Glamborous

>> STRANDED IN SPACE

The closing of eleven44 left my dance troupe, Keia Dance Movement, a little bit stranded on First Friday. There, we had been given free rein for setting up a theme, DJs, live art, dancing, decorations and visual projections — basically total control over the club. We had come up with the theme of being an intergalactic space station, and the party was going to be a layover of sorts where travelers could recharge and mingle before continuing their journey.

So we didn’t want to just cancel the event after having put in a month of planning. I tried calling all the venues in Chinatown, but unsurprisingly, every space already was booked. Luckily, a small gallery, Studio 114 on North King Street hadn’t planned to open that night and gave us similar freedom to create our vision.

I took it as an opportunity to do some art, buffing the white walls black and climbing a ladder to do some lettering, with pro-space slogans on one wall and anti-space slogans on the opposing wall. One wall read SPACE RULES BLAST OFF and the other F*** MARS STAY HOME. My inspiration was that when it comes to space, personal opinion is pretty insignificant. Whether you think space is cool or if you think space is dumb, space certainly doesn’t care what you think about it.

The mural took the better half of my Thursday, and the bulk of Friday was spent with my grandfather for his 95th birthday. He’s doing well for a man his age, and it was great to see the family come together to celebrate his special day. If I ever get that old, I hope I’m doing as well as he is.

The one downer for our space event was that the studio didn’t have AC, and it was a hot night. There were a few times when everyone had to clear out of the studio for a good 10 minutes because we were all drenched in sweat. I was stoked that the heat didn’t scare too many people away and that there were a good number of attendees I didn’t even recognize who stuck around to get down in our DIY outer space. Asylum was gracious enough to let us host an after party in the back room.

Saturday night was a big one with Electric Boat Cruise turning Nextdoor into a rave. I hadn’t been to a rave in a really long time, and it was crazy to see all the glow sticks, hula hoops, neon clothes and lasers. I had almost stayed in on Saturday after such a busy week setting up for Friday, but it was so out of the norm for me that I was glad I came.

The weekend ended with the The Do-Over Honolulu at Buho. It originally was supposed to be at one of the beaches at Turtle Bay, which I liked in theory, but I was having trouble finding people who would be willing to make the drive. It worked well at Buho, and I was impressed by the turnout. It was a nice wind-down to a busy weekend.

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