James Charisma

Honolulu, Los Angeles

Writer, Editor, and Journalist at Freelance

Creative Director at The Hawai'i Review of Books

Contributing Editor at Honolulu Magazine

Writer & Editor: Playboy, VICE, LA Times, Complex, Vulture, Paste, Total Film, Hi-Fructose, Collider, Inverse, Honolulu, Hyperallergic, and other random words

Articles

Back to Life | HILUXURY

2 months ago | hiluxury.com | James Charisma

Good bones. That’s what one San Francisco couple saw in a peculiar yet spellbinding home located on the Kohala coast of Hawai‘i Island. Built in 1979 by a German baron for his mistress, who was also a member of Thai royalty, this property was originally constructed as a Balinese pod house.
A Call to Action

2 months ago | hiluxury.com | James Charisma

In order to inspire wider dialogues through a Pacific-centered viewpoint, HT2025 curators Wassan Al-Khudhairi, Binna Choi, and Noelle M.K.Y. Kahanu selected works by artists whose philosophies and practices have been shaped by a shared commitment to learning from their ancestors and the places they come from, in Hawai‘i or beyond.
Master of the House

Oct 21, 2024 | hiluxury.com | James Charisma

When Richard Vida became the new executive director of Ballet Hawai‘i this past March, it represented the culmination of a relationship that dates back more than 30 years. Having regularly taught master classes in dance and musical theater for ballet students in Honolulu, Vida was no stranger to the Islands, or the dancers who call Hawai‘i home. “Young people here are so accustomed to music and dance as part of the local culture.
Down to a Fine Art

Oct 15, 2024 | hiluxury.com | James Charisma

Of the hundreds of works of art that Jean and Robert Steele have collected over the past five decades, one particular piece holds a special significance for the couple: Three African Women in Profile, which artist Tony Northern painted in pastel on the side of a cardboard box. In 1968, while interning as a hospital chaplain in New York City, Robert Steele discovered the painting one afternoon on a visit to the Harlem Art Gallery during his break.
By the Breeze | HILUXURY

Oct 1, 2024 | hiluxury.com | James Charisma

It was Giannasio’s 10-year stint as a lawyer that inadvertently helped bring her home to Hawai‘i during the pandemic. She was working in Los Angeles, previously under the mentorship of HBA’s Michael Bedner, when her interior design agency took on a client couple that was moving to Maui. The wife, an attorney, connected with Giannasio “sort of lawyer-to-lawyer at first,” then over a less-is-more, indoor/outdoor approach to a home the couple wanted to build in Kīhei.
This Costco in Hawaii is the busiest in the world

Sep 15, 2024 | sfgate.com | James Charisma

At a glance, the Iwilei Costco looks like any other. With rows of industrial shelving, polished concrete floors and loud white lights, it’s easy to assume this is just another Costco, no different from the more than 600 other Costcos across the United States, including six additional locations in Hawaii. But when I arrive on a Sunday morning, I understand why it’s considered the busiest Costco location in the world. The parking lot is packed.
Cedar Street Cred

Sep 3, 2024 | hiluxury.com | James Charisma

Ask Michael Schnack about local art and he’ll say he grew up surrounded by it. Not just paintings and sculptures, but some of Hawai‘i’s most prominent artists themselves were fixtures in his life. Watercolor artist John Young rented his first gallery space from Schnack’s father and grandfather. Illustrator and printmaker Louis Pohl was his sister’s godfather. The brother of oil painter Lloyd Sexton Jr. was his surgeon.
Model Behavior | HILUXURY

Aug 7, 2024 | hiluxury.com | James Charisma

One night around midnight, after all his usual TV shows had ended, Thornburg was channel surfing when he discovered Fashiontrance, a reality show that featured clips from (particularly theatrical) European runway shows. He was immediately mesmerized by the models exhibiting extravagant new looks by imaginative designers, such as Alexander McQueen and Jean Paul Gaultier. “I watched that show every night until I fell asleep,” says Thornburg.
How Sleek It Is | HILUXURY

Aug 4, 2024 | hiluxury.com | James Charisma

Tropical Modernism first emerged in the 1940s as a way to combine modernist architectural principles — minimalism, geometric forms, open floor plans, and functionality above all — with the unique cultures and climates of tropical regions, including Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific.
Social Studies | HILUXURY

Aug 4, 2024 | hiluxury.com | James Charisma

America has long been a nation of social clubs. As early as the 1700s, people united in community groups over similar social interests. These organizations played an important role in the still nascent American democracy by offering solidarity regardless of class or socioeconomic status. “Americans of all ages, all conditions, and all dispositions, constantly form associations,” observed French philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville on a visit to the United States in the 1830s.