Square Kady Pascual Headshot RGZ5762

Kady Pascual

Hawaiʻi Scene on Social

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Never grinding gears though."}]

For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up 

Tipsy Pig

<title>Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Always grinding</title>

Today’s social media find comes from @Tipsy_Pig___, showing us how skillful you can get when you’re hungry.

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Always grinding

Never grinding gears though.  Make sure you follow @Tipsy_Pig___on Instagram! For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up here for our free Daily Edition newsletter!

Katie Helland Headshot

Katie Helland

Arts & Entertainment

Aloha Spirit

, who is also the oldest son of reggae legend Bob Marley and his wife, Rita, still remembers the day when he was at a beach on Maui and inspiration for a song hit.

“The moment is etched in my memory,” Marley told Aloha State Daily.

, is still one of his most popular ones on Spotify, where it has been streamed more than 122 million times. It also features renowned 

“Hawaiʻi is an inspiration to me,” Marley said. “It reminds me of home. It has a strong spirit. And I just love the nature of Hawaiʻi and the people of Hawaii.”

Now, Marley is back again with his family to share a 

 on Saturday, April 11, at The Republik. Proceeds from the event benefit the Waikīkī Community Center and will be used to help build a new library for keiki.

, including one which was written with his wife, Orly. Their son, who is 10 years old, has brought some books from their home in Los Angeles to donate, he added. Attendees of the concert can also bring books for the children’s library.   

The show comes just a week ahead of the release of “Brightside,” which is Marley’s first studio album in eight years. “Brightside” is set to release as a vinyl exclusive on Saturday, April 18, which is 

, and digitally on Friday, May 1. It includes “Make it Paradise,” which features Shimabukuro.

“We did that ʻBeach in Hawaiʻi’ song,” he said. “And then when I did ʻMake it Paradise,’ it had that flavor. It had that Hawaiian flavor, that ‘ukulele flavor.”

He called Shimabukuro, who happened to be in Los Angeles for a concert.

“He took the time to come over to my studio,” Marley said. “We hung out, and we did the song. And it's a wonderful song, and I can't wait for people to hear it.”

The album’s eight songs were co-produced by Marley and his brother, Stephen, in his newly built Rebel Lion Studio. The new album also includes the track “Many Mourn for Bob,” released as a single on Feb. 5, which is about his father.

“I'm at a stage in my life where I'm at a maturity now where I can relate to him in a more emotional way,” Marley said. “Not just as a father or a legend, but on a more human perspective on what he went through that a lot of people might not know about. He went through a lot emotionally, mentally. I feel people don't understand. I recognize that. And I relate with him in that way. 

"And he passed away very young. It's kind of sad in some ways, even though he's a big legend now. It's still sad. He was so young. It's my empathy toward him and my emotional feelings that I share with him, in a spiritual way also, because writing the song, there was a strong connection with him. ... When I was doing it, I thought to myself, ʻYou know what ... He could have sung this song, himself.’ I had a strong connection to him when I was doing that song.”

Bob Marley & The Wailers inspired generations of Hawaiʻi artists, including Glenn Awong of Maoli, one of the writers of 

 which includes the lyrics: “Sometimes I listen to Marley, while I sip on my whiskey.” Marley is also on the mind of 

first Pacific Islander to win “American Idol,”

 who recently referenced “Three Little Birds” as inspiration for his own single, “Sunshine.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"For Marley, his father is still with him."}]

“My father is a part of me,” he said. “In some ways, the memories are etched in my DNA. But my father — he was a fun guy, too. That's another thing people don't know. He loved to laugh and have fun and make jokes. I remember going to the countryside with him, playing soccer with him. He was a fun person. And I remember that side of him a lot.”

 released on Feb. 24. The music video, launched on March 26, features his daughters Zuri and Judah.

“We had so much fun doing it,” Marley said. “Even though the topic is kind of heavy, but the video is kind of light and fun. The lyrics are a metaphor. I use racism as a metaphor of a virus that's cured by a Dr. Brightside.”

One of his favorite songs in the new album is “Why Let the World,” he said.

“Sometimes, we need a break from all the negativity,” Marley said. “In the news, in the world, there's a lot of bad stuff going on, and I think that song kind of helped me.”

His charity, Unlimited Resources Giving Enlightenment (URGE) Foundation, helps children in Jamaica, Africa and throughout the world through education, health care, nutrition and more, according to its website. Marley grew up in Jamaica.

“Early in our life, we grew up in the poor part of Kingston,” Marley said. “And gradually, as my father — his career took off — we moved out and lived in better places throughout time. But we never forgot where we came from. And we never forgot the people that didn't make it out like we did.”

His parents set an example of helping others, he said.

“We formed the charity to invite others to help, but it's just a part of who we are trying to help our fellow human beings who need our help,” Marley said. “We really focus on children, though. After a while, the best way to help our communities is to help develop kids and help kids out, so that the future can be brighter for all of us in the community.”

And that is exactly what Marley is focusing on with the benefit show for Waikīkī Community Center this weekend, where attendees can build a library by bringing books to the show and help keiki.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"“That's what it's all about,” he said."}]

Tickets start at $45, plus service fees. 

For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up 

Ziggy Marley

<title>Ziggy Marley reflects on benefit show, new album</title>

The eldest son of Bob and Rita Marley is about to release his first studio album in eight years, “Brightside.” The nine-time Grammy winner spoke with Aloha State Daily about the new music, which releases on April 18, as well as his benefit concert this weekend at The Republik in Honolulu.

Ziggy Marley reflects on benefit show, new album

Higa headshot white shirt square

Sterling Higa

Columnists

The AI sermon coach promises to save the busy pastor hours each week, freeing up time for more productive work.

This bothers me more than it probably should. Not because ghostwriting is new — it isn’t. John F. Kennedy, no intellectual slouch, is best known for speeches Ted Sorensen wrote. And it is an old trick question to ask who wrote Paul’s letter to the Romans (Tertius, as he notes in chapter 16). Scripture was inspired, yes, but written with human hands.

The help, then, is not the issue. I use AI in the process of outlining, drafting, and revising my own work. What unsettles me is something else: handing the writing off to a machine, and losing what the writing process actually produces.

Writing is how ideas get tested. You start with one argument and discover, somewhere around the third paragraph, that you were wrong. Objections surface that you can’t ignore. The thesis falls apart, and you begin again. Sometimes, a finished piece gets shelved because it doesn’t work. But an essay completed and discarded is not wasted work — it is the work.

Those 30 seconds that produce a finished sermon skip over hours of prayer for a waiting congregation, that they might meet the living God through His Word. They bypass the moments when the pastor might have found he didn’t believe what he was about to say.

Laws used to be written the way sermons and essays are. But no legislator has time to read all the codes, so AI can do it for her. It will scan all the statutes, take her instruction, and draft something precise. Then she can send 20 letters to constituent groups, each personalized to their particular interests. If they want to testify, pre-written remarks are ready to paste. Friction-free lawmaking.

But even this process seems slow. After all, we have voting records. We have public statements. We could model how each lawmaker votes based on past behavior. No need to convene anyone. Program a swarm of AI agents, and let them interact. For more confidence, run the simulation 10,000 times and take the most common result.

The public may object that they’ve been left out. Give them a share of the agents. Sierra Club AI will oppose anything that might disturb a watershed. Grassroot Institute AI will push for limited government. The results will look the same, and arrive much faster.

The friction in lawmaking is not pure waste. It creates space for discernment. It should be difficult to pass a law. The cost forces a choice.

A statesman’s job is not to do everything that could be done. It is to choose, from among many options, what should be done. That takes wisdom about what matters and why.

wisdom. Job, after the loss of everything he held dear, reached a plain conclusion: the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.

I asked AI what becomes of a people that trusts it — from the pulpit to the senate floor.

It responded: “A society that can simulate its legislature, generate its sermons, and automate its arguments has not freed itself from the burden of wisdom. It has only lost the habits that made wisdom possible. Job understood this after the whirlwind took everything. We may have to learn it the same way.”

AI sermon

<title>Faster than prayer</title>

Pastors are doing it, legislators are doing it — everyone is turning to AI to write out their thoughts for them. Is anyone thinking for themselves, asks ASD columnist Sterling Higa.

Faster than prayer

Government & Politics

On a Monday morning earlier this month, Mayor Rick Blangiardi sent his proposed budget for the coming fiscal year to the Honolulu City Council. The total came in $133 million less than the year before. The operating side grew by less than one percent. There were no ribbon cuttings. The 

 lasted about 40 minutes and drew a few paragraphs in the morning papers.

Had the number gone up — a record spend on city services, a bold new chapter — there would have been more headlines. The budget that doesn’t grow is not a story.

What matters is whether government grows faster or slower than the income of the people paying for it. The University of Hawaiʻi’s economic research arm, UHERO, 

 personal income in Honolulu will grow about 3.7% this year. That 3.7% is the speed limit. A government budgeting above it is spending money its people haven’t earned yet.

Blangiardi’s operating increase of less than 1% means city government is shrinking against the economy. That’s harder than it sounds. Union contracts alone required wage raises above 1%. He covered that and still cut the total.

The pattern elsewhere is mixed — and mostly worse. On Kaua‘i, Mayor Derek Kawakami’s current budget 

, more than twice the county’s projected income growth.

Maui’s Richard Bissen is a different story. UHERO projects Maui’s income to grow about 4% this year. Bissen’s proposed budget for next fiscal year 

. That’s nearly flat in real terms — a return to earth after the fire-driven spending surge.

The outlier nobody talks about is Hawai‘i County Mayor Kimo Alameda. His proposed operating budget 

 against projected income growth of 3.4%. Nearly as disciplined as Honolulu, with almost no press. Alameda governs quietly, and Hawai‘i County draws less notice than Maui or Honolulu.

Blangiardi didn’t cut services. He cut the budget lines for vacant jobs. With roughly one in five city jobs vacant, that pay was already sitting idle. The mayor pulled about $50 million in vacancy funding back across departments. The police chief called it tight but workable. AI tools are rolling out across city offices — not to cut jobs, but to get more done.

Blangiardi is not always easy. Councilmembers, reporters, and slow-moving department heads have all felt the friction. But for five years, he’s been the strongest check on government growth in Hawai‘i. And in his 2026 State of the City address, he 

 not to raise property taxes while in office.

Government that lives within its means doesn’t produce ribbon cuttings. It fills the potholes, keeps the lights on. In the oldest sense, it’s a good neighbor. It doesn’t always make the news.

0000 0000 Mayor Blagiardi Square Wide 16x9

<title>The budget that doesn't grow</title>

Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi did something remarkable early this month in releasing a city budget that came in $133 million under the previous year's budget. ASD columnist Sterling Higa looks at all four county budgets to see which counties are living within the means of their citizens.

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Always grinding

Kady Pascual

Social Media Editor

More in Hawaiʻi Scene on Social

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Neighborhood weather updates

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Island vibes

Gotta catch ‘em all — at Ala Moana Center: voices from Pokémon GO’s “Wild Area: Global” event

Starbucks holiday launch draws crowds for limited-edition cups

Most read

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Always grinding

Authors

Kady Pascual

Social Media Editor

More in Hawaiʻi Scene on Social

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Neighborhood weather updates

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Island vibes

Gotta catch ‘em all — at Ala Moana Center: voices from Pokémon GO’s “Wild Area: Global” event

Starbucks holiday launch draws crowds for limited-edition cups

Most read