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On the Scene John Berger |
Highs and lows of Hawaii’s
Hoku award happeningsYear at the Hoku Awards, held for the first time in years at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Coral Ballroom instead of the Sheraton Waikiki. The room felt smaller, the stage looked smaller, and there was much less space between the banquet tables, but Alan Yamamoto, Bonnie Ryder and the HARA production team came up with a good layout for the show. Two video screens gave folks at the far end of the room a good view of the proceedings, and the dinner -- breast of chicken and grilled salmon -- got good reviews ... On the other hand, it's disgraceful to continue presenting nine awards and the scholarships before the start of the televised show while the crowd is concentrating on dinner, thereby denying the winners and scholarship recipients their moment of live television time along with the other winners. Carol Keale expressed the disappointment felt by others who remember her husband and wondered why the Moe Keale "Aloha Is" Award for Community Service was relegated to dinner-time status. Isn't "aloha" what Hawaii is supposed to be about? Cut two performances and trim the others by a minute or two, and there would be time to give every award winner the respect they deserve. Recycling the presenter introductions and lengthy video biographies from the separate Lifetime Achievement Awards show also wastes time, although adding snippets of the recipients' acceptance speeches to the video segments this year was a nice touch ...
Hoku Awards Hana Hou -- Part 2: Kainani Kahaunele, who won three Hokus and received a Bill Murata Memorial Scholarship, had a cheering section of 84 friends and family members who flew in from various islands for the show. The design -- dolphin, sea turtle, octopus, taro plant and sting ray -- on the flags they were waving represents animals and plants of spiritual significance ... Traditional-style Hawaiian artists won most of the Hokus, but Kapena -- performing as a quartet with Kelly and Kepena DeLima, Eddie Teo and Kainoa De Lo -- rocked the room and brought the crowd to its feet with a lengthy medley of high-energy Jawaiian rock ...
Happy Birthday: To Ron "The Real Ron O'Neil" Klohs and Noelani Mahoe, who are celebrating on Sunday ... and also to Jimmy Borges, Angela Baraquio Gray and Angie Fernandez Morales (Tuesday) and Kala'i Miller (Wednesday) ...
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
John Berger has covered the local
entertainment scene since 1972. Contact
him at jberger@starbulletin.com.