Posted: Sunday, January 29, 2006 (07:16 PM HST)

By Danny Sachs
Honolulu Streets Magazine.

• In a large pile of emails to Honolulu Streets, surprisingly several people have suggested that an "About Us" page be posted somewhere on its website. They also mentioned that by doing so, it would clear up a whole lot of confusion about who, what, and most of all, where exactly is Honolulu Streets Magazine reporting from.

While we can almost instantly torpedo Hawaii’s hot rod and automotive news to your computer via the Internet, getting up-front and personal, (which was another suggestion) can only be done by Honolulu Streets creator and Editor in Chief, Danny Sachs. By using four well-established guidelines taught to every journalist, he’ll try to fill in the gaps about himself, Honolulu Streets Magazine and perhaps even answer that all-time question, why?

Who:
By now I guess you figured out my name is Danny Sachs. Anyhow, I was born and raised in Honolulu and built street rods for a living out of my garage in Kalama Valley, and for a short time out of my shop in Kaneohe. Around 1997 I moved to Oregon. That was nine years ago and I’ve missed Hawaii every-single day since. I didn’t always want to live on the mainland; it was something that just happened. Kinda like destiny or fate, you never know where it will take you. —sigh— It took me here.

What:
Honolulu Streets is a hot rod and automotive magazine that specifically features auto news, articles and photos from Hawaii and for the time being, is only on the internet and not a printed publication.

Even though I made a living at building street rods, I am not, and never was a hardcore gearhead. That’s someone who talks, walks, speaks and even sleeps hot rod cars. Nowadays I’m interested in everything but mostly the mechanics of good reporting on things that are Hawaii. If its automotive related in one way or another, I’m interested in it even more. 

If the majority of my writing touches someone or make’s you think, "wow, I didn’t know that," then I’ve done my job well. One hot rod writer recently told me, "when you’ve seen one hot rod you seen them all". I don’t believe that. I believe that once in a while someone will own a car that drastically stands out from the rest. It might be a paint scheme or it might depict a very unique personality. That’s what I like to feature in Honolulu Streets. The build-up of Don Pierce’s Hawaiian Rat Rod is the best example of that.

Where:
Honolulu Streets is located on the web. I, on the other hand, live in Medford Oregon and post Honolulu Streets Magazine from here. It hasn’t been easy getting information for the website while living on the mainland but I work hard at it and do the best I can. That means I’m on the phone a lot or answering emails until 3am.

Confirming stuff too has been quite hard. For instance, not too long ago I got an email from someone living on Kauai who wanted to go to a cruise night while visiting Oahu but didn’t want to make the trip unless the cruise night was a confirmed event. Its been tough, but I love Hawaii and I think anything worth while doesn’t come easy or without a price. So I spend lots of time double-checking everything that goes into Honolulu Streets Magazine.

When:
It wasn’t until 4 years later, after my life-changing move to the Pacific Northwest, that I couldn’t take being removed from Hawaii any longer. So around January 2001 I broke down and bought a computer thinking that it would somehow keep me connected to my indigenous home. A whole solid two months went by before I was able to type my name correctly not to mention during that time I had been turning it off wrong. Needed to use the mouse of all things, huh, who-duh-thought! By March of that year I had Honolulu Streets Magazine up and running on the Internet.

Why:
Okay, so I thought learning the computer and "surfing" the Internet would keep me connected to Hawaii, enough so, that I wouldn’t be bugging everyone I knew with phone calls. But, you’re here to know why I posted Honolulu Streets Magazine right? I’ll need to start at the beginning, before I bought my PC.

Within the first two years at my new address I was making daily long distance calls to everyone who I came in contact with over a 30-year period in Hawaii. It got so bad that I was calling people who didn’t really like me. Man, I sure made a fool of myself in those early years. I had sunk so low that I thought as long as they were in Hawaii, it didn’t matter who I talked to.

I even called a few Hotels and hoped to be put on hold just to hear Hawaiian music over the phone. I know what you’re thinking, why not listen to some old Kalapana on a CD player? It just wouldn’t have been the same. I was getting it live and a real human was just about to talk to me over the phone. Maybe I needed sympathy after telling the hotel clerk, once he or she answered, that I was from Honolulu and I missed it so much. — Remember up until then I didn’t have a computer and didn’t know that I could be listing to live Internet radio from Hawaii — But all that did anyway was make me incredibly more homesick.

After finally getting my computer and "hooked" with Internet access, reading the online version of the Advertiser helped my detachment of all things Hawaii. But when they dropped "Aloha Danny" from their "E-mail news alerts" salutation line that was it. I decided I had to do something drastic in order to keep me feeling like I wasn’t missing anything from Waianae to Kaneohe. So, I created Honolulu Streets Magazine.

If others liked what I did on the Internet and wanted more of it, then I had done something much more than any psychologist could do for me. I created a commitment to myself, and to anyone else who wanted to see Honolulu Streets Magazine. A few months after Honolulu Streets became posted, there was little doubt left that it wouldn’t keep me continuously connected with Hawaii.

Give them what they want:
What I’ve noticed is that the majority of you want to see more Hawaii car show and cruise night coverage. Also, more event dates posted along with an increased classified section as well as an Auto Shop portion with lots of how-to articles. Lastly, a bunch of Auto news from the streets of Hawaii. I can’t get it all but I’ll promise to work tirelessly to nab what I can first hand and deliver it to you accurately and as fast as possible.

—If it happened on the streets of Hawaii, you just might hear it first in Honolulu Streets. Hawaii's Only Real Hot Rod Magazine.

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