Stepping through the doorway of Old Queen Street Stadium in Kaka‘ako is a bit like stepping through the wardrobe to Narnia, only if instead that closet led to an even bigger closet. The difference, though, is nonetheless transformative: It feels like every square inch of the shop’s dorm-sized space is used to showcase items dating back decades, ranging from high schools to the pros. Therein, all manner of memorabilia narrate different episodes in the story of island sports from the midcentury to now. 

Most prevalently stocked are shirts, jerseys, hats and jackets with the funkified greens, oranges and rainbow logos representing teams from the University of Hawai‘i. The crown jewel is a gamer from legendary baseball coach Les Murakami, namesake of UH baseball’s home field, though the UH-themed WWE-style championship belt — one of only seven in the wild — is a scene-stealer. A little extra digging into Old Queen Street Stadium’s wares will also reveal pieces from the other four university athletic programs: the classic blues and whites of Hawai‘i Pacific University and Chaminade University, the bold blacks and reds of UH Hilo, and some splashes of crimson and gold from the now-sportsless BYU Hawai‘i.

The idea for the shop started out as a labor of love during the early days of the pandemic in 2020. A trio of Kalihi boys, Kevin Faller and brothers Chester and Kevin Sebastian, organized monthly pop-up events at a restaurant on Queen Street for vintage collectors and enthusiasts to meet up and ostensibly buy, sell, and trade with one another. But the real reason people kept turning up was to swap memories, sharing old stories and hearing new ones for the first time…

Read more at FLUX Hawai‘i

Read more

I’ve always been an animal lover. As a kid I cried with a mysterious intensity after my guinea pig Twinkie died, my first taste of grief and loss.

I write this now to the sound of my dachshund Thor barking in the next room at some phantom intruder, while my other dog Peanut — a derpy pandemic pup who wakes me up every morning by plopping a toy on my face — rests at my feet. Outside, my cat Boo is silently stalking a lizard. My wife and I refer to the three of them as the Goon Squad.

Animals of all sorts have enriched human lives since we organized into societies, as sources of food, beasts of burden, hunting partners and of course, as domestic companions. Konrad Lorenz, the Nobel Prize winning zoologist who spent his life studying animal behavior said that anyone who has spent time with animals and is unconvinced that they have feelings is psychologically deranged. 

I agree with him. Though the Goon Squad clearly possess a different type of emotional repertoire than I do, it is obvious that when I am in a room with them, I am not alone. As the field of ethology expands and develops, it has become clear that most animals experience an interior life much more sophisticated than we tend to think, from apes and orcas to pigs and crows. This includes animals we typically consider to be dumb, like cows and fish. 

And, yes, also chickens, those pesky descendants of dinosaurs running rampant across Hawaii, from mountainsides to shorelines and everywhere between…

Read more at Civil Beat

Read more

Since 2013, Soundshop has transformed the museum’s Doris Duke Theatre into a classroom/jam space, where middle and high school kids write and perform their own songs, guided by a roster of local musicians who have had songs on the radio, gone on tours and won Na Hoku Hanohano Awards. 

Five Soundshop teaching artists stand onstage with a quiver of instruments, including a turntable. “My name is Rukka the Magnificent,” says one grabbing the mic, “and I’m from Nanakuli.” The students start buzzing-especially the ones also from the Leeward Oahu town. A beat drops and Rukka kicks some rhymes before passing the mic to Nick Kurosawa, who plays a bluesy guitar number. Then singer/songwriter Maryanne Ito tells the crowd she has kids their age before cementing herself as the coolest mom they’ve met with a velvety R&B groove. She hands the mic to New York native DJ Leanski, who scratches up beats on the turntable. By the time jazz singer Kelsea Armstrong is onstage, the kids are rocking…

Read more at Hana Hou!

Read more

There was no morning bell when teachers and staff filled the cafeteria at 8 a.m. It was a waiver day, so there were no students on campus, only a lack of noise and friction in the hallways. 

But their absence was a good thing, since we adults were learning what to do in the case of an active threat – a school shooter – and there’s evidence to suggest active shooter drills have profound negative psychological impacts on kids.

Such drills may also inform would-be shooters about how their school would respond, potentially giving them insider knowledge on how to maximize their killing spree. 

Fun thoughts to start your morning, but these are the kinds of things we have to think about and prepare for now.

Welcome to teaching in 2023…

Read more at Civil Beat

Read more

I was in 7th grade when Eminem released “The Marshall Mathers LP.”

Within a week it sold nearly 2 million copies, making it the second fastest-selling album ever at the time. It was everywhere, including my portable CD player, where it remained in steady rotation for the rest of the year. 

To say it was a controversial album would be an understatement. Among the various groups that protested its release was the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, which quite reasonably took issue with its frequent use of derogatory and anti-gay language, particularly the repeated use of the F-slur in lyrics like “hate f**s? The answer’s yes.” 

The album seeped into my habits, and like most boys of my generation, I used the F-slur relentlessly and called anything I didn’t like “gay,” regardless of the context. If I had to defend my use of those words — which I never did, because it was broadly accepted — I would have done so the same way Eminem did: I used them to describe people or things that I thought sucked; it had nothing to do with anyone’s sexual preference.

I didn’t hate gay people, I would’ve said, and besides I didn’t know any. Looking back now, I’m not sure that’s true. I probably did know some gay people, but based on how I talked and acted at the time, they had every reason to hide it from me. I would’ve mercilessly teased anyone who was openly gay, because they would’ve been an easy target.

I currently teach 7th grade, the same age I was when anti-gay sentiments and language became normalized for me. Though Eminem hasn’t been relevant for a long time, those ways of speaking and thinking about LGBTQ+ people are every bit as commonplace now as they were 20 years ago…

Read more at Civil Beat

Read more