First Friday Gallery Walk and Jaywalking

Friday was a good day. I had a morning appointment with the archivist of the Hawaii ILWU about some projects for students in the future. We were joined by the librarian/archivist from the International HQ in San Francisco and UH’s preservation guru Lynn. It was a fascinating talk. They have an important collection that is central to the less well-known story of the democratization of Hawaii. It was my first time to see the impressive mural by Pablo O’Higgins.

We then had lunch at Paesano with Dr. Nahl to celebrate her promotion to full professor. It is a very exciting event in an academic’s career. You cannot go any higher than that except as an administrator.



That evening was First Friday, so we visited with Dr. Knuth and a visiting colleague. We sampled calamari and Kona Golden Ale at Murphy’s (one of the oldest bars in town), then explored the galleries of Chinatown. We ended up at the Hawaii State Art Museum, which is always a treat.

The only downside was the absurdity of getting a $70 ticket for jaywalking on Hotel Street. The police set up a dragnet there, and gave out many tickets to fellow gallery-hoppers. I understand how the city wants to cut down on Hawaii's high number of pedestrian deaths/ accidents, but this seems unfair to do so on what is essentially a pedestrian and busses-only street. This also goes against the city's and state's efforts to make Chinatown a safer place that people want to visit. It is even more absurd when there were many more criminal acts going on within a block. Sigh. I just wrote a letter to the mayor about this.