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No matter where you live,
Hawaii is on your chest

Once again, localites are spreading the aloha spirit all over the world. Ryan Baniaga, a Kauai native who moved to Texas to work as an aircraft maintenance technical crew chief, and his wife Kathy, started an Internet T-shirt business last year (www.funnykinetshirts.com). With the help of local artist Jeff Pagay, who has illustrated several local children's books with writer Carmen Geshell, and Web designer Brian Barnes, who lived on Kauai for 12 years before moving to Oregon, the foursome have created a selection of fun T-shirt designs that reflect the aloha way, selling them to people as far away as Istanbul, New Zealand and Turkey. Baniaga emails, "In a few years, I will have lived here (Texas) longer than back home! As far as being homesick, my personal motto is this: 'I live in Texas, but Hawaii is my Home!' " Funny Kine T Shirts can also be found in five tourist and surf shops on Kauai, and as soon as the group has 14 designs (they are working on their 12th), they plan to expand to Maui. ... Eleven-year-old Tae Keller is also sharing her talents around the world. The Waipahu resident's poem was one of her latest prize-winning works, selected out of hundreds of adults' and girls' submissions to be published in the March/April issue of "New Moon: The Magazine for Girls and Their Dreams." Catherine Conover of New Moon Publishing said Keller's poem, titled "Halmoni, I Wish You a Pendant: A Poem for My Grandmother," fits with that issues theme, "We Are Family." To subscribe to the bi-monthly magazine aimed at girls ages 8 to 14, connect to www.newmoonstore.com. Talent must run in the family. Tae's mom is Hawaii-based novelist Nora Okja Keller ...

the aloha spirit doesn't end yet. Earlier this year, oldies band Flashback raised $1,100 for tsunami victims by holding a "live" karaoke event in Kaimuki where, for $10 or more, participants could sing with the band. Last month, Flashback held the same event at the Mililani Shack and raised another $414 for tsunami victims. "There are talented people in Mililani, and they stepped up to the mike for a good cause, said Flashback vocalist Lori Nasu. The group is considering more club events. For more information, contact Flashback at bigwavehonolulu@aol.com ...