All posts tagged: Molokai

Hawaii & The Descendants

I don’t usually blog about movies, but last evening I saw The Descendants, and thought I would say a bit about it. So: 1) It’s a very good film. You don’t need me to say it, or to review it. All the critics have done that. Why I thought it was interesting enough to mention is because of 2: 2) It’s the only remotely mainstream film that I have ever seen that actually captures Hawaii in any capacity. Forget Blue Crush and 50 First Dates and all the other crap that pretends to be Hawaii and is really some weird fantasy land that only exists in the minds of movie directors and the gullible public, The Descendants actually looks like Hawaii. Granted, the Hawaii it shows is a rarefied version: I knew old Missionary families: the elite ‘Cousins’ who had been their for generations but never quite assimilated. And I knew kids who went to Punahou School and HPI. And the world they lived in was far, far from my world. But the neighborhoods? And …

Friday Review: Kalele Books

Published by The Dreamstress

I hate chain bookstores. They are so sterile and generic and I feel completely overwhelmed and uninspired at the same time. And somehow all books look bad in chain bookstores. Also, the Borders in Wellington has a whole section called “Vampire Romance”. It’s bigger than their “Spirituality” section. I’m scared. But I adore used bookstores. They are interesting and quirky and every time you visit there are new things to explore. And with the really good ones you can become friends with the clerks and they save the best stuff for you when it comes in. So, on the odd chance that you should happen to visit the very small island of Molokai, I thought you should know that Kalele Bookstore and Divine Expressions is a really good used bookstore. Kalele Books carries an enchantingly random assortment of both new and used books, and some excellently chosen art. The bookstore is currently hosting three paintings done in red dirt, which sounds a little gimmicky, but is actually amazing in person. Who knew you could get …

A tradition

Published by The Dreamstress

Mr Dreamy started a lovely tradition in our last day in Hawaii after the honeymoon just before we moved to New Zealand. My father had been trying to cut down a tall, tall java plum tree which was sucking water out of the stream and threatening a cabin and a new planting of native trees. The java plum was so tall that my father and a professional tree cutter had been working for hours to try to get a pull rope up in the first branch of the trunk so they could control the way the tree fell. With our bags all packed and our paperwork in order, Mr D and I could only wait for our flight and enjoy the last few hours with my family. With a little spare time, Mr D offered to try to get a pull rope through the tree. He threw, and he threw, and each throw of the weighted end up the pull rope got a little nearer to the Y shaped branching in the trunk. Finally, with …