Name put Jamin
on road to fameRAM-a-lang-a-ding-dong: "What's in a name?" Shake-speare asked. Occasionally you run across people with the perfect name for what they do. There was the late optometrist, Dr. Look, for example. I've always felt Gregory Grab, the attorney, was well named. As was the law firm specializing in divorce, Dunn & Dunn. You might consider that Dr. Au, the "Magic Dentist" on KGMB, has an unfortunate name for his profession. Now comes someone with the perfect name to be a professional basketball player, Ramin Jamm. Alas, "Dr. J" elected to become a real doctor and is now in private practice at Kapiolani Medical Center. At least Dr. Jamm is not Jamin Wong. That's the name of the jammin' musician whose first solo release, "Goldmind," hit record stores a few months ago. MTV talent coordinator Lynette Jones happened to be in town and noticed a large poster of Jamin in the Restaurant Row parking garage. She bought his CD and invited him to participate in MTV's talent contest, "The Cut." He flew to L.A., to audition for the judges and now has been selected as one of four winners out of thousands of entries. He'll fly back next month where MTV will shoot and air his video. Sounds like Wong should be named Jamin Wright ...
Something's fishy
THE Royal Hawaiian's exec chef Thomas Wong must have made short work of the fish auction when he ordered 180 pounds of opah, 200 pounds of lehi and 200 pounds of ahi. Wong was gauging his needs for this weekend's Food Network "Cooking Across America" event. Call 949-CHEF (2433) for details.
While everyone at the Royal (including G.M. Ernest Nishizaki) was busy cleaning fish, Wong cut a swath through Chinatown, picking up 850 pounds of eggplant, 200 pounds of tofu and 200 pounds of lup cheong. Sounds like he's expecting "The Three Tenors" over for dinner...
WHAT a segue: The aforementioned tenors, Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavorotti, along with conductor James Levine, will kick off Hawaii Public Television's "Pledge Week" Oct. 9 at 7:15 p.m. Not all programming is geared toward the classics during this particular pledge period. Lovers of various kinds of music will find programming featuring Frank Sinatra, Patti LaBelle and John Fogerty, and in the second week, "Hey Mr. Producer" performances from Cameron Mackintosh productions, the Rolling Stones' "Bridges to Babylon" encore and James Taylor. Talk about an eclectic selection, made in hopes of attracting new sources of support...
THE Republican Party held a post-election unity brunch at Ber-nard's New York Deli in Ward Centre. I guess it doesn't hurt that the gubernatorial candidate, Linda Lingle, is Jewish. But someone should tell "Fantasy Island" regular Fyvush Finkel about Bernard's. The borscht circuit performer, best known for his "Picket Fences" role was spotted eating Italian at Matteo's...
Arnold's packing
YOU'VE seen Arnold Schwarzenegger wielding weapons in such action movies as "Terminator," and now you can see him, gun in hand, frightening absolutely nobody. Arnold will be the celebrity host for the second annual Lanai Pine Hawaii Pacific Target Shoot Oct. 23-25. Sponsored by Ducks Unlimited and Lanai Pine Sporting Clays, participants from Hawaii and the mainland can compete for cash in the $porting $kin$ competition with a cash purse of $20,000...
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.