Night Lights: Weekend Wrapup Nov. 26-28
Happy holidays! Now that (presumably) you’ve recovered from Thanksgiving and maybe from Black Friday shopping, you have time for a breather, but don’t even start thinking it’s over yet. We still have Christmas, New Year’s, and whatever else to celebrate.
Between Wednesday and Saturday, I don’t think I really slept more than two hours at a time. Catnaps are great for cats, but for me, not so much.
Speaking of Black Friday, if you haven’t clicked through our gallery and watched the videos yet, you should. There’s some truly crazy stuff that you won’t see happening at any other time of the year…
Me? I actually managed to not buy anything on Black Friday (I don’t count food and a haircut). I did start shopping online early Saturday morning, though, looking for a camera. (I’m upgrading to a Canon 60D for shooting video and stills.) I found one on sale for $800 (that’s at least $180 cheaper than anywhere else I could find!) at centraldigital.com, which is rapidly becoming one of my favorite places to shop for camera equipment.
Understandably, not that many people were out clubbing on Friday night. I wasn’t really feeling it myself, but did stop by Ginza for a Black Friday (black-themed? That’s a ridiculously easy dress code for me to follow) party, which wasn’t nearly as busy as usual, but still half full of sexy people. Here’s the gallery:
Saturday was a different matter, though.
I started the day at 2:30 p.m. by discovering that eggnog and coffee mix quite well. Upon this revelation, the rest of the day got brighter, and by the time 9 p.m. rolled around, I was ready to hit the clubs.
After a quick stop at The Mercury Bar to say hi and cheer on acoustic artists Sabrina Velazquez (apparently she’s been on a national tour and now she’s all famous and stuff) and Gary Liu, Jr., who were performing, I headed down the street to Bar 35, where DJ Nocturna was doing a sci-fi, cyberpunk and steampunk theme for her ’80s Pop Muzik night that turned out to be something entirely unique for Honolulu.
Anybody know what steampunk is? Although I’ve encountered it before, neither did most of the people I talked to.
Basically, what the steampunk sub-genre did, instead of visualizing the future like any respectable sci-fi genre, was fantasize about an alternate past. One with cool gadgets, technology and science that was never actually invented, but could have been. Think Victorian-era style crossed with clockwork gears and fantastical steam-powered machinery. I love it.
One guy who’s really helping introduce Honolulu to steampunk is Zimran Lucero, who’s been wearing his armpiece all over town and becoming known for it. For more info, you can check out his new Facebook page, SteamPunk Hawaii.
Is steampunk a new trend?
I also love the Predator guys from the Hawaii Costumers Guild who showed up and got to strut (well, as far as they were able) the runway. Probably the most awesome and unconventional fashion show I’ve ever been to.
After the show was over, I dropped in to Saturday Night Sessions at Pipeline Cafe. It wasn’t as crowded as usual, possibly due in part to Pipeline’s recent troubles with the Fire Marshal, which resulted, Wednesday at Livewire’s 5th Anniversary, in a lot of people getting turned away at the door or waiting in line for hours. Still, while I was there, more people came in and got their dance on to DJ Reza, one of G-Spot’s regular guests of honor at the big electronic music festivals.
DJ Reza
After Pipeline, I ended the night at Pearl, where photographer and party organizer Russell Tanoue was doing another one of his packed-to-the-ceiling Beautiful parties. This month’s edition was a charity event for Hawaii Foodbank, and there was a giant pile of canned food on the table outside. At 2 a.m., Russell, so like himself, busted out a new facet of his party, called Suga Time. Bliss Bakery supplied trays of delicious, decadent Tiramisu brownies for everyone who had stayed. Definitely a good way for anyone to end the night!
Don’t forget, this Thursday from 6-9 p.m., we’re throwing a Nonstop party with Groupon at Ka Restaurant & Lounge in Ward Centre! It’s free, we’ll be doing some cool stuff (probably recruiting more people to Foursquare too) and there’ll be food! Hope to see you!
