NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

It is once again November and that means it is time for  NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, or as I prefer to call it  # ChaNoWriMo  or Chamoru Novel Writing Month. For those brave enough to try their typing or writing hands at NaNoWriMo, the challenge is to write 50,000 words of your prospective novel by the end of the month. 30 days for 50,000 words.  I've been doing this for several years now writing a number of different stories and novels, some of  which have made their way into the many things I've published through The Guam Bus. Most of these November novels have been focused on my alternate history for Guam referred to as "The Legend of the Chamurai." In it, there were pre-Spanish contacts between the Japanese and Chamorus and in the early 17th century, a group of samurai assist the Chamorus in fighting off the Spanish. In these stories, I've tried to give life to a number of legendary figures such as Chaife, Fu'una and Puntan, Ukudu and othe

In more than a month the 7th Guam International Film Festival will be taking place at the Guam Museum. I received word this week that my latest Chamorro language nerd collaboration with Kenneth Gofigan Kuper will screened. It's title is "I Sengsong Arkham" and follows in the vein of our previous film "Påkto: I Hinekka" in that it features us playing a game that few would ever associate with the Chamorro language or culture, in the Chamorro language. The game itself is called "Arkham Horror" and is a Dungeons and Dragons style game based on the works of horror writer H.P. Lovecraft. There are several other Guam and Micronesian based short films and documentary that will also be featured. Thinking about this has put me in the mood for some Guam movies, of which there aren't many, and most of them are not very good.  The first generation of Guam films, meaning films that were made on Guam in the 1960s and 1970s, didn't feature Guam as Guam, bu