Toni Sant's Blog

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

Unnatural Selection

noreply@blogger.com (Toni Sant) — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 05:55:00 PDT

I'm in Malta this week. It's a quick visit for personal and professional reasons. It's all good stuff, even if I don't particularly like traveling long distances for short visits. This is exactly how I feel whenever I go to academic conferences or other professional engagements. Then again, it's a way to get out of my head, ward off severe bouts of cabin fever and meet all sorts of delightful

Call Me

noreply@blogger.com (Toni Sant) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 05:12:45 PDT

As we approach the end of the fourth year of weekly podcasts in my Mużika Mod Ieħor series, the show is now sponsored by Vodafone. I'm grateful that we now have the required support to not only continue promoting music from Malta but also a new push towards the possibility of develop things even further in the coming months and years.I've just embarked on a year-long academic sabbatical to focus

Haven’t Met You Yet

noreply@blogger.com (Toni Sant) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 03:09:51 PDT

I seem to be involved in more new web development projects than I actually have time for right now. Thankfully, some of the people I'm collaborating with know what they're doing, so I have good reasons to believe that it'll all start coming together very soon. This is not to say that I'm not (always!) looking for new collaborators. Quite the opposite, actually.One of these web development

So Far, So Good...So What!

noreply@blogger.com (Toni Sant) — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 09:23:43 PDT

I've compiled a list of alternative music from Maltese recording artists released so far in 2009. This is the fourth year that I'll be polling my blog readers and Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast listeners towards establishing the top favourite releases of the year.The number of new releases is already slightly larger than it has been in any year since 2006, even if, as ever, I have a feeling my list is

Only When You Leave

noreply@blogger.com (Toni Sant) — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 12:55:15 PDT

Earlier this month it seemed as if the grim reaper was working overtime, particularly on Maltese fifty-somethings. The prelude came with the passing of the gentle mannered Dennis Vella: a great loss for the contemporary Maltese art scene. Most recently, after at least two other Maltese men in their fifties, it was my old friend Remo Mifsud who died. He was only 51 and a very active doer of many

Come So Far Yet Still So Far To Go

noreply@blogger.com (Toni Sant) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 06:22:26 PDT

For once in my life I feel surrounded by more positives than negatives, more knowns than unknowns, more good than bad, and more effective action than hot air. This is what change feels like. Much of it is personal, so I don't expect everyone (or even anyone!) to feel the same way as I do. If there's one thing that's around right now that I can pick to demonstrate the strong shift I'm trying to