CONSIDER producer/director Elias Perez’s 2-Liters Shady Films production, MOCOS in which Setsuko Tsuchiya (aka Sakura Kai) and I play supporting roles in our first real horror film. MOCOS, currently in post-production, is about an extra-terrestrial “COVID”-like plague, that sweeps across the world like a sirocco carrying everyone in its tsunami wake. As you might expect, the “meaning” of the disease is interpreted by different people in different ways, from a blessing in disguise to...

Continue reading ...

Actor Daniel S. Janik (aka author Raymond Gaynor/Gary Marine) here, nose to screen, typing at my computer on a fantastic sunny but pleasantly cool day. Posting about what? Film, of course.

Setsuko Tsuchiya and I have been filming scenes for Elias Perez’ 2-Liters Shady Films’ production of MOCOS, our first horror film, an especially notable film in that all is done by the actors and actresses (aliens, too?) use Elias’ script, and send their parts in to him for collating and editing. I w...

Continue reading ...

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...

Continue reading ...

I’M posting today out of necessity about flying. Airline travel used to be something I looked forward to with delight. No more. Airlines, in my opinion, were already flying the wrong direction before COVID, and, despite the pandemic “shot across the cockpit” continue to make flying something I now purposefully avoid. I’m talking here about flying “regular” or coach class, not Business, First Class or by personally chartered airplane. While “high end” choices that are relativel...

Continue reading ...

REALLY! I’ve heard enough whining from the airlines about how now that the pandemic is almost over, we need to resign ourselves to tolerating those cramped, crowded conditions that make flying an undesirable necessity. The singular value of the pandemic, in my opinion, was that it was the proverbial shot-across-the-bow about the failure of “crowd sales” and the necessity of developing “individual service.” Too expensive? Ha! I’ve heard that one before. Everything’s “too expens...

Continue reading ...

FORGET Generation Z; Generation Alpha (folks born 2012 through 2025) is already stepping up to the plate to experience, enjoy and govern our world. Well, at least, some will enjoy it. Others will struggle and many will opt out either by choice or circumstance. The world is, like Douglas Adams once wrote of Earth in THE HITCHHIKERS GUIDE TO THE GALAXY, “mostly safe,” and, while not particularly descriptive, it’s descriptive enough to say along with Alfred E. “Mad” Neuman, “What, me...

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 ...

OR are we? Everyday now I hear, “The pandemic is over!” from another excited individual. Really? With the N. Y. Times reporting 98,00+ new cases and 1,216 reported COVID-related deaths in the USA yesterday, I can’t quite “grok” that the pandemic is over, hooray (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/covid-cases.html). And with the World Health Organization reporting 527,295 new cases and close to 8,000 reported COVID-related deaths in the world yesterday, I’m not even sold o...

Continue reading ...

RECOVERY is a nice, contemporary catch word, and I’m hearing it more and more these days in every aspect of life. But I fear that the word, re-covery, is being used in its meaning to re-cover [up] what hasn’t yet been fully addressed. Let me explain.

The Great Pandemic, in my opinion, was a shot across our bow, warning us that our current infrastructure system is already way beyond simple update and repair. In the broadest sense, we’ve been called to relook at and largely abandon our o...

Continue reading ...

The current COVID-19 pandemic is wreaking havoc across the world, causing untold pain, suffering and death. But there's always a silver lining to everything, even as bleak and destructive an event as this pandemic. Being forced to stay at home, cover our faces and maintain social distance leaves us with but one direction to freely look and explore: inward. One of the three maxims carved into the forecourt at the ancient Greek Oracle of Delphi, "know thyself," was followed by "nothing in exces...
Continue reading ...