NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

I am currently working on an exciting comic project for a friend of mine. My brothers Jack and Jeremy are joining me in the project (and spearheading it), which will look at Guam's political status in a very new way, through the unlikely narrative of sports. To comic will follow the story of Roque Babauta, a Chamorro basketball player who gets wrapped up in national and international politics. As part of it, I wrote up a concept draft which outlined everything the way I was seeing it. Jeremy has gone on to shake things up and make flow better and add in more realism and details. Part of it is a sequence where a sports commentator is ruminating on the connection between politics and sports. Here is the first draft of it: Too often even we who love sports, dismiss it as a diversion, as an opiate for the masses, a distraction from the world. But sports is the world itself. It is not a diversion, but a reflection, a mirror image. The wars between na

The Guam Bus is the creative team that consists of myself and my two brothers. Over they years we've talk about alot of creative projects, and even started some of them, such as Battle for Kamchatka, but we haven't ever really finished any of them. We made ashcans a few years back when we had a table at WonderCon in San Francisco, and I did write the script for four issues of Battle for Kamchatka and Jack did pencil three of them, but we never actually formally published anything. Jack is back on Guam for the next few months and I am taking advantage of his presence here by making him create for me on my various Chamorro Studies and Guam Museum projects. He is also working on a one-shot comic book script I wrote last year about "Makahnan Mimu" or "Warrior Wizards" in Ancient Chamorro times. If all goes well, he should be done with the pencils by the end of next month. Here's a panel from the comic so far:

Matai Si Tony Palomo. Hiningok-hu na malangu gui'. I uttimo na umali'e' ham', esta annok na litiko gui'. Lao achokka' hu tungo' na esta malalangu gui', gof ma'lak i chinalek-na sinembatgo. Annai estaba estudiante yu' gi UOG para eskuelan grad, sesso hu interview Si Tony put i Estorian Guahan. Meggaigaigai na estoria-na siha. Ya achokka' esta bihu gui', annai umestotoria gui' matan hoben gui'. Lamlam i atadok-na kalang i atadok patgon.  Gi i timepon antes ma fa'na'an ayu na klasin taotao "embelikeru." Hunggan guaha baba gi este na palabra, lao guaha otro kumekeilekna lokkue'. Para i famagu'on ni' ya-niha umekungok i estorian i manamko', yan meggai finaisen-na put este yan este gi estoria, ayu ma fa'na'an "embelikeru." Ti umentalo' gui' put baba, umentalo' put i minalago'-na para mas tiningo' yan mas estoria. Un biahi i che'lu-hu ha faisen yu&#

My brother Jeremy held his Senior recital over the weekend. This month he'll graduate from UOG. Here are some pictures from his recital that he will no doubt cringe at. I've included below his play list for the performance. ******************** Golliwog’s Cake-walk from “Children’s Corner” By Claude Debussy (1862- 1918) Arr. A. Christopherson Bist Du Bei Mir, Aria from the Anna Magdalena Bach Notebook, 1725 By Gottfried Heinirch Stolzel (1690-1749) Previously attributed to J.S. Bach (1685- 1750) Andante et Allegro By Guy Ropartz (1864-1955) Introduction and Dance By Dmitri Shostakovich (1906- 1975) Concert Rondo By Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756- 1791) Arr. J. Ernst Short Intermission St. Thomas By Sonny Rollins (1930-) In a Sentimental Mood By Duke Ellington (1899- 1974) Blue Bossa By Kenny Dorham (1924- 1972) Blue Train By John Coltrane (1926- 1967) Chameleon By Herbie Hancock (19

Estague i che'lu-hu Si Jack yan i lahi-hu Si Akli'e'. Mambisita Si Jack giya Guahan gi i ma'pos na mes. Hu kekekombense gui' na maolekna ha move gui' tatte para este na isla. Gof apmam desde sumaga' Si Jack giya Guahan ya dos biahi ha' ha bisita desde ki ha dingu gui'. Para Guahu gof malago' yu' na u saga' mo'na guini sa' sina manhami yan i dos che'lu-hu. Gof hagas desde na manggaige ham gi i parehu na pidasun tano'.

For several years cricket was my only way of wasting large amount of time watching some sort of professional sporting event. Well, unfortunately for me, being in both Guam and San Diego, the actual watching of cricket was regularly impossible, and so I had to settle for reading bulletins and watching written play by play commentary. In the past few months I've begun following Starcraft 2 as a new distraction, which I both play on my own time (although I am not very good), but I also follow as my new sporting waste of time. It might be surprising to some that video games have now reached the level where they no longer only have people who are good at them in the sense of being the best player of Street Fighter II in your family, but rather people who are good at a professional level, or people who are good at the global level. For a few games such as Starcraft 2, there are actual cash prizes for winning tournaments. As I've written about before on this blog I starting playing

Para hamyo, ni' tumungo' na gof "geek" pat "nerd" yu', bai hu sangani hamyo na mumagahet i guinife-hu siha gi este na simana! Gi minagahet, ti todu i guinife-hu siha manmagahet, lao unu na dikike' na guinife-hu, hunggan. A few weeks back in my ongoing effort to make sure that I have too many things to do and not enough time to do them in I started yet another blog, this time which was meant to bring together my love of Guam/Chamorro language with my love of playing the game Starcraft 2. The blog is called Inetnon Starcraft Guahan for now, because I'm hoping that eventually I won't be the only person blogging on it, but others from Guam will join me (such as i che'lu-hu Kuri, gof kapas gui' humugando Starcraft 2). If you are reading this and you are a lover of Starcraft 2, let me know and if you'd like to be an author on the blog I can add you. When I wrote in the first line that a small dream had come true recently, I am referr

This week for my column When the Moon Waxes in the Marianas Variety I wrote about video games. I wrote about how for most of my life I harbored a very secret dream, un gof mana'atok na guinife, that somehow, someday the cards of fate fall in place around me and I get the chance to make a living by playing video games that I enjoy. Although most people know me as an activist, an academic, an artist, most people don't know me as a video game geek. My brothers and I poured plenty of our lives long ago into games like Final Fantasy 3, The Secret of Mana, NBA Live 95 on the SNES. I later poured some more of my life into some Gamecube games like Eternal Darkness, Super Smash Brothers Melee and my first online game Phantasy Star Online. When I started grad school all of this video game playing stopped as I switched my spare time mode from hours staring at the TV screen with a controller in my hands, to hours spent reading books and searching through archives. The only real video gam

I asked a few people before I left Guam what, if anything, they would want me to try and get for them while I was in South Korea. Most people, thankfully said nothing, since I knew I wouldn't have alot of time for commercial exploring or shopping on this trip. My brother Jeremy (Kuri), is helping my stubstitues with the AV equipment for my classes while I'm gone and so when he said that he didn't want anything from South Korea, I pushed him further to come up with something I could get for him, to pay him back for helping me out. Put i tiningo'-hu put i che'l-hu, ya hafa ya-na, siempre guaha minalago-na. Last year in one of my Guam History classes a friend of my brothers outed him as a closet K-Pop fan. Apparently a few weeks before, a K-Pop group had been on island for a vacation, and so when Kuri and his friends heard about this and found out what hotel they were staying at, they rushed down their to try and meet them. As they wandered around the hotel, like all

I started a Youtube account in late 2006, just so I could rate Guam videos. I never even had any intention of ever uploading a video, since at the time I was using my infamous disposable cameras to capture everything and couldn't imagine buying myself a digital one. The first video that I ever uploaded wasn't even one of mine, it was something I had found on the internet on a Department of Defense information website. The video was meant to be a sort of press release on a round of public meetings that the DOD was having with regards to the military buildup, which at that point had been announced only a year earlier. After that I uploaded some videos which had been posted on the website of Guam's Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo. In fact the most watched video that I have is a video of her being introduced in the House by a fellow Congressman, who pronounces her name last name as if it were "bordello." Eventually after my mom bought me a digital camera during a

Regardless of who you are, whether you are a close friend, a fellow activist or even just a perfect stranger, or perhaps someone who mistook me for Rasheed Wallace, if I have ever spoken to you for any decent amount of time, then I am sure I have complained in someway about my brother Kuri (Jeremy) and his banding . Of course when I say banding I'm not referring to (prepare yourself geek joke on the horizon) to "banding" from the game Magic: The Gathering. But rather to the activity that Kuri regularly does, playing in bands, which keeps him from doing his chores around the house, or makes him impossible to get up in the morning. Kuri is currently in at least three bands that I know of, Freedom Fries (ska), Last Standing All-Stars (reggae) and Table for Five (reggae) and also allegedly participates in several other musical groups, such as UOG Jazz Band, George Washington Alumni Band, and he's probably also the trombone player for Rush's latest tour. (gi minagahet

On November 29th, the Chamorro creative arts group " Ginen I Hila’ I Maga’taotao Siha " wil be hosting a Stories and Songs Festival, which is free and open to the public and will feature Chamorro/Guam storytelling as well as arts and crafts. The group has been organizing a series of very enjoyable presentations recently, even having on before Halloween, where they told ghost stories on the beach at Ipan. I'll be participating in this festival in a number of ways. First off me and i che'lu-hu Kuri will have a table set up in order to display the tools of our grandfather Tun Jack Lujan. My grandpa has been a Chamorro blacksmith for more than 80 years now, and whereas the island once had several dozen tool makers, he is now the only traditional one, or one who comes from a generational legacy. Put i mafana'guen-na i che'lu-hu, esta gaige gi entre i familia-ku kuatro na henerasion herrero. Yesterday I posted some videos of grandpa, Kuri and me working in the sho

I'm on Guam now, but I'm not registered to vote on Guam ( lao giya California). There's an election coming up and this is the first time I've been on island for one since I voted for Robert Underwood and Tom Ada in 2002 (lao ti manggana siha). I've been following the campaigns here closely, and even last week gave out different awards last week for Guam's politicians and their roadside signs. The battle over Proposition A has been hard not to follow since each Pacific Daily News edition for the past week is completely full of ads both for and against, which sometimes featuring local political celebrities. I had hope to write something about Prop A before the election, but with a dissertation to write, and classes that I'm teaching next week to prepare for, I don't have much time to blog ( ai na'triste!). I guess you'll have to settle for this video that I took of a big Prop A rally held last week at Chief Kephua circle in Hagatna. The thing I

I always feel very strange and honored to be one of those kids who come back home to Guam, and amongst all the errands and tasks that they are required to do for family members ( manyayabao, mañuñule’ åmot, manyeyettek, manhuhungok estoria siha put i tiempon åntes), I am also asked to write press releases. For those of you who don't know, my Grandfather, Tun Joaquin Flores Lujan (familian Bittot/Katson) is a bit of a celebrity on Guam, as he is the last traditional Chamorro blacksmith. I will post later I'm sure more details on what exactly this means, what tools he makes and what his many accomplishments are. For the moment however, Grandpa is finishing off year long grant with Guam Council on the Arts and Humanities Agency (CAHA) to train two students, one of whom is i che'lu-hu Si Kuri. In compiling his final report for CAHA Grandpa, wants to include some news coverage of his teaching and passing on this trade, and so he enlisted me in getting some news coverage for him