NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

  For fun, I used to take anime songs (gi Fino' Chapones) and translate them into Chamoru. Over the years I translated songs from Naruto, Gantz, Cromartie High School, Master Keaton, Evangelion, and Attack on Titan just to name a few. It was an exercise in expressing two things that I am very nerdy about. I hadn't thought about this in a long time though until earlier tonight when Youtube's next song randomness started playing anime theme songs. As I started to feel the chetnot nostalgia hit me, the kids asked what song is this? where is this from? When I described the plot of Evangelion to Sumåhi, her review, "wow sen na'triste enao (wow that is like incredibly depressing)." I told the kids about how I used to translate songs like this into Chamoru. When they asked why, I said, "Ya-hu fino' Chamoru, ya-hu este na kånta. Anggen hu pula' este gi mismo lenguahi-hu, hu na'latatahdong I siniente-ku put este. (I like Chamoru, I like this song. If I

When relationships end, people may fight over pets, fight over furniture, collections, kids. One thing that has always struck me, for certain, but not all relationship apocalypses is songs. Music where affection and attachment were forged and welded together with tunes and lyrics from particular artists. It provides the rhythm to togetherness, to grooves of the “us.” When a relationship ends, the rhythm of togetherness sometimes sours, turns grimly bitter. What once caused joy, now feels like it creates bone cancer. Songs or artists that I shared with someone and used to make me smile, now make me retch, make the skies insidiously darken in the space between beats. The muscles remember, even what the mind or heart wishes it could forget. For one particularly tough relationship, the music of Tegan and Sara was part of the soundtrack of us. For years I enjoyed it alongside her. For my girlfriend at the time, she was a twin and adored the duo, and introduced me to their music

When I am writing or working, I like to have MSNBC playing in the background. Although definitely not on weekends, as I don't find their barrage of prison reality TV shows very appealing. On weekends I watch clips on Youtube and recently they started a new show with longtime foreign affairs and war correspondent Richard Engel called On Assignment with Richard Engel.  I've enjoyed the first few pieces released on Youtube on his show. They've both been critical of Trump and talked about the international dimensions to his business connections. This is one of the things that makes Trump different from previous Presidents, even those who were also wealthy, his international business empire that he is absolutely using the powers and privileges of the off to enrich and enhance. Here's a few of the clips from On Assignment:  

Since I've become more involved in film-making, I've been doing more to try to watch "good" movies and see what tips or tricks they might offer. I try to avoid Youtube videos that sort of lay it all out for me, although those can be tempting and intriguing. But I just see if I can sort of translate it or decipher it, given my own understanding of visual language and narrative structure. One thing I have found fascinating however is reading interviews with great directors, where they talk about their choices in film-making and also what films or other creators they look to and try to follow or emulate. Below is an interview with Alfred Hitchcock from 1964. ************************ Interview with Alfred Hitchcock Monitor, BBC July 5, 1964 The following interview, between Alfred Hitchcock and Huw Wheldon , was filmed for the BBC television programme "Monitor" and was first broadcast on 05/Jul/1964. It was repeated in May 1997 as part of the BBC2&#

Ginen i blog "The Islander." Estague i palabras-ña i kantan KC Leon Guerrero, i na'ån-ña "Nangga Yu'." Gof ya-hu ayu na blog, hu diseseha na i dueñu para u na'lå'la' gui' ta'lo, sa' gof maolek na hinekka para palabras kantan Chamorro. ***************** Nangga Yu' Este ta'lo ginen as KC i kanta Nangga yu' http://youtu.be/97CNdG6faO0 Kirida bai hu mapressu pago- Darling they're arresting me today Sa hu a punta i pakikku gi tinderu- Because I put the gun to the store owner Lao ayu neni chinileku- Because baby I did it ni aniyu ilekmu mas yamu- for the ring you said you liked Munga umasagua kirida nangga yu'- Don't marry darling wait for me Nangga yu' sa ti apman yu guatu- Wait for me I'll be back soon Nangga yu sa ti apman bai hu fatto- Wait for me because I'll come back soon Makonne yu' gi gima para Hagatna-They took me from my home to Hagatna Ha godde nen

Since I can't speak Japanese, I have to rely on translators and interpreters to learn more about recent protests in the country. I'm grateful for a growing group of people who have been helping me understand more and more about continuing and recently developing protests. Videos on Youtube, some thankfully subtitled with English have also helped. I wanted to share some of them below, to help others understand more about life in Japan in terms of peace and protest.

The Chamorro language is heard less and less around Guam nowadays. I couldn’t speak Chamorro for most of my life and so the Chamorro I heard around me was generally like noise to my ears. My grandmother speaking Chamorro to her friends when I was young was nothing but old people chatter. Sometime it was fun to just watch, but for the most part, I'm sure none of that had anything to do with me. My grandfather speaking Chamorro to other men his age at the barber shop was an irritating soundtrack. There was Chamorro everywhere, but when I was younger I couldn’t understand it and so I didn’t really care. But nowadays it is becoming scarcer. You can still hear it on the radio and sometimes in businesses that play KISH or Isla 630 on the weekends. You can still hear it in church sometimes. You can hear it when older people gather. The last politician who would regularly speak Chamorro in their speeches or on the floor of the Legislature passed away last year. There is even a month o

Matai Si Leonard Nimoy gi i ma'pos na sakkan. Put un sen dangkolu na nerd yu', gof pinacha i korason-hu nu i tinague-na. Guiya dumirihi i mas takhilo' yan mas guaiyayon na mubin Hinanaon Estreyas para Guahu, i mina'kuatro, The Voyage Home.

I've had a Youtube account for many years now, I think 8 or 9, lao ti siguru yu'. I didn't post many videos for a while, and I'm not sure why, perhaps because I got a better camera a few years ago and with the not that great internet in the various apartments I've lived in, it takes several hours to post videos nowadays. I recently started publishing videos again, after starting a number of video projects and being inspired to engage in this media form. My Youtube videos are frequently shaking and suffer from very bad audio and never edited in anyway. But still they can provide an interesting view into certain events on island and elsewhere. Every once in a while I get a message from someone who couldn't be at an event or who was looking for information on something that has happened in Guam and they thank me for my shaky almost avant garde looking movie. Here are some recent videos that I've posted. A video from the 2011 Inachaigen Fino' CHamor

Dandan i pandaretas! Na'fanpalangpang!

After hearing for weeks about how the "terrorists" or North Koreans were winning the war against and for freedom, due to the decision of Sony not to distribute the film "The Interview," the company has decided to release the film on a limited basis. It can be streamed online and can be bought. Eventually it may be released through iTunes. It was interesting to see how a film which most people would probably not want to watch because of the abundance of jokes dealing with human genitalia, becomes an artifact over which freedom not on a national scale, but an international scale is fought. Screenings of The Interview have been filled with patriotic discourse and singing, in order to make that important argument that, this may be crap and it may be garbage, but I should have the right to eat crap and copulate with garbage if  I want to! Speaking of freedom, people in Guam attempting to watch the Interview online soon found that they were prevented by most sites

Fired-up Ben Affleck clashes with Bill Maher over Islam By Jeff Labrecque   on Oct 4, 2014 at 3:07PM Entertainment Weekly Ben Affleck’s publicity tour to promote Gone Girl took a detour on Friday night, when the outspoken liberal engaged in a heated debate with author Sam Harris and HBO’s Real Time host Bill Maher over their criticism of Islam. “They’ll criticize Christians … but when you want to talk about the treatment of women and homosexuals and free-thinkers and public intellectuals in the muslim world, I would argue that liberals have failed us,” said Harris. “We have been sold this meme of Islamophobia, where criticism of the religion gets conflated with bigotry towards muslims as people. It’s intellectually ridiculous.” Affleck, who frequently expressed impatience and outrage at Harris’ more measured explanations, was offended by the message. “[Your point of view] is gross, it’s racist,” the actor said. “It’s like saying, ‘Oh, you shif

The Santa Barbara Mass Shooting, Elliot Rodger, and Aggrieved White Male Entitlement Syndrome When an entire social structure has been erected to reinforce the lie that white folks are "normal" and "Others" are "deviant," it can be very difficult to break out of denial.    By Chauncey DeVega Alternet May 24, 2014 As I often ask, "what shall we do with the white people?"  When an "Arab" or "Muslim" American kills people in mass they are a "terrorist". When a black person shoots someone they are "thugs". When a white man commits a mass shooting he is "mentally ill" or "sick".  Whiteness and white privilege are the luxury to be an individual, one whose behavior reflects nothing about white people as a group.  There will not be a national discussion of a culture of "white pathology" or how white

Add caption I was asked to do this months ago and it has been sitting on my computer ever since. Gangnam Style was still new at that point and it was only primarily K-pop fans and nerds who were aware of its massive, macarena-like, world changing potential. Someone asked me to do a Chamorro version of it, taking the lyrics and translating them into Chamorro. It didn't take very long, but I just never got around to posting it. First a couple of points. Number 1, this song is in Korean and I don't speak Korean. In order to understand it I had to rely on the translations of others. So there maybe obvious ways I couldn't grasp accurately what I was translating. But then again, the intent wasn't to take the lyrics to Gangnam Style exactly, but rather translate the feeling into Chamorro. This is a conundrum that you often face when doing translation work. If you take it exactly as it is written, you run the risk of making it lose the correct meaning in the new languag