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Hawaii Dave Donnelly |
Get your bid in quick
for Jimmy BorgesSURELY the smoothest singer around, Jimmy Borges, was golfing recently with old pal Rick Davis, who is a booking agent for rock bands, and is thus usually not bothering the jazz-oriented Borges with job offers. But Davis had something in mind, and asked J.B. if he'd be interested in a doing a wedding for a S.F. couple at the Fairmont Kealani on Maui. "Not interested" in doing weddings, Borges told him, but Davis persevered and threw out a performance figure that quickly got the singer's attention. He immediately rounded up his Jazz All-Stars, Gabe Baltazar, Noel Okimoto, Steve Jones, Dan Del Negro, Bryan Kessler and "girl singer" Anita Hall. The cost of all this was apparently not a problem for the bride, Mary Lou Song and her husband-to-be, Alex Kazmir. Song, you see, was co-founder of eBay and had already arranged to fly in more than 70 of their closest friends for the ceremony and party. As for Borges, he no longer turns down wedding requests until he learns the particulars ...
Short and Rocky
POOR Tiny Tadani. The diminutive Oceanic show host had to take his cable show to New York where he found someone as Short as him. That would be former Miss Hawaii Melissa Short, who incidentally towers above him. He also talked to another Ex-Isle resident who is long on talent, beautiful singer Rocky Brown and her lucky hubby, trumpeter DeShannon Higa. The shows featuring Tiny and the terrific twosome air all this week on Oceanic Channel 16 ...YOU'VE got to hand it to Randal Ishizu, exec chef at the JW Marriott Ihilani Resort and Spa. The Marriott company did. Ishizu was one of only six chefs from nearly 2,600 lodging properties to win Marriott's International Award of Culinary Excellence. More than 600 chefs from Marriott's chain of hotels worldwide entered the contest. Ishizu will travel to San Francisco receive his award ...
GOT a sweet tooth? So did the 350 people who snapped up Duke's Waikiki Hula Pie Dessert at the most recent "Brunch on the Beach" festivities. It stands over 6 inches high and contains macadamia nut ice cream, whipped cream and fudge syrup. See, you had a sweet tooth after all ...
Highs at Chai's
WE know the food at Chai's Island Bistro is world class, but you may not know the music there is also the best. Tomorrow night, for example, five-time Na Hoku Award winners Napalapalai will perform one night only. The weekly entertainment there nightly is Hapa on Fridays with Barry Flanagan & Nathan Aweau now making up the group; Azure McCall performs on Saturdays with Jim Howard & Bruce Hamada backing her up on piano and bass; Kelii Kanealii (formerly of Hapa) plays Sundays; Olomana singer Jerry Santos performs Mondays with Brian Tolentino & Hoku Zootermiesty; On Tuesdays Robert Cazimero performs solo on piano, and is joined by brother Roland as the Brothers Cazimero play Wednesdays; and on Thursdays it's ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro. You might want to clip this out for future reference ...
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Dave Donnelly has been writing on happenings in Hawaii for the Star-Bulletin since 1968. The Week That Was runs Sundays and recalls items from Dave's 30 years of columns. Contact Dave by e-mail: ddonnelly@starbulletin.com