Wood Craft Ben Wood

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Hawaiian Airlines’ fiesta marks airline’s Manila service

Hawaiian Airlines is flying high after starting round-trip service to Manila this week and celebrated with a colorful outdoor fiesta at Hawaii State Art Museum Thursday evening. Hawaii and Philippines' officials praised Hawaiian and its company President and CEO Mark Dunkerley for starting the service. Dunkerley gave a short speech thanking the many guests for coming, then let other speakers do most of the talking. The event was handled by Philip Richardson's Current Affairs. Some of Hawaii's leading Filipino singers and dancers performed as guests dined on Bev Gannon's food, including Filipino specialties. A duet of "The Last Night of the World" by Kristian Lei and husband Gavin Vinta was staged beautifully, with Gavin singing on stage and Kristian singing on a second-floor balcony of the building. She came down to finish the song with him and seal it with a kiss. Also performing were Rocky Brown, Jordan Segundo and Johnny Valentine -- backed by Jeannette Trevias' combo -- and the Salangan Choral Group and the Himig at Indak Pilipino dancers in bright costumes. Charles Degala emceed the party, which was appropriately called "The Thrill of Manila." Do not confuse this with the epic 1975 fight between Muhammad Ali and "Smokin' " Joe Frazier called "The Thrilla in Manila," in which Ali retained his heavyweight title. Mabuhay! ...

The Honolulu Theatre for Youth's "Ferdinand the Bull" is playing at Tenney Theatre and the Spanish folk tale has inspired the theme for HTY's fundraising Fashion Fiesta Children's Fashion Show and Luncheon at the Kahala Hotel. The event is Sunday May 4, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Children of parents who buy tickets, starting at $125, can be in the fashion show if tickets are bought by Tuesday. Call event chair Tim Bostock at 521-9699 for tickets. His daughters, Leilani and Grace, are two of the 50 models in the show. HTY publicist Aubrey Hawk signed up her daughters, Madeline and Kelly. Ryan Brown and Smith Barney's Audra Stevenson, models for ADR agency, will coach youngsters. Audra talked Escada manager Mariese Montano-Smith into having her son, Justin, model. Makeup and hair will be handled by the Paul Brown School of Hawaii. Rolando Sanchez is event emcee-deejay and Ian Sullivan will play Spanish guitar ...

The death of jeweler Tommy Kakesako last August was a blow to those who served with him in the famed 442nd in World War II, as well as for those of us who did business with him for years. And now, as revealed in Helen Altonn's fine story in the Star-Bulletin Wednesday, we learn that Kakesako Jewelers, a downtown landmark for 58 years, is closing in mid-June. A going-out-of-business sale starts Monday. In earlier years, many Star-Bulletin employees received watches that came from Kakesako after reaching their 25th anniversary with the paper. And Tommy was a master at repairing watches. Besides having watches fixed, I took an expensive watch to him with a gold link band that needed to be lengthened. Luxury shops told me it was too old to get links from the company and nothing could be done. Tommy found a way to lengthen the band. Whenever I did business with Kakesako Jewelers, I left the shop with a smile ...