With October around the corner, the bewitching season is coming up, too.
That’s why I’ve been creating a whole bunch of Halloween pins in time for trick-or-treating or holiday parties. Will be sharing with friends, family and colleagues in the days and weeks ahead.
Since late August and most of September, I’ve been tinkering with stick-on or glue-on pumpkins, jack o’ lanterns, ghosts, ghouls, bats and witches, skeletons, bat girls and boys– in the orange and black motif.
Yep, a lot of busy-work and concentration, but fun when the array of creations are assembled.
You only live once, and perhaps now is the time of your life to make a point and make a difference.
How about Lifetime Tickets to The Actors’ Group?
TAG has made that option possible, with different prices for difference ages. No matter if you’re a TAG newbie or a TAG patron for decades. Remember the Yellow Brick Studio era?
Here are the options:
$1,000 per person if you’re 65 years and older.
$1,500 per person if you’re between 40 to 64 years old.
$2,000 per person if you’re under 40 years old.
Think about the convenience of not having to purchase a ticket for the rest of your life. Whatever your price/age entry level, you’ll be part of the TAG family for life.
Since TAG’s playhouse, the Brad Powell Theatre at Dole Cannery, has limited seating, betcha you’ll get priority dibs for seats when you need ‘em.
Lifetime tickets are not transferrable, for obvious reasons. Your name will be on your tickets till you die so this is something you can take to heaven. And like life, this is a limited -time offer and will, um, terminate .
We haven’t seen ’em yet, but while Al Harrington is gone — the actor-entertainer died Sept. 21 — his last acting gig is yet to be seen.
“I wanted you to know that Al Harrington’s last role was in ‘Doogie Kamealoha, MD,'” according to consulting producer Chris Lee, of the Hawai’i-based comedy now streaming via Disney+. Harrington plays Jason Scott Lee’s uncle “and has some very moving episodes later in the season. It was an honor to have him on the show,” said Lee (no relation to the actor). Harrington portrays Uncle John and we all should anticipate these appearances. …
Channel hopping
While the world wrestles with coronavirus and the delta variant, Daniel Dae Kim (does he still live in Hawai’i, when he’s not working?) soon will be seen battling anthrax threats in “The Hot Zone: Anthrax,” part of National Geographic’s anthology based on factual incidents.
Daniel Dae Kim
In this one, Kim portrays an FBI agent named Matthew Ryker, said to be a composite of several agents, who investigates post 9/11 issues with anthrax-laced letters to media and politicos following the terrorism and the toppling of the World Trade Center Twin Towers. His partner in crime fighting is Tony Goldwyn, playing Dr. Bruce Ivins, an actual microbiologist whose work involved analyzing the deadly mailings.
Good to know that Kim, one of the pillars of ABC’s “Lost” and CBS’s “Hawaii Five-0” reboot, misses us in the islands. You see, “Anthrax” filmed in Canada during the pandemic crisis, and as he told Entertainment Weekly, “The Toronto winter, combined with a strict lockdown, made it one of the most challenging on-location experiences I’ve ever had. It certainly wasn’t Hawai’i.” Atta boy; Hawai’i no ka oi. …
The series bows Nov. 28 and a preview now is airing. …
Rosa Navarro Harrington, widow of entertainer Al Harrrington who died Tuesday (Sept. 21), has issued a compassionate statement about her loss, saying “he was my regal Polynesian King.”
She was at his side when he died at age 85. Harrington earlier suffered a stroke.
Her statement, released today (Sept. 22), reflects how inseparable the couple was.
“I have had the honor of loving Al, whom I called ‘Harrington’ for 20-years,” she said.
Al and Rosa Harrington; photo by Kat Wade, special to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser
“We were an inseparable team; best friends and he was my regal Polynesian King. Al embodied the purest, life-giving values of aloha and began each day with a smile.” She described their routine: “We were early risers, and long before the sun would appear over Manoa Valley’s Ko‘olau Mountain Range, Al would have already thanked me for creating our humble yet adventurous life together in the islands. Oh how he loved Hawai’i and would remark on its beauty throughout the day…from one holoholo to the next, like a never ending swell of gratitude within him.”
To know him was to love him, said Rosa.
“Al was truly a gift from God. A noble, compassionate, patient and gentle man with a witty sense of humor and a larger-than-life laugh that will echo in my heart until we are reunited. He was generous, quick to forgive, a hard worker, a provider and always ready to talk-story. He loved his community and even more, his culture. It was his greatest honor to represent his people on-screen, and to serve them off-screen. To know him was to feel seen, loved, safe and welcomed. As an Icon for Hawai’i, our islands and her people are mourning his loss.”
And she offered her mahalo for his giving ways. “Harrington, it’s my turn to thank you, for inviting me along the most extraordinary ride of life! I promise to rise each morning with gratitude, and to honor your legacy by living each day to its fullest with a commitment to health and vitality.”
A Punahou football star as a student, Harrington returned to campus as a school teacher, though show business became his ultimate profession.
Harrington as Ben Kokua.
His stint playing Ben Kokua on the original Jack Lord-starring “Hawaii Five-0” from 1968 to 1980), enabled him to become the South Pacific Man, starring in a Polynesian revue in Waikiki. The acting gig helped buoy his nightclub stint, the last of the locals hired to play a recurring role on a network (CBS) TV, dissolving the general prevailing assumption among casting directors who felt Hawaii didn’t have the talent to succeed in co-starring roles.
As Harrington 2.0, he appeared in another wholly locally-produced “Doogie Kamealoha MD,” portraying Uncle John, in the current Disney+ series now streaming.
He also played Mamo Kahike in the Alex O’Loughlin reboot of “Five-0.”
He made his network TV debut on “To Tell the Truth,” viewable on YouTube, in which he played himself with two other imposters, with a panel of judges trying to name the real Al Harrington. The real dude also demonstrated that he could twirl a knife in a common Samoan staple in visitor productions here. In fact, he was a fire knife dancer before he starred in his own revue here.
He had a string of guest roles in a range of other TV series and logged a roster of film roles that didn’t utilize the depth of his talent.
Harrington’s agent, Gregory David Mayor, also offered a reaction to the actor’s passing.“It has been my utmost pleasure to have served as Al Harrington’s theatrical agent for many years. More importantly, Al became a close friend and mentor to me in my own career and life,” he said. “ Al uplifted me to find my faith again….and for that alone, I am truly grateful. Admiration, respect, humor, peace, and joy are those attributes that one can ascribe to Al Harrington. Truly a special child of God.”
Besides his wife, Harrington is survived by sons Alema and Tau, daughters Cassi Harrington Palmer and Summer Harrington and several grandchildren.
Assuming you know and can sing your alma mater (high school), are you able to sing the anthem of one or two other schools?
Most folks know their own alma mater, because it’s commonly performed at school functions.
College alma maters might be tougher to recall, because of few opportunities to sing it en masse, on campus or at football games.
As a Farrington High School grad in Honolulu, I still remember my alma mater, and that of Kamehameha Schools on the heights overlooking Farrington in Kalihi-Kapalama. I have vague but uneven memory of McKinley High School’s alma mater, too, but don’t ask me why.
So where are you on the alma mater totem. Know only yours?
With the launch of a new TV season Monday (Sept. 20), and “NCIS” mothership switching to the lineup from its long-time Tuesday perch, the newbie “NCIS: Hawai‘i” appears to benefit in the ratings, thanks to its slot following the original show’s 19th season lift-off.
A new franchise — this one filmed in Hawai’i — can always use a helpful boost.
Here’s how the evening played out in the ratings:
— No. 1 – CBS’ “NCIS,” the Mark Harmon foundation of the franchise, attracting an audience of 8.5 million viewers and 0.7 rating in the coveted 18 to 49 age demo, a skosh lower than last season’s debut on a Tuesday night.
— No. 2 — NBC’s “The Voice,” with 7.2 million viewers, topping the demos with a 1.1 rating. Its audience of younger fans reflected the uptick in the demo.
— No. 3 – CBS’“NCIS: Hawai‘i,” with 6.6 million viewers and a 0.5 demo rating. Not bad for the newbie.
Mark Harmon as agent Gibbs.
In fine fashion, there was Harmon, as lead agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs, recovering from his boat explosion from last season’s finale, and finally connecting with his team including special agent Timothy McGee (played by Sean Murray). Sure, Gibbs is an often threatening bossman, who often smacks the back of the heads of his agents, but he has their back, and vice versa. That rapport is a two-way street; respect for the honcho, and support for the chief. That camaraderie has been the spine that has kept NCIS on the straight-up as the No. 1 procedural for nearly two decades.
Vanessa Lachey, appearing as Jane Tennant, the first woman leading an NCIS team, must not have gotten the memo, or its script writers didn’t, in the first episode of the “Hawai‘i” installation. Her I’m-the-boss tone quickly created friction with a Navy Capt. Joe Milius, portrayed by Enver Gjokaj, with her colleagues awkwardly jostling for relevance. Leaders need to have mutual respect and sensible work ethics to co-exist and succeed.
Vanessa Lachey as agent Jane Tennant in “NCIS: Hawai’i.”
Tennant is a single mother, so is tasked to shape a comfortable home front while juggling her chores as a head agent. She is called from a soccer match to proceed to a plane deliberately pounding into a mountain, so the mission’s finally launched. At best, Lachey has potential to get that chip off her shoulder and lead the team effort. Might take two or three more episodes for this niggler to settle. Alex Tennant ([portrayed by Kian Talan) is the elder son of the lead character and Julie Tennant (played by Mahina Napolean) is the young sister and both logically can anticipate to be more visible in future episodes when the mother meter ticks.
The Hawai’i investigative team is a quirky lot. Lucy Tara (played by Yasmine Al-Bustami), eager to please and curiously swift to proclaim her standing, has an unexpected lesbian embrace, suggesting future LBGTQ themes down the line.
Kai Holman (played by Alex Tarrant) is a junior squad member returning to Hawai’i to serve, still trying to forget or escape his Waimanalo roots; he looms as a key figure, but seems unsettled about where to set anchor. He looks local/Hawaiian (he’s Maori, Samoan and Niuean) and orders kalua pig, manapua and loco moco from a food wagon, but clearly can’t feign the real-local ways. Yet. One of his issues is in doubting his dad, realistically portrayed by Moses Goods, a keiki o ka ‘aina. You can quickly recognize the legit in the first few utterances and moments. Yep.
Jesse Boone (portrayed by Noah Mills), is a homicide detective settling into a new job in the islands, and has the look and physique that could develop into a popular and major sidekick.
Kate Whistler (played by Tori Anderson) also is an outsider from the Defense intelligence Agency hoping to find her niche in the Pearl Harbor realm and seems to have a path for her own rise on the ladder of investigation—and possible revisit her eyebrow-raising smooch with Agent Tara.
And Ernie Malik (played byJason Antoon) is the sometimes goofy techie /intelligence guy – all procedurals have one – who has to dig up investigative files in quick moves.
When a franchise has four shows total (“Los Angeles” and the original still exist, ‘New Orleans” went to TV heaven), it’s tough to differentiate one from the other, except by setting. The military or cop jargon remain the same, but landscape matters. Problem is, “NCIS: Hawai’i” still has competish from locally-filmed “Magnum P.I.” (aerials, surf, hotels, green mountains when it rains), and frankly, reflecting back to the original “Hawaii Five-0,” “Magnum” and other Hawaii series as “Jake and the Fatman” and “Five-0” reboot, the novelty of sea-shore-sun is long gone. The major difference will be in the art of storytelling, and perhaps some day, bona fide Hawaiians, Asians and Pacific Islanders as principal cast, not secondary backgrounders. (Current fave: “Doogie Kamealoha,” the Disney+ creation, with lots of local faces and manners).
At least in the premiere, the newbie had the smarts to embrace local music in the soundtrack, notably “Island Style.” Words and sounds — meaning our cultural tunes — will boost and establish atmosphere, and further enhance and propel the images.
If nothing else, Lachey’s Tennant character has gusto and guts, speaking her mind, and totally immersing herself in island waters (well, clearly, her stunt double did that finale scene). The best bet going for her, and the island-based show, is the fact that it airs here at 9 p.m., following the mothership at 8 p.m. Mondays. Now it has to earn its own stripes. …
