Earlier this year, I went to Vietnam and avoided deportation thanks to an immigration agent that looked like my pledge brother Daryl Oyadomari. Remember that blog? Well, this is Daryl, below.
Now, I know Harbor Court Bistro has been open for a month, and although it’s in my blog area, I never got invited to the opening. Not that I’m bitter or anything! So it was nice of Daryl to invite me to his club concept, “Chic Soiree,” at Harbor Court on Friday night.
Media maven Pam Davis wanted to check out a party at Hank’s Haute Dogs first, which made for a good start. Pam’s a great party partner as she is game for everything and knows everyone, so flowing from a parking lot BBQ to a cocktail party is pretty seamless.
Speaking of seamless! We walked in to the Harbor Court Bistro, and it was as if Palomino had never left. Same decor, same layout, even the same staff. It’s not a bad thing, but you almost don’t know if you should call it by its new or old name.
One thing Palomino did not have was a club concept. So the bar area is packed, but there is a DJ in the back. The restaurant area is less packed, but there is a DJ there also. The crowd flows back and forth between the two areas, and as you can see, dancing is encouraged in both.
I usually say that I’m too old for this kind of scene, but Daryl has a great way of mixing up the demographics so that you don’t feel too uncomfortable, no matter what your age. It kind of reminded me of the old Studebaker’s crowd, except now I’m at the older end of the spectrum (trying to protect Jennifer from the old dudes desperately trying to give her their business cards). The music is pretty good, too.
Oh, who am I kidding? I am too old for this! It took me the whole weekend to recover. Good thing it was a long weekend! Anyway, thought I’d start the blog back up with a fun look at my weekend.
p.s. None of the Hawaii bloggers made www.hotbloggercalendar.com. As you can see by my photos, the voters were sorely mistaken! Well, there’s always next year.
p.p.s. Funny that I ran into my cousin Marc at the party. I told him that his parents, then his sister Kristen, have been featured in my blog. Someone let Marc know how to find me, willya?
I’m flashing back to a scene in “Revenge of the Nerds” when the sorority girl breathlessly asks the geeky brainiac, “Are all nerds as good as you?” And he replies, with confidence, “YES.”
You see, there is a movement by two gals named Sarah Morgan and Jane Couto Poricelli, who are searching for the hottest bloggers on the web. Blog readers choose who they want to read, but now they can choose who they want to look at all year round. You can read more about this at www.hotbloggercalendar.com.
The important thing for YOU to know, dear reader, is that three Hawaii bloggers (that we know of) made the ballot: Christa Wittmier, Nathan Kam, and Melissa Chang. You can log on to www.hotbloggercalendar.com from now till September 1 and cast your vote. Now that the Olympics and the Little League World Series are done, you have something else to do that promotes Hawaii!
You can vote on bloggers you deem hot, whether because of the person’s looks, writing, humor, personality, community impact, or any combination.
I’m a little old for this, but am happy to vote for my colleagues. So if you don’t hear from me for a while, it’s because I’m busy finagling multiple votes for Christa and Nathan!
Our reunion committee is desperately in need of old photos from high school, so Daniel Hahn can scan them for the slide show. Here’s one from graduation day, June 1983. Recognize anyone?
(Most people who see this don’t recognize the girl on the right. That’s Denise Mizumoto.)
Get us whatever you can! You never know what memories you might unlock. While cleaning at my mom’s, I accidentally found a box that had a ton of photos from high school, including some obscure moments that people had forgotten about. I pulled out this seemingly-nondescript photo of me and LiSa (Kaneshiro) Chang cooking that summer at the Waikiki Banyan for our graduation party. While looking at it, I described every major detail leading up to this moment (excessive partying) and what happened after (hurling outside by my then-boyfriend, just missing his feet). Most people are shocked that I remember it all so vividly. How about you? Do you have any old photos that suddenly take you back 25 years, as if it happened yesterday?
If you have photos for Daniel, please send them in. If you want to sign up for the reunion AND get your goodie bag, you have until the end of August. For more information, click here or email mhs83reunion@hotmail.com .
If you can’t tell by my own photos, you can surely tell by my comments on Rodney’s blog that I am, indeed, an old fut. Yeah, I know, 40 is the new 30, yadda yadda.
I know I’m old because I can’t stay out all night anymore, go home to shower, get an hour’s worth of sleep and report to work on time with the same make up from the night before. That glam blogger persona that Jennifer is impressed with is just a facade! Here’s how I spent my Wednesday:
First Cheryl Tsutsumi invited me to the launch of her latest book, “New Wave Mai Tais” at Planet Hollywood. It was from 5 to 8 p.m., a reasonable time for the after-work crowd. Even if you don’t drink Mai Tais, these make great gifts!
So that was going to be my exciting Wednesday.
Then the Metromix team said they had an event at Level 4 starting at 10 p.m., I thought, “Are you kidding me?! Who goes out that late on a Wednesday night?” But Jennifer & Alex wanted to see how fabulous bloggers live, so off we went.
People following me on Twitter all knew that I was angsting about what to wear. Jeans or no jeans? Am I too old for this? Bloggarazzi Christa Wittmier (at right) advised me to just wear black, the Universal Clubwear for Men & Women. As you can see, we also threw in cleavage, which is always in fashion. (Necklace courtesy of Precious Boutique in Aloha Tower Marketplace.)
Daniel Lutz, AC Shilton and Eldon Miura showed us a great time. I was really only going to stay a little while, but all these other flacks like Amy Hennessey, Toby Tamaye, and Matt Derby were there so that added to the fun, and of course we had to dish and catch up. It was also nice to run into Britney from Hooters, who still remembered me even though I had not seen her in about a year. We all stayed for the hair show at midnight put on by iCandi and Salon Blanc, who did our First Fashion Friday show.
Check these photos–it’s just a sample to show you that people are, indeed, going out on weeknights in Honolulu and it’s not just the tourists! It was encouraging to see this, despite it being at a competitor’s property.
By the end of the night, as you can see, Alex “traded up.” Jennifer and I were replaced by some ladies at another publication. (I wonder if they know he wasn’t really Matthew McConnaughey?)
Anyway, just wanted to share some cool shots of a Wednesday night out. Big mahalo to Cheryl Tsutsumi, as well as the Metromix team for a nice time! We’re all at work today!!
Since I live AND work in the Ala Moana/Kakaako district, the mileage is so low that people make fun of me. Whatever! Just wait till I try to sell it! 6980 miles, baby!(Currently appraised by the blue book at $2270 more than I paid for it.)
Get us whatever you can! You never know what memories you might unlock. While cleaning at my mom’s, I accidentally found a box that had a ton of photos from high school, including some obscure moments that people had forgotten about. I pulled out this seemingly-nondescript photo of me and LiSa (Kaneshiro) Chang cooking that summer at the Waikiki Banyan for our graduation party. While looking at it, I described every major detail leading up to this moment (excessive partying) and what happened after (hurling outside by my then-boyfriend, just missing his feet). Most people are shocked that I remember it all so vividly. How about you? Do you have any old photos that suddenly take you back 25 years, as if it happened yesterday?
So that was going to be my exciting Wednesday.
