NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

It has been two weeks of non-stop Chamorro Christmas songs in my classes, all in preparation for tonight's Puengen Minagof Nochebuena at UOG. One of the toughest songs we've been tackling is "Annai i Niño" also known as "Kantåyi gui'." In honor of December being the season not just for Christmas but also Star Wars, I always tease my students using the equivalent of dumb Chamorro Star Wars dad jokes. After struggling through the difficult tune for the verses, whenever the students come in strong for the chorus and sing loudly "Kantåyi gui'!" I respond, "Maolek! The Kantåyi is strong with this one." As a back up, in case they aren't cringing to death already, I might throw in "ti este na Kantåyi ta espipiha" or "This is not the kantåyi we are looking for." ****************** Annai i Ni ñ o minida as Maria ( When Mary clothed the infant ) Ya nina’ åsson gi hilo’ ngåsan ( and made Him

Ti hu tungo' sa' håfa, lao gi halacha na tiempo, sigi ha' hu egga' este na video/ya hu ekungok este na kånta. Gof na'chalek i kanta, lao guaha tinahdong na hinasso lokkue', achokka' parody ha' na kånta. Buente, gof malago' yu' na bei egga' i "prequel" na mubi siha ta'lo ginen Geran Estreyas. Hekkua'. ************** "The Saga Begins" by Weird Al Yankovic A long, long time ago In a galaxy far away Naboo was under an attack And I thought me and Qui-Gon Jinn Could talk the federation into Maybe cutting them a little slack But their response, it didn't thrill us They locked the doors and tried to kill us We escaped from that gas Then met Jar Jar and Boss Nass We took a bongo from the scene And we went to Theed to see the Queen We all wound up on Tatooine That's where we found this boy... Oh my my this here Anakin guy May be Vader someday later - now he's just a small fry And he

I am in the very early stages of an article that was inspired by the Navajo dubbing Star Wars: A New Hope into their language several years ago. The use of native languages to talk about "pop-culture" in a general or sometimes considered to be colonial sense is not something new or recent for me. On this blog close to a decade ago I was already talking about everything from science fiction to manga to Bollywood movies in the Chamorro language. I have long felt that if you care about something, but it is alien to your native language, there should be ways to bridge that gap, especially if you are in a precarious situation in terms of language sustainability. The collective I started with Kenneth Gofigan Kuper, Guagua Tiningo' is built on this idea. We believe in it so strongly we made a film to show our ideas titled Påkto: I Hinekka last year which premiered at the Guam International Film Festival and was based on the premise that you can play a full game of Magic: The G

30 Things We Learned from the ‘Fight Club’ Commentary Commentary Commentary By Rob Hunter on July 10, 2014  http://filmschoolrejects.com/features/things-learned-fight-club-commentary.php#6MhJMlVVAQOTblUy.99 David Fincher ‘s Fight Club  wowed audiences with his typical technical brilliance and sharp use of CGI, but it remains an amazing piece of work fifteen years later for its narrative, social commentary and fantastic black humor. Misunderstood and under-appreciated by many upon its release, the film has gone on to earn legions of fans over the years, and listening to the commentary track featuring Fincher, Edward Norton , Brad Pitt and Helena Bonham Carter (one of four commentaries on the disc) opens up an even more detailed appreciation of the film. It’s actually one of the very first commentary tracks (or “auxiliary tracks” as Fincher calls them) I ever listened to many years ago, and the discovery that we had yet to cover it here made it well

Dandan i pandaretas! Na'fanpalangpang!

For my CM 102 class or Beginners Chamorro Language 2, I've been experimenting with different assignments. I heard last year about a Navajo Star Wars, or the project to translate Star Wars into the Navajo language. For me, somehow who thinks that everything should be translated into Chamorro and is hoping to create a lexicon for playing 'Magic: The Gathering" in Chamorro, taking such an iconic nerdy movie and translating it into a native language is the height of awesome. I decided to incorporate something on a much smaller scale into my class.    Each student had to pick five minutes from a different movie and translate that portion into Chamorro. I told them to make sure that the segment wouldn't be too difficult for them to translate, because certain genres like sci-fi for example, might be a bit difficult for a lowly 102 student to translate effectively. They had to then record themselves or others reading the scene in Chamorro and then dub it into the film i

Another article on the Israel attack in Gaza. This time from Salon. Its a very good one. Its been getting so tough to find good pieces by liberals and progressives in the United States on this issue, especially since Democrats are deciding to show their bi-partisan spirit with Republicans over this issue, and argue that Israel can do whatever it wants to create a "durable" ceasefire. What the hell kind of rules of engagement are these? You might find it weird that a blog which is pinat put Guam and Chamorro stuff, would be re-posting so many articles about the crisis in Gaza. Sometimes I think its a little strange to, that the behavior of Israel can enrage me so much. Different parts of the world, very different circumstances, histories, power relations. But, at the same time, in this wealth of differences, there are always this small, tiny, gof dikike' na clues, that hint at some absent, yet nonetheless potent tie, a link, especially in the way both relate to the Unite

Everytime I see film of that infamous green background speech that John McCain gave a few weeks ago, I cringe. Ko'lo'lo'na annai ha chalekin maisa gui'! Especially when he laughs at himself. He reminds me of an old man who isn't quite old enough yet to not care about other people's discomfort and be oblivious to whether or not they are paying attention, and so still nervously tries to provoke people to respond to what he is saying, to pay attention to him. That little smile that he gives makes me feel sad, but also sends a shiver up my spine. Last month, in an effort to spice up the faltering campaign of John McCain, Stephen Colbert threw down another gauntlet to net-savy audience, by challenging them to take a short segment from that infamous speech, and twist it until John McCain was exciting! Some of the entries have been uploaded to Youtube and so I'm posting them below. I have to admit, that even though watching the actual video of the speech makes