SEPTEMBER 3 IS NATIONAL CINEMA DAY

Sometimes a national day can provide free goodies. Well, today is National Cinema Day, and perhaps 30,000 theater screens across the nation are only charging $3 for a seat. Here is the National Cinema Day websight to find your cheap ticket. Read this article indicating that AMC and Regal Cinemas are most likely to participate. AMC and Cinemark also offer food deals, as for example, AMC has a $5 food/popcorn combo.

Unfortunately, Hawaii has no AMCs. We do have Regal, Cinemark and Marcus. Also our Consolidated theaters are participating, all day on this Saturday. Plus, they will sell you popcorn and soda of any size for $3.

Otherwise, for those who like to stay home, here are 28 films you can watch on your Amazon Prime Channel and 44 from Netflix.

I just saw The Lost City and Licorice Pizza, free on Prime. Want a show with stars? TLC has Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum as criss-crossing partners, escaping from Daniel Radcliffe's billionaire villain, with Brad Pitt playing a long savior cameo role, something he must have created in his mind throughout his career, and talked someone into allowing him to play it in TLC. Pitt was probably the highlight of a production that got okay 79/83 ratings from Rotten Tomatoes. I liked the film, although there was a sense that I have seen a half dozen productions similar to it. There will of course be a sequel.

LP got a rave 91 score from Rotten Tomatoes reviewers, but only 65 from the audience. I kind of understand why, as I almost dropped out several times, but did finish it. The two main characters, a super-experienced 15-year old high school male and a high-twenties average female, are ably supported by Sean Penn playing an aging William Holden, the actor, while Bradley Cooper is dominant as Jon Peters, then husband of Barbra Streisand. The setting and accompanying music reflect USA 1973. Maya Rudolf makes an appearance.

I might add a Prime series I have not yet begun to watch, Paper Girls. About four 12-year old newspaper delivery girls who, seeking a stolen walkie-talkie, stumble across a time machine being used by warring teenage mutant aliens in time travel. Is a somewhat comedic coming of age sci-fi adventure. A well-worn theme of the past being changed for the good of the future. Just premiered this summer. Got excellent 90/88 ratings from Rotten Tomatoes. There will be a second season.

I'll close with a documentary from Netflix, Barbra: The Music...The Mem'ries...The Magic!, which got a Rotten Tomatoes audience rating of 100%. Essentially a 2016 concert tour stop in Miami when she was 74. Billboard ranks her as the greatest female artist on their chart. Plus two Academy Awards, five Emmy Awards, nine Golden Globes and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Typhoon Hinnamnor looks to thread the path between South Korea and Japan around midweek, meaning that Cheju Island will be seriously impacted:

Hinnamnor is approaching some warm waters, and could still today or tomorrow strengthen into a Category 5.

HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

The story of the day is Hurricane Milton, now a Category 4 at 145 MPH, with a track that has moved further south and the eye projected to make landfall just south of Sarasota. Good news for Tampa, which is 73 miles north. Milton will crash into Florida as a Category 4, and is huge, so a lot of problems can still be expected in Tampa Bay with storm surge. If the eye had crossed into the state just north of Tampa, the damage would have been catastrophic. Milton is a fast-moving storm, currently at 17 MPH, so as bad as the rainfall will be over Florida, again, a blessing. The eye will make landfall around 10PM EDT today, and will move into the Atlantic Ocean north of Palm Bay Thursday morning. My first trip to Seattle was in June of 1962 just after I graduated from Stanford University. Caught a bus. Was called the Century 21 Exposition . Also the Seattle World's Fair. 10 million joined me on a six-month run. My first. These a...

OSAKA EXPO: Day One

Well, the day finally came for us to go to the Osaka Expo. We were told ahead of time that the long walks would be fearful, giant lines will need to be tolerated just to get into the Expo, with those ocean breezes, it would really be cold, and so forth. Maybe it was pure luck, but we avoided all the above warnings We had a grand day, and are looking forward to Sunday, our second day at the Expo. So come along for an enjoyable ride. Our hotel is adjacent to the Tennoji Station, a very large one with several lines. We upgraded our Suica card and caught the Misosuji red line towards Umeda. Transferred to the Chuo green line at the Hommachi Station. This Osaka Metro train took us to the Yumeshima Station at the Expo site. It was a very large mob leaving the train and heading to the entrance. Took only a few minutes to get to the entrance. This mob was multiplied by at least a factor of ten of those already waiting to enter. However...

THE BULLET TRAIN

Japan had the first bullet train more than 60 years ago. It was 10October1964, when the opening ceremony was held in Tokyo in anticipation of Japan's first-ever Olympic Games, which began that day. The Shinkansen, meaning new mainline , with a separate track, arrived when normal train traffic had reached the limit for carrying passengers and freight. A train trip between Osaka and Tokyo dropped from 6 hours and 40 minutes to 4 hours, shortened to 3 hours and 10 minutes by 1964, and is now 2 hours and 30 minutes. From the Shin-Osaka Station to the Shin-Yokohama Station only takes a little more than 2 hours. In 1964 the track was 320 miles long. Today, it's up to 1484 miles. The original itinerary incorporating Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka now carries 159 million passengers/year. In this 6 decade period, more than 10 billion passengers have been safely handled. CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT NOT ONE PASSENGER HAS YET BEEN KILLED IN A DERA...

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