild donkeys roam hungry and free in Waikoloa, and upland, various birds thrive on local flora and fauna. The Big Island is a hunter’s dreamland – plenty for the stomach, and plenty for the wall.

In 2001, Orion Enocencio was a 20-yearold hunter awaiting the birth of his first child and wondering how he would support a family. Little did he know that his life and the art of reconstructing animals would soon intersect. Eleven years later, it’s a clear day in Puna, and Enocencio holds the leathered skin of a hybrid sheep. Strong tradewinds move its black wool, and the once moist and full lips of the animal are still shiny and supple.

“I was having my first kid and realized I needed to hustle, I didn’t want to struggle,” he says, nonchalantly using both hands to shape an ear filled with Bondo putty (an automobile body filler). His father, whom he credits with “everything,” suggested taxidermy. Slightly baffled, Enocencio asked, “Where am I gonna learn taxidermy? And my dad said my uncle would teach me,” he recalls, moving on to the other ear.

What one may assume was a natural progression from life as a hunter turned out to be a labor of duty, not love. His inauguration into taxidermy was driven by the need to provide. “I was kinda forced into it,” he remembers. “Growing up it was hunt, fish,

dive. We put food on the table that way. But this was so irritating, required so much patience. I just didn’t want to do it, but I did,” he says, placing a set of curled horns onto a ram manikin.

Practice paid off, and soon the new dad was producing quality mounts. He found himself landlocked in Wisconsin for six months at taxidermy school to expand his skills. Noting all elements of the process, Enocencio says, “Taxidermy isn’t just art. It’s welding, carpentry, science, sculpting and plumbing.”

Seven children later (all boys), he’s practicing taxidermy full time under ‘Ahiu Hawaii, the adventure, hunting and taxidermy company he and his wife Kulanihiwa started after he was forced to give up another career. At one point Enocencio was the ultimate oxymoron – hunter, taxidermist and Humane Society officer. When a higher-up decided his personal life didn’t blend with his professional life, he was given an ultimatum: Stop hunting or get fired. “It was a hard one. Lose my job, or quit something that I grew up doing, that was part of me,” he says, placing golden-brown glass eyes on the manikin. “So, I said OK and got fired.”

With skins coming in from outer islands and the mainland, ‘Ahiu’s business is expanding. “We’ve tried to open a shop but landlords are like, ‘You want to do taxidermy in here? That’s weird. Sorry.’ No one will rent us a space,” he says, drawing from memory as he transforms the ram’s face from a blank canvas into a lifelike combination of curves

using paper-mâché and a carving tool.

But this taxidermist is a far cry from the stereotypical ones portrayed in movies, creepy guys working in dark cluttered rooms. His organized, open-air workshop is adjacent to the family home in a wellmanicured yard. Sunlight permeates every nook and cranny, and a day at the office for Enocencio requires an ‘Ahiu T-shirt (silk screened in the workshop), surf shorts, rubber slippers and a permanent smile.

Soon the skin is snug on the manikin, hugging its curves like it once did its skull. After tucking in the eyelids and lips with a flat metal tool, the mount is complete. The moment is a culmination of a 6-month process – skinning, tanning and fleshing (done in the only pressurized drum of its kind in Hawai‘i), prepping the mannequin and rotting the horns off the skull. Inspecting the ram, Enocencio addresses the significance of his first name. “I don’t think my parents named me after Orion the Hunter. I don’t know why they picked it,” he says. Well, it’s a perfect fit. And that ram? It looks eerily real.

For more information on Enocencio and ‘Ahiu Hawai‘i, visit ahiuhawaii.com.

Specializing in fixed and folder blades, Keith Ouye is meticulous in detail when it comes to handcrafting these ornate, one-of-a kind knives.

THE KNIFE MAKER

Keith Ouye Knives

On a cool Honolulu afternoon, Keith Ouye sits behind a rickety card table adorned with dozens of razor-sharp knives. The weapons, most of which are equipped with a handy switch that sends the blade springing from the handle, shine against the overhead lighting. In a booth situated just behind the man and his glittering knives, someone is selling an apocalyptic machine gun that’s been equipped with a chainsaw near the muzzle. To the left, a series of World War II rifles and rust-covered bayonets are humbly offered up by their patron. This odd mix of Old World relics and souped-up killing machines repeats itself throughout the packed Blaisdell Exhibition Hall. This is the Honolulu Gun Show, and hundreds of firearm enthusiasts have gathered to talk story and marvel over the island’s finest assortment of privately owned weapons.

“I’m Keith,” the man with the knives says. “I understand you want to write a story about a local knife maker?” In his 60s, with a head full of wonderfully graying hair, Ouye appears more likely to pull out a Werther’s Original from his pocket than a handcrafted stainless steel blade.

“Uhh, yes,” I reply, trying to take in the surreal nature of my surroundings. We take a seat behind his booth, the knives still gleaming under the light, and get to talking. Ouye, it turns out, hasn’t always been a knife maker.

In fact, in a previous life, he unglamorously worked for more than three decades at the phone company until retiring in 2001. And when most retirees gravitate towards a life of golf, shuffleboard and early-bird specials, Ouye’s opted for cold, hard steel with the occasional serrated edge.

“I’ve always been interested in knives and playing with guns,” Ouye tells me, “and after I retired I asked my friend Stan Fujisaka to make me a big knife. He told me, ‘Eh, go make your own,’ and I told him, ‘If you teach me, then I will.’ That’s how it all started.” Fast forward a few years, and Ouye had honed his skill to a razor’s edge. By 2004, using his garage as his workshop, he was receiving orders from all over the world for his handmade knives.

When it comes to crafting the knives, Ouye is meticulous in his attention to detail. He does almost all of the work himself. The knives, he tells me, are labor-intensive and take a great deal of time to piece together. “I don’t take orders for my knives,” he says, “I take requests. I make the knives in groups of six, so it’s not a quick turnaround. I don’t like to give people a timeline, because I don’t like to feel rushed. It’s handmade, it takes time, and I’m retired, ya know? It’s a passion of mine, and I look at it as an artistic endeavor.”

Specializing in both fixed blades and folders, Ouye makes knives that are ornately dec-

orated. After glancing at the designs on the stainless steel blades and titanium handles, which range from a motioning grim reaper to a deck of cards being split by a bullet headed towards a skull, it’s hard to believe that these are the products of this white-collar retiree. But lo and behold, physical appearances are often misleading.

With the detailed engravings, some of the folder knives sell for upwards of $500. The more detailed the engraving and the bigger the blade, the more expensive the knife. Recently, Ouye’s knives and handiwork have begun attracting attention overseas, with knife dealers from Russia, Germany, Austria and Spain clamoring to purchase his blades.

Moving forward, Ouye wants to keep his operation at a pace that suits his retired lifestyle. “I’m making about 50 knives a year, and that’s keeping me plenty busy. I’m pretty much in my shop every workday, well, except for Thursdays, where I usually go to the firing range to kill a few zombies and let out some steam.”

For more information, visit keithouyeknives.com.

Nominated for a Nā Hōkū Hanohano award, Let-T-Let and Westbrook of

have come a long way from banging beats during lunchtime at

hip-hop duo Slapp Symphony

Moanalua High School.

PRIMARY DUO

Let-T-Let and Westbrook, Slapp Symphony

“Somebody once said it always feels like 1 a.m. in the studio. You go in and lose track of time. When you get out it’s like, oh, the sun is coming up. I like that feeling though,” says Westbrook, “when you don’t have light telling you what time it is, and you just stay in your mode.”

Producers Let-T-Let and Westbrook of Slapp Symphony have been creating music in the studio for well over 10 years now. The good times began in high school, where the two first linked up, through mutual friends, then basketball and eventually music. Soon, lunch times were spent banging beats on desks and water fountains and performing for whoever would listen.

Let-T-Let moved from Oceanside, California in 2000 and met Westbrook, who was born and raised in Salt Lake in Honolulu. They played together on Moanalua High School’s basketball team, but “we were benched most of the time,” says Let-T-Let. “When we went in, it would be just me and him passing the ball. Coaches don’t like street ball.”

At the end of the day, it’s still Let-T-Let and Westbrook as one solid team. That foundation breeds a relationship by which the two make their music. “West will call me over to the lab and we’ll play a beat,” says Let-T-Let. “From that beat I start thinking, pressing keys. West might say, ‘Nah, don’t do that, how about you slow it down and pick it up when we come into the next part.’ From piano to the bass to the strings, the soft pads and hard pads, synthesizers, we do it all.”

The duo will go back to the studio and listen to it again, editing, moving parts, slowing

beats down, speeding them up. Later, with vocals, they’ll listen for correct pitch, flow and rhythm, or ensure the vibe of a singer complements the piece as a whole. It’s a complex and layered musical process that Slapp Symphony takes a very critical ear to, similar to classical music, with a composer summoning a high level of intricacy to communicate a conversation through sound.

Slapp Symphony emanates a rare quality of professionalism that defines caliber, and they bring to the table more than just a pristine technical package. Their vision for all music in Hawai‘i is that the end product will become much more distinct. They both agree: “We always want to do something that is new and that nobody’s done before, raise the bar to keep it competitive, so we can stay creative. We want to push forward, but do it correct and do it from here.”

That vision is exemplified on their latest compilation released last November. Drown ‘Em in Beats, Save ’Em With Rhymes, produced in collaboration with Nocturnal Sound Krew, is unconventional, slick with talent, and nominated for three Nā Hōkū Hanohano awards. The album includes a wide range of inspiration, including reggae, gospel, jazz, R&B and hip-hop, and addresses a variety of subject matters, from falling in love to the ice epidemic.

“There’s a wealth of talent in Hawai‘i,” says Westbrook, “and this is what initiated all of our compilation projects.” Their first, The Slapp Collective, produced in collaboration with DJ Jimmy Taco, won them a Hawai‘i

Music Award in 2009. “It had everybody on it who had been doing their own thing, guys like Lightsleepers, Tassho, but we put them together on one project and slowly people connected. Now, everybody is collaborating together.”

Never forgetting where they came from, Westbrook and Let-T-Let maintain a “friendsbefore-music” mentality, appreciative of the support from the “boys of H-Building” (the building in Salt Lake notorious for its seedier goings-on) and the network they’ve created in the past few years. With the help of a few friends, they were recently able to build up a recording studio in Honolulu called Primaphonix. It was there that Drown ’Em in Beats was recorded in its entirety. “Before we first came here,” says Westbrook, “there was none of these walls. Me, Sub Zero, Leti and a few others helped build these three layers of drywall.” These fellas, it seems, have the passion to do just that – build.

Download Drown ’Em in Beats on iTunes, or for more information, visit slappsymphony. tumblr.com.

With his ever-growing network of interests and musical styles, Jay Ablan, aka

is sure to remain at the forefront of Hawai‘i’s music industry, and beyond.

DJ Compose

THE TURNTABLIST

Jay Ablan, DJ Compose

Growing up in the turntablist age, Jay Ablan, known as Compose on the DJ circuit, began honing his technique with a small group of friends focused initially on scratching. Creating routines unheard of in Hawai‘i at the time, the versatile style and explosive showmanship of Ablan became the signature of the Nocturnal Sound Krew. A two-time world champion of the ITF DJ Battle and recent Hawai‘i regional winner of the Red Bull Thre3style, Ablan effortlessly transitions in and out of hip-hop, rock, soul, indie and dance classics. Among his many residencies at clubs around Honolulu, Compose is a founder of the fiercely popular dance party, Shake + Pop, as well as the music director of Addiction Nightclub at The Modern Honolulu. Before embarking to Los Angeles to compete for a ticket to the Thre3style National Finals in Orlando, FLUX sat down with the prolific DJ to discuss his come up in the turntablist age, the rise of his close-knit Nocturnal Sound Krew, and his advice for not getting “caught up” in the whirlwind industry.

HOW DID YOU FIRST GET INTO DJING?

You would think because I’m Filipino I was a good dancer, but I was never a good dancer. Like anyone else, I tried to fit in somewhere. In high school, my cousin, who was a mobile DJ, took me on my first gig where I helped him bring his speakers and equipment. It was a big deal to me, so I saved up money, got crappy turntables, learned a little, and did whatever I could to get real equipment. We loved going to record stores, buying vinyl, and trying to keep up.

TELL ME ABOUT WHAT IT WAS LIKE COMING UP WHEN YOU FIRST STARTED?

I grew up in the turntablist age, where the focus was more on skills. I think by me starting that way, it was my leg up. Now, with the innovation of Serato and the computer age,

I think the creativity, although attainable, is completely different. We’d be using old Disney records and would bring like four or five crates of records just for one set. But the feeling of looking for a particular song in a whole bunch of records versus typing it in – it was really a good thing for me.

HOW DID NOCTURNAL SOUNDS KREW GET TOGETHER?

Hawai‘i’s community of DJs gravitated towards each other at that time, and we became best friends. We grew up together, and we’re still close to this day. The turntablist community around the late ’80s, early ’90s was amazing, creating sounds and techniques and routines that not everyone could do. The way we found out about DJs wasn’t on YouTube, it was through trading videos, word of mouth and meeting people. I’d have conversations with my homeboy from Switzerland, like, “Yo, listen to my new pattern,” and he would cut on the phone, long distance from the landline.

WHAT WAS IT LIKE PREPARING FOR THE ITF WORLD CHAMPION BATTLE IN GERMANY IN EARLY 2000?

The problem a lot of people from Hawai‘i had was thinking they had to put Hawai‘i on the map. I never thought that was the approach to it. Don’t think Hawai‘i is not on the map. People are looking at us. So we took the mentality of, I don’t care where you’re from or where we’re from, but we’re gonna show you our drive. Everything I do, I’m trying to put my best foot forward, because that’s the only way to succeed. I try to do my research, try to give my due work. In any craft, I think, that’s the key.

EXPLAIN YOUR DECISION TO COMPETE IN THE RED BULL THRE3STYLE AFTER SUCH A LONG TIME OF NOT COMPETING?

It’s been 10 years since Nocturnal stuck their neck out at ITF, and the reality of it is, we had a lot more to lose than to gain. I know people expected Nocturnal to win because, oh, we’re supposed to, right? Imagine if we lost? Like, oh they suck! It was a point where I needed to prove to myself about where the hell I’m at right now, and that’s why I took it very seriously. This is my shit, this is what I do – this is me.

DO YOU EVER WORRY THAT YOU’LL GET TOO OLD TO DJ?

Always. I’m looking how to parlay all this momentum, all this whatever I have, and somehow fit it into this weird web of ours, because it seems like we’re all intertwined. It’s just the natural progression.

WHAT WOULD BE YOUR ADVICE TO UP-ANDCOMERS?

There’s going to be ups and downs, but don’t get caught up in this … this life … it’s crazy, and it’s not for everyone. I mean, the time of what we do, is nighttime, around a lot of alcohol, around a lot of bad things – don’t get caught up. I don’t think I’ve ever claimed to be the best – I know I’m not the best – but I think I have something in me that people like, and so I’m trying to share that.

For the full interview, visit fluxhawaii.com. To keep up with Compose, visit soundcloud.com/dj-compose.

rAPID TechNOLOGY

3D Printing

TEXT BY LISA YAMADA | IMAGE BY JOHN HOOK

On the 12th floor of a small apartment complex in downtown Honolulu, a scale model of the same city the apartment overlooks is being printed layer by layer on a 3D printer. Up next are pieces for a life-size suit of armor for a costume in an upcoming movie and a surfboard nose guard made of photo-cured plastic resin. Hidden behind a 4-inch anime figurine and an artist’s rendition of a koi, is a small, unremarkable ring-shaped object.

“That’s part of an acetabular cup, which receives the ball joint in the shoulder,” explains Emil Reyes, owner of Rapid Technology, a company that specializes in 3D printing. “Say if you destroyed your shoulder and needed reconstruction, we would scan the opposite shoulder, reverse it and print it. The cup is made from medical-grade titanium and will last longer than the person.”

It’s a process that’s medically accepted in Europe and is currently under review by the FDA. Elsewhere, 3D printers are printing out other body parts and organs. “Vision Tech, one of the companies we represent, printed out a piece of heart tissue that took a beat,” says Reyes. “That’s the future concept, when your liver goes bad, they just print you a new one.”

Three-dimensional printers work much like traditional inkjet printers. Printing is based on a principle called layered fabrication. “You can think of it like stacking a deck of cards, but instead of an entire card, it only stacks a layer that matches the layer of the object.”

Like Gutenberg’s movable press, 3D printing technology has the capacity to revolutionize society. The printers are capable of printing movable parts and gears, potentially reducing, or even eliminating, the need for assembly lines; metal printers are printing new types of alloys by fusing different types of powders. “It’s called ‘disruptive technology’ because it’s changing a lot of the industry very quickly,” says Reyes, who first encountered 3D printing technology while working as an analyst and a future projects officer for the military. There, his job was to develop technology and get it to the soldier as soon as possible, though Reyes acknowledges that at the time, 3D technology wasn’t ready.

“When we first thought about opening up shop, we were told, ‘You’re in Hawai‘i, you don’t do manufacturing there,” says Reyes. “Because this technology has always been suited for manufacturing, we had to write our entire business plan and explain how we could make a go at it here. And it’s been seven years since.” Certainly not a lot of time in an ever-changing world of rapid technology.

For more information, visit thinkrapid.com.

OF STYLISH CHAMPIONS

Pig hunting through Kualoa Ranch

TEXT BY CHAS SMITH | I MAGES BY JOHN HOOK

The only thing that sounds good at 3:30 in the morning is suicide. And I am up at 3:30, contemplating suicide, smoking a cigarette, drinking a cup of watery hotel coffee while standing on my small balcony. Waikīkī is dark and quiet below. The air is cool enough for a light layer, and so I put on a thin tweed hunting jacket with leather elbow patches and wander out into the dark quietness. It is time for pig hunting.

I find my rental car and drive north on the Pali Highway before turning east into the town of Kāne‘ohe. I have spent much time in Honolulu, on the North Shore, even searching for ice in ‘Ewa Beach, but I have never been to the east side. If the sun was up, I could see its beauty. Its striking geography. I park in front of a house at the end of a small, middle-class road, turn the lights off, and light another cigarette. Theoretically, this is Mike’s house. Mike will be taking me pig hunting. It is 4:15 in the morning. Still a suicidal hour.

Five minutes pass, and the house lights turn on. I can see a large double-decker dog kennel partially illuminated. The dogs begin to bark, and then I see Mike. He is a boulder of a man. Tall, pure muscle, shaved head, tattooed from neck to fist. He growls at the dogs to be quiet. He wears camouflaged pants and a black T-shirt with the words “Defend Hawaii” wrapped around an M-16. I approach and we shake hands. His grip crushes. His eyes are piercing blue and his voice, as he introduces himself, sounds like gravel. He wears a large knife in a leather case.

We chat about the dogs, which are not barking anymore, and I learn that they are special. Turns out, pig-hunting dogs are not normal, everyday dogs. They are bred from hound, pitbull, birddog and Rhodesian ridgeback stock. They are bred to be tireless, to find the pigs, chase them down, and be fearless in the face of attack. Mike gets his dogs from JC, a pig-hunting legend, who will be joining us today.

We chat about fighting. Mike’s garage is a shrine to the masculine. There are mats rolled up in a corner, punching bags, rusted weights, fingerless MMA boxing gloves, stacks of camouflage gear, and his truck. His truck, which is classically Hawaiian, raised, and caked with just the right amount of red mud. We climb in and drive to a nearby gas station, waiting for JC. It is so damned early. A hunting hour. I have never thought much of hunting one way or the other. I grew up on the Oregon coast, in a small redneck town, and everyone I knew hunted. They duck hunted and elk hunted. I went along for the ride once or twice, and I didn’t feel sorry for the animals, even the deer with eyes full of love, but also wasn’t thrilled. A lot of

Prepping for pig hunting before the dawn. Shown here, Mike Malone and crew at Kualoa Ranch.

Suddenly, we hear the brush move and a low grunt, but all I can see is Brian. Then the dogs go crazy and fly up the cliff. They have something.

walking in the woods. Little action. Like fishing on land.

I go into the gas station and get a Spam musubi and it tastes like paradise. So salty and satisfying. Then JC arrives. He is older, solidly built, Hawaiian, and says he has been hunting pigs for 40 years. His voice is deep and warm, like a television news broadcaster. Mike has been hunting with him for the last three years. Their rapport is easy and friendly. They talk about hunting, the hopes and possibilities of the day, and a few wild parties that they have experienced together in the past. The bed of his truck is caged and full of his dogs. They seem eager. We make small talk before climbing back into our respective trucks and driving to the coast.

The sun is still not yet up, but I can see silhouettes of stark beauty. Towering rocks breaking the ocean’s surface close to shore, green cliffs off to the left. We pull to the side of the road, near a cliff, and there is a third hunter waiting by a gate. His name is Brian and he is the Hollywood Hunter because he has the permits to hunt the land where we are right now. Kualoa Ranch. He is younger than Mike and JC but also more avid. He hunts every single day and often alone, which is rare. Pigs are dangerous. He has his own dogs and sports rubber boots with spiked soles, camouflage pants, and a backwards Defend Hawaii baseball hat. On the drive Mike tells me that Brian has a Hawaiian ID that says, “Do not detain this individual.” I ask Brian if I can see it and he shows me. It says he

is a resident of the Polynesian Kingdom of Atooi and that he is not to be detained, per the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples pursuant to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, 1961. Amazing. And then we all drive onto the ranch.

Brian’s permit is gold, even more gold than his ID. He is the sole “eradicator” of the property and is the only one allowed to hunt legally. He runs across poachers from time to time and hustles them out of the area with an angry sneer. It is a 4000acre working cattle ranch, movie shoot location, and one of the most beautiful corners of O‘ahu. The sun has finally risen, and I can see its beauty through honeyed air. The cliffs look like God’s personal handiwork. He did not commission this art. He made it himself. The grass is fresh and green. Cows graze, sleepily, as we park near a stream.

Brian lets his dogs out and JC does too. Mike did not bring his because they are not cattle-trained, meaning they might confuse a calf for a pig and hunt beef instead of pork. The dogs are each fitted with GPS collars, their names put into a handheld locator, and they are turned loose. These dogs are expensive and the art of the hunt. Losing one is critical. Beyond monitoring them with GPS, each hunter carries needle and thread in case the dogs are gored and need a quick on-field repair. The dogs run around, excitedly. They are not suicidal but rather homicidal, and they run up a dirt road toward the ridgeline. We follow.

It is very quiet and surreal. We walk past Journey to the Center of the Earth’s set, which is still standing. It is a high stone arch that looks Persian or maybe Babylonian. We pass signs that show where Jurassic Park was filmed and where 50 First Dates was filmed. 50 First Dates. What a total bust. We walk for a mile before stopping in the elbow of a ridge and watching the dogs flit around on the GPS screen. They have already reached the top of the cliff and are moving, quickly, this way and that. They are trying to pick up the scent and flush out a pig. JC knows that the pigs like to sleep higher on the ridge and that they might still be sleeping. He knows the corners they like to choose. He is a pig behaviorist. Brian has moved off, down another path, to listen for the telltale signs of a chase. We are all quiet. The pigs are smart and listen for humans. I am no longer tired but on edge, trying my hardest to hear a dog’s bark or a pig’s grunt. The dogs circle the ridge for 30 minutes and maybe chase one or two pigs but can’t keep the trail. JC believes the pigs are hunting food on another ridge to the left, and so we all walk 10 minutes to the left. The sun is higher now, and the land gets more beautiful, more vivid with each passing minute. The dogs shoot off into the brush again and Brian follows them. Suddenly, we hear the brush move and a low grunt, but all I can see is Brian. Then the dogs go crazy and fly up the cliff. They have something. I run after Brian and we climb and climb and climb. The earth is wet and the soil is loose. Some of

it is turned over. This is where pigs have been rooting for food. I grab for vines and bushes as we climb. I am not wearing camouflage pants but rather black skinny jeans. I am not wearing spiked-sole rubber boots but, rather, red Vans. Aside from my tweed jacket this is not an appropriate hunting kit. I almost slide down the cliff too many times to count.

The higher we climb, the hotter it gets and the more mosquitoes gather and bite like the nasty devils they are. Brian can see that the dogs have stopped moving, which means they either have the pig trapped or they have it killed. A victory, either way. And we finally arrive at their location. They sit with happy faces around a young, dead boar. Brian says the dogs gave it a flat tire, which is what they are trained to do. A “flat tire” means they have chewed the tendons under his front two legs, so that he could not run anymore. And then he died of a heart attack. If he had not died, Brian would have stabbed him with a large hunting knife under one of his arms. These men hunt with knives. They don’t use guns or bows or arrows.

Brian squeezes the urine from the boar first, explaining that boars use their urine to throw the dogs off. Crafty as they are, pigs will urinate in a circle causing the dogs to follow the urine circle instead of the pig. He then draws his knife and cuts the boar’s balls off and hangs them from a branch. The mosquitoes are thick, but I am captivated. The pigs are always gutted before being hauled down the hill. The guts create quick rot and are also needlessly heavy. Brian moves his blade up to the boar’s throat, then slides the blade along the boar’s torso using quick, gentle strokes. The guts spill forth without prompting, like they wanted to escape. They are a deep, dark red and look exactly like guts. They make a vacuum sound when they are pulled out, and they too are hung on a branch. If left on the ground a dog may roll in them later and fill

the earth with a horrid stench. Finally, the front right leg is tied to the back right leg, the front left leg tied to the back left leg, and the boar becomes a sort of backpack. Brian picks him up but I insist on carrying him down the hill. “The first boar I killed hooked me,” Brian says, “and now you are hooked.” His eyes are proud.

I hoist the load and feel his warm blood mixing with my warm sweat. My companion does not smell bad. He smells like Hawaiian bush and a stuffed animal. It is a nice smell. And I slip and slide all the way down the ridge feeling like a champion. Mike and JC wait at the bottom and Mike says, “Ho, look at this. Skinny jeans, Vans and a V-neck, and he is carrying the pig.” I feel like a stylish champion.

We walk back to the trucks talking about different pig hunting strategies and the one that got away. Apparently when we heard the brush move and the low grunt it had been a very large boar. But he was smart and tricked the dogs into following the tracks of the smaller one that we captured. JC looks at it and says, “Some days you get nothing at all, some days you get too many. I guess that is why it is called hunting and not catching.”

We drive to another valley, hoping for bigger boars, ones with tusks. The one we caught was too young to start developing them, but the tusks are the trophies. Each hunter keeps the meat. Nothing goes to waste and the meat is smoked, given to friends, barbequed, turned into dog food. But the tusks are the glory. We hike, listen, watch the dogs on GPS, find nothing but signs of rooting pigs, and after three hours part ways. And, Brian was right, I am hooked. I am no longer suicidal. Like the dogs, I am homicidal. Pig hunting is the new sport of kings, or at least, stylish champions.

THE MODERN MAN

The man's man

... has integrity DAN HORNER ... has heart BRUCE IRONS

... has a pal AMERICAN BULLY

... can cook

... does it himself 808 SPEED SHOP

... appreciates a good woman YVONNE MIDKIFF in Acacia Swimwear

IMAGE BY MARINA MILLER

… has heart

THE MATURATION OF BRUCE IRONS

TEXT BY JEFF MULL

IMAGE BY AARON VAN BOKHOVEN

They say that surfing’s lost its edge. That we’ve sold out our roots for a six-figure paycheck and a mortgage. They say we’ve lost our personality, traded in our rebellious, don’t-give-a-shit

attitude for a new please-and-thank-you demeanor complete with stock options. They say we’re different now.

But maybe it’s not that we’ve changed, it’s that we’ve matured. Just ask Bruce Irons.

Undoubtedly one of the sport’s most colorful characters, Bruce, who hails from Kaua‘i, has been a central part of surfing since he and his late brother Andy first came on the scene in the mid ’90s. A figurative curveball in the sport, both in the lineup and on land, you never knew what Bruce was going to throw at you, what he was going to do, or what he was going to say. Although his talent in the water is unquestionable – Bruce is a one-time

World Tour surfer and Eddie Aikau champ –on land he was regarded for his brash yet funloving personality. He was regarded as a man who, for better or worse, wore his heart on his sleeve and prided himself on his honesty. Not that he was out to unsettle the establishment or even provoke an issue, but in Bruce’s eyes, he was simply calling a spade a spade. His personality simply couldn’t stomach insincerity. It was what made him a character and so beloved by his peers and his fans.

“I’ve always tried to be honest and not sugarcoat things,” Bruce tells me. “That’s just the way we’re brought up on Kaua‘i. You have to be like that or people would call you on

it. You couldn’t really be sensitive or you’d get chewed up and spit out. But I think that maybe I have changed a bit as I’ve grown older. Maybe I’m a little bit wiser now that I have kids. I’m still me, I just know a little more now, I think.”

As Bruce alluded, he now has a daughter and son. And by his own account, while fatherhood hasn’t necessarily changed him, it has matured him. He’s still as candid as ever, and at his core remains the same Bruce, but through the births of his children, he’s added another element to his character. “They say that having kids will change you. Before I had mine, people would say that to me, and

I really wouldn’t think too much about it. But it’s one of those things you’ll never really know until it happens to you. You know the phrase ‘unconditional love?’ Well, it’s totally true. The moment you see your kids for the first time, you get it. You know that no matter what, you’re going to love them forever.”

Perhaps Bruce is emblematic of surfing’s current crossroads. We’re still a motley lot and haven’t forgotten our past. We’re just as daring and at times, erratic as ever. It’s not that we’ve necessarily changed, but like Bruce, we’ve matured.

…

maintains integrity

SOUND BITES W/ DON HORNER

CEO, First Hawaiian Bank Chairman, Board of Education Finance Committee Chair, Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transit

ON CORE VALUES:

Core values are what you do in the dark, the decisions you make when no one else is looking. They are the single most important aspect in the success of the business, should be established in advance, and communicated to the employees.

ON OVERDRAFTS:

Banks started changing the way they processed checks, starting with the highest debit first. This would cause accounts to overdraft quicker, and customers would be charged a fee for each debit thereafter. It wasn’t against the law and could make the bank millions of dollars. It was always FHB’s policy to process checks in sequential order, so we stuck to this. Eventually, banks that processed debits this way were fined by the FDIC.

ON CUSTOMER SERVICE:

You treat every customer the same. Everyone is special, but no one more special than the rest.

ON COMMUNICATION:

Communication starts with listening, then enacting.

ON ADVERSITY:

When you face adversity, you can choose to be bitter or choose to be better.

… has a pal

BEST FRIEND ’TIL THE END

An introduction to the life of an American Bully breeder

TEXT BY MARGOT SEETO

IMAGE BY JOHN HOOK

Having been a dog breeder since 1995, first with American Staffordshire terriers, then American bullies, former Akua Kennels owner Russell Chun doesn’t put money as his number one interest. While Chun had the keen sense to start breeding the American bully in Hawai‘i, where he foresaw a huge market, he never allowed the high demand for this kind of dog to turn into stretching the physical limits of the 40-plus American bullies he’s brought to Hawai‘i. He even made his customers sign contracts that give Akua Kennels the right to take back dogs if the new owners abuse them.

“As far as the females, we only breed them four times, and then we spay them and place

them in pet homes. … You just don’t want to abuse the dog. You just wanna get what they got for you and let them live a happy life when they’re done,” says Chun. And while each breeder has his or her own breeding methods, Chun chooses not to breed a female on her first heat, either. He explains, “They say one human year equals seven dog years. So can you imagine breeding a 12-year-old human? So we just let them mature a little bit more.”

The American bully is a 20-year-old breed that many in the dog world credit mainland breeder Dave Wilson with creating. Chun says American bullies are different from pit bulls by describing them as “more masculine and shorter, well-put together, well-mannered

… They got a good temperament behind them. I mean, these aren’t your guard dogs … He’s probably gonna lick the stranger more than guard.”

The gentle temperament of these dogs is a key difference in promoting acceptance of this breed, especially in light of the highly publicized pit bull attacks both locally and nationally within the past few years. Other desirable qualities of the American bully include the coloring some dogs have. The blue tri-color dogs are popular, along with any other exotic colors, such as lilac, lavender, sable and chocolate. Some owners intent on producing litters of particular colors and patterns send dogs’ blood work to the UC Davis Veterinary Genetics Laboratory for DNA typing.

American bullies can sell for anywhere from $2,000 to $20,000. The price can go even higher, depending how badly a potential owner wants a particular dog. Akua Kennels dogs are usually raised to be show-quality dogs, though pet owners are free to raise the dogs differently if young puppies are purchased. Akua Kennels is serious about breeding good dogs — so good that it bred the 2009 American Bully Kennel Club national champion, Lil Roc.

The future of Hawai‘i may hold more champion bull dogs, as the popularity in Hawai‘i is high. While Chun can’t explain the origins of this local popularity, he does say, “It’s big out there, and it ain’t gonna go anywhere. For Hawai‘i, every block, every house looks like they have a pit bull or terrier. I think it’ll probably be the state dog. … Everybody wants one.”

Editor’s Note: Though Chun has taken a break from breeding at the moment to tend to personal issues, his love for dogs remains, and he hopes to get back into breeding in the near future.

… can cook

Try

these recipes that utilize the freshest fish and other local ingredients, courtesy of Russell Chu, sous chef at

Roy’s Hawai‘i Kai. In no time at all, you’ll look and cook like a pro.

STEAMED STUFFED KONA KANPACHI

Take a cleaned, whole fresh fish (like this 1-1/4 lb Kona kanpachi flown in fresh from the Big Island), and score diagonally in each direction. Chef’s tip: To clean blood and guts, use a handful of bamboo skewers wrapped together with a rubber band and scrape under running water.)

Stuff with shimeji mushrooms, lup cheong, shredded ginger and Kaua‘i shrimp. Steam on medium heat, with Asian aromatics like cilantro, green onion and lemongrass, in a bamboo steamer for about 12-14 minutes. (Rule of thumb: For a 1 lb fish, steam on medium heat for about 12 minutes, adding 2 minutes for each additional 1/2 lb). Before serving, pour sizzling hot peanut oil over the entire fish.

DA BEST KINE POKE

Cut yellowfin tuna into bite-sized cubes and mix together with:

Kahuku ogo

Sea asparagus

A pinch of inamona

A pinch of alaea salt

Shoyu to taste

Garnish with chives.

TIPS FOR CUTTING SASHIMI WITH BRETT ANGEL, SUSHI CHEF

“Make sure your knife is sharpened, as a dull blade will crush or tear the fish. A yanagi knife, with its long and thin blade, is ideal for cutting sashimi. When you are ready to start cutting, start at the right side of the filet. If you were cutting fish for sushi, you would start at the left. When making your cut, start at the bottom of the blade and use the entire length of the blade. Make sure you are not pushing and cutting down as you would with Western-style knives, but rather pulling the blade in a long single motion.”

… does it himself

KUSTOM WITH A K

808 Speed Shop keeps an American tradition alive

TEXT BY MARGOT SEETO

IMAGE BY AARON VAN BOKHOVEN

In the tradition of rugged individuality and bucking convention, the link between skateboarding and punk rock to early- and mid20th century classic American cars might not seem strange. It wasn’t, at least, for 808 Speed Shop owner Marty Lau. He says that while a teenager, “When I was skateboarding and listening to punk rock, we’d take our skateboard decks and peel the design off the bottom, then just draw our own stuff. … Since I never could find anything I really liked and the stuff I did like I couldn’t afford, it made me start tweaking things until I thought it was cool or cooler than the original.”

Fast forward to adulthood. Now, Lau says of his do-it-yourself tendencies: “I think that whole mentality has stayed with me and has definitely carried over with the way I build cars. I’d rather start with the original design and make it flow than just go and buy something mass produced and bolt in. … It’s just the way I am, and it’ll probably never change.”

Staying as close as possible to a romantic period in American car history, Lau and his shop partner and mentor John Figueroa only work on pre-1965 American cars, both hot rods and “kustom builds.” The letter K denotes a type of customized car culture, not lowered Honda Civics on which the shop works, but rather

cars such as Lau’s personal Mercury chop-top, 1954 Chevy and Ford Model A.

Many of the tools and techniques 808 Speed Shop employs are of another time, as well. “We try and do everything like they did it back then. So we don’t have real fancy tools here. A lot of our metalwork is just pretty much by hand,” says Lau. He has a collection of 1950s car magazines to reference, and those copies become increasingly valuable as time moves forward. During the height of the hot rod and kustom days, builders on the mainland could simply visit a nearby junkyard to harvest or reference parts. Now, “It’s a constant search for parts. Thank god for eBay,” says Lau.

Among the many parts Lau has acquired for customers’ cars – “I keep buying junk,” he half-jokes – there is one piece Lau will keep. “It don’t look like much, but you can’t get this. This is an original batwing air cleaner for a dual quad ’56 Cadillac. I was about to cut into it. Luckily, John informed me how rare it is. I’m gonna keep this one forever. Put it on the wall somewhere.”

Lau’s love for cars, creativity and authenticity are clear in the way he thoughtfully presents answers to questions with a quiet but strong demeanor. With the white noise of welding in the shop and the bright sun beating down on the arched Quonset huts along the warehouseladen road, one can understand how Lau can get lost in a state of mind while working. There is a patience required to both work on and wait for these cars. This patience is a reminder of a time before instant gratification; a reminder that good things take time.

For more information, call 808-636-4564 or visit 808speedshop.com.

… appreciates a good woman

JUMPING

IN

TEXT BY LISA YAMADA

IMAGE BY JOHN HOOK

In 2008, while backpacking through Europe, Yvonne Midkiff became a canyoneer. “It was something I always wanted to do,” says the field engineer for Pankow Construction. “Basically the guides take you up a mountain, and you work your way down any way you can – rappelling, jumping off small cliffs, hooking on to a zipline. About three-quarters of the way down, I felt I had gotten over a fear. I realized I’m not going to break my neck!”

Midkiff’s fear was not unfounded. In 2003, she became paralyzed from the neck down after breaking her neck jumping off a waterfall at Maunawili Falls. “I never panicked, but I just had this oh-shit-that’s-it kind of feeling,” she recalls thinking moments before she was about to blackout underwater. “Like, lucky me, at least I had a good life. I’m dying under a waterfall in Hawai‘i, I love my family, they love me – it was the weirdest peace.” But fate had something different in mind for Midkiff, and she was pulled from the murky, cold-water pool.

Today, when she’s not in steel-toe boots on the construction job site, Midkiff is heavily involved with the Society of Women Engineers, planning galas to raise money for the Green Building Council, organizing engineering conferences, and mentoring younger girls at the junior high and collegiate level. “Whatever I do, I just want to feel like it’s benefiting the community in some way,” she says. “We’re all gifted with talents, and I feel you shouldn’t horde it all just to make money.”

This summer, Midkiff plans to take a leave of absence from her work to finish her thesis, the last step remaining to obtain her master’s degree in civil engineering. Her topic is controversial, to say the least. “I’m writing on Hawaiian burials, and I know I’m pretty much damned either way. I know I’m not from here,” says the Oklahoma-native, “but it’s such a unique facet of Hawai‘i and I wanted to bring an academic, bird’s-eye view guide for people in construction.” Midkiff may come under a wave of criticism, but as with anything, she won’t know until she jumps.

Swimsuit by Acacia and necklace by Sticks X Stones Jewelry.

They say that behind every great man, there stands a woman. The late Andy Irons was, undoubtedly, one of the greats. More than a year after her husband’s death, Lyndie Irons emerges as entrepreneur. Featured on Yvonne is Lyndie’s swimwear line Acacia, which she launched with friend and designer Naomi Newirth in 2010. Courageous in the face of heartache, Lyndie now stands, resoundingly, great. For more information, visit acaciaswimwear.com.

ABOUT ACACIA SWIMWEAR

The Justice Reinvestment Initiative was proposed as a way to help us identify where our dollars are best spent on treatment needs that will reduce the likelihood of inmates offending again once they’re released.

JUSTICE REINVESTMENT, JUSTICE REIMAGINED

T EXT BY SONNY GANADEN | MAGES BY AARON YOSHINO

A confluence of activism, smart government and morality are making major changes in the way we see incarceration. The faults of the previous three decades have left Hawai‘i, like most other states, burdened with massive jailing bills that have not made the community any safer. More than a decade into the 21st century, the winds in Hawai‘i have changed. The criminal justice system is responding to what works, and in doing so, becoming more humane.

In my first year of college, I had a sociology professor that told his uninterested class, “The success of a community can be measured by the inverse of its population in prison.” It was the sort of droned polemic a tenured professor repeats every semester. For me, it was just what I needed to hear at the time. In that period of ideology searching, I found solace in the sociologist’s skepticism of authority, and some comfort in the notion that there are folks out there asking the big questions about what’s wrong with normative culture.

Years later, I still think of that offhand quote. After spending nearly a decade becoming a lawyer – a cog in what can be a grinding, brutal, American justice machine – I realize that just asking the big questions can be a disheartening experience. A recent article in The New Yorker by Adam Gopnik noted, “Overall, there are now more people under ‘correctional supervision’ in America –more than six million – than were in the Gulag Archipelago under Stalin at its height.” With news like that, it can be tough to get to work in the morning.

There was no need to visit a jail in order to pep this article up. You probably already know about the current failures of Hawai‘i’s prison-industrial complex from the news: overcrowding in state and private prisons, inmates farmed out to the mainland, and whatever is the latest in senseless, continued

crime fueled by drug use. There was also no need to liven this article up with a graph, which would have been a simplification of the countless visuals made in the last several months by every governmental and nongovernmental entity. For once all the players are in agreement. The system is broken. It costs us too much in both human and economic terms. It must be altered to reflect life in the 21st century.

By the summer of 2011, long overdue systemic change was coming. In June, Governor Neil Abercrombie announced the Justice Reinvestment Initiative as a way to “help us identify where our dollars are best spent on treatment needs that will reduce the likelihood of inmates offending again once they’re released.” The verbose goal of the initiative was to “manage and allocate criminal justice populations more cost-effectively, generating savings that can be reinvested in evidencebased strategies that increase public safety while holding offenders accountable.”

The initiative brought all stakeholders to the table to collect and look at the numbers. It included the Department of Public Safety, the Office of the Attorney General, the Office of the Governor, and the Council of State Governments Justice Center. Bringing this nationwide movement of reassessment was, in part, due to the tireless work of Kat Brady, head of the local non-profit Community Alliance on Prisons. The resulting findings have led to half a dozen proposed initiatives for the 2012 legislative session and a copious amount of testimony. It also resulted in immediate action by the governor, including the return of nearly 1,800 prisoners currently incarcerated out of state. That these changes are happening is not shocking. What is shocking is how long this change has taken.

IT’S THE SYSTEM, MAN

Incarceration rates in America have been steadily on the rise. Whereas the plots of

the original Hawaii 5-0 series were ripped straight from the headlines, the newer version is almost pure fiction. The vast majority of individuals incarcerated today, many of them under 25, are in for minor drug offenses. Stack those offenses up, and what was considered a way to prevent youths from a lifetime of drug abuse, is now a lifetime with a record and the dashed chance at a normal life out of the system.

The only thing the continuing war on drugs has done is broken the bank. A study by the Pew Center on the States noted that between 1987 and 2007, the amount that states spent on corrections increased dramatically. The study also found that as a result of newer, tougher drug laws, corrections budgets nationwide rose by 127 percent, while higher education funding increased by only 21 percent, barely keeping up with inflation. The United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population, but it houses nearly a quarter of its prisoners.

Hawai‘i’s incarceration rate is higher than the rates of any modern nation: seven times higher than the rate in Japan, six times higher than in Sweden, three times higher than in England, and twice as high as the rates in Mexico and Saudi Arabia. Since 2000, state spending on incarceration has increased 75 percent, from $128 million to over $225 million. During the same time, the money spent to send inmates to private prisons increased by 192 percent, from $20 million to $58.4 million, and Hawai‘i’s prison population increased at a faster pace than the national average at 2.4 percent compared to 2 percent.

Hawai‘i is unique among the states in its reliance on out-of-state incarceration facilities. Starting in 1996, under democratic Governor Ben Cayetano, Hawai‘i began to transfer the jailing, housing, traveling and processing of our prisoners to corporate entities, with little oversight. During her tenure as governor, Linda Lingle went one step further. According to Brady, Lingle gradually fired all of the researchers and public

safety planners on her administration’s payroll, effectively silencing any internal dialogue about the wisdom or morality of the decision to increase contracts with jailing corporations. With no actual data to harvest and discuss, there was no reason to fuss over an ideology of privatization.

ADD IT UP

When the State of Hawai‘i actually looked at the numbers, even the most stalwart critics of change were awed. At 54 percent, Hawai‘i has the highest rate of prisoners incarcerated in private, out-of-state prisons. The majority of those prisoners are housed in two locations in Arizona, both run by the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). “We currently have, give or take, 1,738 prisoners in those prisons, down from the 2,400 that the Lingle administration sent throughout the last decade,” Kat Brady explains. (The “give or take” attempts to account for the 20 or so inmates requiring protective custody that are on “interstate compacts,” meaning they have been traded for other prisoners from other states needing similar protections.) Recent analyses also found that Hawai‘i’s pre-trial process is one of the longest in the nation. Whereas it takes just days or a few weeks in other jurisdictions, dudes locked up awaiting trial in Hawai‘i wait several months on average.

The most disturbing findings of the state’s initiative had to do with the unholy union of private, for-profit business and state incarceration. It’s an industry built upon the perpetuation of human misery. Companies like CCA have an economic interest in keeping prisoners locked up and off parole, paying their guards as little as possible, and lobbying for stiffer sentencing guidelines. The State of Hawai‘i is one of their biggest customers. Under the guise of eliminating governmental waste and creating jobs (that are in Nevada), Hawai‘i and several other states signed alarming contracts with CCA under pressure from lobbyists. “These guards are there to make the corporation money, not to keep people

safe or uphold the law,” says Brady, fuming. “They’ll often rile a guy up right before his parole hearing, which is done remotely over a TV screen, setting him up to be denied and keeping him under lock and key.”

The Justice Reinvestment Initiative came back with proposals that could save the state millions while keeping us just as safe. Its first order was to phase out the failed, out-ofstate jailing programs. This plan, announced in early 2012, requires a revamping of state law, including modifications that slowly integrate prisoners into programs, rather than maxing out their sentencing terms in prison. It also ends the mandatory incarceration for a second felony on a drug-related charge. Research shows that relapse is a part of recovery. Low-risk addicts tend to blow it after their first felony and end up getting dinged by mandatory sentencing, crowding the system.

With the proposed initiatives, the state could save a staggering amount: $9 million by 2013, $19 million by 2014, and more than $26 million by 2015.

THE POLITICS OF MISERY

The train wreck of the American jailing system is hot in academia. In The Collapse of American Criminal Justice, Harvard law professor William Stuntz outlines, from the founding fathers and the enlightenment that influenced them, the strange road that has led America to lead the Western world in its percentage of incarcerated citizens, from the growth of drug laws that punished minor offenses with major prison time to “zero tolerance” policing and mandatory sentencing guidelines. All of these incrementally negative policy decisions have been based in what he sees as the cultural root of the problem: the Bill of Rights.

According to Stuntz, it is not that the Bill of Rights is a terrible document, but rather that it is a terrible place to start a justice system. With its emphasis on process and procedure instead of moral principles, it set up

Hawai‘i’s incarceration rate is higher than the rates of any modern nation: seven times higher than the rate in Japan, six times higher than in Sweden, and twice as high as the rates in Mexico and Saudi Arabia.

It is this dual obsession with due process and the cult of brutal prisons that has created an inherently impersonal system that removes criminals from communities, the places they will eventually return to after being locked up.

a system where the accused get laboriously articulated protections against procedural errors and little protection against outrageous violations of simple justice. America is the land where you can get off on murder for a botched investigation, or locked up for life despite a mountain of evidence showing you weren’t guilty in the first place. It is this dual obsession with due process and the cult of brutal prisons, Stuntz argues, that has created an inherently impersonal system that removes criminals from communities, the places they will eventually return to after being locked up. Historically, modifying this broken system has been the third rail of American politics. Voters have not traditionally opted for candidates that rationally tell them their communities may be getting safer simply because the world is becoming more humane. To even attempt that sort of discussion opens a prospective official at any level to simplistic and easy attacks and can quickly lead to the dreaded label of being “soft on crime.” Ideas like letting worthy men and women out of jail and into the community, or instituting cheap programs that offer incentives and education rather than continued trauma, have been put forward by folks like Kat Brady for decades. These solutions, however, are rarely capable of being whittled down to election-year sound bytes. After years of research, it turns out that the way to make a safer community is convoluted, debatable and multifold. No simple fix like building giant walls, having roving police blockades, or in Hawai‘i, sending helicopters to eradicate marijuana farms, has been a magical panacea. Rather, it’s been the slow, chipping away at criminal enterprise, the education of communities, and countless, irritating, small barriers to crime that have made crime at all levels seem less worthwhile.

The nascent justice reinvestment move-

ment is an attempt to sidestep the problem of electoral politics with raw numbers. And it started in Texas, where something almost resembling rationality began to take hold. In popular imagination, Texas prisons are the site of death rows filled with doomed teenagers and the chain-gang living hell depicted in Cool Hand Luke. In a vast place known for that most peculiar American mix of individual freedom and state jailing, some Texans noticed that the state was going broke upholding its own terrifying stigma. Starting with an initiative in 2006 by the influential, national non-profit the Council on State Governments, Texas reduced its cost on jails by $443 million dollars in 2007 by enacting simple initiatives to release non-violent prisoners, clear up its non-governmental contracts, and change the terms of probation for the majority of inmates. Texas saw no rise in crime in the following years. Without touching the obvious morality of freeing men who deserve to be free, other states took notice just for the opportunity to save a buck.

JUSTICE, IN THE NEW, OLD-FASHIONED WAY

Local reformers to the current system need look no further than local history. Open every day except for weekends and state holidays, the King Kamehameha V Judicial History Center, located at the ground floor of the Hawai‘i’s Supreme Court, is open for self-guided tours of the judicial system in Hawai‘i. Most kama‘aina kids take the tour at some point in elementary school, with the state-issued buttons and pogs to prove it. Besides being an obligatory field trip destination, the center is also a resource that links the present to our surprising past of fairness to the condemned.

On a tour of the Judicial Center, we can

see that there are alternatives to the current lock-’em-up system. Of course, history also shows us that pre-contact Hawai‘i was far from humane. It was, as was most places in the world prior to the enlightenment, characterized by brutality and state-sanctioned murder. With the mixed impression of American common law on a traumatized Hawaiian people, the rule of law changed to reflect a uniquely mixed experience. Those living under the monarchy enjoyed a judicial system that made just as much sense (or more) than the present one practiced on the islands, including a jury and sentencing system that was far more equitable than what was going down in bloody America at the time.

Though the justice system has certainly become more complicated, that does not mean it has become more fair. Current inhabitants to these islands have the unfortunate distinction of having the highest population of its citizenry incarcerated. Part of the problem with fixing the justice system in this state and in others has been a failure of imagination. For reformers, facing such a large, seemingly immobile cultural structure has not been an easy exercise, like pushing through the surf zone of an inconsiderate and overwhelming ocean. Make no mistake, the justice reinvestment movement is the largest alteration to the way Hawai‘i treats its criminals since statehood. For the first time in decades, we may be headed towards a system of rationality. The political decision to treat prisoners like opala to be shipped off shore has been a costly mistake, the ramifications of which are only now being examined. That local citizens let it happen is our collective fault. But like getting past a giant set, the only way to attack dehumanizing injustice is to face it squarely. We will reach calmer seas together, with the saving graces of compassion and common sense.

MAGICAL (AND PIXELATED ) REALISM

T EXT BY RYAN SENAGA | MAGES BY SHAWN ANDREWS

True Confession: All of my time these days is being sucked up by Zuma Blitz. It’s this online game on Facebook. The premise is that you’re a frog in this golden temple, possibly South American in origin, and you have one minute to shoot colored balls out of your mouth at correspondingly colored balls that are conveyorbelt-ing around the screen. Match the colored balls and they disappear. Sometimes you gain powers and you spit fireballs at the spheres, causing them all to blow up.

Not the most complex thing to waste a life on, no? But perhaps the larger question is: Why have I been playing this stupid game non-stop for the past two weeks when there are obviously a ton of more popular, sophisticated and cooler choices out there?

Because shit’s gotten beyond 8-bit, yo.

Just recently, Mass Effect 3 (whose controversial ending has spawned legions of fans to petition the producers for a new, more satisfying conclusion to their trilogy) is sweeping the game systems. Nintendo’s Kid Icarus: Uprising has you battling Medusa and Hades, when you’re not busy battling the complex control scheme on the Nintendo 3DS. Then there’s also a beautiful new PS3 game, Journey, where you’re a monk-like figure travelling the desert following a mysterious light. It’s the most breathtakingly designed, existential, Zen and even Buddhist experience ever created in a video game before.

Recently, a human rights organization asked the United Nations to label Dante’s Divine Comedy as “homophobic, Islamophobic and Anti-Semitic.” The result, they hope, would be that it is either removed from school syllabuses or at the very least, taught with caution to youngsters. It’s their belief that students at that age don’t have the necessary “filters” to comprehend the material in context. One wonders what they would make of the 2010 video game Dante’s Inferno. In that one, you portray Dante. Not the Dante though, but instead, a warrior Dante bent on avenging the death of his wife by journeying into Hades to save her soul. Though the

“Death Edition” of Dante’s Inferno included a digital download of the classic poem that inspired it, those looking for a literature class crash course won’t find it here.

Other times, video games let us step into real-life combat boots, from the safety of home – a new definition of the frontlines, if you will. In the first person shooting Call of Duty series, not only do we get to use the weapons tech and attack procedures that are very much based on real-life Army and Navy SEAL operations, we get a chance to “win,” just like real-life soldiers. Though one seriously doubts large percentages of CoD players enlisted after a few heated weeks in multiplayer.

Eventually the lines between reality and the virtual game world do become increasingly blurred. Actual friendships get made while raiding together across Ethernet cable lines in World of Warcraft. That faceless companion casting healing spells off to the side becomes a genuine buddy, thus, whole days are lost sitting at the mouse and keyboard. WoW has even become a place for love, where strangers rendezvous for a “date” in Azeroth, and it’s not uncommon for real-life weddings to take place in that cyber world.

But why instead do I spend all day and night at my desktop computer playing with my balls in, of all things, Zuma Blitz? Not like I’m alone in gaming simplicity here, especially in the Age of the Smart Phone. Hello? Angry Birds Space? Bejeweled? Hanging with Friends? Draw Something? Middle-aged mothers across the nation are buckling down for intense reaping sessions of FarmVille.

Perhaps we have hit a sort of saturation point with video games. Technology has afforded us titles that might be too much like the world outside our Makiki apartment window. The portable Nintendo 3DS and the PS Vita allow you to take snapshots of your environment and incorporate them into a particular game. Then there’s the motion sensor Kinect for the Xbox 360. Though it is still in its infant stages in terms

of actual development of usage beyond gimmick, one doesn’t even need a controller to interact with the game. It’s the world of Minority Report come true.

Maybe we want to go back to simpler times – not of herding or pre-WiFi – but of Tetris and Mario Kart. Games that don’t try to sneak into your real life, only allow you to score high points and zero ladies. That’s something for me to ponder. But first, I’m gonna bust a few balls in … you guessed it Zuma Blitz

A BRIEF HISTORY OF GAMING TECHNOLOGY FROM 1975 – PRESENT

Pong: Originally sold by Sears in 1975, this was essentially the first home console video game system. It was basically two dials hooked to your TV. Onscreen, you controlled a vertical line, your opponent controlled the other, and you both bounced a ball horizontally back and forth until one of you missed. In black and white at the time, it was a hypnotic revelation.

Atari: In 1977, the Atari 2600 revolutionized home gaming. With the introduction of cartridges, you could play more than one game. In addition to such classics as Yars’ Revenge and Pitfall, it also brought home arcade-style video game favorites, like …

Space Invaders: The age of the arcade and quarter pumping was born with this Taito star shooter in 1978. Again, the concept was simple. Aliens are invading. Row by descending row, your starship shot them before they either shot you or you finished the level.

Pac-Man: The concept was ridiculous: a yellow circle goes around a maze chomping dots while being pursued by ghosts. The sequel, Ms. Pac-Man (1981), was more of the same, but what happened here was something that no game before it provided:

a story. In between scarfing down power pellets and escaping colorful ghosts, the gamer learned how Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man met, fell in love, and eventually procreated.

NES: Nintendo revolutionized the cartridge console with the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1983, and 8-bit color graphics changed everything we would want from video games. It took the concept that first started with Pac-Man and gave us trademarked characters to love, like Mario and Donkey Kong, as well as Zelda, which introduced a complexity in storytelling that would continue to this day and become the expected norm. The only problem came when dust lodged in the cartridges, causing generations to blow into them to clear out the readers.

Game Boy: After various upgrades of its console, Nintendo decided to go portable with the Game Boy in 1989. Through the magic of battery power, you no longer needed a television to guide Mario to collect coins. Parents were ignored in entirely new ways and the concept of pulling something out of your pocket to pass the time was born.

PlayStation: Sony’s 1994 game station introduced a crisper, more realistic upgrade in graphics and sounds (which Nintendo still hasn’t quite caught up with). In addition to adult-themed content previously only available on PC/MAC games, the controllers were more complex, with additional buttons, a cross-pad and “shock movement.” Further, some games required memory cards for extra storage, and cartridges became a thing of the past – everything now ran on CDs.

Xbox Live: Microsoft’s Xbox ranked third in popularity behind PlayStation and Nintendo’s GameCube, but it had a secret weapon. Xbox Live launched in 2002, but it wasn’t until 2005, with the company’s second console, the Xbox 360, that the online gaming service truly came alive. In addition to its addicting, online multi-player options, the notion of downloading games to your hard drive became the norm.

Wii: In 2006, Nintendo introduced motion control. With two controllers, endearingly nicknamed “nunchuks,” arm and hand movements now controlled how Mario jumped, what Zelda inspected or where Jill aimed in Resident Evil. Even though true gamers think

of the Wii as a gimmick, Sony followed suit with the Move controller, and four years later, Microsoft did one better, eliminating the need for a controller altogether.

iPhone: Steve Jobs changed the way we talk (and don’t talk) to each other in 2007 with the iPhone. Practically everyone with an iPhone kills time with Doodlejump, Scrabble, Fruit Ninja and a host of other gaming apps. Part of the popularity is how easy these things are to download to your portables; and they're cheap too, with most games at $1.99 or even free. In one fell swoop the iPhone has put a crimp in the sales of portable gaming systems made by the bigger players. The sales numbers of Sony’s PS Vita and Nintendo’s 3DS, which both allow the user to see 3D images without goggles, have been underwhelming at best.

Kinect: Using a mounted camera with a high-tech sensor, the Kinect for Xbox 360 (2010) actually tracks the user’s body movements, essentially making the user the controller. In Michael Jackson: The Experience, it’s up to you to get the moonwalking right. There are even voice commands, which, once perfected, will take gaming to the next level.

TOWARDS THE FINAL FRONTIER A Q&A WITH GAME INDUSTRY GURU PETER ALAU

Former vice president of the game development company Digital Extremes, Peter Alau, believes that “we are just beginning to explore how we can overlay our real world with the gameplay of our virtual worlds.” Alau, a Kamehameha Schools graduate, has also worked at IGN and its affiliate GameSpy, tweaking the online gameplay for such blockbuster titles like Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption. “The changes in technology are only stepping stones to the next gameplay experience that compels us to connect with the game and each other,” Alau says. He recently took some time out with FLUX to discuss the world of gaming and more significantly, its future.

How did you get into the gaming industry? In 1992, I answered an ad for general help with a small company called Maxis that just released its first big hit – SimCity. From there, I spent years working with some of the best talent in the industry: Will Wright, Alexey

Pajitnov, Henk Rogers, Sony, Sony Online, Linden Lab, EA Games, IGN/Gamespy and most recently, Digital Extremes.

The Kinect, the Wii U and even the iPhone and iPad are breaking the traditional mold of using a controller when playing games. How do you feel about these new technologies in gaming? This is only going to get better. Valve has hinted toward a wearable computer, Google has announced their alternate reality glasses. You can bet that there are at least 10 other companies investing heavily in technologies that will expand our worldview as to what games are. We have solved, or almost finished solving, the problems of wireless data, short battery life, power, memory and display technologies. The world is completely connected, and we are only beginning to understand what kinds of data have meaning to players beyond scores and rankings. But as far as technology has come in the states, we’re nowhere near where Finland, Norway, Japan, Singapore or South Korea are. These are places where 100-megabyte connections are common, expected and everywhere. And here, they cost over $120 a month.

What’s the next big thing?

Why isn’t everyone in the world playing World of Warcraft? It’s not a game that appeals to everybody, but eventually there will be one that does, one that absolutely everyone who has the capability of playing will play. We’re still looking for that, but that’s a huge step forward from years ago when we were asking ourselves, “How do we make a compelling story that emotionally involves us?”

Tupac’s hologram performance at this year’s Coachella – what are its implications for gaming? Love it. First time something like that has been done. There’s a certain group that says that it’s offensive, but technology like this is not just going to disappear. It’s what we’re completely striving for. The Star Trek holodeck has always been the Holy Grail of gaming, and every step we make towards the holodeck should be something to be praised. But there are not very many implications at all for gaming. Might it be the kind of thing turned into a game eventually? Maybe? There’s no interactivity there. It’s essentially watching a film projected into a foggy cloud.

BOAR

ANA

DA HUNT

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOHN HOOK

STYLED BY A + A

MAKEUP BY: DULCE FELIPE & ROYAL SILVER , TIMELESS CLASSIC BEAUTY

HAIR BY:

DAVEY PANED, RYAN JACOBIE

ASHLEY MURAKAMI

CHRISTIE RICKARD

MODELS:

BRENT BIELMANN , NICHE MODELS AND TALENT

CHRISTIAN COOK

ANA KAI , NICHE MODELS AND TALENT

ALYSON KINTSCHER

IKAIKA AKANA

DIGITAL ILLUSTRATION BY: JESSICA HOOK

BEAR : Shirt, Publish, KICK/HI. Pants, J.Crew. Bowtie and suspenders, Barrio Vintage. Oxfords, model’s own.

: Tie-dye T-shirt, HI X OZ Dye, In4mation.

: Blouse and skinny belt, J.Crew. Beige dress, Carven, Aloha Rag. Earrings,gloves and necklace, Mish Mash.

ALYSON: Red button-up top, Barrio. Turquoise bubble necklace, J.Crew. Earrings and gloves, Mish Mash. Multi print dress, Opening Ceremony.

WOLF: Sweater, chambray shirt and shorts, J.Crew.

ANA: Top, Jams World, Mish Mash. Tie-dye denim shorts, Jaq Attaq Denim.Neon skinny belt, J.Crew. Bangles and earrings, Mish Mash. Yellow ankle socks and floral wedge platforms, stylist’s own.

ALYSON: Stripe shirt and chain necklace, J.Crew. Leopard print pants, Phillip Lim, Aloha Rag. Earrings, Mish Mash. Brown platforms, stylist’s own.

‘AMAKIHI: Camouflage shirt, Stussy, The Human Imagination. White “Strummer” T-shirt, In4mation, The Human Imagination. Yellow shorts, J.Crew. Red windbreaker messenger bag, Herschel, The Human Imagination. American flag shoes, Vans, KICKS/HI.

‘I‘IWI: “Island Style” shirt, Stussy, The Human Imagination. White “Head Quarters” T-shirt, KICKS/HI. Orange plaid shorts, Stussy, KICKS/ HI. Convertible laptop bag, Herschel, The Human Imagination. Chukka Del Barco shoes, Vans, KICKS/HI.

ANA: Ombre shirt, Alexander Wang, Aloha Rag. Multicolor pants, Phillip Lim, Aloha Rag. Multicolor leaf necklace, Barrio. Bangles and earrings, Mish Mash. Green purse, J.Crew. Floral wedge platforms, stylist's own.

BEAR : Black polka dot shirt, Stussy, The Human Imagination. Bowtie, Barrio Vintage. Orange shorts, J.Crew. Oxfords, model’s own.

ANA: Mint white chiffon shirt and blue cardigan, Aloha Rag, Aloha Rag. Yellow shorts, Barrio Vintage. Necklace and earrings, Mish Mash. Red python bag, Proenza Schouler, Aloha Rag. Yellow ankle socks and floral wedge platforms, stylist’s own.

WOLF: T-shirt, Black Scale, KICKS/HI. White polka dot shirt, Stussy, KICKS/HI. Blue shorts, J.Crew. Oxfords, model’s own

ALYSON: Yellow racer-back tank, Alexander Wang, Aloha Rag. Tribal pant, Barrio Vintage. Necklace, earrings and bangles, Mish Mash. Wolf necklace, Sticks X Stones Jewelry. Bracelets, J.Crew.

DECONSTRUCTING Honolulu Furniture Company’s

Honolulu Chair

TEXT BY ERIKA FORBERG | IMAGES BY GEOFF MAU

CRAFTSMEN DOUG GORDON AND THORBEN WUTTKE WERE ALWAYS SLAVES TO WOOD CRAFTING, SO IT ONLY MADE SENSE FOR THE TWO TO JOIN FORCES TO START HONOLULU FURNITURE COMPANY.

Though Gordon has a degree in architecture, he mastered the art of woodworking in Virginia before relocating to Hawai‘i, where he became the vice president of furniture production at Martin and MacArthur. Similarly, Wuttke, after an apprenticeship in woodworking in Germany, found himself on O‘ahu launching his own company Forward Thinking Furniture, which focuses on green building principles to create simplistic, sustainable furniture. Today, their joint venture is a hub for transforming wood. Focused on precision and sustainability, handcrafted custom and classic pieces are made for a wide array of households and businesses.

TIMBER: HFC will never cut down a tree to build furniture. Once a tree is felled, the island sawmills cut and kiln-dry the trees, preserving usability and aesthetic appeal.

WOOD: With koa wood progressively less sustainable, HFC decisively transitioned to the use of wood from the monkeypod tree, the most available and sustainable wood source around.

DURABILITY: Monkeypod is a stunning, dimensionally stable hardwood that has the added natural benefit of being more resistant to termites than koa.

SOURCE: Local materials are sourced from O‘ahu to support the local economy and reduce carbon impact.

Honolulu Furniture Company is located at 537 Cummins St. For more information, call 808-597-9193 or visit honolulufurniturecompany.com.

SELECTS

BY CHRIS KAM & BLAISE SATO

Today in men’s footwear, there aren’t such clear-cut lines between high fashion and the streets. SNEAKERS ARE NO LONGER LIMITED STRICTLY TO CASUAL OCCASIONS, NOR DRESS SHOES FOR FORMAL OCCASIONS.

These days, it’s not uncommon for men to wear dress shoes with denim or shorts or sneakers with chinos or suits. Bergdorf Goodman now carries the Japanese ultra-street-chic brand Visvim, which established itself initially in the sneaker boutique world; Converse First String has produced a series of Chuck Taylor shoes in collaboration with Italian fashion house

Missoni; the Nike Jordan 11 was inspired by tuxedo patent leather shoes – all further blurring the definitions of casual versus dress shoes. Converse Chuck Taylors, or “Chucks” as they are affectionately known, were developed nearly 100 years ago as a basketball specific shoe. Today, because of Converse’s ongoing collections with John Varvatos, they are known in the high fashion world by rappers, rock stars and artists the world over. The KICKS/HI Tiger Camo Chuck Taylor Hi Premium shown here was hailed by numerous blogs and industry luminaries as one of the best shoes of 2011. The Leather Soul x Self Edge Boot by Alden draws inspiration from the Chuck Taylor rubber toe cap, which utilizes a faux toe cap that provides the look of a true cap toe but without using extra leather to do so – two components on opposite ends of the spectrum functioning together in the

name of style.

Wingtip Oxford dress shoes have been a staple of the well-dressed gentleman since the first three-piece suit. It is synonymous with bespoke custom tailoring and high quality materials. The Leather Soul Navy Suede Shortwings by Alden is a great example of classic wingtip oxford styling. The fly guy’s blue suede shoe, the Shortwings are built on Alden’s oiled, double waterlock leather sole, which will keep the feet happy while providing extra durability. Cole Haan has taken this classic wingtip silhouette and shot it into outer space by utilizing parent company Nike’s ultra comfortable Lunar technology as the outsole. The LunarGrand Wingtip is a revolution in shoes nobody saw coming. Somehow, the running hybrid dress shoe model really works well without completely disregarding its inherent DNA.

SHOES:

KICKS/HI Converse First String Chuck Taylor Hi Premium Tiger Camo, from KICKS/HI.

Leather Soul x Self Edge Boot by Alden, from Leather Soul.

Cole Haan Lunargrand Wingtip, from KICKS/HI.

Leather Soul Navy Suede Shortwings by Alden, from Leather Soul.

THE BUTCHER

Whole Ox Deli TEXT BY CATHERINE E. TOTH | IMAGES BY AARON YOSHINO

It’s been open for weeks now, and there are still lines pouring out of The Whole Ox Deli in Kaka‘ako and wrapping around the block. Many of the folks making up the lines are already return customers, lured back by the selection of high-quality local meats and the old-world-style food cookery for which chef/owner Bob McGee has become known.

“I just cook food,” says McGee, formerly of the kitchens of Apartment3 and Plancha Honolulu. “I like meat, so the fact that we don’t have a lot of easily available local meat here … I had the power to do something about it by owning a restaurant that would make a difference. I’m just that niche.”

McGee used fundraising site IndieGOGO to collect $11,200 to open the restaurant in the space vacated by the old Blue Ocean Thai Restaurant on Keawe Street. It’s the only deli featuring local meats procured from farms and ranches across the state.

And these meats are truly the showstoppers here. The dry-aged burger is made from full-front chuck, still on the bone, from An-

drade Ranch on Kaua‘i. It’s aged for two weeks before arriving at the deli, then aged for another two before the meat is taken off the bone and ground twice, the last time just before lunch. And the pastrami — good luck. The deli sells out immediately and the wait can be up to 10 days.

But if you’re lucky enough to, one, get a seat during lunch, and two, be there when there’s pastrami, you can’t miss the meaty K+Z sandwich, made up of pastrami, chicken liver, Dijon and onions.

“We’re really proud of the food we’re putting out,” McGee says. It’s only open for breakfast and lunch — and reservations are a no-go — but dinner service and catering are coming soon. “We love what we’re doing,” he says, “but we do have bigger aspirations.”

Find The Whole Ox Deli at 327 Keawe St. Hours: 7–11 a.m. for breakfast; 11 a.m.–3 p.m. for lunch. For more information, call 808699-6328 or visit wholeoxdeli.com.

Can you spot the difference? Yuzu’s specialty temari sampler featuring all-vegetable sushi alongside ahi, uni and unagi.

IN The KITcheN w ITh...

Isamu and Moco Kubota, Yuzu

T EXT BY LISA YAMADA | IMAGES BY J OHN H OOK AND GEOFF MAU

The tang of the citrus fruit yuzu is all at once sour, peppery and bitter, submitting taste buds to a whirl of contrasting flavors. Like its namesake, the recently opened Yuzu is bringing a vibrant new energy to the age-old Ala Moana Hotel. The brainchild of husband and wife duo Isamu and Moco Kubota, Yuzu causes eaters to “ooh” and “ahhh” over each dish that’s brought to the table, from the “so cute” temari ball-shaped sushi to the gooey, cheese-filled lotus root pizza, which melds perfectly with the yuzu hot sauce.

Isamu and Moco are passionate about food, and it shows. They are veterans of the restaurant industry, also responsible for the ultra-chic Kaiwa in Waikīkī, the izakaya and sushi spot Kai on Maui, and Yakitori Yoshi, located in the space that once occupied Hale Macrobiotic (also theirs). Isamu opened his first restaurant in Japan 23 years ago, a teppanyaki joint in Tokyo. From there, he expanded to an Italian restaurant and a Belgian beer bar – enterprising ventures for a curious Japanese audience.

“I think he likes a new project,” says

Moco about her husband. “He always want to try the new concept, new menu. Always when I open the new restaurant, I am so headache,” declares the Tokyo native, only half-jokingly. Understandable, since Moco is responsible for much, if not all, of the menu creation of the new restaurants – and most of the cooking at Yuzu.

Though Moco studied macrobiotics, it was her mother that taught both her and her husband to cook. “Not professional, just home cooking,” she says of her training. “My mom can make everything, home -

made croquette, stir-fry, salad, tempura. She would call me and ask, ‘Is that OK?’ And I would tell her, ‘Maybe add something more of this or that.’”

Despite her mother’s influence, the inspiration for Yuzu remains: “Not your grandmother’s cuisine.” Moco explains: “I think every local person has an image of their mother’s food being little bit boring, teishoku-style with rice, miso soup, tsukemono, teriyaki chicken or hamburger. So look like the image in everyone’s mind.”

The food at Yuzu is, quite literally, out of the box, particularly the sushi. Though traditionally, sushi rice is made with rice vinegar and sugar, Moco uses yuzu vinegar and cane sugar, resulting in a unique flavor that adds to the restaurant’s whimsical delightfulness. And while the ball-shaped sushi may seem an odd choice for Japanese

sushi, it is a technique that’s used in Kyoto, where Moco was born.

Unwitting diners may be in for a surprise when they find the temari sushi they thought was uni (sea urchin) is actually carrot. The all-vegetable temari sampler is inspired by Moco’s macrobiotic studies, but carnivores can be assured in Moco’s motto for macro: “Not perfect is OK. If I am vegetarian, I can only eat vegetable. Vegan is too strict. But macrobiotic way, everything is okay. It’s more organic, so sometimes we can eat beef and chicken, but only if I want to eat those.”

Yuzu is located on the ground floor of Ala Moana Hotel, 410 Atkinson Dr. For more information, visit yuzuhawaii.com

ROPPONGI

GIMLET

1 1/4 oz of Beefeater 24

3/4 oz of Midori

1/2+ oz fresh lime sour

1 1/2+ oz of aloe juice

3 cucumber rounds + 1 round for muddling

Pre-chill martini glass with ice and water. Completely muddle the cucumber with three ice cubes in mixing glass. Add aloe juice, lime sour, liquors and ice, and then pour into shaker. Empty ice water from chilled martini glass. Shake drink vigorously, and strain into martini glass. Float three thin cucumbers wheel for garnish on top.

OPEN MARKET

II GALLERY

ii gallery, a 700 sq. ft. pop-up creative space in urban Kaka‘ako, features Maoli artists exploring indigenous, international perspectives in contemporary and experimental works. Visit them at 687 Auahi St., next to R&D. Or call 808.492.2772. Aloha nō.

UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS:

[Apr 13 - May 18, Drew Broderick, Paradise what]

[June 8 - July 8, Pat Pine & charlie Dickson, recent works]

[Aug 17 - Sept 16, Kala Kim, Sculpture]

[Nov 9 - Dec 2, harinani Orme, Myths, Legends & Altars

[Jan 11 - feb 8, Maile Andrade, recent works]

ALLURE

Hair Studio & Day Spa

An oasis of relaxation, Allure Hair Studio & Day Spa is conveniently located in beautiful Mānoa Valley, not far from Waikīkī and Honolulu. Whether you get a creative haircut and color, a Kerastase treatment, or a customized Aveda facial, Maja and her team of stylists take joy and pride in their work and services. Besides an expert salon, they are also a full-service day spa, featuring Aveda Chakra and Hawaiian lomi lomi massages. The well-trained staff provides each client with a personal consultation before treatment. Relax and experience the spirit of Mānoa!

Allure is located at 2801 East Mānoa Rd. Parking is in front. For reservations, call 808-988-3350 Tuesday through Sunday – evening appointments possible. See the full menu of services at allurehawaii.com.

OPEN MARKET

SHORING UP WAIKIKI’S SEAFOOD SCENE

Sitting in the breezy, openair veranda at Shor American Seafood Grill in the Hyatt Regency Waikiki Beach Resort and Spa, the faint waft of the salty sea stimulates the senses. The scent, however, is not drifting in from the gleaming Pacific just yards away, but from the immense seafood tower from Shor's "Shuck 'Em" bar recently brought to the table. Overflowing with seafood, the tower features fresh oysters on the half shell; baby Kona abalone served on the shell or baked in garlic herb kukui nut butter; meaty Alaskan King crab legs served chilled or steamed; succulent, farm-raised Kaua‘i shrimp served with the head

on either poached or grilled; and a trio of island-style poke with ogo, green onions and inamona. Serving the freshest catch on Waikīkī Beach, Shor has become known for their exceptional sustainable fish and shellfish, but has something for the land-lover too with flavorful and tender cuts of meat.

Shor American Seafood Grill is located in the Hyatt Regency Waikiki Beach Resort and Spa, on the 3rd floor of the Diamond Head Tower. For reservations, 808-923-1234 or visit shorgrill.com.

Makani k ai Helicopters

Most locals see helicopters every day and don’t think twice about taking a tour of O‘ahu. After all, if you’ve lived here all your life, what’s there to see? Plenty, it turns out. There are a number of magnificent views that you just can’t see from the ground. When you fly, go with the company that has more local history and experience on this island than all the other helicopter companies combined. Makani Kai Helicopters

has been flying these skies for 25 years and has earned its reputation as O‘ahu’s number one best tour. There are three tours to choose from, as well as kama‘aina rates available.

Makani Kai Helicopters is located at 130 Iolana Place. For more information, call 808-8345813, email info@MakaniKai. com, or visit MakaniKai.com.

LIFE IN FLUX

Photo contest winners

FLUX Hawaii and The Human Imagination teamed up with Lomography for an international contest that called for photos in flux, which exemplified the laid-back lifestyle people in Hawai‘i love and live by. After sifting through more than 1,200 photos from around the world, we present the winning photos for your viewing pleasure.

Grand Prize winner

Location: Sanya, china

Photo by: saviorjosh, Nairobi, Kenya

Taken with: Lomo Lc-A+ loaded with Kodak eB2 film

1st runner Up

Location: O‘ahu, hawai‘i

Photo by: shantelleycake, Pearl city, hawai‘i

Taken with: Lomo Lc-A+ loaded with Provia 100f cross processed film

2nd runner Up

Location: Mallorca, Spain

Photo by: ratonchuelo, Barcelona, Spain

Taken with: Lomography La Sardina loaded with Kodak ektachrome 100G film

Lomography is a global community dedicated to analogue photography, with one of the most comprehensive offerings of film in the world and a full line of publications, bags and fashion accessories.

U PCOMING E XHIBITIONS

Tattoo Honolulu

Honolulu Museum of Art

On display June 14, 2012 – January 13, 2012

The lines between ink on skin and paint on canvas have been blurred with tattoo artists today reaching the skill level of other artists. This summer, the Honolulu Museum of Art breaks new ground with an exhibition focusing on Hawai‘i’s high quality of tattoo art and how it sprouted from the islands’ mix of cultures rich with tattoo traditions.

The museum is in the unique position to draw upon its world-class collection to place contemporary tattooing within a historical art context. By linking the past – through works such as 19th-century prints by Jacques Arago depicting tattooed Hawaiians – with the present, the museum hopes to expand cultural awareness not only about the art of the tattoo, but also the rich cultural traditions it is based on.

“Most artists believe that the basis of great art is drawing,” says museum director Stephen Jost. “And tattoo artists in Hawai‘i are incredible draftsmen. They use this skill to create extraordinary tattoos. Add to that Polynesian, Asian and military cultures, and the result is that Honolulu is now recognized as one of the world’s tattoo meccas.”

Home to the centuries-old Hawaiian kakau tradition, prototypical American tattoo artist Norman “Sailor Jerry” Collins, and the many tattoo traditions found in Japan and throughout Polynesia, Honolulu was destined to develop a corps of soughtafter tattoo artists creating a visual language derived from all these cultures.

The exhibition presents 10 tattoo masters as contemporary artists, revealing their skills, ideas and sensibilities through photographs of the bodies on which they have drawn. The museum, however, is keeping the identities of the featured artist under wraps until shortly before the exhibition’s opening.

For more information, visit honolulumuseum.org.

HISTORICALLY, CHINATOWNS WERE A PLACE OF CULTURAL INSULARITY.

A starting point for people unfamiliar with their host city’s language and customs to find solidarity with others just like them. Today, our Chinatown is increasingly diverse. Hidden behind the storefronts are collections of contemporary bars, boutiques, restaurants and galleries. The district is renowned for its Asian open markets and restaurants, bursting with the smells, colors and flavors of China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines – and all are locally owned and independently run by a set of visionary entrepreneurs. Explore the burgeoning industry of commerce and creative that is the heart of Honolulu’s arts district.

Human Imagination

Barrio Vintage

Blank Canvas

Louis Pohl Gallery

Milk & Honey

La Muse