the five finalists: miss usa, guam, egypt, puerto rico, and the philippines.

went to the miss pacificana pageant this weekend. guam loves their beauty queens, but probably none so much as their drag beauty queens. i don't think that guam is any more tolerant about homosexuality than most roman catholic-majority societies, but like many a latino country, there is a strong tolerance for the effeminate, loyalty to family, and pride in a damn fine spectacle.

miss pacificana hadn't been held since 2000, mostly, i believe, due to a lot of politics and corruption (people kept running off with the money). finally, ron jackson (former miss pacificana himself) set up a corporation to bring it back, and i'm glad he did. while regular beauty pageants are held in hotel ballrooms, pacificana is so big that it needs to be held at the university fieldhouse. it didn't sell out this year, but i'd guess there were about 2500-3000 people supporting their favourite candidates. they brought in a host(ess) from hawaii, taylor armani, to co-host with rick nauta, and a couple of performers from honolulu and vegas. there were short films advocating safe sex that were shown throughout the night--well produced, slick, humourous, and really focused on the youth, as pacific islanders are one of the fastest growing population with HIV/AIDS infection. steven and ronnie perez dj'ed, and steven helped write some of the script, which was great--very funny, very fast, and not the least bit condescending. in fact, the whole thing felt very much like a family affair, with lots of love and support from the crowd, cheering on their favourite gal. guam has a lot to be proud of, but mostly of their people, who are beautiful, inside and out.

more photos on flickr.

pdn article.


the winner: miss guam, adrian diaz

there's a new all-japanese language radio station on island, KIJI. it's supposed to play a lot of j-pop, but so far all i've heard is the beatles (no comment) and stock, aiken, and waterman 80s dance one-hit wonders. yipe. however, the sports report in japanese was charming, as were the two women who talked about food all afternoon. awesome.