I've never been averse to lifestyle porn so when I first heard about Modern Luxury Hawaii, I thought "Cool!". The new mag by Modern Luxury group chronicles the lush life in the 50th state. They don't put their mag online yet -- bummer. I was even more stoked when editor Margie Jacinto asked me to scribe the cover piece for their second issue. So there. Shameless plug. If you see it, read my fluff. It is a bit fluffy, my piece on surf god Andy Irons. But I really found him to be a nice guy and he's definitely gotten rough treatment from the national media -- something its not clear he entirely deserved.

Upon seeing the issue, its a beautiful pub. I wish there were more truly "local" things in it -- as in, local products -- but I can understand they need to focus on big national and international brands b/c, let's face it, that's where the ad dollars are. I am hearing through the grapevine that another lifestyle porn pub is on the way courtesy of a well-known local magazine magnate who has a bit of free time on his hands these days. Mo' bettah and mahalo to Margie for the opportunity. And a shout out to the other writers who have bylines there, Sherri Strausfogel and Brian Berusch. You can find it onsale at newstands around the islands and you may be lucky, if you are in the right zipcode, to be on the free copy list.

—Alex, 03/26/07