IT’S officially the hurricane season in the Pacific and what’s brewing at this moment is hurricane Frank. Hawaii hurricanes typically begin off Baha California, traveling West-Northwest along with tons of tourists, the hurricane slowly weakening on its way. This year’s hurricane forecast for Hawaii, I’m told, is low both in numbers and intensities, much like income projections for US citizens. Then again, in terms of weather and economics, anything can happen along the way.

If you be...

AS Daniel S. Janik, former owner of Savant Books and Publications, which was sold on 31 December 2021 to KS Media Group Inc — https://ksmediagroupinc.com — I’m now book production manager while the work of melding the two companies proceeds. Kenny Simmons of KS Media Group Inc and K. Simmons Productions, a “Hawaiiwood” film studio, in the meantime with Executive Producer assistance from me, Setsuko Tsuchiya and Savant Director of Publicity and Marketing, Dr. Michael Davis, is produc...

THINK Hawaii and what immediately comes to most people’s minds are warm sun, beaches, surfing, tropical drinks, but Amazonian Green Parrots? Rats? Mongooses? Geckoes? Brush-tailed rock-wallabies? Mangoes? Eh? And lets not forget mosquitoes! But, Amazonian Green Parrots???

Less than a decade ago, I noticed a pair of Amazonian Green Parrots fly by my lanai window. Several years later, on a walk I noticed a buch of them feasting on mangoes in a neighborhood mango tree. Today I watched numerou...

PERHAPS it’s a distinctly human characteristic (though I often wonder if many animals, especially elephants, whales and dolphins, and even plants should be included), the old Wishing Well seemingly part of every nation and cultures. But, hey, I’m not referring here to that, I’m referring to the importance of old-timers using their wishes well during their “Golden Years.” When I made this remark years ago to my father, he grunted that the older he got, the less time he had for wishin...

I was musing today over the three wise men who followed the new star to a barnyard and gave, not the parents, but the newborn, gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And what the child later would have thought had they given gifts of bitcoins, samples of the latest fragrances and a tree to plant and save the planet. I wonder.

Typically, the gifts we give and receive are enmeshed in feelings, imagination and hope. As a child bitcoins, unseen as they are, wouldn’t have evoked any feelings o...

I’VE always felt reasonably safe and secure pretty much everywhere I’ve travelled within the USA (avoiding big cities). At least until recently. I’m not feeling so safe and secure these days with the increasingly lax gun laws, especially those that allow carrying a concealed weapon. Having grown up in Alaska when it was still a young, wild territory, I wasn’t unaccustomed to seeing people in town “carryin’,” even having witnessed a shootout once. Strangely, knowing that people w...

TODAY is the day after Hurricane Darby bounced off of Big Island, headed south and died. Not that I’m disappointed. Hurricane’s aren’t my thing. It did affect my acting, however, as filming stopped while Darby danced by. And I just noticed what looks like a new hurricane building off Baja California, the birthplace of so many Hawaiian hurricanes. Quick! Time to film everything possible before another hurricane passes by, hopefully without incident.

Setsuko Tsuchiya and I are continuing...

ADMITTEDLY, The Lone Ranger was one of my chiildhood favorite early morning television shows, and THE LONE RANGER with Johnny Depp will remain one of my adulthood favorites for all time. But, hey, I’m talking the lone masked man these days. Oddly, most of my acquaintances are either (1) sans mask, distancing and cares; or (2) either huffing and puffing with long COVID or even departed. Odder still the yet again polarization with few folk like myself, Daniel S. Janik, in the middle, distanci...

LIKE many other Americans, I thought deposing Donald Trump during last year’s presidential election would end the bitter decisiveness erupting in almost every sector of government, business, transportation, environment, medical care, education, even to the point of separating family members and impassively expression frustration through public shootings. Nope. I didn’t realize until recently how close we came to blurring the lines between Administration, Legislation and Courts, paving the...

IS our world, as James Lovelock’s GAIA — https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/gaia-hypothesis — would have us believe, a living, breathing being? I tend to think so. Lovelock has been “right” so many times, it would be an insult to not take The Gaia Hypothesis for real. If so, surely, Gaia is letting out a long sigh, after so tumultuous a half-year. The Return (or call it the REVENGE) of COVID, Putin’s War, another year of increasing over-population an...

I’M going to have fun with this one! Flim-flam is insincere or nonsensical talk. It also is a swindle or con. Boyancy is all about ending up on top with optimism and cheerfulness. If that isn’t an interesting paraducks I don’t know what is. But in my “new” dictionary for our new times, flimflamboyancy is all about surviving this increasingly “fake” world while optimistically and cheerfully retaining hope for something better. 

Is our world increasingly “fake?” I would say yes...

TODAY is the fourth of July, the day we celebrate America’s Independence. I like to think of it as the day the nation celebrates my birthday with parties, grills and fireworks, a little myth inculcated by my mother alongside Santa and the Great Pumpkin. Admittedly, letting go of the fourth being a celebration of my coming-into-the-world was the hardest of which to let go. Sigh. Still, when I watch the fireworks tonight, I’ll be happily co-celebrating my own birth.

What most American’s ...

IN previous posts, I presented two of three reasons why Setsuko Tsuchiya and I, Daniel S. Janik, were intrigued from the start over Elias Perez’ 2-Liter’s Shady Film Production of MOCOS, the Movie — https://www.auditionsfree.com/2021/actors-and-extras-in-nyc-or-to-film-remotely-for-indie-film/. We both support experimental filmmaking, especially when it leads to a new venue resistant to epidemics and pandemics. I see MOCOS as the forerunner of distance-filmed, interactive, holographic m...

YESTERDAY I posted about a new film that Setsuko Tsuchiya and I will be appearing in entitled MOCOS. One of three reasons why this debut film by Elias Perez’ 2-Liter’s Shady Films Productions was that it was an experimental film. In this day when businesses are struggling to return to the old days, Perez has taken a new “distance” approach to filming, which I find intriguing. It is innovative filming venues like this one that will, I believe, end up charting the future of the industry...

SETSUKO Tsuchiya and I recently auditioned for a new film, MOCOS (pronounced “locos”) a horror film by Elias Perez’ 2-Liters Shady Films. I was pleased to be selected for the role of Dr. Gregory Grant, MD, a public health specialist, and Setsuko for the role of Ms. Akari Koko-Grant, wife of Dr. Grant and reporter for the Pacific World News.

What initially caught my interest was that this would be an experimental “distance” filming project, whereby each actor/actress would DIY film ...