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August 20, 2004

Hang Loose

Honolulu

Honolulu is littered with 1980’s vintage smoked glass skyscrapers. Each one virtually indistinguishable from the others around it, like clones on a playground. The office towers sport no logos. No neon. Bland, generic, modular office spaces. The surreal extrapolation of the office cubicle, stretched to the limits of absurdity. Thousands of honey-combed office cubicles arranged vertically in three-dimensional arrays. Thirty story tall anonymous giants, standing shoulder to shoulder.

Squeezing between the office towers, doves and pigeons brave the fitful rains of summer to argue over scraps of bread on the sidewalks.

At Tamarind Park on Bishop Square, blooming tropical trees surrender their flowers to the trade winds. This is the nerve center of downtown Honolulu. The place where the cube dwellers escape for lunch. The city is riddled with tunnels and passageways where Asians hawk bentos, sushi, and stir fry from the cramped confines of three-table restaurants.


For the rest of the story buy my book "Killing Strangers.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on August 20, 2004 at 7:42 PM