By Dave Donnelly
Thursday, February 20, 1997
Lisa Leung, Kathleen Stuart
Lisa Leung, Kathleen Stuart
FIDDLE-faddle: Those people who know restaurateur Aaron Plakourakis are aware he puts up with no fiddling around at his eateries, Nicholas Nickolas or Sarento's. But when Mom's in town - well, that's another matter. Aaron's mother, you see, Helen Plakourakis, is a jazz fiddler and a good one. She's in town for one of her regular visits and on Tuesday night sat in with Bill Cox and his Over the Hill Gang at Cisco's Cantina. We met by accident in the lounge of a Continental Airlines flight to the mainland, and she was making quite an impression on me until she mentioned that her brother was Nick Nickolas and Aaron her son. The thought of those two large gents also making an impression on me had a disquieting effect ... Fiddlin’ around
with this ’n thatFIDDLE-DE-DEE: One of Hawaii's best fiddlers, Lisa Leung, is a versatile young woman with a bow in her hand. She plays zydeco music with Bon Ton Roule, gypsy czardas with a Bulgarian folk music group and Celtic music, first with the Cast-Offs, since disbanded, and now with the Irish Hearts Band. This group has been drawing standing room only crowds in O'Toole's Irish Pub Friday nights, and this weekend you have two chances to see them and set your feet a tapping. Besides their Friday jam, they'll perform Saturday at a fund-raiser to benefit the scholarship fund of the Society of the Friendly Daughters of Erin ...
A FIDDLER on the roof is the traditional entertainment at the annual Symphony Fun Run. And for Opus 17 on April 27, there'll be an added incentive not to fiddle around in signing up. The orchestra's Michael Tiknis has given the Symphony Guild lawn tickets for the John Denver concert April 5 at the Waikiki Shell to hand out to the first 1,000 people who register ... To carry this tortuous metaphor to a conclusion, the heartstrings of Crazy Shirts founder Rick Ralston have been plucked, and on Valentine's Day violin music wafted to a crescendo at David Paul's restaurant in Lahaina and Ralston popped not just the champagne, but the question to girlfriend Michelle Goode. The wedding march - on a single violin? - will be played in July ...
TOO many cooks spoil the broth? Not necessarily. Especially if the broth is being whipped up in the kitchen of the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel, referred to above as the Waite room, since it's where exec chef Corey Waite spends most of his time. But he called for help the other night and Big Isle chefs Sam Choy and Peter Merriman jumped in to assist in preparing a dinner to remember for Michael Douglas. The actor, who starred in "The President," was living like one in the resort's 8,000 square-foot Hapuna Suite, and decided to eat like one as well. He also spent a lot of his Big Isle vacation in another presidential pursuit. Don't get ahead of me here, I'm talking about golfing! ... Waite room
BEFORE American League umpire Mark Johnson wrapped up his Isle respite and headed back to spring training - the first game he umps will be Feb. 28 - I asked what his reaction was when he heard that Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos suggested the incident where Orioles player Roberto Alomar spit on umpire John Hirschbeck be closed with the umpire apologizing for calling Alomar a name. Johnson, who hails from Louisville, fairly yelped, "I almost drove off the road." The umps have been trying to put that ugly incident behind them, and now Angelos seems to want to bring it up again ...
AFTER watching the spirited stage techniques of one member of the cast of "Little Shop of Horrors" at Diamond Head Theatre, I was staggered to read in the program that she was merely a sophomore at Castle High School. Not only that, Kathleen Stuart, the girl in question, just turned 16 on Sunday. She plays Chiffon in the musical and was greeted with the traditional song and (chiffon?) cake following the matinee. She also announced to her fellow performers that she's been cast in the lead role of Nellie Forbush in Castle's next show, "South Pacific." Now that I've got to see ... Sweet 16
