Hawaii’s Instaweek: Mars Soared, Ramen Drama and Kakaako Creativity

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Hawaii’s star shined bright on Super Bowl Sunday, and that star’s name was Mars.

Roosevelt High School graduate Bruno Mars delighted fans in Hawaii and pop critics nationwide with his halftime show. There were a few less glowing reviews, too, like these from USA Today, The Atlantic and The New York Times.

Hawaii also witnessed a bit of a food fight this week. It was a flare-up between beloved locally created L&L Drive-Inn and the New York-based creator of the much-hyped ramen burger, Keizo Shimamoto. Shimamoto was considering legal action against L&L for promoting its saimin burger by using a Hawaii News Now clip of the New York-based Shimamoto promoting his ramen burger during a visit to Hawaii. L&L executives say that the video newsletter was only meant for vendors and franchises, not the public, and they regret the flap. Both parties have since declared a truce and there will be no lawsuit.

L&L even redirected attention around the face-off toward a good cause, offering free saimin burgers to residents who donate canned goods to the Hawaii Foodbank.

The week also saw a flurry of legislative activity, with the zombie “Right-to-Farm” bill suddenly seeing new life before being returned to its grave, at least for now. There was also a surprising last-minute legislative proposal to turn Niihau into its own county.

Both bills highlighted the unpredictable nature of this young legislative session where proposals seem to appear and disappear almost as fast as a ticket to see Bruno Mars at Blaisdell Center.

Sunday, Feb. 2

Super Bowl Sunday is practically a national holiday, and even Hawaii’s lawmakers got into the game. U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa didn’t miss out on festivities, going with a family-style for the big game. On Instagram, the congresswoman was diplomatic in the battle between Seattle and Denver, writing, “Hope your team wins.”

It’s safe to say it didn’t turn out to be the best day for state Rep. Kaniela Ing, who came out as a Denver Broncos fan.

While the game quickly turned into a rout, plenty of people in Hawaii lit up when Mars took the stage. Fans at Big City Diner at Ward Center celebrated the show by doing their peculiar version of “the wave.”

Bruno Mars definitely scored a touchdown faster than the Broncos did.

Monday, Feb. 3

The biggest news of the day on social media was the announcement of Mars’ three Honolulu arena shows. Droves of Hawaii residents lined up and the shows sold out in a matter of hours.

Honolulu Star-Advertiser reporter Mike Gordon wrote an article (subscription required) Friday about how 42 percent of the 17,000 tickets sold were bought by people on the mainland. Just 6 percent of the tickets were sold to people who stood in line at the Blaisdell Center box office.

Hawaii waiting in line for their @BrunoMars tickets. Kudos ..... on Twitpic

Bruno Mars’ concert also marks the 50th anniversary of the city-run Blaisdell Center. Legendary concert promoter Tom Moffatt said that in his half-century in the industry — which included bringing Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson to Hawaii — he had never seen a show sell out so quickly.

Online scalpers took advantage of the high demand. Tickets on the reseller website Stubhub.com were quickly placed on sale for as much as $11,000.

Tuesday, Feb. 4

Development isn’t the only thing that’s sprouting in Kakaako. The creative space is also thriving. On Tuesday, Kamehameha Schools announced a partnership with the nonprofit Interisland Terminal to launch Kakaako Agora, a project that aims to convert an old 3,225-square-foot UPS storage warehouse into an indoor public park designed by Tokyo-based architectural firm Atelier Bow-Wow.

The project launched its Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign Tuesday, and on Friday, it was featured as the site’s high-profile project of the day. Below is a preview of the space.

Wednesday, Feb. 5

As the photo shows, there was a full house when Maui Mayor Alan Arakawa presented his State of the County address on Wednesday. According to MauiNow.com’s recap of the speech, Arakawa updated residents on projects like road repaving and wastewater spills. He also declared that Maui has “left the Great Recession behind where it belongs, in the past.” Maui’s unemployment is at 4.6 percent, the lowest since 2008.

Waikiki saw a bit of excitement Wednesday night when a military flare washed ashore. Parts of the beach were closed until the flare was removed.

Thursday, Feb. 6

U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz retweeted this twitter image from Senate Budget Chairwoman Patty Murray to highlight his displeasure about the failure to extend unemployment insurance. U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono also voted yes.

Friday, Feb. 7

Friday marks the eve of the annual Pow Wow Hawaii gathering of international street artists to liven up the once-drab area. Most of the artists stay at a house on the North Shore, where they try to feed off each their creativity and bond before spending hours spray painting walls across Kakaako.

The popular Punahou Carnival at President Obama’s high school alma mater also began yesterday. For adults, it’s all about the food while the kids play on the carnival rides.

A running joke among locals is that rain is inevitable during the carnival. There wasn’t any yesterday, at least until evening, but the clouds were foreboding and sort of awesome.

It's our job to make sense of it all.

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