James Lileks’ blog The Bleat mentions Candy Corn flavor Oreos.
The mind reels.
I have not noticed Candy Corn Oreos in Hawaii, perhaps it is a Minnesota thing. But I did note “Fun Football-shape Oreos.”
As my father used to say, it doesn’t take much to amuse some people.
And speaking of curiosities,
More fun than a round Oreo?
what’s with backing into parking spaces? I’d say close to a third of local drivers do this. But why?
Bob McCullough of Pawn Stories says he got enough good footage in 2 days to fill 3 30-minute shows (with 22 or 23 minutes of program per show).
Our customers came through like champions.
Pick of the litter were 2 Father Damien postcards that were authenticated by out expert and valued at several hundred dollars.
So check the back of your desk drawer for old postcards, yeagh?
Dog of the days was probably the old home-remedy case containing about 20 vials of medicines that go back to the days of ancient Greece and beyond, like nux vomica (an emetic) and aconite (a nasty poison).
Most of the vials were empty, but the one marked “opium” still had 7 tablets in it. Our customer hadn’t noticed that.
The tablets may have been about 100 years old, and no doubt the opium has lost its potency by now. But we had to tell him, “We cannot buy opium.”
Stay tuned for even more news about reality pawn television.
Father Damien
Kandi of Kamaaina Loan and Bob McCullough of Pawn Stories, both veteran jewelry salesmen, trade tips at our store Thursday. Bob is showing the size of an ivory tusk he bought one time.
First day of shooting for Pawn Stories is in the can. Nobody showed up with a knickknack from tutu’s attic that was really a rare artifact worth $50,000, but we had fun anyway.
Filming continues today (but not Saturday), and you do NOT have to bring an item to take part. One customer brought her voice and sang an aria from “La Boheme.” Very loud.
Bob McCullough, owner of the Pawn Stories production company, says that was not unique. He has had one other singer show up for his reality show. Not La Boheme, though.
We are no threat to “American Idol.”
Tonight is First Friday on Market Street, so we will be here and be busy all day. Stop by and join the fun.
Pawn Stories camera crew Amber Smith and Carl Johnson ready to work
As of 8 this morning, the Pawn Stories crew was at work, filming behind-the-scenes at the pawnshop.
When Kamaaina Loan opened its doors at 9, there was not a line of people carrying stuffed monkeys, but there was a short line of regular customers coming in to make and pay off loans. We’re hoping the cinematic element grows as the day wears on.
Pawn Stories cameraman Carl Johnson and his sidekick and second camerawoman Amber Smith were impessed by the Iao Valley rainforest, which they hope to hike before they leave the island.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Carl.
Carl and Amber have been filming pawn operations for Pawn Stories for years now, and they’ve never seen anything like Kamaaina Loan. But, as Carl noted, every pawn business is different.
A ribbon issued to welcome US Navy sailors to Honolulu during the war with Spain.
The excitement is building, but a little nervousness, too, as we prep Kamaaina Loan for filming the Pawn Stories reality TV show Thursday. As we said earlier, this is real reality, no script.
Now that we’re about to go on camera, the idea of a script begins to show its advantages.
With a script, you not only know for sure you’ll be getting something, but you know what it will be. You can cheat a little and do some research beforehand. Come Thursday, we’ll be working the flying trapeze without a net: If you bring in a whatzis that we’ve never seen before, we might be stumped. Or not. There are a lot of reference books upstairs, and with a combined cenjury or so of experience, there are not that many things that have never come over the counter before.
It doesn’t have to be bizarre, though.
Hawaiiana item
Hawaiiana items are sure to be a hit with the Mainlanders. Come on by, starting at 9 a.m. Thursday, 9 a.m. again Friday and 10 a.m. Saturday.
(What’s the weirdest thing anyone ever brought in? Hard to say, but the Egyptian sarcophagus has to be a contender. It took a while, but we found a buyer for it.)
Secrets of reality TV
Most reality TV shows are staged. You knew that, right? I mean, all those coincidences in “The Amazing Race” didn’t just happen.
There’s an exception, though, and it’s right here. Only we need you to make it happen, fo’ real.
On Thursday and Friday (and maybe Saturday, too), Pawn Stories will be filming at Kamaaina Loan. No script, no fakery.
What we are trying to do, however, is to compress the interesting things that really do happen in the pawnshop over a month, or six months into two days – in the interest of efficiency with the production crews.
Thus, we want you to bring your most curious item in and let us give you a reading. Did tutu tell you the diamond in her wedding ring was “perfect”? You always wondered if it really was. Find out.
In reality, Kamaaina Loan does get a lot of curious stuff. Not every day. Jimi likes to talk about atmospheric clocks, “the closest thing to perpetual energy.”
We really do get atmospheric clocks in. We have one on pawn right now, and we purchased another about three years ago.
They’re real but rare.
So what we’d like you to do for us is help us concentrate all that reality into two days. Should be fun.
We’re open 9 a.m.-6 p.m., and the early bird will get the worms.
Call 242-5555 if you have questions.
And, yes, if you have regular business and don’t want to be filmed, we’re setting up a no-camera area.
Two of Maui’s coastal areas have been in the news during the last couple of weeks, but just as interesting is a third one that has not been, but was supposed to be.
The ones in the news are Launiupoko, where Honoapiilani Highway is falling into the ocean, and the Kahului sewage treatment plant, where an 1,100-foot seawall is proposed to keep buildings from being washed out.
Not in the news is the long stretch of beach along North Kihei Road. Old-timers may recall that some 18 to 20 years ago, it was predicted that erosion would reach the road within five years. It didn’t.
What happened? Cars struck two hawksbill turtles that were crawling across the highway looking for a place to nest. In alarm about wildlife, snow fences were put up to halt the turtles before they got to the road.
This apparently also had the effect of changing the dune geometry enough to retard the alongshore erosion. Unfortunately, something as cheap and benign as a snow fence is probably not going to do the job that seawalls do.
And benign is relative. The fences have prevented any more endangered turtles from being run over and killed, but although motorists killed a large fraction of the hawksbill that like that stretch of beach for nesting, they didn’t get them all.
Since the fences went up, several nests have been discovered, but, for lack of access to a place they’d like, in the high dune close to the waves. Not one of these nests has resulted in developed eggs.
Turtle watchers suspect that the locations are too dry and salty. Mother knows best. Farther inland is better.
I don’t know what could be done about this. Maybe dig up nests and relocate them, and then help the hatchlings to the water.
Maybe water the nests in place.
Launiupoko is an example of the rule that if you defer maintenance long enough, a minor problem will become a crisis.
That the shoreline is retreating there has been obvious for a long time. During Hurricane Iniki, waves were hurling softball-size rocks across the road like cannonballs.
As long as Pioneer Mill was farming that area, it was unlikely anything would be done to move the road inland. When Pioneer left, a golden chance to pick up the land cheap and begin realigning the road was missed.
Since then, slow progress has been made. Not fast enough to prevent the state DOT from armoring the shoreline.
At one point – I believe it was during Linda Lingle’s mayoralty – the planning department decided it would no longer support any further armoring of Maui’s shores. It always causes trouble somewhere down the line.
That was good policy. But it’s been forgotten.
Now the county itself is proposing to further harden the shoreline near the airport.
The alternatives were all expensive.
Moving the sewage treatment plant inland was expected to cost nearly half a billion dollars. Naturally, the council preferred to waterproof the plant.
Even that cost many tens of millions. The idea is that when a tsunami or hurricane threatens to swamp the plant, it will be shut down and buttoned up. The waves will wash over the plant, doing (it is hoped) little permanent damage to Kanaha Pond wildlife refuge as the partially treated sewage in open tanks is spread around.
If the electrical systems are waterproofed, the plant can be restarted within a day or so after the overflow. (The Japanese should have been so prudent at Fukushima, although to work this plan requires adequate warning, which the Japanese tsunami did not give.)
Not mentioned, that I can recall, during the discussions about waterproofing the plant was the coming need to armor the shoreline. 1,100 feet is a lot of seawall, bound to cause trouble downcurrent – which at that location is in either direction, because the current changes direction with the seasons.
. . . and then bring yourself and your strangest or most interesting possession down to Kamaaina Loan on Thursday or Friday. You’ll want to comb your hair because you can be on TV.
Reality TV production company Pawn Stories will be videoing in our shop both days, and you can be part of the show!
No kidding, Most reality shows are scripted, wholly or totally (you knew that, right?>), but not this one. Our customers and staff will do what they do, and the cameras will catch it.
If you prefer to keep off camera but have business anyway (like paying off a loan and reclaiming a pawn), we will have a separate, camera-free area for you.
We’re combing our hair, too, and looking to have a lot of fun, and we’d like you to be part of it. And stay for Wailuku First Friday.
Just a reminder that Pawn Stories Inc. will be filming two (possibly three) days of reality TV at Kamaaina Loan & Cash for Gold, and YOU’RE INVITED!
Here’s how to enhance your chances: Bring something interesting — rare, valuable, odd, even kooky — and show it to our pawnbrokers. There will be two (sometimes 3) cameras rolling, taking it all in. Unlike some of the pawn shows you’ve seen, this one is NOT scripted. The producers want to see pawning in paradise, by real people acting the way they really act when the cameras are not around.
If you can talk story, all the better.
OK, here’s a backstage secret. The producer, Bob McCullough, does not script. However, sometimes, when an interaction is really good, he may ask the participants to repeat what they said, to get good audio. In real life, sound recording can be tricky.
Let’s say, though, that you have to do a pawn or sale transaction for the usual reasons — you need cash — and you don’t want it on video. No problem. Kamaaina Loan will be in regular operation, with a separate location next door where the cameras won’t be. Your choice: Be a pawn star, or don’t be a pawn star.
The film schedule is Thursday, Sept. 6, and Friday, Sept. 7, during regular business hours, which are 9 am to 6 pm. Your chances of being filmed are better earlier in the day.
Be sure to stick around for Wailuku First Friday, which is also slated to be filmed.
We will film on Saturday, Sept. 8, if necessary.
Anyone agreeing to take part will be asked to sign a standard video release. It should be fun and we look forward to seeing old friends. Even if you don’t have an item to present, bring yourself and say Howzzit!
Business Week has a story about a movie mecca you’ve never heard of, Allen Park, Michigan. This should be required reading for Maui citizens and mayors and council members, since we also have been tabbed as a suburb of Tinsel Town.
The Allen Park experiment was significantly different from the proposals floated on Maui, since it was to be a trade school, not a production center. Nevertheless, the framework of the agreement is something for us to be sure to avoid, especially the hold-harmless agreement. (I am surprised by this agreement, since usually it’s governments that impose hold-harmless agreements on businesses, not the other way around.
Still, http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-08-23/the-movie-flop-that-sank-a-michigan-town required reading. Here’s the start:
Jimmy Lifton was supposed to be Allen Park’s savior. He arrived in the Detroit bedroom community midway through 2009, shortly after General Motors (GM) and Chrysler declared bankruptcy. The metro area’s jobless rate was 15.9 percent, and officials were desperate to get residents back to work. Lifton, a Detroit native and president of Oracle Post, an audio and video post-production company in Burbank, Calif., had just the idea: He wanted to turn Allen Park into a movie-making hub.
The overture wasn’t as random as it may seem. Michigan had a nascent film industry thanks to a generous tax credit offered at the time; the state had lured Clint Eastwood to film Gran Torino and George Clooney to direct The Ides of March.
In August 2009, Allen Park’s city council unanimously voted to sell $31 million in bonds to buy and improve 104 acres so Lifton could develop a $146 million studio as a tenant of the city. At the event announcing the partnership, then-Mayor Gary Burtka declared Allen Park “Hollywood 48101” (a reference to the city’s Zip Code), and Lifton spoke of cranking out movies the way Henry Ford mass-produced cars. Lifton promised 3,000 jobs, which would have made the venture, known as Unity Studios, the biggest employer in town. “We will be here 25 and 50 and 100 years from now,” Lifton said.
That script didn’t pan out. Lifton has vacated the property and returned to California, leaving Allen Park with a bad case of buyer’s remorse. “We were buffaloed,” says Tony Lalli, a former councilman who voted for the bond sale. “Everyone said they wanted it, and we went along.”
Monday – Friday 9 am – 6 pm
Saturday – Sunday 10 am – 4 pm