At the moment, things are actually beautiful here in Los Angeles, where I've made the decision to tough it out. No hurricane will keep me from standing strong with all the people here!! As proof, this is a photo I took from my balcony. As you can see, it's sunny and calm. We're all in this together!
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I don’t have much to add about the excruciating disaster in Lahaina that even touches close to the reporting and video footage, and I can’t put my reaction anywhere in the universe of those whose lives are part of the community. This is not intended to. But that I feel as heart-sick as I do from just two trips to Hawaii, with one visit to Lahaina, speaks to how overwhelming and almost indescribable this conflagration is. I’ve mentioned in the past that my friend Peter Carlisle was Chief Prosecuting Attorney of Honolulu for about 17 years, and served as Mayor there. And I have good friends from Hawaii. So, my appreciation of their deep love of the state and its history from all our talks over the decades has them as its foundation. On one of the trips, I went to Maui and drove to Lahaina to spend a couple days. I didn’t know much about the town, but read up on it, and loved his whaling history. Lahaina has a wonderful, sweet charm that was different from the grace of the rest of the state. It had a sense of the past and world culture that seemed to be living all around you. But most of all, I loved staying at the Pioneer Inn. It permeated the Old World with simplicity and warmth, and I soaked it all up, reveling in knowing not only how it fit into the whaling past, but that people like Mark Twain had stayed there. Its wood structure painted white, with wonderful wood slats in the windows, and a Polynesian sensibility crossed with New England sturdiness. (When I initially posted this article, I didn't think I had a photo I'd taken of the Pioneer Inn, but happily I was able to find it.) In fact, although the trip to Lahaina may have been 35-40 years ago, I had such a strong appreciation of the Pioneer Inn that even after all those years I have still kept a souvenir of the hotel to maintain a connection. Though a small souvenir, but it's brought great memories, a match book. In the back of my mind, I had thoughts of returning to the Pioneer Inn. But the moment I heard there was a fire crushing Lahaina, I know the hotel was gone. And likely the town. When I’ve thought of the Pioneer Inn over the years, I thought of “wood.” And the town had that feel, as well. It wasn’t going to stand against roaring flames. Lahaina would be a place for memory.
And that’s what Lahaina is now. Heart-sickening is the only word for me to describe it, and that doesn’t even come close to doing it justice. It’s not just that everything has disappeared, and that emergency relief will be so difficult for people there to access. But once they do, once they get their FEMA support, once they get their government assistance, once they get their insurance – there’s no Lahaina there to go back to. It’s gone. (There is also one other sickening aspect to this disaster. It’s all the delusional, empty people who point to this soul-crushing loss and try desperately to say “Wait, this wasn’t a natural disaster at all. Look at this photo and that shaft of light. This was from aliens.” Lahaina was a community about the natural world. Nature was at its core. And the winds and heat and flames that tragically came together in the changed climate world we live in today sadly become a part of that history. Those who try to make it about something conspiratorially phantasmagoric not only demean themselves, but spit on the lives of all those who have lived in Lahaina over the centuries. Happily, they missed by a lot.) People will return. Lahaina will be rebuilt. Chicago burned down in flames, and returned to become one of the great cities of the world. And there will be a thriving Lahaina. At some point. But Lahaina is different, Lahaina was about history. And those structures are no more. Those museums are no more. But at least the thing about history is that it’s always there where it was. So, while the Lahaina that returns will be new and different, there will be in its spirit the Lahaina that always was and will always be. That may not be enough in many ways. But it’s something. And it’s important. Aloha. On this week’s Naked Lunch podcast, hosts Phil Rosenthal and David Wild sit down to eat with Ed Begley, Jr. As the show writes about this week’s episode, “Phil and David enjoy a very fun and very green conversation with their funny and inspiring friend Ed Begley Jr., the great actor and environmentalist held live at the Environmental Media Association's 2023 EMA Impact Summit at The Pendry Hotel in West Hollywood. They discuss Begley's impressive and enduring career in Hollywood and how he has become the most beloved environmentalist in show business, then take questions from an audience that included other well known EMA board members Wendie Mallick, Francis Fisher and Lance Bass, as well as Ed's wife Rachelle and daughter Hayden. With great stories about Ed's Oscar-winning father Ed Begley Sr., his "St. Elsewhere" co-star Denzel Washington, Jack Nicholson, Christopher Guest and many more. All this and perhaps some breaking Spinal Tap news. Walk, run or ride your bicycle to listen to this entertaining yet educational episode about this beloved character who on "The Simpsons" joked about driving a go-cart powered by his own "sense of self-satisfaction."
I will add that the entire discussion is quite interesting, though the second half is largely about the environment, not just because that's a big issue for Ed Begley, Jr., but also the interview is taking place at an environment conference. As always, I can’t embed the audio, but if you click on the link here, it will take you to the website, where you just click on the “Play” arrow underneath the photo. A friend who's a member of the Motion Picture Academy and participates on the Documentary Committee (among others) sent me a link to a short documentary film he loved that got nominated for an Oscar this year. It only runs 25 minutes and is available to watch online from, of all places, The New Yorker magazine. The short film is called Haulout, and follows a lone marine biologist who lives up in the bleak, desolate Siberian Arctic and studies how warming seas have impacted walrus migration. While I'm sure that that description might have you scratching your head, know that it’s extremely good and beautifully made, just tremendous cinematography. The film is very low-key, has almost no dialogue (except when the guy occasionally talks into his tape recorder) and is profoundly leisurely, because that’s the life he leads. But there is much in it that is superb. I don’t want to say more about why, since there are a few sort-of surprises. All I will say is that if it starts slow for you, give it at least 6-1/2 minutes. That's all. And if if hasn't grabbed your interest by then, fine, sayonara. But you will stick with it at that point, I’m sure. Absolutely sure. (If you want to read more about the world of the film and how it was made, this here is an article about it in the New Yorker.) As I said, the New Yorker made it available on their YouTube page. In fact, they did so three months ago, and I only found out about it yesterday. Today we take another of those Points of Personal Privilege. Readers here may recall that I periodically write about my friend, Dr. Greg van Buskirk, chemist extraordinaire. I met him and his wife Sharon Kantor when we lived in the same graduate dorm at UCLA. The eminent Dr. Buzz worked for years at Clorox, where I've always liked to say he invented Scrubbing Bubbles, even though a) he didn't, and b) that was from another company. But he was in charge of some top products, and when he went out on his own, he invented a fabric softener, Sofft, that also acted as a stain repellent (a project which is still ongoing). And then a couple years ago, I wrote here about how he not only has a new one, but this invention is a full line of home products that has actually started to hit the shelves. The only unfortunate news is that it came to the market too late to qualify for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, which he long deserved. It's a product line called, Sensitive Home, which are cleaning products, particularly suitable for those who suffer from chemical sensitivities and people who are concerned about toxins in their home -- but it's made, as Greg says with his usual eloquence, "for use and enjoyment by all!" Well, just to let you know that – as I always say – I tries nots to steers ya wrong. Yesterday, Greg announced that Sensitive Home was chosen as a 2022 Safer Choice Partner of the Year Winner by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the second year in a row! And just to be clear, it’s “only” two years in a row because the company has only been in business for two years. (What this all means is that the “EPA Safer Choice” program helps identify products with safer chemical ingredients that don’t sacrifice on quality or performance. It focuses on efforts to advance sustainability, environmental responsibility, and product safety. These are considered by many to be Good Things. And all the better, the entire line of Sensitive Home products is certified. Which is also considered A Good Thing.) I feel obligated by contest rules of fairness to point out that the award is for the entire Sensitive Home team, not just its esteemed inventor. But the inventor gets to sleep with the award under his pillow. There -- proof that I’m not lying about the award. And that Dr. Buzz actually exists, and is not a character like Mr. Clean. (Well, okay, he is sort of a character, but he is real and has a PhD, so you don’t just have to call him “Mister.”) Well, I must say that I knew he had it in him!! I knew it. When everyone else was saying, "Greg, stick with the guitar and taking apart motorcycles just so you could put them back together, I said -- No! You can do so much more. Like at least try to make sourdough bread and invent a line of great, environmentally friendly and safe homecare products. (It’s long been my theory that he moved to Northern California in order to be closer to the sourdough industry. That and so he and Sharon could be around more Dungeons and Dragons geeks. But that's a long story, made more aching and memorable with Thanksgiving being only a few weeks away. So, we'll leave it for now and stick with Sensitive Home, the EPA award, and sourdough bread.) I am deeply impressed by this. Actually, I was seriously impressed just by him inventing the Sensitive Home products, period. And getting a company started. This simply takes it to another level. Though there was nothing simple about it. So, big, huge congrats to Dr. Greg van Buskirk -- the chemist who takes chemistry out of chemistry by using chemistry. Voted one of the world’s Top 8 most sensitive chemists six years in a row. And seven years out of the last 10. |
AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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