TAKE A PSYCHEDELIC ART TRIP DURING '2D: THE ART OF 2DAY'

If you dig pop art, anime, psychedelia or futuristic techno-art, you might just want to check out Dalek's artwork at "2D: The Art of 2Day," a fundraiser for The Contemporary Museum in Chinatown at SoHo Mixed Media Bar this First Friday. Artist James Marshall grew up as a roaming military brat and spent some time in Hawai'i as a youth. After graduating from the Art Institute of Chicago, he became known as Dalek and developed a character, Space Monkey, that put him on the hipster charts as a collectible a la Kid Robot. He's known for combining street, Japanese anime and urban flavors.

His recent work is something of a psychedelic trip with vivid colors and dimensional imagery — think modern cubism meets Japanese pop art.

The masterminds behind Contrast magazine and In4mation have brought Dalek to Hawai'i to bring a little more diversity to urban Honolulu.

Bonus: The artist has created T-shirts to benefit Honolulu's haven for contemporary art, The Contemporary Museum. The deal: With every T-shirt purchased, the consumer will receive a one-year individual membership at TCM.

Check out Dalek's fresh new art and more this Friday at SoHo, 80 S. Pauahi St. Doors open at 6 p.m.; www.dalekart.com, www.in4mants.com.

— Lacy Matsumoto

RIFF REPORT

• Michael Jackson's import set, "The Collection" (Sony), was already in the works to be released in anticipation of Jackson's planned London concert dates, but now it serves as a fitting memorial to the King of Pop. The set (list price $46.98) includes the full versions of "Off The Wall," "Thriller," "Bad," "Dangerous" and "Invincible" packaged in mini cardboard versions of the album covers.

• Brooklyn indie art-pop duo The Fiery Furnaces return with "I'm Going Away" (Thrill Jockey), another album that pushes definitions of pop music and challenges listeners while creating memorable tunes.

LISTEN UP

Japanese girl-pop/punk stalwarts Shonen Knife return to U.S. shores with a new platter of tunes on Aug. 25. The women offer up catchy ditties born in the garage, but run through a bit of '60s pop gloss and riot grrl attitude. For your listening pleasure, stream the premiere of "Super Group" (Good Charamel Records) here: www.snurl.com/nkwj7.

— Sarah Zupko, PopMatters.com

We would travel great distances for good food. But townies don't have to go far to try Lucy's Bar and Grill; it's just a scenic hop over the Pali Highway for a quality meal in the heart of Kailua town. From the fish tanks to the kitschy Hawaiian decor, this restaurant has laid-back ambiance. Its Monday special is a steal with a 20 percent discount off your meal for parties of four or fewer. Another great deal is its Wine Wednesday, where with any purchase of an entree, you receive half off your bottle of choice. One of the signature appetizers is the interactive 'ahi tower ($15) — 'ahi, avocado, and sushi rice topped with tobiko, neatly formed until you dig into it to create your own handrolls. After a day at Kailua beach, wine and dine at Lucy's Bar and Grill, 33 Aulike St., Kailua; 230-8188.

SUNDAY TUBE: SHARKS AND BOUNCING BABES

Conversation I heard in Hollywood last week (or maybe just dreamed; but in television criticism, like horseshoes and hand grenades, close is good enough):

Programmer No. 1 — "I don't know what's with these viewers. We give 'em quality stuff all summer long — Botoxed South Beach swine, drunken New York preppies, even dancing fat people — and still they ain't watching."

Programmer No. 2 — "Yeah, and it's August already. We've got no choice but to go for the doomsday weapons — shark attacks and naked chicks bouncing around in zero-gravity."

Thus is explained tonight's programming choices. The two-hour "Blood in the Water," at 6 and 9 p.m., is the Discovery Channel's cheesy but diverting documentary on the rogue white shark whose vendetta against New Jersey inspired the novel and film "Jaws." And the two-hour pilot of sci-fi series "Defying Gravity," at 8 p.m., is ABC's sensitive and thought-provoking exploration of the theological implications of naked chicks bouncing around in zero-gravity.

"Blood in the Water" — which kicks off Discovery Channel's annual Shark Week chewfest — is the long-awaited answer to the question, "What the hell was Richard Dreyfuss talking about in 'Jaws' when he screamed at the mayor, 'It's gonna happen again! It's happened before! The Jersey beach! 1916! Five people chewed up in the surf!' "

Turns out this was not just the product of some screenwriter's fervid imagination, but a real incident. In the middle of a brutal summer heat wave that sent thousands of bathers to the New Jersey shore, a rogue shark began stalking the beaches, killing four swimmers and mutilating another in a span of just two weeks.

The resulting hysteria — newspapers from coast-to-coast sent reporters to Jersey in a media feeding frenzy — was all the greater because the fatal shark attacks were the first ever recorded in American coastal waters. The conventional scientific wisdom of the day was that sharks were too chicken to go after people, only great white sharks would be physically capable of eating a human, and everybody knew great whites stuck to the warmer tropical waters down south.

Flabby and repetitive, shot as a series of re-created scenes rather than as a conventional documentary, "Blood in the Water" is nonetheless saved by the pure visceral fascination of its story.

My advice: Rent "Barbarella" instead. Jane Fonda's spacesuit striptease is right at the beginning, so it's easier to hit rewind.

— Glenn Garvin, McClatchy-Tribune News Service

WHAT'S ON YOUR IPOD?

Zen Yoshifuku, Contrast magazine

1. "Friendly Fires," Paris (Aeroplane remix)

2. "Ghost Under Rocks," Ra Ra Riot (Passion Pit remix)

3. "Seg's theme," DJ Sega

4. "Little Bit," Lykke Li (Gigamesh remix)

5. "In the Clouds," The Jump Offs