HB Life

No Work and All Play

Things We Love

photo courtesy: the contemporary museum

Phantasmagoria: Spectres of Absence
Through 11/25.
The Contemporary Museum explodes with a spectacular mix of the ephemeral. Darkness, fog, mist, vapor, shadow puppets and a giant cloud of virtual dust shed light on life, death and the mysteries of existence.

HIFF
10/18-28
Back for its 27th year, the Hawaii International Film Festival treats us to the best in world cinema, and, with Varsity Theaters gone, gives us a much-needed new/indie/foreign film fix for a dizzying 10 days across five Islands. www.hiff.org.

photo: courtesy baggu bags

Baggu Bags
According to Baggu, 100 billion plastic bags, which biodegrade after 1,000 years into toxic particles, end up in landfills each year. Cut some of the waste with this stylishly reusable bag. Your planet will thank you for it.

Ravenchase Hawaii
Ravenchase Adventures Hawaii presents its first annual Zombie Crawl scavenger hunt on All Hallow’s Eve. Prepare for a night of slippery downtown sleuthing with other costumed clue seekers. www.ravenchase.com.

photo: courtesy quickpod

Quick Pod
If your hand-held self-portrait photography suffers from short-arm syndrome, try Quick Pod, a telescopic arm for your camera. As an added advantage, strangers won’t walk off with your camera after saying cheese.

- Jen Tadaki Catanzariti

photo: Kaz Tanabe, from party hawaii published by mutual publishing

That’s Entertainment

If streamers and balloons are your only ideas for party decorations, you might want to pick up a copy of Party Hawaii: A Guide to Entertaining in the Islands by Kaui Philpotts. The 200-page, hardcover book, out this month, features creative parties that mirror the cultures and traditions of Hawaii. “Living in the Islands has always meant living with this special blend and celebrating each other’s holidays,” Philpotts says.

Party Dos and Don’ts by Kaui Philpotts:
• Invite a “ringer,” a person not everyone knows but would like to. Someone interesting and not part of your usual crowd should add excitement.
• Sit your most talkative guests in the middle of a long, rectangular table.
• Most bakers do a better job of birthday cakes than restaurants. Get approval from the restaurant before ordering from the bakery.

- Cathy S. Cruz-George

photo: courtesy 1st look exteriors design center

The Great Green Outdoors

For more than a decade, Greg and Terri Lee have been greening the Island landscape one yard at a time. Earlier this summer, the award-winning landscape designers brought their considerable knowledge of everything outdoor inside, sort of. Their 1st Look Exteriors Design Center, located in Waipio, features a large inventory of furniture, water features and lighting, everything homeowners need for elegant lanai living. But these products don’t just look good, they do good.

The Lees estimate that 80 percent of their merchandise is ecofriendly, including an extensive selection of patio furniture made out of water hyacinths, an invasive species. There are also tables and chairs made from recycled plastic milk jugs and wood harvested from sustainable forests.

But the Lees are doing more than just buying and selling green. They’re putting the finishing touches on a 15-foot-tall “living” wall, filled with Native Hawaiian plants, which will naturally cool their store. www.1stlookexteriors.com

— David K. Choo

Weekend in New England

Looking for a colorful fall vacation? The editors at frommers.com put together this list of New England’s leading leafy locations:

-DKC

Walden Pond State Reservation (Concord, Mass.)
Walden Pond is hidden from the road by the woods where Henry David Thoreau built a small cabin and lived from 1845 to 1847. When the leaves are turning and the trees are reflected in the water, it’s hard to imagine why he left.

photo courtesy: langtry estate & vineyards

Bash-Bish Falls State Park (Mass.)
Head from the comely village of South Egremont up into the forested hills of the southwest corner of Massachusetts. The roads, which change from macadam to gravel to dirt and back, wind between crimson clouds of sugar maples and white birches feather-stroked against banks of black evergreens.

The Litchfield Hills (Conn.)
Route 7, running south to north through the rugged northwest corner of Connecticut, roughly along the course of the Housatonic River, explodes with color in the weeks before and after Columbus Day.

I-91 (Vt.)
An interstate? Don’t scoff. You’ll be overwhelmed with gorgeous terrain, from the gentle Connecticut River Valley to the sloping hills of the Northeast Kingdom.

Route 100 (Vt.)
Route 100 winds the length of Vermont, from Readsboro to Newport. It’s the major north-south route through the center of the Green Mountains, and it’s surprisingly undeveloped along most of its length.

Crawford Notch (NH)
Route 302 passes through this scenic valley, where you can see the brilliant red maples and yellow birches high on the hillsides. In fall, Mount Washington, in the background, is likely to be dusted with an early snow.

Camden (Me.)
The dazzling fall colors that cover the rolling hills are reflected in Penobscot Bay on the east side, and in the lakes on the west. Ascend the peaks for views of the color-splashed islands in the bay.

Source: frommers.com

Wine Time

Where: Langtry Estate & Vineyards, Middletown, Calif.
When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily
Why: Earlier this summer, Langtry, owned by Honolulu-based Malulani Investments, received high honors at the 2007 California State Fair Commercial Wine Competition, the oldest and most prestigious wine competition in North America. Langtry’s 2005 Guenoc Lake County Petite Sirah was selected as the best produced in California. Additionally, the 2006 Guenoc Lake County Sauvignon Blanc was selected as the best produced in the North Coast.
www.langtryestate.com

– DKC

photo: courtesy canon

Quick Shot

Last August, after months of anticipation, Canon U.S.A. unveiled the EOS 40D, the newest addition to its mid-range digital SLR line. The camera features a newly enhanced 10.1-megapixel imaging sensor and completely redesigned autofocus sensor. Perhaps most impressive of all is the 40D’s extreme speed, 6.5 frames per second, making it the fastest camera in its class. You won’t miss a shot. (List price: $1,599, www.usa.canon.com)

— DKC

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