HIFF is a WRAP!

The Hawaii International Film Festival was a wonderful experience all together. It was my very first time attending a film festival. Receiving the press badges on top of the whole thing was a great bonus as well. Not only did it gain free access to mostly everything, it also gave me a feeling of importance. Although, I wasn’t able to attend as many events as I would have liked too, due to my busy basketball schedule at the time, I still got a great idea of the wonderful atmosphere. Just being around so many different types of people from all over the world who had a common love for film was a magical feeling as well.

This past summer I worked on my very first low budget Indie film so naturally this made me curious to see the similar works of others. The director of the film I worked on just found out recently that the film got accepted into the Sundance Film Festival. So, I look forward to attending that next month in January. I feel as though the Hawaii Film Festival really prepared me for what to expect from a film festival.

And although I will not be given a Sundance press pass like I was given a HIFF press pass, I will still feel important because of all of my hard work I put in the film. Maybe one day, I will have to work my way back to Hawaii to attend the Hawaii Film Festival but next time hopefully I will be viewing some of work of my own! 

International Pop Star, Mira Craig

While attending Hawaii Pacific University, I have met many international students. The majority of them being from Norway. My international story is about the Norwegian music performer, Mira Craig. And well...she just happens to be my cousin as well! Hence, the same last name.

Mira's career and popularity has grown over the years! Not only is she a music performer but she was also a judge on Norway's hit show, the X-Factor! Recently, Mira has been relatively quiet in the entertainment business. Part of the reason for this is that she recently gave birth to her first born. And might I add, her baby is extremely precious! Although she has not been in the limelight recently, she is still hard at work continually working on new music for her fans. She is currently working on a fresh and new kind of sound and hoping that her fans will love what she puts out in the future. A month ago, she took a trip down to Las Vegas, Nevada to shoot a music video for a song off of her new album. The picture above was taken on the set of her music video shoot. To all of her loyal fans, stay tuned for some hot new music!

Glamhairous Extensions

Bracelets, necklaces, watches, earrings, and in Hawaii even flowers in your hair, are all common accessories for women. But more recently, hair extensions/weaves are becoming extremely popular among women. But not just any hair. Indian Hair to be specific. Indian Hair is in high demand which means getting your hands on some is not going to come cheap. After doing some research, I learned that the most top rated to purchase is 100% unprocessed Indian hair. But what exactly does this mean? There are other kinds of Indian hair that people like to sell. A lot of companies sell Indian hair that is mixed with other kinds of hair. However, the quality of 100% Indian hair is suppose to be the best. When you hear the term unprocessed or raw, this means that the hair has not been dyed and no chemicals have been used on the hair. The hair is literally fresh.

It can run someone up to $300 dollars for an Indian hair weave if you want the best quality. However, I've done all the hard work for everyone who is interested in buying hair or anyone who already does and is looking for cheaper places to buy from. Luckily, the company I found takes orders from all over the world and ships to them as well. The hair is 100% raw and unprocessed! They sell to major salons and celebrity stylist as well. The Los Angeles based company is called Glamhairous Extensions and their website is www.Glamhairousextensions.com

So check out the website if to get the best prices available!

Hanging Out in Hawaii with the Funniest Man Alive: Kevin Hart

On November 7, 2011, Kevin Hart, the world's hottest comedian landed on the island of Hawaii. He would soon perform for the very first time in Hawaii on the 12th. Many people were anticipating the sold out show at the Blaisdell Center. Luckily for everyone who was able to go, got to see his extremely new material that he performed for first time. The audience had a great reaction to his material with non-stop laughter. In the past year, Kevin's career has sky rocketed! Kevin Hart's new movie, Laugh at My Pain, recently broke records set by the great, Eddie Murphy. He has guest starred in numerous amounts of hit TV shows like, Modern Family and he has also appeared in many feature films. His latest movie, Think Like A Man is set to release on March 9, 2012.

During his time on the island, he went to a Luau to gain the full Hawaii experience. And I must say, I was quite embarrassed of the Luau. It was awfully set up and extremely commercial. The following day, I met up with Kevin on the beach and brought my roommate to give him surfing lessons. And sure enough, the funny man caught his first wave in no time. Due to APEC at the time, many of the activities that he had planned were being cancelled. Throughout his trip in Hawaii, I was quite surprised to see how big his fan base is in Hawaii. We could not walk down the street for more than two minutes with out being stopped by his fans. Many people are fortunate to only know the side of Kevin on stage but Kevin is quite the gentleman and is extremely nice to everyone. He is a very positive guy who enjoys making others laugh! If you have not seen any of his three comedy specials, I strongly suggest you check them out at your soonest convenience so that you aren't the only one who is missing out!

9th Wonder AFTER PARTY

An After Party at Next Door took place after the viewing of “The Wonder Year”. 9^th Wonder got on the 1’s and 2’s and rocked out for the club. It was a fun experience. Here is a video of me talking about the time I spent at the club! P.S. I was a little sick at the time so pardon the sniffles.

THE WONDER YEAR

A friend of mine asked me if I wanted to join her to watch, “The Wonder Year”. I had never heard of it and she basically told me it was a documentary about a music producer. I love music so naturally I became interested and curious. Before the movie started, the audience heard from both the director of the movie and the star of the documentary, 9^th Wonder himself. The film was the director’s thesis for graduate school. This added much more curiosity for me because I was really excited to see the quality in his project. The two gentlemen seemed nice, appreciative, and seemed so happy to be here in Hawaii for HIFF.  Back to the movie. I was very impressed with the documentary.  The director essentially, followed 9^th Wonder around for a year and the movie was divvied up into 12 sections with each section representing a different month. Each month was a different topic of the music producer’s life. I thought this was a very clever way to organize the way the movie was put together. Not only was it cleverly done, the film had great quality and amazing angles. It was also a plus too because the music the director used was from 9^th wonder himself. This was a cool feature. I definitely recommend this movie to anyone who loves music. You get a cool look inside at how music producers make their music and a brief look into their lifestyles.

RumFire Waikiki

In kicking off of the Hawaii Film Festival, RumFire held the opening press conference for all of the press attending this years Festival. This blog however, is not about the highly anticipated film festival! RumFire took advantage of the opportunity of hosting the opening conference by taking that time to let everyone in attendance try some of their food off of their new social comfort food menu. They announced that they recently hired a new chef. With being one of my favorite things, I was first in line to try the new food. The chef had prepared spicy ahi poke and ho farms tomato medley. As you can tell from the pictures, the proportions were very small. To be honest, it was very hard to even get a good taste of what was in my mouth because before you know it, the food was down my throat. So after getting seconds and thirds, I didn’t really care for either the ahi or the tomato medley. The food was not bad but the spicy ahi poke did not taste any different from poke I could buy at foodland for less than half of RumFire’s price. It was just nothing special. As for the tomato medley, it was more bizarre than anything. And I am definitely not anything close to a picky eater. The texture of it was much like that of jello. It was as if I was eating tomato flavored jello and that did not exactly sit well with me. Like I mentioned before, I think the perfect word to describe it is BIZARRE! After looking at the new menu, there were other things that caught my eye, so I wouldn’t give up on RumFire’s food just yet! I plan on going back sometime in the near future.

Philly Cheese Steak 101

Recently, while I was watching TV, I saw a comical Arby’s commercial advertising their new Philly cheese steak sandwich. It showed angry Philadelphians offended at the fact that Arby’s new sandwich was suppose to be better than an actual sandwich from Philadelphia itself. I recently sat down with Philadelphia native, Mallory Sminkey, and found that it was the perfect time to get the actual truth about this famous sandwich that Philadelphia is famous for. I personally have never been to Philadelphia or had a Philly cheese steak sandwich. First things first, I wanted to clarify exactly what makes up the sandwich. Mallory went on to explain that the four most important components to the sandwich are the roll, the thinly sliced steak meat, the cheese wiz, and the onion rings. Next, I wanted to know what the top famous restaurants for the Philly cheese steak were in Philadelphia. Mallory gave me a list of 5 places; Pat’s, Ricks, Jims, Tony Lukes, and Gino’s. But further went on to say that she preferred Pat’s and Rick’s. Talking to Mallory, I got the inside scoop about the two famous restaurants. Apparently, Mallory is best friends with the owner of Rick’s daughter, and Mallory claims that Rick is actually Pat’s son. Remember, Pat is the other restaurant that Mallory really enjoys. It was a shock to me at first that Rick would actually go into the restaurant business and compete with his father Pat. But word on the street is that Rick ended up giving up his business to another one of his children, instead of Rick. I found this really interesting! For those on the island who do not have the luxury of traveling to Philadelphia anytime soon, Mallory did recommend the one restaurant on the island that is the closest to the real deal. Ono in Waikiki won her vote for the best Philly cheese steak on the island of Oahu. However, she does mention that they don’t have their cheese proportions right, which is something that is important for this cheese wiz lover! There you have it! Philly Cheese steak 101!

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WWW.SHOPSOLAONLINE.COM

The Wait is Finally Over!!

SOFIYANI LA was officially launched this weekend. The much anticipated jewelry line has already had much success with customers from all over the world. 

Hard at work, the Sofiyani LA team began designing the jewelry pieces in the beginning of spring of 2011.

“Sofiyani LA also known as "So LA" is an exclusive LA brand that represents the upper crust of Los Angeles fashion. Of French and Arabic origin, Sofiyani is derived from the word "Safa" meaning pure. For the glamorous chic girl to the everyday casual girl, this multifaceted collection is fresh, bold, and timeless. Each custom piece has it's own character and signature look, from our elegant crystal encrusted headpieces to our luminous hand and body jewelry.  Bring panache and magnetism to your lifestyle with the SoLA team!”

So, for all of the fashionable ladies, I’d advise you to check out Sofiyani LA website for new and hot jewelry. www.shopsolaonline.com

Also be sure to follow the “So LA” twitter and facebook page! twitter.com/sofiyani_la AND facebook.com/sofiyanila

Romantic Justin Bieber

As if there weren’t enough young men around the world that envied Justin Bieber already, after knowing what he has recently done, will only add more men to that number. I’m sure one of the reasons that many guys envy him is for his beautiful, superstar girlfriend, Selena Gomez. But now, they have yet, another reason. On a beautiful Friday night out, Justin took Selena to see her good friend Demi Lovato, in concert at the Nokia theatre in Los Angeles, California. 


However, when the concert was done, the night did not end there. Justin took her next door to the Staples Center. The Staples Center is known for having large crowds to up to 20,000 people but not on this night. When the two love birds walked in, the stadium was empty with a dinner table in the middle of the arena. Justin had set up a sweet romantic date with a dinner for the two of them and the staples center to themselves. But, the date still did not end there. After the couple consumed their food, Justin had a screening of the movie Titanic for the two of them to watch alone in the huge stadium. Romantic right? But Justin can’t take credit for it all. The movie Mr. Deeds, had a similar scene where Adam Sandler’s character took his date to an empty Madison Square Garden arena in New York. I’m guessing the movie inspired Justin to plan out this special night. The kicker of the whole story is that Justin did not have to pay a single penny to Staples for reserving the stadium. Staples did Justin the favor and let him use it with no charge. It was there way of saying thank you to Justin for selling out the arena on three different occasions.  Cool right? That’s a lot of power for a 17 year old!!!

The New Two and Half Men

SPOILER ALERT!

Two and Half Men is one of the most anticipated shows of the fall. If you are not familiar with the show, it was one of the top rated television sitcoms for a number of years. Charlie Sheen was the highest paid television actor, raking in about $1.8 million dollars an episode. The hit show on CBS had fired Charlie Sheen over a dispute they had, and then replaced Sheen with Ashton Kutcher. Initially, Sheen had issues with the head honchos of the Two and Half Men production crew and no one really knew his true feelings about being replaced by Kutcher. But many people were curious to know if Charlie was going to watch the show with the new Kutcher character. Indeed, Charlie was one of the 28.7 million viewers that tuned in to watch new show. Word on the street is that he even loved the show. The show opened with the writers of Two and Half Men killing off Sheen. So, despite watching his own funeral, Charlie still thought the show was clever and brilliant. Seems as though, the fire between Charlie and the Two and Half Men crew has somewhat calmed down. As Charlie moves on to other jobs, I’m sure they will be very successful. I’m definitely not worried about his bank account.

T.CRAIG

My name is Taylor Craig and I’m currently a senior at HPU majoring in Cinematic Productions. I play for the Women’s Basketball team here so you should definitely come out to support! I am originally from the best city in the world, Los Angeles, California. If you have never been, I totally suggest going and taking a visit.

All of my life I have been around the entertainment industry due to the fact that my father is a producer. But only about three years ago did I honestly realize that I had a strong interest in television and film production. I’m very anxious to graduate and head back home to Los Angeles so I can continue to work on production sets.

Just some quick facts about me: I LOVE SUSHI! And I also love MUSIC! Some of my favorite TV shows are Gossip Girl and Modern Family. I rarely ever bite my tongue. If I have something to say, usually, I’ll say it. I’m a pretty funny person, so I’ve been told.  I graduated from Beverly Hills High-the TV show 90210 is an exaggerated version of what the school is really like. However, pretty much every student has a nicer car than every teacher.

So, to wrap it this all up in one short sentence…I’m a hooper who loves sushi and wants to be just like my daddy! =) 

Act of War

This movie was really eye opening for me to say the least. When I first came to the island I met one of my good friends who is a local. She would always complain to me about how people were always coming in and taking the land and turning it into commercial property. She would always tell me that it was sacred land. To be totally honest, I would always tell her to shut up because I did not understand why this land was any different from somewhere else or why it was different from any land in another state like California where they are always building new things. 


The movie, “Act of War”, has helped me see why. I definitely learned a lot of interesting facts about the history of Hawaii. One of the very first things that caught my attention and really pulled me into the movie was the fact that Hawaii was long before the United States and England. As I mentioned earlier, my friend would always complain but I did not know that so many people felt so strongly about Hawaii being taken away. In the video there were numerous amounts of people just screaming and chanting how they will NEVER be American and that they will die Hawaiian and they will not accept anything else. I remember one lady saying how even though it may have seemed like Hawaii did not have anything, the Hawaiian people were happy as ever even with the simple life that they had. The same lady also said that the Hawaiians were so efficient with catching their wild food that they were able to have a lot of leisure time to do whatever. And a lot of times this extra time let to the Hawaiian people creating lots of creative things and art. 


As I mentioned earlier I did not really know the history about how Americans made progress with taking control of Hawaii. But something that stuck out to me was how the Americans were trying to make, what is now Pearl Harbor a place of refuge for the Americans. Obviously this was just one of many ways that America has taken control of the State of Hawaii. I think that it is sad for the people of Hawaii to basically lose what was once their land but sometimes life is not fair and we have to go through many trials and tribulations. Sometimes these hard times make us realize and appreciate the things that we do have.