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Hawaii
DESPITE the report that there were still seats available for Elton John's second concert on Saturday, the word of mouth must have A lot of movin’,
shakin’ at Elton’ssold them out. There wasn't an empty seat to be had Saturday, until the crowd made a dash for the stage toward the end and danced alongside the stage and in the aisles. Among those dancing was Rep. Neil Abercrombie with wife Nancie Caraway. Abercrombie has been a big fan of the rocker since his early days, and even entitled his Ph.D. thesis in American Studies, "Rocket Man." April Masini arranged to attend the show Friday night with First Lady Vicky Cayetano. And on Saturday, Masini's ex-husband, Al Masini, was there looking fit, trim and happy with his new girlfriend. Like me, he apparently rejected Star-Bulletin columnist Charley Memminger's muddled conclusion in his Friday column, rampantly ageist, in which he wrote, "If you still are dealing with girlfriends when you're over 60, there's something seriously wrong with you..." ... At Saturday's show, Sir Elton said this was the second time he's visited here around this time of year and that next year he hopes to bring along "Mr. Joel." That would be the "Piano Man," Billy Joel, who's toured with John in the past ... Before last year's Elton John concert, promoter Tom Moffatt was chatting baseball with the amiable rocker, and suggested he could bring down the house if he'd merely changed the lyrics of "Benny and the Jets" at some point to "Benny and the Mets," particularly since Met outfielder Benny Agbayani, a local lad, was going to be in the audience. John mulled the suggestion and then, slowly, replied, "You know, I hate the (bleepin') Mets." End of discussion ...
Kinsale-ing along
THAT fund-raiser Don Murphy had for the family of Erin O'Conner, the young girl who lost her legs in an auto accident on the Big Isle, was a huge success. It raised over $13,000 for the family, with Murph once again absorbing all the cost of food ... Two people who were there were Lanikai residents Bob Dye and wife Tessa Magoon Dye. Like the O'Conners, they have a home in Kinsale, Ireland, in the South of Cork County. Bob didn't recall meeting them, but Tessa stopped into the little shop they ran because they had a sign in the window stating it was run by Hawaiians. The O'Conners spend part of the year on the Big Isle ...AFTER meeting with April Masini and Gov. Ben Cayetano, DBEDT's Seiji Naya invited Masini to a dinner at L'Uraku in honor of Brahm Prakash, chief economist of the Asian Development Bank. "Baywatch" came up in the conversation because of April's involvement and Naya volunteered to be a new recruit on the show ... In a whirlwind visit, Masini met with Hawai'i International Film Festival honcho Chuck Boller about getting more big name VIPS to the next festival ...
Favorites falter
OK, so Tiger Woods isn't going to win every tournament he enters, but he was expected to defend his title in the Mercedes tourney at Kapalua. They were still thrilled at the Ritz-Carlton because of all the national publicity they picked up on ESPN. In addition to that, Jennifer Mills of the Golf Channel featured the Ritz some 20 times, not the least of which was when she got a lomi lomi massage from resort therapist Katie Betracchi on the beach ... And with both favorites falling in the NFL playoffs yesterday, it sets up the unlikely match-up between the N.Y. Giants and Baltimore. Bet the underdog ...
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