Hawaii
The big scoop that
didn’t happen on cueIT WAS the day of Mufi Hannemann's fund-raiser at the Honolulu Country Club as he prepares a run for the mayor's job at City Hall that brother Gus Hannemann, who was on the program that night, was walking through the parking lot in Restaurant Row heading for Sunset Grill. He spotted two men pushing a rolling dolly filled with Star-Bulletins and automatically checked the headline. "Harris Out," it read and Gus let out a whoop. He asked if he could buy a few of the papers and one of the men said, "Take all you want." You've probably guessed by now -- Gus checked the date and learned these were old papers taken for recycling or something, and referred to the story of Mayor Jeremy Harris dropping out of the race for governor. "Aw, shucks," said Han- nemann, or something to that effect, having been robbed of the big news item he thought he had for the fundraiser ...
It's K-POI, almost
WATCHING nearly two hours of Manoa Valley Theatre's "Beehive," a collection of '60s songs performed by young women wearing some of the most outlandish beehive haircuts Greg Howell could some up with --and that's pretty outlandish --reminded me of one of the three-hour stints I used to host during that era as a "Poi Boy" on K-POI, minus the commercials. There were tunes by Diana Ross and Phil Spector, still making news today. Of the seven performers, my favorites were Alison Maldonado as Tina Turner and Patrice Scott as Janis Joplin at Woodstock -- the only thing missing was an open bottle of Southern Comfort which helped lead Joplin about six-feet south. The band was fine with Althea Train keeping things on track and horn players Keith Griffin and Greg Wills hilarious miming the riding of a surfboard on "Pipeline." Unlike "125th Street" which contains some of the same music, there's no plot in "Beehive," my major complaint. So just go, jump and jive ...YOU thought maybe after Robin Williams, Steve Martin and Bill Irwin reprised "Waiting for Godot" on Broadway, that you'd seen variations which would send author Samuel Beckett spinning in his grave. Good thing he doesn't have to see what liberties are being taken with his masterwork when Tim Wiler stages his MFA production at UH's Ernst Theater March 12 to 16. It's a kyogen-style staging with Vladimir and Estragon meeting Tarokaja and Jirokaja instead of Pozzo and Lucky ...
Checkered career
IN one of my other lives, I played the role of Mr. Checkers on the "Checkers and Pogo" show on KGMB. I lasted a year before jumping ship to join the Star-Bulletin and write a daily column. Kale Imua was a youngster during my short stay on the air, but 13 years later joined the cast as Imua, the mailman. Even my successor had left the show by this time and Pogo (Morgan White) was surrounding himself with other characters, but no Mr. Checkers. So I like to think I got the ball rolling on the 14-year run and Imua was there for the finale season. Well, he's now performing contemporary and Hawaiian music Saturdays from 7 to 9:30 p.m. at the Banana Patch Lounge at the Miramar ...
Dave Donnelly has been writing on happenings
in Hawaii for the Star-Bulletin since 1968.
The Week That Was recalls items from Dave's 30 years of columns.Contact Dave by e-mail: ddonnelly@starbulletin.com