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Screen Time
Katherine Nichols
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Iolani grad’s reggae band has isle gigs
Local publisher
Buddy Bess of Bess Press has two sons in the entertainment business, and one is about to pay a visit to the islands.
Daniel Bess is an actor living in Los Angeles, and
David Bess plays in an Iowa-based reggae/ska band coming to Hawaii to perform for the month of February.
After graduating from Iolani School and the University of Iowa, David is now part of Public Property, a group people refer to as "the blackest white band in the Midwest," said Buddy. Also in the band is David's girlfriend, Mid-Pacific Institute graduate Mareva Minerbi. They attended high school at the same time in Hawaii but didn't really know each other. Instead, they reconnected in Milan, Italy, and settled in Iowa.
Buddy said that his son's writing "really comes out" in the songs, which are "politically and socially conscious." With three CDs to their credit, the band has toured quite a bit through the Midwest, and will play a series of gigs on the West Coast in January. From there they travel to Hawaii for a long list of engagements at Hawaiian Waters Adventure Park for Bob Fest (as in Bob Marley's birthday celebration on Feb. 9), Anna Bannanas, Lulu's and many others. They'll also play on the Big Island and Maui.
In other publishing news (that relates to television), Buddy Bess said that he has one of the best-selling books (though not quite at the level of "Pidgin to Da Max") in the history of his company. "Warrior Football: A Story of Faith, Hope and Redemption" is a "baby" coffee table book that weighs in at a hefty 300 pages. The initial 17,500 copies sold out within a few days, according to Bess. So he ordered another 5,000. Boom. They were gone. Another 10,000 copies will arrive after Christmas, and Bess has pre-sold nearly 7,000 of those.
"This is the book sensation of the last few years," he said. By mid-January he expects 40,000 copies to be in print. And he doesn't anticipate any will linger in the warehouse -- especially if the Warriors win the Sugar Bowl on Tuesday.
Interestingly, the book was written by J. David Miller, who lives on the mainland but "knows football really well," said Bess. June Jones composed the foreword, which no doubt helped sales.
If you're still hungry for Warrior news and trivia, look for the follow-up coffee table book, "The Perfect Season: Hawaii 2007 WAC Champions," which begins where the first tome left off. Inside you can expect a full report on the Sugar Bowl.
"Lost" fans might already know this, but the ABC show will return Jan. 31 on Thursday nights instead of Wednesdays, an ongoing attempt to find a home in its third time period in four years. Good news: It won't compete with Fox's megahit "American Idol" anymore. Since "Lost" completed eight episodes before the writers strike began, those will air in the "Grey's Anatomy" slot at 8 p.m. Whether they will get through all 16 shows in that golden position remains to be seen.