Wake Me Up When September Ends
I spent the last three days in Manchester at the inaugural conference of the Theatre and Performance Research Association (TaPRA) where I presented an academic paper about my work in Scarborough over the past year and some of my plans for the coming year. As academic conferences go this was quite a good one even thought it was the first one for this association.
On my arrival in Manchester I got lost because I took the wrong turn out of the Piccadilly railway station and ended up in the city centre instead of on the University of Manchester's campus, which is just around the corner from the train station. Although the city centre is probably the best part of town, as I wandered the Mancunian streets looking for the university campus I thought about why Graham Nash couldn't wait to leave this place as a young man, why Ian Curtis couldn't take it either, why Morrissey was such a miserable young man, and why Shaun and Bez (from the Happy Mondays) abused their bodies the way they did. At the same time I can see why Tony Wilson (to mention one of many) is so excited about the city of Manchester.
Anyway, I was too busy to blog during the conference but there were some things I wanted to blog about even before I left for Manchester a few days ago. I never got around to doing it because I was swamped under the last minute preparations for the conference. Here are some of the things I wanted to blog about, in no particular order:
MaltaGirl's guest bloggers: the Maltese blogosphere was graced with the first set of guest bloggers via MaltaGirl's Diverse Ramblings. I believe it was one of the most exciting moments in our Maltese blogging community and I think quite a few people agree with me on that. Robert Micallef mentioned the idea of having guest bloggers on Wired Temples when he first started that blog. Rest assured that especially now that we've seen what a wonderful experience it was for MaltaGirl's blog it will happen on Wired Temples too.
Anthony D. Gatt to return to Malta: following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, Anthony has decided to return to Malta because Tulane University will not be in session at all this semester. As an international exchange student he has been unable to transfer to a different university as easily as most of the rest of the Tulane students have done. I wish he would write some more about his experience over the past couple of weeks in his blog.
Stagno is back on the blog: Malta's literary enfant terrible has returned to his blog this week to lament about, among other things, the regular electricity black-outs where he lives. I am not surprised that things are as bad as they are and I believe they could get worse next summer. However, do you really believe that things would really get better simply if a different party was running the Maltese government, Ġuż?
Joke of the month:Car Free Day is a great idea that (although not entirely useless) has little of the desired impact the people who originally came up with it would have really liked it to have. Consider Car Free Day in light of this: speaking during a meeting of the Road Safety Group of the European Conference of Ministers for Transport, Malta's Urban Development and Roads Minister Jesmond Mugliett revealed that there are 680 motor vehicles registered for every 1,000 inhabitants on the Maltese Islands.
Maltese podcasting series continues: i-Tech in The Times has published an article about the podcasts released on the MaltaMedia Online Network a few weeks ago. The series on 9/11 from a Maltese perspectives continues with a daily offering for another week.
One third of this month is over and it feels like September has already given out a whole month's worth of excitement and disappointments. I think this is mostly because of Katrina, of course, even though I'm not so sure that the Maltese living in Malta are as interested in what's going on the southern coast of the USA, as other Europeans clearly are from the media coverage the aftermath of the hurricane continues to receive even two weeks after if first made news headlines.
posted by Toni Sant at 7:35 PM
Thanks for the link, Toni! What I liked most about the guestblogging, besides the actual posts, was the way so many people interacted in the comments :-) I'm looking forward to seeing more of it in other people's blogs, and maybe you should consider it too since you're away so much ;-)
Bah. Your comment is what people usually say when we grumble about the government.
'Issa jitla' Sant u jirranga kollox,' is my friend Mario's sarcastic retort when I start moaning.
Unfortunately we are lumped with a cabinet of mongols, and it is them who have been running the country for nearly 20 years - it is about them that I grumble, because it is them who promised us the Earth, and who keep talking as if we live in the most efficient country in the world.
Where on earth do other parties come into the equation then?
Other parties do not come into the equation at all, Ton.
Why is it that people always talk about the PN in Government being a 'lesser evil'?
Tsk Tsk.
Guze, I have a few friends in Mongolia who might be offended with your comments ;)
Tsk tsk. Ta' ntern ahdar int, Robert... :)
The apathatetic tone of Toni's comment made me think. Let us say it was Labour in government and it was performing in such an abysmal manner... would people say: 'Do you think that with PN in govt, things would be any better?'
Of course they wouldn't... they would long for the PN's return to power. Most of the PN brigade act like it's their God-given right to rule the country.
Ġuż, I really hate generalizations! And I won't comment on your historical myopia. You're entitled to that! ;-) However, please make sure you don't misunderstand my political comments. I never said that the PN is the better of two evils. I honestly don't think that way. Thinking that change can come from one political party or another in Malta is part of the problem. An electoral system that disregards minor voices is another part of the problem. I believe that in Malta, only individual moments of greatness make the significant changes we attribute to politicians and their parties.
MaltaGirl, I don't think I'll be inviting guest bloggers to my blog any time soon. Some blogs are more suited to guest bloggers than others. Wired Temples is such a blog, as is yours, of course.
I was talking in broad terms. I wasn't thinking of you in particular, Sliema boy :D
One cannot deny what I have been saying over the weekend though; especially my comments about fellow writers and Malta's political problems.
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