Scenes from the IntelliGo Launch Party!

Late yesterday afternoon, my homey at the Star-Advertiser asked me if I had a blog ready to go for today as they were planning on posting my mug in the print version of the paper again. Apparently, the demand to see my face again was that overwhelming.

CHEEYEAHRIGHT!

I wish. But yeah, a fella can dream right?

Regardless, bruddah ovah hea had to be ready with a blog, so I did what any red-blooded American would do in a crisis situation. Cry.

After wiping away my tears, I was able to regroup and figure out what I was going to blog about…

Last week Thursday, Oceanic Time Warner Cable and Road Runner Mobile held their Official IntelliGo Launch Party – at the Road Runner Music Hall – to introduce their newest wireless product to the public: The IntelliGo. The IntelliGo is their shiny/sparkly wireless device that acts as a personal mobile hotspot, providing a WiFi signal for up to 5 of your friends. (Click here for more info about the IntelliGo).

Various members of the media (both traditional and social media), current customers, contest winners, etc. were invited to this exclusive event which included free giveaways, ono kine grindz, and live entertainment from two killer local bands: Busekrus and Elephant! Check out the scenes and commentary below!

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Sixty bags of goodies went just like that! Apologies to the late comers who weren’t able to score one! 😦

60 bags of goodies to be given away to everyone who attended

And here’s a shot of the bags (with the IntelliGo poster in the background) from one of @ParkRat‘s tweets!

Photo from @ParkRat’s tweet

What kinda goodies were inside? Check it!

Goodie Bag Contents

The calm before the storm. Busekrus doing sound check before the Road Runner Music Hall gets packed!

Busekrus doing sound check

What we were all there for: the IntelliGo (and Road Runner Mobile) signage.

IntelliGo and Road Runner Mobile signage

The Road Runner Mobile logo getting some air-time on the big screen.

Road Runner Mobile logo on the big screen

The scene from the other side of the Hall: Two staffers relaxing before show time.

Two staffers relaxing before show time

@HawaiiRealty tweets a shot of her VIP pass!

Photo from @HawaiiRealty’s tweet

Big Mahalo to Lanakila Pacific’s Xpress Chefs for doing an amazing job with the eats! Based on what I was hearing, the Stuffed Mushroom Caps were probably the biggest hit of the night. 🙂

Catered food from Xpress Chefs

@johngarcia snaps a twitpic of the stage just before showtime. The anticipation mounts!

Photo from @johngarcia’s tweet

With the room packed, we were ready to go! Oceanic Time Warner Cable’s VP of Marketing Alan Pollock kicks off the show!

VP of Marketing Alan Pollock with some introductory statements

Standing room only! Busekrus starts the night with some acoustic sounds.

Busekrus on stage

Here’s @johngarcia‘s shot of Busekrus from the front. Yep, that’s @Mel808 tweeting away on her iPad.

Photo from @johngarcia’s tweet

@OceanicCable gets in on the (Tweeting) act with this crowd shot.

Photo from @OceanicCable’s tweet

Just outside, the media conducted one on one interviews with some of our guests. Here’s Maribel getting ready for her interview.

Maribel before her interview

Recognize her? Yep, she’s the one from the Road Runner Mobile “And Here” commercial! 🙂

Maribel the actress

Back inside, @ParkRat and @maliachu get their hands on the IntelliGo!

Photo from @HawaiiIRL’s Facebook

Then it was time for the second band to take the stage: Elephant. Wow! Lead singer Kevin Jones (who, oh-by-the-way, is also a Star 101.9 personality) has gots some serious pipes!

Elephant’s front man Kevin Jones belting away

All too soon, it was over! Check out @HawaiiIRL‘s hilarious cartoon about the long hallways from the Road Runner Music Hall (featuring @Melissa808, @Mel808, and @johngarcia)! LOL!

Photo from @HawaiiIRL’s tweet

A big Mahalo to Oceanic Time Warner Cable’s VP of Marketing Alan Pollock and Road Runner Mobile’s Wireless Director Kiman Wong for helping to make this event a possibility. Also to the Marketing department (both locally and at the corporate level) for donating all of the great gifts and giveaways. Big ups to James Avis and Kevin Jones of Clear Channel Communications for the support, as always, and to Caroline Witherspoon and Malia Chung (and Marichris Diga) of Becker Communications for your media support as well. A special thanks to all of our guests spanning the local community… from our current Road Runner Mobile customers, to Hawaii’s social media leaders like @Bytemarks @DigitalSignGuy @HawaiiRealty @johngarcia @ktpoy @Mel808 @Melissa808 @ParkRat @peterkay and @ryankanno. Much love everyone!

* For more information about Road Runner Mobile, please see rrmobile.oceanic.com or AndHere.com.
* Tune in to thehall.tv in a few days to watch the encoded version of the event in its entirety.
* Check out the 3:11 mark of the following video to see @Melissa808 reveal the swag that was given away that night.

Mix It Up – Episode 13

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– Ed

1st Annual Hawaii Rice Fest
Waterfront at Aloha Tower Marketplace
September 11, 2010 @ 12pm-8pm
For more Info: RiceFest.com / Twitter / Facebook
To RSVP: Twtvite / Facebook Event

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P.S. Don’t forget to check out my latest article on AroundHawaii.com too:

Great Catch! Izakaya Tairyo Reels Hawaii In

WOWZAS! That was a lonnng one! Thanks for hanging in there and reading it all. Now, back to your regularly scheduled programming…

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Great Catch! Izakaya Tairyo Reels Hawaii In

If you’ve driven anywhere near the vicinity of Piikoi Street recently, you’ve probably noticed a rather peculiar looking building fronting Hopaka Street. Covered with large kanji characters, big blue waves, and bright red fish, it’s hard to miss. And if you’re anything like me, your mouth probably started to salivate (along with your imagination) at the sight of such flamboyancy.

Izakaya Tairyo Exterior [Photo Credit: Dale Yasunaga]

In Japan, the more nigiyaka (busy/cheerful/bright) the izakaya, the better (… at least in my experience), so seeing such a building come up in the heart of Honolulu, to be quite honest, excited me. So off my friend and I went to check it out shortly after they opened.

Literally translated, tairyo means great/large catch. When fishermen have a good day, they usually say they had a “tairyo”. As we explored in a past article, izakaya is a specific style of Japanese dining, usually consisting of small dishes of various items. So the Izakaya Tairyo name makes a lot of sense. Nigiyaka exterior – check, fitting name – check… So far so good! Let’s check out the interior.

Izakaya Tairyo Interior

Wow, if you thought the exterior was flashy, check out this interior. Bright lights, fishing nets, and the familiar oshinagaki (menu items) adorned the roof and walls.

Bright lights, fishing nets, and oshinagaki to the right, inside Izakaya Tairyo

Adding to the ambience, some patrons get to sit on old school, Japanese style seating made of upside-down beer crates. Wins!

Unique seating at Izakaya Tairyo

On to the food!

At the top of their “Rice and Noodles” section was #55 on the menu: Tairyo Fisherman’s Bowl (assorted sashimi over rice) for $9.75. That sounded like a great place to start.

Tairyo Fisherman’s Bowl: Assorted sashimi over rice ($9.75)

The dish comes with a teapot-like container filled with dashi-flavored tea so you can opt to mix it in and eat it chazuke style. I’m a purist, so I started by eating just the fish and the rice, but gave the flavored tea a chance and ended up using it all up. Really good flavor!

One thing that we complained about was that what we were served looked nothing like what was pictured in the menu. There were key pieces of fish that were definitely missing. They did however, make good by offering us sashimi on the side (served on a chilled plate) at no additional cost.

Sashimi from Izakaya Tairyo

The next thing that sounded interesting was the Grilled Chicken Meat Ball with Tairyo’s Secret Sauce. We picked that one up for $7.25.

Grilled Chicken Meat Ball with Tairyo’s Secret Sauce ($7.25)

As before, it looked nothing like the picture in the menu, but we shook it off and figured it was just a part of their growing pains as a new restaurant.

The next two fried dishes actually did look somewhat like their menu photo (LOL!). First up was the Japanese-Style Fried Chicken Thigh.

Japanese-Style Fried Chicken Thigh ($6.50)

These were fairly tasty.

We also got the Sweet Potato Fries with Honey Mayonnaise.

Sweet Potato Fries with Honey Mayonnaise ($6.25)

I wasn’t a big fan of this dish, especially with the odd honey sauce combination, but can definitely appreciate the creativity. The sweet potato fries by itself wasn’t all that bad.

An overall reasonable first experience in my opinion. I think we can mostly attribute the ups and downs to them being a new restaurant and still in, like I said, their growing phases. I am definitely interested in returning later to see how they’ve grown. Hopefully, it’ll be a definite “tairyo” then! 🙂

Izakaya Tairyo
514 Piikoi St
Honolulu, HI 96814
(808) 592-8500

Don’t forget… next month…

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Diamond G Rice presents the 1st Annual Hawaii Rice Festival
Waterfront at Aloha Tower Marketplace
September 11, 2010 from 12PM-8PM
For more info:
Ricefest.com / Twitter / Facebook
To RSVP:
Twtvite / Facebook Event
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