Fire in the Hole

There's nothing like a little vac to put your tiny world into perspective. Once again in sync with the President and his family, like spawning salmon flapping upstream, I found myself flying into the islands of poi and lomi lomi; ukes, and azuki bean shave ice; long boards and a reincarnated 5-0. Without Lord Jack. Where Santa hangs ten as he hits the big sandy, and refreshes himself at Lappert's with a big scoop of Kauai Pie. But all was not bliss...tropical rain, not for the faint-hearted, dumped and deluged for days creating 'ponding' all over the roadways. However, beneath this slight inconvenience, the real story on the last day of the year was the public agitation over the passing of a law which will prohibit the selling and banning of fireworks ad infinitum. The locals were pissy. Shelves at Long's, Safeway, Times Market etc. were emptied daily. Uh, people were clearly stockpiling for the future. And for the Eve. If you've never been in the islands on Dec 31st, you haven't lived. It is the mother of all fireworks displays. As for the recently passed law...good luck, bro. Fireworks are part of the island heritage. It's like dogs' and beer at a baseball game. You never eva mess with 'luck' and a culture.

Back in the saddle, here are some Best of the Past year shenanigans:

Best Book...'Just Kids' by Patti Smith.
Best Short story...'Ask me if I care' by Jennifer Egan.
Best movies...'Winter's Bone' with Jennifer Lawrence as Ree in a jaw dropping debut; and John Hawkes who is sensational as Teardrop.
'Carlos' the five hour epic by the French director Oliver Assayas.
'True Grit.' The Coen Bros. I've seen the original a handful of times, and this is a great re-make of the movie. This version is the way the book was written. The Coen boys got it right. 13 year old Hallie Steinfeld blows everyone else off the screen.
'The King's Speech.' Colin Firth is da man.
'I am Love' with Tilda. The music, and Milan.

Belatedly: All hail to Tara VanDerveer and Stanford for showing Uconn who is 'boss hog' on the West Coast.