IT hardly seems like 19 years ago that I attended the one-year baby luau that D.J. Ron Jacobs threw for daughter Miki'ala. The original Makaha Sons of Ni'ihau were playing while Wally "Famous" Amos and Hari Kojima fought for kitchen space as they baked chocolate chip cookies and sliced sashimi, respectively. And now Miki has graduated from Northwestern after just three years. Grade point shaving? Not on your life. She started acting when she played a carrot in a Hanahauoli junior kindergarten production and kept her interest in theater alive at Iolani. Miki attended the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and put that experience to good use when she played Bianca in the Diamond Head Theatre production of "Taming of the Shrew." She and some fellow Northwestern students staged an original off-Broadway production last summer, and her mom, Kristi Jacobs (membership director at the Honolulu Academy of Arts), got to see her perform in "Orpheus Descending," her final show at Northwestern. Miki plans to stay in the Chicago area for post-grad studies ... DJ’s daughter
is stage-struckYET another Iolani girl will soon be making something of a debut in showbiz soon. Ninth-grader Marisa Wahl spent spring break as a walk-on for the ABC series "Boy Meets World" and she got to meet stars Ben Savage and Will Friedle. Marisa plays a high school senior in the season finale, which airs here May 15 on KITV. She should be easy to spot in a bright tie-dyed shirt her mom had purchased at Liberty House for the trip ...
Corned beef and rice?
FOR the past 13 years, Bernard Horowitz has proudly proclaimed that his Bernard's New York Deli at Ward Centre was the only restaurant in Honolulu that didn't serve rice. Perhaps it's a sign of the times, but Horowitz is breaking down, figuring that with Hawaii in something of an economic crunch, it would behoove him to appeal to local tastes and the Asian visitor alike. So rice is now available on request with breakfast items. And don't be surprised if suddenly you find it with dinner entrees and open-faced sandwiches as well. Nice rice with lotsa matzo ...IT'S 10-10 day at the Row Bar in Restaurant Row, and we're not talking Oct. 10 and Chinese holidays here. This Friday (April 10), the Row Bar celebrates its 10th anniversary and Nueva Vida will be performing. Row founder Alan Beall will also take the occasion to mark his birthday (he's not saying which one), which actually falls on Saturday. A $5 admission charge will benefit the Waikiki Community Center ... "Outback" and "Upcountry" seem to go together, and that's what Ed Wary, Roy Yamaguchi and Shep Gordon are hoping when they open their new Outback Steakhouse on Maui April 26 as a benefit for the Girl Scouts who are renovating their camp in Olinda ...
Another kind of healing
KAISER'S Dr. Richard Siegel was ecstatic when "A Story of Healing" won the Oscar for short-subject documentary. It was about Interplast, a volunteer group which provides medical care in Third World countries. For many years, Dr. Siegel has used his vacation time to aid Interplast's efforts in remote areas of Vietnam. Siegel, a plastic surgeon, has brought smiles to the faces of dozens of Vietnamese born with cleft palates and other facial problems. Now he's recruited several Kaiser doctors, nurses and an audiologist to join him, resulting in the improvement of lives of even more Vietnamese. It's provided another kind of healing in that war-torn country ...
Dave Donnelly has been writing on happenings
in Hawaii for the Star-Bulletin since 1968.
His columns run Monday through Friday.Contact Dave by e-mail: donnelly@kestrok.com.