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Hawaii
THE diversity of Hawaii continues to amaze. Freddie Rice wins what seems like a slam dunk Supreme Court decision that elections limited to voters of Hawaiian blood only are unconstitutional, and the fur starts flying. Of all the comments printed thus far, my favorite has to be, not surprisingly, Mililani Trask's, who called Rice a modern member of the "missionary gang." I wonder how she'd like it if we had an election in which those with Hawaiian blood were ineligible to vote? She'd be Opinions abound
on Rice decisionfurious, of course, and for good reason. And "good reason," in my view, is what the high court exercised ... Speaking of diversity, new Kamehameha Schools chief exec Hamilton McCubbin told the Rotary Club Tuesday that he's half-Japanese, one-quarter Irish and "nearly" one-quarter Hawaiian. In other words, folks, the Kamehameha topper is somewhat more Irish than Hawaiian. His talk, by the way, went over big with Rotarians of many races ...
SHADES of "Miss Saigon," in which the child playing the title character's little girl was in fact a boy. In "Madama Butterfly," which opens this weekend, the part of Trouble, three-year-old son of Cio-Cio-San (Guiping Deng, a Chinese) and Lt. Pinkerton (Carlo Scibelli, an Italian) is being played by a girl. Six-year-old Samantha Pang, daughter of Drs. Stuart and Robyn Yim Pang, portrays the tyke. Samantha, often called Sam or Sammi, has no trouble exuding boyish charm, drawing on her kid brothers, Zachary and Sydney ...
Reality bytes
TELEVISION columnist John Carman, writing of the disastrous sham marriage show on Fox, best described "instant bride" Darva Conger as looking "like a deer caught in the headlights." And the headlines, he might have added. Carman also harkened back to the MTV "Real World" episode shot in Hawaii in which Ruthie, the Hawaiian member of the group of strangers placed in a beachfront house, came close to dying or possibly getting involved in a fatal crash while driving drunk. Will this kill "reality" TV? Not likely. CBS already has two shows in the works, one eerily similar to "Real World" and the other, "Survivor," about a group of people left to their own devices on a deserted island. Possibilities for disaster are endless ...IT'S not that Rick Enos has a sweet tooth or anything, but he's so keen on supporting the Girl Scouts, particularly Punahou Troop 688, led by Laura Fink, that he and his Compadres G.M. Jesse Morta bought 250 boxes of cookies, enabling the troop to travel to Maui and camp out at the Girl Scout facility there ...
PLANS are afoot for a tribute to Duke Ellington in April featuring jazz bands from the various military services. Duke was born Edward Kennedy Ellington on April 29, 1899 ...
Go for Mimy
IT should come as no surprise to anyone who's met Chinese singer Mimy Chen that Go is one of her favorite games. She's always on the Go, and refuses to take "no" for an answer. On her own, she produced a CD, "Hawaiian Music in Chinese," and when no distributor would represent her, she used her degree in marketing from Hawaii Pacific University to handle things herself. Now stores that originally turned down her CD are calling to ask for it as sales are going strong in Borders, Sam Goody's and House of Music. You can hear her sing Hawaiian songs in Chinese Saturday at Kapiolani Park Bandstand at 5:45 p.m. It's free, so Go! ...
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