Hawaii
Dr. Kalani Brady
TURNING on the Channel 2 morning news one day last week I found Dr. Kalani Brady, who regularly hands out medical advice on the show, singing "On the Street Where You Live." For people unaware that Dr. Brady's avocation is musical theater and that he's appeared in many productions in Honolulu, it must have been like tuning in to hear Dr. Ruth sing "I Feel Pretty." ... I ran across a company on the Internet over the weekend that sells fossilized animal droppings. It's called "Endangered Feces." (I'm not making this up!) ...
IT was nice to see Don Robbs win the annual Chuck Leahey Award at the Easter Baseball Tournament at Rainbow Stadium. The award was handed to Robbs, who has broadcast UH games for 20 years, by Jim Leahey, son of the man who started not only the Easter Tourney but the Rainbow Classic as well. The senior Leahey did much to promote UH's participation in collegiate sports in Hawaii and both his son and Robbs have followed in that tradition ... Hats off also to Bank of America, who kicked in $70,000 to help fund the tourney ...
STOPPING over on the way home from the Far East, Michael Mondavi, who now runs the winery started by his father, Robert. He and his wife, Isabella, had a little R&R at the Ihilani Resort. While the two enjoyed dinner prepared by new exec chef Mark Adair at the Azul Restaurant, Mondavi chose to finish off the evening with a Montecristo #2 Habana on the Azul terrace lanai ... Also at Azul, Wave Waikiki and Hula's owner Jack Law and Kahala Moon owner Kelvin Ro gathered far away from the lights of Waikiki to celebrate Robert Cazimero's birthday ...
Steve Boyle
AT the HVB's "Keep It Hawaii" awards ceremony last week, Kona Village Resort was the bride while the New Otani Kaimana Beach Hotel was the bridesmaid, but not a jealous one. Kona Village took top honors in the environmental preservation category, while the Kaimana received an award of merit. Kaimana G.M. Steve Boyle noticed that his Kona Village counterpart Fred Duerr wasn't there to pick up the Kahili Award, so he caught the "bouquet" as it were, knowing he'd see Duerr at the SKAL Club dinner that night. In keeping with the aloha spirit, he arranged for a special presentation of the award as part of the program. Duerr was both honored and surprised, but no kisses were exchanged ...
KITV'S Pamela Young did a great job of catching up with island talent now appearing (or about to be) on Broadway, interviewing nearly a dozen performers from Hawaii. The list included Randall Duk Kim, who I haven't seen for years, though he now lives on the Big Isle. Also interviewed was Aiko Nakasone, who I mentioned some time back has a role in "Rent," the musical destined to be the "Hair" of the '90s, opening on Broadway April 29. I was hoping she might also talk to Kevin McCollum, the young man who's producing "Rent" and who grew up here, but he wasn't even mentioned on the program. Guess he's way behind the scenes ...
