Cutting through the consumer clutter of the winter film season like a duck-call blatting across a marsh, Inside Llewyn Davis is a gift, straight and simple: a movie that is human, tuneful, funny, wacky, nasty and most of all artistically honest. It leaves you on edge as to where it’s going every second that it’s going there. That’s another way of saying it’s suspenseful, but the mystery here, and the tension, is both inward and intimate. The story, of a folk singer who simply won’t wise up and make peace with selling out, stars a new actor whose performance left me wrung-out (and grateful).
O Oscar Isaac, where did you come from?
As you may have heard, or noticed from the trailer, there is also a cat. No, this is not the Coen Brothers selling out to YouTube. The cat plays an integral part in the story, and sometimes not a very nice one. This may be the first time in cinema that a cat provoked a revelation about a main character’s flawed soul and invoked the shape-shifting Dublin of James Joyce in dreary Northeastern America.
Ulysses Marmelade, your agent is on line 4.
Better, actually, than the cat and almost as good as Oscar Isaac is Carey Mulligan as the high fructose folk songstress who, off-stage, is most memorably foul. She’s also a window into the showbiz calculations that Llewyn Davis (Isaacs) tries to pretend he can evade.
All well and good. However, there is one question that I have about ILD only someone in his or her twenties can answer:
O Twentysomething, without having any experience of the early 60s folk and hootenanny (oh, blessedly risible word) scenes, except of course for Brooklyn hipster variants, nor of the pre-electric music moment that looms behind the period and film, what did you think of this movie? For me, every reference was sharp and pointed and simultaneously cringe-worthy and deeply nostalgic. For you, maybe, meh? Or is it capable of being appreciated through the retro-vision that has made look-backs like Anchorman 2 and American Hustle the current hot thing?
Please send your thoughts to [email protected] and we’ll include them in a future post.
Anyway, if an evocation of an elegaic wintry week in hot humid Hawaii is just what you need, this is your film no matter what your demo. It was for us. After the screening we found ourselves in the lobby of the Ward Theatres tossing around theories and did-ya-sees with some friends. It was a simulacrum of a snowy afternoon in the old Cafe Reggio or La Lanterna when we, too, were poor and downtrodden but also secretly convinced that an artistic breakthrough was just around the corner.
What was just around the corner in 1982 was NYU buying up a bunch of blocks of the village and tearing them down to make dorms. Then came real gentrification. At least in the Ward Theatres of today we are under no such illusions. We know Kaka’ako and its 29 towers are just around the corner. We’ve lost the war. Our stakes are lower in Honolulu. But that’s no reason not to see, or to love, Inside Llewyn Davis.
ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS YOU MAY ASK YOURSELF
Yes, it’s a Christmas movie. Take the family. Unless they’re Duck Dynasty fundamentalist Christian.
Or rather, make that a “holiday” movie, with no apologies to Sarah Palin. Because, yes, it’s a Coen Brothers movie. Also, take the family even if they’re fundamentalists. Payback for that turkey table talk about same-sex marriage and Obamacare.
Yes, it’s got some great music—just no Christmas carols.
On the other hand, there’s no “Kumbaya,” either.
Yes, the name is Welsh, but it’s not a common or even existing variant of Llewellyn. Looks like the Coen boys made one up.
Yes, that double “Ll” in Llewyn and Llewellyn is odd-looking, but you pronounce it as if it doesn’t exist. Officially it’s a voiceless alveolal lateral frictive.
Yes, I also think that “voiceless” is a tip-off. Probably stands for something.
Yes, there’s some trouble with the ending. It’s a Coen Brothers movie, after all. Those boys don’t know when to quit.
Yes, that’s Justin Timberlake continuing his amazing run of “I can’t believe it’s Justin Timberlake” film appearances. Startin’ to really like the guy.
Yes, John Goodman is there, and what a relief to see him again, even if the role seems like a continuation of the one in O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Yes, you heard right. It is a continuation of the role of the con artist in O Brother, Where Are Thou? As in, like, incarnation. Or maybe transcendental incorporation, like those figures from Greek mythology who kept showing up in James Joyce’s Ulysses.
Wait, wouldn’t that make Oscar Isaac’s Llewyn Davis...
Leopold Bloom?
Dang me, dang me, they oughta take a rope and hang me...
Shamus here. A word to the wise seems in order... Don’t park in the fee lot of the Sidestreet Inn unless you plan to visit your car often—the tow trucks will steal your ride as soon as you’re inside, no matter how much time you pay for. Shamus got lucky and caught the shysters as they hitched up the old Nissan. It’s not often you win one against two grifters with a license to steal your wheels.
I wish I had their names. I’d let ‘em taste the lash in print. Oh, I’d make them pay. I'd put their kids names in the paper, their dead sainted mother's too.
Why? Because scorched-earth personal destruction of personages in the public eye is a Hawaii thing. It’s our cockfight fix. Give us Sen. Donna Kim in the ring with M.R.C. Greenwood and watch those razors shine. We’ll take that over actual insight and investigation anytime.
M.R.C. didn’t do anything wrong, except not get back to Kim fast enough about her lil’ boy’s non-existent application to UH law school. Still she got sliced and diced while Team Patron allowed the Wonder Blunder culprit, now-former athletic director Jim Donovan, to put the squeeze on for a couple hundred very large ones and a new office in which to do nothing.
But then Donovan had roots here. Which is what makes the Chow Ultimatum pop off the pages of the local paper. (That’s Norm Chow, our UH football coach, in case you’ve been following some other minor story, like gay marriage.)
The last public whipping avant-M.R.C. was of Evan Dobelle, the UH Prez who resembled a door-to-door insurance salesman and never met an expense account he couldn’t cook. There were plenty of reasons to say to hell with Dobelle. He had less of an academic pedigree than our outdoor cat, the noble Stripes; he was a nebbish with a weak underbite; in short, he was such a dumb choice you had to wonder if somebody on the Regents or the Legislature forgot to put on her reading glasses and thought the last name was Dudoit or Duvaschelle.
Or maybe they thought it was Dobash, the glutton’s choice of chocolate cake at Zippy’s.
Now it’s Norm’s turn. It’s Chow Time, the pun on everyone’s lips. The UH football coach has been in the batter’s circle for a few weeks. Now he’s up and the Star-Advertiser is throwing heat. No joke—these are beanballs we’ve been reading for the last 48 hours. When a hometown paper takes aim at the local football hero, first Asian-American head coach, etc., it’s news.
It’s even bigger news when it feels as if the writers have intentionally misconstrued his remarks, especially since they were in the room when he made them.
But hey, I wasn’t in the room—the press room after the 49-10 Utah State loss, that is. But it sure sounds like Norm really was joshing around with his ol’ bud on the local Utah paper, saying he was “too old for this game.” Heck, I’ve heard 12-year-olds say it. I’ve said it. (Every year.)
So what’s up with this? Does it matter? Should we care when Kaka’ako sewers are suddenly discovered to be an erupting volcano of merde only after the city has lazily signed off on a plan to put up 29 towers and add 20,000 porcelain thrones above el caldera de caca. That’s a heck of a new stadium for something, come to think of it.
Backstory? Norm Chow never really had a honeymoon upon arriving at UH, never warmed up local hearts the way a local-boy-makes-good was supposed to. The word I heard from some passionate fans on the street—including a clutch of women, the kind who wear UH jerseys to the KCC Farmer’s Market—was surprisingly reserved. “I hear he’s abrasive,” said one to me a couple of years ago. It was like hearing somebody’s Mom admit their bouncing baby boy was a playground biter.
Monday’s column by Dave Reardon on Chow’s public musings was brutal. It was also a watershed moment. The lead columnists have held their fire and played good soldier for much of the season, but they’re not the types to wager their reputations on playing dumb. (Especially after they waited too long on June Jones, but then, going 12-0 in the regular season makes up for a multitude of sins in football.) They got the green light. Maybe they even got a nudge and a wink: Time to take down Chow.
Is it a coincidence that this is happening when Navy is the next opponent? The coach of Navy is a former Radford High and UH player, who also was an assistant at UH. He’s a stellar character and a beloved leader of men, as they say. He’s still a young man, as Tower of Power sang. And he’s Samoan. So how come he’s not head coach of UH?
Instead we have a coach who says he’s too old for the game, that he could take it as a young man but not now, not anymore. A coach who isn’t asking his boys to win one for the Gipper, but for the Griper. And we have a newspaper suddenly baying for his blood.
Chow down? Ain’t gonna happen. But it’s getting ugly.
PS This week’s prediction is Go Navy. They pushed Notre Dame to the limit last week, gaining nearly 400 yards, most of it on the ground. Even if the WaneBow passing game is on fire, it’s hard to score when the other team won’t give up the ball. With a depleted defense the odds grow longer. It won’t matter whether the team leadership gets their mojo back. Navy has leadership and discipline and a system that suits its recruiting limitations. You wonder if coach Ken Niumatalolo was offered the job at UH and if so, ever had a chance with our Las Vegas-loving Regents and Leg. They were probably scared of a straight arrow; next Saturday the Rainbow Warriors will know that feeling and take the arrow in the neck. The reality of an 0-8 record makes 0-9 a formality.
Kauai’s “Boss Seed” Carvalho Vetoes GMO Pesticide Bill
WE SPIED... Kauai mayor Bernard Carvalho proving that he is, indeed, the first Genetically Modified Human on earth with the vetoing of the pesticide-labeling Bill 2491... Sources say the rogue gene inserted into Carvalho’s genome sequence is probably a tapeworm, which would account for the copious amounts of Monsanto slush money he can consume without exploding... Also, if “Boss Seed” thinks doing this on Halloween means he’ll be getting further “treats” for his “trick” he may be in for a rude surprise come election time...
WE SPIED... Shamus the fearless football prognosticator, downing his cups at the Sidestreet Inn, announcing to all and sundry that if UH could go on a two-week road trip then he damn well could, too... When pointed out that a two week road trip on Oahu would require circling the island at least 56 times at current rates of travel and mph, he backtracked and offered this week’s analysis in short choppy snarls: Shamus here. The Death Crawl... Flatlining... Losing the game in the opening kickoff... None of it is fair. This team had an offense! 340 yards per game from Sean “The Snake” Schroeder shoulda meant a victory or two by now... But Norm Chow goes into a winnable Colorado State game and puts in not one but two sub QBs on single-snap trick plays and each g—d—n time it results in an interception... This isn’t coaching, it’s choking. Well, I’m mad as hell and I don’t know if I can take it anymore. Sure, I waffled and suggested UH could take Colorado State 36-30—but cavilled in the last line and said they wouldn’t. That was chicken---t of me. And I hated being right. CS didn’t score in the second half and still beat us 35-28. So let’s get it over with now. I have every opponent against U—but that doesn’t mean I don’t bleed lilikoi and Koloa rum. Which reminds me: Waitress, another please! Or so the inebriated expert expounded. We’ll spare you the rest and summarize. He says the team knows it has a monkey on its back. They should’ve beaten Colorado State by 10 points, even spotting them 2 TDs in the first quarter. The good news is that when you go this low, the worst is in your rear view mirror. The bad news for UH is that Norm Chow is driving the bus. In reverse... Utah State 33, UH 26... Let’s call it a night, shall we?
WE SPIED... At Point Panic last week a memorial for waterman, poet and good friend David Parrish hosted by his brother Duggar, mother Judy and old friend Robert Pennybacker... Many of the 50-plus crowd in attendance had been or were members of the Water Safety or Fire Departments where Parrish spent much of his working life... Others were bodysurfers, which was Parrish’s passion and, come to think of it, parish... Parrish was cameraman on the Mark Cunningham bodysurfing film Waves to Freedom, directed by Pennybacker, and also played the original thrash-rock score with Duggar and Albert Rosen... In 1999, the New York Times quoted him thusly: “According to David Parrish, a lifeguard, poet and bodysurfer, “It’s like flying into the wind.”
Using funds appropriated by the State Legislature and HART for site-appropriate art in rail stations, PRP has created its submission, "Masters of Concrete," which is said to be on the fast track for approval. While building a stadium for viewing big wave events in Waimea Valley has not been approved yet, the state is entering into negotiations with a major sports television network. Likewise, the Waikiki Casino pictured is for placeholding purposes, given that the Leahi Crater site is also available for a glass-domed "Gamble-arium" with spectacular star-gazing a major draw. All in all, a rosy future is predicted for those millionaires, missionaries and military brass lucky "to live Hawaii."
CONCRETE PARADISE: Turtle Bay Expansion Sails Through
Welcome to the new state of Aloha. Please watch the video on the cabin screen and enjoy planning what Oahu has to offer. Not for nothing are we known as "The Concrete Paradise!"
Ignored again: Windward community plea, 2013
Today, Oct 23, 2013 will go down in Hawaiian history as the day the North Shore died: the Turtle Bay expansion has been approved despite an Environmental Impact Statement that is over 20 years old. Two new hotel towers will rise in place of green space, beach and 'iwi burial sites. The 750 new units will be most likely condominiums, since the existing Turtle Bay is nowhere near 80 percent occupancy. The traffic to the North Shore isn't the worst thing--this decision opens the door to Envision Laie and its 875 units, the expansion of the Polynesian Culture Center and also of BYU-Hawaii. Nor is that all. There are plans for the 100 percent Mormon-owned development to add another 2,000 homes in tracts, with a four-lane highway in the works.
So you thought that was exciting? Well, check out Our Incredible Kaka'ako, the keystone of Concrete Paradise. Locals are ecstatic at the prospect of over 29 condo towers going up, and show their loyalty by wearing colored t-shirts with the Logo: "More Maid Jobs, Bra!" Many are retrofitting their mini-vans so that, in additional to providing living space for the keikis, they can cruise the Kaka'ako streets selling designer tacos to residents stranded by flooding.
Please fasten your seatbelts as descents tend to be a little rocky.The city and state bankruptcy and subsequent surge of the unhoused means the pilot often has to dodge homeless encampments using the runways for temporary shelter...
One of the best things to do, particularly if you’re staying late into September on the island, is to get on your bike and just head off into the country. Here’s the reason all French movies must begin with a girl on a bike: mother-of-pearl skies, harvest-time panoramas, no cars on the road (finally!) and no particular place to go, just as long as you end up at Les Embruns creperie on the Sauzon waterfront, or Creperie Chez Renee in Bangor. A pitcher of cidre brut, a runny country egg on a galette of ble noir with grilled leeks, and it’s time to saddle up and head home with the wind at your back.
Part I: Kirk Caldwell envisions urban density curbing urban sprawl. (Photo: Jesse Broder Van Dyke)
Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell is having a busy summer. He's signed the ‘Ewa Development Plan giving the final green light to housing development on Ho‘opili farmland. He's signed bills banning smoking from all city parks, beaches and TheBus stops. He's been expanding road repaving, overseeing the replacement of moribund sewer pipes (and removal of the “black noodle” in the Ala Wai Canal), and proposing tax increases to shore up a city budget hit by pay raises for police officers and other public servants. The mayor appointed new Honolulu Zoo director, Dr. Jeffrey Mahon, and has been tracking Honolulu’s rail project, which has been on hiatus since last August, when the Hawai‘i Supreme Court ordered that construction cease pending completion of archaeological studies.
As the anniversary of his first half-year in office approached, Mayor Caldwell and his press secretary, Jesse Broder Van Dyke, sat down with this reporter in Honolulu Hale for a Q&A to appear in Honolulu Weekly. But since that pub suddenly closed, HI Spy brings you part one of this exclusive, two-part interview with the city’s chief exec.
—Maria Kanai
What mayoral initiatives thus far are you especially proud of?
As you know, I have five priorities. I announced them when I got sworn in.
I’m really proud that I’m paving more roads than ever before. I asked for $150 million for the budget; we have $120 million, more than any mayor has gotten before, and we will use that money to repave more roads and come back and ask for more next year.
Restoration of bus routes: We announced back in February which routes we’re restoring, rolling them out in March, May and August. And we’ll be looking for more opportunities in the future.
Improving our parks: We have approximately $18 million in the budget to do exactly that so that when you come into the parks—I call them our crown jewels—they’re going to look and feel different.
Sewer improvement: Committing to do secondary treatment under our consent agree with the environmental protection agency (U.S. EPA), and also upgrading our sewer system to build additional capacity so we can be more dense in the urban core and not have to keep expanding outwards.
The only way to do that, by the way, is through infrastructure improvements. My administration is much about that, whether it’s rail to move people, sewer to move our waste. Those kinds of things are what I’m focusing on, so we can live in a dense, urban pattern in town with better parks— live better. That way, we are going to be able to keep the Country country.
Under the model that was set well before you were born, it’s been urban sprawl, [where it just] keeps growing out in our former ag lands that grew sugarcane and pineapple. I want to stop that urban growth [within] boundaries that have been set in our last general plan. The only way we can do that is to have infrastructure on this side of the Ko‘olau to build higher and more dense.
Building rail better: We have a lot of projects out and we’re ahead of the deadlines set. I am a big supporter of mass transit systems, whether it be bus or rail. Giving [people] an alternative, getting them out of cars so they don’t waste their time and money burning energy and not getting anywhere. I want to get people home so they can be with their families and be productive instead of sitting somewhere in traffic. Rail is about that. For me, when I ran [for mayor], I talked about building rail better. It has three components.
1. Fiscal responsibility, really watching how the money is spent and I think we’re doing exactly that. And our contingency [fund] is very strong, it’s high level.
2: Transparency. I think as mayor, with the executive director of HART, Dan Grabauskas, we’ve been out talking to the public a lot more, addressing concerns, talking about what the next hurdles that are coming up this fall when we start rail again.
3. Addressing visual impacts, particularly as we come from Kalihi into town, to the most dense, historic part of our city, [then] as we come out of this dense, urban part and go into Kaka‘ako. If we can do things to mitigate the visual impact in that area, whether it’s facing the sides of the rail project with different kinds of material so it blends more into the surrounding environment, whether we resize the stations, maybe their footprint is a little smaller, figure out ways to interface better with street level as people go down escalators and elevators. Planting trees to hide [rail], when you plant trees, the structure may be there but you don’t see it. Softens the impact.
So I’m proud, we are moving forward on these things, on these five priorities. Once we get one under control, we’ll move another one up. Homelessness, we’re starting to roll that up.
In terms of building rail better, the Art-in-Transit program is one specific area. What other specific details do you have planned?
[Art-in-Transit] is very important, it ties together the station where the art is, the surrounding community and the Hawaiian sense of space. For me, it’s the poetry of rail.
Some other things about building rail better: We’ve announced an initiative where both the HART (Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation) board and the bus board, Oahu Transit Services (OTS), are going to meet for the first time in history. The two boards will come together to talk about bus and rail integrating better, not bus versus rail, but bus AND rail. Both are mass transit systems that link to each other. So they’re looking at things like a joint fare card, and scheduling issues, how busses are going to leave more often from stations at major employment centers.
Things like putting fare gates. For a while, there were going to be no fare gates, kind of an honors system, but it’s more fiscally responsible to have fare gates to make sure everyone pays. Putting security gates along the tracks, people are concerned with the recent tragedies at the East Coast, people being pushed onto the rail. We’re now going to have glass barriers to prevent people from falling onto the tracks, and more seats on the trains. Those are some of the additional things since I’ve been here.
How much say do you have in directing the city's rail project?
As mayor, it’s a city project, but HART is the quasi-independent board tasked with building the system. Kind of like how the Board of Water Supply is tasked with maintaining and operating and rebuilding our water system. I appoint members of the HART board. Right now, none of the board members are appointed by me, but by the previous mayor. But the executive does have a say on who serves, and then my director of transportation services serves on the board automatically.
We meet with Executive Director Dan Grabauskas of HART every single Thursday. He sits right where you’re sitting. He brings his Deputy Executive Director Brennon Morioka, and we have Director of Transportation Services [Michael Formby], and Managing Director [Ember Shinn]. We spend anywhere between an hour to two hours, sometimes longer, talking about all the issues from the law suits to building rail better to new initiatives, to excise tax collections and everything else in between and that will continue for the remainder of the term. That’s why we work well together. It’s a team effort, it requires the mayor and executives of HART working together to make sure this project is done in a fiscally responsible, transparent and build rail better way.
You just spoke about the glass doors and security issues. What about the problem of noise of steel on steel?
People talk about steel on steel and you think of the train tracks from the 1860s. Steel on steel is the proven technology used around this country. Some have rubber on them—the DC Metro has a steel on steel system. It’s quiet. It’s not going to be the noisy squeaky sound, it’s how they interface and how the curves go, this is a pretty linear system, there isn’t a lot of turning or bending. In addition, we have sound barriers. If you look at the design we have flat tracks, but also a barrier that rises up on both sides so it deflects the noise. The train system is going to be no noisier than the bus at street level—in fact, the bus can be noisier, if you’re standing right there at King Street.
What about things you wish had turned out differently? A sticking point has been your road budget and gas tax proposal being rejected by the City Council. What new tactics or changes would you take next time around?
To clarify, I don’t know if the Council rejected my roads budget, I asked for $150 million, I have $120 million. That’s almost everything that I asked for. And in any legislative initiative, you never get a 100 percent. I can’t think of any executive who gets everything they went for. I’m a pragmatist—I will ask for what I need and whatever it is I get, I will take it and use it efficiently and effectively and show that it’s well spent and come back and ask for more.
I think we’re going to see a real improvement on our roads. We’ve already seen it, all over this island communities are getting their roads repaved.
Fuel tax: I believe, having spent 30 years in the private sector, that nothing ever gets less expensive. Private sector, public sector, the cost of doing business goes up. And I’m absolutely concerned about controlling cost, but at the same time, we need to look at ways to enhance revenue, unless we’re going to cut services.
I don’t want to cut services. I want to restore more bus routes, I want to improve our parks, our roads absolutely need to repaved and built, along with our sewer system. These are health and safety issues.
It was my hope that there would be more debate on the fuel tax issue, instead of having it die outright, but we’ll see how it goes in the future.
What about your thoughts on combining the Complete Streets program with road paving?
Complete streets have been passed both on county and state level. Director of Transportation Services Michael Formby [and I], we’re committed to rolling out the Complete Street program, working with different groups. I think the Council and I are aligned on the complete street issue.
Broder Van Dyke: If I might jump in, they’re trying to incorporate bike lanes. They have to repave Beretania anyway, stripe a bike lane on the right side of Beretania without doing a special project.
Caldwell: In other words, as we do this massive road repaving program, we’re going to do Complete Streets where we can, putting lanes for cyclists.
At the UH Manoa commencement ceremony, you said, “As a lawmaker, I’ve seen many good bills fall by the wayside because there were some that insisted they be perfect.” What top two bills come to mind?
During my time here at the city, which is only five going into six months, other than looking at fuel tax or some other fare revenue measure, I can’t think of any others that I put in that died.
Broder Van Dyke: You haven’t really introduced too many bills so far. In the legislature, you had the TAT (transit accommodation tax) bill, that was one example.
Caldwell: On the state level, I did have legislation introduced by request. One was dealing with the fact that our state government withholds 10 percent of the excise tax collected for rail. They covered the cost of collection. Last year, they withheld $21 million dollars to cover the cost of collection. The entire department of tax budget was $23 million dollars. Obviously, the tax collection did not cost $21 million dollars. So I had a bill asking that the money that did not cover the cost of collecting the tax be returned to the City of Honolulu. The people of this island would pay that tax, and that money is going into the general fund to pay for programs around the state. I think it was only fair that it be returned to Oahu to build the rail system because the law says the money shall be used for the rail system. So unfortunately that bill did not make it. I wish it would have, but I’m looking at introducing it next year.
There was also a bill dealing with transit accommodation tax (TAT), which is what tourists pay when they stay at hotels. This Island generates over 80 percent of all the TAT for the State of Hawaii. We get 12 percent. And yet, we spend much, much more, almost $80 million on infrastructure things just in our tourist areas. That means repaving, sewers, police, firemen, lifeguards, beach cleaning. All of those things that tourists demand and if not done right, we’re going to lose tourism. Particularly safety, right? We’re the safest big city in the country, tourists like to go where it’s safe. So this costs…trying to remember, Jesse, I think 12 percent is about $40 million. We spend almost $75 million. So the rest of this is being paid by, you know who? You, me and him [indicates Van Dyke], through our taxes. wanted more of it to be paid for by the tourists.
Then there was the bill [imposing fines] for not taking care of real property. Allowing places in residential neighborhoods to fall apart, have weeds, be rodent infested and all of that.
Like in Kahala?
Well, you can go to any neighborhood on this island and find examples. I was just told of another one, right out in Hawaii Kai, where people don’t maintain their properties it’s a huge blight on everyone else, but it’s also a health issue. That was a bill that was introduced, I’d like to see even broader enforcement on that, but I signed it to law because it was a good first step.
Part 2 coming tomorrow: homelessness, the sidewalk bill and the mayor’s job satisfaction.
Okay, so according to the U.S. Department of Justice:
Juvenile violence peaks in the after-school hours on school days and in the evenings on non-school days.
63% of violent crimes committed by juveniles occur on school days. Nearly one-fifth (19%) of juvenile violent crimes occur in the hours between 3pm and 7pm on school days.
Debra Hartley, co-chair of marketing and public relations for the Honolulu Professionals Foundation (HPF), says, "By the time kids hit high school, they've lost their passion for learning because they aren't being stimulated, and in my opinion, that's why there's a higher dropout rate than there should be."
That's where R.E.A.C.H. (Resources for Enrichment, Athletics, Culture and Health) comes in. Started by Lieutenant Governor Shan Tsutsui, the initiative provides after-school programs for students between grade 6 to 8. Based on a pilot program held in Waianae, Hartley says that "by showing kids that adults really do care, there was a proven increase in kids' grades, attendance, overall attitudes."
How can we help? Tomorrow night (Sunday, 6/30), HPF is throwing a fundraiser for R.E.A.C.H. at Pagoda Restaurant. This group of Nice, Young Professionals Who Do Good Things throws events for admirable causes and nonprofits (did you see our previous post about earmarked organizations?) such as the Boys and Girls Club, Kupu, Sunshine Kids and more.Tomorrow's fundraiser caught this spy's little eye because with a $75 ticket purchase, you get:
22 stations of FOOD, dished out from The Pineapple Room by Alan Wong, Pint and Jigger, Honolulu Burger Company, J.J. Dolans, Lil' Soul and many, many more.
Nine live BANDS, including Anuhea, Weldon Kekauoha, ManoaDNA, Micah G, Kama Kakaio, Jon Yamasato, Funkshun and RKSB.
