First Hawaii and now Korea...

Oh, shyte! I think Daniel Dae Kim is stalking me.

...

Hawaii Five-0 premiere

I know I should be studying and working, but I decided to take the evening off to catch the world premiere of Five-0 2.0.

I'm still kicking myself for missing the season 6 premiere of "Lost" in the same spot at Waikiki.

Maybe I'll catch a glimpse of Grace Park. Just hope the tide doesn't get any higher.

UPDATE:
As the time for the arrival of the stars approached, the tiny spaces of sand you see here were filled in by people who came late to the party who pushed their way in to see the celebrities, in some cases knocking aside the chairs and blankets of those who, as had been recommended, had gotten their by 5 pm. These were some of the same folks shouting "Boomer!"at Grace Park. Stay classy, tourists.

UPDATE 2:
I did catch a glimpse of Grace Park. And Daniel Dae Kim.

UPDATE 3:
And here's me at the premiere:

St Andrew's Cathedral

This "Lost" location (Daniel Faraday's Oxford and Desmond's monastery, I think) is in downtown Honolulu. There's a heavy Episcopalian presence on Oahu, which makes for some beautiful churches.

I was here visiting the courthouse across the street, to pay a parking fine so I can register my Honda before I head off. Right after I asked what floor that was, the freaky looking person right behind me asked, "What floor do you go to contest a restraining order?"

Good times.

A contest I missed

Well, the prize was a trip to Hawaii. I'd have to pay money to go somewhere else just to take advantage of it.

Byodo-in Temple near Kaneohe

Inspired by the comments at this "Lost"-related post at Ask a Korean, I've decided to post a picture I took of Byodo-in Temple, which is a re-creation of a famous temple of the same name (but with mācrōn dīātrīcāls) in Kyōto-ken, Japan. It was used as the backdrop for the wedding of Jin and Sun, the two primary Korean characters on the program.

It begs the question, like the Santa Monica Mountains near Malibu which served as the location for M*A*S*H, does this look anything like something you'd see in Korea? And if not, is it really that big a deal? I can't even begin to count how many times I've seen places in Seoul or Kyŏnggi-do stand in for the US or Canada.

Cats explain "Lost"

Now can we get these cats to explain North Korea? The Hugo cat can play Kim Jong-il. Jin can play President Lee. [HT to LAT]

Lost no more

Tonight is the series finalé of my beloved "Lost." And rather than watch it the following day on Hulu, I think I may track down someone with a television that actually gets shows as they're broadcast (my digital TV decoder box died on me, cheap piece of crap!), because I know a whole bunch of people who will probably be calling me up to talk about it, some from time zones where they will have seen the ending before it even starts in this freak state.

Why couldn't we be like Guam and have placed ourselves on the other side of the International Dateline? Of course, it would be December 8, 1941, that would be living in infamy, but that's not my problem.

[LOST SEASON 6 SPOILER ALERT!!!] Hawaii Five-0 2.0 3.0

WARNING! YouTube video below (including its title) contains a spoiler for the fourteenth episode of "Lost" from Season 6.

Pretty soon, "Hawaii 5-0" won't just refer to short girls from Honolulu. It seems CBS is going to offer Daniel Dae Kim (no relation to Daniel Day Lewis) a job as Chin Ho Kelly in the resurrection of the popular series that's so old, it actually predates television. Great timing, since his role as Jin on "Lost" is winding down.



Now that the Census Bureau gig is also winding down (unless I can pull off looking busy for the next nine years), maybe you'll spot Kushibo checking off another job on his list of forms of employment he'd like to try for a few months: television or movie extra. Again, Korean-language skills may come in handy. (The rest of the list includes baristo, police officer, national park ranger, politician, NGO head, and Seoul taxi driver.)

And can I be the first to mention the irony of Mr Kim playing HPD instead of being booked by them? (Seriously, that was sort of a problem with the "Lost" cast.)

Ah, just kidding. You've been great in "Lost," and I'm sorry to see it all coming to an end. I've especially enjoyed your storyline.

The Last Supper Season

This is what I get for not reading the local papers more diligently. Apparently there was a huge sneak preview of the season premiere for what is being billed as the final season of the cult hit TV program, ABC's "Lost" (NBC's also lost, but that's an entirely different meaning).

Um, anyway, it took me a whole year after arriving in Hawaii to get caught up with the show — it's definitely not something you want to see out of order and there was no way in Korea to watch them in order — but ABC was (and still is) good enough to have all five of the previous seasons' shows available on line if you happen to live in the United States. I had seen the first two episodes of the show on a visit to Orange County several years ago, but I knew I should stop watching until I could watch them the way they were broadcast; the character development would be ruined and the story lines would make even less sense than they would anyway.

Though not my all-time absolute favorite television show — that would be "The Simpsons" or "M*A*S*H" (as long as you don't count the last seasons of the former and the first seasons of the latter) — "Lost" definitely ranks in the top ten, and it's a fun show to check out if you live in Hawaii, particularly when it comes to guessing (or knowing) where such-and-such allegedly non-Hawaii location was filmed here in Oahu. So it's too bad for me that I wasn't one of the twelve thousand who made it down to Waikiki for the preview. I'll just have to hope for a mysteriously appearing season 7.

UPDATE:
After thinking about this a bit, I wonder if the above photo is simply a play on words (depicting the "Last Supper" at the beginning of the last season), or is this a bit of foreshadowing by the producers, where John Locke will prove to have some messianic or Christ-like role. And which one of them would be Judas? And which one Peter? I know my Bible, but not my Michelangelo.

Mufi versus McLovin

Mufi Hanneman is the mayor of the City and County of Honolulu. He's a big guy, of mixed Samoan, German, and English stock. Like the Big Island with its 4200-meter high peaks, the 6-foot-7 (201 cm) mayor contains eleven climatic zones.

It's fitting that he would be the chief executive of the world's longest city, a place which he works hard to make better (though like any politician, he has his critics). So it was no surprise when I read this old bit of news from a year ago about Mayor Mufi trying to block the DVD release of Superbad, which included fake Hawaii driver licenses, à la McLovin. 

If you're ever in Hawaii and want to do the whole movie/TV locations tour, stick with "50 first dates," "Lost," "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," etc. I'm pretty sure Momona Street is in a bad part of town.  

Lost in the dairy section

I don't think I ever blogged about this, but one day while walking through the Safeway on Kapahulu, I passed someone who looked quite familiar, the gentleman at left.

In fact, I run into a lot of people from the university—often folks you walk by several times a week so you know their face but you have never formally met—and I just assumed it was one of those people. It was only when I got home I had my little epiphany: that's the guy who's the leader of The Others!

At that point, I had deliberately not watched any of Lost (I was waiting for a chance to watch each episode in order from the beginning), so I only recognized him from the commercials on ABC. Had I said anything, I would have sounded pretty stupid.

But now that I'm completely up to speed on "Lost," I think there's a good chance I might run into him again. The Safeway on Kapahulu is the largest (and nicest) on the whole island, probably the whole state. In fact, Governor Linda Lingle showed up for the grand opening in November 2007 (as she probably will when Target opens this March and maybe even Trader Joe's if they ever opened one here; there's not a lot going on in Hawaii when the president's not here on vacation).

First off, I will not go up to him and say, "Hey, you're Ben!" I will say, "Oh, aren't you Michael Emerson from Lost? You do a great job on that show." I've been in media long enough to know that it's always nice when people come up to you and say your name instead of, "Aren't you that guy on that news program?" Or worse, "You're on TV!" clearly with no idea who you are or what program(s) you do.

Come to think of it, I probably should also remember the names of the other actors, too. Honolulu and Oahu are not that big and they shoot Lost scenes all over the island, so you never know who you'll encounter. I just hope the meeting isn't a bending of fenders with someone driving inebriated through the streets of Oahu, as seems to be a theme with some of the Lost actors (who end up dead on the show).