Matt Catingub will be honored for his 10 years as Pops conductor Thursday and Friday nights at the Diana Krall concert. Jimmy Borges, Amy Hanaialii and Henry Kapono will perform in the first part of the Toyota Pops program at 8 p.m. at the Blaisdell Concert Hall. Borges will host the celebration. A video tribute featuring Jake Shimabukuro, Bela Fleck, Aaron Mahi and others will make it possible for Catingub's friends to be part of the evening. Catingub's first concert with the Toyota Pops took place in 1995 and featured Borges in “;The Music of Frank Sinatra.”; At the time, the Toyota Pops was known as the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra and did not offer a full season of concerts. It would be a few more years before Catingub returned to take up his post as principal pops conductor and develop the unique Toyota Pops entertainment concept. Borges played a key role in bringing Catingub to Hawaii. “;Jimmy is like a second dad to me,”; Catingub said. “;He and my mother (jazz singer Mavis Rivers) were dear friends and I first met him when I was 8 years old. As I started my own musical career, Jimmy was a great mentor. After I had been conducting orchestras on the mainland for contemporary artists for few years, he asked me to come and do the Sinatra show with him. I knew that I had found something exceptional in Honolulu”; ...

Sunday's Hawaii Opera Theatre fashion show and brunch for 250 people raised $25,000, netting $14,000 for HOT. The costumes, set design and arias from “;Madame Butterfly,”; the opera to be presented by a Hawaii team in a Finland opera festival in July, were shown. Gail Hannemann, the mayor's wife, presented HOT's head man Henry Akina, architect Dean Shibuya and fashion designer Anne Namba with proclamations recognizing their accomplishments in teaming up to mount a production of “;Butterfly”; for the Savonlinna Opera Festival ...

Longtime pals Artie Wilson and former UH football coach June Jones were spotted having an early dinner at Romano's Macaroni Grill at Ala Moana Center last week. Jones is now head coach at SMU ...

Heroes' star Hayden Panettiere and Justin Long, co-star of the movie “;He's Just Not That Into You,”; spent time at the Waikiki Aquarium Sunday. They had three other friends in tow and they mingled among the jellies, Hawaiian monk seals and other aquatic life for about 45 minutes. The celebs were here for last Saturday's Royal Hawaiian reopening ...

The Kahala Hotel & Resort's Italian food and wine celebration winds up today with an afternoon wine seminar and a dinner at Hokus ...

Ben Wood, who sold the Star-Bulletin on Honolulu streets in World War II, writes of people, places and things Wednesdays and Saturdays. E-mail him at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).