BEING an actor, author and the owner of JET Progress studios, I’m often challenged to define what constitutes entertainment in the contemporary world. It sounds like truism, but, in fact, defining entertainment, especially “healthy” entertainment is neither intuitive nor obvious as is often offered. Entertainment for one can be the abject opposite for another.

Thinking of mass entertainment, I catch myself falling on the Roman sword, so to speak: the “political” entertainment conce...

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“HAPPY Valentine’s Day to you / Happy Valentine’s Day to you / Happy Valentine’s Day Dear Sweetheart / Happy Valentine’s Day to YOU!” Sweet. Now the big question: Did I write that or did ChatGPT (an artificial intelligence or AI program currently infiltrating the internet? And, so what if one did? I had to ask the bot to provide a Valentine’s poem for an unspecified but close either BBF or BGF or better. I mean, is that so different from buying a Valentine’s card? And, who kno...

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IN continuation of yesterday’s post on eroticism, consider the SweetSixteen. Yet another of the many facets of coming-of-age in NewAmerica:

“For modern lovers, SweetSixteenSalsaSex, when it really clicked, especially when virginal and alternative as in the case of Draff and Billie, offered the enactors a further reward: that all-time most sought-after prize of publiczed intimacy, the exceptional, elusive, once-in-a-lifetime “FirstLoveIConsumated” pop emotag, FLIC. While the best in h...

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Romance is a feeling of excitement and mystery associated with love, accompanied by a feeling of remoteness from everyday life. Love on the other hand Is an intense feeling of deep affection, generating both interest and pleasure, often surrounding potential sexual attachment. Erotic refers to arousal of actual sexual desire. It is easy to say that humans typically follow romance with  love and finally eroticism, but we're also stimulated by the unusual so any progression through or simple ap...

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It is my pleasure to present the long awaited sequel to my and William Maltese's naughty pop sexual-political-thriller TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2009), entitled THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020). NewAmerica, a shadow of its former United States of America, is now leaner and meaner. Once again commanding wealth and power thanks to a series of sociopolitical advances and technical innovations like Eugitors, ShimmerSuits, ContraSpray, T-rips, CandyShades and CandyCable, NewAmerica a challen...

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THE EDGE OF MADNESS — https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859 — is an exploration of a possible (nay, freakishly probable) future, where every hedonistic pleasure is available to anyone…if they can but afford it. Every person works in order to purchase the newest technology that promises to provide the next ultimate pleasure. But as in Huxley’s BRAVE NEW WORLD and Orwell’s 1984, citizens are under constant surveillance by emotionless observers called “The Enforcers” who show up any...

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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...

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PLEASED as punch to hear that William Maltese’s “edge of the seat” romance, DARE TO LOVE IN OZ (Savant 2009) — https://savant-bookstore-honolulu.square.site/product/dare-to-love-in-oz/100 or https://www.amazon.com/dp/0984117547 — available in printed, digital and audiobook versions, is now a screenplay, ready for manga, animation and cinematic treatment by KS Media Group. “Romance and adventure collide in Australia’s exotic outback as a deadly storm and a deadly killer wreak hav...

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AH! Are you thinking Tolkien? Elvis? Putin? NOPE! I’m thinking Mr. William Maltese, the king of M/M erotica back from his publicity trip to LA-LA Land to promote his newest BlueBoy book, his CC Money Magazine magazine articles, the audiobook version of DARE TO LOVE IN OZ (Savant 2009 — https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09VVK7LN2), his future contributions to Contessa’s Court, or his new bio-documentary movie “THE MALTESE COLLECTION” (K. Simmons Productions — https://kspllc.media/maltese-...

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ACCORDING to the History.com, “the Christian church may have decided to place St. Valentine’s feast day in the middle of February in an effort to “Christianize” the pagan celebration of Lupercalia. Celebrated at the ides of February, or February 15, Lupercalia was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus.

“To begin the festival, members of the Luperci, an order of Roman priests, would gather at a sacr...

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THERE seem to me to be two fundamental currencies in human life: (1) love (think co-operation); and (2) money/power (think competition). These two currencies “empower” or “power” our lives respectively. They are often embedded within contemporary female/maternal (creation/agrarian/nurturing) and male/paternal (destroying/hunting/survival-of-the-fittest) archetypes, and played out together in literature and cinema, with one or the other eventually “winning.” In fact, neither alone ...

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NOW there’s a topic worthy of a post, don’t you think? Almost every author and reader would agree that authenticity is more than admirable, it’s essential to a great story and read. Easily said and even easier with which to agree, but what does “authentic” actually mean? Isn’t anything written by the indicated author “authentic” by definition?

My experience is that in life, authenticity is rarely if ever entirely clear. In contemporary-speak for example, authenticity can simp...

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AND I’m not talking golf here. I’m talking “fore” like in foreknowledge, forewarning, unforeseen, foreboding and, well, why not, foreplay, too. Science Futuring (SciFu) with a generous portion of romance, love, eroticism, and a dash of LGBTQ+ — the perfect combination for a late summer read. THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor, an Amazon genre bestseller, is now available in printed, digital and audio format, the latter read by the incomparable Peter Pollock.

Get a ...

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MANY of you know that in addition to authoring, I am the lead actor in the “STATIC” movie (Google: “the Static Movie Honolulu”), which finished filming on 1 August 2021. Today, I’m pleased to announce that the first official poster and trailer (of likely several) has just been released and can be seen from my website at https://janik.yolasite.com/actor.php. Enjoy, and, while you’re there, check out some of the other interesting “hats” I’ve worn through the years.

Oh, and ye...

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I’VE always loved that phrase, and am oh-so-pleased to devote today’s post to what I consider one of the most precious attributes of humanness. There’s no one key word here. It’s about affirmation, positivity and loving kindness, without any hidden or further agendas. Okay, so it might be flattery, but who doesn’t like a bit of flattery now and then? Having survived life to this point, don’t each of us deserve a bit of flattery to warm the heart and melt away those myriad demands ...

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WHAT really drives the global economy? Money? Power? Energy? Nope. It used to be whale products: oil, baleen, and ambergris. Then it was rubber. So what are today’s felled Amazon trees being replaced with? What’s really driving the contemporary world economy other than drugs, war and human trafficking? Palm oil.

According to Wikipedia, “Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil derived from the…fruit of the oil palms…Palm oil accounted for about 33% of global oils produced from oil crops...

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LATELY, I have been delving into the dark sea of neurobiological “romance” that ebbs and tides so strongly about human relations, especially sex. In essence, romance is about assuring each other of conjugal safety, trust, fidelity and devotion while releasing the sexual tigers within. A quixotic, even paradoxical thing, romance. And it has to happen in the above sequence to be most effective and ultimately, satisfying, both in the short and long term.

The neurobiology of romance suggests...

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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...
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