NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

I just finished my conference circuit for the year, three in the fall of last year and then four in the spring of this year, makes way too many for this school year (especially since each of them was a different paper). Now that my conference circuit is over, that means its time for, ai lana, the conference submission period to begin again! Next year, I think I'll do way less conferences, since I won't be writing as much in terms of my school work. The reason last year's was so packed was because my papers were in different ways related to the thesis I am writing right now for Ethnic Studies at UCSD. I'm pasting below my most recent abstract, which I've discussed on this blog before a few times. Its building off of a short zine article I had published in Third Space last year, and I'll be expanding it to become the conclusion for my current master's thesis, as well as my presentation for the CCCC in New York in 2007. Just thought I'd share it below: “Thi...

At first I was surprised when I read the back of Multitude and found that Naomi Klein was one whom had assisted in the writing of the text. But after re-reading both of Hardt and Negri's most recent books as well as sections of Fences and Windows and No Logo, I can completely understand why. As the Left searched for a way to reconstitute itself, both on a broader scale and with a more appealing message, these texts are the answer. After all Empire was referred to as the first intellectual blockbluster, and No Logo is called in the article below, "the Das Kapital of the growing anti-corporate movement." Hunggan, guaha didide' ni' umestotba put este na lepblo siha. Lao hinassosso-ku kao taibali i tinacha? Yanggen mumetgotna i kinalmten i Inakague' put este, kao debi di bei suppote este, achokka' bula na ti hu konfotme giya Siha? Mungga mahasso na bai hu traiduti Si Naomi Klein. Hu guaiya gui' yan i che'cho'-na sinembatgo, lao i mensahi-na kalang ...

What an incredible day today is. Gofha'an pa'go na diha. For nearly two years the boxes on all my personal pages, whether they be myspace, friendster or PFG have been clicked to "hopelessly single." Today, however I switched them all over to "in a relationship." For those of you who don't know, my last serious relationship ended two years ago, and since then there has been a wide array of strange encounters, blood drenched social faux pas, accidents, hookups that were a lock if I drank setbesa, and near fatal crushes, but nothing that ever made me consider logging onto to myspace and changing my estao inakkamo'. For the past few weeks I've been going out with this girl, and its been incredible. For those who regularly read my blog, she is the one whom I couldn't get the nerve up to kiss after three hours of salsa dancing turned our friendly outing into an obvious "date." One of my friend's emailed me today, chiding me that it se...

Here's a list of my favorite moments from the Famoksaiyan gathering last week. As you read them, bear in mind that I didn't get to participate as much as I wanted to in the actual conference (discussions, presentations, etc.), so most of my moments are around the conference. Setting things up, fixing problems, driving people around, stressing out. By the way, I've started up a listserv for the conference, to help keep everyone connected, informed and working as time goes on. You can join in by going to the following link and signing up for it, or asking me and I'll add your email to the list. We'll be using it to send out news items, notices of events, meetings, conferences, grants, opportunities, as well as find out people to help with projects and ideas and so on. http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/famoksaiyan My Favorite Famoksaiyan Moments: Taking Chaz to his first In and Out dinner Hanging out at Kinko’s at 2 in the morning, TWO NIGHTS IN A ROW Fanai saying that...

Check out the flyer above for information on the upcoming Tan Chong Padula Humanitarian Awards to take place next month in Garden Grove. Each year the Chamorro community in Southern California and the Guam Communications Network puts it together. One organization or individual will receive the main award, while a number of others will receive medallions (I was lucky enough to receive one a few years ago). Last year I was fortunate enough to attend, when the Kutturan Chamoru performers received the main award. This is truly an incredible group considered the types of performances that they are doing and that the majority of their members are stateside Chamorros. Their open debt to the work of Frank Rabon and Taotao Tano' is a welcome reprieve from the usual trajectory of Chamorro dance groups (both on Guam and in the states), which is usually hula, hula and more hula. Chamorros are scattered throughout the United States, but they have nonetheless been able to maintain crucial social...

In its Big Ideas of 2006 issues, AdBusters named Alain Badiou as "The Philosopher of the Year." This passage from their short article on the reception of his work in the United States is what brought about the following post: "To take just one example, postmodern thought has been obsessed by the figure of the cultural other. However, the abstract, absolute character of the postmodern idea of the other has insured that any attempt to reach out will always be viewed as just another form of domination. Badiou has brought a withering philosophical criticism to bear on the notion that cultural difference can be thought of in terms of overarching generalities about metaphysics, arguing instead that the social field that structures otherness is a matter of specific "situations," organized around certain concrete, tendentious exceptions, with political "truth" being a matter of bringing these exceptions to light. Thus, while postmodern philosophy dead ends in...

For those of you following me and my brothers' slowing, bumbling, meandering and potentially meteoric rise to fame in comic books, Jack, the aesthetic talent of the group is putting together our website. It is under construction mind you, but you can visit there nonetheless, and whistle or make disparaging remarks about the work habits of its employees by clicking on the link below: http://www.pumpfakenation.com Two weeks ago we bought a table at the Alternative Press Expo (APE) in San Francisco, to see what people thought of our work. I'll be posting more on that soon, but in the meantime, let me share with you the script for one of the ashcans that we photocopied and stapled for the convention. It was inspired by the film, The Rising, which is the story of Mangal Pandey and his role in the sparking the First War of Indian Independence. Here is the introductory text that I put in the ashcan as well as the script itself: "The agent of revolution, whether it be a single per...

Published on Tuesday, April 18, 2006 by Vanity Fair Senate Hearings on Bush, Now by Carl Bernstein Worse than Watergate? High crimes and misdemeanors justifying the impeachment of George W. Bush, as increasing numbers of Democrats in Washington hope, and, sotto voce, increasing numbers of Republicans—including some of the president's top lieutenants—now fear? Leaders of both parties are acutely aware of the vehemence of anti-Bush sentiment in the country, expressed especially in the increasing number of Americans—nearing fifty percent in some polls—who say they would favor impeachment if the president were proved to have deliberately lied to justify going to war in Iraq. John Dean, the Watergate conspirator who ultimately shattered the Watergate conspiracy, rendered his precipitous (or perhaps prescient) impeachment verdict on Bush two years ago in the affirmative, without so much as a question mark in choosing the title of his book Worse than Watergate. On March 31, some three dec...