The Left Lane
Salsa grande
Minnie Ruiz, who has been teaching salsa dancing for 25 years, is on a mission to convince plus-size Islanders that salsa is not just for the skinny. Over the years, she's watched full-figure students drop out of class, or sit on the sidelines, embarrassed to ask anyone to dance. But she also noticed that those who stuck with it had a good time, and often found themselves losing weight as a bonus.
So Ruiz plans a Cinco de Mayo workshop for full-figure students only, from noon-1:30 p.m. on May 5 at the Aloha Activity Center on Kapi'olani Boulevard. The fee is $20 ($15 if you sign up in advance; call 926-8037). Want to see how it's done? Catch Ruiz and some of her full-figure students doing a demo at 8:45 a.m. May 2 on KHON's morning show.
— Advertiser staff
Carving up the curves
Stop and smell the fresh powder, urban dude. In the eternal technical tweaking of man's bond with the wheel, the Flowlab skateboard tries to put the feel of snowboarding and waveriding onto the asphalt. The 14 wheels arrayed in arcs at the front and back of the maple board, the company says, let you "carve the streets" with fluid 45-degree-tilt surfer turns (most skateboards max out at 25 degrees).
Check it out at www.flowlab.com; it's $199.
— Advertiser staff
Reinvented — again
When The Advertiser put Manoa-based international master stylist Dean Christopher on our "It" list under "reinvented," we definitely had his number. Christopher has taken on yet another high-fashion client: Jil Sander.
He's planning strategies and conducting product-knowledge training for the ultra-hip fashion house. This adds several trips a year to Hamburg and to Milan to his already crazy schedule of six trips a year to Paris.
No, he's not giving up any of the work he does for Chanel or The French Festival in Hawai'i.
— Paula Rath
Hobbit hoople
With eight months still to go to the film's release, the huge buildup for what could be one of the most sweeping movie franchises ever will crank up even further in May at the Cannes Film Festival.
The first movie in "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, based on the J.R.R. Tolkien books, won't debut until Dec 19, but merchandise already in stores includes action figures and books such as "A Tolkien Treasury" (Running Press, February 2001, $14.98).
The two sequels in the wizards-and-elves adventure trilogy already have been filmed for release in December 2002 and December 2003.
With its finely manipulated Internet feeding frenzy, this franchise is proving savvy: The online trailer got a record 1.7 million hits in the first 24 hours (compared to 1 million for Star Wars' "The Phantom Menace"), and the official movie site (www.lordoftherings.net) is drawing more than 300,000 people a month — with a third of those men ages 24-36.
— Advertiser staff
