Palolo Valley’s rich history will be celebrated next weekend with the 14th Annual Palolo Pride Festival. There will be food, local (and I mean local) entertainment, rides and games for the kids, craft booths, and a health fair (sponsored by the Rotary Club of East Honolulu).

Entertainers scheduled to appear include musicians Steve Inglis, Mike Ka’awa, and Kaniloas, and a special guest appearance by comedian Kaleo Pilanca.  The event will also feature the debut of “The Best of Ahe Street and Friends.” The ensemble features Ernie Cruz Jr., John Cruz, Wayne Kaiwi and Alex Padinuan (with friends Robi Kahakalau and Jeff Rasmussen).

The event is a benefit for the Mutual Assistance Association Center (MAAC).

“We are a non-profit learning center upstairs in the Palolo Gymansium,” explains MAAC’s Mike Machado, a friend of mine. “We teach tech and life skills to children in the neighborhood — primarily kids who live in Palolo housing and Palolo Valley Homes.”

He adds: “The event also has the potential to be the best free concert in town this year: ‘The Best of Ahe Street and Friends’ is a nod to the street running thru the middle of Palolo Valley Homes where these musicians grew up.”

The 14th Annual Palolo Pride Kilikila Cultural Festival
A benefit for the Mutual Assistance Association Center
Palolo District Park
2007 Palolo Ave. [Map]
Saturday, August 2, 2008
9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
http://www.palolopride.com

Still want to get to know Palolo better? The second annual Palolo Pride Festival was held in 1996, and the event prompted a nice overview of the neighborhood by the Honolulu Star-Bulletin:

• Palolo Pride: Discover the richness of the valley
• Palolo community is their business
• Valley a country ‘heaven’ near the city

Plenty of people used the park, and its had its share of bumps and bruises. But this weekend, residents will celebrate the revitalization of Makiki District Park and the long awaited re-opening of the Makiki Library with “Rediscover Makiki: Sunset in the Park.”

The two-day community festival will offer keiki rides and activities, food and craft booths, and local entertainment. There’ll also be tours of the newly renovated library, and of the new Honolulu Sustainability Center. Finally, as the sun sets, families can settle in to enjoy a free movie.

For more information (or to volunteer), please contact coordinator Della Au Belatti at daubelatti@hawaii.rr.com.

Rediscover Makiki: Sunset in the Park
Makiki District Park [Map]
Friday, July 25, 2008 from 4:00-10:00 pm
Saturday, July 26, 2008 from 10:00 am-10:00 pm

As always, there’ll be the plant sale and garden shop, as well as educational workshops. Orchid repotting will be one of the skills covered, and you can bring your own less-than-healthy plant for repotting help. In addition to door prizes and a daily silent auction, the show will offer its always-popular sushi bar and food concession.

There will be plenty of free parking with a plant-friendly valet service that will hold your purchases until you’re ready to go home.

The Kaimuki Orchid Society was founded in 1976, and currently has over 150 active members who meet on the first Tuesday of each month at 7:00 p.m. at Kilauea Recreation Center, next to Kaimuki Middle School, between Kahala Mall and Diamond Head.  New members are warmly welcomed, and usually with a free orchid plant to get them started!

Orchids for Everyone
Plant Sale and Garden Shop
$2 Admission (Seniors and Children Free)
Kalani High School Gymnasium and Cafeteria
4680 Kalanianaole Highway [Map]
Friday, July 18th, 9:00a.m. to 5:00p.m.
Saturday, July 19th, 9:00a.m. to 5:00p.m.
Sunday, July 20th, 9:00a.m. to 3:00p.m.

Photo by M.J. Malfalfa.

Other performers include Ringmaster-MC See of Ong King Arts Center, Wally Amos (storytelling), Samadhi (aerial acrobatics), Giinko Marischino (dances, stilt walking and a “human statue” procession), Loco Moco (juggler, stilt walker and unicyclist), and Youth Speaks Hawaii (slam poetry). Honolulu Broadway Babies and Rachel Gonzales will be providing tunes in the galleries, and KTUH’s DJ Michelle and DJ Travis will be making noise on the lawn.

Hands-on activities include “About Face!” face painting by Hui Mei Chang, “Foamenology!” foam brick building (with Nathan Balcombe, Elizabeth Haberkorn, Laura Couto and Dan Carbone), “Print This!” monoprints with Rob Molyneux, Straw Sculptures with Jacqueline Rush Lee, “Five on Fire!” with five local artists (Alan Konishi, Michael Sweitzer, Mat Kubo, Vince Hazen, and Duncan Dempster), and “Clay Play!” with Mark Humke.

It’s a great event for art-lovers and families, running from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, July 12, 2008. The trickiest part is the parking, as there is none at the museum itself. Fortunately, there will be parking down the hill at Punahou School, and the museum will be running free shuttles throughout the day. If you need special arrangements, call the museum at (808) 526-1322, extension 10.

A Honolulu woman, Audrey Toguchi, appeared to have incurable cancer. Surgery in 1998 failed to excise it, and her doctors prepared her for the worst. But she prayed to Father Damien, and — according to an October 2000 report in the Hawaii Medical Journal — she was cured.

The Vatican officially attributes her cure to Father Damien, saying it otherwise defied medical explanation.

The Rev. Christopher Keahi, head of the Sacred Hearts order of Hawaii, told the Associated Press: “It’s such an exciting time in our lives that one of our men, one of us here in Hawaii, has attained the highest rank of sanctity and will soon be declared a saint in the church.”

Father Damien came to Hawaii in 1984 and, a decade later, was ministering to leprosy patients on Molokai in the isolated Kalaupapa peninsula (now a national park). There he cared for thousands of people who suffered from the disease… and ultimately contracted it himself, dying in 1889.

• Pope clears way for Belgian priest to become saint (Associated Press)
• Miracles can happen ‘when you have a friend like Father Damien’ (Hawaii Catholic Herald)

There’s also boxes and boxes of DVDs, VHS tapes, and records (remember those?). In fact, this year, the music section has been upgraded to a separate tent, managed in partnership with Hawaii Public Radio. HPR already has a reputation for turning up great finds with its “Almost New Music Sale,” so this combined marketplace should be fantastic.

Be sure to check it out! Details and hours are here. The McKinley High School cafeteria is located here (Google Maps). We always go, and bring home a big box of goodies for less than five bucks. And if you really want a bargain, July 5 is “Half-Off Day,” and the last day, July 6 is “All 50 Cents Day.” My only advice? Dress light and bring water… it can get pretty hot in the cafeteria.

Check out this Friends of the Library Book Sale video I made in 2005. I can’t believe how small my son Alex is!

Some Waikiki residents and businesses have been known to be annoyed at the number of parades that come down Kalakaua Avenue, but none have the long history and universal popularity of the Aloha Festivals procession. As the Star-Bulletin notes, the Aloha Festivals events have already been scaled down, but to lose its most visible centerpiece “would be a shame.”

Organizers say they need to raise $50,000 by Monday or the parade will have to be canceled. That’s the threshold needed to trigger a $200,000 contribution from the Hawaii Tourism Authority. In addition to putting out a call for help to the local businesses and community groups, the Hawaii Jaycees will out in force this weekend collecting “fishnet donations” at various intersections around town.

Those interested in contributing can also visit the Save the Parade website and donate online. “People can give as little as $1 or as much as they can feasibly,” writes organizer Jon Cook, who is also reaching out to the local blogosphere. “We have a limited time to raise the money.”

Photo from the 2007 Aloha Festivals parade by Melvin Ah Ching.

Tonight on “Town Square,” airing at 5 p.m. on KIPO 89.3FM, host Beth Ann Kozlovich will sit down with pro fighter and model Mia St. John (who appeared on the cover of Playboy in November 1999) and expo coordinator Louis Mansanas to talk about mixed-martial arts. The cross-disciplinary and largely anarchic fighting style has grown from a grassroots, underground practice to a multi-million dollar business. Once seen mostly in shaky clips posted to YouTube, MMA is now a knockout hit on cable and recently made the jump to network television.

Curiously, MMA is not merely an obsession of pimply-faced teens and adrenaline-craving young men, but women as well… even whole families. Kozlovich will explore how something so starkly violent and sensationalistic has still managed to hook adults and kids across a wide swath of America.

If you can’t tune in on your radio, you can listen to KIPO live online. Call in your comments or questions at (808) 941-3689 or toll-free from the neighbor islands at (877)941-3689. If you miss the show, you can grab it later via the Town Square podcast.

Earlier this month, my friend and boss Beth visited Honolulu. She came out to Mililani to attend my son’s birthday dinner, and stopped at Star Market for some groceries. She was shocked to see the price of a gallon of milk — on sale for $7.29 — and posted the photo above to Flickr.

Of course, living here, I had no appreciation for just how incredible that seemed. Sure, prices have noticeably risen here over the last few months, but I figured prices have been rising everywhere else. But without a point of comparison, I had no idea just how expensive things were in Hawaii.

Well, CNN’s Chris Lawrence is definitely on the case. Even though he’s reporting from an outsider’s perspective, the wide-eyed horror at what he’s seeing says a lot. A couple of weeks ago, he reported, “Inflation hits hard in Hawaii“:

“Imagine going to your local grocery store and paying over $8 for a jar of Jif peanut butter. How about $5.50 for a loaf of white bread, $6.50 for a gallon of milk or $7.19 for a half-gallon of orange juice? These are just some of the prices we found in a recent survey of Hawaii’s supermarkets. Families there are certainly paying the price for living in paradise.”

Again, those were familiar numbers for me, so I had to turn to Google for some context. Only after finding comparative mainland prices for a jar of peanut butter ($6), a loaf of bread ($2-$3), a gallon of milk ($4) or a half-gallon of orange juice ($4) did I appreciate the powerful thump his lede was supposed to convey.

Lawrence quickly followed that up with “Hawaiians hit by skyrocketing shipping costs.” He did a decent job explaining that things cost more because of what it takes to get them out here (though his headline writer better consult the revised AP style rules on what “Hawaiian” means).

And if that wasn’t enough, Lawrence checks in today with “Hawaii suffers a tourism blow“:

“High fuel prices have caused airfares to skyrocket. And the economy has caused some Americans to postpone or downsize their travel plans. Fewer tourists are coming to Hawaii, and some think the problems are only beginning.”

So Hawaii is not only an expensive place to live, but an expensive place to visit. Not exactly a surprising conclusion, given the controversial report out in May that named Hawaii as the most expensive vacation destination.

Though anecdotal, I’ve definitely sensed smaller crowds on beaches, in restaurants, and at attractions like Bishop Museum. And while the declining visitor counts is ultimately bad news for many businesses, I must confess a selfish appreciation for reclaiming some peace and space.

For me, the key indicator that local business tides are turning is pretty simple: local hotels and attractions are suddenly packaging and promoting deals for locals again. And while my wallet is aching as much as anyone else’s, I have to admit I’m happy to see the return of the “Kama’aina Special.” Sure, I doubt I’d be able to afford a “staycation” anyway, but… it’s nice to feel wanted again.

“Lucky you live Hawaii?” I still say yes. But luck don’t come cheap.

Save your appetite and round up the kids, this weekend brings the second-annual “Flavors of Honolulu” festival on the Honolulu municipal grounds (near Honolulu Hale and the Frank F. Fasi Building). The three-day event mixes over a dozen restaurants, live performances by several local artists, and highlights including a wine-tasting tent and a celebrity cook-off.

Of course, “Flavors of Honolulu” is the new name of the former “Taste of Honolulu” event, which was put to rest two years ago when its former organizer found it, essentially, too successful. Under the guidance of its new non-profit steward, Abilities Unlimited, the “Flavors of Honolulu” is a much more modest affair (the restaurant list is half as long, for example)… but that could be a good thing, as crowds and long lines were becoming one of the hallmarks of its predecessor.

Participating kitchens include India Café, Mangea!, Ichiriki, Planet Hollywood, Señor Frog’s, Laveren’s Catering, Mark’s Specialties, Koi, Village Steak & Seafood, Bali by the Sea, Le Crepe Café, Da Spot, and Cream Pot.

Among the notable musical offerings? My friends Mighty J will take the stage at 2 p.m. on Saturday, and the wonderful Pali will perform at 5 p.m.  Saturday will also bring a special evening tribute to the late, great Auntie Genoa Keawe, featuring her incredibly talented granddaughter Pomai Keawe Lyman. Other acts include the Royal Hawaiian Band, Maunalua, Kapena, and Natural Vibrations.

The “Flavors of Honolulu” festival runs from 5-10 p.m. on Friday, noon to 10 p.m. on Saturday, and noon to 6 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is $5, but kids under 12 are free.