5 Things We Love is a shortlist of newly discovered stuff you have got to see, hear, wear, use or eat. What are you loving this week? Send a brief description of your latest favorite thing, where to find it and how much it costs, along with your name and contact info to features@staradvertiser.com.
Enjoy national parks on Instagram
Can’t afford a summer trip to one of the United States’ great national parks? Take a virtual vacation via @usinterior on Instagram. There you’ll find spectacular landscape and wildlife photography from American Samoa and Hawaii to Maine. It’s where I go when I’m trapped indoors and need a breath of fresh air.
—Christie Wilson
Graphic novel is an ode to childhood
Gilbert Hernandez’s all-ages graphic novel "Marble Season" (Drawn & Quarterly, $21.95) is a semiautobiographical story of growing up in a multi-ethnic, working-class Southern California neighborhood in the 1960s. The characters include Huey, an imaginative, comic-book-loving boy, his younger brother, Chavo, and a mysterious girl who’s always listening to Motown and "Beatos" songs on her transistor radio. The last few pages, which focus on Huey’s friendship with Betty, a girl from the ‘hood, are magical in their simple directness. Throughout his successful career, Hernandez has demonstrated an affinity for small-kid times, and "Marble Season" is told in a vivid but measured style that invites readers to linger on those small moments that make childhood so special.
—Gary Chun, Honolulu
Keiki musicians find treasure in trash
There are plenty of inspiring music stories out there, from Scottish phenom Susan Boyle to Choi Sung-bong, the homeless Korean boy who was a hit on that country’s version of "Idol." Then there’s the Landfill Harmonic, a youth orchestra that literally grew out of a trash heap called Cateura, a slum near Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay. The young musicians play on instruments made from recycled garbage: discarded oil tins, plumbing, coins and buttons. To see 19-year-old "Bebi" point proudly to the crumpled remains of an oil drum and call it his cello is intriguing, but it’s truly chicken-skin time to watch him sit down and play Bach on it. Find clips of the orchestra on YouTube, and a documentary is due next year.
—Steven Mark
Coloring product rejuvenates tresses
Paul Mitchell’s PM Shines hydrating hair color has given my hair new life. Past salon treatments left my locks dry, brittle and frizzy, but after a year of using PM Shines, my hair is shiny, glossy and looks like it did in high school (many years ago)! The ammonia-free product covers my gray and lasts four to six weeks. And because it’s semipermanent, it’s quicker and cheaper than a regular color appointment. My salon, Winam Hair Studio at 1130 Koko Head Ave. No. 2, 922-1444 — one of Elle magazine’s top 100 salons of 2012 — is one of many places in Hawaii that uses Paul Mitchell products. To find others, check www.paulmitchell.com.
—Kirsten Fujitani, Honolulu
Find your A&W float fix in Mililani
My mom is originally from Wisconsin, which meant summer vacations as a youth visiting my grandparents in Madison. For some reason, I associate those trips with getting to eat and drink things I’d never see at home in Hawaii. I remember getting my first taste of Mountain Dew while visiting the "Waterpark Capital of the World" in Wisconsin Dells. And I used to get the biggest kick out of the food served at truck stops we’d visit on the long drive from O’Hare International Airport in Chicago.
I also remember drinking my first A&W Root Beer float in a frosted mug with my grandfather. There was something special about getting my own glass filled to the brim with ice cream, the root beer foaming up and over the sides, turning me into the sticky-fingered, sugared-up preteen I’m sure my parents just loved having to deal with.
Flash forward some 30 years, and I still get giddy thinking about those frosted mugs. And until recently I was oblivious to the fact I could get my root beer float fix in Mililani at a combination A&W/Long John Silver’s restaurant, 95-656 Meheula Parkway, for just $3.99. Be sure to dine in for the best experience — you can’t get a frosted mug or free refills on your root beer if you order to go!
—Jason Genegabus
