Hawaii
ENTERTAINER Danny Kaleikini may be known as the "Ambassador of Aloha," but don't mention that to his sister, Suzie -- "They call me Tita." She's a flight attendant on Hawaiian Airlines, and looked after my modest needs on a just-concluded trip to Seattle. For example, when I asked who the young woman with the gorgeous smile on the inflight video might be, she informed me she was another Hawaiian Air flight attendant, Rosie Hoopii. She quickly added that the handsome young man who appeared with her in the video was Hoku Kim. And whoever cast them ought to become a yentl because they ended up getting married a couple of months ago. Talk about "Friendly Skies," they're now United! ... Pair on air after
perfect casting
ALSO shown during the flight was a video hosted by Emme Tomimbang, and when it was over I turned on my headphones and found Emme once again, this time talking to and playing songs by Hapa. I couldn't help but chuckle at one point, when Barry Flanagan was explaining how he got a player of Uillean pipes, an Irish instrument, to record his segment of a Hawaiian song on the mainland, and it was married to Hapa's music in a studio. Emme then came on and asked why a Scottish bagpipe was used and was it related to Flanagan's Scottish heritage? In a manner chivalrously sweet for one of Irish heritage, he explained it wasn't a bagpipe and he wasn't Scottish. It brought a smile to these Irish lips ...
Slipless in Seattle
ALTHOUGH I've spent very little time in the Emerald City of Seattle (and can't understand why it has that nickname, for that matter), I was never far from Hawaii. The first morning in my hotel, the modest but well-located Pacific Plaza (next to the ultra-modern "W" and a block from the Four Seasons Hotel, a man at breakfast asked, "Aren't you Dave Donnelly?" Seems he was a vacationing islander. On my last night there, while dining with my son and his girlfriend at an Italian restaurant far off in the University district, there he was, greeting me again, this time with his family ... And in a luncheon spot in Rainier Center, a Japanese man approached and asked, "Aren't you Dave Donnelly?" I admitted I was and he said, "Thanks for dinner." He'd bet the guy he was with that it was me. As they were leaving, the second man said, "Next time wear a better disguise." ...SEATTLE is still a two-newspaper town, one of the few left, but the big news in both papers was what was basically a nonstory about the first boxing match between a woman and a man. I wondered what our own staff feminist, Diane Chang, would think of such a mister and miss-match. Then I saw the two combatants on TV before the fight and realized the woman was more masculine than the man. Few were surprised when she won ...
Deserving Rep
THE Seattle Repertory Company has an excellent reputation and deservedly so. I went to see David Henry Hwang's poignant "Golden Child" with my son. It's a natural for a Hawaii production with its Chinese theme and four wonderful parts, all played superbly in Seattle. The Rep's next show will be "Wit," the 1999 Pulitzer Prize winner, which opens next Monday. Then another play with a Chinese theme, Sandra Tsing Loh's "Aliens in America," will play there from Nov. 29 into the year 2000 ...
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: ddonnelly@starbulletin.com