SO while you were cozying up to your TV set to watch the Oscarcast, who couldn't have been caring less? Why, actor Jason Scott Lee, who took his family to Chai's Island Bistro Sunday night at Aloha Tower Marketplace. What the heck, he wasn't nominated and probably knew it would be a monumental snoozer, as it was, saved only for a few minutes by zany Italian actor/director Roberto Benigni ... Lee passes on
awards show
NO, a Francophile isn't someone who loved Generalissimo Franco, but an admirer of things French. And Francophiles are like a pig in truffles over the appearance tomorrow of the baroque Palladian Ensemble at Orvis Auditorium. The group will play works written for Louis XIV, the "Sun King," whose day began with him awakening to woodwind and brass, and ended with his being lulled to sleep by a quiet guitar. The Palladian opened KHPR's spring fund drive yesterday, then packed up recorders, viola da gamba, theorbo and guitar and hied to the Big Isle where they play tonight at the Naniloa. Before the group's 8 p.m. performance for the Honolulu Chamber Music Series tomorrow, they'll chat with the audience beginning at 7 p.m. ...
AND while it's not in my dictionary, Keith Haugen, lunching with Cynthia Joy Higgins at Columbia Inn, referred to her as a "cruciverbalist" for the New York Times. For those mystified by the moniker, it means she creates crossword puzzles. There, now it's clear as an eft ...
Singing for their supper
THERE were strains of "Dear Old Dartmouth" echoing through the lobby of the Kahala Mandarin Oriental Hotel the other day. The Dartmouth Aires, an a capella group from the college, was spending spring break in style and singing for their supper, which in the case of the Kahala Mandarin was a sumptuous seafood buffet at the Plumeria Beach Cafe after the concert. Among the former "Big Greens" in attendance were Morgan Stanley/Dean Witter Senior V.P. Paul Loo, attorney Jim Leavitt of Leavitt, Yamane and Soldner, and Jennifer Chu of PriceWaterhouseCoopers, the president of the Hawaii Dartmouth Club ...NOTHING like a Hawaiian Trust exec blowing smoke, except those who know Doug Stevenson remember him best for just that. Doug is an inveterate pipe smoker, and you can tell when he's coming before he strides into view. But now he's striding out of view, wrapping up 20-plus years at Hawaiian Trust and moving to rainy Portland, Ore., probably destined to become a Trailblazers fan. The first of what will be several aloha sessions for Stevenson is set for this evening at Murphy's Bar & Grill. Owner Don Murphy asked Doug how the two decades there have been. "Interesting," replied Doug between puffs, "until they made me remove the refrigerator from my office." Ah yes, nothing like roughing it ...
PLAYING a TV guy in Diamond Head Theatre's "Moon Over Buffalo," opening tomorrow, is Bob Jones. No, not the Bob Jones who once was a TV guy, but another bearing that same unusual name ...
Hawaiian Spectator
THAT'S what the March issue of Wine Spectator magazine might well have been called. There's a massive 60 page spread on Hawaii. Rating the top restaurants in the islands is always a subjective job, but WS chose Alan Wong's for food (93 on a scale of 100) and La Mer for wines (90) and the two ended in a tie overall at 91. At 89 were the Four Seasons Maui's Anuenue Room, the CanoeHouse of the Mauna Lani, Ihilani at Lanai's Manele Bay and Sansei Seafood Restaurant on Maui ...
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.