Stories

There are few local radio DJs who pull off a quality soul program like Jeff Long (aka Benjamin Stencil) does with his Sunday morning show, Love Is A Real Thing. Jeff arrives by bicycle at the University of Hawaii's college radio station KTUH around 5:45am each Sunday with a backpack of vinyl and a few CDs to spin from 6am to 9am. (Check out his playlists on his blog.) I first met Jeff earlier this year when my fiancé, aka DJ Leilow, became one of the newest members of the KTUH DJ lineup. All the new DJs start out with...

July! Where have you gone?! Slow down already, it's nearly August! I can confidently speak for my friends Dennie and Ward at Hungry Ear when I say that this month has been crazy busy, a whirlwind of exciting news and opportunities and, of course, responsibilities to be tended to. Owning an independent record store—one that's bringing in new releases regularly and buying other people's collections daily—is one thing, but running said business and organizing Hawaii's annual record fair at the same time? (The only one of its kind in the state, I should mention). But wait, there's more: Hungry Ear...

I met with Norm Winter on an evening in February 2014 several months after I had recorded a previous conversation of ours. I should say that that conversation—which took place at the Aloha Lounge sometime in the Spring of 2013 during one of Jah Gumby’s Rub-A-Dub all-vinyl reggae sessions, and which gave us an overview of how Jelly’s came to be (and why other records stores in Hawaii failed to stay in business)—I recorded without his knowledge. I’ve since apologized to Norm about publishing our pseudo-interview without his prior permission, and he’s since forgiven me. If you don't know Norm,...