Glamborous

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>> POW! WOW! WIPED ME OUT

Between Chinese New Year, The Fringe Festival, POW! WOW! Hawaii and Mardi Gras, there were more events going on last week than I possibly could keep track of or attend.

But one of the highlights was seeing Alt/Air 2.0’s live set for the first time at The Manifest. It was a lot more rock driven than I was anticipating, but the musicianship was pretty top notch. I expected a lot out of that group and I wasn’t let down. I was, however, totally thrown off because it was not at all what I expected. I guess I might have been feeling slightly led into thinking more in software terms because of the “2.0,” which usually means a substantial upgrade to technological workings, maybe a slight speed boost and some new bells and whistles. But with all the drums, powerful guitar and driving bass, this felt much more like a Roman numeral sequel to me, like Rocky II, or maybe even a European numeral sequel like Resident Evil 2. This makes me wonder whether there will be incremental updates, like with iOS upgrades: 8.1.2, 8.1.3, etc.

Overall, the band’s firmware was pretty stable, and I’m happy with the test drive. I would recommend this upgrade to anyone who was into the original Alt/Air and looking for something next-gen from the Brandon Udani/Aly Ishikuni musical development team. The spritely vocals and main character are the same from the last group, but the whole image has been revamped with additional cast members to bring more edge in the musical environment. Plus, Ishikuni does cool little dance moves and Star Search/ American Idol-style body gestures.

Friday evening was spent cleaning up my kitchen because I had let some dishes pile up during the week. I hate to leave dishes out, so I wanted to make them all sparkle. I even vacuumed just for fun! That night, I caught the tail-end of Psychotropics at Kakaako Agora, a dance showcase as part of The Fringe Festival. I heard the first piece was supposedly super killer and trippy, so I was sad I missed it, but I liked what I saw.

Saturday I mainly spent walking around Kakaako waiting for the POW! WOW! festivities to pick up, checking out the art and seeing the artists put finishing touches on their murals. The finale was so packed and festive, but I guess the highlight was hanging out with 808 Urban alumni Emma Dold and Melody Avis. They’re two young artists who did this tag-team mural that multi-dimensionalized a hybridization of their faces. You have the option of accepting or declining the dimension shift with a mouse click, which I thought was a courteous option because if I’m just hurrying to get lunch or something, I might not want to bother with a whole extra dimension.

I wish I had had more time to spend talking to the artists this year — my favorite part about POW! WOW! is seeing the art develop and witness and discuss the artists’ processes as they’re in progress. But I still had a great time, and all the excitement had me totally wiped out.

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