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What the Heck?
John Heckathorn
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FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM
Jaymelyn Adviento, left, and Mchale Bermanis filled their bags with candy along Bishop Museum's Treat Street on Halloween.
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Dog’s disgrace fails to dent Halloween fun
Of the 5,000 people who showed up Halloween night for Treat Street at the Bishop Museum, the majority were children in costume. But not just the kids.
Anela Whisenhunt made 2-year-old Shane a Peter Pan costume. But she also made herself Tinker Bell wings and short green dress, looking very much like the attractive Disney sprite. Except "you're not used to seeing Tinker Bell hapai," she said. "I'm having a girl."
Christian Van Dyke said few wore costumes in his native Sweden. He'd dressed Amanda, 18 months, in a faux leopard skin, and then donned one himself. "My wife's dressed like this, too, but don't know where she is right now," he said. "I hope she hasn't found another caveman."
Amid the pirates, mermaids and princesses, one family stood out. Toby and Skye Litsey costumed son Micah as Dog Chapman. For a 5-year-old, it was a remarkable likeness, down to the stubble. "We used up all my eyeliner for that," said Skye. "I have no makeup for work tomorrow."
The Litseys dressed up 1-year-old daughter Sierra as Beth, blond wig and balloons under her T-shirt. I asked if Dog's current difficulties had given them pause about the costumes. "Dog's in trouble?" said Toby. "Really?"
Dog's disgrace didn't prevent Micah and Sierra from winning first prize in their age group. It was their second win. The night before, they took first place at Kahala Mall. Micah got a gift certificate for video games.
Waikiki: Image and Reality
At Bishop Museum, you knew who was in costume. On the packed, cop-lined sidewalks of Waikiki, it was difficult to tell. One couple looked like a parody of tourists -- he in a shrieking aloha shirt and gaudy sunglasses, she in a low-cut black cocktail dress and over-the-top jewelry. Then again, they may just have had their own sense of style.
A man dressed as a Krishna devotee was twirling a visitor, 65-year-old Dee Long from Rockport, Ill., around the sidewalk to the clang of his friend's cymbals. He turned out to be a real Krishna devotee, named Daiva.
For people really in costume, the prize seemed to be the number of people who wanted to snap a picture with you. Attractive and barely dressed people of both sexes got the most requests.
Tan, tattooed and muscled, Brett Camarata of Laguna Hills, Calif., attracted a huge crowd of young Asian women, who'd cower in mock terror while he threatened to cut their throats with his plastic pirate sword. "I flew him over because he'd been breathing smoke for weeks," said his local friend Patty Wager. "I dressed him in this pirate costume. Doesn't he look great?"
To make a splash in Waikiki, you need ensemble costumes. A group called the 501st Legion of Imperial Stormtroopers stood guard in front of the Moana, wearing professional-looking "Star Wars" gear.
The Hawaii Tolkien Society abandoned "Lord of the Rings" for the evening to dress up as Harry Potter characters. "We know Dumbledore has been outed," said one of the witches. "We still love him."
On the sidewalk of Uluniu Street, Rocky and Robinson Villaver staged a kickboxing bout. They had a ring, held up at the corners by four friends, plus an announcer and miniskirted referees. One young woman dressed up as a cop, imploring them to break it up -- until they were all nearly trampled underfoot by a gang of real cops dragging a half-naked, protesting drunk from an ABC Store to a real squad car on the corner.
Diamond Snowflakes, Blue Martinis
I don't suppose you'd call them costumes, but 200 people were seriously dressed up for the party last weekend at the Harry Winston Salon. Great party: champagne, blue martinis, food from Nobu and a winter theme.
Model Kelsey Campbell wore a snowflake pendant fashioned from diamonds. Never leaving her side was an employee of Discreet Agents Guard Service, who was taller than she was, even though she posed on a foot-high platform.
"This is from our diamond de neige collection," said Salon Director James Schaefer. "It's quite reasonable as our signature pieces go, $250,000."
Truth is stranger than fiction
Leah Bernstein of Mountain Apple Co. asked me if they'd been a target in the recent Gridiron Show. Yes, I said, to twit Mountain Apple for its ceaseless marketing of Israel Kamakawiwoole's legacy, the show asked, "What's next? 'Iz: The Musical'?" Cue a chorus line.
"That's hilarious," said Bernstein, "because a local promoter already pitched that to us."
But you wouldn't really do it? "There's no reason we wouldn't, given the right situation."
Hidden Stairs in Chinatown
A friend and I wondered what ever became of the historic Wo Fat space. We wandered into Chinese groceries, looking for the stairs up to the old restaurant, and were finally directed to Sunkyu Cake Shop, where the proprietor pantomimed drinking a cocktail and pointed us up some back stairs.
Sure enough, the venerable Chinese eatery has been transformed into a nightclub called The Loft, all black and white and Ikea living room furniture. No liquor license yet, so for the moment it's a BYOB club, featuring such bands as On Hiatus and Scary Areolas.
But an entrance through a bakery? "We thought it would be a problem," says 26-year-old proprietor Daniel Gray. "But people seem to think it's cool."
Honolulu Goes Global
The International Herald-Tribune just named Honolulu one of "The World's Top 10 Most Livable Cities." We're only No. 9, after such cities as Munich, Copenhagen, Tokyo and Sydney, but we're the only American city to make the list.
Said the paper, "Honolulu now fits the definition of a global city -- a palm-fringed metropolis with a population as diverse as its flora."