Saturday, December 7, 2024

Purple Velvet Evening Gowns on the Waterfront.

 Fri -- We drive to Kihei, a beach town that is part of South Maui, on the other side of the island. We go to Boss Frogs in a mini-mall and rent two beach chairs, and umbrella, and a cooler. The man checking us in is super chill and feels in the spirit of Aloha. When he discovered that they were out of coolers, he calls another outlet of Boss Frogs and finds one for us, and puts it on rental package for free. 

We use all the above items on. a public beach called Makena Beach south from Kihei Town. Jessica knows about this because she has been to Maui previously with her girlfriend while they were both in medical school in Oregon. It was a last minute thing, ginned up by her friend, who loves the beach. They stayed in Kihei. She has been wanting to come back to Maui ever since then. 

Neither of us are huge beach people, however. I absolutely love being on the beach if I sit in a chair with my feet in the soft sand and either be in the sun or below an umbrella as my choosing (mostly the latter). Then one can wade in the surf, maybe go all the way in the water in a dunk, but that's as far I cared to go that day. The beach is famously called "break neck beach" because of those ignore the harsh waters here. 

That evening we have reservations back in Lahaina at the Old Lahaina Luau, which miraculously did not burn, but is along the harbor in the now "oldest part of town" on the north side. 

We are ushered in by an ample staff of young Hawaiians, young part Hawaiians, and other young people who might pass for Hawaiians.  Some will become dancers during the show, but for now they are the greeters and perhaps the other support staff of the food and drink delivery, although I don't know that. One is always curious about how successful live theater operations are run. Hawaii has a still thriving industry. This was our fourth luau together, after two on the Big Island, both at large resorts, and one on Kauai, which is part of a permanent operation on a large acreage that looks like it was a horse farm at one point. 

We both agree that Old Lahaina Luau was by far the best one we have attended, both in terms of the food, the service, the show, and the setting. It is small, but right against the water. The show as actually more intimate and subdued than the others,  and specifically did not include Tahitian fire dancers, as is typical, because it is meant to be "authentically Hawaiian". They did NOT force everyone into a extended lesson in hula-ography by having us stand and do the movements, instead only doing that fleetingly and then moving on. Reliance on such gimmicks in poor showmanship if you ask me.

The seleciton of the show numbers was much better as well.  It is was a Disney show of the origins of Hawaii with a heroic princess, as was the one on Kauai. The coherence of it being "Hawaiian" mean they could extend the usual history of Hawaii all the way up to the Twentieth Century, as they did by first having a number with Hawaiians in white and black Christian missionary dresses dancing in a more era-appropriate fashion (the hula was banned, by the King of Hawaii by the time Christian missionaries even arrived here).

That was followed by my favorite number, which had the women in purple velvet evening gowns with long strings of white shells giving the appearance of pearls (or maybe they were pearls).  They were mean to evoke the feeling of being a lover on the pier of Waikiki during the pre-war heyday of ship travel in the 1920s. I love that kind of artistry to recreate historical time beings that we all love and wish could come back. It's not that hard, people.

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