***
Well silly me if for thinking that the subject would not be interesting to some. I forgot the Golden Rule – no, not brevity is a form of wit – but shit and gossip sells. A reader got inspired by the latest repartees on married vs single life and sent me a link to this youtube vid. Interesting.
This article and accompanying Bertoon appear in today’s edition of The Malta Independent on Sunday.
It’s been fourty years (in fifteen days’ time to be exact) since we put a man on the moon. Neil Armstrong took his giant leap for mankind on the 20th of July 1969. At that time the phrase “global village” was in its infancy having only just been coined by Marshall McLuhan a few years before. In his books McLuhan described how distances in the world were shrinking thanks to the advances in electronic technology and the rapid exchange of information and the term would stick until the advent of the “information superhighway” and internet.
The phrase “global village” is now mostly used to refer to the internet itself and the manner in which exchanges thereupon have made the world a much smaller place. What is interesting is that recent studies are finding that the internet’s contribution to the formation of a “global village” may still be only an illusion and that many people still think in very “local” terms. These studies are based on the use of emails. Apparently the frequency of emails diminishes in proportion to the distance between sender and receiver. We are likely to send more emails to people living close to us and our community than to someone far away.
It’s weird isn’t it? You have technology at your disposal that allows you to remain in close contact with people in Canada, Ecuador and Laos at the same time but a very, very high percentage of the emails that you send are sent to your office mates within the same block or people in the same town. When I came across this fact I was a bit diffident but then I reflected on my own emailing habits and noticed that it is very true.
Not only that, my internet habits are very “local” themselves. Morning coffee is normally drunk while browsing online Maltese newspapers first, my blog-roll second and then the less local (but not too distant) “foreign news”. Current foreign favourites include Turin based La Stampa, Milan based La Gazzetta and of course good old BBC. It’s not like I am taken to reading the Boston Herald or the India Times on a daily basis. News aggregators usually do the trick for that by pointing out the main headlines around the world in an instant.
Having trouble dealing with “the people”? An ungrateful electorate has just given you a right royal whupping at the polls? Is your electorate in need of a timely distraction? No plans and nowhere to go? Having trouble roping in your colleagues in cabinet? Has every news topic been a points killer at the opinion polls? Are your spinmeisters doing a shit job at reigning the people back behind you in adulating crowds?
No worries. The solution is a just round the corner.
Rent-A-Piano
…that’ll get them whistling the tune you like ….
Nobel prize winner Dario Fo has suffered a temporary setback while touring with his latest show entitled “Giotto o non Giotto?”. During this show Fo queries whether the famous painter Giotto is actually the person to have painted the famous affreschi in the Assisi basilica. According to Fo the painter was too young to have painted them himself.
The show that was meant to take place in the beautiful piazzale in front of the upper basilica in Assisi had to be cancelled when Bishop Sorrentino refused permission. For once it was not Fo’s notoriety for irreverent material that had incensed a representative of the church but rather the very denial of Giotto’s authorship of the paintings. Sorrentino refused to allow a show that, according to him, would “destroy the magnificent illusion for the last poor Assisi folk”.
Fo is not the first to contest Giotto’s authorship of the painting and neither the mayor nor the friars of the convent had found anything wrong with the show. Fo’s comment on the Bishop’s decision is interesting:
Questo è il segno dei tempi. E’ davvero un’espressione di quel retrivo conservatorismo culturale per il quale ogni alterazione dello status quo diventa un atto di blasfemia.
*Picture: Saint Francis speaking to the birds (Assisi Basilica,attributed to Giotto)
J’accuse is no architect and notwithstanding the ever-expanding ego does not deem itself an expert in the field of architectural appraisals. What follows is a barbarian appraisal of the sketches, plans and whatnot that have been unveiled for the hoi polloi to see and for the commentators (or bloggers as the Sunday Times editor seems to insist) to comment.
In primis we should say that we are always a tad bit mefiant (mistrusting) when it comes to abbozzi or models prepared by prize architects or upcoming upstarts alike. Whenever the work is actually finished the artist’s impression remains just that – an impression – and something gets lost along the way.
Having rid ourselves of that uncomfortable premiss let J’accuse also get rid of the part nobody could give a pig’s bottom (or a salvu balzan face, as the experts in anal discourse and bestiality seem to have decreed) about. J’accuse likes it. We mean the plan and not the swine’s rear-end.
And now for the candid, barbarian observation. What I find most thrilling about the whole shebang in a “I can’t wait to experience it” kind of way is not the Parliament house on stilts (a prize image for us commentators/bloggers) or the fact that 60 years later we decide to preserve the status quo for the Opera House ruins (luverly). Nor is it the ironic fact that the City Gate project will have anything but a gate (charming, and I’m serious).
What I do like is the idea of the subterrenean gallery that, if I read the dastardly sketches right (dastardly because they are miniscule online), should lead through the very entrails of the city for gentlemen and allow the visitor to surface magickally in the midst of what one supposes will be the hustle and bustle of the starting point of Strada San Giorgio (all right, Republic Street).
I recently went on a fleeting visit to the Italy city of Perugia. Having parked in Piazza dei Partigiani the easiest access to the city was through the Rocca Paoliana – a magical city under the city made up of old tunnels and galleries complete with escalators that led you to the very heart of the city. I remember thinking what a magnificent way to get the feel of a city and its history. Who knows, maybe Renzo Piano could have something like that in mind?
Then again, these are only the scrawls and ramblings of a barbarian.
*image taken from the OPM site: Valletta Projects
They might have not won it while exuding sparks of brilliance and samba football but Dunga’s XI twice proved that this new Brasil has added resilience to its repertoire and style of play. Yesterday’s performance was typical of recent runs – an execrable first half in which Brasil all but threw the towel to disciplined army of stars and stripes transformed into a fighting spirit mixed with some polished moments of smooth passing football. Everybody wondered what Carlos Dunga could have said to the Brasilian team at half time when they were still two goals down… well Kakà told us the answer:
“Cosa ci siamo detti nell’intervallo, sotto 0-2? Yes, we can”. (What did we say to each other at half-time, down 0-2? yes, we can).
Sweet irony… he may belong to Jesus (as his t-shirt proudly proclaims) but Florentino Perez might beg to differ.
Bring on South Africa 2010!
