Pacific Magazine > Magazine > May 1, 2003

Stuff We Like

Stuff We Like

Vintage Tahiti

This is a 2003 reissue of musicologist Francis Maziere’s 1960s recordings of traditional and Tahitian music, as well as contemporary—that is, contemporary to the 1960s—song and instrumental performances. There are steel guitars here and traditional solo chants; there are church choirs with those tight, haunting 18th century Protestant hymn arrangements and there are people slapping their own knees and hips to make percussion out of their own bodies. Part of their Explorer Series, Nonesuch records has done all Pacific musicians and fans a favor by re-releasing Maziere’s pioneering work. The Gauguin Years: Tahiti’s Songs and Dances. Nonesuch Records. www.nonesuch.com. US$15.99.

Going Down

Take some of the best diving in the world, mix it with the cool application of technology, and you get D-log, an interactive dive logbook and guidebook. Divers like to keep track of their dives, and the latest D-log is on the stunning sites found in Palau. This is a combination printed logbook, CD Rom with interactive capabilities, video clips, and Internet connections. A Guam D-log is in production. Actually, you don’t have to be a diver to get into this product. It is fun to use. Navot and Tova Bornovski, who run the Fish ‘n Fins dive operation in Palau, are key players in D-log. $59.95 for the Palau dive log, and CD ROM. $39.95 for the CD only. $29.95 for access via the Internet. Highly recommended. www.d-log.com.

Book In Time of War

As we endure our own time of war, Rex Alan Smith and Gerald A. Meehl’s Pacific Legacy is a beautiful documentary of an earlier conflict, World War II in the Pacific. It’s hard to use the word beautiful for anything that documents such wrenching human conflicts, but the design, photos and narrative that weave this work together end up producing a kind of historical elegance. Massively illustrated with 1940s photos from the Pacific conflict, many of these old black-and-white images are juxtaposed with contemporary color photos of the same Island places today. Saipan, before and after, color photos of a Japanese plane rusting in Yapese undergrowth—these are some of the vivid images this book delivers to its readers. Abbeville Press. $US65.00.

Decolonization Continued

For over 15 years The Contemporary Pacific has been produced from the Center for Pacific Islands Studies at the University of Hawaii. It has won awards over the years for both content and design and its unique amalgam of academic work and artistic production from the Pacific is shown in the latest issue with the sophisticated paintings of Niuean artist John Pule illustrating the new Spring 2003 issue. And it’s the annual issue with political reviews of the recent history of Micronesia and Polynesia. Not sure why Melanesia is missing. This issue’s theme is decolonization, a topic that has persisted in area studies for decades. And there’s editor Vili Hereniko’s unique, autobiographical take on the May 2000 coup in Fiji. It’s a perspective that’s worth checking out. The Contemporary Pacific, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu. www.uhpress.hawaii.edu/journals/cp.