3…2…1…Fade out

I’ve had the privilege over the last 2 and a half years of being a crew member on the morning show. I remember my first week, I was afraid of approaching the lense of the camera, realizing that it represented thousands of Hawaii eyes! I’ve met many interesting and famous characters while working on this shift. I got to direct Jon Lovitz! I got my son’s ukulele signed by Jake Shimabukuro! I held a $64,000 watch! I’d have to say the CRAZIEST time of all was when we had the performers from Cirque Hawaii invade our studio! It was like a three ring circus, with out the actual three rings to neatly contain everything! People were grabbing station equipment to use as props, dressing and changing wherever they pleased, performance props were scattered everywhere and nobody spoke English! If it wasn’t for the awesome crew I work with I would have gone nuts!

In the end I think that is what will stay with me, the relationships I formed with my mates on the morning crew. At the end of the morning, we fade to black and everyone scatters to their “real” jobs. The only thing left is the shared experience we had together. There’s something ‘honest’ about morning crew workers. Everyone’s tired, no one looks their best yet, and they just say what’s on their mind because they’re too tired to come up with a “nice” way of putting it. I have always liked that. And when you have a bad day, it’s only TV… nobody dies. Like Dan Meisenzahl taught me to say….”This isn’t rocket surgery!”.

Now that my time on the morning show has come to an end, and I return to the land of the living and well rested, I will remember and appreciate my friends in front of the camera, and behind the scenes,…and I hope you do too.

Wishing you Peace, Love and 8-Hours of Sleep,

Rich

Dancing in the Emergency Room

People ask me questions about the morning show in many different places but the Straub emergency room is probably the most unusual place. Anyway, I was in the emergency room for the first time in my life last week Monday because I got dizzy in the bathroom and passed out. I hit my head on the floor and thankfully my husband heard a big thud, which woke him up. It was quite a traumatic experience, mostly for my husband who called 9-11. I was bleeding from my head and got sick several times because of a mild concussion. The ambulance took me to Straub where I underwent a flurry of tests to make sure nothing was broken. While I was resting, one of the nurses asked me if I was doing the “cabbage patch” today. You may recall my imitation of the Rubber Man who dances at U.H. games and his cabbage patch dance, and the time that the morning show folks played my dance mercilessly in slow motion over and over again. Anyway, feeling sore and stiff, I told the nurse that there would be no cabbage patch today. However, several hours later, the morphine started kicking in and I told the nurse that yes I could do the cabbage patch by waving my arms slightly with an IV drip still stuck in my arm.

After a week of rest, my head is alright and I’m sure the tests have confirmed what I’ve known all along… that my brain is seriously warped.

aloha,
Mahealani
mahea@kitv.com

The Sexiest What?

As you are well aware, there are more opportunities on a morning newscast for off-the-cuff comments and asides. This also opens up more opportunities for slip ups, of Freudian and other varieties. One of those opportunities occurred this morning when Dan and I were doing a watercooler story about an online poll by the animal-rights group “People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals,” or PETA, on the World’s Sexiest Vegetarians. The number one male on the list was the musician Prince. The number one female was Kristen Bell, the 25 year-old star of “Veronica Mars” (which I have never seen). So Dan winds up and announces that Kristen Bell is the “World’s Sexiest Virgin.”

Awkward pause, followed by Dan quickly correcting himself while the in-studio crew stifles laughter. Just then, Clayton, our producer, tries to tell me in my earpiece to go to the commercial break. It takes him a while, as he’s trying very hard not to laugh, while in the background, I can hear raucous laughter from the crew in the control room.

It’s a little tough to remain serious, especially while Dan begins to blush beet red. Good thing there’s the commercial break, two minutes’ time for everyone to regain something resembling composure.

Chilly Congressmen?

This morning we had Representative Neil Abercrombie and Representative Ed Case on for two separate segments. Abercrombie was scheduled to talk about a local student who won an award in his congressional art contest. Case appeared in the segment following Abercrombie’s segment and was scheduled to talk about congressional issues and his race against Senator Daniel Akaka. What was interesting was what happened or didn’t happen behind the scenes.

One production crew member noticed that the congressmen didn’t talk to each other, didn’t acknowledge each other and seemed to avoid each other. Another crew member thought there was little time between segments so Abercrombie and Case didn’t have time to say hello to each other.

As a side note, in addition to talking about politics, Rep. Case quickly mentioned a congratulations to the local student who won the the award for his own congressional art contest.

It’s been widely reported that the congressional delegation, which includes Abercrombie, was not happy when Case challenged Akaka for his senate seat. The team still works together in Washington but relations with Case are cool. Many democrats felt Abercrombie had earned the first chance when either Akaka or Senator Daniel Inouye chose to retire. On January 19th, Case made the stunning challenge to Inouye’s succession plan. Then Abercrombie quickly called a news conference and talked about how he and Inouye were supporting Akaka. Case said he’s gone against the democratic establishment before.

For our part, the back to back scheduling was a matter of just that… scheduling. Abercrombie had been scheduled in advance to come in at 6 a.m. Case’s office called at the last minute on Friday to see if we could fit him in on Monday morning at 6 a.m.

aloha,
Mahealani
mahea@kitv.com

Clicking for "Lost"

If you haven’t been following “Lost” lately, you may get lost in the following post. If you have been keeping up, read on.

Judging from the e-mail we’ve been getting, there are still a lot of fans there, including those who’ve been watching the morning newscast for the Thursday morning recap. One viewer, Laka, checked out the website for the “Hanso Foundation,” which is the fake commercial that’s been airing during the most recent episodes, and apparently is a clue. He thinks he may have cracked the code. Here’s what he wrote us:

You click the box on the bottom right hand side… the first time 4 clicks, second time 8 clicks, third time 15 clicks, fourth time 16 [clicks], fifth time 23 clicks, and sixth time 42 clicks. Then you click on the part right below the television… you will get linked to the “Hanso” website and it has some hints on there… sign up for the newsletter… it will say some stuff — the password is 4815162342

There you have it, “Lost” fanatics. Good luck!

That Merrie Monarch Moment

Even though Merrie Monarch is pau, people are still asking me about that vinyl cushion. I found this lovely yellow-brown vinyl cushion on Friday morning at the Edith Kanaka’ole Stadium in Hilo… the morning after the first night of competition. During my liveshots, I offered to give the cushion personally to whomever called the station to claim it. Depite my repeated offers, no one called. And my Merrie Monarch trip ended with no takers. One of the porters at the Hilo airport asked about the cushion so I gave it to him. I wrote “No more sore okole for you.” If that was your cushion that you left at Merrie Monarch, I’m sorry I couldn’t give it to you. I tried!

Mahealani and photographer Dan Churma

aloha,
Mahealani
mahea@kitv.com

Feed a Cold/Starve a Cold…

Wednesday’s viewers were treated to Tom Waits’ voice coming out of Dan Meisenzahl’s mouth (if you can do a Web search for Tom Waits and his MP3 files, or have seen the movie Robots, you’ll know what I mean). Yes, Dan’s got a cold, and his throat was killing him, and he ended up staying home this morning. Of course, we asked for viewers to submit some cold remedies. The most-often mentioned one is the hot tea with honey. A few months ago, musician Makana suggested drinking hot water with pepper. Another unusual home remedy came from a viewer named Rita on Lana`i. She wrote:

It’s good that Dan took a day of rest! Tell him to try a hot tea of fresh ginger root. Slice the peeled ginger and bring to a good boil…he can add honey but that may irritate the throat more believe it or not. I like to throw in a stick of cinammon…yummy! A cup of hot tea and then under the covers to sweat it out.

Feel better Dan!!

Old School Pictures of the Brothers Cazimero

I too must say thank you to Robert and Roland Cazimero for their wonderful and comedic appearance on our morning show. I knew they were musical icons, but I had no idea they were so funny. They kept cracking jokes and played along when I accidently walked in front of Ben’s weather camera… DURING his weather. Robert walked in front of the camera too. Roland also fell asleep in our lazy boy chair during a break so he decided to sing and play from the lazy boy during their last segment of our show.

Having the Cazimero’s was such an honor… especially since my older brother, John, used to dance in Robert’s halau during his high school years at Kamehameha during the late 70’s. My brother went to Merrie Monarch with the halau and even helped record on Kaua’i on the Cazimero’s Ho’ala album so I spent many years listening to the songs on that record. I vividly remember Robert singing at my brother’s wedding at the Kamehameha Chapel. Robert’s heavenly voice and the emotion of the day left us with tears of joy. And 17 years ago, Robert named my brother’s first child, Kealapono. The Cazimero’s inspired my brother to pursue Hawaiian song and dance during a time when the Hawaiian culture was undergoing a rapid rennaissance.

Here are some old school pictures of the Cazimero’s from 1978-79.

Roland at Halema’uma’u Crater at Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park.

Robert on Kaua’i.

Again, many thanks to Robert and Roland!

aloha,
Mahealani
mahea@kitv.com

From Damien High School to Space Exploration

Friends, family and frequent viewers know I follow space exploration closely. I wanted to be an astronaut when I was a kid, even though at the time, men (and they were always men) headed into space were white military fighter pilots of a certain height and visual acuity. Once I got myopia in fourth grade, I figured I’d find some other line of work, but following what the astronauts do still fascinates me, and dovetailed into what I do now with weather.

Chris Davis did a lot more. The 1973 graduate of Damien Memorial High School is a senior project manager and troubleshooting engineer at Kennedy Space Center. He worked on the investigation of the shuttle Columbia tragedy, and is involved in NASA’s long range plans to return humans to the moon, and perhaps send them on to Mars. One of the reasons Davis is in Hawai`i is to stoke the fires of space exploration in today’s schoolkids. He comes at a time when space exploration seems to have become something routine for the public, which doesn’t pay attention unless a disaster happens. It’s a far cry from when man first landed on the moon in 1969, but for a lot of us, what NASA is doing is humdrum compared to a lunar landing. In fact, humans have been upstaged lately by machines, like the Mars rovers. Davis is trying to re-ignite that spark in kids to look to the sky and beyond. And you don’t even have to be a white male fighter pilot.

There was all this to try to fit into a two-minute interview, but my favorite part what what he brought for show-and-tell. One was a piece of thermal tile removed from the shuttle Columbia in 1997. Another was one of the space suits worn by astronaut Alan Bean, the fourth man to walk on the moon with Apollo 12 in November, 1969. If you don’t remember Bean, don’t feel too bad, since his mission came between the historic landing of Apollo 11 and the explosion that rocked Apollo 13, which became a blockbuster movie. That didn’t matter to me, however. It was still great to talk face to face with someone from Hawai`i who works for NASA.

Ben.
ben@kitv.com

Aloha Friday with the Brothers Cazimero

I had to post this photo to thank the Brothers Cazimero for entertaining us last Friday when they previewed their annual Lei Day concert. Actually, it seemed more like a casual pau hana jam session than a television appearance. Roland and Robert occasionally messed up the lyrics, but it didn’t matter — one of them would just say “Let’s try again,” and they’d rip into the verse they’d messed up and nail it the second time.

Another treat was having Raiatea Helm on the program as well. She performed two songs with the Cazimeros as her band. Chicken-skin time with two Hawaiian music Grammy nominees. Doesn’t get much better than that.

Aloha,
Ben.
ben@kitv.com