Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.
Hawaii
THOSE of us who are accustomed to searching out things on the Internet can only hope that Terence Knapp's 30th anniversary of William Shakespeare's birthday isn't listed online. One can only wonder what sort of person might click onto "Shakespeare's Birthday Celebration XXX." Especially since Knapp Celebrating Shakespeare
has chosen to call it "Was he Willie Really?" This 436th birthday celebration, to be held April 23 in the Earle Ernst Lab Theatre of Kennedy Theatre, will feature Knapp performing some of his favorite speeches from the Bard while raising the question of whether Shakespeare actually wrote them. And here's an almost effortless exercise that could make the year 2000 special. If you read one of Shakespeare's 37 plays each week from now until Christmas, you'll have completed them all. Drama teachers might consider making that a challenge that will greatly benefit their students. And happy birthday, Will ...
WHO better to take the local lead in the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Honolulu fund-raiser than Chef Sam Choy? Joining him will be another chef who's huge in foodie circles. He's Ming Tsai, of Food Network's "East Meets West with Ming Tsai." And since "East Meets West" is the charity's theme, he's the perfect choice. The two will be featured (along with the band Hiroshima) at the Hilton's Tapa Ballroom April 22. Tsai was named 1998 Chef of the Year by Esquire Magazine, and his Blue Ginger bistro in Wellesley, Mass., was named best new restaurant by Boston Magazine and was nominated best new restaurant in the country by the James Beard Foundation ...
Changing landscape
SURE, Hawaii has gone through a great many changes. I'd like to see a list of the hot spots of, say, 1958, which are still alive and well today. The San Francisco Chronicle on Sunday brought out an old 1958 Playboy piece about where to go in S.F., and of the 60 places named in the magazine, only 10 still exist and only four of them "look and work the same." They are, for those fellow lovers of the City, David's Deli, Fisherman's Grotto, the Buena Vista and the Iron Horse. I mention this because one of my favorite hangouts in the city just closed. The Washington Square Bar & Grill was the first place I lunched with columnist Herb Caen. It'll reopen under new ownership soon as something unpromisingly called Cobalt. Former owner Peter Osborne is busy running his other eatery, Momo's, instantly the hottest spot in town located, as it is, directly across the street from the Giants' new baseball stadium. Are any spots still running continuously in Hawaii? Maybe Fisherman's Wharf. The Willows closed for a time and Columbia Inn moved. Any others? ...
Springtime in New York
WHEN John McCreary retired from St. Andrew's Cathedral, he was lured to New York to take over as temporary choir director at St. James Cathedral until a permanent replacement could be found. He wasn't sure how long it would take, but since then he's celebrated his 70th birthday, and has been told to expect to stay in the job through May at least. A search process is under way, but there were 117 applicants, so it's taking longer than he and wife Betsy thought. One positive note is that they can be in the audience when daughter Susie brings her First Presbyterian Church choir from Makiki to sing the Mozart Requiem at Carnegie Hall on May 30 ...
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: ddonnelly@starbulletin.com