Checkers past
revived at NBCNOSTALGIA was running rampant at the Blaisdell Center over the weekend. There were a lot of aging teeny-boppers and an ever-growing coterie of new fans of old rock attending the "Million Dollar Party" at the Arena Friday night. The new generation of Coasters, Drifters and Shirelles was sharing the stage with the original Jimmy Clanton and Bryan Hyland, and drew a good crowd ... The concourse between the Arena and Exhibition Hall was particularly crowded since the Hawaii "All-Collectibles" show was going on in the hall and people were milling through buying everything from old Wheaties boxes to Beanie Babies, Barbie Dolls and various other collectibles. I was there signing "Mr. Checkers" on old photos of some young kid with round glasses that I may have worn for a year or so in a weak moment. The "Checkers & Pogo" memorabilia booth was fun. Parents who'd once been on the show now were buying T-shirts, buttons and autographs while their kids watched old footage of the kiddie show twosome that had entranced their folks on TV. It was like the passing of a baton. All money raised from the autographing went to Hawaii Public Television, a kind of nice irony ...
ALOHA is alive and well and so is "Live Aloha." The guy who came up with that slogan is Paul Klink and he's just had printed another 50,000 "Live Aloha" stickers and cards. You can get one free by calling the Live Aloha Hotline at 577-9441 and mentioning you read about it here. Or you can send a self-addressed stamped envelope to Aloha Direct, P.O. Box 8578, Honolulu 96830-0578.
Asian women watch
IT was something of an old home week in New York last week for Kalani High School. Designer Anne Namba (Class of '74) had a showing of her latest work hosted by the prestigious Asia Society. In addition, she met Alice Young ('67) who was in the first class of women graduates of Yale College. Young received her J.D. from Harvard Law School and now is a senior member of a Park Avenue law firm. (No, Park Avenue wasn't named after a Korean!) Young was listed by Avenue Asia as one of the five most influential Asian-American corporate lawyers in the U.S. Anne also saw her Kalani '74 classmate, Donna Ching Boehme, another successful corporate lawyer who lives in New Jersey with her husband Mark, an investment banker, and their two kids. And Namba dined with the managing editor of A. Magazine: Inside Asian America, which lists Anne in the current issue as one of "Ten Women to Watch" in the U.S. ...STROLLING downtown the other day, I saw a workman dressed neatly in coveralls with a slogan on the back, "Keep Our City Clean." He was sweeping up debris from the sidewalks and gutters and depositing it in a barrel on wheels. Just as I was thinking what a wonderful addition to downtown that a cleanup crew was on duty, I glanced back and spotted the guy relieving himself against the side of a building. Ah well, nobody's perfect ...
24-7 No. 1
WITHOUT a doubt, the hit at the Summer Jamm '98 National Dance Finals at Studio City, Calif., was Marcelo Pacleb's Danceforce Studio performing group, 24-7. They were entered in seven categories and won first place in all seven. There were some 100 Hawaii dancers in the competition and other groups also claimed firsts and seconds. 24-7 junior member Ryan Rumbaugh (who also appears in the film about Father Damien) won the only individual all-around award given to a junior, and danced off with $1,000.
Dave Donnelly has been writing on happenings
in Hawaii for the Star-Bulletin since 1968.
His columns run Monday through Friday.Contact Dave by e-mail: donnelly@kestrok.com.