NEWS: Don Ho's Final Aloha

CULTURE: Don Ho's Final Aloha

It's a rough week in entertainment for the cult wonders. Today, Hawaii state (and, dare I say, national) treasure Don Ho made his way to the great Coconut Grove in the sky, leaving Wayne Newton and Tom Jones to fend for themselves as the last of a dying breed.

I don't quite know what to say at times like this, so I'll go with personal anecdote. See, back in the 1970s, my parents lived for a time in Hawaii. One time a bunch of my mom's relatives flew out to visit, and on a lark she got her two grandmothers a pair of tickets to see Don Ho. It was far and away the highlight of their trip, and they talked about it with wistful fondness for decades. Both of them passed away within the last year and a half, and now this. I've never exactly been into his music itself (nor do I expect many of you to be), but the man lived a great life and made a lot of elderly ladies very happy. So if it's all right with you, I'm going to go ahead and suppose that there's some spectacular astral luau going on right about now, and my great-grandmas are all up in the Mai Tais and wine like there's no tomorrow, tiny bubbles everywhere.

People usually die in threes!! Who is next???
Johnny Cash, John Ritter, and whatshisname, a few years ago....

RIP donnie old bud!!

My parents and I met him in '85 on a trip to Hawaii. He thought I was cool because I could sing Tiny Bubbles. +o)

I actually do listen to Don Ho albums, and this comes as a sad surprise.

Man, what a night... but really, he lived an amazing life.

wow... this is too weird...Yesterday, I was cleaning out my folder of mp3s and found a don ho song. I thought for awhile, and I still don't know how it got there... and now I go to SG.com, and read about don ho dieing... i think its a sign

R.I.P. Don. You will be missed.

I have never met Don but i have heard him perform on TV and I have seen him in cameos playing himself with some acting. I have seen him in many interviews and heard comments about him and I think he was very special in that he was an entertainer who not only entertained well, but tried to make all his fans feel very special as they were important to him. ie. the grannys and hellkitten singing "tiny bubbles." There are not many out there that are like that.

He made music that made people smile. That isn't a bad life by any measure.

He is an icon. Don appeared on TV variety shows as a musical guest and host a lot back in the 60s and 70s, so his work is very familiar to me. He helped popularize a style of music that is pretty much his state's musical anthem.

Aloha Don--you will be missed

an era comes to an end.
I feel sad.

rest in peace Don. My grandparents were your biggest fans! (they loved you and Elvis)

I once had a Hawaiian elctric lap slide guitar. The first thing I learned to play on it was Tiny Bubbles. My Dad used to sing along

"Tiny Bubbles
In the water
Make me clean
Just like they oughter"

RIP Don.

All the tiny bubbles in the world burst as one at that moment...

Tiny Bubbles was always one of my favorite cadences to march to in the army, I'll always have those memories to remember Don by...well that, and his appearance on the Brady Bunch.

Aloha Don.

That was number three.

Anna Nicole Smith, Kurt Vonnegut, Don Ho

I actually have vague memories of his 70s (80s?) show (wasn't it a daytime show?).
RIP Don

That's all over the perverbial map.

Ka Huaka`i Maika`i.

Say Hi to Brudda Iz.

Henehene kou `aka
Kou le`ale`a paha,
He mea ma`a mau ia,
For you and I.



:

DO NOT INCLUDE that cunt Anna Nicole Cow Smith
in this list of dead genuine souls. I mean, I don't
know Don Ho's music either, but I damnwell know
Vonnegut.

Watch it, tiger, or yr gonna have a heart attack at twenty-eight.