BLACK & GOLD

Day 110 of the Lower Puna Eruption, and, while the end has not been announced, there is a nice calm.  

************

My McKinley Tigers high school has colors of black and gold:

McKinley Black & Gold

Black and Gold is waving,
Boys we're back of you.
Play your way to victory
We'll be ever true.
Eager eyes are watching
Hearts are beating fast,
For McKinley's honor,
FIGHT!, boys, to the last.

This song was first sung during my years there.  Don't know who wrote it, although Richard Lum, band director is said to have introduced it, and I'm only now wondering why it shouldn't have been Black and Gold ARE waving.

My posting today, actually, has nothing to do with McKinley.  I saw two films yesterday,  one featured a lot of black, with white, while the other was yellowish, so I upgraded it to gold.  

Blackklansman was not really reviewed by Rotten Tomatoes, although they gave it an audience 85% rating.  Directed by Spike Lee, it's a true story about the first black cop in Colorado Springs who became famous by infiltrating the Ku Klux Klan.  Only a black director can get away with what was said in that film.  Harry Belafonte and Alec Baldwin make some serious cameos.  The main actor was John David Washington, and if you were not aware, his father's first name is Denzel.  Adam Driver puts on a good performance, too.  The opening on August 10 was chosen to coincide with the first anniversary of the Charlottesville rally, that white supremist gathering after which President Donald Trump again almost ate his feet.  It was an okay movie.

I really loved Crazy Rich Asians, the gold from the title above.  The last film with a mostly Asian cast was Joy Luck Club (this is the whole 1 hr 56 min movie), and that was a quarter century ago.

However, let me start with a few negatives:

• How could the girlfriend (Constance Wu) who graduated from Stanford and an economics professor at New York University know nothing about the man (Henry Golding) she's living with, who is also a professor at NYU?  A simple Google check would have found that he was the scion of one of the richest families in Asia.
• They're both in their mid-thirties, and still unmarried.
• Henry Golding was terrific as that truly nice, good-looking and super-rich boyfriend from Singapore.  However, he is half British and half Malaysian.  He doesn't look Chinese at all, and his entire family is clearly Chinese.
• There were a few technical issues dealing with transition and timing that should have been re-edited.

That said, this is the best film I've seen this year.  Sure, I also said that last week, but Crazy Rich Asians is far superior.  Appealing were:

• Singapore
• The country is a miracle, and they kept showing sights that brought back memories.
• I've actually landed at Changi Airport (#1 in the world for six straight years) at least 25 times, and stayed at that now iconic Marina Bay Sands (right).
• There was a hint of how niggling and censorious Singaporeans are, and this attitude of supercilious smugness is not monopolized by the crazy rich.  In the quest for excellence, the people have lost an important humanitarian quality.

• The luxury first class travel, glamour, cuisine....
• Golding's Dragon Mother, Michelle Yeoh, was perfectly cast as a villainous protector of her son.  She was Miss Malaysia 35 years ago and is most remembered for her performance in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Rotten Tomatoes bestowed 93/93 ratings, about the highest combination I've recently seen, and Box Office Mojo rated it #1 this weekend, earning $34 million since Wednesday.  It cost $30 million to make.  However China is currently the second largest world market for films (should surpass the USA in 2020), and has been stand-offish about showing it.  The reasons are vague, but it probably has something to do with Trump vs Xi.  With all those Chinese actors, this should be a smash hit there.  The Rock's Skyscraper did piddling in the U.S., but earned $48 million over the first weekend in China.

The movie was based on Kevin Kwan's 2013 book with the same title.  He also published two more, China Rich Girlfriend in 2015 and Rich People Problems in 2017.

Will there be a sequel?  Hey, there are two more books already.  Half a dozen characters from the first film seem worthy of exploit, and the end of the original was left with happiness, but no resolution.  Kwan (right) is talking to Amazon about a series.

-

Seems inconceivable, but scientists at Scripps Pier have reported that the Pacific Ocean is 10 degrees above normal.  TV newscasts keep showing Hurricane Lane as safely passing south of Hawaii, although there is now a definite turn to the north rather close to the islands.  Tweets Robert Ballard (he discovered the Titanic, Bismark and Yorktown):

Robert Ballard‏ @firebomb56 4h4 hours ago

5 am HST Monday uncertainty cone for Hurricane #Lane. All islands must consider the very real possibility of a direct hurricane strike this week! #hiwx #HurricaneLane

Here are a few computer models confirming this danger:

And another:

Here was the track of Hurricane Iniki, devastating Kauai at 145 MPH:

Life is getting a bit too exciting.

-