THERE are mangoes and there are mangoes. Then there are Haden mangoes. Rich, juicy, piney, lushious, sap-dripping, brilliant orange Haden mangoes. Not totally alone in quality, there are also ‘Ah Ping’, ‘Fairchild’, ‘Gouveia’, ‘Harders’, ‘Keitt’, ‘Momi K’, ‘Pope’, and ‘Rapoza’ varieties that are almost equal, of the over 60 varieties that grow in Hawaii. The key word here is “almost.” But give me a Mangifera indica Haden mango anytime.

I’ve noted over th...

Continue reading ...

EVER wondered what actors/actresses do between films? I’m currently “between” OTOSOTU (pronounced “Oh-Toe-So-Two” for “On The Other Side Of The Universe” – https://janik.yolasite.com/otosotu.php), which is now in the second stage of post-production (namely editing) and “the next film.”

So, to keep food on the table and the hearth warm, I’m doing as much background acting as possible. I’m currently working NCIS: Hawaii (S3) while scouring the landscape for modeling and...

Continue reading ...

HAVING just recently spent 5 weeks in Japan, I have to mention my delight in discovering hoshigaki. I came across them my first day and almost every day afterwards, tied together in long strings hung from porch roofs throughout the main island, Honshuu. Looking like beaded curtains of brilliant orange, they are the start of dried Japanese persimmons, which herald December and the pending New Year. 

While Christmas is celebrated by many Japanese families, it's New Year celebration that is the...

Continue reading ...

IT is my pleasure to announce that the JET Progress production of the movie WINNOWING with BURNT-IN ENGLISH SUBTITLES, starring Sakura Kai (aka Setsuko Tsuchiya) and Daniel S. Janik, is now available for free to the first 1000 viewers at https://youtu.be/YmRwN4yz760. This is in addition to the version with no or optional computer-generated subtitles. Burnt-in or “open” subtitles, unlike computer-generated ones, are perfect and allow for a significantly more enjoyable viewing.

WINNOWING, ...

Continue reading ...

YES! I do, like most, have moments of spare time that glare into my eyes, taunting me to do something — anything! — rather than loll away my time here in Hawaii (aka “paradise”), stretched out on a hammock between two palm trees, Mai Tai in hand, languidly watching the tropical sunset.

Yes, well, having experienced just such a month ago in response to the beginning of the SAG/AFTRA strike (which, BTW, has yet to resolve), I decided if I can’t act, perhaps I can at least model. So, ...

Continue reading ...

FIRST, let me explain that living in Hawaii, we’re always alert to tropical hurricanes, like Calvin, that like to visit our islands this time of year through Christmas. Calvin is about halfway here and so far has been growing in intensity achieving Category Two status yesterday.

WINNOWING — https://winnowing.yolasite.com — on the other hand is a JET Progress film production, currently in post-production. What they have in common is that as WINNOWING progresses through the film festival...

Continue reading ...

MY opinions expressed are typically those of but one of 336 million individual Americans spanning an increasingly disparate spectrum of opinions. But being a SAG actor, the SAG-AFTRA actors’ strike, in fact, affects me not only as an inveterate film enthusiast, but also as an actor AND filmmaker.

As an actor — https://janik.yolasite.com/actor.php — it means a cessation of work in a field of endeavor not only my livelihood but my passion. Acting opportunities are rarely tightly consecut...

Continue reading ...

MANY readers are aware of my premier debut as co-producer, director and co-star of the upcoming film WINNOWING — https://winnowing.yolasite.com — scheduled for release in late 2023/early 2024. Not so many know about my 1999 Two-Telly-Award-Winning film that I executive produced, CLEAN WATER, COMMON GROUND — https://clean-water-common-ground.yolasite.com.

CWCG, a cinematic short that seems even more relevant today than during its inception, is a documentary about water and the environme...

Continue reading ...

WITH the JET Progress production of WINNOWING well into pre-production, having addressed blocking, shortlisting, studio, camera and sound, the last remaining issue has been that of insulating the film set from noise. It would be easy to fall into the tourist idea that Hawaii, being a true paradise, must be so quiet as to enhance the sound of the trades in the coconut trees. Not so, even in Waikiki. One of the challenges to filming outdoors or indoors on Oahu is the high levels of light and so...

Continue reading ...

HAVING had my moment on the big screen as lead actor in the multi-award-winning movie STATIC, I was gifted by author, screenwriter, author-and-actor colleague and friend, William Maltese, with an intriguing movie script, WINNOWING, written specifically for myself, Daniel S. Janik, and actress and life partner, Setsuko Tsuchiya. Thank you, William! In it Setsuko and I play not one but TWO lead roles in this story about an actor and actress auditioning for the “big” one, before two, hardene...

Continue reading ...

LIVING in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, is like living in a suspended, sunny California day forever. At least until tomorrow, when the weatherfolk are predicting a strong bout of cold, thunderstorms, lightening, thunder, torrential rain and even icy hail, the latter God(dess) forbid. I’m trying to imagine icy roads in Honolulu, if only from momentarily road-coating hail. Actually, I can’t imagine it. The nearest thing is snow on the top of the world’s tallest volcano, Mauna Kea, or the unusual...

Continue reading ...

I wonder what that singular word invokes for you? For me, it means sharing the spotlight with others, including my sister’s cat, “Bugs,” who just recently became a celebrity showcasing a new kind of cat food dish that she apparently endorses whole heartedly. Okay, okay. I always make it a point to share the spotlight with my dance partner and actress, Setsuko Tsuchiya, who, BTW should be back on the set with me, filming a featured “honor dance” for FINDING KATE. In the first of an a...

Continue reading ...

INVARIABLY, when the Holidays approach, I become clumsy. Why, I’ve no idea, but it’s like a holiday ritual; something, I can count on, like taxes in January, but much more pleasant. Not that I resent paying my fair share to keep the USA, well, American, and my neighborhood worth living. No, I don’t resent taxes or the Holiday clumsies (by March and tax payment, I’m no longer clumsy). They’re just little hooks upon which I can hang my Christmas and New Year’s feelings on, while I g...

Continue reading ...

IMAGINE lifting a curvaceous flute filled with the finest bubbly (either champagne or fruit juice depending on your wont and disposition), before a blazing, crackling fire (in a fireplace, please), intimately toasting your BBF or BGF (you decide). That’s what I think of initially, easily forgetting the stress of all the preparation that would have to go into making just such an imaginary scenario into reality. Forget the tree, the trimming, the holiday cards (or, these days, emails), the sh...

Continue reading ...

A lot’s been said about the environment over the past couple decades, but when I was invited to work for the University of Hawaii in 1993 to serve as the Northshore Water Quality Agent as part of the University Extension Service, I said doubled down and said my part about the environment by Executive Producing the two-Telly-award-winning movie, CLEAN WATER, COMMON GROUND — https://m.imdb.com/title/tt1548932.

In fact, it was more of a cooperative agreement than entertainment, publicly bin...

Continue reading ...

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’...

Continue reading ...

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...

Continue reading ...

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...

Continue reading ...

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 ...

Continue reading ...

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...

Continue reading ...

WHILE most would, like one version goes, “put em’ in your pockets,” for whatever paw-paws are saved — I mean, really, maybe it’s just a children’s song — until I came across Bill Beatty and Jan Runyan’s “WV Nature” website, believe it or not, about Paw-Paws — https://wvbirder.wordpress.com/2019/10/22/pickin-up-pawpaws-put-em-in-my-pocket-by-jan-runyan/. Total coincidence, serendipity, simultaneity! One of those rare “ah-ha” moments when something hardly worth noticin...

Continue reading ...

If you’re a Raymond Gaynor thriller fan, you may not know that I wrote two children’s books, the first, A WHALE’S TALE (Savant 2008) by Daniel S. Janik — https://www.amazon.com/dp/1442105062 — is available in printed, digital and audiobook format, the latter read by the incomparable Lynn Whitener. Illustrated by renown Oklahoma artist Ruth R. Janik. The adventures of a juvenile humpback whale on his way from Hawaii to Alaska as told by his childhood sweetheart. Written for adults to...

Continue reading ...

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...

Continue reading ...

IT’S been my distinct pleasure to be Daniel S. Janik, actor, with Setsuko Tsuchiya, actress, in “The Rainbow State” of Hawaii. Our acting opportunities have been and remain highly varied. Part of that, I believe, is a consequence of living in Hawaii with its multi-culturality. Being European by descent and my partner Japanese, Hawaii offers us a multitude of cultural experiences both in terms of our professions and our daily life.

For example, we’ve played in Hawaiiwood’s K. Simmon...

Continue reading ...

WITH the K. Simmons Production of FINDING KATE — https://kspllc.media/finding-kate — about to enter production, the question remains, who will play lead actress in the role of Kate Keenan and where in the world is she? Long-ignored computer genius Kate Keenan has designed a computer program that will put Hollywood and Bollywood out of business overnight. Suddenly everyone wants her…and her program. To stay alive, Kate goes into hiding, barely keeping ahead of a lethal hoard of pursuers....

Continue reading ...

HAVING recently finished my and Setsuko Tsuchiya’s parts in the Kurt Ken Kaminaka Production of THE PERFECT ILLUSION, and enjoyed our first social party in over two years (okay, it was a movie set, but, hey, it was real FUN to socialize in a bubble), it was time yesterday to visit the hospital, where Ren Gaya is dreaming wildly while in a deep coma. Or was that imagining himself wildly dreaming in a deep coma. Or is he in a coma at all? Don’t ask me, I’m just the doctor.

I play Dr. Ste...

Continue reading ...

WHAT was the COVID-count on 15 December 2021 here on Oahu? 278 as I recall, only to see it rising exponentially to over 700 yesterday. Today’s a “holiday” so COVID isn’t reported, or, for that matter, allowed to rise by decree. Yeah, right! So here we go again, chasing after another pandemic that we should have been preparing for instead of celebrating. What does it take to realize that yesterday’s “crowd sales,” especially when involving crowding people together, won’t work, ...

Continue reading ...

The K. Simmons Production of The STATIC Movie, in which I play “Will Gardner,” a curmongenous veteran facing the greatest challenge of his life, Alzheimer’s disease, airing 25 Sept 2021 on Hawaii’s KHON2, KHII and CW will now go NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL, via streaming during premiere day from https://www.khon2.com. 

For more on the film, follow https://kspllc.media/the-static-movie. 

For Behind-the-Scenes footage on its filming as well as posters, trailer and special actor intervi...

Continue reading ...

My partner, Setsuko Tsuchiya, and I have agreed to host a monthly dance for International Ballroom Dance Inc (IBDI) at the Hawaii Kai Retirement Community (HKRC - Phase 2 - "Ice Cream Parlor" Room) from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. the first Sunday of every month. It's a social dance open to the public - see dance schedule and details at https://janik.yolasite.com/ibdi-hkrc-dance.php. 

Music by Dan Janik. Fully-costumed demonstration dance. Light refreshments served. Free parking. On The Bus line. 

Brin...
Continue reading ...

I thought you might like to know that my two Color-Me-Please children's books are now available as instant download, Amazon Audible audiobooks! 

A WHALE'S TALE (Savant 2009)

USA:  https://www.audible.com/pd/B00STOWDZ4/?source_code=AUDFPWS0223189MWT-BK-ACX0-029725&ref=acx_bty_BK_ACX0_029725_rh_us

UK: https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/B00STP8NPW/?source_code=AUKFrDlWS02231890H6-BK-ACX0-029725&ref=acx_bty_BK_ACX0_029725_rh_uk

THE TURTLE DANCES (Savant 2013)

USA: https://www.audible.com/pd/B00NVW4DKC/?sour...

Continue reading ...

It's already Monday, and I'm wanting to post about Fridays. Guess that's Halloween for you. 


Friday afternoons from 1 to 4 p.m. I host the Savant Bookstore Honolulu at the Hawaii Kai Retirement center. This is my chance as a publisher to meet the public one-on-one and receive critical feedback on our business and publications. Beautiful. Safe. Quiet. Ample free parking. On the bus line. I look forward to meeting YOU there. 

#book #bookstore
Continue reading ...

Couldn't help but capture these two love birds doing what I try to do every evening. No, not eat, tweet!  In my case on Twitter. And what could they possibly be tweeting about?


Daniel S. Janik's award-winning "Color-Me-Please" children's book, A WHALE'S TALE (Savant 2009) - Available at 10% off Suggested Retail Price (SRP) from the Publisher's Store with free shipping within the USA at https://mkt.com/savant-books-and-publications/item/a-whale-s-tale-1
     Also avai...
Continue reading ...

Okay, so you've heard of ballroom, Latin, Jazz, even Hip-Hop and Street Dancing, but have you ever seen Turtle Dancing? True, my award-winning "COLOR-ME-PLEASE" children's book, THE TURTLE DANCES (Savant 2013), is about a couple of Hawaiian Green Sea Turtles, Isla and Surf, who happen one evening on a dance competition in Waikiki and want to partner dance. But I mean real turtle dancing. As turtles normally do. 

Actually, my competition dance partner, Setsuko Tsuchiya, recently published a boo...
Continue reading ...

As the author of the award-winning "Color-Me-Please" children's book, THE TURTLE DANCES (Savant 2015), I make it my responsibility to visit the North Shore of Oahu island pretty much every week to check and see if any of the Hawaiian Green Sea turtles are dancing. Silly? Not really. I've spent countless hours watching them surf happily in the incoming waves. The operational word here is "in" as they use their natural built-in surfboards, their shells, more like a horizontal stabilizer riding ...
Continue reading ...

It is my distinct pleasure to announce that A WHALE'S TALE (Savant 2009) by multi-award-winning children's author Daniel S. Janik just entered Portuguese waters under the nome de plume CONTO DE UMA BALEIA (Savant 2017). Now available from Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Tolino, Scribd and Book Republic. #portugal #whale #children's books





Continue reading ...

I was so pleased the other day to learn that my children's book, A WHALE'S TALE (Savant 2009) is the all-time bestselling Savant/Aignos work! Like the Pacific Humpback whales in the story, the work has appeared in almost every nation in USA, the Pacific Islands, Canada, Europe, Australia-New Zealand and Asia (except China, poor folks). What can I say except that I'm honored. Truly. 

I wrote a WHALE'S TALE and a follow-on work, THE TURTLE DANCES (Savant 2013), to share ohana (family) values, an...
Continue reading ...