Whenever you shop, do you prefer self-check to whisk out of the store, or are you a traditionalist and favor the customary sales clerk handling your purchase?
Many stores are embracing and enlarging self-check; many folks prefer this method quickly exit the store.
What’s your choice? Traditional cashier check-out, or self-check?
The elderly — me included — prefer waiting in the shortest line for the usual clerk check-out. In many instances, you get know one or two of ‘em at the cash register – regularity and constancy make you engage in fun small talk with your cashier, swapping views of the humid weather, the election, or approaching holidays.
A shopper at self-check means one less hire.
But on the mainland, key brands stores have eliminated cashiers for wholly self-check. My worry: each vacant check-out stand means someone no longer is on the payroll. And is honesty the prevailing notion among self-checkers? Will this do-it-yourself method encourage “shoplifting” with a possible alibi that the scanner didn’t scan? And does the store have a means to flag the unscanned item?
You’ve seen the expansion of self-check, at Costco, Longs, Target, Walmart, Safeway and more. It’s the future. And the future is now. Aides are visible for queries, but essentially, you take stuff out of your shopping cart and scan purchases as the cashier. Have you seen that overfilled cart at Costco? Does a self-scanner have the smarts to include each item – and will there be delays at the exit door, when checkers suspect a non-scanned item?
So if you willingly do the work to scan your goods, do you expect a small a discount off your bill? Is this what retail has come to?
I know one person who no longer goes to a merchant without a live cashier. Can’t blame her; she has to do the work, with no perk.
What’s your take on self-check or cashier? Share your views.
It’s never a perfect world, but when the Blaisdell Concert Hall is renovated – timetable not yet confirmed – shouldn’t it include either an escalator and/or elevator, so the disabled or wobbly seniors can secure balcony seats without having to struggle up and down stairs?
These amenities should have been in the original plans of the Neal Blaisdell Center.
And wouldn’t it be wonderful if an on-site restaurant be in the mix of participating vendors?
Clearly, the Concert Hall should retain the dual lobby and up-front lavatory facilities, for convenience.
An improved sound system for the house would enhance performances, too
Anything to add to the wish list for the concert hall?
Angela Lansbury, a Londoner who became an icon of theater, TV and films, died in her sleep Oct. 11 in Los Angeles. She was 96; she would have turned 97 in five more days.
She was a global sensation, bringing dignity, charm, and radiance to any role she tackled. Her incredible career spanned eight decades and embraced television, movies, and the Broadway stage. Clearly, she was one of the rare ones, who kept reinventing herself in all phases of show biz.
Adults remember her for playing Jessica Fletcher, on CBS’ long-time crime caper, in which she was the irrepressible sleuth and busybody who always tried to solve a case before the usual investigators.
Angela Lansbury
On stage, there was nothing she couldn’t portray. I first saw her in “Mame” on Broadway, in 1996, which earned her the first of five Tony Awards (six, counting a Lifetime Achievement Award), which proved she could sing and dance and act. But she also won hurrahs for “Gypsy,” which I saw in London, which added Rose in her repertoire. In perhaps her most challenging Broadway musical, Stephen Sondheim’s “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” she was perfection as Nellie Lovett, the baker creating meat pies, in a stunning adult musical directed by Hal Prince and co-starring Len Cariou as the murderer. She brought her own version of Madame Armfeldt, in Sondheim’s “A Little Night Music,” which earned her a Tony nomination.
One of her last roles on Broadway was “Deuce,” in 2007, a drama by Terence McNally, which paired Lansbury with Marian Seldes in a not-so-popular vehicle that also starred an invisible but audible bouncing tennis ball, with both actresses conversing and looking left and right and left and right in a monotonous exercise in tedium. This was a rare Lansbury; she forgot her text and you could hear the prompter throwing out her lines. Ouch!
In films, she provided the voice of charm as Mrs. Potts, the teapot in Disney’s animated movie, “Beauty and the Beast,” singing the title tune that youngsters adopted. ‘Twas a tale as old as time, still resonating with nostalgia.
She was a character actress, too, in a slew of films, like “Gas Light,” “The Picture of Dorian Gray” and “The Manchurian Candidate,” earning Oscar nominations. Her lone Academy Award was an honorary one, for her dramatic roles.
And one of her little known roles – she played the mother of the Elvis Presley in “Blue Hawaii” – gave her island ties and perhaps provoked a trivia question in her filmography.
Lansbury might have been the right actress at the right time, on the Great White Way. She was a Broadway musical headliner, in the wake of Ethel Merman, and logically the inspiration for the next and current-generation of Broadway divas like Bernadette Peters, Kelli O’Hara and Sutton Foster.
She was legendary in a craft requiring triple-threat skills and I’m blessed to have experienced her grace and magic in live in shows that are now classics in the Broadway library. May she be taking her bows in the great theater in the skies. …
Commercial break
Frank DeLima
I’ve been missing the chuckles, watching Frank DeLima do his multi-tutu-in-muumuu TV commercials for The Cab, so I asked him recently why the spot – which even used to be shown in movie theaters – was yanked.
“Because the cab business is down,” he said. During the pandemic, visitors to Hawaii were down, perhaps locals just stayed home, and it’s likely Lyft and Uber services were up due to their cheaper fares?
DeLima’s comedic presence made the commercial particularly effective, since his utterance of the cab company’s phone number, (808) 422-2222, helped make it a household number hard to forget. …
Shelton will exit ‘The Voice’
Blake Shelton
Blake Shelton will wind up his career as judge on NBC’s “The Voice,” exiting his turn-around chair in Season 23, which begins in January 2023.
Joining remaining coach Kelly Clarkson will be Chance the Rapper and Niall Horan, formerly of One Direction.
Shelton, a singer with roots in country music, has been the winningest coach on the talent competition over the past 12 years, with eight of his picks resulting as the last one standing.
His wife, Gwen Stefani, has been an intermittent judge; they married in 2021.
Show host Carson Daly also will continue.
With two shows a week, during a typical run of the competition, judging is a mammoth task.
The question, however, is the show has yet to have a bona fide breakout star. Like, can you name at least three “Voice” winners of the past? Didn’t think so. ..
Kevin I., aka Kevin Iwamoto in his business-career realm, continues to receive heartening news about his 1980s recordings that have connected with a 2022 audience.
“Woke up this morning to two great emails from Pandora, a leading US music streaming platform saying that they have selected two songs from my latest release Love Songs Collection 1980-1985 (2022 Remaster) that will be added to their higher rotation playlist!,” he gleefully said via a recent Facebook post.
“That means much more streams and exposure to Pandora subscribers.”
The surge in interest in his oldies that have connected with a newbie listenership has been constantly giving him a lift in spirits, considering he’s now touring to promote his catalog of romantic ditties, recorded when he was an active balladeer in Honolulu.
Kevin I
“ This second release has generated more interest in my global music catalog and has boosted streaming numbers by 12,000 streams/ downloads just on Pandora with similar numbers on Spotify,” he commented. “Thank you Lord!”
Certainly, he spent time and bucks to remix, re-energize and release his original recordings, from yesteryear, not knowing what the outcome would be three decades later. You recall, too, that when he was home recently for the 50th anniversary of his Roosevelt High School class reunion, he gifted his former classmates with a limited edition CD that contained titles that global followers have been discovering and buying online. …
The lesson here: Keep on top of your game; you never know when your career gets an unexpected reboot; taking a left turn might be the right move. Main thing, explore your options and chart your course. …
Lisa Konove reprises Ann Landers role
Honolulu actress Lisa Konove is winding up a brief run, portraying advice columnist Ann Landers, in a Beverly Arts Center run of “The Lady With All the Answers,” ending today (Oct. 9) in Chicago. It’s her acting debut in The Windy City.
Lisa Konove
Konove did the one-woman role in an earlier run at Diamond Head Theatre.
The casting was a reunion with BAC artistic director Kevin Pease, formerly of Hawaii, who directed Konove who played Jo in “Waitress” in the regional premiere of the musical. …
Ooops, a wardrobe malfunction
Nicole Scherzinger
Nicole Scherzinger, local girl and former lead singer of the Pussycat Dolls, was out and about in New York recently when s polka dot dress with ruffled sleeves slipped for a moment, creating a tad of a nipple display.
She didn’t panic, apparently, and quickly raised her off-the-shoulder sleeves to recover from the mishap. Could be some folks didn’t recognize her because she was shielded with large sunglasses and gold hoop earrings, which might have distracted would be spectators. All in a day’s outing. …
Kudos to playwright Lee Cataluna, who has taken a huge leap in her prolific career, and applause, too, to the New York Times to recognize and spotlight her journey as a storyteller in a community far, far away from her island roots.
Cataluna, a former journalist for the Honolulu Advertiser and now a columnist for Civil Beat, was interviewed by NYT reporter Laura Graeber, in an article published Oct. 4, that explores her storytelling skills. Cataluna’s latest play, “Heart Strings,” is in production through Oct. 23 at the Linda Gross Theater in Chelsea. It is being produced by Atlantic Theater Company as the initial Atlantic for Kids production since the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown.
It’s quite an achievement for Cataluna to take her play beyond the reef and across the continent. It’s also a moment for the state to support her mission — and others in her footsteps — to bring island themes and tales for audiences elsewhere to enjoy and discover.
Lee Cataluna
At a time when even the Honolulu media shamefully does not acknowledge or write about local playwrights launching a play with clear Hawaiian roots, it’s an astonishing accomplishment for Cataluna to attract a New York group to stage the world premiere of “Heart Strings.”
The thread throughout her play focuses on hei, the centuries-old small-kid-time game, where a simple string or cord is the centerpiece, and game-players use their fingers to create varying triangles or rectangles and players delicately transfer the network of loops to each other. You might remember it as “Cat’s Cradle,” which has also been the name for this string game.
And, natch, batteries are not required. Simple idea, with historical roots, about everyday events or relationships, is at the core of Cataluna’s plays. Think “Folks You Meet at Long’s,” “Musubi Man,” “Home of the Brave,” “You Somebody,” “Flowers of Hawaii,” and “Extraordinary Stories for Ordinary Ohana.” Locally, her works have been staged by Kumu Kahua, Honolulu Theatre of Youth and Diamond Head Theatre. …
“Heart Strings” was intended to be staged by Iolani School actors (Cataluna previously taught there; her son remains a student there), but plans changed because of the pandemic. Who knew New York would kick off a Hawaii play? Like Kumu Kahua on steroids!
I recall when Cataluna was researching this play, seeking how-to’s of hei via Facebook. Not surprising, she got the job done — with no strings attached. She’s opened the doors for other island playwrights to attempt to get their works noticed and produced beyond the seas. …
Bruno Mars
A heavenly milestone for Bruno
So maybe now is a good time to talk about Bruno. You know, Bruno Mars, not the “Encanto” Disney Bruno.
Our local superstar now has six Diamond Single Awards, the first pop star to achieve this status. His “Locked Out of Heaven” tune has been certified Diamond, by RIAA’s Gold and Platinum Program. His earlier five Diamond hits are “Just the Way You Are,” “Grenade,” “When I Was Your Man,” “That’s What I Like,” and the collaborative “Uptown Funk” with Mark Ronson.
Way to go, Bruno! …
Sunday Manoa
Manoa Marketplace (rear area, beyond Safeway but not blocking Long’s) is undergoing renovations, so there are some concerns behind the boarded eateries and shops. I dined at Paisano one night, before taking in “Cabaret,” and navigating to the Italian restaurant was a challenge.
So folks thinking of going to Medici’s on the second floor, where the Tommy James Trio (with Dave Bixler and Dean Taba) perform on Sunday (Oct. 9), should anticipate a bit of a maze to get to the club; doors open at 5 p.m., show at 6:30 p.m.
Tommy James
And an update: Medici’s earlier raised its dinner-and-show prices to $75 (I had bought tickets at that price, for a postponed Shari Lynn Trio show), with meals served by waitstaff. But the return of the buffet brings down the price to $59 (partly because of patron outcries and perhaps a drop in attendees), with reimbursements to be made at the door, according to the Medici’s website. …
