TheBuzz
TheBuzz
Tickets for the first show sold out in less than a week. So, Hawaii Public Radio today will announce a second performance of Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion" at the Hawaii Theatre Center on Saturday, Jan 5. The ‘rock star’
of public radio
adds a second show"We're really over the moon about it," said Michael Titterton, president of Hawaii Public Radio.
Tickets have only been available to members of HPR and the Hawaii Theatre Center, and that policy continues in effect for the added performance, at 7:30 p.m., go on sale tomorrow at the theater box office.
The general public may purchase tickets starting Dec. 1.
The additional performance, which will have some different content from the 1 p.m. show, will be taped for possible broadcast, according to Titterton.
"Garrison Keillor, we know, is a tremendous fan of Hawaii, and I can't think of a better time in history for a two-hour peroration on the virtues of Hawaii to go out to an audience of 3 million of the smartest people in America."
Peroration "is a public radio word," Titterton said. It is defined in the Star-Bulletin's roughly 15-pound copy of Webster's Third New International Dictionary as "a flowery highly rhetorical speech."
Shop for security
When a 93-year-old Hawaii retailing business such as Chun Kim Chow announces it's shutting down at the end of the year, more than just the employees get shaken up.You start remembering the special clothing purchased at Ethel's, or shoes at Robins, or a cool shirt that only the Body Shop had.
Tomorrow is traditionally the busiest shopping day of the year, and TheBuzz can't help but wonder, "What can be done to prevent more sad stories like that? What can local people do to keep their favorite stores open?"
"You're only going to make it happen if you go out and shop," said Stephany Sofos, real estate consultant and president of SL Sofos & Co. Ltd., often tapped for her services as a retail analyst.
The resident market has not been affected as much as the resort areas, Sofos said.
"People are still spending," she said. "Not as much, but they're still spending."
"No prudent business would want to reduce income until there's no other way to do it," she said. "No one knows how long this (downturn) is going to last," she said, "so they're trying to keep the lease rents up and then come up with some way to try and compensate the tenant by doing more advertising and marketing to keep the tenants going."
Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin.
Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle,
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached
at: eengle@starbulletin.com