Tag Archives: guam

Notes to Future Self

Memo: (wishing a) Peaceful Week in US + Atlantico and Pacifica proposal

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Memo: Nov 2 2020

Wishing for a peaceful week in the USA.

Also advocating for proper representation for Guam, Northern Marianas islands, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, American Samoa, WaDC etc.

Maybe make two states out of all the territories (Atlantico & Pacifica) > combine the Dakotas and split Wyoming into the neighboring states to keep the total state numbers under control :-)

Yeah yeah, putting it in there to get people thinking but really the math sort of works out… I should really never post anything like this but really feel the people in these territories deserve proper representation so letting people know how weird/lousy it would feel if suddenly people of Wyoming or North Dakota were disenfranchised

On a similar riff, as I recall learning when Texas joined the union, there was a provision that the state could split into three states at some future point. Wonder if this is ever discussed as an actual option?

52/55/ even 60 states, why not…

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Panoramas, Personal Musings

Guam Dossier, part 3 – Dive bars & Massage panoramas, 1996

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My last night on the island of Guam I drove around rather aimlessly all night… to folks on the “outside” living on an island of this seemingly size might seem that there’s not much to drive around, but you can really meander through entirely different terrain, small villages, busy tourist strips, remote bays and cliffs, of course there’s many military bases and so on… in other words, you can really get lost… in all the best ways.

So, I was driving in a Geo Tracker jeep-type-thing with a broken top and non-working dash lights which meant I never knew at which speed I was travelling to add to the pleasant disorientation.

As sun was coming up, I found myself in an area between the “big navy” base and busy tourist area lined with dodgy warehouse-looking *massage parlours* and bars of dubious standing.

I pulled over, stood in the middle of the road to capture the rather surreal site of a few stragglers coming out after an all night bender blinking at the hazy morn, with a panorama camera. Years later developed the film, some years later scanned, and some years later “stitched” them together with software, pleasantly imprecise and strange. 

I suppose I could consult contemporary sources to concur that the scene is very different now but I will just let these stir my memory and for my own hazy perception.

Tip: Click em, save em, print em, remix em – lemme know if you want full size originals.

Note: At some point, I attempted a photos/oil pastel collage of all of these but was rather unsuccessful at my execution, was in those dark years.

See also: Starsand Beach Club & SS Neptune

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Lists + Awards + Profiles

Media: Cleaning Neptune (holiday) / PDN, Guam, July 5, 1995

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Media: Cleaning Neptune (holiday) / Pacific Daily News, Guam, July 5, 1995
“Not everyone had the Fourth of July off. The crew of the SS Neptune spent the say working on the maintenance of the boat that is dry-docked at the Harbour of Refuge”
Dave Olson pictured, right

See also: Guam Dossier, SS Neptune + Guam Dossier, SS Neptune 

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Lists + Awards + Profiles, Music / Rock

Media: Jerry Garcia’s Legacy / PDN, Guam, Aug. 18, 1995

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Summary: Woke up to the news, quit my job, went to a candlelight vigil, passed one around, talked to some geeks from Pacific Daily News newspaper, learned about the Internet, signed up for class the next day, started making websites about hemp in Japan, got a new job, quit, went to Palau and Yap, went to Olympia, met some Internet hippies… somehow its today.

Where were you?

Media: Jerry Garcia death / PDN, Guam, Aug. 18 1995, part 1
Media: Jerry Garcia death / PDN, Guam, Aug. 18 1995, part 2
Media: Jerry Garcia death / PDN, Guam, Aug. 18 1995, part 3 (detail)

See also: “The Internet Age Began on August 9, 1995” / via Litkicks (with comment)

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Portraits of the Artiste

#daveo50 ~ 1994 / 50 years > days > photos

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#daveo50 ~ 1994 / BC Identification Card, issued 02/94

Project: Upon turning 50 years old on August 16, 2020, Dave Olson (me, hello) is posting a photo (or maybe photos) a day / per year – starting with 1970 with intent of chronicling existence through various primary evidence sourced from studio portraits, class photos, ID / passport photos, or occasionally other “casual/group/random” shots when the above don’t exist in my archive (note: not “artificial intelligence,” really me, pulled from shoeboxes, journals, wallets and whatnot – diligently scanned and dated via glasses and haircuts, lightly annotated).

Continue reading #daveo50 ~ 1994 / 50 years > days > photos →

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Chapbooks, Fanzines & Folios, Stubbed Toe

Folio: January in the Hot Springs / haiku and paint, 1993-5

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Folio: January in the Hot Springs / haiku and paint, 1993 / front cover

After arriving in Japan for the first time, i began exploring Japanese poetic forms – realizing that the didactic 5-7-5 structure *wasn’t the point* /  Then combining with impressionist colours seen on a recent ramble in Europe, Read it a series combining, in a fashion, Japanese forms with European colours and “new-world” themes.

Then with brother Bob’s upcoming wedding, compiled a bunch of these creations into a little book and read (with translation) at his wedding (mostly to blank stares of bewilderment.

A few years later in Guam, did a proper layout and production run (maybe 50?) and mailed the chapbooks out around the world. Used hemp/cereal straw paper from China (ordered from Paul Stanford in Oregon) which was rough going through copy machines of the day –especially my complicated double-sided / zigzag layout with topstitch binding – of course sewn with hemp twine.

I don’t have one of the “finished ones” in my archive, but do have the original layout production master / will eventually dig out > in the meantime, here is the cover (not hemp paper) + Pay special attention to my proto-Creative-Commons non-copyright on the erstwhile colophon and the pseudonym (do you know the origins?)

Folio: January in the Hot Springs / haiku and paint, 1993 / colophon

While I have few delusions about my poetry chapbooks being “popular” this one especially seems to have disappeared into the wind with nary a sound (despite it being one of the projects of which i am most proud).

Folio: January in the Hot Springs / haiku and paint, 1993 / back cover (with pseudonym)

Note: a few of these poems were used/re-mixed in a collection from 2004 (assembled in Olympia) called “Hotspring and Stubbed Toe” which was distributed digitally and will be available shortly in this archive as part of #daveo50 series.  

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Personal Musings

Rabbit Holes of History: Japan, War & Post-war (incl. O. Stone + D. MacArthur) & Micronesia

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plane on Palau island of Pelilu – site battle of Bloody Nose Ridge between Imperial Japan and Allied forces

My pal Tom wrote the following (March 27, 2017): 

Been watching Oliver Stone’s “History of the United States” on Netflix. I’ve read a lot of history, but this is really eye-opening stuff. Particularly, my opinion of Harry Truman has been completely altered. He knew the Japanese were going to surrender, but chose to drop the world’s first atomic bombs anyway, against the advice of the scientists who developed it and indeed 6 out of 7 of his own generals, simply to show the Soviets that America would not hesitate to invoke vast civilian casualties. In that context, it has to be one of the most reprehensible decisions in the history of the world.

Of course he was also an enthusiastic racist to his core, and did not see the Japanese as human beings.

I would recommend this series to anyone who wants to get beyond the propaganda and find a more accurate picture of the true heroes and villains of our recent history.

To which i replied: 

I’ve gone down this topic very deeply over the last few months with 3-20+ hour-long audiobooks, several documentaries and so on.

If you will permit me a few notes:

Continue reading Rabbit Holes of History: Japan, War & Post-war (incl. O. Stone + D. MacArthur) & Micronesia →

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Collections of Artifacts

Artifacts: License Plate Wall in Pe ELL, WA (partial view)

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Artifact: License Plates Wall in Pe ELL, WA (partial view)

Anecdotally I’ve heard that technically you can’t publish/post/publicize photos of license plates (number plates in some areas)  however i’ll assume this edict (if it exists at all) does not apply when a license plate is decommissioned and as such, simply becomes a decorative artifact, in this case attached to a shed in a small hamlet in Washington State.

You’ll notice Guam, Utah, Washington State, Alaska, Oregon,  Hawaii, Colorado and antlers represented. Also a shovel (rusty).

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Parties + Events + Invites

Poster Inspiration / Dave + Ryoko 4-20 Kekkon-shiki

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The poster art for the party was one of the first things on our “we want to have” list for the wedding celebration. We both love music, especially live, and the posters which go along with the gigs.
 
So we asked the lovely Joanna and huggable Kenji who together have Gamomo Creative (a Chamorro warrior from Guam where Dave used to live for just another connection) to design up something special.
 
Joanna and I did many projects together at Hootsuite so she is familiar with my “here’s a big crazy idea with vague details, make something magical by reading my mind” way of working and Kenji being hafu-Japanese and an eccentric creative, is also uniquely qualified for input. They also made 2 lovely kiddos! Oh and Kenji is featured in one of my barber round-up posts getting a mullet from guitar hero/barber Rich Hope. 
 
 
Anyhow, I sent JoBot (coz she’s a robot who designs with love) 6 pages of notes and a folder of “inspiration” – way toooo much of course (i’m a maximalist when it comes to design) and she asked appropriate questions to whittle it down and see what it is i liked about each piece of inspiration. 
 
With this in mind, i’ve compiled various images and notes in a rather stream of consciousness manner to share for-the-record how we collaborated to make something truly special which will be the central design element for the goat farm party. 
 
Worth noting that originally we planned to just us the poster at the party and then in the gift bags but it was so wonderful (not surprisingly but still surprising), we created a number of home-done print runs on various stock to send in announcement dossiers to folks all around the world. About 300 went out in this form and we then pro-printed 150 for giftbags and another 6 BIG versions on foamboard to display at key locations at the party and another rollable 4 for other commemorative purposes. Thanks Joanna and Kenji for your huge hearts and exceptional work. 
 
Notes and images follow

Continue reading Poster Inspiration / Dave + Ryoko 4-20 Kekkon-shiki →

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Choogle On

Deep Cuts of Weed in Guam – Choogle On! #125

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Deep Cuts of Weed in Guam – Choogle On! #125
Deep Cuts of Weed in Guam – Choogle On! #125

Beginning with a static-y 1996 AM radio interview during a power outage on the island of Guam Micronesia, then checking in from a goat farm in Japan decades later, then again from tiny isle in Indonesia, Uncle Weed weaves hempen stories and personal anecdotes about life on this remote USA “territory” including: selling hemp bags at Jeff’s Pirate Cove, advocating for legalization of cannabis in all forms, weird jobs (and quitting same), and current situation as Grassroots activists seek to fulfil will of voters for medical and recreational uses.

Ensure you have batteries for: Deep Cuts of Weed in Guam – Choogle On! #125 (.mp3, 192k stereo, 97MB, 1:10:33)

Continue reading Deep Cuts of Weed in Guam – Choogle On! #125 →

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Portraits of the Artiste

Portrait: as Beach Club Host (with brother Bob and drummers)

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Beach Club Host: daveo disguised
Beach Club Host
As a tour host at Star Sand Private Beach Club on island of Guam. “Landlocked” by Andersen Air Force base and, as such, closed down after a terrorist incident you may have heard about in New York City.
 
Note: The pale one is Cmdr. “Magnum” – then entirely a civilian. 
 
 

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Portraits of the Artiste

Momento: Submarine Tour Guide (with group)

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Submarine Tour Guide: daveo disguised
Submarine Tour Guide
Me as a Tour guide/narrator (in Japanese) aboard a half-submarine ship SS Neptune along some with the knuckleheads I worked with on Guam (US “colony”). More to say about this gig elsewhere.
 
Note: I’m the one on the far right with Tintin haircut 
 
 

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