Toni Sant's Blog

This Charming Life

noreply@blogger.com (Toni Sant) — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 03:24:36 PDT

These last couple of weeks I spent a substantial number of nights away from my cozy bed. It's great to sample various hotel chains and get a large city buzz from time to time but I certainly wouldn't enjoy living the rat race again full time. I enjoyed meeting people and going places in Malta, Glasgow and London, but now it's back to reality on the holodeck until the next adventure.Mużika Mod

Qalb ta' Kampanjol

noreply@blogger.com (Toni Sant) — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 01:37:11 PST

I'm saddened to hear of the demise of Maltese '70s pop singer Tony Gauci, who resurfaced on TV just last year thanks to Favourite Channel. I wasn't aware that his health had deteriorated to a life-threatening level as he was still in his mid-60s. Tony will undoubtedly be best remembered in time as one of the strongest links between traditional għana and modern Maltese pop songs. Back in his

I Don't Want To Go Out

noreply@blogger.com (Toni Sant) — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 08:08:43 PST

Having once again witnessed the devastation property development in Malta has leveled at green areas and small towns across the islands, I am glad to see that a group of environment NGOs are taking to the streets to raise awareness about various issues that have ruined the country's environment. Encroachment of urban areas, illegal hunting and trapping, illegal occupation of public land, loss of

The Sun Always Shines On TV

noreply@blogger.com (Toni Sant) — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 02:08:58 PST

My visits to Malta are almost always flavoured with a main theme, which dominates most of my activities in the days I spend visiting my country of birth. Often it's music. Sometimes it's family. This time it's TV. To be quite honest it feels a little odd, particularly because I thought I had shaken off the ghost of TV before the end of the 20th century.This round of TV-dominated activities

Dream On

noreply@blogger.com (Toni Sant) — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 12:56:58 PST

Malta's entry for the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest was selected last night. Newcomer Thea Garrett will sing My Dream by Jason Cassar and Sunny Aquilina this May in Oslo. It was a relatively easy selection for the expert panel of judges and the televoting public to pick this act from the 20 entries in the final round of Malta's selection for this year's Eurovision. The local pop scene is tired and

Long Hard Road

noreply@blogger.com (Toni Sant) — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 02:59:39 PST

Looks like we've made it! The weekly Mużika Mod Ieħor series has reached the 200th podcast. Starting way back in November 2005, it has taken just over four years to get here. When the 100th podcast was released it was clearly time to celebrate but now I feel that every new podcast is a celebration in itself. The 200th MMI podcast is a special edition but last week's podcast was just as special,

Almost There

noreply@blogger.com (Toni Sant) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 03:13:30 PST

As I sat down to prepare the 199th Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast this morning it dawned on me that next week's edition will be the 200th in the series. I recalled how the 100th edition was marked as a special occasion back in 2008, first by Michael Bugeja in The Sunday Times (of Malta) and then through the MMI podcast itself featuring a bunch of carefully picked tracks. Should I make the 200th MMI

Sign O The Times

noreply@blogger.com (Toni Sant) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 12:23:07 PST

A couple of weeks ago my friend Ariadne Massa, Chief Sub-Editor and long standing journalist with The Times (of Malta), asked me to answer some questions on "on how the changes in technology impact the media business in Malta" for an in-house diploma organised by her newspaper bosses.In the spirit of this blog and everything it has come to represent over the last 6 years, I asked Ariadne to

Don't Tell Me That It's Over

noreply@blogger.com (Toni Sant) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 02:14:47 PST

While we can safely assume that the newness of 2010 is behind us, some of us may not be back on the grind in full throttle quite yet. Speaking from a personal perspective, I'd say that it was only last week that I really got back into the swing to things properly, but this is not to say that the days before that were filled with hours of lounging around doing nothing.One way I gauge whether we're

Firestarter

noreply@blogger.com (Toni Sant) — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 04:01:29 PST

My ears are still buzzing from last night's concert by The Prodigy at the Bridlington Spa's Royal Hall. It's almost incredible that this band has been around for 20 years and it was simply amazing to see young people in the audience who weren't even born back when they started out. The Prodigy is simply a massive band and their music is undoubtedly anthemic for a whole generation. There's a

Empire State of Mind

noreply@blogger.com (Toni Sant) — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 02:31:52 PST

Between the horrific events in Haiti and the banal nonsense emanating from Malta, I find myself considering what may actually be in store for us in 2010. More precisely I'm also thinking what's ahead for me personally as a continue with my AHRC sabbatical, which at the very least will yield a book I've written on Franklin Furnace.There was a time when I would have gone on to blog about these

I Like It Rough

noreply@blogger.com (Toni Sant) — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 02:24:36 PST

I'm amazed at the recent developments on the case of young Mark Camilleri who is looking at the prospect of facing jail time because of Malta's outdated obscenity, censorship and blasphemy laws. Mona Farrugia (Malta's number one food writer) has published a very articulate reflection on the situation. She has also started circulating an online petition addressed to Malta's lawmakers asking for

Shout to the Top

noreply@blogger.com (Toni Sant) — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 11:16:30 PST

Happy New Year! Let's hope it's a good one.Now that the brief Christmas break is over, the Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast returns with a special edition featuring music from the 2009 Listeners' Picks poll. Here are the entries voted as the listeners' top picks from the poll we conducted on Facebook throughout the month of December 2009. This year, the poll was facilitated by Kenneth J. Vella.2009 Top

See Saw

noreply@blogger.com (Toni Sant) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 09:05:37 PST

2009 is history. For the last six years I've been blogging about the ups and downs at the end of every year. Although my blog has been taken over almost completely by show notes for my weekly Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast, I still manage to sneak in all sort of (seemingly) unrelated comments and entries on a regular basis. In any case, this whole exercise continues to simply be a collection of

Gone Gone Gone

noreply@blogger.com (Toni Sant) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 03:25:23 PST

At about this time of the year for the past 9 years, Mario Axiaq and I have been putting together a list of obituaries for people known for their public life in Malta. It is an exercise that works hand in glove with Mario's AboutMalta.com project to chronicle Malta day by day and MaltaMedia's round-up of the year gone by.While countless tributes will be made to Michael Jackson, Mike Bongiorno,

Christmas Is Just Around The Corner

noreply@blogger.com (Toni Sant) — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 11:50:05 PST

Christmas is here once again. Don't you just love how the wheel goes round and round? I've just cracked open this year's dark rum, even if a nice bottle of Benromach Traditional Speyside Single Malt Scotch Whiskey I won in a local competition last summer has managed to beat it to the start line this year. What would life be like without the seasonal spirit?The steady flow of new Christmas music

Everything In Its Right Place

noreply@blogger.com (Toni Sant) — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 02:38:55 PST

Last week I wrote about the way things seem to come together at this time of the year. Ritual and routine help give us a sense of who we are and where we are. It's quite wonderful really, even for someone like me who celebrates chaos most of the rest of the year.This blog and my weekly podcast are a central part of that routine for me. As one of my teachers once told me, I prefer to promote chaos

Time To Pretend

noreply@blogger.com (Toni Sant) — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 03:01:52 PST

December brings with it a bunch of annual occurrences that mark the end of the year. The first of these is the Maltese song festival organized annually by the YTC known as L-Għanja tal-Poplu. A couple of music awards events follow it within just a few days. Meanwhile two of the three public holidays the Maltese enjoy during this month roll around and clearly it's time to share season's

Out of Time

noreply@blogger.com (Toni Sant) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 14:58:00 PST

Time is my greatest enemy. There's never enough time to do all the things I'd really like to do. I think I live a fairly simple life and yet I'm somehow caught up in doing all sorts of creative things that take more time than anyone can physically handle.To make things worse, certain things have deadlines or what you could call a shelf-life. This means that all the time in the world can never be

Tomorrow's Dream

noreply@blogger.com (Toni Sant) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 02:48:07 PST

Very recently I was asked about the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, more than once. Perhaps it's not inappropriate to air my position on this publicly, especially since I've never really done this before. There are very few children (i.e. under 15s) I'm particularly interested in hearing sing or watch perform. Shaheen Jafargholi is one recent notable exception, of course. While I think that it's

Shadowside

noreply@blogger.com (Toni Sant) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 01:50:54 PST

Something pretty unusual happened this week but for some odd reason I can't really remember what it was. All I remember when it happened is thinking it would be good to include this on my blog. It seems silly to say this here but Twitter has made blogging about moments rather than significant ideas unnecessary Micro-blogging is a far better way to share moments than blogs are. Blogging remains

Love's Dream

noreply@blogger.com (Toni Sant) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 05:33:00 PST

I'm in Hungary this weekend attending a conference on youth culture and new media in faith-driven communities under the InYgo banner. I was actually invited to give a keynote address at the start of the conference in Dobogokö yesterday and stayed on to follow the rest of the proceedings and sample what Budapest has to offer on a Saturday afternoon/evening. You can't really get the feel for a

No Hassle Night

noreply@blogger.com (Toni Sant) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 01:03:01 PST

From time to time, when I sit down to blog about my podcast there's little else to say except what's in that particular week's edition and a few related bits and bobs. As you read on it'll become very apparent that this is one of those occasions.There are a couple of interesting picks on this week's Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast, which is the 186th in the series, now sponsored by Vodafone. All the

Once More

noreply@blogger.com (Toni Sant) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 06:59:47 PDT

From time to time I feel I've reached a state of calm. This is a good thing. It means that the excitement and energy driving me to do something or other has subsided, but it also means that there's something else coming up just around the corner. Unfortunately my periods of calm rarely last more than a couple of weeks. If you don't believe me just browse through my blog.One way to gauge these how

Waterloo Sunset

noreply@blogger.com (Toni Sant) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 02:20:41 PDT

Last Tuesday evening I was walking across Waterloo Bridge from London's theatre district heading towards the National Theatre on the South Bank to hear a spot of live jazz and take in an exhibition of Maurizio Buscarino's photos from Grotowski's Apocalypsis Cum Figuris. Suddenly I realized that if I turned to look back on the Westminster skyline what I was really experiencing was a Waterloo