Our Picks for the Weekend Star-Bulletin staff

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ART
Art walks are scheduled Downtown and in Kailua

Families can get cultural all weekend at art walks Downtown and on the Windward side.

After the wild success of First Friday, the monthly Chinatown evening art walk, the district is expanding on the concept with Second Saturday, which runs noon to 5 p.m. Saturday. The smaller scale event reaches beyond the after-work adult crowd to families, with free activities geared toward youngsters.

This month features painter Katie O'Brien, an artist with disabilities who will exhibit and sell her latest works at O'Toole's Irish Pub, 902 Nuuanu Ave. The venue will also feature Irish music, stepdancing and food. Part of the proceeds from O'Brien's art sale will benefit the St. Patrick's Day Parade. Call Lorraine at 599-1738.

If the city scene isn't your family's bag, head out to laid-back Kailua for Second Sunday. Art galleries will be open from 1 to 5 p.m.

Oil painter Barbara Eberhart and watercolorist Garry Palm will demonstrate their crafts at Island Treasures Art Gallery, 629 Kailua Road. Call 261-8131.

DINING
Australian group marks Melbourne Cup 2006

Whether you're into horse-racing, eating Greek food or hanging around with Australians, Saturday's celebration of the Melbourne Cup 2006 has something to ring your chimes.

The Australian American Chamber of Commerce (Hawaii) presents the event from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at Yanni's in Restaurant Row.

The Melbourne Cup at Flemington Racecourse has become known as "the race which stops a nation," because of the number of people who take the day off each November to watch. A videotape of the race will be shown and a Greek menu of traditional dips and breads, roast lamb chops, garlic prawns and souvlaki will be served by chef-owner Yanni Trianades -- who happens to be an Australian of Greek descent.

Admission is $45; $40 for chamber members. Come prepared for a hat competitions. Call 526-2242 or e-mail aacc@lava.net.

MUSIC
Symphony makes date and program changes

There's been a program change and a date change for this week's Honolulu Symphony Orchestra concerts, so pay attention or you could show up on the wrong night, expecting the wrong music.

The first-night performance will be at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, rather than 8 p.m. Friday. Sunday's 4 p.m. concert time remains unchanged.

Violinist brothers Daniel and Todd Phillips replace Julian Rachlin and Janine Jansen in a program called "Exploration for Strings."

The repertoire: Bach's Concerto for Two Violins in D minor, Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons" and Mozart's "Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola."

Tickets start at $15, including service fees. Call 792-2000 or visit www.honolulusymphony.com.

MOVIES
'Samoan Wedding' is full of laughs

"Samoan Wedding," set in the sizable Samoan emigre community of Auckland, New Zealand, made its debut at the Louis Vuitton Hawaii International Film Festival last month, and moves into the multiplex this week.

The film follows four 30-something buddies given a challenge that at first seems a snap, and then insurmountable: They must find dates for a fifth friend's wedding. Not just dates, but real girlfriends and committed relationships.

They have to become grownups.

What ensues is remarkably hilarious in a very non-Hollywood sort of way that makes it fresh.

In any language, it's all pretty funny. You'll laugh your lava-lava off.

"Samoan Wedding," which is unrated, opens Friday at Dole Cannery Stadium 18.

FOOD
Brasserie Du Vin

1115 Bethel St. / 545-1115

As a brasserie, Du Vin was never intended to be a restaurant. Instead, people are welcome to mix pleasure and maybe a little business over glasses of wine ($7 to $19 per glass), cheese, patés and a hot dish or two. The simple menu would not be unusual for any major city, yet is new to Honolulu as a uniquely French way to dine. The setting, across from Hawaii Theatre, allows arts patrons to stop in before and after the show for tapas and desserts.

Thought the room looks 100 years old, it was built from ground up with parts recycled from defunct businesses, with plenty of dark wood and polished brass, a small patio and cozy back-room bar. It's reminiscent at times of 16th- to 18th-century Old Dutch Masters still-life paintings.

Aside from a selection of cured meats and artisan cheeses, a hot menu changes daily and may include mussels steamed with white wine and butter and topped with pommes frites ($14), an apple-enhanced cucumber gazpacho or Oysters Bienville, topped with a mushroom Mornay sauce and bread crumbs baked to a light, golden crisp. Get used to small portions, the way most people around the world eat.

Some will want to be there for desserts ($6 each) of vanilla bean creme brulée, fruit-filled crepes, or bananas foster, flambeéd in the kitchen and served with vanilla gelato, cinnamon-and-clove-accented French toast and homemade caramel.

Open 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Mondays to Saturdays.