 Happy Friday! I'm Cowie Lucas here. November 11th is the start of Washington in some places in the world which means it's time to really cut loose and be as artistic as you possibly can. So in celebration of that, and in celebration of a really amazing feat in our town here, next week Friday, the Saturday, sorry, the November 19th, downtown there is going to be an amazing party and that's what this town needs right now, really desperately a really good party. Rich Richardson, who is the Executive Director of the Arts at Mark's Garage, tell us about raising the roof. Alright, thanks for having me. I'm very excited. I've got a lot of planning underway and trucks are arriving, product is being delivered, permits are being secured, insurance is being signed, we're getting all set for a great party. It's a gala, it's our 15th birthday party, it's on top of the roof right next door to Hawaii Theater, so if you can imagine looking over the downtown area, financial district on one side, you can even see a sliver of the harbor, if you squint down New Tijuana Avenue, under the the moon, the super moon this month is going to be amazing, live music, food, drink, dance, performances, puppets, sword fighting, you name it, it's gonna be happening and it's not going to be able to, it's not gonna be easy to figure out what's gonna happen next and things are gonna overlap, so it's gonna be very exciting, unexpected things happening. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so you have quite a bit of experience as the executive director of arts at Mark's Garage. In putting on amazing events, I was looking at your website and I saw 45,000 visitors a year, wow, 150 events, wow, how does, how does, what does it take to get this going? A lot of flexibility, a lot of diplomacy, a lot of a desire for the parties to share the space, which is really a beautiful testament to human nature, I believe, and that all of these different mediums, different artistic practices, viewers and participants, all can share the space so neatly without ever, hardly a ripple in our relations in that space, it's quite a magical spot, I have to say, with all that shared equipment and a very valuable artistic pieces and tools in the space at all times, there's hardly ever anything missing or a rye and tempers hardly ever flare, when a thing, if anything's ever missing there, I immediately think of who might be the culprit and I'll find the missing piece under my own desk or something like that, so it's a really magical spot, it's been a good run. You yourself are an artist, I know that because I happen to have one of your pieces. Oh fantastic, hang on to it, it's rare. It has colorful paper cocktail umbrellas. Wow, that goes way back. It goes way back. It says wishing I was here. Thank you, that was a testament to the times. Yeah, so you made the transition from being a practicing artist to, are you still practicing art or creating it in that sense? I set it aside to see if I could run this very complicated animal, we call the Arts at Marx Garage, there's 150 performances, you're right, but it's actually 300 events a year, so there's something going on all the time, so the transitions as smooth as they may be require constant attention and kind of manipulation of the space and the characters involved, it's a very very busy place and I'm afraid I haven't practiced art, I try to think of the activity of supporting the arts in this way as my contribution to the arts, so still... It is a huge contribution. Being committed to the arts in that way, so that's where I am at. I do better as a human being if I'm creating things even on the side, I find myself being more creative in even business decisions. It feeds a part of me that can often be neglected by the day to chores and to-do lists that we all have. Well, Marx has done amazing things for downtown, I mean you've really had staying power, I mean you've been there for 15 years and a lot of places have risen and fallen in that 15 years, and the community itself seems to have come, there have been waves up and down, but things like First Friday, I mean Marx was instrumental in the creation of First Friday, I'm pretty sure. Yeah, we helped with the first one, it was a big stretch, I was very skeptical, I thought how are you going to get all these gallery people to coordinate, you know, even this detail of art opening. Turns out it was the best thing we've ever done for the downtown area, I believe, and the arts in general, really putting us on the map and leading to a full-scale renaissance of the area, getting all those creative people looking at the space differently than it had been in the past and seeing potential there where it had been neglected and kind of a no-fly zone, if you will, for residents and visitors. And it's allowed it to keep its beautiful character with the historic buildings and having that gorgeous mix of innovation and creativity, which allows those older buildings to have a new life. Yeah, so next Saturday night, so one would have to get tickets to go to this event, so let's talk about that. Okay, so the tickets are available on our website or on Eventbrite, but easy to click artsatmarx.com, it's a big button on our home page. The tickets are all inclusive, so you get a big experience of all kinds of different disciplines, practicing artists that most have a lot to do with Marx on a regular basis, but some guest stars as well. And then we've got some great restaurants from the downtown area. Do you want to hear about those? Yes, I do want to hear about those. I read them and I said, wow, I haven't even heard of this one. So I'm very excited about Grandin, they're in the same building, the Mandanka building that houses the Chinatown Artist Lofts upstairs. And they have this really interesting and creative blend of French and Latin, and it's a beautiful, experimental presentation and taste that you can't find elsewhere. Really fantastic. J.J. Dolan's, J.J. is such a generous character in the community of our downtown, and also his food's terrific. And there's Pallet, which is relatively new. Yeah, that's the one I don't know. They're right across from Hoy Theater, so next time you get a chance, check them out. What used to be there? I'm sorry. Do you remember? Duvon. Oh, okay, okay, okay. And there's another guy that's coming in. I hope they're open in time. It's called Bethel Union, and they're in that exact block as well. So a couple newbies and a couple of dependables from the neighborhood, and we've got to round it off with some Andis Wines and Kona Brewing Company. So it sounds like it's not all happening on the Mark Scourge site. Yeah, it's all up there. It is all up there. Yeah, everything's, we've got tents up there and high tops and a big stage and roller derby happening, and like I say, sword fighting. I read that roller derby. You've got to tell us a little more about that. Yeah, I think in attempt to mimic the kind of energy and overlapping interests and creative expressions, we've put together kind of a program that's going to be busy and engaging and almost interactive in that you can stop by different stations really and see what different people are doing at different times. So it's not a sit around the table kind of fundraiser which has a purpose. This is a much more active. It's almost like a walk around while you're eating and check different things out. And I saw, thank you, that kids under 12 are free with their parents. Yeah, I think that's the way to go. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, the little ones deserve a little special treat too and to see life as the shiny showcase it can be. And in the mix of things that are happening, you talked about that there's going to be a keynote speech. Now that isn't always part of a gala. Yes. But neither is a roller derby. Right. Yeah, so can you talk about that a little? Well, hopefully the roller derby and the keynote speech will balance out a little bit. But you know, to lend some seriousness to this idea of these guys have a place to show at Marx on a regular basis. Solomon Enos is an amazing public speaker. He is by no means a stayed presentation guy. He's very, very engaging, has a lot of exciting concepts to share. Yes. And is super energetic when he's when he's delivering his version of sitting there about a month ago. Oh, what a great, great character. And he's he's working right next door at Hawaii Theater, their first artist in residence. So I've been seeing him around town and watching his work develop and and really enjoying his presentations. And Carl Powell is a fantastic speaker as well. And and and I think he's just at the pinnacle of his creative output right now. He's a he's a very skilled public speaker and he uses a persona. So it's almost performance art. So don't expect what you expect. Expect a little twist to it. So we'll deliver a very quick, bright, happy speech about their work or the the status of artwork in general in our town or on our island. And we'll have a nice moderator there. The whole thing, the talks will be like a TED talk, but a little bit quicker with a outdoor, the outdoors as your background. Yeah. So there's a Carl is also in the current exhibit downstairs. Will that be available for viewing or is that Moncaja? That's a that's his fourth show at the Arts at Marx. And it gets better and better. He adds one person each year. And it's really nice to watch his development as an artist. And I enjoy his friendship as well, of course. But yeah, Maca ha's in the gallery the whole month of November for Maca Hickey. And that's how he times his his creative output. So people will be able to go downstairs and check and have a look at the gallery. Actually, we'll use Arts at Marx will take the entire show on the road and bring it up to the rooftop. And Carl will be up there on a stage as well. We're talking about a 16 by 20 foot stage with live music and Carl and DJ, Mr. Nick and lots of things happening. And Taimani. Taimani. That's fun. Yeah, she's our headliner this year. So I'm excited about that. But Maca ha will be downstairs in the gallery for the entire month. So stop by when you can. And and Carl's gonna have some very large pieces behind the stage as a kind of centerpiece. And the cost for the I know the kids are free, but the adults are not. Yeah, it's $80 all the food and drink you can possibly enjoy and entertainment that that never happens all at once in any other place. Wow. Well, that's a very reasonable for for downtown Honolulu gala. Excellent. Yeah. Okay, we'll take a little break and then come back and talk some more. Thanks. Hi, I'm Donna Blanchard. I host the show center stage on think tech Wednesdays at 2 p.m. And this is Crystal. I'm Crystal and I host quack talk on Tuesday mornings. I like watching Donna's show. I'm watching your show. I like watching your show because you talk about you're not afraid to really dive into issues that are important. And and sometimes they're a little shocking. And you always bring us information that is sometimes the underbelly that we need to know and we need to see it's important. Well said. Well, I like yours because you can find any topic in any type of character, but you will find that source which brought them to the product of that creative process. And that that's like the most important thing is the process. So I think yeah, I do. I think it's all about the process. And I think we'll find world peace when we know each other's stories. So thank you very much for bringing that to us. Join us on think tech. Think tech. Hawaii anytime. Welcome back to Hawaii is my mainland here on think tech. Hawaii every Friday at three with me this week is rich Richardson of the arcs at Mark's garage. And we're talking about an awesome party that's going to happen next Saturday the 19th on the roof, which is I think the best place to have a party in downtown. Yeah, we never take it on such a big square footage before, but that's going to be fun. How big is it? You know 100 cars. All right, 100 cars are out of there for the evening. Thank you, Andy Friedlander for lending us the space. Yeah. So the let's talk about some of the things the music. So there's my one of my favorite local bands you're having good food. Not every local band has an MD. I didn't know that about it. Okay, good. Or I guess she's a naturopathic doctor. And so good foot is playing. And you mentioned a DJ. Mr. Nick, DJ. Mr. Nick. Yeah, there's good foot. And Lori Kimata there. I love her. And there's so much last time I saw them. They were playing in a in a on a farm in Pupukea. So and then time on it. And is this the first time she's playing in a Mark's garage? Yeah, I think she's only warmed up at Mark's garage in the past for her big shindig at Hawaii Theater, which did really well this year. In fact, so yeah, really excited that she's participating. She seems to be one of the artists that is really doing well at straddling the past and the future. And being very creative in that. Yeah, I think so. And very giving towards her community. And really, I think using Chinatown as a springboard to bigger projects and destinations, but definitely benefiting from from experimenting in Chinatown, which is what it's all about for us at Mark's garage. And that is this the beauty of the the space that that you hold there for for local talent to express itself without having to be super commercial. So they can really let the creative juices flow. I'm trying to think of some of the well, there's another one. Yeah. Watch out for him. Yeah, who is that? That's Jules Coffey, and he'll be doing a live painting, probably just like that. While the music's going on and people are dancing around and watching out for sword fights and what have you. So speaking of live painting, there's also another. There's other live art happening too, right? Yes, there's a lot of lot of live art and our in fact, our culture shocker, that's Justin, he'll be he'll be doing some live painting as well. He's a multimedia artist that's going to show show off what he's doing. We've got a outdoor gallery upstairs. We've got wonderful artists dropping off works for sale every day this week and last week. So it's really nice to check in with people who have been playing a part and putting on exhibitions for for nearly 15 years, 15 years. Yeah, I think they're they're the reason that that people have been attracted to Arts at Marx is to see what they're what they're up to to try their own hand at making artwork to get inspired with them and and hang out in the in the realm of that energy where people are expressing themselves. Speaking of expressing ourselves. This is your recent Rocky Horror showing. Yeah, yes, it's a perfect venue for for Rocky Horror and Rocky Horror is aged quite well and the kids like it and the parents come to so it's perfect. And that's a it's a great example of where non professionals can kind of let go in an artistic way and have it be safe and fun and and a beautiful space for for really being the unusual creative town that we are. I think it's a great place for people to get a sense of participation in the creative process and not not just come to look at something and walk away, but to actually get engaged. And the best thing that happens there, I think is is meeting someone that you don't know that you wouldn't normally run into and sharing at a moment at a performance or at a gallery opening, or one with the many workshops that we do. I think that human connectivity in our space is really valuable for a sense of well being a sense of belonging in our town to create a kind of common public area for public life. That's not commercially driven, obviously. Yes, yes. So yeah, I think that's an important function of arts and marks. And that's why I like it so much. Arts is almost a side note to me. Sometimes it's it's it's having a safe and fun place for people to enjoy life together and bump into each other. I'm sure a lot of people have met on first Friday. And a lot of families have come out of that experience. You know, I'm sure of it. I'm sure of it. Right? I'm sure of it. Yes, it's it's it's become sort of the heart of the artistic footprint in Chinatown. I think I'm trying to what I just have to tell my favorite story of arts and marks garage. I've been to so many things over the years. But there was a film the Academy of Arts refused to show Alison Parker's film near the Big Chakra. So Don Brown contacted you guys and you guys agreed. And then the the Academy at that point refused like two days before it was supposed to show. So there it was. Yeah, the arts and marks garage made it possible for that for that retrospective of her very avant-garde films, although they were from the 70s, right, to be shown. And there we were. It was the film that had 46 vulvas, I believe. And there was a guy about it was packed and about 10, 10 feet in front of me. This man just keeled over. He passed out. I remember that very well. Yeah, it's a golden moment. May have been from the 70s, but it still had some some shock power to it. Yeah, yeah. But it was quite a night. It was and so many things as you have happened there workshops, like for people to make art, right? And it's also a co-working space. Yeah, we're co-working primarily black box theater, about 100, 100 seats. And we've got the gallery that's about 1000 square feet. So those are the three, the Holy Trinity. And then we also launched artist live work at the Mononka building, which is just about a block away. So we have live work spaces 19 of those. So really focusing on instead of selling artwork or selling tickets, we're really focused on building a scene and building a community of people that get to appreciate the arts and build appreciation from the ground up through our events. And I think we've been successful in transforming our neighborhood with that philosophy. It's it's a scene. You're definitely a scene. Yeah. Yep. But what was that one that was some sort of fire? Yeah, that was an impromptu fire dancer at first Friday, many, many years ago. That is forever enshrined. And my friend Joe Graziano's photograph there. So we're taking the whole show, putting it in on a flatbed truck. And we're taking up to the top of the roof. And we're letting people unpack that box and experience it for themselves. It's our first major gala in our 15 year history. It is almost exactly our birthday. And who would have guessed 15 15 years and the neighborhood has changed, I think from probably one of the most dangerous or feared neighborhoods in Hawaii to one of Hawaii's favorites. So we've seen the power of the arts, get people reinvested in the area, all these creative businesses moving in and so many, so many. So it's been very successful. And I think we need to celebrate that. Take a moment, have a great night together, enjoy community, meet new friends and get ready for the next 15 years. Major renovation in January, sorry, and revamp our space. So we'll be retooled by Group 70 International. Oh, my, yes. How different will that be? Radically different. They gave us two choices. We could do a handsome upgrade remodel, or we could do radical, transformative destruction at its base remodel and we chose that one. And they said good, well, then we'll do it for free. Thank you. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, very nice. Will it change the kinds of things that will be happening at Mark's garage? It'll double our performance space will be much more viable as a music venue for small scale concerts, intimate concerts, and we'll also small scale. Can you throw a number at that? I think you know, we're gonna get we're gonna get into the two and 300 range. Nice. Instead of one seeded, we can just, we can put the seats away and have two or 300 standing more traditional nightclub capacity. We're going to get rid of the offices and the cubicles. We've got 1987 office cubicles that we need to take outside and burn. Actually, we're partnering with reuse. They're donating a lot of new these rolling office cabinets that we're going to retrofit with casters that will be very, you know, very portable and mobile and you'll be able to plug in and fold the desk down into your your laptop. But but you can put it all away at the end of the day, lock it up. Your things are safe. We're going to get rid of the old offices and add another bathroom and some more catering capacity in the back. So it's going to be a much more robust, modern design and a much more modern workspace as well, co-working space. So if somebody wants to get involved on that level, are you are you looking at that right now? Or are you kind of waiting? Yeah, we're we're definitely interested in having new new partnerships form out of this. We're really excited about Friends of the Library joining us with 80 foot wall of books in the back of the space instead of the offices. Wow. So you can come there and browse through they have half inventory of half a million books. And I think there's a dearth of places to browse for books, real books, real books, real books, real books. Yeah, you don't have to turn it on and save power. But it's true. There's no more bookstores. Right. So then the next question is books, then you need coffee. Yeah, we're gonna have to we're gonna have to find a very brave coffee entrepreneur that wants to stake a claim at the Arts at Mark's garage. We're very open to that as well. Right. In the in the last minute or so, let's just go over the basics. So it's next Saturday, November 19. And the best place to find information about the rooftop party that's going to include everything from roller derbies to live art is artsatmarks.com. Super easy arts at marks.com front front of our page, click on it and and I'll take you to our event bright page that has all the details, six at 10pm, all the food and drink and entertainment you're gonna want for the next month or so. Oh, awesome. Right. It's gonna be fun. Thank you. Thanks a lot for having me. I'll see you then.