Tumon Bay morning picture of the day - Friday, June 3, 2016

Dear Family, Friends, and Gentle Readers,

I probably totally lost all of my regular blog readership by taking a 2-week vacation, but it's not like this blog gives me any income ...

In any case, I went to Guam for the quadrennial Festival of Pacific Arts to enjoy some intense performances of ethnic music and dance by artists of the various island nations from the "Blue Continent, held in Guam this go-round.

This picture is of the beach at Tumon Bay as I took my last morning exercise walk on Friday 6/3/2016; had to get on a plane to Tokyo then to L.A. in a few hours.

Basically I spent several days watching people who look typically like this (see below, these are men, by the way) present their traditional dances with the accompaniment of traditional music, many times just chant of the human voice, or in other cases voice and percussion instruments, or sometimes arranged and recorded with modern instruments.

This troupe is from Yap Island of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM); the FSM is part of the territorial system of the U.S., so I believe we can pretty freely travel to one another's homelands. You will probably remember Yap from your grade-school social studies as the place where they once used a system of stone money. Yeah, yeah, and in case you're a man who gets overly excited about exposed female breasts, the Yap women had decorative chest coverings, but they did not cover their breasts entirely in bikini tops (they do not wear tops in the outer islands; they maintain the most traditional lifestyle in Micronesia). 

By and large these cultural dances across boundaries are synchronized, unison movements, where everyone in the group does the same thing. I think most of these have been trimmed into performance lengths, but they use highly repetitive movements and I suspect many are designed to allow the dancers to enter into a trance state and lose one's individuality into the moment. They are great feats of endurance, strength, and stamina being done in tropical heat. I saw one dancer collapse from exhaustion; I'm surprised I did not see more.

Group from Norfolk Island, descendants of Tahitians and the mutineers of the HMS Bounty.

These guys are not small. In fact, Micronesians and Polynesians are pretty large folks. It would have been nice to have someone to comment and interpret what we were seeing on all nights that there were presentations, but this festival is not run by Americans or Germans who would probably put everything on tight schedules and have comprehensive program notes. Even though I was technically in the U.S., the management seem to have slow, let-it-happen-as-it-needs-to kind of sense to it. Next time in 2020, it'll be in Hawaii, so we'll see how Americans run it.

Dance group from Palau

If you're wondering why you have never thought about ever taking a trip to Guam, I'd say that's a valid question. It's pretty, but it's hot and humid--reminded me of summer in Louisiana. There are a few remnant architectural artifacts from the Spanish occupation and some examples of ancient stone columns that the indigenous Chamorro people quarried as building foundations, but there's not too terribly much else to see. 

It IS a popular travel destination for Japanese and Korean tourists who want a short tropical island vacation only 3 hours away by plane. In using the tourist shuttle bus system, I found myself to be the only American or even English-speaker amid a busload of Asian faces. And what do all these east Asian tourists do there? Why, shop at the 6-7 upscale American-type malls (Gucci, Versace, Coach are all there), eat at fine restaurants, and take bus tours. Of course I was assumed to be Japanese much of the time (Asian face ...?) but since I spoke English, I was assumed a couple times to have been Australian; that's a first for me (Stateside visitors who are not military are apparently rare).

Food from the "American Bakery" presenting American culinary specialties: A hot dog cooked in a waffle,
a baked bao filled with a beef-and-raisin (kinda Chilean, but Chile is part
of the Americas right?) filling,and an empanada with a chicken filling. 

Guam was sort of like the "truck stop" for Spanish galleons as they made their way from the Philippines and Mexico and back. I suspect it sort of maintains that waystation nature vis-a-vis Americans as well. It's pretty ghetto. Streets, sidewalks, and buildings outside the posh tourist areas are all a bit worn-down and in need of paint and repair. In the business districts, it looks a lot like Van Nuys--they drive the same cars as we do, buy the same gas (Mobil/Shell/Unocal), eat at the same corporate franchise eateries like KFC, Chili's, and Burger King. If this sound depressing, I don't mean it to be. It made the place seem very familiar to me. Not unlike East Hollywood; just hotter, very humid, but the people are friendly and the other drivers don't cut you off. And for an Angeleno, that makes for a very pleasant "other side of the world."

Here's what Thursday morning looked like. In fact, all mornings I was there started with this red-bronze cloud cover. I always thought these sorts of morning views were kind of spooky. I was hoping to see some stars being in the middle of the ocean, but there were frequently clouds and the city lights of Hagatna, Tamuning, and Tumon give you the same kind of light pollution like any city.

Much more can be said, but I've probably overrun the attention span of even my devoted daughter who bothers to read this.

We're back to Malibu pictures tomorrow.

Love,

Pops