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If you can’t wear aloha
in Waikiki, where can you?

MEL'S NEW MISSION: Melveen Leed arrived at the Hawaiian Civic Club of Honolulu Holoku Ball at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel on Saturday expecting to see men in tuxedos and women in holokus. A few men had made an effort to go formal, and there were a few women in holokus, but most of the crowd was dressed so casually that Leed felt over-dressed. She rushed out to buy a muumuu but couldn't any Hawaiian-style aloha attire within walking distance of the Monarch Room. Leed has been campaigning for several years to make traditional Hawaiian and hapa-haole music more available in Waikiki. She now wants more aloha wear available for sale there too ...

WELL SAID, KIMO!: Hoku Award-winning kumu hula Kimo Alama Keaulana commented while watching a Hawaiian show recently that "Watching bad hula is like watching a badly-dubbed kung fu movie." Gentleman that he is, Keaulana wouldn't say if the comment was directed at the dancers he was watching ...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: To Mary Ann Changg and Riley Lee, who are celebrating tomorrow ... also to Louis "Moon" Kauakahi (Saturday), Iva Kinimaka (Sunday), and G-Spot and Fred Piluso (Tuesday) ...

WHERE HAVE ALL THE HAWAIIANS GONE? Aukai Reynolds has completed "The Hawaiian Connection: A Pilina Hawai'i Special," a 30-minute program on native Hawaiians who are preserving their cultural identity in Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia. The program airs Aug. 9, on KHON. Reynolds says more than 162,000 Hawaiians live on the United States mainland ...

GRABBING THE LOVE RING: Great turn-out Sunday for the Oriental Love Ring reunion at Anna Bannana's. Friends on hand included "Loud Larry" Lieberman, Marti "The Marti" Kerton, Laura Bach Buzzell, James Roberts and Sean T.C. O'Malley. The only bummer? Anna's had no Crown Royal. How ghetto is that?...

CONGRATULATIONS: To Kenneth K. Martinez Burgmaier, who reports that "Wa'a Ho'olaule'a (Festival of Canoes)," his film about canoes and Hawaiian culture, took top honors in the "Integral Realization" category at the Philadelphia Documentary Film Festival, and "Best Cultural Connection to the Sea" at the Ocean Film Festival on Kauai ... And to Diamond Head Theatre on the success of "Beauty and the Beast." Demand for tickets has been so great that the schedule now includes shows at 8 p.m. Aug 3. and 10 ...