Punctured nostalgia

Kurt from Birkirkara and based in Brussels writes in his latest post about his upbringing in Malta and the island's artistic expressions. He also discusses the film Brussels by Night and the Metro free newspaper that he reads on Belgian trains. From his bilingual blog 'inutile de degeler'(1 Mar-05):

I grew up on a small island the size of a small city (but with a contemporary cultural deficit) with very expensive flights. Although I grew up in the biggest town there wasn't any art anywhere, no good bookshops, no alternative cinema or anything remotely interesting except a large supermarket literally three doors down. It wasn't really visually pleasing either. There was a bakery (if you're into flour), a guy that used to mend car silencers, many showrooms selling used cars and offices.

The island had an abundance of "heritage" (like any European country has) and the 16th century which was quite beautiful but vulgarised by presenting it as the only culture and ramming it down people's (particularly tourists) throat and making it the only "official" artistic expression worth sponsoring or spending more than a Euro on (because the tourists, sir, the tourists like it! our Essex ex-military private 67 year olds aren't just interested in sea, sun and cheap food - they're also interested in 16th century catholic-inspired Mediterranean baroque art, and, besides isn't culture "old stuff"? suits them then)