Richard Rappaport’s song “Sail into the Sun”

Richard Rappaport’s song “Sail into the Sun” has reached #39 on the FMQB rating chart!

SAIL INTO THE SUN
Play

See the chart here.

RAPPAPORT'S BIRTHDAY AT THE LITTLE DOOR WITH THE FLORIDA CONTINGENT

After the smashing success of the EASL At the Emmys Conference at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, we enjoyed a pre-Emmy celebration of Richard Rappaport's 82nd birthday at the Little Door on 3rd Street with the group that put together the conference.





CITIZEN KAYO

On September 11, 2008, Kayoko was sworn in at the Los Angeles Convention Center, along with 6,173 others, as a citizen of the United States of America. She was teary-eyed and moved to complete a process that’s taken nearly 8 years! Here are some photos of the unique event, along with some from the September 12 red-white-blue celebration at our place.

Read Kayoko's piece, "To Become An American Citizen"
here.














Mummy III Premiere






CL with DollHouse Girls


Obama supported by Japanese!

This is a Daruma doll from Obama City, Fukui Prefecture, Japan, which is north of Tokyo.

The entire city of Obama is going crazy supporting Barak Obama, creating “Obama Girls”, and “I Love Obama” bandanas…etc. This Daruma doll says “VICTORY” for him!!

Trip to the Bay Area

One of the highlights of my recent trip to the Bay Area—aside from watching my grandson Teddy’s first soccer game--was a meeting with The Yoga Journal for the purpose of hooking them up with The Grameen Foundation—the micro-financing institute founded by Nobel Peace Prize Winner Dr. Muhammed Yunus.

The YJ/Grameen program will be called “Giving Back to India.” More details to follow. The photo shows the “organizers”: my wife Kayoko Mitsumatsu, Grameen west coast development exec Julia Wilson, and yoga instructor par excellence/YJ model Joel Bender.

Desperately Seeking Chris

Over tennis yesterday morning Katherine Taylor (Rules for Saying Goodbye, Farrar, Straus) told me a delightful story for the annals of contemporary lit about her previous night’s reading at Vroman’s. She and about 10 pals reconvened at the Ritz Hotel for drinks and snacks after the packed reading. A tall mysterious stranger named Chris joined them, though she only exchanged a few words with him. They ran up a bar tab of at least $50 each. At the end of the evening, someone noticed Chris slipping out the door. When the waitress was asked if he paid his share, she said, “He took care of the whole tab!”

Now if Chris is really as cool as this sounds Kate won’t see him again until she’s signing her second novel! Truly a tale as delicious as her novel.

Rhiannon Meier

I have this photograph of Rhiannon Meier on my computer to remind me from moment to moment that the purest way to approach life is exuberance. VP of Development at Red Wagon, she was killed in a traffic accident on December 8, and the subject of a standing-room-only celebration of her life at the Grove. She touched so many people in Hollywood—including AEI, when we made a deal with Blue Star on David Angsten’s Dark Gold—that it’s not surprising the theater was overflowing and the after-gathering at Morel’s went on for hours. We will always remember her for her unswerving positivity, endless energy and enthusiam, dogged determination—cliches normally reserved for fictional characters in romantic comedies. And, yes, above all: an exuberance in every thing she undertook that sets a standard one can only hope to approach. Chi-Li and I were honored to meet her stepfather Tom at the party—he’s created a website to memorialize her life: http://rhiannonmeier.legacy.com/ .

Hope for the World

I’m so glad I happened to read Alan Wolfe’s article in the March Atlantic, “The Coming Religious Peace.” For those, and I’ve counted myself among them, who despair that religious fanaticism will bring us to the end of the world, Wolfe’s analysis of the relationship between wealth and religiosity is an optimistic appraisal of the positive impact increased affluence has on the diminution of fanaticism. With the exception of the United States (Don’t get me started!), the more affluent a nation is the lower it scores on Wolfe’s “religiosity scale.” Nations like France, Sweden, Japan, Britain, Germany, and Italy all score under 1.0, while nations like Senegal, Indonesia, Pakistan,, Brazil, and Malaysia score between 2.5 and 3.0 (the highest). The more free market influences shape a nation’s daily life the less its citizens are interested in blindly fanatic religious intolerance. The U.S. rates 1.5, slightly above Chile and Mexico, slightly below Lebanon and Venezuela.

JAPĂ“N ES DIFERENTE

JAPAN IS DIFFERENT (sent from Ivo’s mother in Mexico)

Those skirts are the worst! See it here.

WELCOME TO THE ATCHITY FAMILY, LAUREN

Out of the blue Kayoko and I were delighted that No. 1 Son Vincent and beloved new daughter-in-law Lauren Schumacher tied the knot on the Big Island of Hawaii at sunset on August 7--08-07-08. We're thrilled for both of them, and want Lauren to know that everyone of the Atchitys she met at the family reunion on June 21 of this year loved her and will be thrilled to hear the news. We look forward to hosting a gumbo-gyoza party on Burnside at the earliest possible moment, and also to celebrating with them in Cabo in October.




TRIP TO OAHU

Stayed at the uncongested Ala Moana Hotel, thanks to the Maui Writers Conference. Visited the North Shore and cracked our own macadamias, Kona coffee, garlic shrimp from the truck. Breeze always blowing. Sudden rainshowers that last five minutes. Green mountains. Tourism down 20%,
but half the tourists are Japanese so Kayo felt at home--food courts superb. Hula on Waikiki Beach at night. Fingers crossed for New Orleans and Gustav. Great news about Ivonne's new job. Thrilled by Obama's speech. Startled by Palin's nomination. Not surprised Bush & Cheney avoided convention.