Skip to main content

SAN DIEGO to HONOLULU

Goodbye San Diego.  Things went well enough returning to Honolulu from San Diego.  Some disappointments included having to wait more than an hour for the Hawaiian Airlines desk to open at the airport, then we found out that the company is supposedly putting together an executive club not yet ready.  Also, even though Hawaiian has merged with Alaska Airlines, as business class passengers, we could NOT use the Alaska lounge.  Finally, the flight left late.  So I missed taking a perfect sunset photo.  Here is one when we were in flight.


By, the way, should you wear a mask throughout a flight?  First, you can't if you wish to eat and drink.  But no matter, this info to the left says that there is just about no chance of getting infected by COVID or the flu or anything else respiratory if you keep a mask on for the whole plane ride.  Who does that?  What is the rate if you don't wear a mask?  People were coughing behind us.  Maybe 5-10% had on a mask.  I did not.

Otherwise, I enjoyed the ride back to Honolulu.  Salad and curry on rice for the dinner.  Had Johnny Walker Black Label, beer and Bailey's Cream/Cognac over ice. 

Saw two films.  Materialists, with Dakota Johnson and Chris Evans.  Movie released this summer and did relatively well, earning $109 million worldwide.  Rotten Tomatoes score of only 78/66, which was about right.  

The redeeming virtue for me was that the movie occurs in New York City.  We were there for almost a week in one of our recent trips, and some of the scenes were memorable.  Some of the "needledrops" were nice, like Sweet Caroline, etc.

The second was Black Bag, given 97/70 scores by Rotten Tomatoes.  Very well-made espionage film with intrigue and psychological games.    Stars Cate Blanchett, Michael Fassbender, and Pierce Brosnan, directed by Steven Soderbergh.  Released in March of this year.  In case you never figured it out, black bag refers to a code word for top secret information and operations that intelligence agents cannot disclose to each other.

Arrival in Honolulu.
Walked 35,763 steps, or almost 18 miles.  But this is for the entire 10-day trip, so only around 1.8 walking miles/day.

I was sent an article by Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated this morning, and it was so poetic that I thought you would enjoy it:

TORONTO — The fingers of Dodgers catcher Will Smith played upon the keys of the PitchCom device on his right knee like those of a virtuoso pianist playing Johan Sebastian Bach. In and out, up and down, fast and slow, as if weaving multiple melodies within one work, Smith called one of the most beautiful World Series games ever composed because of how well the master on the mound followed his lead. Dodgers righthander Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitched the Brandenburg Concertos of the World Series oeuvre.

It was classical music on a ball field. Yamamoto threw 104 pitches at 19 different speeds with six different pitch types spaced apart as far as 24 mph. He didn’t just beat the hottest lineup of October; he also made the Toronto Blue Jays hitters appear overmatched in a 5–1 victory Saturday that evened the World Series at one throwback win apiece: an old-school contact-heavy win by Toronto in Game 1 and this magnum opus by Yamamoto in Game 2.

The World Series continues with Game 3 tomorrow, November 3, 8PM from Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Max Scherzer pitching for Toronto and Tyler Glasnow for the Dodgers.  Games 4 and 5 will also be in Los Angeles.
  • Game 4, Tuesday, Shane Bieber of Toronto, Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers.
  • Game 5, Wednesday, not yet announced.  Toronto has Chris Bassitt, who pitched the final two innings of game 1.   The Dodgers could move Snell to only four days of rest, but might also consider Emmet Sheehan, Clayton Kershaw or Roki Sasaki.  This is the only day of uncertainty for pitching.
  • Oh, in this second game of the World Series, Yamamoto walked no one, and completed his second straight nine-inning game.  Worse for Toronto, if the Series goes to Game 6, Yamamoto could pitch with 5 days rest.

To close, is this true?

Well, yes, and no.  Nothing has been confirmed.

Hurricane Melissa is up to 140 MPH, and projected to strengthen into a Category 5 tomorrow, crashing into Jamaica on Tuesday.

- 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

DAY 1 on the DIAMOND PRINCESS

But first, Sheraton Yokohama Bay highlights of our Sheraton Club eats/drinks and breakfasts. Breakfast stations. Then taxi off to the Diamond Princess.  Fall colors. Approaching from the rear of the Diamond Princess. Departure of Diamond Princess from Yokohama, Departure snack of lamb, beef, penne pasta, Johnny Walker Gold and champagne. Leaving Yokohama. We then went to Kai Sushi for dinner, Sushi and sake dinner, Then, off to Fun Dance Class. That followed by karaoke. The night continued into some old time disco.  Finally, after midnight, back to our stateroom.  Walked 4127 steps today. -

DAY 4 IN SEOUL: Most popular Korean Songs from the 1950's to the Present

Korean music was almost totally missing, growing up in Hawaii.  The exception was  Arirang .   Today, BTS and BLACKPINK resonate around the world.  In addition to the 600 year-old  Arirang,  what is the all-time #1?  My favorites are: Baby Shark , released by Pinkfong in 2016. For one, it is the most-viewed You Tube video ever, hitting 7 billion views and surpassing  Despacito  in 2022.   Is now up to 16.47 billion views, with  Despacito  at 9 billion. Top 10 music videos, based on data from   Kworb   and   Wikipedia :  Note that most are nursery songs. "Baby Shark Dance"   – Pinkfong Kids' Songs & Stories (16.47 billion) "Despacito"   – Luis Fonsi ft. Daddy Yankee (8.91 billion) "Wheels on the Bus"   – Cocomelon Nursery Rhymes (8.29 billion) "Bath Song"   – Cocomelon Nursery Rhymes (7.31 billion) "Johny Johny Yes Papa"   – LooLoo Kids (7.13 billion) "See You Again"   –...

THE VERY BEST MOVIE MUSICALS

Two weeks ago I featured the   best dance films.   Many of them are repeated here because where there is dance, there is also music.  An excellent best musical list from   IndieWire : #1    Singin' in the Rain (1954) #2    All that Jazz (Bob Fosse, 1979) #3    West Side Story (1961) #4    Dancer in the Dark (2000), featuring Björk #5    Mary Poppins (1964), nominated for 13 Oscars #6    The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) #7    The Wizard of Oz (1939) #8    Nashville (1975) #9    Cabaret (1972) #10  Moulin Rouge (2001) #11  The Sound of Music (1965) #12  La La Land (2016) #13  Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) #14  My Fair Lady (1964) #15  Fiddler on the Roof (1971) #16  The Red Shoes (1948) #17  A Star is Born (1954), there was another in 1937, then 1976, and finally 2018.  The 1954 version starred Judy Garland and James Mason. #18  The...