ASD Staff

Hawaiʻi Scene on Social

[{"text":"Though we're stumped on what the heck an \"aloha T-shirt\" could be.","type":"text"}]

Firefly funny cartoon illustration of a goth kid standing under a small dark cloud in a sunny tropic

<title>Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Growing up goth in Hawai‘i</title>

Today's social media find is from comedian Zak Toscani, looking back on his attempt to pull off tropical goth.

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Growing up goth in Hawai‘i

Though we're stumped on what the heck an "aloha T-shirt" could be. 

Katie Helland Headshot

Katie Helland

Entertainment

Arts & Culture

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"FRIDAY, AUG. 22"}]

Catch live music at FM100’s Birthday Bash! Featured music on the first night includes 

, and more. The second night features Ekolu, Ooklah the Moc, Kanaka Fyah and more. The two-day music festival takes place at the Wai Kai Events Lawn in ʻEwa Beach. Tickets are $29 - $79.  

The annual festival is underway! Still ahead is a parent-assisted keiki surf fest, the ocean mile swim, the Na Koa Wounded Warrior Canoe Regatta, surfboard water polo and more. The week-long festival draws local and international contestants. The event raises funds for scholarships and grants for Hawaiʻi athletes. 

 which stars Jason Momoa, on Apple TV+. The series features the story of Kaʻiana, played by Momoa, as he tries to unify the Islands before Western colonization in the late 18th century. The first two episodes dropped Aug. 1, with an additional episode appearing every Friday through Sept. 19. The show was written and executive produced by Momoa and Thomas Pa‘a Sibbett. Check it out on 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"SATURDAY, AUG. 23"}]

, where the Rainbow Warriors take on Stanford University at the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex. 

, the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s new athletic director, announced that 

Spectrum Sports will stream the games for free

 in the 2025-2026 season. The game will also be aired nationally by CBS.

Enjoy an evening of live music from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Waikīkī Aquarium. Children 12 years old and younger get free admission. Featured performers include Ledward Kaapana, 

, Darrell Aquino and more. The event benefits the Waikīkī Aquarium. General admission is $20. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"SUNDAY, AUG 24"}]

Keʻalohi International Piano Competition. 

The top three performers will play with the Hawai’i Symphony Orchestra at 4 p.m. at the Neal S. Blaisdell Concert Hall. The winner of this competition takes home a $10,000 cash award. The contest draws pianists from around the world to O’ahu this month. Aloha State Daily spoke with 

, the founder of competition, about the contest she calls 

Henry Kapono pays tribute to Jimmy Buffett.

 Join the Nā Hōkū Hanohano award-winning singer and songwriter 

, who will perform a tribute to his friend Jimmy Buffett. Kapono performs regularly from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Duke’s Waikīkī as part of a series called “Duke’s on Sunday.” For the last hour of each performance, music is livestreamed on 

. Read more about Kapono’s new extended play 

 which features six songs. It is free to watch the livestream, or get dinner at Duke’s Waikīkī to catch the show in person.

For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up 

Ledward Kaapana

<title>Catch football, surf contests, Henry Kapono, and ʻOlympics of the piano’ : Friday, Aug.…</title>

Ready to make weekend plans? Aloha State Daily rounded up a list of things to do. From the first football game of the season for the Rainbow Warriors to performances by Henry Kapono, here are some ideas of fun things to do on Oʻahu.

Catch football, surf contests, Henry Kapono, and ʻOlympics of the piano’ : Friday, Aug. 22 to Sunday, Aug. 24

Square Mike Brestovansky Headshot RGZ3736 Large

Michael Brestovansky

Government & Politics

As telescope lease agreements on Mauna Kea near their expiration dates, the process for renewing them remains up in the air.

Doug Simons, Director of the University of Hawai‘i's Institute for Astronomy, advised the state Mauna Kea Stewardship and Oversight Authority last Thursday that the window for observatories on the mountain to negotiate their leases of state land is rapidly closing.

All observatories on Mauna Kea are legally bound to decommission their facilities and fully restore their sites to natural conditions by the end of 2033 if they are not able to negotiate further land use with the state. Because of this, Simons said that the telescopes could be very close to the end of their operational lives: decommissioning would likely need to begin by 2028 in order to be completed by the deadline.

In 2020, Simons said he predicted that those observatories that intend to remain operational beyond 2033 must negotiate their leases with the state by the first half of the 2020s — “which is right now, more or less.”

Despite this, those negotiations have not yet been completed, Simons said. Between the protests against the Thirty Meter Telescope in 2015 and 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the MKSOA taking over management of the mountain from UH in 2028, the process has been paused and restarted multiple times over the years.

But without an understanding of how many telescopes will continue to operate beyond 2033, it is difficult for any observatory to estimate the cost of operating on Mauna Kea. Simons said all observatories in the Mauna Kea Science Reserve contribute millions of dollars each year to various shared infrastructure costs, so each telescope that doesn’t have a lease renewed will increase costs for the rest.

“So that really gets you back to the basic question … how much is it going to cost?” Simons said. “And if we don’t know the answer to how much a lease is going to cost, the process is basically stalled.”

Even if the MKSOA can get through the negotiation process quickly, Simons said any new leases will almost certainly be challenged in contested cases and litigation, which will eat up even more time.

Further complicating affairs is the myriad of international funding agencies involved in the various observatories, all of which would need to agree to lease terms, which Simons said is a particularly complex and time-consuming part of the process.

And, of course, all of this is taking place as major cuts are planned for American science funding, with President Donald Trump’s administration 

 in June enormous slashes to NASA and National Science Foundation budgets.

MKSOA board members remained optimistic that they can expedite the lease negotiating process relatively quickly: “It’s not like we’re sitting at the table yet, but the more we prepare ourselves to be at that table, the quicker it will go,” said member Neil Hannahs.

But the MKSOA and its executive director John De Fries already have a lot on their plate as they race toward 2028, when the Authority will assume full control of the mountain from UH. A new management plan for the mountain is being developed, and is not expected to be completed until mid-2026.

At the same time, MKSOA is developing its strategic 

 — a short, three-page document outlining the Authority’s guiding principles regarding Mauna Kea that would impact any proposed lease terms. Public 

 will be held around Hawai‘i Island through September to solicit feedback on the draft document.

Doug Simons BLUE small 16x9

<title>Clock ticking for Mauna Kea leases</title>

Negotiations for renewing Mauna Kea observatory leases need to start soon, warns IFA director

Clock ticking for Mauna Kea leases

The National Science Foundation revealed Friday that it will not fund the Thirty Meter Telescope project on Maunakea, leaving the future of the project in jeopardy.

On Friday, NSF published a Congressional 

 for the 2026 fiscal year which briefly mentioned that the federal agency has removed TMT from consideration for funding for its U.S. Extremely Large Telescope Project.

The agency had announced in 2024 that it could only feasibly fund one of two large-scale telescope projects: either TMT on Maunakea, or the Giant Magellan Telescope in Chile.

The Friday announcement leaves $1.6 billion off the table for TMT, which TMT officials had 

 is essential for the completion of the project.

TMT project manager Fengchuan Liu said in a statement Monday that TMT is “disappointed” in NSF’s decision but still imagined a scenario where the project can receive federal funds.

“We remain firmly committed to finding a path forward for TMT,” Liu said in his statement. “We can imagine a future in which NSF participation in the TMT would open opportunities for significant discovery to the entire U.S. science community, and welcome further conversations to make this a reality.”

While the budget request does not shed much light on NSF’s decision to reject TMT — it devotes all of one paragraph to the Extremely Large Telescope project — the decision was informed by the findings of a 2024 panel evaluating both projects.

The panel was made up of four science advisors: Persis Drell, former director of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California; Kelvin Droegemeier, former director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; Rick Farnsworth, former associate director of the NSF National Radio Astronomy Observatory; and James Hurrell, former director of the NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research.

 was published Dec. 2024. While the report doesn’t make any explicit recommendations, it does highlight some key deficiencies in the TMT project that may have ruled it out.

Critically, the evaluation notes that site access on Maunakea is a key risk to the entire project, and that being unable to build on the summit would be “an existential threat” to the entire enterprise.

The question of access has loomed over the project for decades. In 2019, Native Hawaiian protestors, in an effort to protect the mountain from further industrial development, camped for months at the Maunakea Access Road, leading to multiple standoffs with police and the arrest of 33 kūpuna.

While TMT has named the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands as a possible alternate site, the evaluation determined that contingency has not been developed to the same level as the Maunakea plans.

“If it became apparent Maunakea was not going to be available, (TMT) would switch to adapting plans for TMT to the Canary Islands site,” the evaluation read. “There was no timeline associated with these decision points … The panel finds (TMT’s) mitigation strategy for this risk, taken as a whole, to be inadequate.”

The backlash by Native Hawaiians to TMT may have had another unexpected impact on the panel’s findings. The panel evaluated both projects’ ability to offer educational outreach programs from K-12 all the way to graduate programs.

But while GMT’s offerings involve universities and organizations in both the U.S. and Chile, TMT’s outreach programs are “almost exclusively focused on Indigenous Hawaiian populations.”

The evaluation stated that TMT would be best served to expand its outreach efforts as quickly as possible to jurisdictions beyond Hawai‘i.

The panel’s report concludes by setting out both projects’ strengths and weaknesses, and advising the NSF director to “optimize the use of taxpayer funding to ensure that both projects have the opportunity to succeed.”

That said, whether it was the director’s decision to cut TMT out of the budget is unclear: the NSF directorship is vacant, prior director Sethuraman Panchanathan having resigned in April.

ZOA 2023 7950 tio tmt 0018 16x9

<title>What Halted the TMT Project? A Deep Dive into Opposition - Aloha State Daily</title>

National Science Foundation documents indicate shortcomings in Thirty Meter Telescope project

Who killed TMT?

Stephanie Salmons Headshot

Stephanie Salmons

Real Estate

[{"type":"text","text":"Looking for some oceanfront acreage? A home with a Hollywood heritage? "}]

An oceanfront estate on Kaua‘i's North Shore has hit the market with a $29.5 million price tag, listed by Hawaii Life's Neal Norman. A recent article from 

 notes that Oscar-winning actress Julia Roberts and her husband, cinematographer Danny Moder, owned the property from 2009 to 2020.

Located at 5-8192 Kūhiō Highway, Limahuli Ocean Estate sits on 8.29 acres at "the end of the road" in Hā‘ena.

The property has a total of four bedrooms and four bathrooms. There's a 3,123-square-foot main home with lānai and floor-to-ceiling windows, as well as a one-bedroom, one-bathroom caretaker's cottage and a 490-square-foot pool, 

Norman told Aloha State Daily in an email that 360-degree views that include the beach, the ocean, mountains and waterfalls, are part of what make the property, which also has more than 400 linear feet of beachfront, special.

"The view is unimaginably beautiful — I cannot exaggerate enough how gorgeous it is."

Norman said the home, which was built in 1970, was "masterfully remodeled" in 2011 by San Francisco architecture firm 

"The pool, the grounds, the stream and the ability to build more structures and homes is unequaled in perhaps the whole state for a location as magnificent as this," he told ASD. "The home has also been meticulously maintained and updated with solar and Tesla systems and other state-of-the-art mechanical systems."

[{"type":"text","text":"The property is 20 minutes from Hanalei town."}]

"It nearly joins the Nāpali Coast trail, which is known as one of the most wild, rugged and beautiful parts of Kaua‘i," Norman said, adding that the property sits quite literally at "the end of the road," just on the edge of Hā‘ena State Park and, past that, Nāpali Coast State Wilderness Park.

"The proximity to these parks makes some of the island's most incredible beaches, hiking and waterfalls part of the lifestyle of residing in this area."

Norman says the ideal buyer is one who appreciates "privacy, legacy, amazing architecture and enjoys the amazing water sports that the ocean in this area has to offer."

"This is as rare as it gets," he said of the property. "Once every 10 years something like this might become available. It is the combination of the majestic location, architectural significant, level of privacy, 360-degree views, and ability to improve the land further with other homes or structures that make this so exceedingly rare."

Limahuli Ocean Estate 1 253

<title>Historic Hāʻena Home with Hollywood Ties Hits Market - Aloha State Daily</title>

Limahuli Ocean Estate sits on 8.29 acres at "the end of the road" in Hā‘ena, on Kaua‘i's North Shore.

Hā‘ena home once owned by Julia Roberts hits the market

Kelsey Kukaua Medeiros Headshot

Kelsey Kukaua Medeiros

Business & Tourism

Aloha Spirit

For Viper Heart, meeting Stephen Nii, then-owner of family grocery business Nii Superette Inc. in Waipahu, changed the trajectory of her life as an alcohol and drug addict. Nii, who was a caregiver and worked 12-hour days at the store, died suddenly at age 51 last February, she said.

“Stephen was a guru to everybody even though he wasn't an addict himself. He was one of my best friends,” Heart told Aloha State Daily. “About three years ago, he started the first sober living store on island. He got rid of the alcohol and cigarettes he was selling and replaced them with healthy alternatives.”

An herbalist and psychic from Mililani, Heart said she was clean for years, but was in relapse when she met Nii during the summer of 2023. With his help over the next few months, she got sober again and was hired as an employee by fall. “He wanted somebody in recovery, so I made Instagram videos, talked with people and got trained on how to run the shop.”

Heart, who was a manager at spiritual shop Gaia Hawaiʻi before it closed, kept Nii's business operating after he passed, under its new name Viper’s SanctuarNII. 

In February, the business took over the 700 square foot space that was Drip Studio HNL, which moved to a larger location at Fort Street Mall. Currently, Viper employs five staff members.

“Our clientele is in town; most of our events were in town and rent was getting higher, so it just felt like town was calling me,” she said about the decision to move. “We'll be open 24/7 with the intention of helping people sober up before they drive home."

Viper’s SanctuarNII will celebrate its grand opening on April 1. It is open now amid renovations with two events planned for March – a paint and sip and mocktail-making class. More information can be found on Instagram @vipers_sanctuarnii.

On the retail side, building inventory is also a priority before the grand opening, Heart said, adding that she’s working to stock alcohol-free and low sugar beverages, jewelry, clothing, candles, potions, crystals and chicken feet protection charms. 

The store offers spiritual services and community events complete with a sober living bar that will serve hand-crafted mocktails, herbal teas and mushroom coffee. The bar will have a to-go window and mocktails can be made to choice.

“Personally, it helps me and others with recovery. Everyone is welcome no matter what your definition of recovery is,” she said. "How we prescribe is through intentional conversations, or talking story, in a safe space that leads to healing. I want the space to feel like home and be a sanctuary.”

Including Nii, Heart said she is grateful to Jackie, Naiʻa, Maria, Dani and Kekoa for their support, along with her pet bunny Chubby. 

By next year, she aims to open a boozeless burlesque club. “I love to dance and have fun,” Heart said.

As a business owners, sheʻs been learning to slow down and take care of herself. “I’m filling my cup, so I can help fill others.”

Honolulu Fort Street Viper Heart

<title>​​From Waipahu to Fort Street Mall, this new sober living store and bar prepares to open…</title>

Viper Heart, owner of Viper’s SanctuarNII, took over Waipahu-based Nii Superette last year after her friend and store owner Stephen Nii died suddenly. Heart, who is in recovery from alcohol and drug addiction, hopes to promote healing in the new space, which officially opens April 1. Its offerings include spiritual services and community events complete with hand-crafted mocktails, herbal teas and mushroom coffee, crystals, chicken feet and more.

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Growing up goth in Hawai‘i

ASD Staff

More in Hawaiʻi Scene on Social

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Surfing with friends

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: When there’s a will, there’s a way

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Wipe out!

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Always grinding

Most read

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Growing up goth in Hawai‘i

Authors

ASD Staff

More in Hawaiʻi Scene on Social

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Surfing with friends

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: When there’s a will, there’s a way

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Wipe out!

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Always grinding

Most read