It's not often you read about American Samoa in the National news. I stumbled across an article today that features AmSam. Though, it's not in a good way.

The piece is about the relative expense of internet access and the speed of internet in different rural regions in the United States. Guess who's the slowest and most expensive: American Samoa. Not the number one we're hoping for, sigh. One thing we have to look forward to when Sara and I move home is not paying $150/month for internet that rarely reaches 100 Kps and is frequently down for days at a time.

A Bad Guy, On The Radio

It's funny being part of this small community on island. Sara and I both occupy relatively public positions with the Office of the Attorney General. We make court appearance on a weekly, sometimes daily, basis. We are involved with several government departments and act on their behalf in public forums and meetings. Our work even ends up in the media.

The media in American Samoa has a difficult job. They have papers to sell, radio news reports to write and not a lot of activity here on-island that generates news. Therefore it is not uncommon for cases the Office of the Attorney General is involved in to be reported. As this is one of the places journalists can go to find information being generated on this little rock we live on.

This morning everyone was mentioning that my name was on the Monica Miller news report that aired during the morning commute today. Turns out the media was reporting on an answer and counterclaim I filed last week in one of my cases. I found the headline particularly funny: "ASG Sues the Family of Man Who Died in Custody." Makes me sounds like a heartless brute. Sometimes that's the cases you get as "the Man."

Wet Season Television Habit

Sara and I have been spending a fair amount of time during the wet season cooped up in our house. After about a month of this we broke down and ordered a TV from Walmart (one of the few retailers that will ship stuff to American Samoa through the mail). Prior to this we were watching movies on one of our laptops, which was far from ideal. A 13-inch screen is not how you're meant to see most media. Once we ran through the DVDs we brought with us to the island, we started branching out by trading DVDs and digital files with people in order to feed our entertainment needs.

We reeled through all five seasons of HBO's The Wire over November, December and January. Once we finished with the mean streets of Baltimore, Sara and I needed to find new shows to continue to feed our pop culture habit.

Freaks and Geeks went too quickly to tide us over for long. It only lasted us a few evenings and a sick day. With another series down, we continued to scrounge for things to keep our minds and eyes busy.

We reeled through the first season of Game of Thrones with a group of palagi, Sara and I were already big fans of the books the show is based on (which we have been actively foisting upon our group of friends here in American Samoa). We did regularly scheduled viewing parties on Sunday evenings, and are eagerly awaiting starting these up again when the second season starts on April 1st.

Our Boardwalk Empire viewing parties started up after finishing up with Game of Thrones and needing something to fill to void in our social calendar. We've been watching them with a group of paediatricians from the hospital on Tuesday evenings. We just did a marathon session to finish season 1, not sure when we're going to start up again with season 2.

Sara and I have also been piece-mealing along with some pulpier/trashier shows in the form of seasons 1 and 2 of True Blood and season 1 of RuPaul's Drag Race when we have an evening with nothing going on. We've also been keeping up with the series we were watching on the mainland, like Archer and Project Runway.

I've also been working through Star Trek: The Next Generation, during the evenings after Sara goes to sleep (yay, needing less sleep). I've nearly finished season 3. Need to keep by nerd credentials up while I'm here.

So as you can imagine, with this many shows, we spend our evenings without plans and weekends when the weather recommends us from going outside (either from too mush rain or skin searing sun) on the couch. As much as I enjoy the media, I'm ready for the dry season to come back and let us get outside a bit more.

Pese Performance

Our big pese performance was last Friday. We had a midday practice (with last minute changes still being made to the songs we were going to be performing...grrr). At the end our rehearsal the AG told everyone to go home and relax for the rest of the afternoon. That sounded great, but with looming appeal deadline and motion deadlines, most of us attorneys were back in the office for the rest of the day. Once 4 o'clock rolled around we rallied up at Sadie's-by-the-Sea for some pre-performance libations and a bite of food. Our department was scheduled to be the second group to go on the third and last night of pese. After some grub and socializing it was time for us to get in uniform and head over to the field where we perform. I was worried about parking, as this was a big festival that I'd heard people discussing all year. Much to my surprise parking was easy and close and we were over and waiting as the first group of performers go on stage and started in with their singing.

Several large tents occupied the area in front of the stage. This played into the lack of crowds in front of the stage, most views outside of the VIP tent would be blocked. Most Samoans stay home and watch the performances on television. Only the VIPs who are invited by the governor are expected to be at the live performances. We gathered with the rest of the Department of Legal Affairs staff and watched the first group of performers take their turn in the spot light.

Eventually towards the end of the first performance we lined up in the back of the stage and prepared to go on-stage. We filed out, I ended up near the rear of the group (one of the advantages of being tall). Our performance started out with a speech by the Attorney General and the head of immigration, both in Samoan.

We then launched into our songs. We'd settled on an order and how they would be performed and it felt like a good performance. We received several compliments in the following days and people also told us they were impressed we were singing in Samoan. Looks like the broadcasts did focus in on us for our pese. We've also heard that there's video out there of us, we're working on getting a copy and will update accordingly.

The Great Movie Crisis of 2011

Living on a remote island results in shortages and lack of variety of products and services available. After being here for 7 months, I'd thought I'd gotten used to the rhythms and beats of this isolated market place. Buy the shipped-in fresh vegetables when they're in the grocery store and mostly green. Go with the canned, pickled, frozen or limited supply of local when it's been awhile since the last container ship has called on Pago Pago Harbor. These are the trials of living in paradise in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

It was the entertainment shortage that I wasn't prepared to handle. It all started on Friday, November 18 when Happy Feet 2 and Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1 were released at the Nu'uli Place Cinema, the only movie theater on island. These two films replaced Tower Heist and Puss in Boots, another two movies that had little draw to Sara or myself, but had put a few butts in seats at the theater. Not having an interest in the animated animals or teenage heart throbs, I was happy to avoid the theaters for November.

When Happy Feet and Breaking Dawn held down the movie theater for a second week, I held out hope the next week would bring new cinematic entertainment to us here in American Samoa. Another week passed, yet new movies did not materialize in our theater.

Instead of bringing us The Muppets, Young Adult or Hugo they continued to run out night after night and show after show freaking Happy Feet 2 and The Freaky Vampire Abstinence Movie. Once the fourth week rolled around and still new movies didn't arrive, one of my friends openly called for a riot with pitch forks and torches (I suggested the more readily available machetes and coconuts). The movie viewing public didn't have the fervor of the Occupy movement, but we bided our time.

Finally, last Friday saw relief to our crisis. We were greeted by the marquee that read: Happy Feet 2 and Sherlock Holmes 2. We welcomed the end of our entertainment drought. Sunday evening we attended a packed showing of Sherlock. It was enough to stave off the turmoil of another week with the same two god-damned movies.

To our surprise we also were blessed with a midweek replacement for Happy Feet, on Tuesday it was replaced with Mission Impossible 4. We could go to sleep knowing that we had survived the Great Movie Crisis of 2011 and were able to get out of the house and be entertained.

We even managed a double date tonight to see Mission Impossible tonight. It was awesome. Now starts the wait until the next new movie comes to us...

Polamalu

The island is abuzz. One of their favorite sons is back for a victory lap. The local news media (meaning the three radio stations and the newspaper) have been avidly covering every aspect of Troy Polamalu's trip to American Samoa. Yesterday he hosted a press conference in Samoan and ran a football camp for high schoolers.

Troy's an example of Samoa's second most lucrative export, athletes. All the children here play sports. Through the searing heat and humidity, you can see kids playing volleyball rugby, football and the local version of cricket almost everyday.

The Samoans have a very special place in their heart for the NFL. Every village has a son that's gone on to success in the NCCA and the NFL. Though most of these players never return to live in the island, their families usually reap the wealth and benefits. The families that remain here live in larger homes, drive nice new cars and carry a certain prestige in the community. One of the Samoan families I have spent time with is the beneficiary of a son who played for the Cleveland Browns and Arizona Cardinals for almost a decade. You can also see the family of a former famous Charger drives around in a pickup that is embossed with the lightning bolts from the teams helmet. That truck and its occupants also enjoy a beautiful large home overlooking Pago harbor. It's the Samoan version of the American Dream and on an island this small everyone is aware that's one of the easier the paths to prestige and glory for the children of Samoa and their families.