Always Right Behind You

It's been another strange week. I'm beginning to feel an urgent need for a proper break, but that's not going to happen for a while. At least I managed to get out and do some decent work in the garden this weekend.

I was going to post something about the death of Sir Anthony Mamo a couple of days ago but chose not to, mostly for a personal reason I'm about to share with you now. Throughout my childhood I recall my departed grandmother Ġiużeppa and the late great-aunt Ġiustina saying that Sir Anthony was their cousin. They were all Mamos anyway. I even recall my grandmother saying that she was his babysitter at one point. My father reminded me about some of this when the news of the demise of Malta's first President spread across the Maltese Islands. It feels good to know that such a revered man - a politician, no less - was a distant relative. It appears that the Mamo side of my family has great genes, as my grandmother and a couple of her siblings lived very long lives just like Sir Anthony. Unlike most Maltese men he even managed to outlive his wife Margaret, who passed away about six years ago.

Moving swiftly on to this week's Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast, which is number 112 in the series. In true spring mood it features all new tracks released in recent days, weeks or months, as the case may be. First off is the song Memories from Two, the second EP by Chasing Pandora. When this duo first appeared on the scene a couple of years ago I was one of many who raved about them. Now that they've acquired a solid following I can completely see why. They deserve every accolade they get, even if they still haven't surpassed themselves on their divine debut.

Local music scene veterans The Myth have also just released new material. In their case it's a single called Star. By their own admission this song sounds like something out of the Oasis songbook; like a cross between Champagne Supernova and Live Forever. I prefer their blues-tinged numbers but it's good to see them spread their repertoire to include the sound of other (more recent) bands they admire.

It's always a pleasure to listen to new releases on the Pinkpube website. Their most recent release is an EP by Brian James, which was actually first made available for download in January. The 4-track EP is called Ectomorph and from it I've selected Red Strobe; incidentally the whole thing is available as a free download from Pinkpube.com. Brian is one of Malta's techno pioneers and he has inspired many others to follow in his footsteps, even if they're not always aware of how significant he is for the local electronic music scene.

This type of music is/was often referred to as house. The two styles are actually quite distinct, even if most people are unable to distinguish between the two...particularly anyone for whom this is just electronic din. One of the up and coming house-masters (does that term still have any meaning on the street?) is SunSatION. I know very little about him other than the fact that he's quite young guy from Żurrieq. From his MySpace page I've included the tune Not A Wonderful World as the closing track for this week's podcast.

The RSS feed for the Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast is available here or you can simply click here to subscribe directly with iTunes. You can also add the latest episodes to your My Yahoo! page. If you have no idea what any of this means, just click here.

Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun

In memory of Dr Albert Hofmann (1906 - 2008)...

Lacrimosa

On Good Friday morning I've taken to playing the double CD of Jesus Christ Superstar by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber: the original London concept version from 1969 featuring Ian Gillan before he became famous as Deep Purple's singer. It's a ritual that strangely connects me to my childhood in Malta during Easter time, particularly Good Friday, for a number of reasons, some of which I've already mentioned in a previous blog entry. My fraternal friend Immanuel Mifsud plays Stravinsky's Rite of Spring in a similar ritual on the first day of spring. Oddly enough, this year they both fall on the same day.

On this quiet day I can't fail to think about some of the deaths we heard about in recent days. First on the list is artist Ebba von Fersen Balzan who passed away at Mater Dei Hospital last Sunday. I only met Ebba a couple of times. Once at the home she shared with her husband Saviour in Naxxar at the the of the 1980s and then one other time at an art event in the early 1990s. It's always sad to hear of people who die young. Ebba was 50 and that's far too young to die. The same goes for film-maker Anthony Minghella, a former drama student and lecturer at the University of Hull, who lost his life unexpectedly mid-week at the age of 54. I'm sure they both still had a lot to offer in making other people's lives more enjoyable.

Death is saddening whenever it comes. It's an irrevocable end like no other. It's one of the subjects that makes frequent appearances on my blog. I'm moved by death even when it befalls older individuals. Two such moments happened on Wednesday this week with visionary writer Arthur C. Clarke at 90 years old and actor Paul Scofield at 86. Both played a significant part in my creative imagination as a teenager. Scofield with his iconic film acting and Clarke with his TV series Mysterious World more than his futurist views on 2001.

First Cut is the Deepest

Earlier today I received an email from my father informing me that my dear old friend Roland Friggieri passed away last night after battling a long illness. Roland was a childhood hero for me; you could even say he was a role model of sorts. He was a cool cat before it was hip to be a cool cat in Malta.

I last saw him on Tower Road in Sliema in the summer of 2006. He was just about to retire from work and looked very content. The world was his oyster. Little did I know that he would soon be living the rest of his life of a cancer patient. Knowing him, I'm sure he had no regrets...not even for the perpetual nicotine stains on his fingers.

Of all the people I've met in my life, Roland was undoubtedly the most happy go lucky. Yet, he lived a beautifully paradoxical life, full of grace and a sensibility for some of the finer things this world has to offer. It is quite hard for me to picture him dead.

He was very much like an older brother to me, even though he was actually old enough to be my father. He was a regular patron at my parents' bar on Depiro Street in Sliema. He lived just a few doors up the road anyway, so it was more of a place to hang out than a watering hole for him. Throughout most of the 1970s he would help me out with my homework. His casual coaching had a huge influence on my handwriting and I'll also think of him whenever I do long division without an electronic calculator. My reward for doing all my homework was a regular game of darts or pool in the bar. Needless to say, he taught me how to play both games too.

The complexity of my childhood friendship with Roland came from the fact that while he was a regular fixture in my day-to-day life, providing me with gentle coaching session on my latest school chore, he also provided me with my first on-ramp into the world that his friend J.J. Tellus called "show business". That was a very fascinating world to me as a child. Seeing Roland play a part in the first local production of Jesus Christ Superstar or collaborating with J.J. on his Charlie Chaplin routine remain the earliest staged performance memories from my childhood.

We never really kept in touch when I grew older. Without the bar as a common ground we had no real reason to meet. I'd bump into him here and there from time to time, of course, and he was always incredibly warm towards me. I always felt that Roland's secret was to be satisfied with what he had and never want more than whatever was available.

Rest in peace old friend.

Ninu Ninu tal-Milied

Although my weekly music podcasting series is on a hiatus for the holidays, there's a two-part podcast of traditional għana with a Christmas theme, produced by Ġorġ Mifsud-Kirkop.

This year this seasonal podcast takes on a special meaning: a tribute to the sadly departed Dr Mifsud-Kirkop who passed away just a few days ago.

Part two appears next weekend.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Lament

I just can't believe that my friend Ġorġ Mifsud-Chircop is dead. He was just 56 years old. His passing is a great loss for the study and preservation of traditional Maltese culture.

Ironically I was preparing the list of obituaries for the annual end of year review feature from MaltaMedia.com when I heard about his passing. I had just observed to my colleagues within the MaltaMedia production team that there are very few names on this year's list. That's a good thing, in the sense that fewer prominent people have died this year. It's so sad that we now have one more.

It's not only a surprise but also quite shocking that Ġorġ is now on this year's list. Anyone who has studied Maltese at A-level in the last 25 years or so knows Ġorg Mifsud-Chircop's name from the textbook Fommu Bil-Għasel. His name was also synonymous with the Maltese folk scene and anyone involved in the preservation and dissemination of local traditions sure knew him and/or was known by him.

Ġorg established the National Festival of traditional Għana about 10 years ago and he was behind the creation of a countless radio and television broadcasts of traditional Maltese music and storytelling. After his mentor Ġuże Cassar Pullicino, he was undoubtedly the foremost Maltese folklorist. Beyond all that, he was also a very generous human being and a trustworthy friend. I'm sure that he will be sorely missed by many.

The last time I met him it was during one of my visits to Malta in 2006. He had organized an evening of traditional storytelling and għana at the Teatru Manoel courtyard. The event was entitled Nirrakuntaw mal-Ġaħan Tagħna: A story telling evening - Words, ballads and Maltese Għana; a collaboration between Poeżija Plus Narraturi 21. A full audio recording is available, courtesy Campus FM. It was the middle of winter but the atmosphere at the event was incredibly warm. I was moved to tears on that day. It was simply magical. Thank you Ġorġ...I really appreciated that and much else that you did.

* * * * *

Incidentally, here's the full list we're assembled for this year feature, so far:

KARMENU ELLUL GALEA, Trade Unionist and Author
(Died: 29 January 2007)

PAUL J. NAUDI, Civil Servant and Diplomat
(Died: 16 April 2007)

EMANUEL HABER, Media Executive and Writer
(Died: 28 June 2007)

MARIO SERRACINO INGLOTT, Linguist and Chess Master
(Died: 22 September 2007)

JOHN C. FRIGGIERI, Writer
(Died: 8 Novembru 2007)

ĠORĠ MIFSUD-CHIRCOP, Folklorist and Educator
(Died: 19 December 2007)

If you think there's anyone else we should include in this list, please contact me. We'd also appreciate any corrections to dates of death as listed here, because we don't always get things 100% right.

Slip Slidin' Away

Karlheinz Stockhausen is a name I've known well for many years. I borrowed the name from one of his compositions, Zyklus, for my very first radio series more than twenty years ago. He died earlier this week but I doubt that anyone I know actually cares who he was; my music colleagues at the university and a couple of other "serious" musician friends are the exception, of course.

Whenever I think about death it's a reality check for me. It doesn't have to be the death of a person. It could even be an abstract death, like that brought about annually to every year by the end of December. It gives me pause for thought about the noble truth of impermanence.

Moving swiftly on to the last of the remaining two podcasts in my weekly Mużika Mod Ieħor series for this year. Now that the 2007 poll of the Listeners' Picks is well underway, I must of course take some time to play some of the tracks that should have made it onto the list of this year's nominations but didn't, mostly because I was not aware of them by the cut-off date.

The first of these is a song by The Myth called Sworn Independent. I've been trying to get my hands on a decent recording by this band for quite some time. This is one of the few bands active now in Malta that has been playing for over a decade. This new song is quite good. It shows a band that has matured over the years and yet stayed in touch with recent developments in musical tastes. It's a keeper...and it's such a pity that it's not on the MMI 2007 poll.

The same goes for Scar's Stolen. Their refreshing presence at this year's Malta Song for Europe sadly overshadowed the release of this excellent song. Frontman Konrad Pule' is undoubtedly one of the most versatile performers on the local scene, with very few true rivals. Listen to this new song carefully more than once and you'll also see that my praise is well deserved.

Last week's plug for one of 2007 outstanding newcomers has actually had a direct effect on the way voting has progressed since then. Dean Saviour went from having no votes last week to topping the Internet Releases category this week, ahead of The Characters and The Rifffs. I think that's quite amazing. He got in touch with me a few days ago and mentioned that he has also recently collaborated with Jay Omaro on a song called My World. Well, since I missed that one too on the 2007 MMI poll I thought it would be a good idea to include it on this week's podcast. I like this song, but I think that's also partly because it reminds me of record I used to play very frequently on my radio breakfast show back in 1991, even if it doesn't really sound like it except for a couple of guitar chords.

David Magro is another musician who got contacted me this week to let me know what he's been up to recently. I wish more musicians and singers would do that. David is known as Mind's Eye Dub, undoubtedly Malta's foremost reggae artist. He has just released a new song called Hold On, which he dedicates to all Africans in the world. At least MED is on the 2007 MMI poll with another release from earlier in this year. So, if you like this one you can still vote for him by voting for this other track.

The RSS feed for the Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast is available here or you can simply click here to subscribe directly with iTunes. You can also add the latest episodes to your My Yahoo! page. If you have no idea what any of this means, just click here.

Ghost Dance

This should become my Halloween tradition quite soon: I first posted these photos in 2004 and again in 2005, but I thought it would be a good idea to re-blog them today along with the original text:



My father sent me these two pictures of a tomato he just cut up for some traditional Maltese ħobz biż-żejt. He just couldn't resist saying Happy Halloween with this. So, a Happy Halloween to you too. Boo!



OBLIGATORY DISCLAIMER: This post is not to be considered as an endorsement of Halloween, which is the second most commercial festivity after Christmas.

Silence is Golden

Just a few minutes ago I was getting ready to post a little reminder for anyone looking for this week's podcast when the BBC broke the news that Marcel Marceau has died. I was fortunate enough to see this world-famous mime live at the Kaye Theatre in New York a few years ago. His theatre show stands out as one of the most remarkable performances I've ever seen. However, the most impressive performance I've ever seen from him is in Mel Brooks' Silent Movie, where he is the only person who speaks. Simply hysterical.

To get back to the original reason for blogging this morning: there is no new podcast in the Mużika Mod Ieħor series this weekend. The next edition will be released next weekend. Meanwhile, please have a look at the preliminary list of nominations for the MMI Listeners' Picks from Maltese music released in 2007.

What Goes Around

Every six years a calendar date occurs on the same day again.
It's Tuesday September 11 again today.

Not much new to say. Still bad. Still sad.

Remember all the fallen.

Diana

Here is my article marking the 10th anniversary from the death of Princess Diana. It appears in this Saturday's Weekender from The Times (of Malta).

DIANA STILL FASCINATES

Princess Diana died in a car crash 10 years ago. However she lives on and will continue to do so. Toni Sant takes a different look at the People's Princess who changed and marked the royal family forever

by Toni Sant

Princess Diana deserves coverage because people still love her. This is the reason you're reading yet another feature about Diana. While some people may genuinely have had more than enough of Diana 10 years on from the fatal car accident that left her, her boyfriend and their drunk driver dead, others will undoubtedly consider it near blasphemous that anyone can do anything but love her.

Before I started writing these few words about Diana, I thought there was nothing really new to add.

Then I started to do some research and realised that like Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Jim Morrison and a handful of other dead iconic celebrities from the entertainment world, she will possibly live on forever in a huge hall of referential mirrors.

The most interesting of all these mirrors, for me, is not in one of the never-ending stream of books published about her, to say nothing of the countless newspaper and magazine articles.

Princess Diana is mostly on my mind this year through the daring comedic bravado of Ricky Gervais, who is known in Malta mostly through his BBC series The Office. The British comedian has written (and appears in) an episode of the popular animated TV series The Simpsons. This episode, which first aired in the United States and Britain this past spring, dares to lampoon Lady Di in a way that hasn't been seen since Spitting Image delighted millions in the Commonwealth. I would argue that this new joke is funnier because it is very subtle and is inserted almost exclusively for the cognoscenti of popular culture.

In Homer Simpson, This is Your Wife, Gervais appears as a cartoon character named Charles Heathbar, based on David Brent, the regional manager from The Office. Marge Simpson moves into Heathbar's house in a plot involving a reality TV series called Mother Flippers where husbands swap wives for a predetermined period of time.

Charles falls in love with Marge and sings her a song he wrote for her entitled Lady Blue. The blue in the title is a pun on the way someone feels when they're sad or lonely and Marge's hair colour. Gervais has described Lady Blue as the worse song you could possibly write. The lyrics include these rhyming verses:

Lady, when you go away
I feel like I could die
Not like dye like your hair is dyed
But die Like Lady Di
And not like Di like her name is Di
But die like when she died
But lady just like Lady Di
Be my princess tonight
But don't die.

The direct allusion in the song words is not the only reference to Princess Diana in this episode. While Ricky/Charles sings this song, the cartoon character's legs are briefly seen through his kimono just as he stands in front of the fire place in his house, echoing the now-famous controversial 1981 photo of Lady Di standing in the garden of the school where she worked when she first met Prince Charles, with the sun behind her revealing the outline of her long, amazing legs through her chiffon skirt.

No one should be surprised that any mention of Diana in The Simpsons in not reverential. To expect otherwise from the best thing on television since Prince Charles and Lady Di's wedding video is to believe that a scorpion would never sting a frog if asked to help it cross the river. What's more, this was not the first time her name was taken in vain in The Simpsons. Way back in an episode produced in 1993, professional drunkard Barney Gumble (voiced by Dan Castellaneta) mistook a pile of rags for Princess Di. Interestingly, this sequence was edited out of all post-1997 screenings on British TV.

Closer inspection of the supposedly respectful goings-on reveals that there's more than meets the eye to the ever-growing cult of the dead Diana. Her following now is only superseded by the media interest she generated during her life as the future queen (mother) of England. An obvious part of this interest is fuelled by money. As it was during her adult life so it is after her death. The paparazzi hounded her not (just) because of her beauty or the good causes she championed but because any magazine or newspaper bearing her picture on the cover automatically sold more copies. One good picture of Diana would change a photographer's bank account considerably. An exclusive picture could change the photographer's lifestyle completely.

This racket goes on after her death in a slightly different guise. New photos of Diana are (sadly) not possible. Yet her image and re-inventions of how to present her (an ill-fated monumental fountain, books, a memorial concert, an anniversary commemoration... what's next?) moves money in amounts that are close to or even larger than the entire economy of most African countries or small nations like Malta.

The international mainstream media's agenda is dictated by the bottom line. The days of strict adhesion to ethical codes of conduct are apparently gone now. It is often more cost effective to pay fines and suffer other post-event consequences than to lose out on the income generated from previously unheard of depictions of the British royal family. For every prestigious award-winning film like The Queen, we get two made-for-TV movies like Whatever Love Means (depicting the Charles-Diana-Camilla triangle) or Diana: Last Days of a Princess (including a slightly fictionalised account of Diana's relationship with the al-Fayed family). It is safe to assume that the British monarchy is now treated by large media corporations just like any other rich non-royal dynasty. Their ordinary affairs - romantic, financial or otherwise - are covered in ways that were unheard of just a couple of decades ago.

Royal observers will not be mistaken for noting that Diana's legacy is partly (some would argue in large part) responsible for this shift in distance between titular rulers and the media. When Channel 4 recently aired previously unreleased photos from the car crash scene, they did so in spite of a letter from Princes William and Harry asking them not to. Whether the princes should be made to endure all this is another matter altogether. They can't help the fact that they were born who they are. Unlike Diana, they have no choice on whether to attract public interest in whatever they do. Ironically, this is truer now than before their mother played the media game like no other member of the royal family before or since. Her self-promotion techniques have another unintended consequence than the ones she realised herself during her life in the limelight. Her sons cannot get away from the media's attention, even if they choose to seclude themselves from anything not directly related to their royal duties. They attract media attention because they are royal heirs but more so because they are, and will forever be, Diana's children.

Books have so far not pushed the proverbial line as much as the popular press and television in the way they deal with Diana. She is rarely the protagonist of the narratives where she appears, unless it is an out and out biography. David Baddiel's novel on which the ITV/Granada Television movie Whatever Love Means is based, has Diana appear only in conversations of fictional characters. By contrast, in the TV movie Diana: Last Days of A Princess, the actress playing Diana says things that any observant fan will recognise as implausible on the real princess's lips.

Tina Brown's new biography of Diana clearly indicates that books, however, are not far behind. Brown's Diana takes liberties with the truth that would make speculative biographers like the late Albert Goldman (famous above all for his very subjective assumption-filled biography of John Lennon) very proud. This sort of mirror reflects more what people would like to see and hear about Diana than what's actually there.

Depictions of dead celebrities come with an artistic licence that makes their diehard fans cringe. Even supposedly respectful treatments take liberties with the truth. Oliver Stone's handling of the Jim Morrison story in his film The Doors immediately springs to mind. The more people "love" a dead celebrity, the easier it becomes for the entertainment industry to rework their image and its likenesses into situations as divorced from the truth as the fact that Malta has mountains. Just think of all the situations you've seen "Elvis" in since his untimely death 30 years ago. His hall of referential mirrors is probably the largest for any non-religious celebrity ever.

Princess Diana will not be forgotten. Her youthful looks will remain forever. No botox or air-brushing necessary. There's nothing like death to preserve and enhance beauty, fuelling our fascination with photographed icons. She will be seen and mentioned regularly in our lifetime. Accept it. After all, she was the mother of the future heir of the British monarchy. Number two and number three in line after Prince Charles are both her sons. If/when her son/s get married and have their own children, her grandchildren will be the new heirs to the British monarchy. And so it goes. Even if/when one of her (grand)children abolishes the royal family, it will be Diana's (grand)child who will have brought the royals in step with the times.

Incidentally, Ricky Gervais has been invited to write another episode of The Simpsons.

And So It Goes

Tony Wilson has died. It didn't really come as a great surprise but it's still sad news. He was someone whose work I admired greatly even though I couldn't really say I always admired the personality behind the work. To be sure, the world would be an even more interesting place to live in with more Tony Wilsons about. I'm inclined to either pull out 24 Hour Party People on DVD to watch this weekend or better still line-up all the Factory Records material on my external HD and cherish his memory through a clear understanding that he facilitated everyone of those recordings to enrich the musical tapestry of so many alternative music lovers.

I had hoped to write a bit about the Beached Festival taking place this weekend in Scarborough but Tony Wilson's passing has put me in a weird mood. Yes I'm sad but I'm not really depressed. I'm not overwhelmed either, mostly because I hardly knew the man and his death won't really change anything around me. Regular readers of my blog know how fascinated I am by death, even if I'm not obsessed by it in any morbid way. At least I hope not.

Producing the 78th edition of my weekly Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast should take my mind off these thoughts not unlike the way a fine bottle of red wine can make an ordinary evening pleasant after a hard day's work. The opening track from Skorba is just the ticket for this mood I'm in. Ħaġar Qim is one of several tracks from an upcoming album by this Australian band featuring at least two musicians of Maltese descent; Andy Busuttil and Angela Grima. I'll let the music speak for itself this time as I'm sure I'll be playing another track from them once the album is released.

Staying outside the Maltese islands for the second track, I turn to one of the latest songs recorded by Londoner Charlie Calleja. He has appeared on a previous episode of MMI and its with great pleasure that I discovered this week that he has been recording new songs, which you can hear on his MySpace page. I've selected one called Swimming with Dolphins, which to me evokes a subtle desire to reconnect with his Mediterranean roots.

Rachel Fabri is making the South East of London home as she starts attending the Guilford School of Acting for a Master's degree in Musical Theatre. Not too long ago she contributed some distinctive vocals (for a snippet from Lucia Dalla's Caruso) on a new recording by Maltese hip hop act Sixth Simfoni called Breakthru. When I last played Sixth Simfoni on my podcast I mentioned that I knew David Leguesse's father back when I was very active in Malta's theatre scene, some 20 years ago. Since then I've received an email from Jon Mallia's mother, Frances, pointing out that he's her son, so as it happens I know his parents too. Truth be told I remember meeting Jon (a.k.a. Pendemonium) a number of times when he as just a little boy in Mosta and I never really imagined back then that he would blossom so nicely as an adult. Malta really is such a small town of a country.

So to keep things familiar I close this week's podcast with a track from The Vagabond Project, which is the name Gavin Borg is now using for his dance-driven recordings. The style feels more retro than that he adopted as Gavinizer not so long ago. Deep Heat is a pleasant track with hints of early 1980s synth pop, I style I know Gavin is too young to remember clearly first time it came about, but captures and twists quite nicely in his most recent recordings.

Next weekend I'll return with another edition of the Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast since I'm still not planning to take a break this summer. Meanwhile I hope to find the time to blog again about other things.

The RSS feed for the Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast is available here or you can simply click here to subscribe directly with iTunes. You can also add the latest episodes to your My Yahoo! page. If you have no idea what any of this means, just click here.

Tears Dry On Their Own

News of Ingmar Bergman's demise dominated my news radar yesterday. My immediate impulse was to blog about the passing of this great film-maker from Sweden. At the same time, I felt there was nothing I could add to the many nice things said about him. (Just do a search on any decent search site and you'll see what I mean if all this has passed you by like a puffy summer cloud.)

While acknowledging his artistic prowess, I must confess that I'm not really a big fan of Bergman; mostly because none of his films have marked my life in a significant way. This is not to say that I don't like the films of Ingmar Bergman. Far from it. I showed his Persona to my students just a few months ago. It is a very beautiful and disturbing film. The Seventh Seal is undoubtedly on my personal Top 100 Films list. I've seen two or three other films by Bergman, but while I can honestly say that watching his movies is a treat, its not the sort of thing I go out of my way regularly to experience. I don't know why that is. It's just the way things are with me, I guess.

What's for sure is that artists like Bergman are not able to start out doing what he did nowadays. Art making has changed considerably in the last half a century...and that's an understatement, if there ever was one. So to cherish the work of Ingmar Bergman is to appreciate a master at work on an art form that has evolved and mutated or matured (depending on your point of view) almost beyond recognition, from the perspective of budding film-makers.

And now, just this morning, news of Michelangelo Antonioni's death makes me think that the great architect of the universe is organizing a conference of great film-makers in the great beyond.

Unlike Bergman's films, Antonioni's work has left a very indelible mark on my personal artistic sensibility. I am not only referring to the obvious mammoth influence he exerted through the era of Italian neo-realism, even if that aesthetic is one that's very close to my heart. Two of Antonioni's films are among the reasons why I love film. I refer to the two works he made between 1966 and 1970: Blowup and Zabriskie Point. Between them, these two films capture the essence in some of London and California's beautiful and ugly sites of what was later celebrated as "the sixties". What's real and what appears to be real are obviously not the same thing. Antonioni's films are a great place to contemplate this.

When you live as long as Bergman (89) and Antonioni (94) did, and produce the sort of art works they did, it's hardly difficult to say that while they will be missed they lived a good life.

Pastime Paradise

I've just heard some sad news on the radio. David Hatch has died at the age of 68. There are some remarkable people who never really become household names even though they help many become household names during their career. I think it's fair to say that David was one such person. This is to say nothing of his relatively recent knighthood.

It was a thrill to meet him in 1988 when I was a trainee at the BBC. You can see me here in a photo taken in his Broadcasting House office as he presented me with my certificate at the end of my training course. He was Managing Director of BBC Radio at the time and had previously served as Head of Light Entertainment as well as Controller of Radio 2 and Radio 4. I have a feeling he was deep in management hell at that time. He left the BBC about 10 years ago and worked for the National Consumer Council before he retired.

Judging from my hairstyle I wasn't too bothered that I was experiencing a potentially historical moment in my professional life. However, I remember that that I was aware that I was in the presence of an empire's fading glory.

David Hatch left an indelible impression on me throughout my broadcasting career and also delighted many radio listeners through his contributions as producer of I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again and Just a Minute.

No More

I just got back from a short trip to London. I went for the official launch of an amazing book by Steve Dixon called Digital Performance: A History of New Media in Theater, Dance, Performance Art, and Installation. It's a very ambitious publication, but from the bits and pieces I've read up to now it looks like an excellent book. I'll probably write another blog entry about it after I read the whole thing. It's a big book, so it may take me a while to read it from cover to cover.

As I was on the road I didn't have time to check my email so I only found out that Jean Baudrillard died two days ago just a few hours ago. He is one contemporary philosopher who changed my perception of the world we live in. Two of his most important media theory works (Simulations and America) are sitting on my desk right now as I think it's a fitting tribute to this great man to read some of his writings tonight. I wonder what he had to say about his own death. I don't mean that the way it sounds. What I mean to say is it would be interesting to read his thoughts as he approached death, a la Timothy Leary and his Design for Dying.

As if all this wasn't enough, John Inman's death is all over the news today. He marked my psyche as a child growing up in Malta; in a very different way from Baudrillard years later in New York. Still, I believe that Baudrillard would have certainly had something to say about that if asked.

I Can't Stop This Feeling I've Got

About 19 years ago I met Fijian broadcaster Apakuki Coka in London. We were both BBC trainees. He was a very impressive character who was about 15 years older than me. In my typical Maltese manner, I used to tease him by saying that one day soon he would be the head of the Fiji Broadcasting Corporation. Some years later he became Fiji's top radio man, but we lost touch soon after and I never heard of him again.

Strangely enough, this afternoon I googled him. I honestly don't know what got into me. I was quite shocked when I discovered that Kuki died in July 2002 from a heart attack at the age of 51.

I'm only bringing this up on my blog because I can't think of a better place to do so. I emailed my old roommate Angelo Fernando, who was also a BBC trainee with us in London back in 1988 and is now settled in Arizona. I wonder if he knew about this. I don't think he did. He probably would have told me, just like I told him a few minutes ago. I apologize for this public moment of grief, but I really didn't know how else to start processing Kuki's premature passing...especially since he's been dead for almost five years already.

I always feel strange whenever people I know die. I guess it's inevitable. I feel even more strange when acquaintances I haven't seen for many year pass away, especially when they pass on before they can enjoy most of their lives. I don't want to get all morbid on you, so I'll leave it here for today, if that's OK with you.

Saturdays are podcasting days for me. So, if it wasn't for this, today I would just be blogging about the latest edition of Mużika Mod Ieħor. This week it's number 56 in the series and features material I found through MySpace in the last few weeks.

Kristina Casolani is someone I had heard of before but her name never clicked in my head as someone to include on my podcast. This changed the instant I heard her songs on her MySpace page. She's just finished recording an album, which I presume will be released sometime soon. I've picked to play a song she performed on TV as a guest at one of the Song for Europe contests about four years ago, Wanna B Me. I don't think English-language pop music from Malta can ever be better than this.

I'm also pleased to discover Explicit through their MySpace page. Their song Games features an outro, which I believe is quite a rarity these days. I'm looking forward for more from this band. Stephanie Chetcuti is an excellent rock singer and I'm wondering if she moonlights as a singer away from the band like Stillborn's Diane Castillo.

Speaking of Stillborn, their former bass player, Jean Paul Galea has released a couple of solo home-recording on his new MySpace page. I really like the track Return, which I've included on this week's podcast. He is currently looking for new collaborators and I don't hesitate to say that if I lived in Malta I'd be exploring at least one jam session with him. Alas, I'll leave that privilege to those who can catch up with him more often that I would from this self-imposed exile I chose for myself all those years ago.

To close up this week's podcast I've chosen to play a song by one of the bands that debuted on my radar during last October's Battle of the Bands. They're a raw trio called Cable35 and if their song It's Over is a sign of things to come I'll certainly be looking out for more recordings from this band in the coming months.

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