Dangers of Challenging Athletes: We Fall!

Ryan Ozawa, our lost blogger, took a bad looking spill last Friday during a sports challenge against the U.H. Warriors.   He wasn’t seriously hurt, but I know his ego was bruised.  Dan was really worried one of the Warriors would get hurt. Instead, Ryan got a strawberry on his knee and we got jamba juice acai with granola on our clothes. It looked like vomit on my clothes. The same thing happened to me when I fell 2 years ago in a mini-decathlon against Olympian Bryan Clay.  Now I’ve learned when challenging athletes, you can never win, so just take your time and don’t push yourself too hard.

Here’s Ryan’s 2008 fall.

http://www.kitv.com/video/16137151/index.html

Here’s my fall from 2006

http://www.kitv.com/video/10105391/index.html

 

aloha,

Mahealanimahea@kitv.com

 

 

 

Distraction

A challenging morning today. At about 5:22 this A-M, we came out of the commercial break and Mahealani and I were going into a block of short news stories. Just before we went to video I saw … what appeared to be …. a naked woman walking behind the cameras. My eyes went small then wide as I was reading ” … here’s a look at some of the stories we’re following this morning.” When in fact my eyes were following something else. Mahea saw the look on my face and attempted to stop hereself from laughing out loud. The first story was gas prices. I survived. Then next was a bank robbery but Mahea waved it off. I jumped in and read that story but it sounded odd because I sounded really happy while I was reading it. I was actually trying not to laugh. Then Mahea read a story about Filipino war veterans trying to get benefits and she did laugh and apologize. We came out to a shot of Ben, Mahea and I and explained why Mahea and I lost our composure. We then asked one of the studio cameraman to take a shot of what we were talking about. She was a female body builder who was going to do an interview segment a little later in the show wearing nothing but a bikin. End of the story.

But wait.

There is more.

We checked the air check afterwards and when the cameraman took a shot of this woman he zoomed in on her buttocks as I was saying how distracting it all was.  Just another day on the morning show.

It’s time for Dan to Blog

Hello all. My name is Dan Meisenzahl and I am committed to becoming a regular bogger here on Island Breakfast Blog. It’s just a matter of getting into a habit. I have not fully embrace the information age that we are now all in. Of course I have the cell phone that takes pictures … though I only use it to actually call people. And am on the internet everyday, but that’s about the extent of it. I plan on using this site as a place to let people know about what’s going on behind the scenes. And I’ll start with this troubling little tale from Monday’s morning show newscast.We had the chorus from Aina Haina Elementary on. We’re talking 35 kids and at least that many parents, all crammed into our studio. Mahealani introduced the group and we started playing the music they were to sing to, but they could not hear it in the studio even though it was going out over the air. Mahea rushed back out and apologized for the technical difficulties and we went to commercial. I immediately fixed the problem by jiggling the chord on the speakers. And then we put the kids at the top of the next block where our morning headlines go. Two minutes later, Mahea was re-introducing them and they sang beautifully. After they were done, Ben and I were back on set and I started reading the morning headlines. Unfortunately, the teleprompter operator was on the wrong stories because of the confusion. I had a partial script and managed to get through the first story but I did not have the rest of the scripts because of the scramble. So I started to read slower and slower while praying at the same time that the prompter would soon be in the right place. And after aging two weeks in ten seconds, it did. Nothing like flirting with disaster on a Monday.

 

Dan vs. Da Flowrider

Dan broadcast live this morning from Hawaiian Waters Adventure Park, where he spent the second hour on Da Flowrider.

What you see below is pretty much what happened over and over during the hour. Apparently it’s harder than it looks.

Photos by KITV Intern Jeff Yeager

Hot Dogs!

This morning, we finally settled on a long-standing bet. To recap: Dan and Dave picked the San Antonio Spurs to win the NBA Championship, while Mahea and I picked the Cleveland Cavaliers. You’ll recall the Spurs swept the series. And it took this long to figure out what we would do, as the losers. Taking a cue from the world-famous Nathan’s Hot Dog eating contest on Coney Island, we tried to eat at least one hot dog from Great Hawaiian Hot Dogs.

Mike “Ramsey” Fujita cooked up the weiners, and I think I won, finishing my hot dog first.

Of course, seemingly on cue, there were two dogs and their owner on the sidewalk behind us, and one of them was a wiener dog. Of course I fed them, and the dogs enjoyed the dogs.

The crew didn’t mind that we only ate one dog each. Fujita stayed afterward to cook up some ‘ono steak hot dogs, which promptly disappeared. The dogs didn’t get those. Oh, yes — one was delivered to Dave Hisaka at the traffic management center a few blocks away, fresh out of the cooker.

Really Extreme

The whole newsroom, but especially Dan, have been extremely busy covering Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Hawaii in Kalihi Valley. You can check out coverage in this special section.

If you’ve been watching the morning newscast, you already know that the designers have been giving shout-outs to us as well.

Pineapples And Roller Coasters

On Thursday, our newscast had a bit of a double punch: Fred DeAngelo, owner and chef of Ola Restaurant, dropped in for a visit, along with spokesperson Merrissa Uchimura of the Wahiawa Pineapple Festival. Fred was great, being able to make two quick dishes in the allotted time (which is frankly, pretty short). When the newscast started years ago, Fred was the first regular weekly chef. And even though it’s been a few years since that regular weekly stint, he was able to get right back into it, just like riding a bike.

I helped him with one of the dishes, involving crepes with hazelnut chocolate sauce, quickly fried with some pineapple and sprinkled with powdered sugar. It will likely hold the record as the dish that had the briefest survival rate after it was cooked. During the commercial break right after the segment, the crew and guests descended upon the crepes and pineapple like ants with forks. By the time the break was over, the food was absolutely gone.

Thursday was also the day Dan went for a preview of the 50th State Fair at Aloha Stadium, including the “Wild Mouse,” the roller coaster pictured here. It ain’t something from Six Flags, but it’s still pretty impressive. And we’re also impressed that Dan went aboard for a few rides — he’s not a fan of roller coasters. And while the Wild Mouse didn’t change his mind, he says he still had fun.

She’s Part Of The Only Thing That We Had Actually Planned In Advance

This, of course, is Sweetie Pacarro, the Saturday morning producer for the Perry and Price Saturday morning show on KSSK. Sweeite was here as a spokesperson for Kraft foods, to show some summertime grilling tips.

Good thing she’s in broadcasting. Although her segments had been planned far in advance, breaking news made those appearances much shorter than they otherwise would have been. Fortunately, she understood completely why we were moving rather briskly through her segments, and adjusted accordingly.

One breaking news item, as you know, had to do with a drive-by shooting in Kane`ohe that left one man dead. Police were on a manhunt for two suspects in Hale`iwa while we were on the air. And we also had a two-alarm house fire that broke out before dawn, lighting up the dark sky with flames and leaving seven people homeless. Mahealani had live reports through the newscast to keep us updated. And then when the program was over, Dan headed to the North Shore, where police found a second suspect in the shooting. All in all, it was a busy day — and we’re glad Sweetie was here as well.

Dan On The Run (And For A Good Cause)

Dan was one of the bananas this past Saturday in the Jamba Juice Banana Man Chase, benefiting the Muscular Dystrophy Association in Hawai`i. And here are the photos to prove it.

Congratulations to all the runners — and particularly to Dan, for taking part in a good cause. (No, he won’t be running the Honolulu Marathon in this outfit.)

Photos Courtesy Jamba Juice

Not Quite Cinco de Mayo, But Pretty Darn Close

We had one of our busiest broadcasts last week Friday; so busy that we haven’t gotten around to posting this until now.

That day was the day before Cinco de Mayo, and Don Murphy dropped in to chat about the festivities (fiesta?) that was to happen Saturday night at Murphy’s Bar and Grill. Think of it. An Irish pub holding an event for a Mexican holiday which has become an American excuse to drink cervesas. Even better, Don mentioned there would be “free sombreros for the keikis.” Very local style, to mash at least three cultures at once.

Inside, we had Vocal Spectrum, the National Champion barbershop quartet from St. Louis, Mo., in town for a barbershop quartet show and mystery caper last weekend at the Hawai`i Theatre. Another mashup there.

It was also the day Spider Man 3 hit the theatres. At the Honolulu Traffic Management Center, Dave Hisaka celebrated by rigging up a little Spider Man on a string that he was able to pull up and down on cue.

On the front deck, in what seems to have become an annual tradition, the folks from Jamba Juice were making and giving out free Smoothies (this year’s flavor: pomegranate) to motorists and passers-by headed to work.The big reason for the Jamba Juice appearance was to promote the 6th Annual Banana Man Chase at Magic Island, benefiting the Muscular Dystrophy Association of Hawai`i. If you don’t know already, it’ a 5K run/walk, in which people raise money by chasing people dressed in a banana costume around Magic Island.

Guess what? Dan’s going to be one of those people. Yes, he’ll be running in a banana man outfit.

If you want to see this, or are already participating, the event happens this Saturday, May 12, at 8 am, rain or shine, at Magic Island. It all goes to a good cause.