A gift from the parking gods

On Saturday morning, the parking gods conspired to give me a message: George Clooney is still on the island, at least for another week.
The semester is over now, and that means no more Saturday classes this summer. What's one to do with her Saturdays free? Well, last Saturday I went to the annual Honolulu Book and Music Festival, downtown on the grounds of Honolulu Hale. There was one scheduled speaker who interested me: Kaui Hart Hemmings, author of The Descendants, the book optioned into the movie that is filming here now with Clooney cast as lead.
I was running late and had to get to the bank. After the bank, I realized I was going to cut it very, very close if I was going to see the session. I went for it. Pulling off the freeway, I passed a public parking garage I thought would be open. Not so. My last shot would be street parking closer to the venue. I turned onto S. King Street and sized up the scene. The expected crowd was there and it wasn't looking good for me. But one block over, hallelujah! A spot on the street appeared. I got to the "Author's Tent" in time to hear there was one more week of filming and George is still here. Somewhere. He has been super low-key. I thought he might be staying at the Kahala, but normally if someone is there for a while, word leaks. So I think he's renting a private residence. And that friends, is purely a guess.
The author was joined in the Author's tent by Jim Burke, a producer on the film and partner in a production company with Alexander Payne, the movie's screen writer and director. The author and producer took questions from the small crowd for 45 minutes, talking of writing, optioning rights, developing a screenplay, scouting local scenes, working with local extras and local production crews...and George Clooney. For the record, I was there but asked no questions. And no, I was NOT the near-rabid fan who asked about George's whereabouts at least three times! I did admire her pluck though.