Things to Do at Home: The Best Books to Read, Concerts to Stream and Things to Do to Stay Entertained Inside This Weekend
Join a film club, tackle our must-read list, play trivia or watch your favorite artists perform from their living rooms.
Photo: Courtesy of Wave Woman Book Facebook Page
Read a Book
What better time to work your way through our list of 50 Essential Hawai‘i Books? One of our newest book recommendations, Wave Woman: The Life and Struggles of a Surfing Pioneer by Vicky Heldreich Durand, came out this week (Sparkpress). As Don Wallace wrote in our April issue, “What a life, what a book, as beautiful as its era, fierce in its depiction of a woman reborn in the ocean.”
The Hawai‘i State Public Library System has a list of more than 20 books in the pandemic genre that you can read on Overdrive or Libby, such as Michael Chrichton’s Andromeda Strain, The Stand by Stephen King and The Plague by Albert Camus. (The two books I’m reading right now, Good Poems for Hard Times and The Thirteenth Tale, are also available on Overdrive.) Follow @HSPLSHIgov on Twitter for the full list. And P.S.: If you have a library card, you can now stream movies on Kanopy through April 30.
Da Shop in Kaimukī can recommend a book, from post-Tiger King binge session picks to new arrivals, and ship it to you for as little as $1. Sign up for its newsletter for more.
Still not sure what to read next? Try What Should I Read Next?, follow @brownhistory on Instagram for its #BrownHistoryBookClub picks, or see what your friends are reading on Goodreads.
Kimié Miner performing at Blue Note Hawai‘i
Photo: Courtesy of THERESA ANG
Concerts
So many artists are performing from home and posting the videos online, including local musicians such as Kimié Miner, Kapena and Amy Hānaiali‘i and Kailua Moon. A few programs in particular have been coordinated to benefit charities and health organizations, such as the iHeart Living Room Concert for America (Backstreet Boys, Alicia Keys, Billie Eilish, H.E.R., Camila Cabello and more) and One World: Together at Home, which will air April 18 (John Legend, Chris Martin, Lizzo, Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder and more). Check out past #TogetherAtHome performances from Charlie Puth, OneRepublic, Miguel, Christine and the Queens, Jack Johnson and dozens of others. You can even stream DJ sets online, such as from Nowadays in New York City.
Bummed that the Jimmy Eat World concert that was meant to take place April 1 at The Republik was canceled? Every Friday frontman Jim Adkins plays a short set that you can watch on YouTube in a playlist called Empty Room Gigs.
Watch Instagram Live
Besides putting on living room concerts, members of the community are finding fun ways to stay engaged through live Instagram videos. Every Friday at 8 p.m., Hana Koa Brewing Co. hosts a virtual beer tasting. Follow @hanakoabrewing to find out what each week’s beers will be, order online, then swing by the bar between noon and 7 p.m. Wednesday through Monday to pick up a few growlers. Join owners Josh and Chrissie Kopp as they walk you through tasting notes, some history of the beer and, yes, impromptu raps.
You can also join a film club. Dan Smith of the band Bastille has created the Distraction Tactics film club, suggesting a film from a different country each week to be discussed live on Instagram a few days later. The first week’s film was England’s Shaun of the Dead, with special guest Simon Pegg, who starred as Shaun, joining the live discussion. Last week’s film was New Zealand’s Hunt for the Wilderpeople, with director Taika Waititi. The next film? Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Follow @bastilledan on Instagram for details on when the live discussion will take place (and which special guests might join). Until then, you can comment on the film and offer up any suggestions for what you’d like to see next on this post.
Hang with Friends
If you miss going to trivia nights at the bar with your friends, play HQ every day at 3 p.m. HST. The app returned last week after shutting down in February, and in addition to awarding cash prizes divided among all the winners every day, HQ is matching the prize money and donating it to charity. Download the free app through the App Store or Google Play and play live with thousands of others. Open a chat on the side (Facebook Messenger, Google Hangouts, Zoom, whatever you want) to either help your friends or taunt them. There are plenty of other virtual quizzes online, including a few U.K.-based ones that ask for donations to charity in order to play. Check out Virtual Quiz Events and Spectacular Pub Quizzes.
Great Long Reads From Our Files
It Came From the Ala Wai: 6 Strange Creatures That Thrive in Waikīkī’s Sewage–Filled Canal
What lurks in the murk of Honolulu’s most prominent drainage ditch? Lots of things, including a fish that can literally give you nightmares.
Where the Wild Things Went: Tracking Hawai‘i’s Most Elusive Non-Native Animals
From alligators to wallabies, an eclectic mix of alien creatures has been reported roaming the Islands. We set out to sort fact from fiction.
17 Nisei Veterans Share Stories of the Lives They Built in Hawai‘i After World War II
They’re our everyday heroes in plain clothes—the revered second-generation Japanese American veterans of World War II. Fewer than 250 Hawai‘i nisei vets are known to be alive today in Hawai‘i. And the war is just part of their life stories.
Exploring the Upside Down: What It’s Really Like on Kona’s Most Extreme Scuba Dive
The weird and wonderful creatures that populate Hawai‘i’s offshore waters are visible each night on this black-water dive.
Read more stories by Katrina Valcourt
