HAWAII’S Michelle Wie is featured in the June 11 Women in Sports issue in ESPN The Magazine. A large photo shows off her hair, which writer Molly Knight describes as "neon-pink-streaked." Her hair really looks neon bright in the picture but the lower part of her long locks appears to be reddish-brown in pictures of her taken following her graduation from Stanford on Father’s Day. Perhaps a more subdued color for graduation? Some of the interview with the Punahou ’07 grad was done on the school’s campus before she ended her island visit. The story focuses on her past, present and future golf career and tosses in asides about the 6-footer reportedly dating Stanford basketball star Robin Lopez and cheering her friend and fellow grad Andrew Luck, the star quarterback, from the stands.
A phenom at 13, Michelle, now 22, has been playing some of the worst golf of her four-year pro career this year. Now with a communications degree in hand and college out of the way, she can concentrate fully on the game. She has bought a home in Florida to be near her coach David Leadbetter, who is quoted as saying, "Talent has never been the issue. Michelle can win five for six times a year — but she has to learn how to be consistent." Go to it, Michelle …
GABE BALTAZAR JR., 82, the sax and clarinet player who is one of Hawaii’s greatest gifts to music, has written his autobiography, "If It Swings, It’s Music." Gabe wrote his story with guitarist Theo Garneau, who holds a Ph.D. and teaches English at UH-Manoa. It was published by University of Hawai‘i Press. The book covers Gabe’s musical history going back to 1942 at Washington Intermediate, where he played clarinet and later a sax that his musician dad gave him. Then it was on to McKinley High. Gigs with bands followed.
Gabe writes that the late Bill Tapia, a guitar and ukulele legend who died on Dec. 2 at age 103, hired him when he was 15 or 16 in the mid-1940s. Winning music scholarships, playing in military bands during the Korean War, joining the Royal Hawaiian Band in the mid-1950s and playing jazz at nights with local groups, getting hired by Stan Kenton and leading his sax section, and recording with Dizzy Gillespie and other greats in Los Angeles recording studios are all included in Gabe’s life story …
A FREE "Evening of Jazz" features Gabe, Wally Amos, Al Harrington, the Chuck James Trio and Rea Fox on July 6, from 6 to 8 p.m., at the Hawai‘i State Art Museum. The Hawai‘i Friends of Civil Rights Committee on the Advancement of African American Culture and the Arts is the sponsor. Call 586-9959 …
JIM NABORS, Jimmy Borges and Amy Hanaiali‘i will join Matt Catingub and the Hawai‘i Symphony Orchestra in the "Celebrating the Military" Fourth of July concert at the Waikiki Shell, 6 p.m. Rick Hamada is emcee. The show is sponsored by the University Health Alliance. Tickets start at $20; they’re $10 for full-time students with ID and will be available two hours prior to the concert at the Ward Avenue box office. Call 593-9468 for more ticket info …
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Ben Wood, who sold newspapers on Honolulu streets in World War II, writes of people, places and things. Email him at bwood@staradvertiser.com.
