The "Obama Chill"

I was just watching the news and Obama came down some red carpet and I got a chill as he did it. Hey, Obama is the President! I've had this chill many times. Wow, it feels great! Others have told me that they feel the same. Thus, if the phrase isn't coined, I wanted credit. Therefore, let us go forth and feel the great "Obama chill". (Even when he screws up...)

Favorite movies by genre

I have decided to become a real facebooker and fill out my profile. They ask for favorite movies. I have a list of all my favorite movies by genre that really doesn't fit. So, I am dumping that list here and then linking people to it. Not really resuming the blog....

Every movie I listed above I have seen at least twice and usually more, so they are fully-tested all-time favorites.

comedy (general): Groundhog Day, Heaven Can Wait, Defending Your Life
romantic comedy: Modern Romance, House Calls, Notting Hill
screwball comedy: His Girl Friday, Easy Living
slapstick/ silly comedy: Airplane, Take and Money and Run
black humor: Harold and Maude, Fargo
mockumentary: Best in Show, Waiting for Guffman
cult/quirky: Night of the Comet, Nashville, Kill Bill (both)
children: Parent Trap (original), Wizard of Oz
animal: Babe, Old Yeller
sports: Hoop Dreams, Damn Yankees
animation: Finding Nemo, South Park, Waking Life
teen: Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Adventures in Babysitting, Valley Girl
romance: Casablanca, To Have and Have Not, The Graduate
tearjerker: Terms of Endearment, Bambi
musical: West Side Story, King and I, Cindrella (from TV)
drama (general): All About Eve, Caine Mutiny
buddy film: Midnight Run, Shanghai Noon, Trading Places
crime: Gauntlet, Pulp Fiction, Roaring 20s
westerns: Butch Cassidy, Zandy's Bride
gambling: Big Hand for a Little Lady, The Sting
prison: Bad Boys (w/ Sean Penn), I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang
war: M*A*S*H, Schindler’s List
disaster: Titanic, Poseidon Adventure
action/adventure: Terminator 2, Under Seige, Bourne Ultimatum
suspense: Coma, Misery
mystery: Last of Sheila, Usual Suspects, Memento
film noir: Double Indemnity, Sunset Blvd, Body Heat
horror: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (with Donald Sutherland)
slasher: Scream, Wes Craven’s New Nightmare
science fiction: Total Recall, Empire Strikes Back
politics: The Candidate, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, American President
fish out of water: Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (original), Starman
journalism: Teacher's Pet, Broadcast News
documentary: The 7-up series, anything from Errol Morris
foreign language: Fire; State of Seige
filmed monologue: God Said, Ha, Letting Go of God (both Julia Sweeney)
series: Lord of the Ring, the Bourne series
made for TV: Special Bulletin, The Positively True Story of the Texas Cheerleader Murdering Mom
made for web: Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, Chad Vader series
TV mini-series: Elizabeth R
historical/biography: Amadeus, Reds

As should be clear, my favorite genre is romantic comedies or romances with comic elements.

Some movies I really like but I didn’t find a good slot for:

• I love romantic comedies so I could have gone on and on with that. Some more of my favorites are: Hearts of the West, Pillow Talk, Move Over Darling (the last two Doris Day films), Dave and Annie Hall.
• And yet more romantic comedies: I love Jean Arthur movies (she was a romantic comedy star in the 30s). Best known for Mr. Deeds Goes to Town and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (listed above). My other favorites of hers are Easy Living (listed above), The Devil and Miss Jones, You Can’t Take It With You, The More the Merrier and Talk of the Town.
• I love movies written/directed by Albert Brooks. Think of him as the west coast Woody Allen. Being from the west coast, I like him better than Allen. Defending Your Life (on the list) is probably his best. If you like it, though, then see Lost in America, Modern Romance and Real Life (which is a mockumentary)
• I think Bill Murray is a great comic actor and often has great material. Groundhog Day is my favorite but I also like What About Bob?, Stripes and Ghostbusters.
• There is no gay male movie that I particularly love, but I do have four favorite films with lesbian themes: Fire (mentioned above in foreign film), Desert Hearts, Bound and Kissing Jessica Stein.

What's missing. Look, the truth is I admire Hitchcock far more than I like him. If I don't want to see a film again, it isn't on this list. There isn't a film of his I want to watch again. Hence, zippo. And, while I really enjoyed watching the Godfather series and Goodfellas at the time, Tony Soprano has blown them out of the water for me. When I recently rewatched Goodfellas, I realized it was missing something: a sense of humor. The same is true for the Godfather series (to a lesser degree). To me, if there is no humor in a drama - it isn't real life.

Hello Santa Cruz

Well, we are settling back into our home. But first, the final shot of our beloved Big Island out our plane window.


As I have mentioned before, I love lists. So let me give a brief list of some of the things that make it so great to return to Santa Cruz, much as we loved Hilo.

1. The boardwalk. It is so sweet and such a well-maintained relic of an earlier time in America. And, the Giant Dipper is awesome.

2. Brown pelicans in flight. They are just my favorite thing in the sky by far. I missed them in Hilo.

3. Walking or riding down West Cliff. I just love this stretch of the ocean. Partly because it is beautiful and can be - during a storm - incredibly powerful. Partly because I see my beloved pelicans as I walk or ride. Partly because I run into friends as I go. Partly because I just feel that it is mine in a way that no other part of the ocean is.

4. Our movie theaters. What other town of 55,000 has 7 arthouse screens within 2 blocks of each other (plus another 9 screens for Hollywood fare also a few steps away)? The answer is no place on earth! (Hilo has art films on one screen on the weekends sometimes.)

5. The barking sea lions. They are the closest thing to coqui frogs! Well, they are the sound you can hear in the night even though they are more than a mile away. (Though, I admit, only when there is a fog blanket to reflect the sound, but then they do sound like they are only a few blocks away.)

6. The colors on my fireplace. This one is unique to our home. We have a leaded glass window in our door and it refracts colors into our house. It is just spectacular when the colors are on the rocks of our fireplace. I love to sit in my la-z-boy watching the ever-changing show.

7. The people of Santa Cruz. I just like being in a place that I will always run into someone I know where ever I go. I don't even have to like the person that much. I just like having a community small enough to constantly bump into people and say "hey". And, of course, it has been great to see my friends - coffee with Darien, Ian, Karen, Mindy, Mary, John, Joao, Brian; walking with Angela; running into Lynne on West Cliff; making plans to get together with Mike and Lynne, Larry and Elena; dropping by and saying hi to Claudia, Pam, Jesse, Jim, Adrian and Orin at their offices; waving to Luigi as I was riding my bike; getting yelled at by Geo for not wearing a bike helmet; Chris dropping by to welcome us back; Daphne - our mail carrier - knocking on the door to welcome us home; greeting our neighbors, and on it goes....

8. The Miramar hill. I live on Miramar (which means view of the ocean in Spanish). We don't have a view at our house. But, there is a spectacular view three blocks up. But, that last block is a doozy - very steep. Great exercise; great view.

9. My hot tub. Now, I hate cold but when I am cold, I love my hot tub. The feeling of jumping into hot water when I am chilled is probably my favorite sensual experience. (Ok, maybe rolling in warm sheets out of the dryer is equally great.) Though we have returned to spectacular warm winter weather in the daytime - it gets chilly at night. So, I have enjoyed this one a few times. (In Hilo, no chill = no hot tub experience.)

10. Downtown Santa Cruz. Just a great place to hang out.

I am now going to go on blog hiatus. (Judith - "hiatus" veut dire une interruption en français. And thanks for the comment on the last blog!) I have many things I must do now that I am back in Santa Cruz - classes to take, jobs to do, people to see - so I want the blog time for other things. If I know you read this thing, I will tell you when I begin it again. (Hey, Yemindra told me that John Shay reads it. John - is it true?)

Bye for now.

Bye Hilo....

Well, we head back to Santa Cruz tomorrow. Last night we had a lanai-warming and goodbye party. We thought it might rain, so we put up a canopy (thanks John and Adam!). It didn't rain but it did give the lanai the proper feel. (Without a roof, it is really just a deck).

Today we woke up to a glorious, sunny day. It was nice to see Mauna Kea one more time in all her glory.

One thing I haven't mentioned is the sound at night. Please listen to this 17 second video I took yesterday night. This is what we hear every night, all the night. It is the sound of the invasive coqui frog. There is a war on these little, horny guys (the sound is a nightly mating cry of the male coqui). They came in 1988 from Puerto Rico and completely changed the soundscape. Leslie and I like the sound, but others cannot stand it. Just a little warning for those who might want to visit us next time we come.

The last lanai post

It's essentially done. At least as done as I am going to do it this trip. Next trip, I will put a roof over it and build another section (that will not have a roof). But, it is now ready for use. Too bad we won't be the ones using it. (Well, there is our "lanai warming" party on Sunday.) But I am very happy that our tenants, John and Jessica, will be able to use it. Anyway, here is a last construction picture from Hawaii:


And, a little video surveying the new lanai:

Adam blogs on enlightenment and us...

Our newest guest blogger is Adam. Voici:


He submits this blog post: (colon supplied by Leslie; I'm drunk but can do semi-colons.)

I am reading a book while I am Hawaii called Awakening The Buddha Within by Lama Surya Das. This reading is helping me look at Robin and Leslie in a new way. According to what this book explains I believe that these two have already become aware of their inner nature and are enlightened. They are Buddha (not Buddhists, but have found their Buddha within) whether they know it or not, but in western more modern sense. How do I know this you may ask? Well first of all, Leslie tells her friends when introducing me that, I am possibly the most talented artist alive. Since any Buddha (one who is enlightened to their inner nature and the way of things) should realize this if they really are enlightened. Second, after obsessively reading over “Robin’s Blog” last night after the two had already gone to sleep, I realized how aware of their surroundings they are and what they need to enjoy life to the fullest. Of course I am trying to attain a similar sense of myself, but it doesn’t happen overnight. It will take a while before I can utilize thrift stores to their full potential, and learn to enjoy and think it is cool to have a syndrome like ASPS. Be capable of making good found art, like how they converted a cheap rectangle of cloth into a beautiful piece of artwork worthy of their living room.

Leslie with the cloth:

So I am on a journey to attain a similar sense of my true nature. The first task will be about making something from nothing. I will start by making a sculpture for the yard that doesn’t cost anything. Might I add that Leslie and Robin have wanted me to erect a sculpture for their Santa Cruz home for years. Sorry but by agreeing to have me stay in “The Hella Cool Hilo House” the sculpture will be in Hilo. OK my mind is rolling off to find and utilize some of the free things this island offers for this project. Eventually I will enter Buddha hood just like them, happy without excesses.

(Note: One shouldn't drink and blog, I believe...)

I'm all wet

With only five days left here, I have to work in the rain when it comes. It came. I took the following picture after of about 15 minutes of rain... But, I am making progress with the lanai. Really. I think I will finish the thing tomorrow. So, please await the final pictures. And, yes, I will be getting my hair cut when I am back in Santa Cruz.

Here is what my hair looked like 3 1/2 months earlier (with a slightly fuzzy photo ...) I think shorter is better. (Update: Adam says I look like Bill Clinton here.)