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Question for Rob on current PunaWeb hopes & expectations
(08-02-2024, 04:31 AM)ironyak Wrote: MyManao - Harry was adamantly against the moving of the church.
Did Harry explain why he was against moving it? While this lines up with some of the conversations we've had about his thoughts on Hilo and the '84 flow, I'm still curious as to what reasons he might have given in 1990. Did he object to people moving their houses as well or just the church?

The last time I sat there, had a meal, Maurice and Katia were here...
Have you had a chance to see Fire of Love? Any thoughts? I've seen the related Herzog film, but have heard good things about the other documentary as well. Figured it doesn't hurt to get the perspective of someone who knew them when not on camera. (I was just a punk kid during those years and was there for the waves, so didn't bother to pay much attention to the notable personalities on the scene Smile

It’s been a long time, and most of my take of what Harry thought or not is taken from the countless hours we spent together at the CD command post (first at Harry K Brown park, and later up by the papaya farm) over the length of the crisis. Harry, although he didn’t have to, spent most nights there, and a lot of his buddies would drop by. And oh my how local folks measure the passage of time more by its grounding in who went to what school, and who got hitched to who, and omg did you hear about..? So it’s more a matter of the vibe.. the prevailing opinions.. than policy that left a lasting impression..

I believe Harry felt the moving of the church was a bit of a showcase rather than deep grassroots movement. And while great in and of itself he was saddened that the same energy wasn’t being given to the individuals losing everything. If memory serves, I believe there were seven other homes that were jacked up and carted away. And those were individual privately funded efforts. Whereas the church was something entirely different. Although, as you see in the pictures of the churched being hauled down Government Rd, Harry wasn’t shy about taking the role offered and there he was leading the procession as it winded its way down the road. Which fits with someone not knowing what was happening and assuming they can interpret history through a picture..

As to those movies.. 

Both films, being mostly based on Maurice's imagery are a tour de force of their work, and the way they lived their lives. Although Fire of Love weaves more of their love for each other, and other personal tidbits through it all.. which is fun.. informative.. something to see for sure. But still it’s Maurice’s footage that holds it together, and Werner is, by far, the better cinematographer and as such brought far more to the cutting room. He was able to see what was in those reels, able to accentuate their strengths and edit out their weaknesses as Maurice might have. Whereas the other seemed more a presentation of the facts. Maurice shot this.. they were here.. there.. rather than place it all in their proper context as a work of art.

At one point in Werner Herzog's telling the narration brings us to Hawaii, and in the sequence of things we’re told we’re in the ‘80s as the scene switches to Mauna Ulu, in the ‘70s, and there’s some wonderful footage of an undulating surface of a lava lake.. and then back to the Mauna Loa eruption of ’84 and those mesmerizing pans along that river. Another scene that both incorporate is an aerial view of the downed forest covered in ash at Mt St Helens. Just flying across texture and shape, not as a part of an explanation ’this is blah blah blah’ but rather just the abstract sense of space. The way Werner applied that footage gave it something missing in the other presentation using the same scene. And that sense of the art carried throughout the entire film..

Maurice was a real, in that same vein of the photographers that made Life, and Time, and National Geographic what they were in the heyday of photography. And he shot and shot, and lived his life to shoot.. and feel and be a part of. He really captured something that’s far beyond what we’ve experienced here. And his eye, as both stories tell, which was developed over time as he found his niche as a documenter rather than a researcher per se, while in fact the real motive, as he said, was to justify being there. To pay the bills and keep coming back.

As you see throughout, and, if I recall, Werner points out as their story unfolds it becomes clear there is something, folks called it “the luck of the Kraffts.” Not that it was a sure thing and all that but more often than not luck was there, with them, in spades. One example was they were here in 1984 to attend the retirement party for the outgoing HVO SIC (scientist in charge) Bob Decker, during which everyone in the observatory was partying late one night when someone on Mauna Kea noticed a glow over on Mauna Loa and rang them up. And there they were, all the way from France, and as if arranged in advance on one of the first helicopters at dawn..

The thing about Maurice and Katia was their love, and happiness, were infectious. They more than once mentioned that volcanologists as a whole are a great bunch of folks, but the scientist in the USA, as they saw us through their workings with HVO and the broader volcanological community that’s sprung up since the St Helens eruption on the mainland, were the most unhappy anywhere on the planet. The Krafft’s were more interested in laughing and smiling, than the pressures the folks that work in the field are under here. It was a different age.. and that was long before 9/11.

They died, as is often mentioned with such fan fair, together, doing what they loved. And both films focus on the events at Mt Unzen. Though Werner weaves them into a much more prominent role in the story. I had spoken with them a few days before in that I was arranging our access to the summit of Mauna Kea and all the logistics surrounding the 1991 eclipse here that was taking place the month after their passing.

And since we’re talking books, and the use of those small spaces, the front piece, the dedication and all that. On the back cover of my first book is Maurice and Katia’s endorsement..

Unlike my first two, my third book (OMG Tom! Three? WTF?) wasn’t about local events here as much as a comparison of volcanoes from around the world, and instead of being published locally by Bishop Museum as my first two were, it was with a mainland house, and my first foray into the notion of following in the Krafft’s footsteps. But soon thereafter I got my first computer and started creating apps instead..

Btw, all this discussion of books and such got me to go over to Amazon and see what’s up. They are all out of print but sometimes I’ll buy one or two so I have some to give away. And I see some of the hardcover edition of my third book are available.. cool. That book was published by Chronicle Books over in SF, and as much as I thought having a mainland publisher would have meant something, they really didn’t understand regional distribution.. and had hardly any representation here in the islands. 

I love playing with Tom's mind. See how he squirms. One book, two, what’s he gonna do with mentioned three? I am sure he’s going to post all sorts of I’m a bad person blah blah blah after this one.. fun! And OMG, what about those typos?! And to think.. he calls himself a scientist! Can you imagine a real scientist behaving like he does? I mean, come on, demeaning others so as to bolster his own sense of superiority. That’s sick. Seriously, when I first referenced a book of mine it was to say to Tom, directly, if he wanted to know something specific to his and my exchange he could find the answer there. But no, he twisted that into all sorts of noise. Going so far as to accuse me of peddling books here. What a joke. Tom knows me and has had private exchanges with me outside of PW. You know, the kind with my name on them, my private email address. Just like I have had with others here. Tom and I were talking books and pics and different authors on MK.. and if nothing else I assume he knows how to use a search engine. Nothing’s hidden. He’s just being his regular ol’ he’s better than the rest of us, and his disrespect is in direct proportion to his distain for each of us. I mean, come on, he loves me, you can tell, right?

In other words Tom, bugger off buddy. Your schtick as the biggest asshole hereabouts is old.. tiring. Get help brah.
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RE: Question for Rob on current PunaWeb hopes & expectations - by MyManao - 08-04-2024, 05:15 PM

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