AUTHORS write for a specific readership, be it that of the publisher, or intent. It’s what makes the big difference between authors and writers, who record and write for themselves (and possibly generic posterity). One of my personal favorite genre’s is children’s books, within which I’ve had the distinct pleasure of pioneering Savant Books and Publications’ “COLOR ME PLEASE” series.

Children’s books seem to many the easiest to write. Ah, yes, write. But authoring children’...

AUTHORS like me, Daniel Janik (aka Raymond Gaynor/Gary Martine), used to call them our “readers” in a respectful voice. ACTORS like me, Daniel S. Janik, used to call them our “fans,” treating every fan like royalty with appreciation. POLITICIANS, BUSINESSPERSONS, ADVERTISERS and INFLUENCERS typically call them or at least regard them as minions, with a decidedly derogatory tone, and, unfortunately, that attitude is spreading from business to everything business touches these days. In ...

MOST people who are operatically inclined enjoy the storyline, performance, color, dressing up and an opera brunch afterwards with pastries and coffee. Me, too. Mostly. Tomorrow Setsuko and I go to the opera as background actors for a scene for an upcoming TV series, NCIS: Hawaii Season Two.

All we know is that there will be lots of opera-goer-actors-and-actresses, theater-service-personnel-actors-and-actresses, a bunch of police/FBI/NCIS-actors-and-actresses, and pirates. The later would ha...

WITH all the hype these days about recession/no recession, I’m going to take the long view and say that this may rather be the long needed relaxation — a deep, deep breath — after the Hyper-Velocity-Business years championed by former President Donald Trump. Personally, I feel it’s time to take a breath and be human, letting go of the frenetic chase for money and power.

It’s important in this decade of immense change to remember that we are meant to steward and enjoy the blessings ...

I’VE noticed recently a sudden plethora of reports in the news about beaching whales. Okay, so it may just be a noticeable but generally ignored normal occurrence. It could also be climate change, ocean pollution (including noise pollution civil or military) — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cetacean_stranding. Or, stay with me here, could it be collective increasing anxiety amongst some of the most intelligent creatures on the planet? I don’t know what the whales are thinking, but humani...

IT’S my distinct pleasure to be the first to announce the ascension of a new authority in the world of dance, acting and authoring, Dr. Setsuko Tsuchiya — https://www.setsukotsuchiya.com — having recently reached the end of her multi-year foray into academia with the final acceptance of her dissertation and completion of her PhD in Performing Arts in Ballroom and Latin Dance Performance. As her dance, acting and life partner, I can personally vouch for the difficulties she overcame in h...

WINNOWING, a 15 to 20-minute screenplay written by world-renown author and playwright, William Maltese — https://www.facebook.com/williammaltese, for me, actor Daniel S. Janik — https://janik.yolasite.com/actor.php — and my partner and actress Setsuko Tsuchiya — https://setsukotsuchiya.com — is (hooray!) currently in planning, thank you, William Maltese! This discrete, four-character screenplay, in my mind, is perfectly designed for actor/studio publicity purposes as an entertainmen...

BEING an actor quite busy this time of year, I decided it’s time for the new COVID-19 Omicron/BA.5 immunization, and, hey, why not, also flu. So yesterday I went to the local pharmacy for both. Bang! Bang!

I was, as usual, fine until about 2 hours later, when I spend the evening and night tossing and turning dealing with aches and pains. Ugh. Not bad like the real flu, but enough to recognize it as such. Trading a very mild flu for the big cachunka when it comes around later this year. As ...

IN both the authoring and acting worlds, there are important moments to anticipate and thoroughly enjoy if and when they happen. For an author, one is the acceptance of a manuscript by a publisher. Another is seeing and feeling the book in hand. Yet another is that first positive review. And don’t forget that first moment of public recognition.

For an actor, the first is getting before the camera and seeing oneself on the screen. Any screen. Another is getting a role, any role, in a film, ...

COMING-OF-AGE is never easy, irrespective of how easily or not it happens. And, the first one, adolescence, is a doozy for everyone. Looking back, I’m impressed with how every approximate decade of my life brought with it another coming-of-age, for me, mostly related to my work, my “job” being to figure out what message my work had for me about…well…me.

My decades were adolescence, college/university life, physician, author, artist, medical computing analyst, corporate official, mi...

HAVEN’T seen the movie STATIC (2021)? There will be an international reshowing of the movie STATIC (2021) on 25 Sept 2022 at 7 PM Hawaii Standard Time on KHON2, KHII and Hawaii CW. Starring Daniel S. Janik as Will Gardner, Jeri Lynn Endo as Ginny Gardner, eriko Okada as Susan Blakely, Benjamin Wilkison as Donald Blakley Shane Chisum as Mike, and Setsuko Tsuchiya as Edna with Yuriko Asakawa and Helen R. Davis. Based off the teleplay “Static” written by Richard Rose. Produced, Directed an...

WHILE eating brunch today (as actor Daniel S. Janik always concerned about weight, aka sedentary author Daniel Janik/Raymond Gaynor/Gary Martine), I found myself pondering the quintessentially classic question: Which is “more betta,” the knife, fork or spoon, which being as my partner is Japanese, immediately expanded to include hashi (chopsticks) and, in deference to America’s love affair with fast foods, fingers?

Given the universality of finger use early in life, it’s environmenta...

SHADES of George Orwell and his dystopian futurist novel, 1984, that date having already passed into history, with thoughtcrimes moving from speculative literature to the movies with the adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s novel, MINORITY REPORT. What’s next? Legislation against the use of discriminatory pronouns in thought or dream?

What this brings up for me is the issue of how much control needs to be exerted to counter extremism and weaponization today? Where is the flaw that so desperate...

PROMISED by Reds and Blues alike for decades, but especially after the COVID “shot across the bow,” updating our nation’s infrastructures has been much hooted, but barely addressed issue that is now beginning to impact all citizens more and more.

Take the internet, for example. The key to doing business in the future is a necessary shift from “in-person crowd sales” at brick and mortar stores, to “individual service via distance online” stores. The problem: the internet. What u...

LET’S face it: The split in politics that strongly divides us is being reflected in government, foreign affairs, legislation, health care, transportation and, yes, education. But what’s with the extreme splitting at the expense of the quality of our lives? I’m going to take a big leap and say it’s not really politics (the “pop” explanation) or COVID (the shot across the bow) as so many claim, but simply lack of an effective future infrastructure from which to develop. This is, in ...

IN or around 1993, as the University of Hawaii Extension Service Water Quality Agent for Northshore Oahu, I served as executive producer for a “wake up” documentary called CLEAN WATER, COMMON GROUND (National Film Network 1999). Twenty-nine minutes, with a special edition including an additional twenty-minute studio discussion, CLEAN WATER, COMMON GROUND traveled around the world several times, garnering awards like its two-Telly Awards for best documentary. Although National Film Network...

OVER the years, I’ve seen the best of ideas succeed and fail, and what I’ve learned is not only is the devil in the details, but the greatest successes doesn’t necessary follow the money.

The “devil in the details” is often more about one’s dedication and devotion to a particular effort. It’s dedication, devotion and focus that often elevates a minor project to a major success.

“Not necessarily following the money,” is another way of thinking and working “out-of-the-box....

HAVING just recently posted a number of times about AIs (Artificial Intelligences), it surprised me when several days ago weird things began happening, all AI-related.

First, my AI-controlled car door locks began failing off and on.

Then, my Macintosh MacBook Pro and iPhone started acting wonky.

At the same time, I suddenly couldn’t access my WordPress blog account, and worse yet, internet connectivity on my supposedly private dedicated subscriber line (DSL) began losing bandwidth, makin...