Kathee Hoover goes Christmas shopping in July - buying thousands of antique, vintage and traditionally crafted items from across the globe. Then she has to turn around and sell them for the Academy of Arts' annual World Art Bazaar.

“;It's everybody's fantasy to go shopping with somebody else's money,”; says Hoover. “;Let me tell you, it's a lot of work.”;

For instance, the bazaar's Indian woodblocks, used to decorate fabric or paper. Last summer, Hoover spent an afternoon in a Phoenix warehouse, sorting through a bin of them, trying to find the one in 20 that wasn't chipped or worn out. “;It was 120 degrees and humid,”; she recalls. “;Also dirty.”;

She bought items from Europe, Africa, South America, Japan, China, Indonesia. They range from $4.50 wooden German Christmas ornaments to a $2,500 gold, sapphire and tourmaline necklace from Rajasthan.

The point, she says, is to encourage traditional craftsmen and educate the eye of the consumer - as well as just sell things to benefit the Academy.

Hoover's enthusiasm is palpable. It's a joy to watch her act out the steps involved in making incense sticks by hand or working an Indonesian back-strap loom. “;This is all such cool stuff,”; she says. For sale at the Academy Art Center until Dec. 14.

No Hello Dalai

Seated at the head of a table at Hoku's Thanksgiving buffet was a benignly smiling, elderly Buddhist monk, surrounded by black-suited security men with walkie-talkies.

As the procession left the restaurant, the room was abuzz. “;It's the Dalai Lama, the Dalai Lama,”; everyone said.

Nice as it might be to have the Tibetan Buddhist leader eating his Thanksgiving meal at Hoku's, I checked. He had just given a speech in Nigeria the night before, and I doubt if even the Dalai Lama can get from Lagos to Kahala that quickly. Not on a holiday weekend.

Hula Huhu

Paulie Jennings is huhu with me. Last week, I wrote about a French halau, in town, I said, for the International Waikiki Hula Conference. No, no, they were here for Jennings' World Invitational Hula Festival.

Jennings wasn't just huhu with me. There's some bad blood there. The International Waikiki Hula Conference, run by the Waikiki Improvement Association, is, according to Jennings, “;deliberately confusing people about the two events.”;

No, I said, it was just my dumb mistake. I didn't realize there were two hula events with long names, in town virtually simultaneously. “;They've encouraged a lot of confusion in the media,”; insisted Jennings.

Talked to Rick Egged of WIA, which produces the other event. Egged said WIA tried to partner with Jennings, ran into some issues about dates: “;They run a good event; we run a good, totally separate event. We wish them every success.”;

“;Well,”; said Jennings, “;I don't want to get into a hair-pulling contest with them.”;

It's Radical, Man

Opening Wednesday at the Chinatown Boardroom gallery is a show called “;Cade Roster Puts the 'F' in Fine Art.”;

Asked the irreverent Mr. Roster if he ever actually got an F in Fine Art. “;I got a No Credit once at the Art Institute of Chicago,”; he said. “;I guess that's the same.”;

Chinatown Boardroom features painted surfboards as well as more conventional art. For his show, Roster has painted skateboard decks with, his words, “;cute animals and cuter girls.”;

When he was younger, he says, he tried riding skateboards to impress girls. Upon finding out he wasn't very good, he began to draw on them, although that didn't impress any girls either.

Can't be doing too badly. He and wife Waileia had twin boys eight weeks ago.

Rumor Has It

You read it last week in Erika Engle's The Buzz column: Nobu Waikiki issued a statement that, despite the rumors, it wasn't closing.

Why publicly deny a baseless rumor, giving it more publicity? I wanted to ask Richie Notar, who started as a half-naked busboy at Studio 54 and worked his way up to operating partner of Nobu worldwide.

Being Richie, he was in London, Dubai and finally home in the Hamptons before he called me back.

“;Times are hard,”; he admitted. Nobu Waikiki got off to a slow start. “;But Las Vegas was slow when we began. Now it's our best store. We don't have a magic wand; we just keep plugging away at it.”;

Still, why publicly deny a rumor? “;Because I'm a feisty New York guy,”; said Richie.

Dressing the Part

Last weekend, Louis Vuitton in Ala Moana threw a party called Winter in Paris. The well-dressed drank champagne, nibbled on canapes and shopped.

Providing Parisian atmosphere was musician Pierre Grill, who was dressed like a Frenchman in a '50s film - red vest, black beret. He was squeezing out cliched French tunes on an accordion.

“;I never played these tunes in France,”; he said ruefully. “;And I sent my mother a picture of me dressed like this.”; She wrote back: “;What is it you're wearing?”;

Remember the beer

As part of its guerrilla marketing tactics, Primo beer has put two 10-by-4-foot signs on two (private) garbage trucks, reminding people that it's a Hawaii holiday tradition to give beer (they'd prefer theirs) to your garbage men.

Marcus Owens, spokesman for the Environmental Services Department, had to check for me on the city's policy on holiday beer - “;though if it turns out to be OK, maybe someone should bring me some,”; he said.

The official policy: The department neither encourages nor discourages such gifts, but, strictly speaking, there's not supposed to be alcohol on city trucks.

As long as they don't drink it until they get it home, I'd encourage the city to turn a blind eye.