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K&T: Baba O'Riley

Tirritorna ir-rubrika Kinnie & Twistees fuq j’accuse (ghax iddum inqas ittellaghha hawn milli toqghod ittella’ ohra fil-blogg l-iehor). Erba’ kelmiet bejn haga ohra dwar dak li qed jigri go Lussemburgu, gewwa Malta u fl-Ewropa. K&T – ikel u xorb ghal generazzjoni X.

Bhalissa li kelli naghzel soundtrack ghall-pass kwazi frenetiku li ghaddejjin bih hawn kieku naqla’ din id-diska mill-kaxxi tal-memorja ta’ generazzjoni ohra. The Who ikantaw Baba O’Riley dwar s-suldati mohlija fil-Vietnam. Taqra’ l-ahbarijiet ta’ llum minn fuq l-internet, il-gazzetti jew TV u tibqa’ b’dik it-toghma ossimoronika – qarsa u helwa fl-istess hin. Id-dipressjoni ekonomika ghadha bilkemm bdiet tinhass kif suppost. S’issa smajna il-garr imma il-mizerja ghadha ma hix maghna. Filwaqt li tajjeb li tittama li l-mizerja ma tasal qatt ma tistax ma tikkuntemplax il-possibilità li l-materjalizmu li drajna fis-snin disghin u fil-bidu ta’ dan is-seklu ser ikollna niccahdu ftit minnu ghal xi zmien.

Fl-istess waqt li d-dipressjoni tispira l-arti u l-muzika b’injezzjoni ta’ kreattività ddisprata it-teknologija tibqa’ ghaddejja bir-ritmu mghaggel u inkredibbli. L-izvilupp u l-progress qed jaghmel tieghu. Il-Golf tal-Messiku mghedded bl-ikreh capep ta’ zjut – frott ta’ kilba ghall-ahhar qtar tad-deheb l-iswed. Is-sistema kapitalista splodiet il-gewwa (implodiet?) minhabba ukoll riskji u nfieq bla razan. Ma hix l-ahhar tad-dinja imma anki l-kalendarju Majan li jieqaf fis-sena 2012 ihassbek ftit mhux hazin.

Stramba – il-progress jibqa’ ghaddej – johrog l-iphone il-gdid, il-generazzjonijiet tal-majkrocipps u kompjuters jitwieldu meta dawk ta’ qabilhom ikunu lanqas biss ghadhom indraw. Issa studji ricenti qed jistaqsu x’effetti ser ikollu l-izvilupp teknologiku fuq l-imhuh. Il-progress teknologiku ser ifisser rigressjoni mentali? U l-arti u l-muza tista’ tissupera din il-biza?

Interessanti. Merhba lura ghal Kinnie u Twistees.

4

Not fair. There’s 1,000,000 reasons why the word “upgrade” should be declared illegal. They’ll probably sell in one week in the US starting 24th June.

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Sette Giugno

If you’re a shopowner and you’re reading this from your workplace while waiting for the first customers to walk into the shop on this public holiday then congrats for paying €700 for the right to display full confidence in the love of commerce of the average Maltese shopper. I wonder whether shopping centres such as Plaza, Bay Street or the Point get to pay €700 once for the whole establishment or whether each outlet in the centres has to pay individually.

If the pay once for a centre rule applies then I wonder if it would work for agglomerations of shops such as the one set up for shops in Republic Street. I’m still not convinced about all this fuss with shops opening on public holidays. As I have said before my only concern would be the employees – then again if replacements are found for Sundays and Public Holidays then blessed is the free market.

It’s the seventh june and there is not much to report from Luxembourg on this Maltese public holiday. Just a little note – I am ‘blaming’ our little post on Israel and Death in the Med for the sudden otherwise inexplicable hike in readership with over 2,500 readers per day for two consecutive days. Either that or Antoine Vella is desperate for reading material on the net given the partial demise of his pink read.

Blog readership is about to go into the notorious usual period of summer slump (probably exacerbated by the World Cup) – unless iphones and ipads at the beach give us a new surprise. Expect J’accuse to adapt accordingly.

Happy Sette Giugno to all you revellers out there…. and to Twanny V.

timesofmalta.com uncut

I’s the third time this week that the Timesofmalta.com editors have chosen to not publish my comments online. Now they are fully entitled to choose to ignore my contribution to the high level debate that goes on in the nether regions of every illuminated article. Since freedom of expression is in vogue right now we thought of creating a website where the comments that are not exactly kosher on the timesofmalta.com would be welcome.

We have the prototype up and running. The address is www.timesofmalta.vox.com. The “vox” in the address is quite appropriate as it gives a voice to those commentators with whom the Times has trouble dealing.

Incidentally the comment that sparked this action was a comment of mine at the foot of the Times editorial today. Ed was rambling about how nobody has commented on the Labour plan to tackle corruption and I just remarked that “nel nostro piccolo” we had already done so at J’accuse on the 15th of May. That was this morning. This afternoon and many comments later there is still no sign of our comment. Hence “TOM Uncut“.

The moment we have more time we will move this new blog to a new permanent base with a lovely web address that is sure to surprise the timesofmalta geeks. If you have any comment that has not passed the censorship lines be sure to follow the instructions on TOM Uncut.

Publish and be damned Baby!

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The Funny Politician

The weirdly named (for an Englishman) Lembit Opik is one of the Liberal Democrat politicians who lost their seat at the last general election in the UK. As he had promised half-jokingly during the special post-election edition of Have I Got Elections News for You he has now taken up a new career – stand up comedy. The BBC reviews his first performance in a small London club here (Give it up for Lembit Opik).

Listening to the BBC news review I couldn’t help but wonder about our set of Maltese MPs. Would they make it onto the stand-up comedy circuit? Would, for that matter, any comedian in Malta make the reverse trip to the benches of parliament? J’accuse has been guilty more than once of firing the allegation that parliament is made up of a bunch of clowns but what if we were to take that assertion more seriously? Could JPO add to his never-ending repertoire of part-time jobs and indulgences and find himself on centre-stage cracking an audience up with his tearsome antics? Would Anglu Farrugia bring an entire coffee morning to a standstill with his anecdotes ? Can you imagine the (Edwin) Vassallo and (Anthony Profs) Zammit double act: Did you hear the one about the lesbian couple who had a baby? Side splitting I am sure.

It may be true that our parliament has found its benches stocked with the product of the lesser art of radio entertainment. The Agiuses, Musumecis and Cuschieris of this planet were all a by-product of the “everything goes” and “radio is popular” culture of the mid-nineties but how many politicians possess the necessary wit to give you a good joke on the level of a Stephen Fry or at least a Lee Evans? Anecdotes about past generations of politicans make you wonder whether the odd Bonello Dupuis or Hyzler senior could have done a decent job of it but that generation is long gone. A good sense of humour, a good feeling with the audience and a large dose of wit are prerequisites for the successful stand up comedian – and I don’t think that we’ll be seeing many of those coming out of parliament soon. If it’s slapstick comedy you are after… then it might be worth your while to wait a bit longer and start reaping the dividends of this generations’ bunch of reps.

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About Gays in the Village

Poor old Edwin Vassallo. He kicked off a new chatterfest with his declaration that “what heppens in the bedroom is, up to a point, the government’s business, because it often had to solve problems caused there”. Now I am sure that Edwin Vassallo does not really mean that the government will be adding to the spam already in your inbox about erectile malfunction, viagra and cialis or solving vaginitis issues. Nope this was the Chairman of the House Social Affairs Committee discussing their latest topic: “the situation of homosexuals and transgender individuals in Malta”.

Apparently the committee learnt that what happens in the bedroom often ends up before the state to do something about it – citing as examples (wait for it) single parents and teenage pregancies. Once again I cannot vouch for the reporting on the times but surely – surely – Edwin Vassallo is not equating problems in some hypothetical bedroom peopled with homosexuals resulting in a teenage pregancy? By who? The Gay Holy Spirit? And single parents? Who? Gay Geppetto? Sorry Pinocchio if you thought being carved out of wood and having the wrong part of your body grow longer at the wrong time was a problem then think again – daddy is a homo.

Following that mother of all non sequiturs the Times tried to fan the fire by throwing in a few choice quotes from MGRM’s Gabi Calleja about creative ways to have children. I can’t wait for the comments to get rolling on that one. Meanwhile politicians were still having that tit for tat. Vassallo (PN) was reacting to Anthony Zammit (PL) who had repeated what Progressive Joseph had said, which was basically “the state did not care what happened in the bedroom”. Professor (yes, professor) Anthony Zammit’s contribution to the discussion (apart from parrotting his leader) was this: “I am happy to say that I have a lot of gay friends” adding he was never ashamed to be seen with them (not like David Laws then). Anthony Zammit’s declaration reminded me of this episode from Mock the Week (replace “black” with “homosexual” and you see how this kind of statement only fits in a comedy scenario):

The came the coup de grace. Both parties have their fair share of ugly heads that are best kept below the radar. PL has that Anglu Farrugia shooting illogical theories every other day. This time it was the PN’s very own Catholic Mullah who gave us the loveliest and juciest of quotes:

“Dr Fenech Adami asked MGRM representatives whether in homosexual couples there were “mother and father” roles. In his and his wife’s experience, Dr Fenech Adami said, when they tried filling each other’s roles the results weren’t that good”.

Well. I guess if Beppe has trouble switching roles then everybody else does. How’s that for a non sequitur?

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