Wired Temples according to Toni Sant

Toni Sant in his latest post surveys the state of Maltese weblogs and writes extensively about Wired Temples describing it as refreshing and ambitous. He says this blog is by far the most active of all Maltese blogs. Thank you Ton for the encouraging words! And let's hope that your prediction about blogging becoming extremely popular with Maltese people in 2005 becomes a reality.

Toni Sant is a former classmate at school and I could'nt help smiling at the way he recalls an incident in his blog going back to when we were both ten years old. Two escape routes from routine classes available to us then were either to run away into the ancient catacombs beneath the school or to be barred from attending school by the strict teacher-priests. Toni reminds me of one instance in which he experienced the latter. It followed a tussle in which we engaged during class hours over something that I have long since forgotten. Our classmate Gattaldo formerly known as Aldo Gatt acted as mediator. The school head believed my version of events so young Toni was found guilty as charged! That incident did'nt do Toni much harm though because he turned out to be one of the most talented and creative artists to emerge from the college.

My friendship with Toni, particularly in later years, was a mind opener and to this day he continues to represent the cutting edge of Maltese media art. I visited him in New York a couple of times and we watched The Last Temptation of Christ together in London when the controversial Martin Scorsese film (with the inspirational Peter Gabriel score) was banned in Malta.

Another former schoolmate of ours at St Paul's Missionary College, prominent writer and theatre director Immanuel Mifsud, currently mourning the family cat, is also a leading member of the Maltese blogging community.

From Toni Sant's blog posted earlier today:

When I started this blog, early last year, there was hardly any regular activity in the blogosphere from and/or about Malta. Five months into the adventure I blogged about the other Maltese blogs I had discovered. Since then a small number of blogs have entered the scene, making blogging something that is now also becoming quite Maltese.

Take in the first instance what is by far the most active blog of all Maltese blogs: Wired Temples. This blog belongs to an old schoolmate of mine; most people know him as one of the 2004 MEP candidates from the Malta Labour Party. Robert Micallef and I went to secondary school together between 1978 and 1983. I have fond memories of him at school because he managed to get me expelled during my first year at St. Paul's Missionary College. Perhaps I'll blog about that some other day.

Robert's blog is a very ambitious blog, but it is quite refreshing to see someone so committed to blogging daily about things that are neither too personal nor of little interest to a larger public. He has even mentioned my blog a couple of times, so indubitably this is what I would classify as a good blog.